I’m home roasting coffee beans these days. My son decided that I should get back to coffee roasting and bought me a new roaster for Christmas.

Since I’ve been home for several weeks and have more time, I’ve been roasting frequently. One of the things we discussed in our podcast episode 57, Improve Your Healthy Immune System with Dr. Victoria Shaw, was doing things by hand.  Nobody brought up roasting coffee beans but I think it works.

How does it work to roast your own coffee beans? It’s not difficult and there are a variety of ways to do it. I have a Fresh Air SR540 roaster which is a small hot air roaster. Some people use popcorn poppers to roast their beans, which is one of the cheapest ways to roast coffee. Others buy larger drum roasters that cost considerably more than what I’m using.

I buy green coffee beans on the Internet. The advantage of buying green coffee beans is that you can buy a variety of beans from different parts of the world and try them. I usually do a bit of research on the beans that I’ve bought so I can see what kind of roast works best for them. Just like buying coffee at the store, you can roast your beans in a light, medium, or dark roast.

Green coffee beans still have moisture in them. Roasting dries the beans and then they “crack.” The cracking sounds a  lot like popcorn popping. Coffee beans will crack twice if you roast it long enough. I might go through the second crack if I’m going for a dark roast.

Here’s how I roast the coffee beans. I measure out the green coffee beans into the roaster.

I adjust the settings on the roaster and then roast the beans. Once the beans have made it through the first crack, I then judge by appearance and sound how much longer to roast. As the beans roast, they change color.

First they become a yellowish color and then begin to turn brown. If they’re roasted to a dark roast, they develop an oily sheen to them.

Each session takes somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes. Once the beans have roasted to the level I want, I pour the beans into a metal colander and let them cool.

Finally, I pour them into a glass container and let them sit for at least 24 hours. When I’m ready to make coffee with them, I grind them in my coffee grinder and use them in the same way I use beans I bought from the store.

It’s fun trying different beans from different parts of the world and then roasting them to different degrees of darkness to determine which I prefer. If you have a chance, give home roasting coffee beans a try. Let me know how it goes for you.

I know I’m not the only one. I need to work on improving my schedule. Something about this stay-at-home pandemic life is paralyzing to my motivation and ambition. Has it happened to you too?

It has been about a month and a half since I’ve been staying at home and not “seeing” people. I’d like to say that I’m finally starting to accept the new normal.

Do I like it? No. And some days are easier than others. I’m looking for new ways to adjust and flourish.

• To do lists include the simple things now. (clean the kitchen, do the laundry, take a walk)
• Getting a strong hold over my thoughts, which has always been challenging, is my focus.
• I can’t believe it has been only 6 weeks since I wrote this blog post. Look at how upbeat it is! I especially scoff at learning a new skill.
• Wait! That’s negative! I promised myself I’d write something uplifting and positive!

Mental Strength

Honestly, this has been harder for me mentally than I expected. (Cue the pity party.) I actually need to count my blessings and quit feeling sorry for myself.

When I’m not doing the best mentally, the physical part of being fit and strong starts to suffer. I don’t eat right. I tend to gain weight. I’m not drinking enough water. I’m not doing my regular workouts. I go to my gym (virtually) but quit the workout during the warm up. Wow! What’s up with that?

The odd thing is, while things feel out of my control, but there are still so things that ARE TOTALLY IN MY CONTROL.

Logically I know that there is no reason I shouldn’t be doing what I need to do to stay healthy, fit and strong. There are so many ways to look at improving my schedule:

• Why am I not drinking my water?
• Why am I not having the salad – that I happen to love – for my lunch everyday? It’s the one with lots of cut up veggies, a can of tuna and my favorite dressing of EEOV, cider vinegar and lemon juice?
• Why do I not take advantage of the video workouts?
• Why am I not getting my 10,000 steps, before noon each day?

I can easily watch, learn more and grow my yoga practice…just stop asking why and just do it. I KNOW when I get more physical exercise it helps my mental game.

And I have 11 stair steps in my house. Easy enough to do them (and get the laundry done and even clean out some clutter in the basement.)

It’s all mental for me. I am healthy. No cold or flu or anything to stop me from exercising and taking care of myself.
Alright…, it’s time to get off my pity party and take control of my fitness and healthy eating! Improving my schedule is the first step. This week I am going to do things better.

My Get IT Together Plan:

1. First thing in the morning – get some exercise. Stop pretending I’m going to get to it in the afternoon.
2. Track my food. Write it down. Even if I don’t eat “perfectly healthy” (ha ha) I’m going to keep track of what I eat.
3. Before I go to bed, review the day and give myself a pep talk for the next day.

On thing I’m really looking forward to is the Becoming Elli private zoom call. This will be our 3rd one. Each time, after the video call, I definitely had more energy and a brightened outlook. If you’d like to join us, you’ll need to be a member of our private Facebook group. We require that you answer 3 questions and Jill & I check out your profile keep the group legit.

What are you doing to improve resiliency during the COVID-19 stay at home situation? I’d love to hear your strategies and I’ll keep sharing mine.

There’s been so much talk about taking care of ourselves during the COVID-19 pandemic. I don’t know about you but I’m feeling emotionally drained. It’s hard to get motivated to do the things I normally do to stay fit and strong. Strength training has been erratic. Cardio has been not as vigorous as usual. TV watching is up; exercising is down. Eating is up; vegetable consumption is down. This is a challenge, that’s for sure.

I am struggling with my emotions, fluctuating from feeling fine to feeling grief and sadness and then moving on to anxiety. Such a great time, really.

Are you fighting the same battles? I think many of us are struggling with taking care of ourselves.

I’ve been trying to think of what I can do to increase my motivation and improve my emotional well-being. Here’s some ideas.

Podcasts

I’m trying to keep myself in a positive frame of mind so I’m trying to listen to upbeat, inspiring podcasts or just entertaining ones. I’m avoiding those that are scary or gloomy.

Here’s an idea: pick out a few old episodes of Fit Strong Women over 50 and listen to them.

I’m hoping to one day be able to resume traveling so I may listen to Janet Palcko discuss her adventure on the Camino de Santiago. There’s also the talk with Denise Wakeman about adventure travels. I think setting a travel goal for the future might be an incentive to stay active.

If you’re struggling with eating, check out some of the episodes we’ve had about healthy eating. If you’re feeling unmotivated, look at some of the episodes about motivation.

Blog

Don’t forget that there’s also the blogposts on the Becoming Elli website. Do some reading to help inspire you.

There are many posts so use the search feature to figure out what you want to read.

You can find lots of posts about food, exercise, and motivation.

Meal Planning

This might be a good time to plan your meals in advance. If you know what you’re going to eat, you might be tempted to restrain yourself from junk food.

Check out some of the recipes in our Fitness Food recipe e-book if you’re stumped for ideas.

Since most of us are avoiding grocery stores, doing as much planning ahead as we can is probably a good idea anyway.

I find myself wondering what I can do with what I have on hand. I recently found My Fridge Food, an interesting website where you select the ingredients you have on hand and it gives you recipe ideas.

Daily Goals

If thinking about traveling or what you’re going to do some time in the future isn’t working for you, try to set daily goals.

I have committed to hitting my 10,000 steps per day. I wear my Fitbit and try to keep track of what I’m walking.

I’ve also tried to do something fitness related every day. Sometimes that is just going for a walk (see how that ties in with the first goal?) Other days, I do some cardio such as going for a run or riding my indoor bike. I’ve also tried to do some online exercise classes. They’re better than nothing but they do make me miss my gym.

Staying in Touch

I am not a person who talks a lot on the phone but lately I find myself calling people just to check in. Emailing people is also good. Even a quick text is a good idea.

We need to keep our social networks alive even as we isolate ourselves.

A friend of mine started an online book club so we’re going to meet via Zoom to discuss the book. That should be fun.

The Becoming Elli community has had a couple Zoom get togethers. It’s been enjoyable to hear what others are doing and to put faces to names.

Conclusion

Let me know what you’re doing to stay fit and strong. I think that means in ways beyond the physical too. Are you exercising? If so, what are you doing? Are you figuring out healthy ways to eat? We need to support each other as we work on taking care of ourselves.