happy theme year!

And in this corner.....the year...2011!!!!!!

I've talked in the past about Mondays being my big day for change. Fresh week, fresh start. Well, let me tell you how I feel about the start of a new year. Talk about a clean slate!!!

It's been a few years since I've actually sat down on January 1st, pen in hand to hash out my goals for the year. In part, because I am constantly setting new goals for myself throughout the year. In part, because I never finish the goals I set out for myself throughout the year. And in part, because in the past the goals always looked like this; workout more, eat healthier, lose weight, stop smoking, drink less, save money.

I call these the "I'm not very happy with my current self" goals. Classic, timeless, universal, whatever. These are standard goals that really don't make you feel very good about yourself as you go over all the food, smokes and drinks you consumed the night before. I even did a little "googling" and 9 times out of 10 these were among the top 10 resolutions.

And they are all great goals, but being set year after year tends to pick away at the soul a bit. So I stopped. I stopped the cycle of starting off each year by creating a running total of all of my flaws.

But this year, this year I am making a resolution!!!! And one that I hope to keep because, well, that's what the resolution is....follow through! I resolve to follow through on my goals. I'm not going to make any specific goals for myself because I have no idea where I'm going to be in 2011 or what the year will to bring.

So I'm going to set a couple of themes instead.

Theme # 1 - as mentioned above is follow through. As things come up and goals are set, I AM GOING TO FINISH THEM!!!!!
Theme # 2 - give more. Give more of my time and energy to the people who need it.
Theme # 3 - take less. Regardless of where I am in the world or what I'm doing I am going to start living a greener life.
Theme # 4 - open up. Let go of my expectations and open up to the "rhythm of the universe".

I'm so excited for 2011! My time in Korea is almost finished and then I'm free. Freeer than I've ever been - freeer than I probably ever will be again. No commitments, no job, no set plan. Just an open road of endless possibility.

Breathe. Open up. Give. Love. Live.

Go!

the detox

Dear Dr. Joshi,

I got your book Joshi's Holistic Detox for Christmas. I sat in bed on Sunday, book in one hand, chocolate covered acai berries in the other. I flipped through the pages and thought "I can totally do this". Had a talk with the man to see if he was in and when he said yes decided that Monday was the day. We were going to do this detox!

Monday came and went and to my surprise it was pretty good. Then came Tuesday and already Mike and I were wondering just what in the hell we were going to eat.

No red meat
No dairy
No fruit
No wheat, gluten or yeast
No alcohol
No sugar
No artificial flavours
No cakes or biscuits
No spreads
No fun

So we headed to the grocer after school to pick up what little things we could seeing as all of the labels at our grocer are in Korean. This is what I learned - This is going to be hard - damn hard!

We left with a basket full of fish, spices, lemon, seeds and a soya drink.

Once home it was in to the kitchen to experiment. I began googling things that I've never googled before. "how to boil chickpeas", "how to make homemade mayonaise", "recipes for tofu".

The next couple of days consisted of quite a bit of time trying to find recipes and even more time trying to sort it all out in the kitchen. I give major props to people who eat this way on the daily. It takes serious time and planning.

Wednesday after school we were both starved so we headed to a chicken joint with the plan of getting some oven baked chicken. We ordered what we thought would be the healthiest thing on the menu. Plain chicken wings. They came out and just looking at them we knew we were cheating, and after our first bite there was no doubt. These wings were just too good to be considered detox. But, being the non-food-wasters that we are, we had to go ahead and eat every. last. wing. As I licked the last drip off my fingers a slight headache started to set in. I'm not sure if it was the grease or the guilt.

I've embarked on many a detox in my day. Most of which were with the goal of changing my body for appearance sake, most of which were never finished. For the first time in a long time I'm quite happy with my body and this detox is happening for a totally different reason. I need more energy! I need to get rid of the dark circles under my eyes! I want to be able to bounce out of bed in the morning ready to take on the day.

It's been a while since I've tried something like this and I'm excited to give it a go, especially with Mike as my comrade.

Thanks for the challenge Dr. Joshi

I'll keep you posted!

Fa la la la la

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...is what I would be saying if I was at home, in the snow, having already put up Christmas lights and a Christmas tree. Is what I would be saying if I was flipping through the channels only to be bombarded with commercials full of Santas and this years 'must haves'. Is what I would be saying if I was at home, in a place where Christmas basically throws up all over you. Christmas, does not throw up here in Korea, it's more of a stifled burp.

I'm trying to feel festive. Planning Christmas activities with my kiddies and showing them Christmas videos but it's just not the same. Mike and I weren't planning on decorating the diz (our apartment) this year because we'll be in China, but I think it's a must.

At least a bit of sparkle here and there. Missletoe maybe? Something to light the Christmas fire. It's the build up of Christmas that gets me excited. Where new books and Popples used to do the trick, carols and coloured lights now get me in the mood.

One of the teachers at school today was wearing a shirt that said "bring your own sunshine if you're looking for love".

And that's exactly what I plan to do, bring some sunshine to the diz.

~A note on Korean shirts. Full of non-sensical sayings that depending on my mood and the day, totally make sense. They're never written in Korean, always English, so for the most part people don't even know which message their spreading.~

Bring your own sunshine if you're looking for love. So often we look to our surroundings to make us happy, to shed the light and lead us to love. But really it's up to us. Love comes from within and shines out. It's about attitude and outlook.

Is the eggnog half full or half empty?

Who's bringing the sunshine?



Green Christmas tip -Be smart when choosing your Christmas greetings.
For every billion christmas cards sent - and there are BILLIONS - 200,000 trees go to waste. And think of how many of those cards end up in the trash after the holiday season. Try to send recycled cards, holiday texts or e-cards instead. Check out cards for causes to see how you can get your hands on some funky enviro friendly cards and help out a charity as well.

what if...

what if we lived in a simpler time
what if i did yoga every day
what if i drank less
what if i read more
what if "wanna play" still meant climbing trees and building forts
what if there were no video games
what if there was no war
what if i lived from the heart
what if the world wasn't full of judgement
what if i didn't judge
what if i took less
what if i gave more
what if we held on to the innocence of our youth
what if the world was governed by love
what if for one day i didn't think about my buddha belly or crooked teeth
what if we all accepted ourselves for who we were
what if there was no predjudice
what if i lived a life free of worry
what if there were no bullies
what if we started taking care of our planet
what if we started taking care of eachother
what if we started taking care of ourselves
what if...

and finally....if the moon was made of cheese, would you eat it?