Feeling Bright on the Darkest Day
Happy Winter Solstice, you little pagan monkeys, you.
I’ve spent the past week sorting through nearly a thousand blogs (I am actually NOT exaggerating, honest) of people who write about their fitness goals and found a lot of inspiration/frustration within the majority of them.
Allow me to clarify – these bloggers are the folks who write about how they lost 100 lbs, or how they never played sports and now they run 5ks. They highlight their favorite workouts, their favorite healthy meals and they inspire the pants off of one another – sometimes literally, depending on how much weight they’ve lost.
A typical work day
The inspiring part of these blogs: They make me realize that if these folks can be healthy/active/fit/runners, then so can I.
The frustrating part of these blogs: That I’m not doing this whole “writing” thing more. These people write on a consistent basis – sometimes even daily. Twice daily. Every hour (exaggeration).
All this came to a head on Monday, when I found myself feeling very claustrophobic at my computer, spending too much time reading and sorting for my job. I was spending all this time reading about active people and was the furthest from doing that myself. I couldn’t stand it, so the next morning I woke up at 5am and went to the rec center to just move. I even RAN. RAN! Like, on purpose! And I discovered that now that I am in St. Louis (newsflash; I’m in St. Louis now), there is way more oxygen than in Denver. I can run a quarter mile without even getting winded. It’s incredible.
delicious kale chips
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that today being the shortest day of the year, things can only get brighter from here. If you’re not happy or feeling content doing things the way you’ve been doing them, there is always an opportunity to change your habits. It’s not easy. It’s frustrating. But believe me, it is absolutely do-able. I’m using today as my excuse to make a change. But you can choose whatever day you want.
Last year I spent a magical Winter Solstice eating a raw food feast with my sistercousins. This year I celebrate finding the light in a different way, by going on a horse-drawn carriage ride through the park to look at Christmas lights. And from this point forward, I will continue to find new ways to celebrate brighter days ahead.
Tags: elle potter, healthy changes, winter solstice