{"id":6556,"date":"2013-09-20T05:00:51","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=6556"},"modified":"2013-09-20T00:21:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T07:21:11","slug":"happy-friday-randomness-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/?p=6556","title":{"rendered":"Happy Friday + Randomness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Happy Friday, my friends! So, this has been a bit of a crazy week, and I’m glad that it’s the weekend. One of the major highlights of my week was a doctor’s visit, as odd as that may sound. I’ve mentioned before that I have a health condition<\/a>, and this requires that I get blood tests and check-ups approximately every three months. In many ways, it’s felt like a science experiment for about a year.<\/p>\n

When I last wrote about all the positive lifestyle changes I made back in January, things were looking up. I was well on my way to full remission without medication, and life as a whole was good. Then just before summer, I started to relapse. Due to a number of reasons that would bore you to tears, my stress levels started to increase, I was starting to feel ill more frequently and test results showed that my thyroid hormone levels were out of whack again. It wasn’t a life-threatening relapse, but it was enough to cause concern.<\/p>\n

I met with my doctor in June, and after some discussion, I had to admit that I had fallen off the health wagon. I’d been so busy that I wasn’t eating as well, I wasn’t exercising as much and I certainly wasn’t sleeping. All those great lifestyle changes I had made — though not abandoned entirely — had not been practiced nearly as enthusiastically.<\/p>\n

The relapse scared me and this was around the time I started my green juice regimen and got back on the dreaded treadmill (let’s just say exercise and I have had a long and contentious relationship). I’d like to point out that in a cruel turn of events, I’ve managed to gain<\/em> weight by eating better and working out more. However, I’m feeling rejuvenated like I did back in January and again, the test results from this week confirmed that I am near full remission and even better than January. And once again, my doctor was amazed that I improved without medication — “You’re my poster child!” she told me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The relapse was a much-needed wake-up call and I’m determined not to start a cycle. The test results clearly show that if I’m mindful of the health trifecta (food, exercise and sleep) and reducing stress, a multitude of ailments can be managed effectively. It sounds so straightforward, yet it’s so challenging to maintain! I listened to this<\/a> Ted Talk about stress, and I’ve been mulling over it a lot since there’s just no way of eliminating stress from life and I like the idea of viewing it as helpful.<\/p>\n

I am also well aware of how very privileged I am to get to work on so many things that I love like blogging and sewing and illustrations and I think it’s a huge contributing factor to my well-being. But sometimes, the aspects that inspire you can turn into something else – obligations, pressures, sources of insecurity. In some ways that was starting to happen to me: I obsessed that I wasn’t producing high-enough quality content on the blog and began to worry about stats (always a bad idea); I felt like my sewing was hitting a plateau and wasn’t good enough; I had a list a mile long of creative goals for which I felt unprepared and unskilled (very discouraging). The benefit of the relapse and then turning it around through my own efforts was that it jump-started my mojo and reminded me that I write and photograph and sew and draw because they delight and energize\u00a0me<\/em>, and that I needed to turn off my inner people-pleaser and harsh critic and just do what makes sense to me.<\/p>\n

Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble on and on — it’s a constant struggle to find that elusive balance. But I have a goal to reach full remission by the end of 2013 and I believe it’s achievable. I’m so close!<\/p>\n

So, no K quote or haiku today, but I’m wishing you a spectacular weekend full of healthy food, physical fitness and restful sleep.<\/p>\n

Oh, and before I forget: I loved reading about all the wonderful aspects of yourselves that you hold in high regard,\u00a0and the winner of the giveaway<\/a> is Kim T. You should have received an email from me already. Congrats!!!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Friday, my friends! So, this has been a bit of a crazy week, and I’m glad that it’s the weekend. One of the major highlights of my week was a doctor’s visit, as odd as that may sound. I’ve mentioned before that I have a health condition, and this requires that I get blood tests and check-ups approximately every three months. In many ways, it’s felt like a science experiment for about a year. When I last wrote about all the positive lifestyle changes I made back in January, things were looking up. I was well on my way to full remission without medication, and life as a whole was good. Then just before summer, I started to relapse. Due to a number of reasons that would bore you to tears, my stress levels started to increase, I was starting to feel ill more frequently and test results showed that my thyroid hormone levels were out of whack again. It wasn’t a life-threatening relapse, but it was enough to cause concern. I met with my doctor in June, and after some discussion, I had to admit that I had fallen off the health wagon. I’d been so busy that I wasn’t eating as well, I wasn’t exercising as much and I certainly wasn’t sleeping. All those great lifestyle changes I had made — though not abandoned entirely — had not been practiced nearly as enthusiastically. The relapse scared me and this was around the time I started my green juice regimen and got back on the dreaded treadmill (let’s just say exercise and I have had a long and contentious relationship). I’d like to point out that in a cruel turn of events, I’ve managed to gain weight by eating better and working out more. However, I’m feeling rejuvenated like I did back in January and again, the test results from this week confirmed that I am near full remission and even better than January. And once again, my doctor was amazed that I improved without medication — “You’re my poster child!” she told me. The relapse was a much-needed wake-up call and I’m determined not to start a cycle. The test results clearly show that if I’m mindful of the health trifecta (food, exercise and sleep) and reducing stress, a multitude of ailments can be managed effectively. It sounds so straightforward, yet it’s so challenging to maintain! I listened to this Ted Talk about stress, and I’ve been mulling over it a lot since there’s just no way of eliminating stress from life and I like the idea of viewing it as helpful. I am also well aware of how very privileged I am to get to work on so many things that I love like blogging and sewing and illustrations and I think it’s a huge contributing factor to my well-being. But sometimes, the aspects that inspire you can turn into something else – obligations, pressures, sources of insecurity. In some ways that was starting to happen to me: I obsessed that I wasn’t producing high-enough quality content on the blog and began to worry about stats (always a bad idea); I felt like my sewing was hitting a plateau and wasn’t good enough; I had a list a mile long of creative goals for which I felt unprepared and unskilled (very discouraging). The benefit of the relapse and then turning it around through my own efforts was that it jump-started my mojo and reminded me that I write and photograph and sew and draw because they delight and energize\u00a0me, and that I needed to turn off my inner people-pleaser and harsh critic and just do what makes sense to me. Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble on and on — it’s a constant struggle to find that elusive balance. But I have a goal to reach full remission by the end of 2013 and I believe it’s achievable. I’m so close! So, no K quote or haiku today, but I’m wishing you a spectacular weekend full of healthy food, physical fitness and restful sleep. Oh, and before I forget: I loved reading about all the wonderful aspects of yourselves that you hold in high regard,\u00a0and the winner of the giveaway is Kim T. You should have received an email from me already. Congrats!!!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-black-and-white","7":"category-illustration","8":"category-life","9":"entry","10":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6556"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6560,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556\/revisions\/6560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanaeishida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}