Nice weekend, bird troubles, therapeutic gardening

So I've been taking it easy this weekend. I had two cheat days, which were also rest days. I ate what I felt like eating, but tried to limit the overall calorie intake by eating less often and smaller portions. Sunday today was solid in the food department. I also didn't exercise Friday or Saturday, but today our best friend bike ride was longer than usual. And I think we're ready to start adding length. My muscles have continued to be tight because I have continued to neglect stretching them.

A big event in my life happened yesterday, and I'm just thankful everything has turned out the way it has so far.

My pet bird of 12 years became very ill and had to be rushed to the animal hospital.

Edit: I drafted this post on Monday August 12th and never published it until I noticed it was still in draft mode.

Return of the blog?

Return of the blog?

So I had a pretty massive interruption in my life, due to my pet bird getting sick. I got to spend time with her for another week while I kept her and cared for her at my house. I'm grateful for that, because at the end of the week, she had more complications and passed, in spite of the excellent care by the vets and vet techs at Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists. Seriously, their avian group is amazing, and their facilities feel like a real-person-hospital.
So I've fallen off of just about all the band wagons.
However, my best friend and I (ok, mostly him) have made some significant strides in the garden! So that's what I'll focus on today.

Note: It's so RAINNYYYY outside. It's very nice to have the little porch/patio where I can sit and sip tea and listen to the rain in the night as it pours on. I'm sorry we had to have a massively destructive Cat 5 Hurricane Patricia to get it, but I'll take what little victories the world has to offer.

Garden:

I took these photos of the garden a couple days ago. I also have a photo of the woodsaw my best friend used to cut the planks. Look how shiny the garden looks! The rain tonight is settling in the soil and we wanted to see how the drainage would work since it is mostly clay underneath the soil we purchased and laid out. I am using MiracleGro's "Organic" series raised-garden bed soil type. One bag is laid out in the photo and is in the little garden now. I've got two more in the back of my truck. I have broccoli and brussel sprout seedlings ready to go in the morning. I'm hoping the slow steady rain we've had will bring a little extra life to the whole plant community here since I've been told that rainwater is especially good for plants.

The right tools for the job.

The (almost) finished product. Very pleased with the way it looks.

This is actually a photo of one of the grubs I dug up while removing roots/topsoil etc from the garden space. It's a little bigger than a 4x4foot area and I only found a handful of grubs. If you see these in your garden, they are the larval stage of beetles, and they grow bigger and turn into beetles by eating various plant roots. Unless you have a heavy infestation (normally 5-6 per sq foot) they aren't too harmful. However, they are definitely NOT beneficial! Whatever aeration they provide is offset by their taste for tasty delicate roots.

Yoga/Exercise: 

No yoga to speak of. Very little exercise. What I have been getting is with my best friend, so I'm very thankful for our bikes and the roads we have nearby to ride them on.
Tomorrow for sure I will have a photo for this. That is my goal for tomorrow.

Diet:

Today I've had:

• IsaLeanPro shake with strawberries
• Spaghetti squash (1.5 halves) with spaghetti sauce
• cookies for bfast
• two 8oz glasses of milk 
• Two glasses of tea
• A whole box of Petit Ecolier cookies

I don't want to particularly talk too much about diet today. I've been candy binging at work, and basically eating whatever I feel like at home. Still, my eating habits include a much healthier range of "what I feel like eating." There was a time when I never could have fathomed eating spaghetti squash.

Summary

Can't wait to plant in the garden tomorrow!

Third post, third day

How am I doing so far?

Be present. Be consistent. As my best friend pointed out today, this is officially two weeks of consistent bike riding. So that's awesome! For me, it's unprecedented. But hopefully I'll be breaking a lot of personal records in the coming months. (Yeah, that's right I said it: months. I'm in this for the long haul.)
As far as being present, I did some more chores when I got home today instead of diving straight into Netflix and Imgur. Buuuut I did watch a fifteen minute animated short after I *did* make it to Imgur. Other than that, though, I mostly haven't had time to not be present. Between work being busy and working out afterwards, I'm putting demands on myself. Which I am ok with. To be honest, there is more work I could have done today.

Garden:

I took the photos of my plants today. They show you all of the plants I am currently tending... Except now I notice I didn't get one of the little rose. I will handle that tomorrow. I also tried to take up-close details of what I think are the symptoms the plant is showing.


The grape is pretty straight forward - bugs everywhere. The basil is good except for a few spots and needing to be repotted. The coleus is also mostly good for a few minutes. These all got sprayed with the Off! Bug stuff I got. 

Yoga/Exercise: 

As I mentioned before: I SWAM YESTERDAY. For realsies. And I did a good job. And I want to keep doing it.
Today, we went on another best friend bike ride.

And I got my fitbit today! And I set up my account. I'm actually really excited to get in touch with other people I know who have them (I'm sure there are at least two) and do a bit of competition. Friendly-like, of course. But I'm interested in comparing where I am to other people, in addition to comparing to where I was before.
Still no yoga yet... But the night is young, we shall see. I can definitely feel my muscles tightening over time with the lack of yoga and/or a stretch routine after workouts.

Diet:

Today I've had:
No ionix
Strawberry shake
Two donuts
Cheesburger w avocado/mushroom
French Fries
Protein whey drink
IsaLean choco shake

Today was my second day with: NO CANDY. I've decided that candy consumption is only acceptable on Halloween! So I can't wait for that. We'll see which holiday I decide is also acceptable as the months wear on...

Summary

I did better at photos this time!

Second day

This post will get updated after I get home, but I've got a long day ahead of me so I wanted to start it off with a thought before I get into full blast:
I think I need to be more present in my life.

I say this because I had a clear list of goals yesterday, and I was happy to do all of them. Yet, "tomorrow" is shining on outside, and most of my goals still lay unattended.
I didn't do my yoga, or read about my plant problems, or mix the pesticides. And I had two tacos instead of a shake.
To be fair, we did go on our best friend bike ride, and I made dinner. After making dinner: shouldn't I get to eat some of it?

I think I need to be more present and stop watching so many videos. Netflix/YouTube, I am not going to watch you for 7 days. Starting now. No videos on FB, or twitter, or anything.
Mantra: Be Present.

Back in a bit...

10/7

I swam yesterday!! I SWAM

 yesterday!!

Oh my god It was amazing! I did a pretty good job according to my coach.

Yes, I am writing this post a day late, and no I didn't get any real gardening or yoga done,.... But I SWAM YESTERDAY.

Like, a lot of layoffs. But mostly I was focusing on foo item and my god do my arms hurt today.

I need to focus on rolling my body instead of turning my neck because I think that was my limiting factor yesterday.

That was soooooo awesome.

Here's to an even better today! See you next post!

First post! ...what am I doing here?

What am I doing here?

The course of events that led up to me starting this garden blog:

1. Listening to my new "The Happiness Project" audiobook, wherein she suggests writing a blog and how doing that one thing every day about something she was passionate about (in the author's case, her happiness project)
2. Remembering how easy and happy I was to write the one blog post I actually involved myself in with the USIP project
3. Trying to decide what I was most happy about (hint: I thought and still think it is fitness and self improvement)
4. Starting a blog for what I wanted to call "My Xena Project" where I wanted to strive and compare myself to the TV Greek character
5. Deciding I wasn't ready to put myself out there that much
6. Deciding it would be easier to blog about something concrete like my plants that would involve photos any way
7. Renaming and re-purposing the blog
8. Then RE-REnaming to be my garden/yoga/exercise/food blog. I'll have a section for each.

I don't have a complete form for how I want these posts to come out, but I know that I want to do something daily. So I think a daily check up, focusing on new details each day.

Garden:

Right now I've got six plants:

1. Golden pothos (white pot "Pathos") 
2. Golden pothos (brown pot "Ethos")
3. Red headed Coleus
4. Grape vine
5. Mini yellow roses
6. Basil plants

I want to focus first of all on the issues I have with my current plants. I want to get these poor plants in good healthy shape before I expand any more, or begin on a garden plot in our little home.
Namely: the diseases on Pathos and Ethos, and the bugs on the grape vine.
I plan to mix and spray the grape vine today.
I plan to go to Home Depot soon and get an antibacterial AND antifungal spray.

Yoga/Exercise: 

Planning to go on a best friend bike ride! We currently ride about 6 miles. From the north of Newcastle all the way to the South end. If we can do this for another week, then I will probably have us extend it some way. Maybe down the end of Braeswood?

Tomorrow will be swimming for exercise. My first meeting of the Central Swim Club! I think it's a chapter of the US Masters swim... Either way, I'm excited to go. It will be right after my volunteering at that Middle School.

Tonight I want to do five sun salutations before bed, and throw in some spontaneous restorative poses.

Diet:

Today I've had:
No ionix
Strawberry shake
Crunch bar fun size
BK apple salad
Chicken fries
Reese's PB pumpkin
Canned pears
Canned mandarin oranges

I color coded the list for green good, orange caution, red "I know I shouldn't have"
I plan to do the pre-work out stuff before the bike, the post, and only a dinner shake if I feel hungry at the evening. Going to try to keep it down.

I am currently going through the Isagenix program for at least a month. I haven't bought fully into it, but I like the energy so far, and it's a well defined plan, so I can get behind that.
This past weekend was not a great weeked in dietary discipline. McDonald's for lunch, hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner, and s'mores galore. Whole box of oreos downed over two days.

What's most curious to me about my "indulgent eating" is that it never feels very indulgent. I'm not normally happy afterwards. I don't normally get a noticeable spike of happiness while I'm eating them. I don't even feel like I'm treating myself. I do at the beginning; I anticipate how great it will taste and feel to let myself have the thing that is not good for me.

Summary

This seems like a good start. I am a little worried that I will focus more on logging and writing then I do on the actual doing. But, we'll see.
Oh: I also want a photo of something for each section.