This post is a bit late, but things have  been busy with the holiday. With this past Thursday being Christmas Eve, I was not as focused on Shaking It Up, but it was still a successful day.

The first thing that I shook up was breakfast. Not because I wanted to, but I kind of had to. I was planning on making vegan Cocoa Bite Balls as a dessert to bring to my cousin’s for Christmas. The recipe contains oatmeal, and there was not enough for both the dessert and for my breakfast that morning. Since you have figured out by now that I am generally a creature of habit, it would come as no surprise that I pretty much always eat the same thing at breakfast. My preferred breakfast usually is oatmeal, but I needed to eat something different so that I would have enough for the dessert. (More on the dessert later….) My breakfast turned out to be quite delicious, and held me until lunch. That was also shaking it up, because I tend to snack frequently throughout the day.

And now back to the vegan Cocoa Bite Balls—-

I always bring the same thing for Christmas at my cousin’s — a loaf of cranberry orange bread. It always comes out well, and everyone seems to like it.

For some background information, this past Thanksgiving I made 2 different kinds of cranberry sauce. I made a traditional cranberry sauce plus a cranberry orange relish. I considered that to be shaking it up. I was informed by a family member that bringing 2 cranberry dishes was not really shaking it up, it was just more cranberries. Well first of all, Shaking It Up is all relative (no pun intended.) For me, bringing 2 different cranberry dishes at Thanksgiving met my parameters for Shaking It Up, but I took the suggestion to heart, and decided to bring a second dish  for Christmas — totally different from the cranberry bread.

So the dessert I chose was vegan Cocoa Bite Balls. They were made with cocoa, banana, dates, figs, sugar, flaked coconut, and something you would never guess — carrots! It does emphasize the principle that I generally follow of never making a new dish for company or to bring to someone’s house. Anyway, everyone was very polite and had one, but I did notice that nobody said “wow, these are great — can I have another one?”

The bottom line is that it is good to Shake It Up. Sometimes it comes out well and sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s ok.

Let me know if you did anything to Shake It Up on Thursday!

First of all, I am wondering if anyone did anything today to Shake Up their routine. It would be fun to share if you did.

When I started my day today, I really wasn’t sure what I would do. I started out with an initial plan, but I changed my mind first thing this morning. It wasn’t until I was brushing my teeth and put my toothpaste down on the counter — just for a minute — that I realized what I was going to do today to Shake It Up.

I tend to put things down somewhere, and instead of just putting it away, it sits out. It might be a tube of toothpaste that sits out the bathroom counter, a magazine waiting to be read, some things that are sitting on my desk at work. There are often papers, a stray paper clip or rubber band, an extra pen or pencil etc that are on my desk at work — there just for a minute…….

So today I decided to put things away right away, instead of having them sit out for what might be a couple of minutes or a couple of weeks. Anyway, you get the idea.

This meant I needed to put things away right away — like my calculator at work goes in a certain spot, the pens go into the pencil cup, the sticky notes go back in the drawer.

It also meant that some items that had been sitting out on my desk for awhile needed to get put away, like a binder that has been sitting out for a couple of days.

This was not an earth shattering Shake It Up day. Nobody really noticed that I did anything differently. But, it did help me be aware of a habit that could be changed with just some self awareness.

So let’s go back to the question as to whether you did anything differently in your day today. I have had people tell me that they have done something to Shake It Up on a Thursday, and I applaud them for getting out of their usual routine.  At any rate, it is fun to Shake It Up!

🙂

My plan for the day was to shake things up by doing as much as possible with my right hand, since I am left handed. It turned out to be harder than I thought.
Here are the high points (or low points) of the day:
– Brushing teeth and combing hair — a challenging way to start the day. It took some thought, but it worked out ok.
– The salad bar at the grocery store this morning — a bit messy trying to put the lettuce etc into the food container. I don’t think I made too much of a mess though. At least nobody was staring at me.
– Eating — this didn’t go so well. It actually took a fair amount of concentration. I realized that I was not enjoying eating my food, so I decided that I had made a pretty good effort at it, and decided to go back to eating with my left hand instead.
– Putting on my coat — Have you ever noticed that when you put on your coat, you always put a certain arm in first and then fling the coat around behind you? I never really thought about that before today. I tried to put my coat on starting with the other side — that was probably the most difficult thing that I did today.

So all in all, I did shake things up today. It was an interesting experiment, and probably good for my brain to get out of the usual routine.

I hope you had a nice Shake It Up Thursday.

It would be fun to hear if you did anything differently to Shake It Up today!

🙂

So, here is what I have been thinking — I am left handed, and I do just about everything left handed — eat, stir a pot, throw a ball (to the dog, who I am pretty sure is ambidextrous), write, etc. You get the idea. I was thinking the other day how it work to try to do most things right handed instead. It would certainly get my brain engaged in what I am doing.  So this week’s Shaking It Up may not be as obvious to other people, but it should be interesting to see how it goes.

Let me know if you decide to do something differently this Thursday. It may be doing the same thing as me, or something else. Have a great day!

🙂

So I hope you had a nice Shake It Up Thursday. I did a few things differently today to Shake Up my routine.

For starters, I wore a very different outfit. I tend to wear the same type of clothes to work all of the time — jean style pants, a long sleeve shirt and a fleece vest. I usually wear gym shoes, color coordinated to match my outfit of course, because I am pretty much on the go all day at work. So I decided today that I would wear a skirt and pair of ankle boots. It was definitely different enough that people noticed.

You know how you usually sit at the same spot when you sit down to eat? Well, I certainly tend to do that. So when it was dinnertime I sat down in my usual spot, then said “oh yeah, Shake It Up Thursday,” and I got up and changed spots. The dining room looks different from the other side of the table.    🙂

I already have plans for what I am going to do next week, and I will fill you in when I write the next blog. Just suffice it to say that I am left handed, but I ate lunch today with my right hand. It didn’t go very well……..

Let me know if you did anything outside of your usual routine today to Shake It Up. It would be fun to share what others have done.  And if you didn’t do anything for Shake It Up Thursday this week, there is always next week!

🙂

So sometimes I know a few days in advance what I will do on a given week to Shake It Up on Thursday….. and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I decide when I wake up on a Thursday morning, and sometimes I don’t even know then. This is a week that I don’t have anything already planned. Not knowing in advance helps to keep it spontaneous, and keeps the pressure off. So I might decide to take a different route to work, or wear something that has been sitting in my closet a long time, or change up one of my routines at work. Whatever it is that I choose to do, it will get me just a bit out of my routine.

So you can think about what you may want to do this week to Shake It Up. It doesn’t have to be anything big, just something out of your usual routine. No pressure — just keep it fun!

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