I want to say yes more

I made Ammon take me to get cupcakes last night.  Yup.  I was off for President's day, and managed to do an hour of yin yoga, walk for coffee with a friend, and go for my regularly scheduled run, so I felt like I deserved the treat.  I am a big fan of cupcakes.  It doesn't matter what kind they are, even the grocery store cupcakes with rainbow frosting and plastic rings on top will make me ridiculously happy every single time.  And really, I believe in full-sized cupcakes.  But Ammon, being the wise voice of reason, is almost always able to talk me down to minis, to the point where I know to not push my luck, and just order the pint-sized treats if they're available.

Those perfect little sweets got me thinking about what I really want to get out of this body of mine in the life that I'm allotted (I'm still on that philosophical bent after yesterday's yoga, apparently).  At one point not too long ago, I really wanted to have a 6-pack.  To have bikini bridges, and thigh gap, and the most perfectly bikini-ready booty my husband has ever seen.  Those goals helped me stay fit and motivated up until our wedding day, and for that, I am so glad.  But I realized that baked chicken and spinach salads do NOT make this girl happy.  That these goals were going to be incredibly challenging to meet, and that the journey to getting there may overshadow the rewards of the end result.  I want to enjoy my life with this body, not simply make a body I enjoy with my life.  And that left me re-evaluating over and over what I really think is important, and what goals are worth pursuing.  What goals will leave me with incredible, life-shaping experiences, and joy and contentment.

That train of thought led me to pondering a concept that has always been a challenge for me:  moderation.  I hear the word thrown around a lot, but I'm not sure that it's an easily understood concept, or one that many people actually find easy to follow.  I know that for me personally, these are huge challenges.  However, I want to say yes to all of the things.  Yes to 8 hours of sleep a night.  Yes to 30-60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise most days.  Yes to fruit.  Yes to cupcakes.  Yes to beer.  Yes to spontaneous dance parties.  Heck yes to carbs. 

Essentially, I want to get as much out of this life as I can possibly squeeze out of it.  I watched an incredible documentary about 4 guys who traveled all over the world riding their bikes, meeting people, and just enjoying all of the things.  At one point, they're talking to a local, who shares with them that the time is much later than they thought, and they still had to travel at least another hour.  Two of the cyclists had a pretty profound conversation after this brief exchange with the local about time.  One of the men shared that he believes that time is a construct humans create in order to prove that their lives are being passed.  But when you are out living your life, time becomes ephemeral, and matters much less.  What a way to live, right?  Where time doesn't matter, because what is more important are the experiences that we pick up along the way.

What have you been saying yes to lately?  What have you been dying to say yes to that you have denied yourself for too long?  What does your healthy life look like?