Allergies, allergies, allergies! (Or a cold.)

Hola, dumplings. I hope everyone is having a nice TGIF morning. Thus far, I've spilled hot tea on myself, sneezed about 74 times, and contemplated leaving Stella outside with a "Free to a mediocre home" sign around her neck. I just turned on my current favorite playlist though, so I'm optimistic that my mood will improve shortly.

This weekend, I realized that I've let a few aspects of my life fall by the wayside this past month. I haven't been eating as well as I'd like to. I think I'm in a bit of a food rut. Eating seasonally has been fantastic, and I definitely recommend it. However, after a winter of limited fruit and veggie options, I'm getting really antsy for the spring produce to show up. As a result, I haven't been eating as many fruits and vegetables as I usually do. I'm just a little sick of eating the same 5 things all winter. I also haven't been doing yoga nearly as often as I would like to. I got in the habit last year of doing yoga every day. I've recently dropped down to once or twice a week. Part of that is because, as of November (when I got a new car and started doing solo dog walks instead of huge group walks), I went from walking a couple miles a day to about ten miles. I'm just more a little more tired, and I'm getting more exercise, so it didn't seem as necessary. I still love me some yoga though, and it's really good for my hamstrings, which get pretty tight from all the walking. And, I've been a bad rat mom lately and haven't been snuggling with the rats as often as I should. All these things had been piling up and making me feel kinda crappy, so this week I resolved to work on them.

Then I got sick. Well, I don't know if I'm sick or if it's just allergies. I'm outside for about five hours every day, so I get hit pretty hard with allergies. It doesn't really matter what the cause - the result is I'm a sneezy, coughing, tired, congested mess.

At first I thought, "Sinuses be damned, I'm gonna asana/carrot munch/rat snuggle like a boss!" Here's how that went.

I tried to do yoga. I couldn't hold any of the poses because my sneezes kept throwing my balance off. After face planting into your own snot about three times, the whole serenity kick kind of dies.

After dwindling my food supplies down to some rice and pasta sauce, I decided to go grocery shopping. Now, I don't know about everyone else, but when I have a cold (or allergies), my brain operates like I've just downed two beers. Despite having a list, my sickly brain decided, upon arriving at the grocery store, to just free ball it. Forty five minutes later, I returned home with kale, wine, and several types of beans. Oh, good, Katie. Just what you need to get you through a week of healthy meals. Perrrrrrfect.

I tried to hold the rats. I forgot that I'm allergic to them. (I'm allergic to all rodents. For some reason, I've had rodents for the past six years. Obviously.) Usually, as long as I don't touch my face while I hold them, and wash my hands after, I'm fine. Unfortunately, rat allergies + pollen allergies (or a cold) = nonstop sneezing that fills my heart with misery and the rats with terror. Sigh. Back in the cage you go, little guys.

It's evening out a little bit. I went back to the store the other day and grabbed a few more essentials. Now I can make myself huge ass protein-packed salads for dinner (with spinach, not kale. I used all the kale to make kale chips. Of course.) and pumpkin oatmeal for breakfast, so at least my diet's a little more balanced. And I realized that I can still stretch out and use very little energy by doing this:

Splits against the wall for the win.

As for the rats... sorry, boys. I've been giving them lots of people food to cheer them up. I should be able to get back to regularly scheduled cuddle time in a few days. 

So things are looking up. Here's hoping I don't undo all my health progress when I go out drinking tonight...