Escaping Technostress!

Technostress in action

In this day and age always being connected is simply a part of our lives.  Whether it's email, text or chat, we are always on, always available, and feel obligated to respond quickly. The feeling of anxiety that results from this constant connectedness is called technostress, a common ailment in our society. 

Kelly and I are quite guilty of this self imposed connectedness. Our smart phones are never far from our fingertips and our wandering eyes. Text messages easily interrupt conversations and the latest youtube video often distracts us from daily tasks. 

Having reflected on the feelings of anxiety that these little machines can invoke, we have decided to disconnect a few times per week. Walks to the grocery store, sushi dates, and some quiet house-time are cell phone-free. 
As Richard Carlson (author of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...) says: "Life isn't an emergency," your text messages, emails, and all the other joys that the internet provides, will still be there once you have done what you are doing. In most cases it is not an emergency. 

So disconnect from the rest of the outside world and spend some time with each other, take a moment to breath, and remember "life is not an emergency."

No Newlywed 10! Tips for Clean Eating

Clean eating is an important component of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Eat LOTS of vegetables, fruit, healthy fats and proteins. Avoid pre-packaged foods, refined sugars and refined grains. In general, try to eat food that is as close to it's natural form as possible. 

Often, this is easier said than done! With busy schedules finding the time to prepare clean meals can be a challenge. We're struggling with Andrew (our main chef) back at school!

Our solution? Make lots of food Sunday night. Package it all up in serving size containers so we can just grab-and-go throughout the week. Here's a sample of an Ebbers' Sunday night cooking session.

In the Oven: 

Spaghetti Squash and Pork Chops or which ever meat is on sale at our butcher.

On the stove:

Quinoa and Meat Sauce with as many vegetables as possible, using old vegetables and grating the ones we know are good for us but don't like - even broccoli stems! 

Cleaned, chopped and ready to use:

Herb Salad Mix, Baby Carrots, Grapes, Melon, Nuts, Broccoli and Cauliflower.

With this prepared, we can throw together:

• Spaghetti squash pasta
• Salads (I like to add quinoa and salsa to my salads)
• Quinoa stir fry
• Pork chops with steamed broccoli and cauliflower
• Meat sauce with veggies on the side
• Fruit, vegetables, and nuts for snacks

Remember changing eating habits doesn't happen overnight. The more clean food you eat the less "other" food you eat. Praise yourself and your partner for successes and let go of your slip ups :)

Wanderlust Festival: Ms. Ebbers' perspective

Last weekend Andrew and I went to Whistler for Wanderlust, a yoga music festival and so much more! I came home feeling inspired, full of gratitude, and sore! Now, before I completely expose myself for the flower-child I truly am…let me share highlights of this festival for me.

1. Doing AcroYoga! A mixture of acrobatics and yoga and is a so much fun to do with your partner. Stretch out and get in to some crazy positions and balances. I was bubbling with excitement and pride when we got into the throne pose (see left)!  

2. Being in Whistler! It is a beautiful backdrop with great restaurants, night-life, shopping, and people watching. Add love, yoga, music, smiles, and performers to the village and it is a magical place to be!

3. Yoga classes taught by inspiring local and international instructors. There were all types of classes, with options for beginners to advanced; one class we were hugging, dancing, and shaking to top-40 and house music and the next we were doing breath work and meditating to hypnotic live music.

4. Yoga with 2000 people guided by Seane Corne and Michael Franti. One of my friends aptly described it as a yoga flash mob, moving and breathing in unison with 2000 people! Seane Corne's socially conscious words brought tears of awareness, joy and love to more eyes than just mine! And the session wrapped up with 2000 people singing along with Michael Franti and telling their neighbours "I love you, I love you, I LOVE YOU."

5. Sharing one of my biggest passions with my husband! 

For Andrew's take on Wanderlust check out our next post.

Defining yourself as a healthy active INDIVIDUAL

Being married for just under 3 months my friends still warn me of the “newlywed ten” or the “first year fourteen,” they say that even I will gain weight and let myself go now that I am married.  

My first 10k race in 2008
8 months after I started running

But fitness and health are part of my identity, of who I am as an individual, and I will not lose that as I build my identity as a husband. 

I spent a great deal of my adult life single or dating, I was motivated to keep up my appearances, I was driven to keep myself busy and entertained, and I had the freedom to cook meals that served ME -no one else.  I spent my time rock climbing, rollerblading, killing WODs at CrossFit, and researching new paleo meals. 

Fitness and living well have become a part of who I am, and it can become a part of WHO YOU ARE too! 

Begin by adding something active to your life once a week. When I first got into fitness I started with running, it’s cheap and you can do it whenever is convenient for you.

Start off with a 5-10 minute warm up, increasing your intensity from easy to power walking pace.  Then jog for 1 minute and power walk for 5 minutes -repeat three times for a total of 18 minutes.  Wrap up with a 5 -10 minute cool down decreasing your intensity from power to easy walking. 

This is a great way to start and will only take about 30 minutes! Eventually you can try building up to a five-kilometer run, and guess what, you’ve already taken the first step to becoming an active healthy individual!

In sickness

Andrew here, I am sitting in my family doctor's office.  I am here to check in with him about an accident I was in in June 2011 - I was hit by a car while riding my bike home from my gym.  A piece of the bone of my foot was torn from my tibia at the tendon.  Or at least that is my understanding. 

I was off of my feet for four months.  I was distraught.  I felt like I was gaining weight (I wasn't) and that I was losing muscle mass (I was).  Then Kelly made some suggestions about some alternative exercises that I could do, we started doing very low impact water aerobics and swimming.  Limping to each destination and drowning short women in my waves.

It was very helpful for me to have my wife to show me new forms of physical activity.  It kept my spirits up and acted as a bridge until I was able to get back to my normal fitness routine. 

It is important to support and encourage your partner in difficult times of change, your support can prevents the Marriage 15!

Kelly Back Again with No Newlywed 10: Tip #1

We all want to look great on our wedding day...OK we all want to look better than great on our wedding day, we want to look fit, happy, healthy, and beautiful. This is great motivation for us to skip the dessert and fit in the gym. However, once the big day is over many people start to fit in the dessert and skip the gym.

Without my and Andrew's wedding day looming to give us extra motivation we decided to plan something new to motivate us! We signed up for the Super Spartan Race, an 8+ mile obstacle race in September 2012! We are training and preparing to kick butt in this race.

So chat with your partner about what WILL MOTIVATE YOU (as a couple) and make it happen! Maybe it's a 10k run? Triathlon? Beach trip? Kayaking or Hiking Adventure? and start training! 

Report your progress to each other, train together, encourage, support, and HOLD ONE ANOTHER ACCOUNTABLE! Start some good habits together that will last a lifetime! 

Picture courtesy of amy leigh PHOTOGRAPHY 

photomomentsbyamy@gmail.com

A Post Wedding Commitment

Allow me to introduce myself, Kelly...Ebbers, formally Kelly Davies, Kelly D. or KD! I am a youth worker, fitness instructor/enthusiast and as of June 9, 2012, Andrew's wife! 


Andrew and I started this blog so we could share our post-wedding-fitness tips...How can you avoid the "Newly Wed Ten" (when a newly-married person gains 10 lbs soon after the wedding, often not working out and eating too much, similar to the term "freshman 15" for first year college students, Urban Dictionary).

We'll be posting pics shortly and are making a public commitment that this is what we will look and feel like (if not better!) on our one year anniversary. We are committed to creating a shared identity as husband and wife that is healthy, active and balanced.

I look forward to sharing our tips for the "No Newlywed 10" (when a newly-married person gains ZERO lbs soon after the wedding and throughout their married life!) and I would love to hear how you've supported one another too!