What a difference a year and then some makes

I don't know why after all this time I am compelled to write. I don't know or care if anyone reads this blog and I almost prefer it that way.

I read a blog called The Simple Dollar. I have for years. Today, a quote on it struck me and I wanted to remember it somewhere. It's about -isms.

“The moment someone attaches you to a philosophy or a movement, they then assign all the baggage and the rest of the philosophy to you. Then when you want to have a conversation, they will assert that they already know everything important there is to know about you, because of that association. That’s not the way to have a conversation. I’m sorry, it’s not. …I am not an -ism, I think for myself.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

I identify with this. Since I became an active member of the LDS church, I think people thought I would stop being me. Or find that I had no thoughts of my own. I am still me. I do believe the gospel to be true. And I'm still me.

I wonder how many people feel that way about different things they have identified themselves with. And if they have noticed people treating them differently...

I am unique in my thoughts and beliefs as the next person, regardless if we identify ourselves in the same group or religion or political party or not.

It's interesting to take a step back and look at that.

Good night. :)

nothing.

i am done.

graduated from college.
graduated from my 200 hr yoga teacher training.
turned in final group project - investment research challenge.

tonight is one of the first nights in awhile that i have had absolutely nothing that i had to do.

it is great. :)
i did nothing tonight, except catch up on stuff that i have been neglecting for a long time like . . . .

taking down my christmas decorations
blogging
watching tv shows
hanging out at my house all alone

what a great night of nothing.

things to look forward to tomorrow morning: picking up bountiful baskets and hot yoga. :)

1.11.11

the coolest birthday date ever. had a great 27th birthday. happy day to me! :)

awesome chasm

favorite hike that i have done in a while. a new route for an old hike. loved it!

sisters

photo from a spontaneous saturday with my sister. love it. love her.

everyone moved away

. . . and i hardly got any pictures. brad and kendall and family and aaron and sabrina and family both moved up to seattle, wa. i am pretty bummed about it. but mostly i will miss the kids. :) notice that's who I got the most pictures of.

sabrina and kendall at grandma elaine's a few days before they left.

dominic. i took a million pictures of this kid and he wouldn't look at the camera. he is so cute though.

landon and kailyn, the night we helped them pack the moving truck. not sure why landon is in his power ranger outfit, but i love it. i miss these little bugs.

red rock and beatles love

visited leah in vegas with cody in september. it was a much needed weekend of hiking at red rocks {just outside of vegas}, going to bikram yoga for the first time {super hard and super HOT, but uh-mazing}, shopping and seeing my first cirque de soleil show: beatles love.

scary descent.

entrance to beatles love. such an amazing show!

loved my mini-vaca with cody and lea lea. :)

zion with the girls

hiked hidden canyon with mom and sara back in july. :) I finally uploaded a bunch of pictures. this was such a fun day. we hiked hidden canyon {sara was sorta scared of the parts with chains}, went swimming in a fun swimming hole and then had lunch at oscar's in springdale. perfect day with the girls.

road to raw

about a month ago, on my way up to one of my yoga intensive weekends, as I was eating cooking dough and driving up i-15, my sister called me. she wanted me to do this raw food cleanse with her. . . huge pause on my end of the phone. now, when i think of raw food, i think of a certain thanksgiving where my aunt made almost all raw food and everyone there was like, "what? this is NOT thanksgiving food." The pies were weird, the crackers were bendy. basically, not a good first impression. BUT i decided to do it anyway . . .

. . . fast forward a month later. i’ve lost about 10 lbs, just by changing my diet. i still exercise, but don’t feel that guilty if i don’t every day. when i do work out, it’s usually around half hour, unless i’m doing yoga. i feel so healthy. i eat a lot of fruits and veggies. i did the raw thing for about 3 weeks, which included a juice feast (like a fast, but you drink a lot of juice that you must juice yourself.) i didn’t love the juice feast, but did it for 4 days. now, i would say that I eat about 60% raw and the rest pretty close to vegetarian. i don’t want to say that i am vegetarian because i feel ike that labels and restricts me.

the interesting point i want to emphasize is how my view of food changed drastically. i used to have STRONG sugar cravings and usually NEEDED some type of sugar after each meal. now i really don’t. i do occasionally, but I tend to fill that craving with something more healthy then a handful of chocolate chips. i know i had a least a mild case of candida, most people in America have it and don’t even know it. it was causing me to be addicted to sugar. another thing that i thought was an interesting side effect was the way i felt about meat. i used to love meat and planned my meals around it. now after being more aware of what i am putting into my body, and seeing clips from “food inc,” i am more meat averse, unless it is the good grass fed, true free range stuff.

resources that have helped me along this journey are:

-www.roadtoraw.com: the website that hosted the raw food clease and had amazing videos and support.

-www.therawalicious.com: an amazing blog with so many how to videos and great ideas for total health. i want to be this girl's friend!

-www.greensmoothiegirl.com: loved her site and have used it for yummy, healthy recipes. i have a green smoothie almost every morning now.

-“the kind diet” by Alicia Silverstone: a lot of great recipes

-www.bountifulbaskets.org: amazing food co-op that allows me to get lots of fruits and veggies for great prices. pictured above.

-my sister amy: it was so good to have someone to call anytime i was craving something or wanted to talk about how we both were progressing, or other totally gross things that only sisters share, or when i stepped on the scale and it was lower than i thought it would be and when i fit into my thin jeans.

i didn’t mean to make this post so long, but i haven’t really written about this transformation at all. i have learned so much about my body, the food i eat and so many other amazing nutritional things. a month ago, if i read this, i would have probably thrown up all over this post and told whoever wrote it that there was no way i was going to even try to get healthy this way. so don’t judge too quickly. go to one of those websites, and if you are feeling adventurous, sign up for the roadtoraw.com cleanse. it will change your life. i promise.

also, am considering doing more health related posts that have to do with my discoveries . . . so stay tuned. :)

have an amazing day!

how to be alone

i know it's been a while. i would imagine posts will be few and far between for a little while at least, but when i do post, it will be about something i really like or that is important to me.

this video fits under both categories:



i liked it.


in other news:

i started my hatha yoga teacher training. :) my 3rd intensive weekend is this weekend. am loving it.

and school starts next week for me. my last semester. and i will have my bachelor's degree in business/finance. excited to get it over with. :) i had to save the classes i don't care about for last.

cable mountain

hiked cable mountain a few sundays ago with cody and leah. we had never done this hike in zion. the views are breathtaking. and somehow we picked a day where the temperatures were in the sixties! that combined with going to oscar's for the murder burger after . . . made it a perfect day. :)

looking down on angel's landing.

they used to lower timber down the canyon with cables . . . hence the name.

since i've been gone . . .

it seems i've been a little distant lately . . . i guess until i get into a new routine i let a few things slide. the blog being one of them.

new work is finally feeling normal. :) yea!

school has been out for the summer for at least 2 months now.

no summer classes = me cleaning and organizing my house, and looking for other projects. what's with my obsession with being busy? no clue.

this fall will be my final semester before i officially have my bachelor's degree.

i'm already thinking about the next step. more thoughts to come later. . .

considering 8-month certification in kundalini yoga, but after doing 108 sun salutations for the summer solstice, am rethinking how much more practice i need before i teach.

other than that, here are a few of the pictures i have managed to take over the past month or so . . .

took a quick trip to slc with mom and sisters to see my cute niece and nephew in a play. they were darling and would totally wave at us during the play. we sort of instigated that though. :) they got trophies cause it was their last night.

planted a garden. these are the strawberries. also planted artichoke, tomatoes, raspberries and lots of flowers!

enjoyed my banks' roses blooming. only one month out of the year, but love them!

took the family on a hike for mother's day. mom's request. and cami was in town!

lovely summer days. hope to be back more often.