Daily Rituals - What's Yours?

Mr. Rogers swam daily and kept his weight at 143 pounds, because those are the numbers that align with the words "I love you". Gertrude Stein would sit in her parked car everyday and write poetry. President Barack Obama, starts every day at 6:45 am with a workout and no matter how long his work day is, he always stops to have dinner with his family. Daily Rituals.

As a long-time work at home mother, I have been very much about daily rituals. I wake at 5:15 and practice Kundalini Yoga with the sunrise as my only light. I follow that with a 30 minute meditation, then have a three fruit, green smoothy while sitting with my husband for his breakfast before we both head off to our work. This is daily ritual helps me to stay focused and balanced and ready to begin my day.

As comfortable and reassuring as daily rituals are, sometimes they get a little shaken - like mine are now. As welcoming as growth and the changes that I have in my life are, I am having to re-think my day. Re-design the work portion of my daily ritual.

My balancing act is now a little different with only one child remaining at home - and he is only here part-time - so I can focus on me. What a concept! Now I can write! I can run my business, be a leader in our Women on the Verge Community and garden. Wow!

Here's where I need your help, my sisters in business and life. What are your rituals? If you're a writer, how do you incorporate writing into everyday? How do you incorporate your passion into your daily living? What times of the day are you most creative and alive? The age old question asked to women since the beginning of time.: How do you do it?

Grasping at Straws

Yesterday I had a discussion with my husband about an article I read regarding eating right for hypothyroidism, which is something I have dealt with for about ten years.

The article titled, "Is Your Thyroid Making You Fat?" , contains a list of goitrogens, foods that hinder the absorption of thyroid medications.  This list includes: soy (which is in everything), strawberries, pears, peaches, broccoli and cauliflower, among a long list of others - all usual visitors in my weekly digestive tract.  I am supposed to avoid these otherwise healthy foods, because they apparently tax my already tired thyroid gland.

Come on!!  I already eat a vegetarian diet (have for years), practice yoga daily, use natural products on my skin, hair nails and teeth, floss daily, don't drink coffee, grow an organic garden, volunteer as a court advocate for a child, am a mother of five and run my own business.   Wah!!

This latest news of so many of my favorite foods being goitrogens has brought out my inner whiner and knocked me for a loop.  What the heck?  I try so hard.  Is this the reason that my weight stays the same, like it's embedded in concrete?  Is food so important to me that I obsess over these details?

Yesterday I was feeling rebellious and mostly sorry for myself, so I decided to eat the most delicious meal I could think of that is vegetarian (not vegan, which I mostly do).   Let me tell you, those chile relleno, salad, black beans and glass of cabernet never tasted so good.

Please feel free to join my pity party.  We'll be sure to have non-goitrogen veggies and dip - with plenty of wine.

Once Upon a Meatless Monday

About five years ago, our family started celebrating Meatless Monday. None of us were vegetarians, none of us had heard of the campaigns started by Paul McCartney or John Hopkins University.  We only wanted to improve our diets and health.

For the first two years we planned weekly for our one meatless day - breakfast lunch and dinner - may no flesh cross our lips.  We had roasted veggie lasagna, portobello mushroom burgers and asparagus tarts.  Best of all?  No one complained.  No one missed a beefy Monday.  The result was healthy weight, blood pressure and improved energy across the board.  And, less after-dinner bloat.

However, different from the rest of the family, this experience affecting me more strongly.  I increased my yoga practice from two-three days a week practice to daily Kundalini Yoga and meditation.  Around this time, I also read (and took the online classes) A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.  I suddenly got very sick - and it lasted for two weeks.   I am not  a doctor, but my gut tells me that I was detoxing.  I couldn't possibly consider eating any flesh of any kind.  I completely lost all desire for it.

Since that two weeks of presumed detox, I have not partaken in consuming anything that had a face or a mother.  No fish, no fowl, no four-leggers cross my plate or palate.

And you know what?  My family did not join me.  They have been content in the weekly Meatless Monday celebration and living the life of an omnivore.  And that's okay.  They know that if I am cooking, chicken is NOT for dinner.  In lieu of having to cook for themselves, they typically end up eating the vegetarian dinner I prepare.  Since I always make enough for everyone, as sharing fresh fruits and veggies is a joy - that is cool with me, too.

We are living proof that herbivores and omnivores can co-exist peacefully.