Just slow down …

Hey, ya’ll, GFG!’s Monthly Challenges are back.
Thanks for your patience while the Monthly Challenges went on hiatus. Life is a little more calm so the Challenges will continue … on one condition … participation. I will try to keep them going for the rest of 2014 and evaluate at the end of the year.
It has been months since our last Monthly Challenge. And frankly, it took me some time to come up with challenges. How did I come up with something (nutrition and exercise) every single month?
Nutrition: Enjoy the food you are eating. How often do you drink your breakfast while commuting to work, eat dinner in front of the TV, stuff lunch down your throat while answering e-mail?
This is a tough one for me. I am a multi-tasker, which is not a positive trait to have. Yea, great you can do a whole bunch of things at the same time, but not very well.
If you can’t commit to all of your meals and snacks to just focus on the food you are eating, try it for one meal a day, one a week or if you really find this challenging, one meal the month of August. Take the time to eat and enjoy your meal. No TV, no computer, no reading. You get the idea. Taste your food. Smell it. Touch it. Look at it. Eat it.
Earlier this week I tried this. I sat at the kitchen table the other day and ate my lunch. I really tasted my food, enjoyed it, ate it slowly and didn’t have anything else distracting me.
An Exercise: Have we all been keeping up with exercise since the Challenges went on hiatus? I hope so. I have been doing my best.
This month’s exercise challenge is more of an exercise than just plain old exercise. Keep reading for more information.
This past week I have been in a Restorative Yoga 20-hour teacher training.
We were given homework each day. And one day it was to try to do everything 10% more slowly. (I have been trying to keep that up the whole week.)
I will admit that this past week it was not that difficult to do things 10% more slowly as I took the week off from work. Going back to work next week is where the real challenge will be.
We are all busy, stressed, have too much to do. But hurrying and rushing around, does that make it worse or better?
This is definitely going to be a challenge and you won’t hit it all the time. But I think it is a great idea for us to slow down a bit. This is also allowing yourself more time to get where you need to get to, to get a task done … Yup, the to do list is long. But what can wait for tomorrow? What can someone else help you with?
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Everyone is busy and stressed. We all are. And we don’t think we have time for certain things. But how you can be the best person, professional, mom, teacher, caretaker, lawyer … if you don’t take care of yourself. Right? If you are exhausted, anxious, tired, pissy, upset, etc. there is NO way you can take care of others in the caring way you want to.
My themes are going to regularly be about taking care of No. 1. I have to remind myself of this.
Hey, and any suggestions for nutrition or exercise challenges you may have, send my way.
You can post any updates below or post to the Go Fit Girl! Monthly Challenge Facebook Group page and comment, update and converse there.  This is an open group. Anyone can join. So invite your friends.