We are in

It took just over a year, but we are living in the little house.

It's amazing when I think that we did all of this ourselves. Bruce did most of it. We had about a week (twice) with our good friend who came out and helped put the Hardie board up for siding, and each son took a turn helping also.

There is still a lot the we need to do but the first building (phase 1) is mostly done!  Since this photo was taken we have completed the stairs down but we have a punch list about a mile long which includes painting the exterior and putting in a few more shelves and finishing the interior window frames...

We have collected so much water that the tanks are full and, although I still conserve, it's good to know that we are not in any danger of running out in the next several months.

I love my kitchen sink.  I'm happy to have a proper stove with a double oven again.

And a dishwasher.  I'm glad to have a dishwasher again.

Now if we could do a little something about the mud.  That's on the list, but I don't think it's going to be dealt with very soon.

It's not that you don't have time.

We all have 24 hours in the day, right?  The same number of hours are available to everyone.

And yet, "I don't have time" is the number one reason that people say they don't exercise. I think it's more likely that the real reason people don't workout 's that exercise is uncomfortable.

And for some people, it's not just uncomfortable, it's very painful. And when it's painful we have to avoid it. We're taught to listen to our body to avoid getting injured so what could be wrong with that?

We all do whatever we can to avoid pain, right?  We watch out for cars before we cross the street and we don't touch a hot stove, and avoid cutting ourselves with sharp cooking implements.

The truth is, exercise is uncomfortable and most people don't want to be uncomfortable.

And the truth is most people don't want to lose muscle and bone mass, either.

The good news here is that there is a way to exercise that is not painful.  It takes a little bit longer to reach your weight loss or fitness goals, but you can train your body gently first and get it used to doing a little bit of work and then slowly increase the amount of work you do so that you can avoid injury.

Eventually, you'll want to be uncomfortable. You'll look forward to the struggle of lifting a heavier weight or walking (or running!) and extra mile.

But first be gentle with yourself.

If you haven't been exercising, try doing sun salutations. Not the jump-back kind. The gentle kinds.  Even try it in a chair, sitting down. Go for a walk. Slowly increase your mileage and then increase your speed.

Give yourself 3 months to get used to moving and then you'll see that you get used to it.

I have some very gentle sun salutations on video on FB if you you'd like to try those...

https://www.facebook.com/RasaYogaTherapy/videos