Working My Way Up to Change

I LOVE change!

This isn't really true, but a wise man once encouraged me to embrace the statement nonetheless, due to the ever-present state of change in...well...everyone's

In any case, I've been inspired, partly by a book I just read-on-cd [Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver; I HIGHLY recommend it] and partly by the environment of gluttony in which I find myself during my time in the US, to invite or perhaps more accurately force some change in my life this school year.

I'm basically telling you all this for the sake of accountability.

I haven't really made any solid decisions yet as to what all I'm going to change. I'm an extrovert, so consider this blog me "thinking [typing]" out loud. Feel free to make suggestions and/or observations if you like.

So, to begin, here are some things I'm considering changing, or at least working toward changing.

-Eating Habits: things to consider include local shopping- how possible is it in Quito? Might "local" mean Ecuadorian in this case, since not a lot grows that high in the mountain? Might I make an effort to eat more Ecuadorian food (gulp)? Might I just focus on eating more healthily (whole grains, low carb, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, etc.) and forget the local part until I'm somewhere where I have more options (aka, the US)?

-Exercise: I'm just gonna go ahead and say it- gross. Blech. Eww. These are my feelings about exercise. I just can't seem to help it. I've tried lots of things and it boils down to this: I hate to work out. Nonetheless, I feel compelled by my health and my vanity to do it anyway. This summer I bought the Zumba Fitness Kit as well as a Pilates DVD. I'm hoping to combine these with walking with my wonderful friend, Beth, for a total of working out 5 days a week, which seems to me to be the exercise equivalent of, say, being silent for a year to hear God better or something. Way above reasonable. So if you think I should work out more than that, I don't care. So don't bother telling me.

-Devotions/Spiritual Life: I'm not very satisfied with my Spiritual walk right now. That's pretty common for me when I'm not on a normal schedule. Ironically, I seem to have more trouble making time for God when I have more time. In any case, I want to put a priority on setting aside time to read, pray, meditate, and just BE with God this year.

-Sleep: I have no doubt that I will need to adjust this if I expect to bump up the last two topics. Since I know you're curious, I need about 8.5 hours of sleep each night in order to not feel tired and not get too easily annoyed by my delightful students. If I plan to get in a workout, shower, devotions, and breakfast before leaving for school each morning, I'll need to be greeting my days at about 5am. That means I should be hittin' the sack around (closes eyes and sighs) 8:30pm. Oy-vey.

-Random Other Responsible Things: flossing; not drinking soda; drastically minimizing sugar in my diet; using my awesome juicer to take advantage of cheap, fresh produce by drinking veggie juice regularly; buying a small food processor to help me do better at eating veggies twice a day.

So, there it is. The list to consider. I'm a little apprehensive about biting off more than I can chew. But on the other hand, the illusive "they" say that all these things will make me healthier, happier, and uh, I don't know...make me fart sunshine, I guess. Maybe it'll be worth all that yucky change? In any case, I think that I'm at the point where I'm willing to give it a good long try and see if it's worth it. If not, I can always go back to my slovenly, irresponsible ways. I guess it can't hurt to try, right?