Family Bike Rides

The weather has been improving lately. I pause to consider this and realize it's a little funny to me. Mainly because I'm from Massachusetts and the weather here in Santa Cruz is comparatively always good. I mean, I NEVER have to shovel snow here. It rarely gets below freezing. I can garden twelve months out of the year - if I wanted to, that is. The weather is always good here from the New Englander's perspective. However, my kids are no longer considered New Englanders, they are Californians, and that means they have a different take on the weather. So, to be more accurate about the subjective weather situation here: The weather has been pleasant enough to go on some day rides and hike with the kids, and they don't need to bundle up in cumbersome clothing for the trip. In fact, the weather has been pretty darn sweet here the past couple weekends.

This little guy was scampering across the path just in front of Coleman.

Last weekend we went for a mountain bike ride out by UCSC, through Wilder Ranch. It was another shuttle ride (we took two cars and parked the big one at the bottom of the trail so we didn't have to ride back up the mountain), this one with very little, if any climbing. We parked up on Empire Grade, and rode about 11 miles down to and then along the shore. There was only one spill on a pretty steep hill. Max got scraped up, but was a total trooper, with minimal grumbling about all the pain and suffering he had to endure.

We stopped to check out some lime kilns on the ride. Pretty cool.

These little trips are our family time during the week. We also have family dinners, but those are not very long lasting - the kids can't wait to get up and leave the table as soon as they've eaten. So, these trips have been great for us to spend time together that is totally enjoyable and away from the distractions of home. I hope we can keep it up! I had thought we'd alternate hiking trips with biking, but it seems Kitty and I are really the hikers in the family. The boys prefer the bikes.

A tree grows inside the kiln, which was as big as our house.

Down by the shore there were a lot of red winged black birds.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo, a single moment to savor and share. 

inspired by soulemama.com

 

 

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo, a single moment to savor and share. 

inspired by soulemama.com

 

 

Meditate: Every Day

A while ago I discovered Leo Babuata's blog zenhabits. At the time I was in a simplifying mode, and self examination mode. (I ask myself, "what ever happened to simplifying?!") I recently read a post on his blog about meditation. Which caused me to recall my own very positive experience with meditation. About 6 years ago I took a class on beginning meditation at the zen center in Sunnyvale, CA. That class changed my brain. I took it because I had heard how meditation can improve a person's ability to pay attention and to retain information; memory improvement. Oh, I needed that class! At the time Max was 2ish. I was still sleep deprived and just one year into living in this new land called California. I was having a hard time adjusting to life in the west, but I was loving the clay community I had found and was immersing myself in. A friend in that clay community was taking a class at the zen center and mentioned it to me. I went. Honestly I was a little nervous about attending the class - it consisted of 45 minutes of meditation and about an hour of Dharma talks. I became dedicated to that class, sure I could improve my brain. I could feel the change in myself. Clarity of thought, more patience, happier. Not sure how much my memory really improved, but it changed my brain, and even though I haven't meditated regularly in over three years I think my brain has held that neurological improvement. So I've decided to meditate daily again. I am committing to 5 minutes a day, at least. If I can fit in more, great! I think it will add up and bring me back to center even if it's just a little bit. It's all about creating the habit, or recreating it.

So this week I changed my food and I added a five minute a day meditation habit.

What are you guys doing to take care of yourself?

Eat: Better

When we first settled in California, 8 years ago I was suffering from terrible joint pain. It was likely caused by the Lyme disease I had contracted around 2000. In fact, I blame that disease for just about every ache and pain I have. I can't remember who I was before that disease, but I do know who I am now. And I'm pretty sure the two me's are quite different.

The single best thing I did for my health after we arrived here in California was change my diet. I became gluten, dairy, refined sugar, corn, caffeine, night-shade and red-meat free. That was hard. But within a few days (!) I was in less pain and had more energy. It was good to have me back. I enjoyed living my life in a 120 pound body - oh how I enjoyed it! Then I came down with adrenal fatigue, lost a lot more weight. To comfort myself I started eating just about whatever I liked, mm how I enjoyed eating! Three years later I'm living my life in a 140 pound body and I'm really uncomfortable. It isn't all about what size pants I'm living in. Mostly I just feel crappy. And yesterday as I walked I could feel my fat jiggle! Now THAT is quite enough of THAT! Time to change my eating habits again. A journey is about to begin...

I'm not prepared to go back to the diet I had been on, though I did have a lot of success with it from a pain control aspect. I was often trying to replicate a non-gluten free life in my cooking that became stressful. I've done a great deal of reading about different diets over the past few months; vegan, paleo, specific carbohydrate or SCD, gut and psychology syndrome diet or GAPS. Having experienced the power of a diet change I am ready to change my eating habits again in order to change my body, my mind, my life. Chris is going on this 30 day challenge with me. I think we could both loose ten pounds by the end of the month with food changes alone. Add exercise in there and look out!

Which diet have I chosen? I'm going to start us on the Whole30. It is similar to the paleo or the SCD diet, but I must confess I will not eat any more meat than I already do. I may feed Chris a little more fish, but I have never liked it and with the state of our oceans, well I don't think I will start now. I would like to ultimately move over to a vegan diet again, and many of our meals will be vegan. I'm not ready for full time vegan life yet. My focus will be on making the meals we eat more healthful and loosing weight and exercising more regularly.

Here we go!

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo, a single moment to savor and share. 

inspired by soulemama.com