Semi-Retirement

It's all in how you look at things. I started calling us semi-retired. People ask how did you do that? Well, it's easy; I work and my husband doesn't right now and we live in a vacation destination. We just pretend to be on vacation on my off hours and that's how you become semi-retired.

In reality, my husband is out of work. His company didn't have any openings down this way, but we really want to live in Santa Barbara, so he's looking at other opportunities and we are just making things work.

When I was younger I don't think I would have taken this big of a leap of faith.  But I know everything will work out. I'm of the mind that the universe gives you signs and whatever decision you make is the right one.

The actual content count of my bags...

Contents of my purse.

Contents of purse:
Phone, mints, keys, sharpie, 2 nail files, lip gloss, lipstick, sunblock, chapstick, another lip balm, neti stick, ibuprofen, another lip balm, bee sting kit, 2 prescriptions, sudefed, tampon, feminine pads (2), antacid, gum, purse hanger, mirror, measuring tape, 3 hair ties, week of receipts, wallet, extra credit cards, business card holder, Art of Sea Glass business cards, new credit card and paperwork to call it in, kleenex, eye glass case, change 1.87, 2 band aids, journal.

The total count on items in my purse was about 43 things. I didn't count each credit card or the complete contents of my wallet. Ok, really this isn't too bad. This all actually stuff I use. I just recently bought a new purse and had reorganized it. Ok so I got rid of the receipts and a couple of the chapstick things when I put it all back. But this challenge of getting things down to 100 personal items will have to include my purse as 1 item. Just saying...

Contents of my daily tote bag-yes it was scary!

Contents of my tote bag (I carry this to work with me and usually have it in my car at all times):
2 journals, book-A Year of Living Your Yoga, plastic Macy's bag with receipt in it, shoes, socks, umbrella, July and Aug receipts (91 receipts and 4 coupons-my husband made me count them), 2 expired 2 for 1 flight coupons, photo cd, 16 tampons, 12 feminine pads (what was I expecting? This was like a whole box of feminine protection LOL), gum, 2009 calendar (hmmmm-apparently I hadn't looked through the contents for awhile), 2010 calendar, 2 Bart cards, Weight Watchers folder, broken keychain with expired gym card, box of vitamins, new reading glasses that don't work, old reading glasses that don't work very well, kleenex, empty hard eyeglass holder, empty soft eye glass case, IPod, earphones, make-up pouch with toothbrush, mirror, floss, blush, 2 hair ties and emery board, extra medicine bag with allergy pills, 2 Benadryl creams (always expecting an allergic reaction to something!), nail file, antibiotic cream, Dramamine, Airborne, anti-gas pill, floss, 2 Band-Aids, pouch with business cards, giant stack of papers that included: yoga stuff, ideas, sketches, recipes, medical stuff to follow up on, 401k stuff to followup on, eye glass paperwork to get the correct reading glasses, current bills, Sea Glass festival coupons, Lab order for 2011, 2 paperclips, medical receipt, and the best thing I found was this ad (pictured below) about saying goodbye to the paper! LOL

The total count on the contents of my tote bag was at a whopping 233 things. My husband made me count all the pieces of paper and receipts I found. Ok so that was too many things. I obviously hadn't been through my bag in awhile. I did clean it out and got rid of stuff and filed what needed filing. But I didn't recount. Tote bag will have to count as 1 on my list of a 100 things. I am not getting rid of it. It's like my briefcase and survival bag. I need to add water!

This was a very interesting exercise. I plan on continuing on through my house and seeing what else I can eliminate. Not sure I will ever get down to 100 personal things but I know I can get down to 100 categories at least! It's quite an eye-opening exercise. Start with your purse or a junk drawer. Make sure you throw some stuff out!

100 Things

My boss and I went to coffee the other day and she told me about this movement she read about in the New York Times called the 100 things challenge, a grass roots kind of effort. Get your personal belongings down to 100 things. Now I would call my boss a minamalist already and even for her getting her personal belongings down to 100 things would probably be hard but if any one could do it she could. I'm continually stopping her from throwing things out at the office because yes we do need to keep those files for more than a month. My first thought to this movement is: Right! I probably have a hundred things in my purse and tote bag I carry around with me all the time, not to mention what I carry around in my car. We do live in earthquake country you know. You never know when you're going to have to be in survival mode. My purse might just save my life.

The contents of my purse and tote bag I carry with me daily. Yikes!

After pondering the concept for a couple of days it's actually very intriquing and maybe even alluring. Think about how you feel when you stay at a nice hotel. You have your essentials with you; clothes, makeup, phone, maybe a book or magazine. But you love the feeling of that clean crisp hotel room, you just want to stay there forever and go out to eat every night and explore the area you're in. You might not even have a car with you so you have to think of different ways of getting around. You don't have the burden of all this stuff to keep clean and buy and be responsible for.

This concept prompted me to make a list of 100 personal items that were essential to me. What happened when I started making the list was I started making new rules and categories of stuff on my list. My art stuff was a whole category, camera stuff, kitchen stuff was a category, medicine and first aid was a category, personal grooming, furtniture, photo albums, doll collection, my sea glass collection, my art on the wall, all my Giant's clothing counts as one thing, my books, my yoga props...sigh not an easy task.

We are very emotionally attached to our stuff. But what do we really need? As you get older you find you don't need as much. You realize you aren't going to live forever in this physical existence and you just don't need some of this stuff. You start downsizing. I keep finding things I'm just not that attached to anymore. As for those boxes of stuff in the garage that I may someday use in a new place; when I pull them down and look through them, it's either rotted or out of style or I think, "What the heck was I saving this for?"

This 100 thing challenge is an interesting exercise to look at things differently. A way to get that vacation kind of feeling all of the time. Maybe it's a way of pinpointing what your life purpose really is. What is most important in this second half of my life? How do I want to live it? What "things" do I really need to be happy? Do I need things to be happy? How much more money would I have if I lived in a much smaller place?

If we didn't have to house all our stuff, we might be able to spend our time and money on traveling or going to yoga retreats or eating out at nice places. This coming from a photographer, artist, memorablila keeper, antiques hunter and collector of many things. I hate getting rid of stuff. I still have my Barbie's and baby dolls hidden somewhere under the stairs. I still have that full set of 80's mauve and sea foam china we got as a wedding present...hmmmm I think my kids may need some new dishes and my granddaughter may need some new toys. I know I have to clean my purse out. It's a start.

What 100 personal things could you get your stuff down to? Up to the challenge?

Discipline

I was watching the movie "Julie and Julia" the other night and Julie Powell's mother was questioning her on why she would undertake cooking all of Julia Child's recipes and blogging about it when no one was making her do it. Julie Powell said, "It's a discipline." While discussing it with her husband Powell said, "I'll cook my way through the Julia Child cook book and write a blog about it. I'll probably need a deadline otherwise it will be like everything else I do. Let's face it, I never finish anything."

I've been doing yoga and Pilates for a year this Sunday, May 9th and I feel like I've really accomplished something. I didn't have a deadline to meet, but I do need the discipline of going to something on a regular basis to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

What have I accomplished? I lost 23 pounds in the last year. I no longer bring frozen diet lunches to work. I have healthy leftovers from the night before. I started this blog. I'm in a size 8. I have muscle tone. I can actually see my abs. I wouldn't think twice about putting on a bathing suit in public. I learned to kayak. My knees no longer hurt. I feel good. I can do an hour Power Pilates class and then stay for the hour and half yoga class and live to tell about it. Downward Facing Dog is actually a resting pose for me now.

I made a commitment to myself to get healthy. Much in the same way that Julie Powell made a committment to write. In life you have to follow your muse. You have to follow that thing that is whispering in your ear, "this is a good idea." You might not know why at the time but you know you just have to do it. This is inspired action. The good thing about Pilates and yoga is you are never done. I don't have to "finish" anything. It's a part of my life now.

Success

Maybe it just comes with age and experience, but at some point you don't give a damn what anyone else thinks. If everyone would just be happy within themselves, there wouldn't be all the problems in the world. I just fear that we wait until we're much older to have this attitude.

I just recently wrote up my "success" story for the Studio 4 Pilates newsletter about losing 23 pounds after I joined as a member. One of my classmates thought of me and my success story when her friend wanted to start exercise but felt she couldn't do yoga because she was overweight. My yoga teacher asked what prompted me to finally start an intense exercise program? I said the bathroom scale, weight, sore knees, but the question kept mulling over in my head as I lay in savasana that night in yoga. It really was more than just losing weight because my knees hurt. It goes back to having major surgery a few years ago to have my thyroid removed and completely going through a metamorphosis. Maybe you'd call it a mid-life crisis. Whatever it was, I know myself deeper than I ever have before. Losing my thyroid helped me become comfortable with who I am, inside and out. A major change can make you take a totally different path. And you also have a choice in how you deal with that change; whether positively or negatively.

It took several years of exploration, but I'm at the right place now, physically, mentally, spiritually. My life feels balanced. So when my yoga teacher asked what prompted me to take on yoga and Pilates and lose weight, it was more than the scale and aching knees. It was the culmination of my lifetime of experience and dealing with a major crisis in my life to finally have everything make sense. Knowing that if I don't take this one little pill every day or I would be dead within 30 days really made me rethink everything. Don't wait until that moment when you can't turn back, take on life now. You never know what the next moment holds. The greatest adventure of your life happens now.

Frank Jude Boccio and Yoga Journal offers some ideas for a change-friendly inner life:

"Every morning, repeat a gatha (mindfulness verse): 'Great is the matter of birth and death; impermanence surrounds us. Be awake each moment; do not waste your life.' Life doesn't give you breathing room, but if you stop grasping for control of the uncontrollable, you can learn to breathe through it all."

What it's all about....

This last year of my life I have dedicated to becoming healthier by taking a much different approach than I've done in the past. I took it on as a lifestyle change not a diet or an exercise regime. I just hadn't been paying attention over the last few years and the weight just kind of crept up on me. All of a sudden nothing fit and I had to go buy bigger jeans. Talk about a melt-down in the dressing room when I put on that size 14 jeans. Geez, trauma! I've always been back and forth between sizes 10 and 12 and happy with it. I believe a woman needs some curves. If you have no fat on you what are you going to shake on the dance floor? :) There's a reason women are built the way they are. But I knew I was too heavy because I felt tired, my knees ached and I was in a bad mood all the time. Something needed to change.

January always brings on the resolutions. I'm going to lose weight, exercise, etc, etc so 2009 started out that way. I joined the local gym and worked out for five months. I lost a few pounds but kept going up and down. Then in May a friend persuaded me to go to a Pilate's studio in town, Studio 4 Pilates. I've always hated exercise classes, but I'd always heard good things about Pilates. They also had yoga classes. Through my whole life I kept saying to myself I wanted to learn yoga, but never did it. I always felt like I needed a beginners class so I could figure out all those poses.

I took a few classes, both Pilates and yoga and loved it. Some of it was hard for me, I had no muscle tone, but I could do it. I didn't need to be coordinated. I didn't feel out of place. I started seeing immediate results in my body. I was standing taller, I could feel my muscles. I bought a card for five classes a couple of times and then bit the bullet and joined as a member. Pilates and yoga are not cheap. But the teachers are well trained and there is a lot of personal attention. This studio is worth every penny I pay for it. I took a workshop in Pilates 101 and they have a foundation of yoga class every week. It's truly been an education. I think every bit of what I am investing in these classes will pay off as I age.

For me, making a big monetary committment helped me to stay on track. I felt I really had to go to the classes to make the best use of my money. I'm there 4-6 times a week taking classes. I also still belong to a gym and use their treadmill and eliptical machine a few times a week to get my cardio workouts in. In eight months I've seen my body change from a size 14 down to a size 8! I went from 178 pounds down to 158 pounds in a year.

But exercise is not all I did. I also recommitted to Weight Watchers online. Writing everything that goes in my mouth is key for me. Having a convienant place to put it online makes it easy. I think the magic secret to losing weight is drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day and just tracking what you eat. Just start there for a week or two and then add in your parameters for losing weight, like exercise and counting calories or points or whatever it is you choose. Eating all whole grain, high fiber, low fat foods is vital for me. There are so many good choices out there for food now. High fiber bread doesn't taste like your eating a box anymore. It's actually good. It's basically about eating nutritiously and in moderation. Oh yeah, you have to cut the daily alcohol consumption down too. If I have a drink during the week I try to keep it to wine with dinner, if I have the extra points to use. But if you do overindulge, you can get right back on track the next day. Don't beat yourself up. Just start fresh everyday. Besides I get extra points for exercising, so if I want a margarita or two I'll make sure I get in my exercise for the day. My vices are not sweets. Give me cheese, torilla chips, guacamole and a good bottle of red wine and I'm a happy camper.

The component that tied everything together for me and really made it all work was the yoga. Yoga has truly inspired me and spoken to my spiritual side. I go to two to three yoga classes a week and I do my own practice at home. I've been meditating and studying all genres of yoga. It really fits for me and makes me feel whole.

To put it in a nutshell, this blog is about my new healthy lifestyle. It's a place for me to collect all the things that are working or not working for me and keep me on track. I'm hoping that others will follow along and share the things that work for them too. As always, it's a work in progress. I'm sure it will moph into something I wasn't expecting but that's the fun part!

Remember to check with your medical doctor before starting on any kind of diet or exercise program. Make sure your body can handle it so you don't derail yourself. Know what your intentions are and take inspired action.