divide and conquer

It's Wednesday... I think.

I have spent the last two and a half days hiding in the woods.

This was my view at breakfast yesterday whilst I ate my massive salad and rested my sore legs after our treacherous uphill run (my friend totally kicked my rump!):


It was nice to unplug.


Aside from eating massive salads, running, and Golden Girls marathons (you read that correctly), I also did quite a bit of reading. One of the best tidbits I stumbled across was the idea of divide and conquer.


In her book Your Best Body Now, Tosca Reno writes:

I break down each seemingly unsurpassable challenge
into little, manageable pieces that I can wrap my mind - and my solutions! - around.
It's so much easier to tackle a huge issue when you divide and conquer.

So simple, and yet so powerful.


For example,

• If you need to lose 100 pounds, don't get overwhelmed thinking about the entire 100lbs. Instead, think about the 3lbs you plan to lose this week.

• If you need to quit smoking, concentrate on not smoking this hour, this day, or this week.

• If you want to become more active, don't worry about all of the gym time you need to put in this month. Instead, just take the stairs every chance you get today.

The power of this is twofold:

1. Small tasks are far more manageable.

2. If you fall off the wagon, it's a lot easier to get back up again. Rather than feeling like you failed at the entire goal, you simply dust yourself off and attempt the next small step.

So, on this lovely spring Wednesday, think of a goal you'd really, really love to achieve. Now break it down into itty bitty pieces.... and tackle the first piece now.


Wake up with a plan for the day, and focus just on today...

I'll share a few of mine soon. :)

Happy t&s,
mxo

april of meatless mondays and tuesday and...

It's April. Yay!

Fun fact: I love spring because it is synonymous with cleaning, cleansing, detoxing, lightening, rebirth, etc... I love all of these things!

Fun fact: The past weekend of absolute gluttony (and often quite meat-heavy gluttony) has left me longing for a cleaner, lighter, completely plant-based diet.

Combine the fun facts above and you get this: a month of meatless Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays (otherwise known as a meatless month)!!
Now, last time I was a vegetarian, I wasn't particularly wise about it. I have always consumed lots of veggies, but my protein intake was replaced by copious amounts of carbs. Not ideal. A plant-based diet can be extremely healthy if you do your homework (I love homework!)... and this homework is non-negotiable. You need to plan your meals to ensure that you are getting all of the right nutrients. Hopefully, through doing my own homework, I can help.


For today's Meatless Monday, I am sharing one of my favourite and easiest veggie recipes: hummus!

Hummus is a nutritional power house. The chickpeas are a great source of protein, complex carbs and fiber. The healthy oils in the tahini and the oil you blend with will make your hair shiny and your skin glow. Tahini is also loaded with iron and calcium. Hummus is a vegan superfood.


Hummus Recipe:

• 1 can organic chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 tbsp olive oil (or any other healthy oil like flax, walnut, hemp seed, etc)
• 1 tbsp tahini
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1-2 crushed garlic cloves (more if you like it garlicky)
• 2 tsp cumin (optional, as I often forget this step)
• Pinch of salt and dash of pepper.

Combine in a food processor or blender, and whirl into healthy deliciousness. Enjoy with veggie sticks, crackers or pita bread, or just with a spoon (my favourite method).


You can then make a moat for some extra oil with lemon juice and/ or sprinkle some paprika and parsley on top. How pretty!

This hummus tastes great on its own and it also works amazingly as a base for any sassy additions you can dream up (perhaps some maple and chipotle or some beets or peas for colour, or how about some curry for international flare).

Happy Monday of tumbling & stumbling! :)
xo

sunday sabbath redo...

It will be Sunday when you read this (or possibly later) but, through the magic of delayed posts, I am writing this on Saturday.

Why? I'd like to redo last week's somewhat failed Sunday Sabbath. It wasn't a completely failure, but maybe a C... or a C minus.

I did manage to significantly curb my media intake... but when Sunday evening rolled around, I was in comfy pants watching movies on my laptop while checking Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. Alt tab, alt tab.

However, one of the things I stumbled upon in my alt-tabbing, is that there is an entire community dedicated to this Sunday media-Sabbath idea!

• There's the Sabbath Manifesto
• And theUndoList which provides tips for your weekly 24-hour break from technology
• And there's even a National Day of Unplugging (though apparently we missed it)

This is great! Tips! Communities! Yay!


So my strategy for tomorrow/ today/ the next technology Sabbath is simple: rather than concentrating so much on what I have to avoid, I'm going to focus on filling my day with fun non-tech things to do!


Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

• go to a yoga class
• how about a walk in the park or through your favourite neighbourhood?
• or a date with a friend?
• call your mom/ dad/ someone you should probably call more often
• go to the gym
• play an April Fools prank on someone
• iron your clothes for the week (okay, i'm running out of ideas...)

You get the point. :)
Happy tumbling & stumbling!
mxo

how active are you?

It's Fitness Friday Saturday... oops! :)

I read this article a few days ago and did my calculations... and then I nearly had a heart attack.



It appears I sit or lie (translation: am generally inactive) for almost 90% of my day.

90%!!!

Something tells me our bodies weren't designed for 90% inactivity. Perhaps that's one of the reasons a lot of us have such low energy and ache so much.


But as Oprah always says, once you know, you can't unknow...


... so here's my next 30-day challenge: a minimum of 15% activity per day.


That's only a 5% increase, but that roughly translates to 3.6 hours per day. With a full time job and a third of my time taken up by sleep, I'm going to have to get creative about this!


Stay tuned for updates.

How active are you? I dare you to do the quiz... like now!

Happy t & s!
mxo

cheap eats and clothing swaps!

It's Thrifty Thursday!

Here are two amazing cheap things I discovered in Toronto today.

Cheap Eats: One of my best good friends convinced me to go to Whole Foods after work today. And you know what I discovered?! Every Thursday, between 5-7pm, Whole Foods offers 5 prepared foods for $5! I'm not sure if all of them do, but the WF in Yorkville certainly does. Today's combo has some nice tilapia, beets with apples, a grain salad, some zucchini rolls, and green beans! What a perfectly healthy and cheap way to eat out (or take it home, as I did).





Clothing Swaps: Now this I'm really super duper excited about. The Spring Uber-SWAP takes place on Saturday, April 14 in Leslieville. What a great way to reduce, reuse, recyle and score some cute new outfits!




What are your favourite thrifty Toronto finds?

Happy tumbling.... oh yes, and stumbling!
xo

favourite things: blogs...

Happy Humpday Wednesday!

The theme for Wednesdays is something or other, meaning I have a lot of room to write about anything and everything. :)

By request, today I'm going to share some of my favourite blogs:

• the athletarian | Christine is absolutely adorable (not to mention ridiculously inspiring)
• fit foodies healthy life | great fitness and nutrition blog
• marc and angel hack life | amazing life lessons. every post makes me think
• the healthy ginger | great tidbits from a beautiful registered holistic nutritionist
• joyous health | i adore Joy. She's incredibly passionate and great at what she does
• kiss me, i'm vegan | i'm not vegan, but i'd kiss them
  
• the kind life | okay, I'll admit it, I've had a crush on Alicia for years.

These ladies and gents fill my days with interesting and inspiring morsels about food, fitness, and life in general. I hope you enjoy their words as much as I do.

More favourite things to come! (Thanks ND for inspiring this).

Happy tumbling & stumbling!
mxo

when i grow up, i want to be...

I'm often astonished by the consistency of themes percolating throughout the day - the "coincidences", which I'd like to think aren't coincidences at all but whispers from the universe. What would happen if we listened...


One of the things I've been struggling with recently is the familiar "what do i want to be when i grow up?" For years, I have agonized over the fact that I wasn't born knowing and that I've had to learn my passion through trial and error. I've learned what I do want to do by doing what I've learned I don't want to do.

But recently, with help from the little "whispers", I've realized this:

1. just knowing what you don't want to do creates room for ideas to flourish... and
   
2. most of us actually do know, we're just less sure of how to do it.
   

When asked what you most desire, there is an answer that comes immediately, if only for a split second before the doubt comes in... before the limitations come in.

I would venture to say that for most of us, it's not about finding out what we want to be when we grow up (or whatever you most desire); it's about working through all of the roadblocks - the logistics and the work, the doubts and fears, the reasons why it's "not possible".


Today, on our Thoughtful Tuesday, I ask you this:

what do you desire most?
hold on to the very first thing that comes to mind and whatever you do, don't judge it

are you doing it?
if not, why not?
what roadblocks do you need to work through? how can you start?

why isn't it possible?
it is... it might just take some hard work and innovative thinking

Loaded questions, I know... but that's the whole point. :)

Happy tumbling & stumbling!
mxo