I have been meaning to write a follow-up to this post for over a year. I haven’t been able to find the words but now I finally have.

A couple of weeks ago I went to a 6 AM yoga class. The first one I’d attended in months. At the end of the class the instructor read the article “Eight things I learned from 50 naked people” to us while we were lying in savasana. One thing really stuck out to me:

“Your weight is the least interesting thing about you”

In the last year since I wrote my 10 pounds post I have gotten better about letting my obsession with weight – and specifically losing weight – go. But some days are still a battle. Some days I still feel “fat”.

In the last year I’ve gone back-and-forth day-to-day and week-to-week on being happy with my weight, wanting to lose 5 pounds, wanting to lose 10 pounds, taking pictures of my food to be more aware of what I eat, tracking my food through My Fitness Pal, having tea every night and avoiding dessert, binging until I feel sick to my stomach, having great eating days and having crappy eating days, having good body image days and having bad body image days.

Where I am right now is I haven’t weighed myself in about 3-4 weeks and I’m overall happy with how I feel and how I look. I haven’t been tracking my food and have been doing my very best to eat intuitively. Right now I feel good about my body. That might change in a week or a month. I’m starting to be more accepting of the fact that I will have good days and weeks and bad days and weeks. I likely will never feel 100% comfortable in my skin 100% of the time. And I’m OK with that.

At this point, I’m choosing to believe that like life, the journey of getting “there” (even if you never truly get there!) is the most important part.

So the other day I mentioned that my life was the same ‘ole thing a lot. While this is true, there are still lots of things I love about my day-to-day life. While I love having trips and big events to work towards and look forward to I also think it’s important to love EVERY day life.

Tying in with a Friday Favourites post here are a few of the small things that make me happy on a daily basis!

<3 Coffee! I love coffee. I love the smell when I’m grinding the beans in the morning, the smell when it’s brewing, the lovely light brown colour it turns when I add cream, the feeling I get when I close my eyes and take a little sniff before having my first sip, the heat of it going down my throat and into my belly. Yes, I clearly have a bit of a love affair with coffee

<3 The Pets! I know I gush about them a lot on the blog and you guys are probably going to start thinking I’m a crazy animal lady but our pets really do bring me so much day-to-day joy. I laugh out loud within 15 – 20 minutes of getting out of bed almost every morning because of some crazy antic they are getting up to with one another!

<3 My Short Commute! I am so glad I live in a smaller city where my commute to work is only about 10 minutes of driving time. Last night there was an accident and it took me almost 40 minutes to get home (gasp) and I was going crazy! I don’t know what I would do if I had a long commute.

<3 Walks with Chloe! Even though some days I really don’t want to I always get out with Chloe for 30 – 60 minutes for a walk or game of fetch right after work. The trails by our house are beautiful and usually within a few minutes of starting our walk I feel relaxed. It’s nice to get some fresh air and movement right when I get home from work and Chloe LOVES it.

<3 Running & Yoga! I guess I obviously wouldn’t spend so much time doing something I don’t like! I adore my weekly runs and yoga classes and always look forward to them. I feel the most relaxed after a yoga class and the most happy after a hard run. My perfect day starts with a run and ends with a yoga class!

<3 Yoga Pants! Even though my work clothes will feel fine all day the second I walk through my door I have to get them off immediately because they suddenly feel unbearable. I love pulling on a comfy pair of yoga pants and a hoodie when I come home in the evenings!

<3 My Life Planner! I love scheduling out my weeks in my life planner. It’s so colourful and fun that even looking at the super busy weeks makes me feel happy. It’s also helped me be about 100 X more organized!

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What kinds of day-to-day things make you happy?

If you like reading my ‘Day in the Life’ posts check out Emily’s blog to read what Sunday, December 18 was like for me!

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After my top 11 in 2011 post I got a lot of comments about number 11, which was the contentment I felt with my life this past year. I feel content in my job, my home, my relationship, my activities, my family. Of course I still had some ups and downs last year, but overall I am very happy and content with where I am. I feel happy more often than I feel sad and that certainly hasn’t been true for every year of my life.

While on my mat in child’s pose with sweat rolling off my forehead yesterday morning I had a bit of a revelation; I think my regular yoga practice in 2011 is what helped lead me to reach this contented place.

I kicked off 2011 with a 30-day hot yoga challenge. I spent 41 hours in 30 days sweating it out on my mat. It was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done physically and mentally. I really wanted to do the challenge again this year but I start marathon training this week (more on that tomorrow) and I know that attempting to do 30 hot yoga classes in 30 days plus do my first month of marathon training would drive me very close to insanity, so I’m opting out this year. I’m kind of sad about it because I think kicking off 2011 with a determined focus on yoga and then continuing to practice 1-2 times per week throughout the year really did amazing things for me.

I felt better about my body than I ever have before.

I have become so much better about rolling with the punches.

I feel like a more calm, relaxed version of my former self.

Now-a-days when I want to freak out about little things that go wrong I’m better at reminding myself that it’s already happened, there’s nothing I can do about it so now I need to move on. I’m also better at looking at things with the 10-10-10 approach. Will this matter in 10 minutes? 10 days? 10 years? 99% of the time the thing I’m about to freak out about will NOT matter in 10 minutes, let alone 10 days or 10 years.

When I’m in the hot room, I’m there and I’m focused. I always leave my yoga classes with a calm and centred feelings and lately I’ve been working on applying that more to my day-to-day life as well.

I so often see people getting so upset about things outside of their control. I still do it often myself. But the fact is it’s not worth it. It’s not worth the stress on your body, your mind and your heart. If something is done, it’s done. There is no go-back-in-time-button to change things. I’ve realized this more over the past year and it’s helped me be more accepting. Like with the hacking incident last week. It’s over, it’s done, all I can do is move forward.

I wasn’t sure where this new outlook on life came from, and I just thought I was getting “wiser” as I got older but now I think that my yoga practice has a lot to do with it. I’m looking forward to deepening my practice even more in 2012 and seeing where it takes me.