Bust a Moooove! (Week 1c)

Walk... salmon... vitamin C... breathe... get flowers...

I have been at the beach with family since I posted last. Staying on track away from home--camping in a yurt and fixing meals over a firepit--was the challenge. Of course, you're already surrounded by nature and glorious air. For food, we packed lots of fresh fruit and some blanched broccoli in the cooler. But just in case you run short, there are delightful organic markets nearby.

I found some things actually easier. For example, just going to the restroom half a block away means you exercise every day (...albeit at 3 in the morning,
in the dark, with coyotes howling)! And the two-block walk to water's edge through the sand and over the rise, will certainly do it if you're un/lucky enough (you decide) to have a porta-potty in your trailer! 

And speaking of walk, the new habit this week is to mooooove. Begin to walk 10 minutes a day. That almost sounds like a waste of time, but I find that the enjoyment of being up and on my feet overtakes me. 10 minutes turns to 15 and then to 20. But on the days that moving at all seems out of the question, a migraine day for instance, I can enjoy 10 minutes without castigating myself for being a wimp. Motion is lotion, the physical therapist says. If my grateful joints could hug me they would.

Here are the rest of the small changes I'm working at and how I fared on vacation:
Salmon or flax seed
Eat salmon or a couple of tablespoons of flax seed once or twice a week. That was easy; we BBQ'd fresh caught salmon fillets from the Columbia river one night, compliments of my son-in-law and his Native American friend, Phillip. Yummmm.
Vitamin C
1-2000 mg 3 times a day gives your body all day protection against the damaging effects of free radicals, the waste products of normal metabolism. (I'm sure there's some political analogy to be drawn here but I'll refrain...) Again...easy. Whatever did people do before zip-shut sandwich bags?
Observe your breathing
I found one of my favorite sayings in a boutique on the Oregon coast years ago: "I come to the sea to breathe."* Observing how you breathe can be quite interesting. When was the last time you actually paid attention to how this amazing process works--which we take mostly for granted until flu season? Try this: Sit someplace quiet and comfortable in loose clothes. Breathe normally and pay attention to when exhale turns to inhale and vice versa. Do it daily for five minutes. That's all! See how soothing it can be? It's soooo easy at the sea. :)

Bring a plant or flowers inside your house.

I actualy have someone telling me to spend the minimal $5-10 on my mental health? How great is that?!  Amazingly the sassy little fat-leafed plant I paid $2 for at the garden store, and whose name I can't recall, is still living! I'm trying to be mindful of its existence, which is a discipline for me. I can become so accustomed to my surroundings that I forget to notice such things. It even lived through the four days we were gone. What a champ.

Coming up, the spotlight is on Week Two modifications, including some words on water. (Of course for me, that's the fourth week of moving [s-l-o-o-o-w-l-y] in the direction of optimum health.)

Cheerio! 

*(By MaryAnne Radmacher. http://www.maryanneradmacher.com/cgi-bin/plugins/MivaEmpresas/miva?plugins/MivaMerchants/merchant.mvc+Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=WG