The Birthful Podcast: My HBA2C Story

July 16th, 2015 | Posted by Alison Spath in Life - (Comments Off on The Birthful Podcast: My HBA2C Story)

This post has very little to do with food (unless you count a castor oil vanilla milkshake) but has at least a little something to do with health and a lot to do with kids, so I’m sharing it!

While I’ve referred to my son Kaz’s birth a number of times here in the past, I recently had an opportunity to share his birth story (a planned home birth after two cesareans) on The Birthful Podcast as a part of Adriana Lozada’s “Birth Stories for the Summer” series.

PodcastSummerStoriesMainAlison

Hi there!

It’s been a while, I know.  Almost a year since my last blog post.  Yikes.  I’m finally ready explain where I’ve been.

You know how they say “do what you love and it won’t feel like work”?  Yeah, I’m all about that.  I think the concept was first presented to me in The Four Hour Work Week.  I didn’t read it cover to cover, but I read enough to understand Tim Ferris’ point: if you love what you do, you won’t be “working” 40 hours week.

I taught my first yoga class today.  Not exactly my first class, but sort of.

My “first” classes were in teacher training to my fellow trainees, but those don’t really count.

Then I taught a restorative class a few weeks ago at the studio where I practice, and although that was a real class, it was just a few resting postures (have you ever been to a restorative yoga class? It’s awesome.) so I’m not sure that counts either.

Yoga Teacher Training, Part I

March 14th, 2014 | Posted by Alison Spath in Life - (2 Comments)

I think I took my first yoga class in 2002.

I was 23.  I talked fast, I thought fast, I liked things fast.

Yoga was slow.  It was uncomfortable, it was kind of boring.

Did I mention yoga was slow and I liked things fast?  I did not really like yoga.

Yoga books for teacher training

Still, there was just something about yoga that kept me coming back to it.

A New Chapter

November 9th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Life - (12 Comments)

When I first started this blog, it was all about me.  I wrote day-to-day, journal style entries that documented my meals and workouts.  I had found my groove in what felt like a much healthier life than I’d ever lived before and I was very excited to share what I had learned and how I was working healthy habits into my life as a stay at home mom of two little girls.  I loved reading healthy living blogs and eventually decided to jump in on the fun, despite knowing how weird it was to take pictures of my meals and telling stories about my latest run, bike ride or nutritional experiment.

This is my new mantra when it comes to getting stuff done around the house:

Done is Better Than Perfect

(even this image is not perfect, but I’m leaving it!  It’s done!)

One day last week I was feeling particularly frustrated with how far behind I was on the house work. Life with a busy, active, won’t-stop-climbing-the-tables-and-chairs toddler makes things… interesting.

There was a pile of dishes in the sink, pots and pan on the counter, more kitchen clutter and dishes on the other counter, the floor was dirty – the mess was driving me nuts and I just couldn’t get to it with Monkey Boy Kaz in the kitchen with me.  I’m also sure I was procrastinating because I felt so buried by it all I didn’t even know where to start.

What a Salad Mess Can Teach Us

March 19th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Life - (8 Comments)

I love eating salad out of this big blue bowl.

Blue Salad Bowl

It was a GO! GO! GO! kind of day, one of those days that I was very appreciative of the stock pile of greens prepped and ready to go because it made a green lunch really easy.

My salad might not be very pretty, and it certainly wasn’t anything new or exciting.  So let’s dig for a deeper message in the bottom of that salad bowl today. Like a fortune cook or one of those thought provoking messages on a Yogi tea bag.  Except we’re going to read lettuce leaves instead of tea leaves.

Practice Staying Present

January 13th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Life - (1 Comments)

Two summers ago I was out for a morning run and passed a man running with a young boy who was probably 9 or 10 years old.  I guessed they were father and son, and that was probably a good guess because the boy looked like a miniature version of the man.  I was impressed to see a kid running a nice pace along side an adult, smiling and easily holding a conversation.  I felt a little twinge of something at that moment – a twinge of hope that my kids might take an interest in running with me one day too.

The Life Changers of 2012

December 31st, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Life - (8 Comments)

At the end of last year I wrote about The Life Changers of 2011 – the books, blogs and other ideas that effected my life in a positive, meaningful way.  I’m here today to do the same for 2012!

Of course, the biggest life changer for us this year was addition of this guy to our family:

Kaz 6 months

And so twenty twelve begins.

January 1st, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Life - (9 Comments)

16 weeks

16 weeks pregnant (tomorrow). I think I’m starting to feel the baby move, but these early flutters are so easy to confuse with the digestive process sometimes I wonder if it’s just dinner that I’m feeling move around.

January One started with a four mile walk. A walk sprinkled with the tiniest bit of running. I had intended to run the entire way today, but running for very long is proving to be too uncomfortable these days. “Mostly walking” it is then.