Here we are 1/3 of the way through 2019…

So I guess I just want to check in see how my life’s going see how your life’s going. I feel like with spring there is always this new wonderful energy everyone feels, but also it is a time when maybe those new life goals we’ve set for our self really disappear into next year’s problem, again. There are so many things that I’ve made the choice to put on myself this year like attention to self care and well being, health, accountability just to me, and saving. Chances are, well not even chances because I’ve already messed up, that this year won’t be exactly as I hoped or planned but the most important thing I’m hoping to take away from this year is the ability to jump back into a commitment I’ve made even if I fall off occasionally. It’s only a loss if I give up right? So where are you in your goals for the year? Has anything just completely derailed you? Here’s where I’m at:

• I worked out six days a week through January and half of February and then I got busy, went on vacation and haven’t made the jump back to that yet. So this week I’m jumping back in and hopefully it’ll stick for a while.
• I decided to be sober in January, but drank way too much in February and March. Having said that I am planning on at least two if not four more months of sobriety throughout this year. I really enjoyed the way it made me feel physically and mentally, and although I don’t foresee giving up drinking completely I think a break every now and then is very beneficial.
• I’ve still been using a journal to put all the feelings in as well as one for to-do lists, one for dreams, and one that has writing prompts. Most weeks I hit my twice a week goal for those because I find myself wanting to let it out and see where my thoughts take me without having to deal with the emotional repercussions of internalizing it all. As of right now I can’t see giving that up ever. I love to write anyway and I’m not good at talking about things or letting things go so it has been a tremendous help to me.
• I’m feeling optimistic about the upcoming work season and hope it brings great things. Only time will tell about that one.
• My diet ( read what I eat not a special diet I’m on) hasn’t been horrible but it certainly could be better which is one of the reasons I agreed to go keto with my husband. Today is day two of keto so I don’t have a lot to tell you except that we did our research and shopping before we started so that we would have the food, drinks, and supplements we felt we would need to do this safely and successfully. If you are doing any type of health and diet work I highly recommend getting one or two apps to help track your exercise, food, water, and specifically for keto one that shows macro counts. We chose keto because the meal prep and food availability for this is something we thought would fit easily into our lives as they become more and more hectic throughout the summer. I recommend always doing research on things that can affect your health before you do them to decide if it is the right fit for you, your needs, your goals, and if you can safely partake in it.

My journals (from top to bottom: To-do, writing prompts, dreams, and everyday life.

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Spring is in the air!

Hi there! I hope today finds you in a positive place. I like so many others feel like as the sun comes back and the air starts to warm that I have more energy and am ready to take on more in life. If that’s you too it’s alright. There are days all throughout the year, not just winter, that I lose the battle with feeling like doing nothing and I don’t just mean working out I mean dog walking, house work, and even hobbies. That’s okay too as long as we don’t let one day become all of the days. It’s okay to give yourself a break or some time to pamper yourself. For me this year is truly about listening to my mind and body and having more self love.

As I’ve discussed before I’ve been trying to eat better and workout, but this is the time in the year when all that effort seems to start to fall off the radar for me. I get tired, busier, and maybe even discouraged but this is the year that I am working through those feelings and pushing forward. I hope that if you’re in a similar place knowing other people are struggling with you helps you work through it all.

Here are the things that are working for me:

• Keeping a to-do journal so that it isn’t all in my head
• Keeping a journal so that the good and the bad experiences and feelings in my life have a place to go. To be worked out on paper a bit so I can help myself tell what are legitimate concerns and what things I am overthinking.
• Eating two meals a day instead of three. There are a million opinions on how often you should eat and how much, but you have to do what works for your body and lifestyle. I have to be honest with you all I love food and sometimes if I would let myself I could eat a ridiculous amount. So eating two big meals leaves me feeling fulfilled and satisfied.
• Variety in my workouts. Finding new things so I don’t get to a place where I dread working out. For me this is super important because I lack focus and the will power to force myself to do things I really don’t want to do.

Recently it has been brought to my attention that my husband would like to get healthier and we are both in the position that we should lose at least fifty pounds more for me than him based on our builds. He has shown interest and has been researching the keto diet which has become very popular and although controversial I believe for people that have a significant amount of weight to lose and have a carb heavy diet that this diet is a good way to get on the right track. So as soon as we can start grocery shopping again( we live on an island and cannot shop frequently in the winter) we will be giving it a try.

Looks like I made it.

It is officially February. Phil has told us spring is around the corner! I finished my month without alcohol with no problems at all! I am on day 33 of yoga and successfully completed a month of doing at least five days of cardio each week!

Here is what I learned from taking some time off drinking.

– When you decide to put your time and focus on other things the want to drink and it’s place in your priorities quickly becomes low.

-There were only a couple of times in social settings that I really wanted to join in but I had made it so far that I didn’t want to give up.

– Everyone was really great about taking no as no and not putting me down for taking a dry month. I even learned that several people I know take a couple of dry months every year.

About working out:

– I have decided to turn my yearly month of daily yoga into a year of daily yoga and I finally bought a high quality mat for myself.

– The cardio I have been doing is separate from daily steps, dog walking, and work. Each day is a period of 20-45 minutes geared toward improving strength, stamina, and getting your heart rate up.

– I was weighing and measuring weekly, but have decided that every other week is a better amount of time.

– I am going on a cruise next week and intend to work out daily there as well. I have made the plans and packed the proper equipment to get me through the cruise.

– I live in a place that does not have access to gyms and classes so I mostly rely on YouTube fitness channels. My favorites are Yoga with Adriene, Popsugar Fitness, and Jessica Smith TV. There are tons of options but these are great places to start with differing levels of difficulty.

– While I expect weight loss to be a large part of this journey it is important to understand that these changes are for me to feel better inside and out. To feel strong and capable in life, and to be able to learn some new things that I believe my current fitness level will hinder.

Now the food:

– I loosely count calories

– I try to drink a gallon of water a day and no pop but do drink coffee and tea(unsweetened)

– If I want something one day I have it. I’m not out to restrict myself to the point of frustration.

– I try to make healthier decisions about food and try to practice portion control as that is my biggest problem.

It’s 2019!

I know. I know it’s almost the end of January and I haven’t been here in quite some time, but the truth is that life has been pleasantly busy.

I started this year off with Yoga With Adriene Dedicate and a month of sobriety. I’m addition to those things I’ve picked up five or six days of cardio every week and journaling. The cardio is strictly for fitness, the yoga for fitness and mindfulness, and the journaling to see if making lists and writing feelings down on paper helps with my tendency to dwell on unknown outcomes.

I’ve been going at these things since mid December and have surprisingly stuck to them with ease. Having said that I thought now that I have those things going solidly I would come here and try to make another new habit. I’m going for weekly posts but every other week is something I’d settle for.

My plan is recipes, links and descriptions of workouts I’m doing, products I love, real thoughts about life. We all struggle, we are all trying to find our perfect or favorite things, and we all feel like we don’t know where to start sometimes.

The season is here!

If I haven’t explained before I live on an island where my place of work is only open for 7 months. The first and last months we are a skeleton crew and that is when business is there but it’s mostly locals. Now that we have made it through the first month and almost a half it is that time again. The peak season. We have new girls to train starting this week and our step count is never under 15,000 a day.

With all that said the new people and new business mean the warm weather is here to stay. We are pretty far north so the warm weather only will last from late April/Early May to early September, but that time is my favorite. Being busier means prioritizing activities as well as meals but it also means that there is a bit more leeway since my activity level is up.

As of May 3rd I am officially 10 lbs down. This journey isn’t all or even mainly about weight but for me weighing myself once a week is a good monitor of how I’m doing, and even though fluctuation and plateaus happen when you are working toward a significant body change your weight should consistently slowly go down.

Since I am not doing any extreme diet changes rather making better food choices, paying attention to portion size, and some calorie monitoring on top of regular exercise I am looking for 5-10 lbs per month. Losing weight this way enables me to make lifestyle changes so that there won’t be too much of a bounce back once I reach my goals.

I do have a couple of milestones and numbers in mind as my “goals reached” but overall there are a few activities I want to be able to participate in and more of a optimum feel good place that I am looking to find that isn’t attached to any number.

I’m sure there will be plenty of slip ups throughout the summer but this week has been uplifting and encouraging. If you’re on a journey like me don’t give up and don’t beat yourself up for mistakes or a few bad choices. The important thing is to accept those and head back into the process with the intention to succeed and the will power to make it happen.

Half way to 27!

It’s May now. Warm weather finally showed up in the north. The tourist season is here.

Last month was my half year mark. With the cold weather and work I fell off the wagon. We all do for a number of reasons so many times, but my goal this year is to keep at it. Make those stumbles smaller each time. Make them less significant.

Sun and higher temperatures truly improve my mood and attitude toward life. So today on my day off I made that decision and effort to go back to being more in motion than not,

to enjoy more life than tv and phone, to enjoy more cooking than restaurants.

It is a process but by October I’ll be on the track I want to be on. It’s for myself. To prove self love, to prove commitment and willpower, and to prove the best years are ahead of me.

The things you know are crazy but you can’t stop thinking…

My usual goal is to write something every one to two weeks, but the reality of being the kind of person I seem to have been born as has me typing this morning to tell anyone who thinks they are crazy and the only one that they aren’t.

What I’m talking about specifically is anxiety and more than a touch of OCD. Yesterday I messaged my boss about work and he didn’t respond right away or even within a few hours. If you’re anything like me the first(and most ridiculous) conclusion your brain jumps to is that he didn’t message me back because he decided he doesn’t want me to work for him anymore and is waiting for the right time to tell me. Your body will then proceed to fill with energy from the nervousness for the entire night which will cause you to lose sleep as well.

In case you hadn’t figured it out my boss messaged this morning about work. The only thing I’ve gotten better at throughout adulthood is realizing irrational thoughts and trying to acknowledge them as such. It doesn’t make the nerves go away and it doesn’t earn you back sleep, but it does feel good to be able to tell yourself why logically your thoughts have no basis. I even told my husband when he got home last night just to put the rationalization into actual words. Hearing someone else agree with your analysis of what you’re thinking does make things a bit better.

So if you’re the kind of person who assumes a few missed calls from the same person means someone died, if an unanswered text means someone is ignoring you for some horrible reason, or if you’ve ever turned around after leaving your street because you’re convinced that you didn’t close the door. You aren’t alone…or crazy. Some things like the potentially opened doors you can’t convince yourself to ignore, but there are things like missed calls and ignored texts or emails that you absolutely can talk yourself through and at least acknowledge the over reaction.