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Resolving the Unresolved

Maia — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:47:35 +0000

First things first. I don’t make resolutions. Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of a brand-new beginning with a fresh, clean slate. Being a “Monday” sort of girl, I even feel a little giddy when the first day of a new year falls on the first day of a new week. Sunday notwithstanding, of course. But resolutions, to me, seem so…well, resolute. It’s too easy to get tripped up early on and then have the excuse of waiting until next New Year’s Day to repeat the cycle. Again. So I set goals instead. Setting goals gives us a much better shot at succeeding than does resolving to do/not do something from now on/ever again.

New Year’s Day may have come and gone, but it’s still not too late to start planning those positive changes you’ve been mulling over. That’s right, I said, “planning.” It’s amazing to me how we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that if we just have enough willpower, we can miraculously become fit, healthy, organized, energetic individuals who volunteer, increase our earning potential and master a foreign language—all without a plan.

Take Inventory

Before you can get to where you’re going, you have to first figure out where you are. For example, if you dream of running a marathon, you have to start by figuring out how far you’re able to run today. Think of this step as taking a kind of self-administered aptitude test. The most important thing is to be honest and realistic. I’ve always found this Lao Tsu quote so inspiring: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

Set Attainable Goals

If your goal is to find time to exercise and you’re a chronic snooze-button-pusher, then resolving to get up a half-hour earlier every day probably isn’t the best choice for you. Instead, try looking at the rest of your day. Can you take a walk after lunch or dinner? Can you find an exercise class that fits into your existing schedule? Maybe getting fit begins with the simple step of parking at the far end of the parking lot or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. It’s these small, simple steps that are going to take you the farthest.

Get Your Priorities Straight

If you are hitting the snooze every morning, it might be time to take a look at the reasons why. If getting up half an hour earlier to exercise is something you want to make a priority, then think about getting to bed a little earlier the night before. A year from now, would you rather being feeling healthy and fit or still taking comfort in the fact that at least you never missed Letterman’s Top Ten List? Or maybe it’s that afternoon trip to Starbucks that’s keeping you up at night in which case you need to decide which is more important to you: your mocha latte or a good night’s sleep?

These are just a couple of things to keep in mind as you journey into the New Year. As for me, one of my goals is to be more flexible—and that is why I am posting this blog on neither the first of the year nor a Monday.

In the Kitchen with Maia

Maia — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:03:47 +0000

Cooking I love. Cleaning up, not so much. My neat and orderly Virgo nature goes on vacation when I’m in the kitchen zealously concocting this, that or the other thing. A pinch of this, a dash of that and the next thing I know my inner Tasmanian devil has unleashed herself in a whirlwind of spice bottles, wooden spoons, and a variety of pots, pans and mixing bowls. What began as a fairly tidy kitchen soon resembles a post-apocalyptic calamity.
OK, I exaggerate. A little. I am actually grateful for the little devil—it’s because of her that I’ve come up with a few tricks to minimize the yucky cleaning-up part.

Look Before You Leap

This is very important: If you’re using a recipe, read through it—in its entirety—first, thereby eliminating one of those “Oh, rats (or your favorite expletive)!” moments when you realize too late that you were supposed to chill, soak or otherwise prepare something ahead of time—or that the cooking time exceeds the time by which your guests will be arriving by several hours. Trust me. You’ll thank me for this.
This is also the time to make sure you have all the ingredients—or if you don’t, you can decide what substitutions you’re brave enough to make.

Get it Together

Get your ingredients together before you start cooking. In accordance with my Virgo nature, I line them all up on the counter in the order in which I’ll be using them. You can line them up any way you want to; the important thing is to get all your ingredients in front of you, so you can do a headcount. Make sure you have everything—and enough of it.
To simplify the cleaning-up process, I put away each item after I’ve used it. By the time I’m finished, all my ingredients have either been used or put away!

Wash and Go

The clean-up-as-you-go method works really well for all your pots, pans and utensils, too. I use whatever spare seconds I have to quickly wash up any items I’m done with so I won’t have a huge mess to contend with when I’m done.

These are the tricks and tips that work for me—feel free to share your own!

Keep it Simple, Sweetheart

Maia — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:39:41 +0000

Good health isn’t only about what kind of food we put in our bodies. You can be nourishing your body with lots of healthy food, but if other areas of your life are out of whack, you’re not going to be as healthy as you could be.

Simplify Your Life

How many times have you made this resolution: this year I’m going to get healthy? Oftentimes, a close second is: I’m going to get organized! Getting “organized” is a pretty tall order—and it may not really be want you want. You may simply want to simplify your life. Sure, you can go through the process to organize all your stuff…or you can streamline and simplify your life. Less is more, as they say, and the less stuff you have the more easily you’ll be able to manage it.

Healthy Solution

People tell me all the time that I’m organized. It’s true; I do have somewhat of a natural penchant for organization. I can file and color-code and alphabetize with the best of ’em. But my true goal is just to make things simple. Here’s my favorite personal anecdote about learning to keep it simple… When making my bed, I would always make certain the tag on the comforter always ended up in the bottom right corner of the bed. Same with the throw pillows—tags neatly on the backside and in the bottom right corner. True, this accounted for mere seconds of my day, but it was still something I thought about and spent energy on. I don’t know what came over me one day, but I had a mad desire to just not worry about those ridiculous tags—and so I cut them off. It may be a little silly, but frankly, it is a much more joyful experience making the bed these days. The moral of the story? Before you take on the huge project of organizing your life, start by finding one or two easy ways just to make things simple.