Lately, I've been making some grand strides to improve myself and my life. People usually don't see all that goes into even the littlest changes in my life; it can be a constant struggle to make certain that I eat, or don't overeat, each day, and that's an extremely minor thing. So, life changing decisions like going back to school or developing a social life? Those are in a league of their own when it comes to decision making - the most difficult kind of decisions that are nigh impossible for me to make and follow through with. But I've been making leaps and bounds! (to my standards, at least.) So, even though I'm starting very small, I'm working my way up very slowly and steadily until I make bigger, more meaningful impacts in my life. It might take years before I get back into school! but I'm quite determined to get to that point where I'm capable.
So, what are these grand, immense changes I've made in my life recently? Well, for one, I virtually stopped drinking pop altogether, second, I started drinking a lot more tea and replacing table sugar/brown sugar with honey, and third, I started doing yoga which I'm determined to make a regular thing. Probably doesn't sound like much to the average person, but those are major life changes for me! And, proportionally, something like finishing high school would be my equivalent to an average individual wanting to be in the marines. And college? Sticking with the previous theme, that would be my equivalent to someone wanting to be a marine sniper - some of the most elite of soldiers. See where I'm going with this?
Dropping pop for the most part has been a bit difficult because of those darn cravings! Sometimes I even contemplating stealing a Coke, and I hate Coke! However, I have had mom stop buying me the pops I do like as to avoid temptation. I don't really remove any calories by removing pop as I largely drink tea instead, and with how much honey I put into my tea, it comes out to about the same number of calories as a can of pop; however, pop is bad for me is so many more ways than just the number of calories, and by removing pop, I've both been getting a lot more water in me, as well as antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals when I drink tea. Now... if only I could manage what I eat as well as I manage what I drink...
Tea, naturally, is quite healthy. The tea I drink is very rich in antioxidants and flavonoids (described by Wikipedia as "show[ing] ... anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-cancer, and anti-diarrheal activities.") I also add honey which is rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and simple sugars that are easily processed by the body and have more drawn out, healthier absorption and utilisation by the body. There's also the caffeine which is drastically lower than drip coffee, but enough to have a soothing effect on me (the warmth and aroma certainly don't hurt, though.)
Yoga. Now this is one that I'm completely new to. I typically try to do ten different positions each time I do yoga, each geared toward helping with some aspect of my mental health (anxiety, depression, stress, over-activity, and so on), as well as having the obvious benefits for the body (though I swear I just about destroyed my neck doing one position wrong.) I'm having trouble staying consistent, and I'm very far from perfecting even these most basic moves, but I haven't stopped completely, yet! Hopefully, it'll simply become routine and I won't even have to exert myself just to get up and do 15 to 20 minutes of yoga (about 10 of which is literally just laying flat on the ground!) You can tell when I've done yoga because my room is drenched in the smell of incense.
So, all of that's the good news I had! It's not often... at all... that I get to say good news, so it's a refreshing change of pace. Another nice thing about this good news is that I don't actually fear that it'll all go down the drain in just a couple of weeks like good things and positive changes in my life usually do. I think that the little to no pop change will be like my no pork change, where I occasionally get those cravings for just a little chunk of maple sausage or a bite of bratwurst, but where I've been able to resist such temptations almost utterly and have found decent enough work-arounds. Now, unlike with pop, my porkless diet has caused for some conflicts with the rest of my family's porkful diets. Still, we always seem to manage some kind of compromise or adjustment, even if it means an entirely different meal for me alone, just to make certain I can keep it up. When I break a habit - any habit! - it usually becomes nearly impossible to start back up again, so it's incredibly important that I try as hard as I can not to break the patterns and habits of these recent steps forward. The more things that I manage to remain disciplined for, the more disciplined I can become in the future, and the more things that I can take on as I grow emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically.
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