Yoga, The Sunrise & The Big M-o-v-e

i woke up this morning at 6am.  for those of you that don’t know me, i am not a morning person.  i am a night owl.  i would much rather stay up until 2am then wake up at 6am any day!  but i made a promise to myself this year.  i didn’t really call it a resolution, because then i was afraid i wouldn’t keep it 🙂  i’m mental, i know, but regardless i made myself this promise…i promised to be more healthy.

people see me and think that because i’m not “overweight” then i must be really healthy!  but that isn’t the case.  up until about 3 weeks ago, my days consisted of a very poor diet and virtually no exercise.  i used to give my mom such a hard time for how she ate, but i saw myself embracing those same habits recently.  i would wake up at around 7:30-8am. skip breakfast.  get a chai tea latte around 9am.  realize at around 1pm that i was pretty hungry (not to mention grouchy).  eat something like a frozen pizza (or pasta).  and then eat a fairly decent dinner with Stephen once he got home, followed by some sort of dessert most nights.  we’re talking no fruit, very little veggies, lots of carbs (the bad ones), and too much sugar.  not to mention the fact that there was not an ounce of exercise in the equation.

for those of you that don’t know, stephen and i have been trying to get pregnant for almost 2 years now.  one of the only things i have ever wanted in my life is to be a mom.  i honestly never expected this to be such a long, stressful process.  not to mention the fact that i get down on myself and depressed about it frequently.  well, i was driving about 6 months ago, listening to NPR, and the author of the book “The Fertility Diet” was talking about some of their recent studies.  i was really fascinated by some of the stuff he was sharing, and added the book to my Amazon Wish List (love that thing!).  i finally decided to purchase the book last December and started reading it.  i was so amazed by the study and the findings that i decided i had to try it.  in a nutshell, a HUGE percentage of infertility these days (specifically the kind affecting me) is due to diet and lack of exercise.

so, as of three weeks ago i made a drastic change with my eating habits, and i can’t even begin to tell you how much better i feel!  it can’t even be called a diet because it’s not necessarily super restrictive, other than eliminating tran fat & a few other things.  for me, it’s been more about adding things into my diet.  the first week i felt like all i thought about was food, because i was eating so much more than i usually do 🙂  i also started walking with Chandler every morning, and eventually i want to get back on my bike and start cycling again.  but today i returned to one of my biggest loves…YOGA!

back to why i woke up at 6am this morning…i was at my mastermind meeting yesterday and found out that one of the women teaches yoga and has a studio in her backyard!  it’s donation only, which took care of my excuse that yoga is too expensive 🙂  i started this morning and LOVED it!  it’s been a long time, so i was not very flexible at all, but it still felt great.  i can’t wait to go back next week.

one of the perks of getting up that early is watching the sunrise.  as i was getting ready to walk out this morning, it was dawn.  the sun was just starting to come up behind the hill that’s right in front of our house.  the colors were gorgeous!  i went back inside and grabbed my camera real quick to get a picture.

as i was walking back in, i saw the moon to my left and had to get a picture of that too.  the moon is a little overexposed, but i wanted to let in enough light to capture the ominous-looking tree in the corner.

as i was driving to the yoga class, i got to watch the sunrise and was just in awe of how gorgeous it was.  that makes it worth waking up at 6am for sure.

on another note, Stephen and i are heading out to LA this weekend to help my brother move!  he is moving out of my parent’s house, and i’m so excited for him!  i can’t wait to see his new place and meet his awesome roommate that i’ve heard so much about.  this kind of stuff makes me feel so old though 🙂  he is my baby brother after all!

i hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing weekend…

xoxo

jess