Peace, Love, & Pineapples* May 29, 2009

A couple of months ago, I got an email from a nice man named Neil asking me if I could spread the word about his wife’s new book enLIGHTened.  He mentioned that her previous book about miscarriage had fallen through the cracks and they didn’t want that to happen to this book.  I had a miscarriage about 10 years ago, so I had a soft spot for Neil and his wife Jessica almost immediately.  They sent me a copy of the book and I read it and have been working on my review for a while because I want to do this book justice. This is not your typical “I lost weight, so you can too!” kind of book; it’s a story about a girl who found her passion and embraced it. 

 

 

Jessica Berger Gross’ passion is yoga, and even though yoga seemed to come naturally to her, she still struggled with her body and body image. The full title of her book is enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds With a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle-Pointer.  Her other passion is pineapples and one of her biggest supporters is her dog Salem (the beagle-pointer mentioned in the title). 

This is a very honest account of someone who not only lost weight, but finally found herself amidst a lot of struggle and family strife. She doesn’t sugar-coat anything – she’s been through some heartache and freely shares her struggles. She admits that trying to do some of the poses while overweight was challenging at best, and darn near impossible at worst.  Her journey to finding peace with her body took her from Long Island to a mountain top in Katmandu and back again. The book is filled with humor and a touch of sarcasm from time to time (a woman after my own heart!).  One of my favorite lines in the book is in a chart with the heading Top Six Signs You Are Eating Too Much.  The first one (and my fave) is:

“Your “fat” clothes have become your favorite clothes. Stretchy is the new black!”

Not only has Jessica embraced yoga, but the yogic lifestyle as well.  I’ll admit there were points in the book where I thought, “oh no, she’s going to get all woo-woo on me here” but then she pulls out a phrase or experience that makes me laugh and I realized she’s a regular woman like the rest of us. For example, she talks about doing a juice fast at a Kripalu retreat and being asked by the instructor what she wants out of the next sip of her juice. She says,

“I wanted to be comforted, I wanted to be filled. (To be honest, I wanted a grilled cheese sandwich.)” 

Amen sister! Me too!

In addition to her yoga practice, she also incorporated some ideas to make her weight loss success a little easier,  such as keeping a big bowl of fruit available in the fridge at all times (preferably pineapple!), getting an accountability partner to whom you are extremely honest, having a few staple meals that you can go-to in a crunch(veggie chili anyone?), and developing discipline (also known as tapas in the yogic community) to help you in not only weight loss, but life in general as well. These are just a few of the things Jessica had to learn to fit into her busy life as a wife, mom, yoga teacher, and writer, so if she can do it I think we can too.

The book is light hearted at times and painfully real at others, but always honest. She’s honest about her once very large appetite, the strife with her parents, the dark days that sent her into a depression. The only time she felt free and unburdened was while she was doing her yoga or meditating with a warm beagle-pointer on her lap. Through yoga and lots and lots of pinepple, she transformed herself from a chubby depressed teenager to a lithe and serene (on most days) woman. 

Not only did Jessica’s story touch my heart, but there were a couple of ideas stuck with me after I finished reading the book.  In another chart ( I loved the charts) she writes something that made a lightbulb go on in my head: 

“Food should leave you energetic, not sleepy.” 

Whoa. I was suprised at how surprised I was that this suprised me so.   You mean I’m NOT supposed to stuff myself silly and then fall into a food coma every night after dinner?  I’ve been working on incorporating this one into my daily life – and I could write a big post about just this concept alone, but this  isn’t about me, so I’ll save it for another day.

Another quote that hasn’t left my mind is about being active. Even though Jessica is a firm believer in the power of yoga, she is smart enough to know that not everyone will be a yogi, but everyone can find something that gets them moving. She says,

“We each need to find our own yoga, the physical work that keeps us healthy and strong.” 

Everyone needs to move, and it helps if you can be passionate about moving in some way or another. So even if you don’t run out and buy a yoga mat, at least take some time to think about what your yoga could be. 

At the end of this book, I just wanted to hug Jessica and her husband Neil.   In honor of her book, I did a little yoga and bought some pineapple and have been trying to take some time to discover my passion.  If you do yoga, or have been thinking of giving it a try, I highly recommend reading this book.  She gives an illustration of poses at the start of each chapter, so even if your dog has never been downward-facing, you can still try the poses in the book.

I’m really glad I took the time to read (and re-read) this book, and I think you will enjoy it too.  If any of you yoga-types out there really really REALLY want this book, leave me a comment and let me know. If more than one of you really want the book, I’ll draw names and send the winner my review copy of the book.  The book itself is in great shape, the jacket cover however is just a tad bit worn – this book has traveled from my bedroom to the living room to my office and back again, but it still looks good. 

*Don’t you love this phrase?  This is the title of one of the chapters in the book – I think it sums up the the whole book nicely! 

Oh no he di’n't! May 15, 2009

Have you ever been so mad that you didn’t want to eat? Me either, until last night that is. Shawn apparently felt like taking his life into his own hands and said something very stupid about how the laundry was really piling up and how the messy the house was. Yeah, I know, right?!  He obviously did not think that one through before speaking those words. I won’t rehash the argument here, but let’s just say that many a dagger was thrown from my eyes.

When I’m mad, I am the Queen of the Silent Treatment. I can go cold shoulder in 2.2 seconds flat and stay that way as long as necessary. I know, probably  not the most healthy way to argue (or not argue, as the case may be), but it has served me well these last 38 years so I use it whenever I have to.  Needless to say, I was seething with anger so I thought to myself, “I’ll show him! I’ll do every scrap of laundry in this house and I will clean every room within an inch of its life! He will never be able to bitch about the dusty state of this house ever again EVER!”  Okay, looking back now, I see that I gave him exactly what he wanted, but instead of happy-go-lucky slob, he had to deal with Neat Freak Bitch for the rest of the night, and it was not pretty. 

 

I know there was a point to this story somewhere…what was it? Oh yeah, now I remember!

 

The argument happened right after I got home from work, so I hadn’t had a snack or dinner, but my hunger vanished the minute he uttered those fatally insensitive words.  My adrenaline was pumping so hard and fast that in 3.5 hours my incredibly slightly messy bedroom sparkled, and I did so much laundry that I ran out of hangers. 

And dammit if I didn’t learn a couple of lessons here!  One is that  I don’t have to have six different snacks after work to survive, and the second is  that when I am really serious (and really mad) and put my mind to something, I can accomplish the seemingly impossible. Kind of ties in to that whole “realizing my potential” thing I blogged about yesterday, huh?  I think the universe is trying to tell me something, like “get off your duff and start making some changes in your life! Girl, how many more hints do you need?”

Shawn called me at work today and apologized for unleashing the Kraken last night and promised to take me out on the town tomorrow night, so it’s all good.  He promised to not bitch so much and I promised to not be such a slob.  It’s all about compromise, ya know.

Well, I’m off to try something new – I just downloaded “Yoga for Weight Loss” off of yogadownload.com.  I have a couple of their other downloads and I really like them, so I’m excited to give this one a try.

Have a good weekend gang!!

Go Me! November 6, 2007

Completed my first week of treadmill training and have moved on to week #2. WOOHOO!!   I didn’t get on the TM on Sunday because I figured the vigorous house cleaning I did that day would count as triple-time on the treadmill.  I mean, I was actually sweating – bathtubs don’t scrub themselves you know, especially after they have been occupied by 10 year old boys.  I cleaned my house within an inch of its life I think.  But now it feels so good to come home to a clean house.  Clean house = peaceful Jill.  And everyone loves a happy mom! 

  

I received my Just My Size yoga DVD and I actually like it.  It is very easy – great for beginners and klutzes like me.  I have only done it once, but I was sore the next day so I know I worked some muscles.  Finding a quiet moment to do it is the challenging part.  My 2 year old kept crawling under my downward facing dog and trying to crawl over my child’s pose.  It was an interesting work out I tell you, but enjoyable.  I‘d like to do it again, but like I said, finding a quiet time around my house is next to impossible!  Also just received When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies.  I’m only on page 10, so I don’t really have anything to say about it yet.  I’ll let ya know…

  

I didn’t think I was going to get around to the TM last night, but after dinner and after getting the kids ready for bed, I was feeling really pissy for some odd reason (I really don’t know why, just not in a good mood) and I thought that getting on the treadmill and away from the family for a few minutes sounded really really good.  So I put on the New Balances and headed for the garage.  Turned on the classic rock station and started walking.  It felt so good that when my 20 minutes were up, I considered staying on, but I needed to get the girls to bed and the boy to get ready for bed, so I reluctantly got off, but I felt triumphant that I did my 20 minutes. 

  Eating has been okay, a bit on the bingey side, but not out of control.  Tonight we go pick new mattress set – I’m so excited! Sleeping in a canyon is not fun. 

The Day After November 1, 2007

Last night I did not do 15 minutes on the treadmill.  I did 15 miles of trick or treat treasure hunting instead! Okay, maybe not 15 miles, but good merciful heavens we walked. A LOT!!  Add to that the 30 pound toddler I carried who refused to walk for half the time and I believe I got in a pretty good work out.  We were with a bunch of friends, and it was not too cold, so all in all we had a pretty good time.  I was surprised at the number of houses that did not have porch lights on.  When I was a wee little munchkin, every house in the neighborhood had lights on and was ready and willing to give out candy, but this year there was just a smattering of houses with goodies to give away.  Of course the price of candy now is getting extreme, so I really can’t blame people for not wanting to devote half of their paycheck to giving candy to kids who probably don’t need it anyway.  I know of one family who spent $70 on candy to give out.  SEVENTY DOLLARS!!! That to me is unreal.  But hey, whatever floats your boat I guess.   I ordered a couple of things from Amazon yesterday.  I should mention right here that I LOVE Amazon.com.  Sort of a junior high crush kinda love really, but love nonetheless.  Anyway, I ordered the DVD Just My Size Yoga and the book When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies.   The former, because watching the skinnyminnies on Namaste Yoga makes me feel fat and clumsy, and also I’ve heard this DVD is really good for clueless yogis such as myself; and the latter because I have heard only good things about this book.  I do want to stop hating my body for the way it looks and I think I’ve come far, but I need some more inspiration.   Just one food mention here:  my son dutifully donated his unwanted M&Ms and a couple packs of Whoppers (how do I love thee? Let me count the Whoppers), and he gave me a pack of M&M’s Dark.  I was especially looking forward to these because I love dark chocolate.  So I popped about 3 m’s in my mouth and started crunching away.  I have to say, I was disappointed.  Something about the candy coating did not go well with the dark chocolate.  I don’t know exactly, but it wasn’t pleasant, so I put the pack away and will most likely end up throwing it in the trash.  And I did not raid the kids’ candy buckets last night – I had one tiny pack of peanut M&Ms and one small Butterfinger and that was it – I promise.  Not because I was restricting myself, I just didn’t want anything else last night.  I applaud myself for listening to my body and not forcing it to eat just because it was Halloween and that’s what you do.   Highly unusual for me, but I’m doing a happy dance to celebrate, and I kinda like the idea of applauding myself – I may do it more often!  Wow this post turned out longer than I intended, so I had better wrap it up here.  Happy All Saints Day!! 

Out with the old October 12, 2007

I’m feeling oddly curious about my some of my behaviors this week, not sure exactly what to make of them.  They are uncharacteristic of me and I am wondering if change is afoot.   The other night I had kind of a funky tummy (inside, not out) and wanted something comforting for dinner: chicken noodle soup.  Not Campbell’s, mine.  Paired with some mini-croissants from the grocery store, my soup tasted fantastic and just exactly what I needed.  Its warm noddle-y goodness wrapped around me like grandma’s quilt and I felt so much better.  But here’s the alarming thing, I stopped at one bowl.  Do you need to re-read that?  I stopped!  Because I was finished! I was satisfied with the soup, and I wanted to save room for the chocolate pie I bought at my son’s insistence (crazy insane insistence!).  Normally, I would eat cns to maximum capacity, but that night, I didn’t want more. I KNOW! Amazing right?!  So anyway, I get my smallish piece of pie and bite into it and OMGosh what the hell is in that?????  It was like no other pie I have ever eaten and I don’t mean that in a good way.  I took one more bite just to be sure (I’ve always been one to give second chances), and yep, still disgusting.  So you know what I did?  I THREW THE PIE IN THE TRASH.  Major major breakthrough for me.  And the really interesting thing was that I didn’t even really think about it at the time, I just kind of did it.  Maybe IE really is starting to become intuitive for me.   Strange occurrence numero 2:  I made an attempt at yoga last night, and surprisingly, I was not the bumbling buffoon I thought I would be.  I DVRed Namaste Yoga from FitTV and when I got home from work, I shooed the kids outside and started in.  It was relaxing and energizing at the same time.  I really like it and I felt good, except when my 7yo daughter came in with her friend so they could gawk at mom doing some “yogurt”.  I quickly told them to go back outside and mind their own business, and I continued.  Where’s the strange occurrence you may ask?  Well the fact that I did yoga or any other kind of exercise is strange for me.  Oh, I go in fits and starts, but I’ve never found anything that I wanted to stick with, mainly because the only things I have tried have been walking on the treadmill and a short stint at jogging.  So this is really different for me, but I think I may do it again and see how I like it.   And finally the strangest of all:  Someone brought donuts to work this morning.  Not a big deal, but in my dieting days it would have sent me into a panic because I would have really really wanted one, but denied myself, and then had three.  In my pre-dieting days, I would have probably 4 and then felt awful from the sugar rush and subsequent crash.  But today, I had already eaten a very tasty and filling fried egg sandwich (it’s a southern thing), and so I wasn’t hungry.  Pre IE that wouldn’t have stopped me from having one, but I thought about it and thought about it some more and I decided the donut could not taste better than my sandwich, so I DECLINED the donut.  Yep, I walked away.  It’s really a strange and uncomfortable feeling to do the opposite of what I have done for so long, but somehow strange and uncomfortable feel okay right now.   I know, nothing earth-shattering or anything, just small but very significant steps to freeing myself from so much…mind clutter.  That’s what dieting was to me – clutter. Something that was always in the way, but I never could do anything with it.  So, I’m giving myself a pat on the back and a “you rock” for my tiny steps forward – yay me!