Stop Dieting. Start Paying Attention.

Because taking care of your body doesn’t require eating perfectly – it requires mindfulness.

Letโ€™s be real – this is not gonna be a โ€œBest Meal Plan!โ€ post, & Iโ€™m not gonna yell at you for not eating like an Instagram dietician (theyโ€™re liars anyway ๐Ÿ˜‰).

As part of the healing, growing, & maintaining a healthy life series, weโ€™re gonna talk aboutโ€ฆnot eating like an asshole.

Because what you put into your body is more important than most things.


Repercussions

I spent last year paying much more attention to what I was eating after some concerning cholesterol results. My doctor encouraged me to make some changes, and I decided to focus less on โ€œdietingโ€ and more on actually nourishing myself.

My new, self-imposed diet primarily consisted of increased protein & produce, and minimal saturated fats, excessive salts, & added sugar.

Which worked incredibly well! Iโ€™ve lost about 25 pounds! โ˜บ Iโ€™m happier now about how I physically look & feel than Iโ€™ve ever been in my life!!

That version of me was determined. This year’s me is tired.

This year, Iโ€™ve been burned out. I like a lot of variety, & a lot of flavor – in my meals, as well as in life.

So, hereโ€™s where Iโ€™ve landedโ€ฆ


The Anti-Diet

The best thing you can do for your body isnโ€™t following a strict diet.

Itโ€™s mindful consumption.

Rules are tools, not masters.

Iโ€™m not going to sit in the corner with a salad at a party, angrily watching everyone else enjoy some barbecue. Fuck that.

But Iโ€™m also not going to eat until I feel like I need to be rolled home.

I drink a lot of lime water. Water is crucial, especially during summer. One thing I learned from working in the ER – dehydration is ridiculously common.

I hate water. But I like lime water. ๐Ÿ˜‰

I use smaller plates & bowls than even my kids, most days. It helps me question if I really need more of that amazing curry I made for dinner. (Omg, my curry is amazeballs!)

And looking at that smaller bowl reminds me to savor my food instead of shoveling as much deliciousness in my face as quickly as possible. (Why do that anyway? As though someoneโ€™s gonna steal it? ๐Ÿ˜…)


Find Your Minimum

Paying attention to what you put into your body is one of the most essential forms of self care & self respect that you can do, especially when youโ€™re not feeling well and that candy dish is singing show tunes.

Find your minimum. Make it stupidly easy. And on the days when everything goes to shit, do that one thing.

Every day, I make sure to drink water.

On my worst days, I make sure to eat at least one vegetable. (Even on โ€œFuck All Dayโ€!)

Whatโ€™s your minimum? Drop it in the comments – I want to know what “not eating like an asshole” looks like for you on a hellish day.


If this one hit home, give it a like, share it with someone who needs the permission, and subscribe if you’re new around here.

Stay real. Live vibrantly. And rock the fuck on. ๐Ÿ’š๐Ÿค˜๐Ÿป

Where I’m At #5

โ€œWhere Iโ€™m atโ€ posts are just random updates about whatโ€™s going on in my life at any random time, based on the areas / roles in my life. Any particular goals Iโ€™m working on will be highlighted, so you can easily see what Iโ€™m actively working on improving. Leave a comment & give me ideas for things youโ€™d like to see me write individual posts about!

  • planner : I have a lot of projects planned for February! Iโ€™m finishing up my digital audit as Iโ€™m writing this, which is always quite a relief – I must have deleted a zillion things I didnโ€™t even know I had! I still have to audit 10 years of Google Photos, but thatโ€™s another project all its own. (ETA : I realized I should add auditing my PKM to the list too, because the chaos Iโ€™ve created there is stressing me out – โ€œactionability โ€ฆ only save things that contribute to current projects & areas โ€ฆ itโ€™s not a museum of knowledge if you donโ€™t absorb or utilize the information!โ€) Next monthโ€™s projects include a โ€œWhat a Crock-Potluck Revival Partyโ€ (we havenโ€™t had a crockpot party in a while, so I thought weโ€™d get back on that wagon), I want to make an โ€œOh Shit!โ€ notebook (in case I get hit by a dump truck & my husband needs to know things he doesnโ€™t normally care about), as well as planning for fun stuff in warmer weather (travel, tattoos, concerts, etc)
  • self (body & mind, emotion & education) : Forever working on my eating habits – I’ve been focusing on eating more consistently throughout the day because I have a bad habit of barely eating until dinnertime, and then going a little too crazy (cuz I love my dinner recipes! ๐Ÿ˜‹) I’ve been sleeping kind of crappy because I really like my quiet time in the mornings, and I should probably get back to my exercise routine, butโ€ฆnot right now ๐Ÿ˜† My brain’s been doing pretty good lol – Lots of fun ideas abound, feeling pretty chill (albeit a little cabin fever), and learning all kinds of interesting things about blogging!
  • marriage (relationship & libido) : Not doing too bad here, actually! Humor keeps things interesting lol
  • mom (BooBoo & Bubby) : The girls are doing pretty good, though I’m sure they can’t wait til it’s warm enough to go outside every day! They’ve been keeping busy drawing, painting, & playing with their dolls mostly. And enjoying a little bit of Legs Marvel Superheroes on Xbox hehe
  • teacher (K & PK) : They’ve been doing really well with school, though it was hard getting back into the rhythm after the holidays. BooBoo surprises us (& herself!) every day with how well she can read already, and Bubby is getting really good at tracing lines
  • zB : Having a lot of fun (& driving myself absolutely crazy!) trying to choose which direction to go with everything related to the blog & products to create & everything. I know I’m overcomplicating everything though lol! I’ve been learning a lot about SEO, optimization tools (like Buffer for automating social media posts), and everything in between. (My brain hurts. ๐Ÿคช)
  • homemaker (finance, cleaning, gardening, prepping, travel) : Everything’s fine & dandy here! I need to rebalance our general finances, which I keep putting off. Been maintaining the cleaning, but not really making any progress (no time!) And I’m looking forward to travel & garden planning soon!

Currently

eating : crockpot dinners

drinking : hot lime water, & hot grapefruit water (way better than lemon water!)

watching : Hubby keeps trying to make me watch movies. I don’t generally have the attention span for movies. Blink Twice was pretty good. Back to Action was pretty terrible. The show Younger hasn’t been too bad. And surprisingly, the series Maxton Hall has been pretty interesting. And Ripley, omg, that was actually pretty good lol!

reading – Nothing. I haven’t really had much interest in any particular books lately. But I’ve kept up with my Daily Stoic Journal every day!

playing : Board games with the girls, especially Candy Land hehe โ˜บ๏ธ

buying : Not much. Went a little crazy on Temu because I really needed a new winter coat. I also ended up with a couple gifts for hubby, gloves, some new eyebrow rings, and a bunch of other things I’ll be surprised to see when they come ๐Ÿ˜…

listening to : My โ€œTunesโ€ playlist on YouTube – lots of Green Day & Foxboro Hot Tubs, Reverend Horton Heat, & โ€œWish I Knew Youโ€ by the Revivalists (me & hubby’s dating anthem hehe)

celebrating : Midwinter & Valentine’s Day

pinning : wallpapers, self care, Green Day

planning – projects, a party, goals

feeling – generally good, but a bit restless!

Where are you at? Let me know in the comments below!! ๐Ÿ˜€

Sprint 5 Goal Recap

Iโ€™ve altered my goal planning system quite a bit over the past few months, and one major change Iโ€™ve adapted is using the idea of โ€œ6 week sprintsโ€, where I work on certain goals for 6 weeks, and then take 2 weeks to wrap things up & prepare for the next sprint. I like sharing my progress with you all, so hereโ€™s a recap of โ€œSprint #5โ€โ€ฆ

(I definitely took on too much this past sprint – Live & learn!)

Body

I was feeling pretty rough about my physical state. I had been taking medication that caused me to gain 25+ pounds in the course of only about 6 months (despite my physicianโ€™s assistant insisting it wouldnโ€™t), and I was ready to start working it off. I managed to maintain a doable exercise routine : 2 days with 15 minutes of cardio, 1 day with 15 minutes of bellydancing hehe, 3 days of arm workouts (itโ€™s a pain point for me), and 1 day of yoga or tai chi; plus a quick workout with my kids for their homeschool days, and a few minutes of yoga to end each night. And 5 squats every time I go to the bathroom (which, surprisingly, really slimmed my thighs!) As far as diet, which I consider more important than exercise, I was initially trying to just be mindful & include more water, produce, & protein in my daily meals. I did fairly well at first, but discovered a lot of problems toward the end. So, this is something Iโ€™ll be working on during the next sprint, while I continue my enjoyable exercise routine!

Wife

My husbandโ€”boy, do I love him, but he drives me fucking crazy sometimes! He’s retired, so we spend an awful lot of time together. Which is a good thing, but I do appreciate my space. And with two young kids, it’s a lot of finagling.

So, I spent the sprint contemplating marriage advice that I occasionally forget about (patience, compassion, all that good stuff), and journaling my way through difficult emotions as they arose (instead of getting upset). I managed to improve our communication & improve his attitude as a result. I also made a point to be more affectionate & open, using things I learned from the Tantra course I took earlier this year. Everything turned out great! Now I need to maintain it without being a main focus, as far as goals go.

One thing I do still need to work on is my libido. Iโ€™ve always had low energy in this realm. So, next sprint Iโ€™m going to try to work on that (& Iโ€™m sure Hubby will be grateful lol!)

Reseller

Ugh.

I realized I donโ€™t really care about resale anymore. At least, not the way Iโ€™ve been doing it. I canโ€™t find the time, energy, or motivation to prep inventory, let alone list daily. So, this goal really didnโ€™t go anywhere. However, I did realize I need to restructure my business plan so that I can do something with this path. I donโ€™t have a massive amount of inventory to taking up real estate in my home, but I do have more than Iโ€™d feel comfortable donating. The original idea of starting the resale business was to have fun working with Hubby, but heโ€™s more of an โ€œin personโ€ kind of seller. So I need to restructure to offload the inventory I have (which Iโ€™m dreading) so that I can get him focused on working with other items in the warmer months. Yeah. I donโ€™t know. lol. I gotta figure something out though.

Ikigai

On a lighter business note (LOL!)โ€ฆ I started journaling about what I wanted more of in my life, and how I can try to make some money from it. I came to the realization that I love writing & I love helping people. So I need to figure out how to make money doing these things – My passion project. I resituated my blog here (though there are definitely more improvements to be made!), and did a ton of research on the directions I want to go with this โ€œIkigaiโ€ project, including useful products & eventually coaching. Iโ€™m kind of just enjoying the process & seeing where it takes me right now. I hope youโ€™re enjoying it with me!!

Next Sprint

So, the main things Iโ€™ll be focusing on for my next sprint are my diet & my libido. Hubbyโ€™s been nagging me about taking a trip (since I had to scrap plans Iโ€™d been working on for months because he wasnโ€™t ready for it, but I digress); so, Iโ€™ll have to plan a simple cabin camping trip for the family sometime soon. I should also work on my business plans, both for resale & my Ikigai. Iโ€™ll update on these when I can โ™ฅ๏ธ

How have your goals been going this year? What are you contemplating for next year? Letโ€™s chat in the comments below, or feel free to shoot me an email at zenblitz@yahoo.com if youโ€™d like to say hi in private!!

Where I’m At #2

โ€œWhere Iโ€™m atโ€ posts are just random updates about whatโ€™s going on in my life at any random time, based on the areas / roles in my life. Any particular goals Iโ€™m working on will be highlighted, so you can easily see what Iโ€™m actively working on improving (and see that I do try to practice what I preach). Leave a comment & give me ideas for topics youโ€™d like to see posts about!

  • planner : I keep toying with the idea of analog planners, but they’re so impractical for me right now! I miss my Happy Planner & my bullet journal, but everything’s still working so well for me on Notion that it doesn’t make sense to fix something that isn’t broken! I did create a horizontal weekly layout with a memo section for my mini Happy Planner, but I mostly use it to get a focused overview of my appointments, goals, & meals for the week. I guess it helps gain some perspective.
  • self (body & mind, emotion & education) : Not much going on here, except for with my diet. I’m trying to follow a โ€œmindful eating scheduleโ€ I created with ChatGPT. I like it a lot so far, but I have some trouble with tired / stress eating around dinner time. For example, I may have eaten too many brownies this evening & kinda wanna crawl into a hole right now lol oops. Progress, not perfection – I will try not to do that again tomorrow!
  • marriage (relationship & libido) ; Going pretty good. I’ve been enjoying working on improving my libido, and working with sexual energy more in my life. Hubby’s enjoying the journey too lol! Next week I will try out the โ€œRadical Intimacyโ€ course on DailyOm, and I’ll let you know how it goes
  • mom (BooBoo & Bubby) : The little monsters are good. BooBoo is starting to read like a pro, and Bubby still loves her dolls. Both girls want Furbits for Xmas (๐Ÿ˜ฑ)
  • teacher (K & PK) : School has been going pretty well. I love ChatGPT for helping me with ideas for lesson plans!
  • zB : I’ve been enjoying my writing journey quite a bit, and I’m learning a lot! I love it!!
  • homemaker (finance, cleaning, gardening, prepping, travel) : Still gotta plan a little family cabin trip. Hopefully I can get that situated this week. Working on a cool “Friendsgiving” party for this month (charcuterie board & board / card games), and a chill family Thanksgiving dinner.
  • witch : Nothing going on here. I celebrated Samhain with a day full of journaling though, which was very much needed.
  • reseller : BLAH! Still mad at resale, still haven’t done anything about it.

Currently

eating : Brownies lol

drinking : Rosรฉ, lime water, coffee with pumpkin spice creamer & occasionally a shot of Trader Vic’s Macadamia Nut Liqueur ๐Ÿ˜‹

watching : Outer Banks, Nobody Wants This, Agatha All Along (OMG I love it lol)

reading : Good Morning Good Life by Amy Landino

playing : Bingo Showdown & Candy Crush Saga

buying : Nothing, so help me god

listening to : Green Day, Reverend Horton Heat, Lofi, other stuff my family members hate LOL (though I did sing Barbie Girl in the car with BooBoo the one day, that was pretty cool hehehe โ˜บ๏ธ)

celebrating : the rest & reflection time of year nearing

pinning : self care, Green Day, planners, Xmas, crochet

planning : Thanksgiving & Friendsgiving

feeling : tired! Hopeful, stressed

Where are you at? Let’s chat in the comments!!!