The Fierce Diva Guide to Life

In Praise of Pop Tarts

 

“Sprinkles, Mommy!  I want sprinkles!”    

“Rainbow or chocolate?”  

“Both, Mommy! I want them both!   Ow!”  My daughter winces. “They’re hurting me!”  

“Look at me, baby!  Look at me!” I turn her head to face mine.   “Don’t look down there!”

“You can have whatever toppings you want.  You can have every topping in the store.”

“Mommy!  Make them stop!”

S. looks past me at the open wound and at the nurse, in the middle of sewing 17 stitches into her leg, as a result of being hit by a car hours earlier. The staff assures me that she can’t feel a thing, but every time she glances at her injury, she panics. 

“What about marshmallow sauce?”

“Yes, Mommy!  Yes!

S. wraps her arms around me and hugs me hard.

For the moment, she forgets about the stitches.

S. was released from the emergency room that night and the next day, I wheeled my daughter, high on codeine, unable to walk and sitting in an old stroller, into the self-serve frozen yogurt store, to make good on my promise.

This has been the year about food.

Not good food.  Not the clean eating green smoothie kind of food that I used to blog about eons ago.

This year has been about comfort food.

It has been about Happy Meals and peanut butter sandwiches and taking my kids for self serve frozen yogurt more time than I can count. It has been about letting them eat their Halloween Candy and Easter Candy that sits in the kitchen cabinet on any day they want instead of it having to be a special day or occasion. It has been about giving my daughter lollipops three times a day when that’s how many times a day I had to change those bandages on her leg, that first lollipop given at 8:00 in the morning.

Our best nights together were are the pancake house, where I never once stopped them from pouring too much syrup on their waffles, the bagels on the way to soccer games washed down by juice  boxes.

Have you ever checked to see how many grams of sugar are in a juice box?

This was the year I stopped caring about things like that.

This was the year that it was more important to me to watch three children marvel at the taste of a waffle when completely engulfed in syrup.   This was the year that I gave them money for school lunch, even on French toast stick day.   This was the year that we ate pizza three nights in a row.

This was the year that while my kids delighted in Girl Scout cookies before dinner or salt water taffy too close to bed, we sat around a table and delighted in each other.  We shared stories, of school days and soccer practices and play dates.  They were conversations sweetened by and bonded over food.  

These were the moments that I sat with them.  These were the moments that I listened.

We’ve had our best discussions over ice cream sundaes, when, in between each spoonful, my giddy sugar rushed children, eagerly offered the truth.    

One night, a few weeks ago, after B.’s school play and on an 8:00 pm run to Target, with all three kids in tow, Miss F. grabbed my hand as I drove.

“Mommy, I have to tell you something.”   

“What is it baby?”

 “I did something you’re not going to like.”  

“Did it happen at school?”

“It wasn’t at school.”

“Did you hurt someone?  Were you fighting with your brother?”

“No, Mommy. No,  I.. I…”

It was then that she burst into tears.

“I stole something.” 

Through her sobs, Miss F. told me the story.  It had happened in Kindergarten, three years ago.  She had taken a tube of Chapstick from a checkout line display in a grocery store, which had sat in a drawer, forgotten about, until earlier that day.

“I want to take it back, Mommy!”  

“We can take it back.”

“And I want to pay for it.  With my own money.” 

“I think that’s a smart idea.”

“I’m so sorry, Mommy!  I’m so sorry!”

“I know you are baby.” 

“Are you mad at me?”

“You’re mad enough at yourself right now.  You don’t need me mad at you, too. As a matter of fact, I think I love you more right now than I ever have.”  

“Why?”

“Because you were brave to tell me the truth.”  

I pull into our parking space and give my girl a hug.

“I promise it will never happen again.  Ever.”  

“I know it won’t.  Just promise me one more thing?”

I gently grab my girl’s face and turn her eyes toward mine.

“Just keep talking to me.  Every day.  About everything.  Please.  Just keep talking.”   

###

This post is dedicated to Eli Pacheco of Coach Daddy Blog, and was inspired by his post, “What Sandy Hook Taught Me: Keep My Girls Close" that I featured as one of my favorites of the year.  His resolve on how to parent in the wake of the Sandy Hook Tragedy is by far the best I have come across.  If you haven't read this post, you really should. 

This post is also written in memory of my father, Douglas Kaplan, who passed away last week, on the 24^th of April. Running is how we kept each other close, even during the years when we weren't.   Running was our language.  Then, now, and always.  

 

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Bring on the Noise

I Will Say Yes

 

I believe in the impossible.

Thanks to running.

Running has taught me that the impossible starts with one step followed by another step and then another until you run your first mile or ten or 26.

When you run a marathon, especially your first, you have no choice but to believe. You have to believe. You have to say yes, even if you’re unsure, because there’s no way to do this thing, even for one moment, if you say no.

 The impossible starts with saying “yes” and taking your first step.

And while at first this “yes” was about running, it has opened the door to many more yeses.

I’ve learned that yes is typically the better alternative to no.

 I’ve learned that with yes, we can never go wrong, and at the most, we make a mistake that we learn from.

I have learned that yes begins with a willingness followed by an action and that for the yes to really be a yes, we have to treat it like a verb.

I have learned that in order to fully live, and to use up every ounce of space that I’ve been given, I need to say yes, and say yes often.

I’ve learned that the best days begin with promises to myself, to say yes, such as these:

I will say yes to the things that scare me.

I will say yes to the things that are in my heart.

I will say yes to the things that seem impossible, because after running 26.2 miles, I know that nothing is impossible.

I will say yes to the things you don’t understand and can’t support me in. Because my yes and your yes don’t always look alike.

I will say yes despite my fear of rejection.

I will say yes despite my lack of time.

I will say yes even when you say no.

I will say yes to following my dreams.

The only way I know to honor the people affected by the Boston Marathon tragedy is to keep saying yes.  To everything.

Because I still have the ability to do so.

So, yes, to the first step, to the next step, and the one thousandth after that, and yes to the thought that after days like Monday, I never want to take the yeses for granted, ever again.

Boston, you are in my heart and my prayers. 

 ~Namaste

 

 

Suddenly Sarah

I love my glasses.  Even though I’ve been wearing contact lenses since seventh grade, there is something about putting on a pair of glasses and become a slightly different version of myself that I’ve always enjoyed.  I look smarter, more credible.  I bet I could conduct an experiment to prove that my boss has more trust in my work on the days that I show up bespeckled. 

I feel authoritative in glasses.  I feel like an expert…in what, I don’t know, but certainly in something.

I don’t at all feel like Sarah Palin in my glasses, however, from time to time, people have commented that I look like her when I have them on.

Initially, I balked at the comparison.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not insulted by the idea of it.  Ms. Palin is quite pretty.  I just don’t see it.  Beyond the long brown hair, we don’t look that much alike. Furthermore, my guess is that her hair doesn't smell like incense  all the time.   And besides, we have much different taste in eyewear.

Come to think of it, we’re not really all that alike.

Or are we???

After I had received enough Sarah Palin comments, I did some nosing around, and it turns out, that Ms. Palin and I have more in common than I imagined.

Sarah: She wears glasses 

Ilene:  I wear glasses!

Sarah:  She’s a marathon finisher!

Ilene:  I’m a marathon finisher!  

Sarah:  She can see Russia form her house.

Ilene:  My great grandparents were from Russia!

Sarah:  Tina Fey does a great impersonation of her.

Ilene: I love Tina Fey!

Sarah:  She has five kids

Ilene:  I have three kids – chose enough!

Sarah:  She endorses the tea party.

Ilene:  I like to drink tea!

Sarah:  It’s estimated that Palin got paid $15.85 per word during her three year contact with Fox.

Ilene:  I‘ve made $15.85 in the past…by the hour, at least.   

Sarah:  She has a Twitter account!

Ilene:  I have a Twitter account!

Sarah:  She’s a hockey mom.

Ilene:  I’m a cheer mom – that’s kind of the same thing, right?

Sarah:  She and her last employer, Fox News, are not renewing their contract.  

Ilene:  I’ve parted ways with employers before too (it’s like we’re soul sisters!).

After I saw these similarities, I felt much closer to Sarah than I ever had before.  Sometimes, it’s just a matter of getting things down on paper, right?

Oh, and as far as us being look-alikes when we wear our glasses?  I really don’t think so, but I’ll let you decide.

 

Who’s your celebrity double????

Where else to find me:

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Finding The Fire

The end of 2012 hit with a bang – but not the kind of bang I expected. 

We were sick this week, the kids and I.  Like, “super sick.”  The little one spiked a fever so high on Christmas night, that I was ready to drive her to the ER, until the Motrin, tepid baths, and cool wash cloths lowered her temperature “just enough” that I knew she was out of danger.  My older girl followed suit the next day, and then I came down with a full blown version of whatever they had which sent me begging my doctor for “any drug” that would help me feel better.  I had a fever for the second time in my adult life that I can remember,  my muscles ached, my lungs were on fire, and any small task, such as getting up to go to the bathroom, took effort. 

I am someone who has been gifted with good health – no – nearly perfect health – my entire life. Aside from a very slight case of scoliosis in my lower spine and my “really bad” nearsightedness for which I wear glasses/contact lenses, I am one of the healthiest people you will find.  Yes, I take good care of myself. I practice yoga, I run, I eat a plant based diet, I don’t drink alcohol (very little, at that) or eat processed sugar, I drink plenty of water and on most nights, get enough sleep. And while I’d like to attest my good health to the aforementioned good habits, there is more to good health than eating right and exercising.  There’s genetics.  And there’s just plain luck.  I am one of the lucky ones.

The yogis, as well as many New Age thought leaders, such as Louise Hay and Dr. Wayne Dyer, as well as a growing number of people in the western medical community, like Dr. Jon Sarno, famed for his work in curing his patient’s back problems by walking them through a program to help them own and release their negative emotions, adhere to the philosophy that disease can be traced to dis-ease, meaning we become physically ill when we are holding onto destructive feelings. 

I have been a subscriber of this school of thought for decades, but yoga teacher training brought it home for me, when we studied the chakra system, at which time, every severe headache, sore throat, and stomach ailment I ever had, suddenly correlated with my inability to connect with my intuition (forehead – third eye), my difficulty in speaking up for myself (throat – throat chakra – our “voice”), and a sense loss of personal power (stomach – solar plexus chakra – our power center).

So, is this raging mother of a virus that I am slowly recuperating from a sign of dis-ease? You bet.  2012 began as a sweetheart of a year, and it’s ending with a big, “oh, shit...” with me, the newly single mother, trying to hold it together emotionally and financially  in one of the most expensive states in the country while being home enough to parent my kids. I have decisions to make.  And while it would be easy for me to “play it safe,” and find ways to “get by,” working my ass off to make other people rich (yes, folks, I have made a career out of this), perhpas it’s time for me to bet on myself.        

M., A friend of mine, who I hold in the highest esteem, posted about her year in running on Facebook last night and how through her year, of running in the best of spirits and not so best of spirits, running through beautiful days and dreary days, running when she wanted to run and when she didn’t want to run, she found her fire, or her spirit, so to speak, and how finding that fire has been transformational.

Along with the changes that summer brought for me, I lost touch with my fire. I lost my connection to that fearless, kick butt, Fierce Diva.  My resolve for 2013 is to honor my fire every day and hold it close, and to allow that fire to guide me to all of the beautiful things that life has in store. 

Dear friends and readers, I wish the same for you.

Happy New Year ~  Namaste xo

15 Things I Have Learned about the Impossible

I walked to the starting line in semi darkness along with thousands of other runners, pouring into the streets of Philadelphia from their hotels. It was 6:00 am, Sunday November 20, 2011. 

I had run hundreds of miles in preparation for that day.  I ran in rain, I ran in heat waves, I ran with friends and I ran alone.  I had learned a lot about my body and its limits, both the real and the self-imposed and during my training period, I had learned the difference between the two.  

I was not in ideal shape for this run.  With a cold and a pulled hamstring, I accepted the fact before the  race even began, that I may have to walk off the course. 

Except I didn’t walk off the course, and several hours later, after the doubt and the bargaining and the surrender to fate had all taken place, I crossed the finish line, a first time marathon runner.

Little did I know that day, that my training for the race would be less about preparing for the marathon itself, but would prepare me for the year that would take place afterward, a year, shall we say, of unprecedented change.

Is change comfortable? No.  Is my life the least bit easy?  Absolutely not. But I am poised to face life on life’s terms, possibly better than I could have before that race.

Because once you run a marathon, you can do just about anything.

1)      You can learn how to take care of the yard, and work a leaf blower.

2)      You can learn how to fix vacuum cleaners and unclog sinks and toilets on your own.  

3)      You can learn how to ask for help  - sometimes, from people you barely know, because when you are the only adult in the house with  three kids, you learn that you cannot be everywhere that you need to be at the same time.

4)      You learn that people are kind and that they want to help. 

5)      You learn to let them help and not feel like you have to keep on your “man pants” all the flipping time.

6)      You learn that tough decisions initially cause pain, and you go with those decisions anyway, because after running 26.2 miles, you realize that pain happens, but it’s just temporary.

7)      You learn to hustle three part time jobs around the schedule of your kids so that you can be there for them when they get off the bus while keeping food on your table.    

8)      You learn to say “yes,” and understand when saying “yes” is necessary.

9)      You learn to say “no” and understand when saying “no” is necessary.  

10)   You learn to become a little less intimidated by the things that don’t matter.

11)   You learn to fully understand the difference between what actually does and does not matter.

12)   You learn that there is no such thing as impossible.

13)   You learn to trust yourself and your abilities.

14)   You begin to understand that you are strong beyond your wildest dreams and that no matter what, you and your children will be OK.  

Would I be handling my present day life as well as I am without that marathon under my belt?  It’s hard to say.  One thing I know for certain is that the marathon gave me tangible proof of my own strength and endurance.

And here’s the most important thing.

15)   If I’m strong, you’re strong, and if I can endure and triumph over the difficult, then so can you.  Because we are all more alike than we care to admit. 

Whatever the obstacle is, you can overcome it.

Whatever the goal is, you can achieve it.

I have your back on this one, sister.

Just like you’ve had mine.

Namaste, Divas! 

Boot Camp

I walk into the class room, feeling a little more arrogant than warranted.

I’ve got this, I think to myself.  I’m a distance runner. I’m a yogi.

I’m a total badass.

How challenging can this actually be, I wonder, feeling more smug than curious.  

The Boot Camp classes at the studio where I teach yoga are the most popular classes, by far.  They are so popular, that registration is required in advance so that you are guaranteed a spot.

One class is offered immediately after my Tuesday night Fight Club, and every week, I head to my car, as the instructor pushes exercise balls, stair risers, and free weights into the middle of the room. 

"I have to try Boot Camp," I say to the instructor, as I exit the studio.

“You should,” she says, with a wicked smile, before turning back to her army of Boot Camp regulars, with a stop watch in her hand.

One evening, I decide to stay.  My running has come to a standstill this summer due to injuries, and I am craving movement, faster movement than I endure through a yoga practice.  I question if boot camp can answer this need, but I’m skeptical.  I have never quite trusted “fitness trends,” and exercise for me, has always been about more than shaping my butt or burning fat.  I crave challenge, but a challenge that will help me believe in myself and my own strength, both outer and inner, a belief which in yoga, has helped transform my life “off the mat” as well as on.

We begin with two minutes of jumping rope.

Which is a LOT, just so you know.

We move onto one minutes sets of burpees, followed by mountain climbers, and pushups.

By five minutes, I’m panting uncontrollably.

Planks, lunges with weights, and more jumping rope follows.  

By eight minutes, I run out to the lobby for more water.

I perform my second, 1-minute set of burpees in slow motion because that is the only pace that guarantees I will last the entire sixty seconds.  

The sweat is dripping down my face and accumulates into a puddle on the floor.

We do squat holds against the wall, holding ten pound weights.  By the last fifteen seconds, my legs are shaking.

We do bridge with the exercise ball underneath our calves.  By the last fifteen seconds, my glutes are twitching.

More pushups, more burpees, more mountain climbers, more jumping rope, more squats...

We begin to cool down.

We stretch. We do abdominal crunches, which almost feel easy, after what came before them. I drink a ton of water.  I wipe my sweat drenched face with a towel. 

I go to my car and sit for a good three minutes, not moving.

Because it feels really good to not move after all the work I did in Boot Camp.

My inner bad ass yogi runner is humbled big time.

She has a lot to learn about getting into shape.

I guess that means I’ll have to go back for more.

Have you ever tried a boot camp class?

What did you think?

Namaste, Divas!

©2012 Ilene Evans 

Life Is Your Story: Choose Plot Points Wisely

Several years ago, I had dabbled in writing fiction.  During this period of time, I also began to teach fiction writing classes at our local community college as part of their summer learning series.   

 Next week, I return to campus to participate in the 2012 summer program, so I have dusted off my notes to review the materials I use with my students. While going through my lectures last week, I was reminded of the importance of a writer setting goals for the main character, and to pay just as much attention to how the main character goes about attaining his goals as he does to choosing an appropriate goal for this story.  

Whenever you write a piece of fiction, you must narrow your focus to one character trying to attain one goal. Essentially, this is what your story is about. It's critical that you maintain this "one main character/one goal" focus, otherwise, your storyline will get too scattered and lose its form, and essentially weaken your plot line. Sure, you can have subplots which address additional goals, but their objectives must be supportive of the primary goal of the story.

It occurred to me as I prepared to teach that I could apply this "golden rule" of fiction to my weekly chase goals.   I would first need to figure out what my story is about.  Once I do this, I need to limit myself to one primary goal for the week and choose other goals that would compliment the primary one. Otherwise, I will get scattered and wind up going in too many directions at once, just like that main character inside the story with the weak plot line.   

In the big picture, I know what my story is about.  Therefore, I know my primary goal of this week and every week:

Some ways that I can support this goal in the upcoming week:

-Maintain mindfulness through meditation and practicing yoga.

-Run and continue my 13.1 training.

-Eat clean- the transition back to vegan went pretty smoothly and I love the way a vegan diet makes me feel.

-Do my plank a day and continue leading the challenge among my friends. I love the camaraderie we have created through the challenge, plus, the commitment to performing my own plank a day is a commitment to myself to be stronger.

I am my own worst taskmaster. I would willingly take on the burden of having to accomplish dozens of to-do's, necessary or not, because part of how I value myself is based on my productivity level.

The Busy Trap, an article published in the New York Times last week that Christine from Love Life Surf suggested, reminded me of my own “need” to be busy.    But how many of these “busy” goals are really necessary or worthy of my time?  How many of these “busy” goals are weakening my plot line?

Intellectually I know that when we take care of ourselves and live the life we love, everything else falls into place.  The mind knows this and in time, hopefully the body and spirit will follow.

 What is your story about?  What goals can you create to support it?

Namaste, Divas!

©2012 Ilene Evans 

 

 

Meditate, Run, Sleep: Chasing Goals Week 2

Last week, I began participating in The Weekly Chase, an incentive started by fellow blogger Melissa at Live Love and Run, where we log weekly goals and share them with others for accountability.

Here is a recap of my goals from last week and progress report:

1)   Continue my plank a day:  All good here

2)   Veganize my home:  Done.  I have been vegan as of Tuesday of last week. 

3)   Run my fastest mile ever!  Last week I caught a virus and had to cut back on the intensity of my runs.  This week for sure, I will get a time on my mile!

4)   Stay faithful to my fall half marathon training.  I skipped one scheduled training run due to being sick.

5)   Be mindful of my words:  Ummm…trying! 

6)   Schedule more time with my kids.  I have tweaked this goal so that I actually schedule time for me.  If I can get in a few hours a day to run, blog, practice yoga, and take care of the house, I will happily belong to my kids for the rest of the day.  I have asked them to give me one hour of “office time” in the morning so that I can complete some blogging tasks.  On the days that I have had this hour, I have found myself much more willing to unplug later.

Here’s what’s on tap for the week ahead:

1)   Continue my plank a day: I have organized a plank-a-day challenge among my friends, so for the month of July, I will be motivating others to do a plank a day as well.  If you are looking for a way to build up your core strength, I urge you to hold one plank for as long as you can every day.  And of course, you are welcome to join our challenge!

2)   Continue training for my next 13.1

3)   Time a mile running:  As mentioned last week, this takes a little planning since I am Stone Ages Girl who does not own a GPS watch!

4)   Adjust my sleeping schedule:  I have been sacrificing sleep the past few weeks to cram in more tasks every day, and it is beginning to wear me down.  I am certain that it has contributed to my Mom Fail, since not sleeping makes me cranky, and may have contributed to why I got sick.  When I don’t take care of my body, everything else starts to fall apart.  Sleep is too important to skimp on.

5)   Meditate: I began meditating three years ago, and the effects have been life changing.  Meditation teaches us how to detach from our thoughts and observe our thoughts as an objective witness.  When we learn to detach from our thoughts, they have less power over us.  When this happens, our whole world opens up.  For the most part, I am faithful to my meditation practice, but I need to re-commit to it every day.  Because any “fail” that I have had in the past few weeks, ie, not being mindful with words, yelling at my kids, etc. is more likely to dissipate when I am grounded in my meditation practice.   Sometimes, it feels so difficult to sit still, even for five to ten minutes!  But it is most important five to ten minutes of my day.

Part of understanding ourselves is knowing what goals to set, what goals to stick with, and what goals to let go of. 

I firmly believe that sometimes, letting go of a goal is more of a triumph that sticking with a goal.  Being able to say “no, this really isn’t for me,” is empowering under the right circumstances.  As an athlete, and a huge overachiever, this concept was tough for me to get, and even tougher to live by, but sometimes, saying “no,” instead of pushing through until the bitter end, at all costs, is the right thing to do.

Have you ever set a goal for yourself that seemed urgently important at that moment but over time, you realized wasn’t working? 

Namaste, Divas!

© 2012 Ilene Evans

 

 

The Power Of Goals: The Weekly Chase

Earlier today, I discovered a great weekly blog link up created by Melissa Durham of Live Love and Run.  It is called The Weekly Chase and is a forum upon which to create goals for the week ahead. 

I’m a huge fan of setting goals.  I have yearly goals, monthly goals, daily goals, and so on.  I’m also a big list maker, where I write down my different goals.  If you were to walk into my office, you would see lists everywhere.  I have a yoga list, a running list, a blog list, etc. 

Goals come in many different forms.  In yoga, we are taught to create intentions around our practice, because that intention gives our practice form and focus.

Creating goals in our daily lives gives our lives form and focus. 

Sharing goals with others makes us accountable to work toward those goals whereas if we keep the goals to ourselves, we may be more likely to abandon them. Nowhere have I seen greater proof of this recently than with the Run to the Finish Green Smoothie Challenge.  20 friends of mine joined the challenge with me, and our daily roll call kept people going who may have otherwise dropped out .

Below, I am listing my goals for the week, and because I am sharing them with you, I am much more likely to remain accountable for them. 

1)      Continue my plank a day:  I perform many planks during my yoga practice, however, most of them are shortly held as part of my sun salutations. Inspired by Fitfluential, I have been reserving at least one plank a day to hold as long as possible.  Plank is one of the best overall body strengtheners we can perform.  Especially as a runner, I rely on the core strength that plank provides.   

2)      Veganize my home!  I am going vegan in July – at least for the month.  I have been a vegetarian since high school and have been vegan on and off since 2008.  My sister, who is also a life-long vegetarian, is going vegan for the month of July an asked if I wanted to do it with her.  I am “almost vegan” right now, but have not been fully willing to remove cheese and eggs from my diet.   My excuse to eat eggs and cheese has been that I need the animal protein while training for my distance runs. But let’s face it.  If Scott Jurek can be vegan, so can I.

3)      Run my fastest mile ever!  The Runner’s World Run Streak has gotten me running every day for the past 29 days, after a very long post marathon running hiatus.  I have always paced myself through instinct and perceived exertion and I don’t wear a GPS.  Totally barbaric, I know!  When Pavementrunner talked about his fastest mile last week, I felt inspired to see how fast I could go if I went all out.  However, since I don’t wear a GPS, there is a certain amount of planning involved.  One day this week, I will make a date with the local track and a stopwatch and go for it!   

4)      Stay faithful to my fall half marathon training.  I would love to see a PR in the fall, which means I have to be faithful to my training plan, especially the days designated for speed work. 

5)      Be mindful of my words. Words have power.  I can use words to put negativity out into the world or I can use my words to put out love.  This goes for the written word as well as the spoken.  The kids and I have gotten off to a bumpy start of summer vacation.   There has been a healthy share of fighting, complaining, and defiance in this house.  And while I understand that they are going through a schedule adjustment, I need to have a teeny bit more compassion and mirror that understanding in how I talk to them and how I talk about it with others.  I have caught myself one too many times complaining about my kids to the other moms at the town pool.  It’s time to go the love and guidance route and stop my own whining!  

6)      Schedule more time with my kids.  Hmmm.  I wonder if what has been going on in #5 has anything to do with the fact that they have heard “I just need five more minutes at my laptop” from me more times than I can count the past two weeks.   And before you know it, five minutes turns into an hour. Yes, I am losing a huge window of time now that they are home with me for the summer (no camp) , but I will have to adjust my work hours to early mornings and late nights, and limited times during the day.  I need to set hours when I completely unplug and have to trust that my Twitter friends will still love me even if it takes four hours for me to reply to a tweet.   

What are your goals for the week?  If you need accountability, feel free to leave your goals in the comment area of my blog.  Or, you can link up with Love Love and Run.  Your goals don’t have to be fitness related.  They can apply to any area of your life where you are seeking growth – and hopefully an area that once nurtured, will help you live the life you love.

Namaste, Divas!

© 2012 Ilene Evans 

Diva Needs New Shoes

I miss my mom and pop running shoe store.  I miss Christine, who, the first time we met, had me remove my shoes and socks, while she got down on the floor eye level with my bare feet, to study them.   Christine and I spoke the same language:  over-pronation, plantar fasciitis, and collapsing arches.  She had introduced me to Brooks Adrenalines, which marked the beginning of a running shoe romance, which is still going strong.

Christine closed shop two years ago, thanks to the recession and a high rental situation, and I am still searching for my new shoe store.  Sure, I have replaced my running shoes since then, but I have been purchasing them from the local chain store. Supposedly, "Big Running Shoe Store" has shoe fitting experts too.  They put you on the treadmill and observe your gait.  They know all about the new technology in the shoes they sell.  But I don't 100% trust them, at least not the way I trusted Christine.  When I walk into "Big Running Shoe Store," I can smell the high pressure sales situation.   The sales clerk is determined that I leave that store with something,   Even if it's just a handful of Cliff Shots and a tube of Nuun, there is no way she's going to let me leave there without a purchase.   Christine wasn't like that.   She refused to sell me anything but the right shoe, even if it meant my walking out of her store without dropping a penny.  Sadly, this may be why her store didn't make it in the current economic climate.

The mom and pop running stores are sparse.  I am aware of a few that are quite reputable, but all require a long drive.  As much as I scoff at "Big Running Shoe Store," they have the shoes I need and are a good 20 - 25 minutes closer to my house than the independently owned places that provide more personalized attention.

Many of us have to make that choice between quality and convenience every day, and not only when it comes to running shoes.  Maybe you are forced to make this choice for food purchases, or haircuts, or for some, you may be burdened with this choice for more significant situations like education, or getting the right healthcare or help on a legal matter.   These decisions have impact, because they affect how we spend our time as well as our money. If it’s a larger issue, like getting the proper medical attention, it impacts your quality of life, if not your life itself. 

As much as I want to support the mom and pop store, That ninety minute round trip drive is a lot of time out of my day, especially when I have the option to make this purchase much closer to my home. 

Where do you buy your running shoes or something of comparable importance? Do you make a special trip, or is convenience king? 

Namaste, Divas!

©2012 Ilene Evans