A day in SF NihonMachi (Japantown), watching a movie, having bullet train sushi, trying taiyaki!

84 yoga and/or strength workout since starting this new routine 106 days ago. I bought myself a new yoga mat, but it’s still in the box. I feel like I need to set some sort of goal and only upon reaching it can I finally unpack the small, great pleasure of what this new mat will bring. I remember buying the previous mat when doing prenatal yoga more than 12 years ago now since Jasper will be 12 next week! Anyhow, what is the appropriate goal? 100 days? How many times does it take to build a habit? See James Clear link that it could be 2 months to 8 months depending on the person…so I guess I just need to decide what is appropriate for me…if the goal is 100, and I were actually to push through every day till the end of March, then that would be 100 exactly. I think that’s fair and definitely motivation to push it up a notch and. It take a rest day on the weekend like I have been doing. Also makes me grateful I just did a yoga session at 11pm despite it being late and out of routine from the early 5:30am I’ve been striving for. No excuses from here till day 100!

Hard to wake up the last couple of days…not sure the daylight savings time change or the slight going to bed later. Regardless, it’s making the mornings very difficult this week.

Spent a lot of time researching for Japan trip today. Still feels like so much more to know and plan though.

Found the website that talks about the Tokyo Toilets! Scavenger hunt time?

GRATITUDE: Took Juniper and her friends to the BIS incoming 6th grade tour today. Crazy to think she’ll be in middle school already…I guess I haven’t fully accepted that Jasper is there already and from what I can tell, for the most part thriving in his day to day. Maybe thriving is an exaggeration, but he’s beyond just surviving that is for certain.

As for me, I spent the whole day taking the 3 Japanese quizzes for Lesson 7. It’s really making me question the time commitment I’ll be able to have these next 3 months when I really should be planning our Japan trip, tending to the backyard garden. The weather is absolutely perfect to be working outside these days and I just can’t get out there…I’m trying to assess other ways I can keep learning Japanese and make it a commitment that I won’t skimp on. Seeing as I’ve been able to do this pretty successfully now for yoga/strength training/cracking down on the simple carbs to try to get metabolically healthy/being vigilant about protein the last 3 months, it would seem fair that I could commit to a rigorous Japanese study schedule also…just need to brainstorm the guidelines and give myself deadlines I think…I’ve been researching sources to continue/review the Genki Vol. 1 handbook…I really don’t feel like I’ve grasped the concepts from this past lesson, not to mention I have 1 more lesson still ahead before the trimester ends. Must come up with a plan of action for this…

FOCUS: 1 hour ruck in misty to finally raining conditions this morning. Still thinking it’s a little strange putting on a heavy backpack (today I had the 10# ruck plate plus 2 bags of beans and dried peas). However, I do see how doing this everyday (or 3x a week in my current goal) could be very good for building strength. Not sure I’m imagining it, but I definitely feel more conscious to align my pelvis and keep core engaged while walking which I think in turn has been helping with my right hip/glute/back issue. I mean, the consistency of yoga and strength training almost every day has really improved a lot of things in my body and there have been significant gains in range of motion and ability just since the beginning of the year. That feeling of success is definitely motivation to keep going and keep pushing ahead, or in this case keep carrying heavy things…

INSPIRATION:

GRATITUDE: Taking stock and relishing in all the growth and potential the backyard garden is starting to show! Indian food tasted so good today at lunch with Eric. I really need to learn how to make the gobi Manchurian. Juniper and I practically ran to Backhaus before school to secure yummy pretzels for the whole family. I’m so glad for these small bits of time we can do something out of the ordinary together. It seems like the next few years where these moments can exist will go by so fast.

Tired. Thursday. Tomorrow. 😴

GRATITUDE: First time doing a 45 min yoga workout yesterday. First purposeful, real ruck yesterday (1 hour, 10 lbs, 5k). So slow to wake up 5:30am the last two days and my first yoga workout has consisted only of 11 minutes of slow stretching…still showing up, and still my body is grateful for the restorative, slowness to ease into the day. My sleep hasn’t been great the last week, in fact it’s been pretty downright awful. I’m attributing this correlation to being in the luteal phase (still trying to get a hold of Mindy Pelz’s book “Fast Like a Girl). Tempted to try and start wearing my Oura ring again to track body temp. Thankful I got around to some light house cleaning today, it’s been lacking since I’ve focused energy on Japanese. On the otherhand, I’ve completely neglected Japanese the last couple of days…

Jasper has been listening to Philip Glass’ Etude 6 a lot lately. There once was a time he really connected to music and maybe he can find a little bit of that again. I need to remember to encourage him back into painting or some creative sensory outputs. I need to do the same for myself actually.

Listened to a lot of podcasts today/yesterday about gut health, inflammation, vitamins, exercise. Peter Attia interviewed the founder of GoRuck which was pretty inspirational. I’m going to try to incorporate it into my daily walks maybe 3x/week if possible.

GRATITUDE: Not on Facebook a whole these days but grateful for reminders of what we were doing productively 7 years ago – still enthusiastic about making stuff.