Just Say "No" to Joe

So it's been an interesting week.
First I gave up coffee once and for all, it's been 7 days since my last cup of Joe, someone please give me a frakking medal for that. Or at least some applause.
My friend Jenna leant me Skinny Bitch (http://skinnybitch.net/). I read it in three days. I had already thought about giving up coffee.
Not that I don't like coffee. Believe me, it's been my friend, Joe is there for me in good (writing) times and in bad (tired or hungover) times. He helped me go to college, work at 4am and still smile, and get through a dual masters program while working full time. But lately he's not my friend so much.
I need him too much. I couldn't imagine a day without him, and that scared me.
Skinny Bitch says coffee "is for pussies." Think of how addicted to it we are. And how many of us think that it's perfectly ok. To be on drugs. So after months of thinking about it and weeks of talking about it, I gave it up.
I read http://www.caffeinedependence.org/caffeine_dependence.html which had some good info on how the drug affects our bodies and brains. I was in the "but it's good for me- right??" party until I realized the good was outweighed by the bad. And the more I read the more I realized that was true. Yes, it has antioxidants that may prevent cancer. So do other things, like green tea, fruits and veggies, which I already get enough of.
Wanna be scared some more? Here you go,
http://www.teeccino.com/caffeineeffects.aspx
Had enough yet? No?
http://www.teeccino.com/motivation.aspx

So day one (last Thursday) I had two cups of tea, fatigue, a migraine, nausea, and my less than scientific vocab would call "general poopy feeling." Day two (Friday) I had all the above plus trouble concentrating at work, my brain was functioning at less than 50% capacity, and I wondered what I was doing this for at all. Then that night I went to restorative Yoga, had a nice relaxing evening, and woke up Saturday feeling human again!!
I worked out Saturday, had a cup of green tea, and made it all day without any side effects! It was bizarre.
Now, I will say I am still drinking 1-2 cups of green tea a day, which do have caffeine, but MUCH less than my two cups of coffee. In about a week I'm going to switch to only herbal or decaffeinated green tea.
My faves:
Yogi Tea http://www.yogiproducts.com/
Mostly organic, lots of herbals, no bad "grassy" green tea flavor. And cute sayings on the bag strings which kind of brighten your day in a borderline cliche way. This morning mine said "share your heart with other people's heart" or something. Very new agey.
I like the green tea energy, green tea with ginger lemon, and plain ginger. They cost less than $4 at Mothers, Whole Foods, for 16 bags, which is not bad!

All my facebook postings and tweets about this experience raised both praise (you can do it! I'm proud of you!) to shock (what? For the love of all that is holy, WHY?) to general disbelief (I was a barista for 5 years, after all).

This morning I was particularly tempted to take Joe back, and apologize for leaving him, since I had a particularly restless night due to some emotional crud. Joe would help me get through it, I thought. But, like Nancy Reagan taught me when I was a kid in the 80's, I just said "No" to Joe.

Leggo my Ego!

I don't mind admitting I have many addictions. I don't apologize for any of these, and won't be joining a 12 step any time soon.To name a few: coffee, frozen yogurt, the internet and my crackberry, and most recently, yoga.
Let me just say I've never been particularly active at sports, excercise, and was pretty mediocre at dance as a kid and through college. But when I decided to do yoga regularly it was as much for my mental state as physical. I wasn't out of shape. I hate excersize. I hate gyms full of sweaty, spandexed people. I love to bike, hike and rock climb but it's more of the outdoor experience than the workout.

I was stressed and grinding my teeth in my sleep. It was not pleasant. I had to unwind the tension from work and school. As I finished grad school I went from 40 hours/week at my job plus 10 hours/week in class and 10+ for homework down to just work and one class (thesis, which lasted 30-45 minutes a week). I took to yoga like a fish to water. I jumped in to a month at Freeman Yoga http://freemanyoga.com/ in Fullerton but then moved to Orange. I took a few months off to unpack and settle in. Now I've been at Soul at Home Studio http://www.soulathome.com/ in Tustin for a few weeks. I jumped on a one year pass (unlimited!) which was pretty affordable. I try to make it 3-5 times a week.

When I started I wasn't very flexible or strong but after just a few weeks I thought I was kicking some asana ass. I realized I'm naturally more flexible than the people on the mat next to me. I was able to pull off poses that those suckers next to me would struggle with. My ego loved it. I would nail a new pose and the instructor would tell us "Let go of the ego. Don't punish your body for something you're not ready to do. Don't compare yourself to the person next to you." Yoga instructors are always saying crap like that, which I don't think they believe. They're all awesome at yoga too so they must be confident in their bodies too!

Let go of the ego? Eff that, I thought. I'm awesome! Praise me!
Sometimes the teacher would. I had one instructor call me out and had the whole class (of 20 people) turn to watch me do something. Ego boost!
I did this after a few weeks of yoga, on my first try, much to my surprise: Crow Pose














Stuff like this is more of a mental challenge than physical- you have to calm the voice in your head that says "You're going to fall on your face!"

There are times I'm just too sore to pull something off but I always try. There are obviously things I can't do yet because I've really only been practicing for two months. But I tell myself no one would guess I'm such a noob if they see me pull off an arm balance! If I don't do something on the first try, I go home and try it on my own and get it the second time.


Last night in the Level 2 (most difficult) Flow class we did twisting arm balances and the teacher said "Ooo, beautiful." I was focused on a speck of dust on the floor but she had to be directing it to me, right? Only one other person in the room was even trying, the rest of the suckers were in child's pose or shaking their heads at the idea of what the teacher was proposing we do.
It looked something like this, I can't find the exact pose but it was similar except one leg was bent:











I'm sure it wasn't perfect but the few seconds I was suspended over the floor felt like an eternity.




So the point of my story is that yes, I am awesome. I feel that in a year or so I could be the Michael Phelps of yoga. He's just freakishly made for swimming--his body is naturally designed to kick ass.
I see the other students struggle physically next to me, trying to lose weight and gain flexibility so they can move from the easy classes to the more challenging. But my struggle is no less difficult. It's a mental struggle to overcome my self-absorbed "look at me" complex. I think It's just as hard. The fact that I'm writing this shows that I want you readers to see how cool I am. Ugh.

Food Geek

So I've gone from foodie to food geek.

I made an impulse buy last night, a yogurt maker. I was on the fence, but I eat it every day and my cupboards are full of one-quart tubs that I've been meaning to do something with. I figure if I make my own, I won't waste any plastic. So ecochic. *poses* I also bought a cookbook, Diet for a Small Planet. The deal is: don't eat meat, the planet can't handle our lifestyle. Eat more local fruits and veggies. Processed "food" is fake, modified cornstarch and crap plus it wastes resources in its packaging. It's an amazing book and I learned a ton just in the first 45 pages. So where was I shopping- guess! Sur la Tablah? Nope. Williams So-overpriced-noma? Negative.

Here's the deal- the book is from 1973. I found it and the yogurt maker at the Salvation Army.

1973! That's 36 frakking years ago! What is wrong with America? This book came out years before I was born and people are still publishing the same ideas, but not very many people are actually living this way. *climbing off soapbox*

In other food geek news, I attended a workshop at 826LA earlier this month, read about it at http://www.litterboxmagazine.com/blog/

Jen gave me a huge book for my birthday: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. Who else but me would read a whole 900 page book on food chemistry and anthropology? A whole chapter on cheese? I was elated.

Lastly, I finally own a (respectfully large) set of Fiestaware dishes and serveware. Macy's had a huge Memorial Day sale, and armed with giftcards, graduation cash, and an extra coupon, I went buckwild in the Home Deparment. They actually had to get a cart to bring it to my car, and it filled my little bug's trunk to the brim. I can't wait to use it for the next Litterbox photo shoot.

This pic sucks, it's from my phone. Deal.

Back to Blog

Have been neglecting this here page for too long, so I'm going to try to return at least monthly.
In the meantime here is what has been taking up my time.
1. Buying, cleaning, and furnishing a home. This hipster Martha Stewart is tired, yo.
2. http://www.litterboxmagazine.com/
If you're reading this blog, you probably already know about the magazine, but I'll plug it anyway.
3. http://twitter.com/Zombie_Bard
Yeah, I have my own twitter (twitter.com/aliritto) but this one is more fun.
4. Trying to finish thesis (short stories) when I really want to start a novel (or two) that's been brewing in my mind for a few weeks. Need to not complain, at least I have ideas.
5. Attending concerts. In April, I made it to three. That was more than the previous three months combined. Remembering why I used to go to so many all the time.
6. Becoming even more geeky than usual. Tickets to comicon, check. Ren faire, check. Watch all 6 Star Wars movie in one week, check. Find boyfriend: oh. I think I see the breakdown in logic here.