Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Halloween Haze
I start out with the best intentions. I approach big moments in life as a reasonable, lovely person who hears stories of over the top behavior and says, “That will never be me.” But when push has comes to shove, I have melted down over wedding invitations that were the wrong shade of white. I have screamed obscenities at hospital staff while in contractions. I have worn maternity clothes at the end of my pregnancy that showed inches of my protruding belly.
And I will tell you every time I look at this picture, I think “So damn worth it!”
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The Mommy Look
Last weekend, I went shopping all by myself. A treasured moment without work, child or chores. (Granted I was at Target but it was still pure freedom.) I had a great productive hour or so and found plenty of great looking fall duds. While I was in the dressing room and then again at the check out – both employees (who I really don’t think got a good look at me) immediately said, Shopping on your own today?
Sunday, September 13, 2009
No Shower Fridays
Working from home on Fridays (NSF-style) has been part of my effort to achieve balance for awhile now. Career-wise it’s working very well. My connection is so seamless my partners at work rarely even know I’m not sitting in my cube and since my agencies are on both coasts while I'm home in the middle, I’m still just a phone call away.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Case of The Mondays
Here it is.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Detox Update - Feel the Glow
Monday, July 27, 2009
Detoxification
I look odd.
I mean I’m still recognizable as myself I just look, well, odd. It’s a bit like seeing myself through a fuzzy filter and as much as I would like to attribute this to my tired eyes, I know I’ve let the upkeep slip. I know I’m aging. This is just not what I expected. I expected wrinkles and sagging but the fuzziness – dullness, dryness, general wumpyness – didn’t see that coming.
As I strive for balance I can’t ignore that being in my 40’s, jumping up every day to make the donuts and then rushing home to chase around a 2 year old isn’t adding to my erosion of youth. I put my hands on Stella’s perfect rosy skin and see my mother’s hand, crisscrossed in lines.
But put aside all the martyr-rific isn’t aging a bitch stuff for a moment. I can’t change how my multiple roles, work stress and the toll of pregnancy and delivery has affected me – but I also can’t turn a blind eye to what I’m doing to me.
To congratulate myself on striving for balance, I unconsciously decided that drinking half my body weight in caffeine and the other in beer is not only okay but a necessary part of the process. Not sure what the correlation is there but it’s a fact I’ve been ignoring. And really, since Stella was born, I have given myself a pass on exercise and grooming.
So. I can either mourn my youth with a Venti cinnamon dolce latte and one of those Starbucks muffins that I pretend has no calories, or I can get off my dimpled butt and attempt to shore up the good stuff I got left.
To start, I gotta rein in the rampant reward system and I think I know what will do the trick.
For the last decade, I have fallen in and out of the Living Beauty Detox Program by Ann Louise Gittleman. She first enlightened me about the hormones in the chickens and all the other bullet points we know so well now. It’s been a few years since I’ve taken on a seasonal detox, but it’s time to bring it back. After a week of a very restrained diet, and some seriously stinky tea, I will emerge with a genuine appreciation of every sip of alcohol, every taste of cheese and generally it wakes me up to be AWARE of everything I put in my body. (And hopefully a little lighter.)