30-Day Balance Experiment 2010 Day 14

Are you beginning to see small changes in the way you think about food? In the amounts you eat? In the time you devote to exercise? I actually have cut back on chocolate, wine, and bread (I eat only the top crust of a roll), and I'm eating more protein with salads. My ‘dots' of exercise (representing a mile per dot) on my calendar are multiplying. I lost 4 lbs. but the trip to San Diego put 2 back on but I am determined to lose those trip pounds (and more). I haven't given up on myself or our shared journey. We may still be in the flirting stage, but our next two weeks will reveal our real commitment. "Real change happens bit by bit. It takes great effort to become effortless at anything. There are no quick fixes." Geneen Roth, Women Food and God.

SPIRITUAL thought/action: "The writer Natalie Goldberg says that we are always practicing something and most of us practice suffering. Why not practice ending your suffering instead of perpetuating it? Since you are eating anyway, moving around in your body anyway, being aware of something anyway, why not spend that time waking yourself up instead of deadening yourself? Is there anything better to do with a life?" Women Food and God.

PHYSICAL thought/action:  The South Beach Diet, another book in my diet library which looks as if I never cracked it, suggests cutting out fruit, bread, alcohol, pasta, potatoes, and rice the first week and eating eggs, fish, salad, and veggies. Decaf coffee is okay, so is cheese. Really a reasonable approach. Even chocolate dessert recipes are included! (Steamed pears with 5 chocolate chips.) So I'm putting aside Rachel Ray's recipes for a while and following South Beach.

MENTAL thought/action: "To manage your mind, know that there is nothing, and then relinquish all attachment to the nothingness." Lao-Tzu

EMOTIONAL thought/action: "All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." Anatole France

Yours for the journey! Lolly