Showing posts with label challenges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label challenges. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Healthy habits, intro

I have decided that each week for the next three weeks (until Thanksgiving then all bets are off) I am going to adopt a healthy habit and stick with it.  If I stick with it after Thanksgiving, that will be a bonus. 

The healthy habit I am adopting for this week is going to be tracking what I eat.  I have been WAY too lax on this, and I need to get back in that habit.  I am more accountable to myself, and to my health when I track my food intake. 

What will next week's healthy habit be? Check in next thursday for a recap of how I did, and for what my next healthy habit will be. 

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Lists, lists, lists...

Ahh, many of you who know me will giggle about this, but I am a true Capricorn-I like being in control, and having lists. Yes, Lists. They keep me organized, and help me make sure that I don't forget anything, though I usually forget to put something on the list...

Anyhow, I have realized that in order to keep track of what I need to accomplish in a day, I really need to create a couple of lists. One is a recurring list-like a checklist of tasks that happen daily, or should happen daily. This list would include sweeping/vacuuming or using the swiffer on my floors, getting the kitchen and table and counters cleared off, picking up laundry, making the bed, etc.

On another list I would place tasks that aren't every day things, like calling whatever company has screwed up my auto drafting THIS time to get it fixed (shouldn't things like that really make life easier??), calling our insurance company to get something taken care of, picking up stuff from the cleaner, getting oil changes for our cars, etc.

However, as I make my lists, I realize that there are some things that we do automatically every day-for example, I call my parents (almost) daily. I also tell my husband that I love him at least once a day, and kiss my baby boy many many times a day. But there are also some things that I don't do every day, but perhaps should. Things like counting the many blessings in my life, taking the time to think about what's important in life, and thanking my husband for being such a good provider. Maybe I should put these things on my recurring daily list.

What isn't on your list that should be?

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

What really matters in life?

I would like to say that money doesn't matter in life, but honestly it does. Its a means to an end-the type of life you want for yourself and your family. If you don't have enough money to pay for your home, car payment, insurance, food, etc, your life (and your family's life) is going to be very chaotic. Worrying about how to make these payments causes stress on the earners and providers in the family, and the children will pick up on that for sure.

We have set a goal to save money. I have made a conscious effort over the last two weeks not to spend money on any extra things. Its been great! I did purchase a new pair of sweatpants to wear to my Zumba class on Tuesdays, but beyond household stuff (groceries, etc) and a couple bottles of wine at the Stems and Steins event, we have been very diligent. Its fun to spend money, but sometimes its more fun not to.

Last night I told my husband that I wanted to go hit some golf balls after dinner. He rushed home, ate his dinner and we got ready to go. He had tokens for the range left over from earlier this summer. I bundled up the baby in a blanket at the range, and we got a couple buckets of balls. No one else was there, the moon was shining as it was dusk, and we had a great time as a family just hitting balls. On the way home we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts and got coffee using a gift card my husband got for his birthday. A successful night-family fun and no money spent!!

I guess what really matters in life is how you spend-your time, your money, and your love. If you spend all your time fretting and fussing and complaining and generally being negative, pretty soon you're gonna be a crotchety old man or woman who is lonely and simply bitches all the time to their bazillion cats. If you spend all your money, you may have fun doing so in the moment, but you're going to be stressed later on for sure! If you spend all your love, hopefully you'll get it in return, but even if you don't, you will have made someone else's day brighter. My challenge to any of you who read this is to think about how you spend, and see if there is something you can do to positively impact another person's life today. If you do this, post a comment on it, I would love to hear about it!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Finding the time...

Today is Monday. Normally the baby and I go to Sensory Swim at the therapy pool at a local nursing home. Usually after the hour long session, we are both tired and we come back home where we eat and the baby either then goes down for a nap or plays. I usually do some straightening up and play around on the internet after lunch.

Today is such a gorgeous fall day, I decided that I needed to find the time to take a walk at some point today...I planned out my morning so that I could take the baby for a walk after swimming. I even brought a banana and a bottle of water and my walking shoes.

Boy, I am so glad I spent the 45 minutes that I did going for the walk with the baby! We walked along the Canal, did a total of 1.88 miles. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing, and baby and I got to explore a local resource which I hadn't used before. It was a very nice walk-we saw three people on bikes, and that was it. We walked past Lock 20, and saw some boats. The only downside was getting bitten by mosquitoes. I probably would have walked a bit more if it weren't for those stinkers.

The title of this post is "finding the time". There are so many things that this can pertain to-finding the time to exercise, to prepare healthful meals, to do something special for a loved one, to clean the house, even to write an email or note to a good friend. Those things are all very important, yet how often do we say "oh, I just haven't had the time", yet, we're find the time for Facebook (which sucks hours out of the day), or we find the time to watch our favorite television shows (another time stealer), yet we don't think we can find the time to do something that would make ourselves or someone we care about happy.

I am going to make a conscious effort to find the time for what's really important in life, and I hope you do too.