Yesterday, my sister and I had a great conversation about the motivational theory that you can become more organized and more productive by devoting "just ten minutes" to particular tasks that need attention in your life. Small bite sized pieces can add up and make a huge difference. As a bonus, those ten minutes you devote to a task can often (painlessly) turn into "more minutes" once you get rolling.
Today was a rainy, yucky day that had me feeling more like staying in my pajamas knitting all day than motivating myself to do, well, almost anything else. But, the guilt got the best of me and I eventually marched myself into the kitchen to make something healthy to eat. (There have been far too many carbs in this house over the holidays.)
It was really a day for making soup, but since I had all the ingredients on hand to make a Chick Pea Salad, that is what I devoted my ten minutes to.
Chickpea Salad Ingredients: 1 can chickpeas, 1 cucumber, 1/2 red onion, 2 plumb tomatoes, 1 roasted red pepper, 1 tbs. dried parsley, 2 tsp. chopped garlic, 3 tbs. lemon juice, 2 tsp. olive oil, and 1/8 tsp. salt.
Rinse and drain the chickpeas. Chop the cucumber, onion, tomatoes, and peppers and add to the chickpeas. I usually like to use cucumbers with their seeds, but for this I scooped most of them out. It's your preference.
Next, add the parsley, garlic, lemon juice, oil, and salt. Feel free to use fresh parsley and garlic. (I didn't have any on hand today.) Mix it all together and refrigerate for about 1/2 hour to mix the flavors.
While you wait for it to be ready, get out your yoga mat and do 10 minutes 30 minutes of yoga!
In the basement of the building where I work, there is a weight-room/gym that is available to all employees. For free. It's not a fancy gym mind you. It's mostly weights and benches that have been donated, but there is an awesome, state of the art treadmill and a not quite so awesome elliptical. There are also lots of mats, a TV and a DVD player.
I've never been a gym goer. I've never had the desire to go to classes for aerobics or yoga or spinning or any of that kind of thing. I prefer to do my exercising in the privacy of my own home. Or on my bike in the open outdoors. But sometimes it's just hard to get motivated and you find yourself being less and less active.
So, a friend from work and I have been trying to motivate each other and have been taking advantage of this make-shift gym lately. We sneak in at night about 7:00 when we know no one else will be there.
We do about a 1/2 hour of cardio, trading off on the treadmill and the elliptical; and then we do about a 1/2 hour to an hour of yoga/pilates.
This week we were able to motivate another coworker to join us. And then there were three...
Oh, and remember my plan to do the 21 Day Yoga Challenge? I failed miserably. Hopefully this plan will work out a little better for me!
I was spending some time online tonight and one thing led to another. I read a tweet by Ravelry’s rainydaygoods about a 21 Day Yoga Challenge. Her link led me to a blog, where I learned more about the challenge: to practice yoga every single day for 21 days, for at least 5 minutes each day. Some days you might practice for a full yoga workout and other days it will only be a few poses for 5 minutes, but you must do yoga every day.
The theory is, if you do something for 21 days, it will become a habit (or if you stop doing something, you will kick a habit). I’ve read about this theory before. It’s all about changing your daily routine.
A few years ago I was practicing yoga every day. I woke up an hour earlier than I needed to every morning. It was a real challenge since I hate mornings, but I really felt good afterwards. So, why did I stop? Well, I remember I got a bad cold and stopped for a week. After that, I guess I just had a hard time getting myself up so early.
This challenge is good because it allows me fit yoga into my life without the “all or nothing” approach I was forcing on myself before. If I don’t feel like getting up an hour early, I don’t have to. I can take 5 minutes and do a few poses before bed, as long as I do it every day.
Hopefully one thing will lead to another and most days I’ll invest more than 5 minutes, and hopefully it’ll lead to a life-long habit.
So, who’s in with me?
