Port Potager

It’s been nearly a month since the end of May, and I have yet to assess my May resolution. Instead of eliminating something as in past months , I decided to add to my routine: 30 minutes of yoga every day. When we lived at the Red House, I went to yoga classes twice per week at the Y, and it was great. Once we moved here and I started commuting to Brookline, though, it was very hard to motivate to go out again in the evening after spending so much time in the car already. I still stretch regularly in the evenings, but I hadn’t done a real yoga routine in years. Getting back into it wasn’t hard, per se. I no longer have a yoga mat , having cut it up to make a cushy mat for the standing desk in my office , but it’s actually much nicer to have a real rug to spread out on, anyway: There are plenty of videos on YouTube  with yoga flows to follow, and it was nice to be guided to do poses I haven’t spent any time with in a while. (My downward dog is much better after doing it ...

In April I continued my monthly New Year’s resolutions not by giving something up as I had for the first three months of the year, but rather by adding something. I decided to give meditation a try. To do it, I used the Headspace app , which was recommended to me by a friend who also happens to be a professional neuropsychologist. You just load it up on your phone or iPad  and it pretty much does the rest for you.  This photo is from the desktop version, but the app is even easier. Just push the button for your session and you’ll get an introductory video to explain a concept or technique. Then the app will automatically flip to an audio page for your guided meditation.  This was just 10 minutes per day, and it wasn’t always easy to fit in since I was away from home for two weeks in April, but I managed to catch up on the couple days I missed before the month was over. This program focuses on training to let thoughts go by concentrating on the breath an...

I’ve decided to write about each of my month-long New Year’s resolutions after the fact, so I can share how the whole thing went. In January I gave up added sugar ; February was a major caffeine draw-down . For March, I decided to give up alcohol . This was really not a big deal. I’m not a daily drinker by any stretch, and mostly enjoy a beer or two with my bandmates or a glass of wine at a restaurant.  Though, if truth be told, I had more wine that usual during the election season (entertaining) and its aftermath (not so entertaining).  So despite the occasional hankering for an evening drink during the first half of the month, I really didn’t miss it at all. In fact, there were a lot of positives to note: Better Singing: Alcohol is really pretty bad for your voice, and when you pair it with staying up late and talking a lot, it’s a recipe for laryngeal disaster. I took the opportunity to do some real warm-ups and singing this month as well, which has...

ICYMI: I decided to make my New Year’s resolutions last all year this year by working on 12 mini-resolutions instead of one big one. In January I gave up added sugar ; for February, I decided to tackle something even more difficult: cutting out caffeine. I really do love coffee, and when I was still teaching, I had quite a bit of the stuff — truly necessary fuel for someone who had to get out of bed at 5 a.m. every day and be stuck in traffic for close to 90 minutes each morning.  It was not fun, but at least I always had a full — large! — travel mug of coffee in my hands to make the commute bearable. Fast forward to this February, where I found myself six months into my new life working full time from home. I had somewhat cut back on the coffee just by using a regular mug instead of my double-sized travel cup, but now that I have been allowed to let my body decide when to wake up — emphatically  not before the sun comes up — I no longer actually need ...

This is a very belated post, but I did something different with my New Year’s resolutions this year. Instead of one big resolution, I decided to try 12 limited-term resolutions instead — one per month of the year for 2017. This seems like enough time to build a new habit — experts say it takes three weeks — but not so long that you’re deprived of something forever. It also offers a chance to pause and reflect to see if that new habit is one I actually want stick with or not. The last time I talked about a New Year’s resolution on the blog, we ended up cutting $20,000 out of our annual spending , so I am expecting some interesting results — and success — with these mini-resolutions as well. To play a bit of catch-up... January: Giving Up Added Sugar For starters, I opened 2017 by giving up added sugar from my diet. After a long holiday season of lots of eating and drinking — and a whole lot of sweets! — this was a significant change. For my purposes, added sugar meant sugary ...