Taste of what I've been working on ...

Working Hard ...

The past month has been divided between yo-yo dieting, yo-yo fitness, and trying to get the face of my Etsy shop, Minerva Knits, out there. I had the fortune of being selected to join the Etsy NY Street Team, which has already resulted in us being mentioned once on the team blog. YEAY FOR LOBSTER PRINT BOW TIES!

I'm currently debating on whether to start a new blog for the Etsy shop, or updating everyone on here of my progress.

In case anyone is interested, here are the following ways you can keep in touch with Minerva Knits:

ETSY: minervaknits.etsy.com
PINTEREST: pinterest.com/MinervaKnits
TWITTER: twitter.com/MinervaKnits
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/Minerva_Knits
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/minervaknits
GOOGLE: Minerva Knits

Ciao for now!

Exercise in How to improve My Quality of Life

Inspired by Greg McKeown's LinkedIn post The Most Important Hour of Your Life

Step 1: If possible get out into nature where you can feel the natural pace of the earth and not the hyperactive and inhumane pace of modern life.

Step 2: Write down the question “What would I do if I only had a week left to live?” and take 10 minutes to write down your answer.

If I only had one week, I would want to spend that time with my siblings, because they have been the most important people in my life.

Step 3: Write down the question, “What would I do if I only had a month left to live?” and take 10 minutes to write down your answer.

If I had one month, I would eat everything I have always wanted to eat with my siblings in tow :-)

Step 4: Write down the question, “What would I do if I only had a year left to live?” and take 10 minutes to write down your answer.

If I had only a year, I would travel the world with my sister.

Step 5: Write down the question, “What would I do if I only had five years left to live?” and take 10 minutes to write down your answer.

If I had 5 years, I would live abroad with the bare essentials strapped to my back.

Step 6: Write down the question, “What would I do if I only had a life left to live?” and take 10 minutes to write down your answer.

I would leave behind the things that make me unhappy, travel freely, eat freely, dance freely, create freely :-)

Step 7: Finally, take 10 minutes to reread all of your answers while asking yourself, “How can I design my routine this week to more closely align with these answers?”

I have no clue where to start, but I recognize that there needs to be a change.

Hopping on and off the wagon

It was brought to my attention recently that I gained 15 pounds over the past year ... and 10 of those pounds in the past 3 months.

TEN FREAKING POUNDS IN THREE MONTHS!

If you've ever seen me in person, you'd understand why this is a shocker. I'm of petite built. I have no muscle definition what so ever. Weight gain for me manifests as a very exaggerated pear-shaped body.

I'm a pear with two stick legs.

And after seeing myself in recent pictures, I've decided that the buck stops here. Something has to change.

So the past 2 weeks I've been working out everyday. Whether its' Physique 57 or Archery ... I am out doing something physical every day. I'm also trying to get back on the Primal wagon because I'm tired of being "Faileo" instead of Paleo.

I also got myself a Fitbit Flex ... which I absolutely LOVE! I hardly ever notice it's there, and it alerts me when I've reached certain step goals. I've been able to increase my goal from 5,000 steps to 9,000 steps in less than a month! It's really motivating. My only complaint is that I set a silent alarm to wake me in the morning ... and when this thing buzzes I pretty much feel like I'm being electrocuted. But other than that it's been a great investment.

I've also been trying out Fitocracy to further motivate myself to get active. I'm leveling up fairly well. I got E to start logging activities on there too, like his pull-ups. It's kinda fun keeping track of all the little things I've done over the course of the week to try to stay active.

I'll try to keep this blog updated periodically with my progress and how I'm feeling. As of now the only changes I've noticed are:

• my calves look bigger ... normally they are 12 inches, but last measurement says they are 13.5" now!
• I don't get as tired walking up subway stairs. I used to want to sit down and give up climbing when I had to go up any stairs in the subway.
• my stomach is not protruding as much as before, but it might be water weight and nothing else.

[hopefully] more updates to come!

Can we say COMPLETELY OFF THE WAGON

I haven't blogged in almost a year. In fact, five posts ago was my post from a year ago about how I was going to be a better blogger. So yea ... EPIC FAIL.

But here I am ... ready to ramble once again about my goals this year.

I'm binging on Oreos ... probably because Saturday is the 1st of February, and I like to start my diet attempts on the first of the month.

Might start Bachata classes again next week ... YEAY!

Got some new patterns to try out for my Etsy shop. Hopefully will be better about posting my Works in Progress [WIP].

I still hate my day job ... no news there.

I've been better about using stuff from my stash. Wish me luck.

The only resolution I've really made is to resolve my eczema issue. It's out of control and is greatly hindering my quality of life.