Hair

I have a love hate relationship with my hair. I love that it is strong, grows quickly and I loved the color growing up. I hate that it grows quickly and is losing its color - grey is invading my head.

This dichotomy of issues leads me to my hair issues - short or long, color at home or at the salon. And these issues play over and over for me. I can never just settle on one.

I love short hair. Chin length bobs are what I have had for most of my entire adult life. I grow my hair out, cut it to a pixie, grow it to a bob, rinse and repeat. Sometimes I keep the various stages for a few months, sometimes for years. The exception being the long hair. I can never manage that for more than 6 months. I shed at an alarming rate and longer hair ends up everywhere. So right now I am really working on growing my hair out. I just want to see what it is like to have longer hair. But I fear it looks like a ponytail, day in and day out.  It looks like mounds of hair blowing down the hallways of my house like tumbleweeds, straightening irons, longer showers and tons of time spent doing hair.

As for the at home color or the salon color - I dyed my hair at home for years. I was quite good at it and it doesn't bother me to do it. It is much cheaper and because my hair grows so fast it is much easier to maintain. However since the grey started invading my head I have had difficulty covering the grey and that lead me to the salon. But I have an ongoing issue - to stay at the salon with the $100 dye jobs or do at home, just more often. As it is I often go 2-3 months without dyeying my hair and the roots get quite bad towards my appointment time. This could be fixed at home with dye jobs every 6 weeks, but how does one master just the root touch up at home.

So the thought cycle continues. On one hand I am grateful that this is currently my biggest worry. On the other hand I think it is ridiculous that this is my biggest worry. But neither of these thoughts solves my set of hair problems. Short hair? Long hair? Dye at home? Dye at salon?

And if I decide to dye at home - how do I break up with my hairdresser that I love dearly?

Rinse and repeat the thought cycle.

February Resolutions

February's Resolution is to Love Your Family. I have thought a lot about how I was going to do this above what we already do. We are a family of hugs and kisses, family time, individual time, talking, and I love you's on the phone. Then my husband told me about research that said that a staggeringly low amount of spouses say 'I Love You' to each other every day and the same low amount kiss hello or goodbye. And it got me thinking - we do all of that but is there a way to do more than that. So this month I am going to focus on the following things:

Be present when my child or husband is talking to me

I am horrible at listening but not paying attention to when people talk to me. In the morning my daughter often has to say things twice before they will stick in my head because I am putting my lunch together, getting coffee or packing my bag. The same goes when my husband gets home. Usually I am so caught up in my book, game or TV show that I half ignore what he has to say.

So my goal is to stop the distractions when they talk to me.  To truly hear how their day was, the answers to their questions and to connect with them.

Laugh More

I am not that funny, I can be grumpy or miss the joke but I am trying to laugh more and be in an environment that allows for jokes and laughing.

Do 'chores' with LOVE rather than resentment

I waited a long time to have a family and along came the perfect family for me. And lately I have been finding myself resenting certain 'chores' I do for them. Not every time I do them, but often enough that a pattern is emerging. And I have to remember - if doing dishes 5/7 days a week, doing laundry,  and making 14 meals is the worst part of my life then I have it pretty sweet. I should shut up, smile and make the most of it before my attitude causes me to lose it.

I am also going to really work on my Happy Home Habits. They sort of got lost in the overwhelming life change that was Paleo for January. They are great habits to have and I really want to use this year and accomplish something rather than have the year pass me by.

January Review

Paleo Update

I have been finding it easier to stick with the diet, especially since I took the time to bake for myself towards the end of week 3. I have allowed myself special meals that are off plan in some way and it has made the entire process so much easier.

I love certain aspects of the Paleo lifestyle - the emphasis on veggies and proteins over breads, pastas and rice being my favorite. I miss popcorn on movie nights but my longing for latte's has gone away. I like honey over any other type of sweetener in my coffee, although I only allow myself one coffee with honey a day. I miss bread occasionally, but may look at ways to make a plan muffin so I can have sugar free jam as a treat with nut butter.

I think we will be sticking with it for the foreseeable future. I lost 10 lbs in January for the challenge and I have been able to keep off 8. My husband lost a whopping 18 lbs in January, but he has further to go than me.

The one 'shocker' about Paleo is how expensive it is. I suppose this makes sense because you aren't eating any 'filler' so you need more protein and veggies to feel full. But the change in our grocery bill has been staggering. In January we jumped from $800 to $1200 but we decreased our eating out by the same value.  (Mainly due to our decrease in coffee stops with extra's). My goal for next month is to bring this in. Try and figure out a way to make it cheaper for our family. I am sure there is a way.

Exercise Update

I haven't managed anything other than Zumba and the occasional stretching. It feels good, like I am ramping up but I am disappointed that I haven't added anything else. In the spring I am going to take a core yoga class and my goal is to get on my Bosu ball in February. Better late than never right?