Sweet Madeleine

Womp Wommmmp

                                   Epic Fail by SnarkyStitcher on Etsy

Well here we are ten days into April and I’ve yet to take myself to task for my March resolution. Let’s not waste any more time folks, let the self-flagellation begin!

(The original post explaining my monthly resolutions for 2012 can be found here, January’s wrap up is here, February’s here)

As you may be able to surmise from the picture above, and the self-flagellating reference, March did not follow on the heels of January and February’s successful resolutions.

( And BY THE WAY, self-flagellating refers to the process whereby one hits oneself repeatedly with sticks and whips and such as a means to atone for ones many, many sins….not….the other thing. Glad we cleared that up!)

Personally I’d like to declare a do-over for March’s resolution, as most of March in my part of the world was characterized largely by rain and rain and more rain and then HEY! how about some rain! Sometimes the rain would be interrupted and be replaced by the mere, ominous threatof rain,  or even on some very wonderful days a light sort of sneeze-like drizzle. And yet. Not prime gardening weather. 

In my defense, I did get out last Sunday and rake and seed and survey the future site of my garden. And I have certainly, while held captive indoors by the deluge of water falling from the sky, THOUGHT about my garden a lot. And, it’s the thought that counts….right?

Nonetheless, rain and justifications for inaction aside, March was indeed an Epic Fail.

As for how January and February’s resolutions are holding up, I would give January a C+ and February a A-.

January’s low grade is because I haven’t been feeling too well and veggies and smoothies and quinoa have been replaced with (store bought) soup and bagels and cream cheese. I am hopeful that this trend will soon reverse itself as I climb back to my normal self. February’s yoga resolution suffered at the hands of the same under-the-weather feeling, where the thought of doing downward dog was inconceivable most days, but I still managed to go an average of twice a week. 

So there it is! I stand ready to be judged.

April’s resolution is to be more social. And in an awkward turn of events, this has coincided with me selling all of our living room furniture, so at the exact time that I should be inviting people over and entertaining, I have exactly nowhere to seat them for said activities. I guess April will me me pushily inviting myself over to other people’s houses to sit on their chairs! and couches! and eat at tables!

OH THE LUXURY.

February

Time to wrap up February and see how I did on the resolution front.

If you’re new here, the game plan for 2012 resolutions can be found here, January’s wrap up is here.

February was yoga month - it could also be called “Not Posting Month” as my mother is so fond of reminding me. I overachieved on both these fronts!

My goal was to go to yoga 2-3 times a week. Two was the ideal, three would be a bonus (I have to start small and reasonable or I burn out) . And LO! In February I hauled ass down to the yoga studio exactly 11 times, which works out to an average of 2.75 times per week.

I feel really good. As I mentioned before, internally I feel more still and calm, not in an obnoxious way (I hope) but in that soothing, laissez faire feeling you get after having one really good drink. Guys, yoga has left me with a perma-buzz. 

 Going into this resolution I was worried about cash flow, as I’ve mentioned before, we are not exactly lighting Cubans with hundred dolla bills y’all. In town a three month yoga pass costs $210 and if I keep going an average of 2.75 times a week it works out to roughly $6.30 a class.

Totally worth it! That’s like a bottle of wine every week - except I don’t drink wine. Or any alcohol in fact. I also don’t smoke. Or gamble. Or even drink cappuccinos anymore, so really we can justify this expenditure for the immense swathes of  mental clarity it provides and say that contorting myself into strange positions with twelve other spandex-clad people is now my only vice. 

As for carrying over January’s resolution into February, that’s gone well too. I’ve been gluten free for two months now, and a reader emailed me to ask if I’ve lost weight with this way of eating and the answer is no. But losing weight isn’t the objective for me, my BMI already classifies me as “Underweight” (but that doesn’t really mean anything- click here for a great visual of BMI fuckery) and since visiting my Naturopath I’ve been trying to incorporate more good fats into my diet in the form of healthy oils, fat-dense food like avocados, cheese, etc.

And at this point I’d like to take the opportunity to say guys, fat is GOOD. I remember reading a survey a few years ago done in the states where the majority of respondents stated that a diet with 0 fat was the healthiest. But we NEED fat just like we need salt, the problem isn’t with fat or salt themselves, just that too many get too much of it, too often.

So. Fat does not equal bad. Just needed to put that out there.

Looking forward, my March resolution was going to counseling. This service is offered free through my work (yeah social services!) and I am actually going to change this one, because I jumped the gun on this and have already been going since mid-January.

It felt very funny at first, going to sit in a stranger’s office to talk about yourself, especially since I didn’t have anything specific I wanted to discuss. But I’ve grown to really like my counselor and value the feedback he gives, it’s nice to have an objective third-party to shed light on patterns of behaviour and thought processes.

Nevertheless, it would feel cheap to count that as a March resolution when it’s already essentially done. So I’m bumping gardening (originally from May) up to March. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and garden prep and planting can start as early as mid-March in our area, BOOM!

First plan is wildflowers. I’m excited.