Superhero -Day 18

Commitment is a prerequisite for depth. For passion. For joy. The capacity to be committed makes progress possible. If there is such a thing as progress. Maybe it's just unfoldment in a particular direction. Commitment means you show up even when you're not in the mood. Commitment is easy when you are in the mood. When you love something. Isn't a superhero someone who commits and follows through, especially on the days it isn't fun or easy or there doesn't appear to be time? The word commitment has such baggage with it. It seems tedious and hard but I don't think it has to be. 

There is one thing I do that manifests commitment for me. I have to have either a pure love of doing something that is as natural as breathing such as reading, so that it doesn't really require commitment or - I have to understand something. An understanding that is self evident so I don't have to wonder if it's the right thing to do. It's a knowingness. Sometimes I contemplate on it first. Why do I want to be healthy? Is this important? And I do this with oomph! It's not just a thought that can change. Once I understand I can no longer not understand. When you know - you know. 

There are the days that I falter and even fail. That is such an important moment. To just start again. Take the next step forward no matter what the mind spews out! Momentum kicks in sooner than I expect. Follow through gets easier and easier and easier. To begin anything we just have to pick ourselves up by the scruff of the neck.

Superhero - Day 17

I have been feeling remarkably well. Even though I ate cookies (non gluten free too) late last night. They were homemade and delivered with love. Yummy!

When I was a kid we ate meat and potatoes mostly. I was 14 years old when I first tasted lasagna. And I loved it! You mean there is different kinds of food out there? Through the years I've been a big meat eater, a vegetarian, and maybe now I am a flexitarian. I became anemic with the vegetarian diet. I think I needed more dark green veggies and a more focused approach. Who knows. The last few years I've been looking at how to eat best. Good grief! The information swings wildly from one side to the other on any issue. Everyone claims to have the right answer on how to eat for optimum health. Baba Hari Dass, the spiritual head of Mount Madonna, California, where I studied first to be a yoga teacher says that in North America we think too much about food. He advocates no meat unless that's all there is. He says to eat what you can digest. Great wisdom in that!

A while back I read Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. He is a journalist and good writer who was as confused as I was, about what to eat. His first paragraph of the book is "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." That pretty much summarizes what he found on his food journey. He looked at numerous studies and has a huge source index. Anyway, that book helped me to stop reading for a while and figure out what I can digest.

Everybody has to figure out what works for them. This is what seems to work for me right now. I'm sure I will modify all the time since I've been doing that forever. I start the day with fresh squeezed lemon juice in warm water. I eat breakfast about two to three hours after waking because I have my morning practices. I have a big lunch and a smaller supper, though in summer when I don't work evenings that may reverse. I eat in an 8 hour time frame, so there is about 16 hours of fasting. I eat 9 to 5 pm or so. I eat mostly vegetarian but I eat meat very week. I don't eat gluten (except if someone dleivers homemade cookies). And sometimes whole rye bread even though it has gluten, it seems okay to digest. Very little grains. I eat very little sugar. I eat lots of eggs. Lots of vegetables. I love lentils. I drink coffee a few times a week, no more than one cup a day. I drink mostly room temperature water. I have fun with the water, sometimes it has mint leaves, orange slices, lemon or lime, frozen grapes or raspberries in it. I drink water with a pinch of salt (see thewatercure.com). I fry with good quality coconut oil. I eat butter. I drink green tea. 

Before day 1 I've tried to do all this for a while in a hit and miss kind of way. But as I said on day 1, I want to live a long healthy life. I feel too heavy for my bones. This last week I have felt much more energetic and healthier than I have for a long time. This helps me to keep going on this superhero mission. We are not a preventative society so I feel like I am going against the grain and becoming one of those crazy health nuts. We usually wait until we have to, because we are sick. Sick and tired. And even then we prefer that someone gives us a pill.

It's all about commitment. Nothing happens without it. And I need both will and grace. That's why I need to be a superhero. Commitment. Willpower. Surrender. Grace.

Superhero - Day 16

I like playing house. This started when I was very young. I loved playing with dolls. They were well cared for. I especially liked designing their living quarters. My mom and dad used to cut our old clothes into long strips and roll them into big round balls. When they had enough they brought them to a woman who wove them into rugs for us.  I played with these balls on the lawn every summer. I unravelled them and made rooms for the doll family on the lawn. Like drawing design on paper. Sometimes the dolls had a bedroom of their own, sometimes they shared. Sometimes there were long hallways but I prefered spaces with none. Now I like to arrange my stuff. And the garden provides even more area. 

Learning to be a superhero must be learning to be oneself. I can only be myself, but I think I have spent most of my life being what someone else wanted me to be. I try to be interested in going out more - to concerts, museums, parties. But I'm just not. I'd rather putz by myself. And play house. 

Superhero - Day 15

I have a much reduced schedule for the next two weeks and I woke up with excitement to get things done. I wrote a pile of lists: things to do at home office, things to do in garden, things to do in house, etc. I love checking things off lists. I feel so accomplished. However, it's late and I've done only a little meditation today, and ate rhubarb crisp late this evening. Oh well, I can always begin again tomorrow. For me, there can only be one day off track and I have to hop right back on or I am done for. I don't think well after 9 pm. Nothing more to say. Superhero?

Superhero - Day 14

I found out how to cut and paste on my iPad today. This was no simple feat.

Here is the result. :0)

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/03/19/how-to-poop-like-a-samurai/

Superhero -Day 13

I hung old CDs into trees and bushes to scare the birds from the black currants. I'll know soon if it works. That is the most interesting thing I did today. 

I've thought about what how is it possible to analyse anything when the analyser and analysee are one and the same. If I am observing myself being irritated and questioning why, it makes no sense. The irritant noticing the irritant as herself. That makes my mind go into a loggerheads situation.

The lilacs in the yard are divine.

Superhero - Day 12

I've had a busy day outside of home. I find on days like this I am way more organized. (If I don't have too many days like this in a row.) I got up early enough to do yoga on my deck. It was glorious doing sun salutations in the cool morning air with the warm sun on my face. And I did my whole morning routine as usual before that - neti pot, lemon juice and water, meditation, and a few pages of reading.

I ate like I have planned to eat for the next while - the freshest and simplest food, no coffee, very little sugar (had to upgrade that from none so I could eat my rhubarb compote), no wheat, very little grains at all. This is my experiment with eating. I am always experimenting. I will talk more about that another day. So, the day included all the little bits of my new routine. Oh yes, I even weeded the garden for 5 minutes. And I just flossed my teeth. I feel like a superhero because I succeeded at maintenance.