Thursday, September 27, 2012

It's more than just a blog name...it's my way of life

Lately, I’ve been all about simplifying and getting down to basics – back to “square one,” so to speak. A lot of this came from an ongoing feud I have with myself and the clutter-ish appearance of some areas of our home. I’ve been trying to pinpoint one area at a time and attack – pitching that which is unnecessary and creating an organizational system that will keep everyone happy. (Everyone = me.)


Swimming in that same thought-pond are my ideas for getting myself back to basics, which consist of making basic, healthy meals for my family and exercising. I’ve learned in my 40-something years that I’m one of those people who over-analyze things. And when I over-analyze things, I tend to make them much bigger and daunting than they really are. For example: creating more healthful meals has, on more than one occasion, sent me to the library to scour the stacks in search of nutrition guides and cook books. I flip through and make notes, jotting down which recipes are keepers and which ones my kids wouldn’t touch with a 10-ft. fork. I read and research, research and read. But nothing gets cooked. Well, DUH. Now, if I just use some basic common sense, I could easily navigate the grocery – with no notes – and manage to end up with a cart of very good, wholesome food, rather than just reading about it. Easy peasy.

Similarly, I go the same route with exercise. I resumed a running hobby sometime in early 2005, and within a few months I ran my very first road race – a 5K. Since then, I’ve run numerous 5Ks and some half-marathons. My goal at that time was to run a half-marathon (which I did); and a full marathon by the time I was 40. Then I got pregnant and put that whole “train for a marathon” thing on the back-burner, where it’s simmered since 2009. I have run a few half-marathons since having Bobby, but that full marathon was still simmering in the back of my mind. About a week ago, I found information on the Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis which is scheduled for the first weekend of November. While I’m by no means in shape to run this year, I just might be next year. My goal = first full marathon in November 2013. Since no one ever successfully trained for a marathon simply by thinking about it (or reading and researching, which I tend to do in this area of my life as well… even more so than the whole food thing) it’s time to take Nike’s advice and Just Do It.

Today I dutifully got up at 5:20am, and ran. I was joined by the boys which is truly amazing in that I’ve never known them to willingly roll out of bed at 5:30am for anything other than the promise of tearing into Christmas presents. It was just a quick run, and Sam was the only one who groused at all, because he felt that Charlie’s transformation into “Johnny Sprint” was uncalled for. (I have to agree, since we’re running at DARK O’CLOCK in the morning and I’d rather keep all my ducklings in sight.) We didn’t break any land-speed records, but kept a pretty good pace overall.

And at least I wasn’t still in bed.

Back to basics. Back to square one.