Every day we face opportunities to make choices, choices we make without much consideration. Choosing to listen to public radio vs. commercial-run top 40s. Deciding to make coffee vs. buy it. Taking the scenic route vs. the busy highway. Or in our case last night, choosing to have Chinese take-out for dinner vs. make a homemade meal.
My posts the past couple of weeks have been about cleansing, detoxing, and making healthier choices all around. I truly believe in this, but I know it is a process. You cannot be perfect every hour, of everyday. Yesterday I made the choice to eat a Quest Bar (protein packed, gluten/sugar-free) for "lunch" because after teaching 5 classes, my business partner and I were preoccupied with getting our errands done for the Grand Opening on Saturday, and didn't have time for a real lunch before our workout. This choice meant that by the time I got home at 6pm (left at 4:30am) I was mentally exhausted, physically hungry, and made another poor choice: Chinese takeout. I choose the healthier options there, but knew that I would still feel less-than-great the next morning. And it's true, I do feel a little groggy today. However, this morning is a brand new day and the choices I made yesterday do not dictate today.
I woke up and chugged a big glass of water. I made a fresh cup of coffee, added cinnamon and coconut milk, and let the yumminess warm me up. Topped my gluten-free toast with crunchy, organic peanut butter with chia & flax seeds, and ate a perfectly ripe banana. I practiced a quick yoga sequence that focused on detoxifying poses (another post to come!) and an hour later, feeling much better! All too often we allow one poor choice to define us, control us, and cause us to lose direction of who we are and what we believe in. Know that you have the power to change that!
Now the original goal of this post, Detox Series Part Duex, was to pass on to you a simple, yet effective trick I learned from my mother. In my last post, I discussed how we can choose to minimize the negative effects social media has on our time and our lives. But before we had social media, we had print, in the form of magazines, catalogs, etc and television. Even though magazines are not has popular as they once were, they still exist and I still read them every once in a while. I already discussed my recent disappointment in YogaJournal, and my subsequent discontinuation of my subscription, but I still have a few issues coming my way. In addition, I like to treat myself to the occasional Vogue or InStyle. But what I don't want to treat myself to are the ridiculous amount of advertisements in each issue.
When I was younger, I remember by mom collecting Better Homes & Garden magazines and putting together binders of her "dream home." (This was the original way people did Pinterest.) She would get a magazine and rip out all the advertisements first. Without even looking at the stories. For those tricky pages with articles on one side, she'd fold the ad in half to hide it. It wasn't just Better Homes & Garden, it was all magazines. When I was in high school and started buying the horrendous Cosmopolitan magazines, I didn't rip out the ads. Instead, they made impressions on me, whether I knew it at the time or not. (Buy this, look like this, you need this, blah blah blah--this is old news, we all know this and it's been discussed at nauseam.) It continued until this summer when I received yet another YogaJournal magazine and I noticed it was so full of ads, that it was hard to distinguish between the ads and the articles. I started ripping out all the ads. It was fantastic. No more opportunities to looks at supplements that claim to make you look younger, yoga pants to make your butt look better, etc. Duh, and photoshopped images.
I started following in my mother's footsteps and now each time I pick up a magazine, the first thing I do is rip out all the pointless ads. It works for all kinds of magazines and it feels awesome to do it. Cut out the garbage and keep the stuff you really bought the magazine for.
As for watching television, try muting the TV during commercials. Use the time to talk to the people around you, switch out the laundry, do a couple of air squats/push-ups/sit-ups, light a few of candles, etc. When you're favorite show comes back on, simply un-mute.
It's a subtle change, but all these small choices we make during our day will help to detoxify our life. We receive so much involuntary stimulation throughout the day, why not choose not to when we can?
Have a happy Friday!!!!
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