So here we are, the second of February.  Life seems to have kept up its ferocious pace, and the man and I are sitting around our kitchen island as I tap away at the keyboard and he produces culinary masterpieces to the soundtrack of “Chef”.

I wrote a little bit ago about the things I’d managed to do every day since the beginning of the year — which inevitably meant that the end was coming sooner than I anticipated!  I managed to keep up my vitamin ritual, but as for blogging — I really dropped the ball.

On the flip side of that coin, John and I visited –and then subsequently purchased– our new home on the 24th of January.  And when you commit to building your first home, it becomes a lot, all at once.  We drove down to our new home site five times in a seven day span — and it’s not a short drive!  But it’s wildly exciting, and all-consuming, and a huge next step for the two of us, which is a big deal on so many levels.

That being said, I think I need to go back to the idea of taking my vitamins every day.

I made this crazy commitment for a very vain reason.  I thought that taking vitamin E would help my poor, tired, dried out, fried hair recover a little from the abuse I routinely put it through.  Aka hot tools.  So at the end of December I recommitted to my vitamins, and other than the 28th of January (when the man and I officially bought our house) I have not missed a day.   And that includes the night in LA when I took my vitamins upon returning from dinner and being completely delirious due to fatigue.

Today, I began another (very small) change to my daily routine.

I ‘ve known about this for a while. But I never really felt all that inspired.  (See what happens as you age and begin noticing discomfort where none used to exist?!?)  Today, I began my morning with warm water with lemon.

I’d like to tell you that it didn’t change a thing.  Sadly, not true.  (Sometimes I want health advice to fall flat, just to make me feel better about my love of fried chicken and chardonnay).  

This post isn’t about the water.  Although — seriously — try it.  It sort of lifts one’s morning. This post is about making small, permanent changes.  Things you can begin, and then just somehow, stick with.  And it benefits your life.

A couple things I’d like to say.  (Zero significance to order — just how things popped into my head).

1.  I discovered zucchini pasta about a year ago.  I am stupidly in love with it.  I am able to make zucchini pasta unhealthy.  That is the truth.  But it tastes amazing.  And my thought is this — zucchini pasta is better than regular, white flour pasta, right?  Right.

2.  I have a lot of knowledge in my brain.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have an amazing resource in my boss’s wife, I’ve attended a retreat that does actually change how you think and feel about food, and I know inherently — my body tells me so — that some choices are just better than others (see zucchini pasta vs. regular pasta in #1 above).  Unfortunately, that doesn’t change my love for wine, Starbucks, and the occasional baked good (among other terrible things, such as dairy, and meat).

3.  I think everyone’s journey is their own.  I didn’t used to feel this way.  I used to feel (despite what I may or may not have written on this very blog) that health was another form of competition.  I am a very competitive person.  I do not like to lose.  This may be why my brain is full of so much knowledge.  But there is a true difference between enjoying life and competing in life.  I don’t know that I really understood that until recently.

4.  I like lists.  It helps me clarify my thoughts. Just an FYI.

5.  It might sound like a little thing, but small changes that I stick with become big changes.  Example: Christy Turlington once said in an interview that she never slept with make-up on, and she moisturized every day.  I think I read that when I was twelve.  To this day, I’m almost manic about washing my face.  I remember times in college –when I was black out annihilated — that I’d wake up the next morning with a washed and moisturized face.  I made a tiny little change and it has become part of my routine — something I’ve done for 23 years.  Insane.  I mean — seriously insane when you think about it.

6.  I am not going to focus on dieting any more.  It’s stressful and it just makes everything not very fun.  I think I’m just going to try every day to be the best I can be — and sometimes, that might mean jalapeno poppers and fried chicken for the Super Bowl.  And I love just being okay with that.  

Life ain’t easy.  That’s the truth.  So why make it harder than necessary?  Find something healthy — like, say zucchini pasta — and really make it your own.  Enjoy it.  And rejoice in the knowledge that you made a smart choice.  And live in that.

Happy Shortest Month of the Year all.

xoxo