Happy Holidays from Cranky Fitness! Plus, Very Last-Minute Gift Idea

photo via James Vaughan

By Crabby McSlacker

Whatever winter holiday you celebrate, and whatever your favorite traditions are,

photo via James Vaughan

let's hope it was, or is, or will be, a lovely, peaceful, and joyous occasion! I'll be very curious if any of you are willing to share what your winter celebrations are like.

I've been blogslackin' again, but not just due to the buying-a-new-house-on-a-whim shenanigans. I'm back to working on my novel again. (Yay?)

But not being around as much as I used to be, I've been really missing everyone. You guys rock! You are part of my community, part of my family even, and I know exactly how weird that sounds. And so before I start the whole New Year's Resolution Let's Kick Ass in 2016 yada yada yada stuff, I want to sincerely wish you all the happiest of holidays. 

As you may know, here at the Crab and Lobster household, we are not religious. Nor do we believe that there is a  jolly fat guy in a red suit who circumnavigates the globe distributing presents with the help of flying reindeer. Thankfully, we have no children to indoctrinate with any improbable Christmas myths either. Because isn't that a weird cultural tradition when you think about it?  "Let's all lie to our kids about Santa Claus until they get old enough to figure out that we're full of shit. So when it's time for those "stay in school" and "don't smoke" and "be nice to everyone, even the unpopular kids" lectures, we'll have absolutely no credibility!

But again, no kids here, so what do I know?

So anyway, we celebrate "Christmas" because that's what we both grew up with. But it's a Christ-free, Santa-free, low key version of Christmas. "Christmas Lite."

It's mainly about connecting with family and friends.  And hell, let's be clear: it's also about desserts. And Presents. We've tried to be grown-ups and skip the over-eating and the presents part, but as it turns out? We like stuffing our faces with sweets and getting and giving presents.

Every year we say: "let's not do anything about presents this year!" "Let's not eat a whole bunch of cookies and cakes and candies until we're ready to explode!" And every year, we are totally lying.

Fortunately, we both grew up with the "open presents Christmas morning" tradition, not the horrible alternative, the jump-the-gun, Christmas Eve unwrapping.  I know this is customary in some countries and cultures, but WTF? You wake up Christmas morning and the holiday is already over? No, no, no, a thousand times no! That's just wrong. (For us!) 

We also drag Christmas morning out as long as possible. One person, opening one present at a time. Everyone watches and exclaims. Even if we are just opening gift cards for retailers we have specifically requested ahead of time.

This year, we are more geographically far-flung than usual, which is a bummer.  But we are hoping to have a happy Skype-mas and share the present unwrapping festivities via the interwebs.  (Fingers crossed).

But Speaking of Christmas Presents...

Do you sometimes find it hard to buy something that is useful enough not to be a total waste of money, yet not so everyday-useful as to be a bit... unexciting?

No, actually, they don't.

photo via James Vaughan

I can not recall the last time I fondled my vacuum-cleaner.

photo via James Vaughan

Or maybe you just want to buy yourself a present? But one that would actually reduce suicidal or homicidal ideation during a stressful holiday season?

Well, some of you may be ahead of me here, because as you may recall, I'm a big fan of Rick Hanson's programs, and his awesome Foundations of Well-Being Program is on sale if you sign up before January 1st! Plus, there's a 30-day money-back guarantee if you sign up and then flake out.

Am I an affiliate? Hell yes! But the reason I pimp for Rick is because he is insanely smart and helpful, not because I get an occasional check. I get tons of affiliate offers (God knows why, for an almost-dead blog, but whatever) and I turn 'em all down. Because apparently I'm too stupid to be motivated by money.

I could go on forever about what a great resource the program is, because not only do you get Rick's presentations, there are guest speakers, activities, quizzes, forums etc, plus a monthly live Q&A. 

This stuff really works: you CAN rewire your brain for more happiness.  But gosh, guess what? It takes a little practice, and consistency, and effort. Most people find that without some kind of structured program, it just doesn't happen.  

(Note: if you plug "Rick Hanson" in the search box at Cranky Fitness, you can read a scary, almost stalkery number of posts singing his praises. To sum up, Rick is (a) brainy (b) warm (c) funny (e) humble (f) pragmatic (h) straight-forward (i) entertaining and (j) a hell of a nice guy.

Could you, or anyone you love, benefit from a program like this? Then get a move on, and if you pay for the year upfront before January 1, you get a big discount. More info at the Foundations of Well-Being site.

Of course I can't find my affiliate log-in info, because I am a disorganized nincompoop, and waited 'til the last minute to put this post up. So if the link doesn't work, bear with me, I'll figure it out when Rick's peeps are back in the office. Just let me know if you try to sign up and it ain't happening. Also, I'm not exactly sure how you gift it. There's always the endearing home made gift certificate approach, right? And then you figure out the sign-up thing with your recipient once it's not a surprise. (Or heck, there may be a gift option, but I can't get very far in the sign-up process to test it because I'm already signed up).

Oh, and in other business news, I just wanted to alert and remind anyone who's thinking about going to the Prevention R3 Summit in Austin with me that it's coming up before too long: it's January 15th and 16th.  Remember when I blogged about the R3 Summit? It's a women's health summit with tons of speakers, demonstrations, etc, and now they've added Joan Lunden to the line-up too.  Maybe a little motivation for any New Years goals you may be contemplating? But our discount code has changed, it's now PVNR3SDCRANKY1. (But I'm NOT an affiliate on this one, just attending for kicks and possible free food).

So what do you guys do to celebrate (or not) the winter holidays? Any other good very last-minute gift ideas?

Meditation Motivation

photo: original source unknown.

Now it's all over the freakin' web.

By Crabby McSlacker

I know that meditation and other forms of mindfulness are good for me. But I have a horrible time sticking with any sort of regular practice. Anyone else?

When I do manage to make the time to meditate, I'm often obstinate, ornery, and resistant, probably because I have a very thinky mind. It loves to plot and scheme, to analyze and narrate, to fantasize about the future and reminisce about the past. The last thing my busy brain wants to do is shut the f-ck up and just be in the present moment.

So last time I checked in on this topic, I had bailed on meditating again.  Why? because I was under too much stress. Yep, what an awesome reason to ditch one of the most well-proven stress reduction methods on the planet!

But the good news is, I went back to it right after I wrote that post. (Blogging=free therapy.) And guess what? I think I'm finally getting a little more traction.

And, as you may recall from the post about why Cranky Fitness Sometimes Sucks, I can't resist sharing advice about things I am spectacularly untalented at.  So, here are a few things that helped me get my meditation mojo back again.

Stress Busting Weapons

photo upload: x-ray delta one

So lately I've been dealing with a little more stress than I'm accustomed to. And I've been finding out some really interesting things.

Like:  My stress management skills TOTALLY SUCK a lot of the time.   Funny how easy it is to think you've got a handle on stress management when you are not actually experiencing any stress.

But on the bright side:

1.  Rick Hanson's Foundations of Well-Being Program  is starting tomorrow, Tuesday the 7th! So if you've been dithering and want to get in at the very beginning, now is a great time to sign up.

(Disclosure: I get a commission if you do it by clicking here).

And,

2.  Some of the stuff I've learned over the years about handling stress is actually helping a lot.

And,

3.  I have still more tools that could be helping if I would just f--cking USE THEM.  Many of these I was actually making progress with, but now that they'd be particularly useful: Hello?!?!

But we'll see, I'm hoping a whole new turbo-charged "phase two" of emotional self-regulation is about to kick in.

So here's what's on the table; I'll be curious what you guys lean on when you need to get through challenging times.

Can Money Ever Buy Happiness?

Photo: x-ray delta

By Crabby McSlacker

OK, so I'm not foolish enough to suggest that money can generally buy happiness. Otherwise, why would so many rich people be miserable grasping insufferable poopy-heads?  But in my experience, there are indeed times when thoughtful financial investments can reap substantial experiential rewards.

For example, travel comes to mind as an awesome place to spend some cash in order to chase a bit of joy and excitement and fresh appreciation for life.  Which is the reason I am posting this the day we're taking off for an adventure in Europe!  (As you may recall, it is all the fault of the Dowager Countess of Grantham.)

True, I really did insist.

(And btw, this also means you can expect some awesome guest posts while I'm gone and innumerable tedious vacation pictures when I get back, and perhaps some mid-trip updates along the way, but you regulars already know the drill).

But here's the thing:  We got our vacation at a big discount, because we bought it way in advance, and took advantage of an early bird special.  And so any happiness we may have purchased will be twice as sweet!

So I thought I'd let you know about another great investment in happiness that's on sale:

Check out Rick Hanson's: The Foundations of Well-Being Early Bird Special!  It's $50 Off if you SIGN UP AND PAY BEFORE AUGUST 31st.

This course starts October 1.  I'm doing the whole thing too, and I'm hoping a few Cranketeers might want to join me and perhaps we can discuss along the way?  We can hang either at Rick's place (there are forums and maybe I can start a thread there) or I can riff over here and we can do the comment thing.

So what the heck is it? And why am I harping on about it when I should be finishing up the last of my packing?

Giveaway: Rick Hanson's Hardwiring Happiness and The FBG's Anti-Diet Book!

By Crabby McSlacker

So today we have a giveaway featuring 3 copies of each of these fine books...

So SIX Winners!

Plus the giveaway includes Canadians!

And yeah, this is the weirdest blog post formatting ever, and I shudder to think what happens on a mobile phone, but I couldn't figure out any other way to not put one book "on top" and the other "below."

Both are well-written helpful books by writers I'm already quite fond of: The "Fit Bottomed Girls," (Jennipher Walters and Erin Whitehead), and Rick Hanson.  So it would bug me not to treat them equally--even though I know the authors themselves don't give a f... um, fig! who goes on top.

At first glance these titles might seem to have nothing to do with one another. So one might wonder why on earth I've combined them for this giveaway.  (Aside from the fact they have the same publisher, which I did NOT know until after I already decided to put them together.)

But there's actually something interesting they have in common: