day 34

As pretty much no one I know reads this blog I can out my truth. In exactly 12 days I am taking a group of 12 guests to Cabo San Lucas for a week long yoga retreat. This week will officially be my last week of yoga teaching. I thought that I would feel sad but instead I feel a sense of completion. I am going to make this the best yoga retreat I have ever held. I'm going out on a high note!
Thank you yoga. Namaste.

day 22 - of course it is

there is a lot to be said for the AA motto of "one day at a time". for the last 3 hours, i have been stressing as i plot out my calendar for the next three weeks - new client consults, actual organizing sessions, orchestrating the pick up of supplies, yoga, trx, running, daily chores, organizing my retreat. the list goes on and on.  i found myself in a total whirlwind of chaos...how will i get it all done?
"andrea, just take it one day at a time".
so now, i will turn this computer off. read my book for a little bit and go to sleep.
i need to learn to live one day at a time.
i can do that.

day 14

as of this very moment, i am on break from work for the next 5 days! yee ha.  right now i am settling into watch the finale of survivor and then bed. after that it is off to the mountains for my friend rebecca's 50th. i have it all planned out so for right now there really is nothing left for me to do.
so i am going to sit back (resist googling who won - it was taped earlier) and enjoy the show.

day 13

my hat's off to anyone who runs regularly and at any kind of distance. it is hard. the first 5 minutes really suck and the rest of the day either my food cramps or my hip feels like someone is stabbing it.
thankfully i only have this on my agenda until june 21!
i just have to keep telling myself that i can do it. and for now, i can rest assured knowing i ran today and won't be back at the track until thursday.
yay!

day 12 - giving

this morning i was running errands - going to the post office, the grocery store, etc. for some reason i decided to pop into the bank and withdraw $20. typically i will take out $100 to last me for the week. i even had money in my wallet. but something guided me to just take out $20. odd but i thought "whatever". from there i headed to my local peet's to get a cup of coffee. as i entered the store, i noticed an older man in a wheel church sitting outside of the neighboring supermarket. so on my way out, i asked him how he was doing. he had just the sweetest face. he told me he was very hungry. i asked him his name - charles. now a visual on charles - older man with weathered face, teeth worn down to tiny stumps. one leg was amputated at the knee. so, i reached into my pocket and pulled out that $20 bill for him. he looked me right in the eye and with watery eyes said "thank you so very much". he then used his one leg to push himself inside of the market.
now some people tell me they don't like giving money to homeless people. i often hear "they're just going to buy alcohol". for me, i don't care. however that gentlemen chooses to spend that $20 is his business. my exchange with him was so priceless. we made a human connection and i think it is one that charles does not experience that often. i got just as much out of this exchange as he did.
$20...it's really not that much money.

day 11

i was thinking the other day that i am super lucky to have found something i am really good at. i love love love what i do. i can take a totally disaster of a home, pull it all apart and put it back in a fashion that looks good and is super easy to maintain. nicoll and i worked on a garage today and we just knocked it out. the only annoying part was that there were two areas of the garage we could not organize because tenants had there belongings stored there as well. anyway, here is just a quick look at what we did and keep in mind - the cluttered spaces is what was left from the tenants.

Before

                   

                    Before



















After

day 10

does this look like an exhausted gal? yep, that is me. 6:43 and i am down for the count. sure there is a
birthday party tonight but thankfully my husband is ok to fly solo. it's not that i don't think i can handle the party, it is the getting ready part...shower, hair, make-up, what to where. yeah, that aint gonna happen. instead i can catch up on emails and do some stuff for my yoga retreat.
a good day - running, yoga, 2 new clients, a trip to target for supplies. i think it's fair to say that there really is nothing else i have to do.
namaste!

day 9 friday - crushed it

hurray for today. started the day with 8:30 trx class and i nailed it. i then had a half hour to change and eat before heading to my client's house. my assistant nicoll and i did a complete home makeover...living room, bathroom, two bedrooms, 3 closets, linen closet and storage closet. the job took  7 hours and we crushed it. i can not believe how great it turned out. and then i ended the day with...90 minute restorative yoga. i am feeling incredibly satisfied.
friday - crushed it!

day 8

well i think i should save you from having to look at a photo of me today. i had two drinks at the baseball game yesterday and was slammed. guess i am a total light weight. so today i woke up looking a little rough around the edges. thankfully i was asleep by 9pm so the hangover was not too harsh. i was scared when i woke up but thankfully i only looked bad and i was able to knock out my goals for today. i started this sunny, hot day at 8 am walking/running around the track at kezar. stadium. from there, i headed to work. todays task - organizing a family garage. it was pretty much a disaster with stuff everywhere. nicoll and i sorted through everything - sports equipment, bundles of crafts and art supplies, house supplies, decorating items, tools, gardening supplies. amazingly only 3 hours later, we did it. a car can now be parked in the garage. this job also got me doing quite a bit of walking and i hit my 10,000 steps goal. last thing on the to do list for the day - yoga class. looks like i am going to be heading to a 6:30 class. feeling satisfied.

day 7 took lots of turns

my eyes popped open at 4:45 this morning. yes, it is hot. yes, i fell asleep early. so what else can one do. i got up. hit the coffee maker button and before i knew it, i was in 6 am yoga class. followed that with another cup of coffee at my fav coffee place on chestnut street. then headed to 8:30 trx class. met up with a new client who literally has hired me to make a photo album of pics she took at her husband's 40th birthday 5 years ago. and then...giants game. up until that point everything was super crisp and clear. from that point on the day is a sunny hot blur. i know the giants won.
here are the pics of the day starting with me sitting outside of the yoga school before it opened at 5:30.

day 6 of age 49

this is me at 8 am this morning making my way to the track to continue on
this journey of running. to be honest it is more like walk a bit, run a bit, repeat. i researched "how to run" and one guy suggested this as the best way to get into running. he has a specific timing formula of walking to running and so far it seems to be working. he said i need to practice this 3 times a week for 3 months to really get in the groove of running. i have already made a couple observations about myself. one - the first few minutes and the last few minutes are the hardest. two - my body feels heavy when i run.
but right now at the end of this day, which also included a 90 minute yoga session and 10,000 steps i have to say i am feeling good. tired but a good tired.

day 5 - little bit of this and a little bit of that

the time has come for me to put away the junk food and get my act together.  i host my yoga retreat in mexico in exactly 6 weeks. that means i will be spending my days in either swimsuits or yoga clothes while my students take their phones out to take pictures. my mental count down is on to get this bod into swimsuit mode! how? two words to focus on for the next 41 days - fitness and nutrition. i am even reading cameron diaz book about the body.
here's my plan...
daily yoga even if i have to practice at home
trx 3 times a week and...
drum roll please...attempting to run 3 times a day. the last part will be the most difficult but i can do it. yes? yes.
nutrition - not too complicated, i just need to eat a nice healthy, normal diet. nothing too crazy. what will i edit out? the daily cookie i buy from courtney's market down the street. t. now, i am hosting a 50th birthday extravaganza over memorial day weekend so for that weekend yes, there will be cake but hopefully i can eat in moderation!
let the games begin!

day 4 - how do they do it?

post run

so i took the plunge and headed to the track. yes, the running kind. i went around and around. sometimes i walked and sometimes i managed something resembling running. you may ask what was the impetus for this unusual activity for me? well the other day one of the trainers at the trx center said he lost 20 pounds in the last 3 months. seeing that he works out ALL the time I wonders how it was possible. he said he took up running. really? well, i would like to shed a few lbs prior to my yoga retreat so i headed to the track. i can't say i loved it. i can't say i hated it. and at the end, i had a nice sweat going and feel kind of like i accomplished something. sure this is only day one but maybe i can do this.
here is the proof...

Day 3 - and it is the weekend

Day 3 of my 49th year was mixed with work, randomness and relaxation. I started the morning off by heading to Target to pick up supplies for my upcoming jobs for the week. When I got out of the car I found a pregnancy stick and a butterfly ring. Kind of  random. Hopefully someone is celebrating. Of course all I could think is, did the person pee on a stick in the restroom at Target.
So now I am all set for my jobs this week. I always like to be ahead of the game.
I spent the second half of the day enjoying the great weather hanging out in Dolores park. It was quite the mixture of folks - a young girl in an aqua blue tent like dress with 5 young guys in matching suits. My guess it was her birthday and she had her quinceanera. There was a large group dressed in Where's Waldo outfits. And then the groups and groups of horny men/boys drinking, smoking and groping each other. Of course I just loved all the dogs running around.
And now I wind up my day watching movies on the DVR - feeling a bit on the chunky side and making a plan to get in shape before my retreat in 6 weeks. It may even include a bit of running. But until then....here are a few photos of the day.

Selfie before heading out.

Target Parking Lot - hopefully this was good news for someone!

What a pretty day!

day 1

the actual birthday picture - taken at dinner with my husband

Day 2 of my 49th year

yesterday was my birthday. i turned 49. my brother told me i have 365 days until i turned 50 and that i need to get ready. huh? well i am going to take that thought a different way and am going to ask myself what am i going to do with this 49th year. the answer, i am just going to share my thoughts for each day and on occasion take a self photo.
as you can see from this photo, i am at the laundromat. my husband and i generate a lot of laundry. between his work in an office, my work in organizing homes and then both of us exercising pretty much every day, we accumulate dirty clothes fast. i am at the laundromat 1-2 days a week! some may say this is a total drag and i might agree until i looked at how the rest of my day unfolded.
after heading home and putting our clothes away, i went to organize a client's home who has adhd. you can say he and his girlfriend have a little bit of everything everywhere. after spending several hours with him, i dragged my exhausted self to meet a couple who need help with their home.
the house is a disaster zone....messy, cluttered, filthy dirty, smelly. they have an entire home, including washer and a dryer and yet, there are dirty clothes everywhere. how did it get this way? both people have serious health issues - one ovarian cancer and the other kidney failure. shit. life can be so hard. i am going to do everything i can to make this home amazing for them.
and for me, news flash andrea...You have nothing to complain about!