I have a confession.

The kitchen is not always clean before we go to bed at night.

This has been especially true this week with a husband who was laid up with a man cold. I’m picking on him a little, but we really are a team when it comes to keeping this house clean.  His sick time was evident based on state of the house for a number of days here, I fell way behind on the house work.

Now that we are outnumbered in our parents:kids ratio, our former man-to-man combat plan has become more of a “zone defense” over these past 7 months.

Team Offspring stayed strong this week and never faltered.  Even when I was shouting “Man down! Man down!” from the trenches they were relentless about getting their needs met.  (You’re hungry AGAIN?)  I would have waved the white flag of surrender, but Zak blew his nose on it.

Anyways. This was why I was working my way through a mountain of dishes early yesterday morning. This was also when I noticed the outside temperature was 60 degrees. In upstate New York. At 6 AM. In January.

By the time I had nearly reached the summit of Mt. Dishes, the sky was starting to lighten, everyone was still sleeping, and I really, really wanted to get out for a run in the mild winter air – and so I decided to take a time management tip from this video on productivity:

That is, work for a while, breaking the work down into “sessions” with short breaks in between.

And so I did just that. I left my dirty pots and pans behind for a while and went for a run. Just a quickie 30 minutes, but in running capris! With no hat! And no gloves! I was so glad to get out while the gettin’ was good.

I always enjoy the psychological theories behind some of our crazy-ass human behavior. It seems that when you know the “whys” and “hows”, the understanding of what’s going on beneath the surface can help you create better, more effective habits that make life easier and maybe even more enjoyable.

For more on this, check out this article that goes along with that video, The Science of Productivity: A Proven Way to Get More Done in Less Time.

A Healthier Gut

Another article I read recently comes from the Human Food Project on 5 things you can do for a healthier gut in 2013.

From Tip #2 under “Eat More Plants” (shocker!) I’ve been thinking about this line in particular:

track how many species of plants you eat in a week – shoot for 30-40, or more

Yowza! 30 to 40 species or more?

Well, let’s count. It says “species”, so I included different varieties of the same vegetables in my counts.  For instance, for leafy greens I counted 7.  (A big thanks to that tub of mixed greens from Wegmans.)

Without doing anything out of the ordinary, I could only get to 23 when counting different fruit and vegetable species.  If I include nuts (what? they’re plants!) I could still only get to 28.

Whether or not we really do need 30 – 40 different species of plant foods a week, I liked having a reason to look around the produce section for some new items I don’t usually buy to up my count by a few. Why hello radishes, long time no see.  Oh, Brazil nuts!  It’s been too long!

Kobe Bryant and Deep Nutrition

And speaking of food and nutrition, I just learned that Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers has been working with Dr. Catherine Shanahan, the author of my latest book obsession, Deep Nutrition!

Kobe Bryant’s Diet Helps Maintain Elite Level Of Play (scroll to the bottom of the page for his feature)

The article mentions that he’s eating beef from a pasture-fed cows and eggs from a free-range chickens, avoiding sugar, especially things made with corn syrup. He’s reduced his intake of carbohydrates and is eating more protein and the right kinds of fats.

Kobe says:

I feel like I can run all day long. A lot of that has to do with diet and being committed to it, and watching what I eat.

Yeeessssss!

The guy is beating Father Time … it seems like, if it’s possible, he’s continuing to get better.

If eating well can do wonders for a professional athletes, just think about what that means for the rest of us Average Joe’s!  I won’t make a crack here about “performance enhancing drugs” and just assume that all the Lakers are eating big salads and chowing down on avocado, olive oil and grass fed butter.

I know good food is my favorite strategy for tackling the pint-sized opposition around here.  (Although I wonder what steroids might do for my kitchen counters?)  Fortunately Zak is feeling better again, the house work is under control, the veggie crisper in my fridge has been restocked with plant foods.   Look out kids,  Team Progenitor is making their comeback!