Monday, January 19, 2015

Better starts now, for real


Do you have the best of intentions about taking care of yourself, but somehow never really do? That would be me. I deal with biggies when forced to, like my frozen shoulder (which is now mostly defrosted). The small, everyday ways to treat myself right, though, fall by the wayside. I rarely take ten seconds in the morning to put on hand lotion. Instead of sitting down at our kitchen table and enjoying a nice lunch on a day off from work, I'll gobble something then scurry around the house doing chores. I'm more likely to be running myself ragged than going for a run. Sigh if this sounds familiar.

So when my friend Stephanie invited me to an event last week with the theme Better Starts Now, I thought: YES. Please. It's the new catchphrase for Citizen Watch, the idea that it's always possible to make something better and there's no time like the present. Ahem. A group of bloggers stood in the company's Times Square store, amidst glorious watches that run on Eco-Drive technology (as in, you never need a battery). The first watch I ever owned was a Citizen—my dad got me one for elementary-school graduation—so they tend to give me the warm fuzzies.


A string of guest experts gave better-starts-now tips. A trainer showed a few quickie exercises; a stylist demonstrated fast makeup tricks (liquid liner on your top lid is your friend); a nutritionist shared healthy snacks (Mary's Gone Crackers pretzels pack brown rice, quinoa and other good stuff and they're pretzels!); and an executive from Echo scarves showed how to tie one on. I loved the wristlet:



Scarves are exactly the sort of thing I never bother with, because a minute more in the morning tends to be one minute too much. But reality struck as I stood there and acknowledged that it takes all of 15 seconds to tie a scarf, and that life is too short to never do nice things for yourself.

This is not the part where I announce that my entire existence is going to change, AS IF, but that's exactly the point. Treating myself better is never going to happen if I think if it as something that I'll just going to start doing all at once. It's about little moves, something I should well know by know considering all the celebratory inchstones of Max's life.

I haven't done anything with a scarf yet but on Sunday morning, I dabbed some glow-you-up lotion on my face. I took a minute to twirl my curls so they looked more shaped and less like limp noodles. It took an extra three minutes and nobody keeled over because breakfast oatmeal was delayed. I didn't have anywhere particularly exciting to go, unless you consider hitting the supermarket a thrill, but I sure felt good.

Better. Starts. Now.

Disclosure: Attendees at the event received a Sunrise watch and a scarf, but the enthusiasm here is all my own.

4 comments:

  1. I have really been trying to make myself a better person, and this post has allowed me to see its really the little things not the big things.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, you need to be kind to yourself! The watch -- cute! Wearing a scarf around my wrist? Ummm... I don't think so. I think it would be filthy by the end of the day. But being good to yourself -- definitely! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love it! Better Starts Now makes me think what do i want to be better at

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm hearing you! Late this afternoon I noticed that even though I had been close enough to a mirror to put contact lenses in - I didn't notice yesterday's mascara smudged under my eyes! I promise myself that tomorrow I will take a second look in the mirror. I may even give myself a minute to apply new mascara!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for sharing!