I just returned from a much-needed vacation. Wow, there’s nothing like five full days of sun, beaches, and blue water to give you a new perspective on life. I’ll share more details about my trip soon (because, we definitely need to talk about taking more vacations), but until then let’s talk about the food side of things.

For last week’s Weekly Wellness Intention, I decided to focus on Mindful Eating. My vacation was split between spending time in Miami and then on a cruise ship so I knew that access to healthy food would be limited. However, since I was on vacation, I did also want to take the chance to indulge in foods I wouldn’t normally enjoy.

How’d it go? When I was in Miami I found the most adorable sidewalk café where I would sit for hours and read, write, and blog. It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. The cafe didn’t have many healthy options on the menu, but I quickly discovered my own favorite: order a hamburger, ditch the bun, wrap the patty in extra lettuce , and pair it with a giant house salad.  My body felt nourished and my tastebuds were pretty happy.

One of my favorite things about South Beach is the atmosphere – there’s a really chill vibe by the beach and  it’s completely normal to sit for hours at a café table. The waitstaff didn’t rush me along, and if anything, I had to try really hard to flag someone down for my check when I wanted to leave. This extra time allowed me the opportunity to dive into the practice of mindful eating: slowing down, chewing thoroughly, and not rushing.

Much to my own embarrassment, I can be a bit of a bulldozer when it comes to food and will sometimes plow right through my meals. I know this habit isn’t good for my digestion so I try to be conscious of it and slooow down.  (Of course, it’s much easier to do this on vacation when your schedule is free and open.) One of my hopes is to continue this practice in my daily life and keep taking the time for long meals and actual chewing.

After three days in South Beach I embarked on a cruise ship where I realized one of my greatest fears: being trapped on a boat in the middle of the ocean where the only green food in sight is iceburg lettuce. Erghmigod.

Okay, I didn’t exactly expect the cruise ship to have a “kale salad of the day,” but not even broccoli or spinach at the salad bar? Come on, people…  you gotta work with me here a little bit.

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…And here we are at December. Can you believe it?

I’ve really been enjoying creating this Wellness Intention series and I hope it’s been helpful and inspiring for you as well. Last week I decided to ease a little holiday stress by not sweating the small stuff. I was especially interested in making peace with imperfection and trying to find a balance between being productive and relaxed.

Here’s what I learned:

• I need to be more realistic with my expectations. Starting my day with a to-do list of over 15 items (including an 8+ hour work day) is just silly. It’s not possible to get a million things done in a day and instead of making me feel more productive and empowered, it makes me feel defeated right from the start. Instead, I focused on doing 1 – 2 big things each day. By the end of the week, I was pleasantly surprised at how much had gotten done over the course of a few days and with a lot less stress!

• Do one thing at a time. I think monotasking is one of the most important things we can do for our sanity and productivity. Even though our culture preaches the importance of “multitasking,” I find that trying to focus on too many projects at once only makes me feel more scattered and stressed. By paring down my to-do list this week, I was also able to put all of my energy into being present in whatever task was at-hand. As a result, I actually got more done!

• The journey has to feel the way you want the destination to feel. One of my favorite reminders to myself in times of stress and busy-ness is that time is time - we all have the same amount of time in a day and the most important thing that we can do is use that time well. This means delaying projects that aren’t important, making relaxation a priority, and choosing to be joyful. One of my highlights from the week was being stuck in traffic during a long drive because it gave me the chance to practice this. There are many times in life when there isn’t anything we can do to control external circumstances and life can feel a little hard and stressful. I like to think in those moments it’s best to just turn up the music and dance in your car… or, you know, whatever might be helpful in the moment.

For this week’s Weekly Wellness Intention I thought it was time we get back to talking about food. I’m currently in the midst of preparing for an amazing vacation (I’ll share more details soon!) and my goal for the week is to be intentional around food and explore the balance between eating healthfully and eating for pleasure. Since we’re in the middle of holiday season, I figured we might be able to tackle this one together.

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And here we are again at a another Monday. I don’t know how these weeks are managing to go by so fast, but I’m really grateful I started this series as a way of checking in with myself and ensuring that I’m practicing self-care during this busy season.

Last week’s Wellness Intention was to Create a Beautiful Environment.  My goal was to spend the week decluttering, organizing, cleaning, creating better systems in my apartment, and creating artwork. How’d it go?

What worked well:

• Having a deadline! I was able to keep on-track with cleaning and organizing this week because I knew I’d have to report on this task today. This was a really good reminder that having a firm deadline and source of accountability is crucial when completing a goal.
• Asking for help! I enlisted the help of several friends during the course of the week for organizing advice, trips to IKEA, and general moral support.
• Take it one step at a time! I felt completely overwhelmed when I looked around my apartment last week, but I made myself tackle one small thing each day to keep things feeling manageable. I did have a hectic day of deep-cleaning yesterday, but it was incredibly worth it to have everything done and in order.
• Painting! I was really excited to get back into creating artwork that didn’t involve Photoshop and one of the highlights of my week was going to the art supply store and then spending the evening painting. Now I have a really unique and personal piece of artwork to hang in my bathroom!

Challenges that came up:

• The biggest challenge I had was a lack of time. I knew this was a big project for me to tackle in one week, especially with a lot going on at work right now, but I felt that it was important enough to do before the holidays that I wanted to make it a priority. Having a firm deadline was helpful, but it did also add additional stress.

Next steps:

• Keep everything clean and organized! I’m working on being better about cleaning things up as I go along and putting things away as I use them. The great thing is that it only takes a few minutes each day to keep things tidy versus letting a mess pile up that takes several hours to undo.

For this week’s Weekly Wellness Intention, I originally wanted to focus creating a consistent bedtime routine and getting better sleep, but due to the holiday and traveling this week, it didn’t seem like an appropriate time to tackle this one. So instead, I’ve decided to stop sweating the small stuff… who’s with me?

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 How did your week go? In last week’s Weekly Wellness Intention post I set the goal to Cultivate Pleasure in my daily life. Here’s the low-down…

What worked well:

• This was a really fun intention so I had no problem making it a natural part of my routine this week. As part of this intention, I spent lots of time outdoors, which was not only pleasurable but incredibly energizing (spiritually as well as physically!)
• I went on my first “real” hike with friends to Little Si. I would highly recommend this as it was challenging enough to feel like a hike, but definitely doable for a newbie hiker like me.
• I also spent lots of time eating delicious food, catching up with amazing friends, listening to beautiful music and, of course, playing with my cats.
• And, I finally decided to book that much-needed vacation so I will be ending this year spending several days in Miami and then embarking on a cruise to the Bahamas. I couldn’t be more excited! Except for the fact that I now have to go bikini shopping (shudder)…

There weren’t any real challenges that came up with this intention, but I have decided that my next steps are to continue incorporating pleasurable activities into my daily life as much as possible.

I also wanted to share some random photos with you from the week so hop down below to find out about this week’s Weekly Wellness Intention: Create A Beautiful Environment.

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