Starting Over

Is anyone still out there?


If you are, I'm sure you have not abandoned working toward goals over the last 8-9 months, even though this blog has been woefully neglected. (To be fair, Michal and Rebecca both had babies last year. They had/have their hands full. I was watching my niece and nephew on top of my own three...my hands were rather full too.)

However, I want to resurrect it. The beauty of a New Year is that you can do that.

Start over.

So here I am, starting over.
I have a few goals that I would like help with. I need help with. So, if you would like to come along with me I have few ideas for Healthy Habits to work on this year.

1. I want to cut out sugar. Here are a few reasons why: http://rheumatic.org/sugar.htm

2. I have stopped using my credit card (except for buying gas, since I have to use it for that.) I have not used it at all so far this year. It's still early in the year, but I am really determined to pay off the (smallish) balance for good.

3. I want to deepen my relationship with Heavenly Father through meaningful prayer. By praying morning and night, on my knees, aloud. I get lazy a lot and don't do that. And by really expressing my true deep feelings, instead of just going through the motions. Again, this will overcome my laziness.

So, if there is anyone still interested in jumping back into some Healthy Habits, post a reply. Let me know what you are working on. It can be any of these (please, someone cut out sugar with me...), or something all your own.

If we help each other, we can accomplish what we set out to do.

The Home Stretch!

I am sorry that I have been absent. I have been participating in our challenge but have really slacked on the blogging. Thanks to Aubrey for keeping us afloat over the past few weeks.

This is it, ladies! We have one last week to go! For a while it felt like our challenge would never end, but now I can't believe that we're starting week 10 tomorrow. I know that most of us have struggled to meet our goals, but I'm feeling like we have not struggled in vain!

I promise to get fines and points up-t0-date in the next couple of days, so we can know where we stand.

How are you feeling? Did anyone else get their second wind like I did? What changes have you seen in yourself? What do you wish we had done differently? Please leave a comment with some feedback.

And let's go out strong. I'm committing to tougher, longer workouts this week and more time with the scriptures. How about you?

For Just One Week Update/ Free Point

For more info on For Just One Week, see Ice Cream's blog.

So, I didn't post an update last week because I hadn't achieved my goal of taking care of 5 things that I have been procrastinating. The problem is, I just kept on procrastinating those things, finding that I'd much rather blog, read or pick my toenails than I would file for the AFLAC payment from an injury Kimball had two plus years ago. I guess that's why it's been over 2 years. Sigh.

I do intend to get to the AFLAC thing as well as a tax thingy I've been putting off, but my official goal this week is something entirely different. We had stake conference this past weekend. I'm pretty sure that all of our participants are LDS and know what this means, but just in case I have some lurkers here, it's just a fancy word for a meeting of all of the members of LDS community. On Saturday evening, there is a meeting for the adults, then on Sunday morning there is a meeting for the entire family. Needless to say, as a mother of four young, energetic chidlren, I get a lot more out of the Saturday evening session!

One of the speakers on Saturday night said some things that triggered ideas and thoughts for me. I'm not sure that he actually talked about how prayer can help us become the people whom we want to become, but that's what I took away. And I set a little goal to myself for this week to schedule real, sincere, on-my-knees, prayers several times throughout the day when I know I'll need extra strength. I have been struggling more since I got pregnant with energy levels and shortness of temper, and I really want my children's homeschool experience (and mine) to be a positive one. So I set the goal this week to pray daily at the following times: 6:30 am, 8:45 am (right before we officially start the school day), at Bronwen's naptime, and around 4:30 pm, or just when I'm getting ready to start making dinner. And of course at bedtime. I know that it might be silly to schedule prayers, but I really want to call on the powers of heaven this week to make me stronger than I am by myself (and stronger than I am with a prayer in the morning and night). I want help to not get cross at my children, to see them as Heavenly Father sees them, to not crab at my husband, and to teach my children each day in the way that He would have me teach them. So there's my goal. I will definitely report back to you on how it goes.

Now, regarding the free point (I know that I tricked many of you into reading just to find out about it,) I'm actually talking about last week's. I'm wondering who would rather have an additional point as opposed to having a dollar shaved off their penalty. Leave a comment and let me know, preferably also sharing with us how the week went for you. I hope you were able to think outside the box on your exercise and try something new.

Gotta go--the baby just woke up from her nap.

Feedback

Thanks so much to everyone who commented on my last post. It is so good to know how you're doing. I think that we can draw energy from people like Debbie, who is ROCKING this challenge and getting great results. If you, like me, are struggling a bit to accomplish our goals, we also got to see that we aren't alone in that feeling. One reason for this forum is that we can reach out to give and receive support. Most of us in this world really need the help of a friend to do things that are hard.

A few of you posed questions and concerns in your comments that I'd like to address here. First of all , it is $25 per challenge to drop out. I know that's steep, but the point is to stay in the race. Joni, you aren't the only one having a hard time accomplishing this. We are so with you, girl! And I don't want this to cost you a fortune, either. I've been reflecting on this today, as many of you expressed concerns, frustration, or a sense of failure. I suggest that those of us who are struggling to fit in the exercise consider the following:

Sometimes we get stuck in a rut of what our exercise must look like. I have gotten into the habit of walking the track with a girlfriend 3 nights a week, which is great. The problem is that when it's raining, we bail. When I lamented this evening at dinner to my husband that it was raining again, he pointed out, "Don't you have a gym membership?" Duh! I was so locked into thinking that my MTW exercise was walking with Mandy that I didn't even think about alternatives. I actually ended up putting in a prenatal pilates DVD, which I had been meaning to try out for weeks, and it felt great to do something different. But it hadn't really occurred to me. In my mind it was walk or skip the exercise.

Our friend, Donna (I think--Donna, are you posting as Garbett Family?), has an issue that others of you might struggle with. She is just too busy for daily 30 minutes of exercise, at least at first glance. Donna, I suggest that you look for little ways to get in 10 minutes at a time during your day. Maybe that's taking a brisk walk during a "coffee break" at work, dancing crazy with your kids (it's amazing how 10 minutes of that will wear you out), or doing situps and pushups before you get in the shower. This doesn't have to be 30 consecutive minutes. Find something that works for you. You mentioned that you love jogging but can't find the time every day-- maybe you can schedule it in for twice in the week as a little treat for yourself, but don't give up on alternative forms of exercise.

I think for all of us it really helps if we think outside the boxes we have made for ourselves--the rules that don't actually exist about what our exercise needs to look like, what time of day it must take place, etc.

Also, I notice (not surprisingly) that everyone who is doing their scripture study is noticing an increase of the Spirit in their lives. Ask Heavenly Father to help you meet the exercise portion of the program. In my case, I need to ask Him to make me want it more, especially on the weekend. Ask Him to help you see ways to fit it into your day, or for the energy to do it when you just feel too tired. This is a righteous desire and He will help us if we ask.

You may have noticed that I haven't posted a report on my personal "For Just One Week" goal. That's because I've been procrastinating because I didn't accomplish it. So I'll give myself the same challenge for this week and report back to you all next Monday.

I hope that some of these ideas help. If anyone else has any thoughts or feedback, PLEASE leave a comment! It is so good to know that you are out there, that we are working on this together.

Bonus Point Offering!

Hello, fellow achievers! We are now entering Week 6 of our challenge--the second half. It is easy to lose steam once the novelty wears off, but let's keep each other going and motivated. I'm noticing lots of holes for last week--as in people who haven't entered any points at all! I'm assuming that half of you didn't suddenly stop exercising completely and that instead you've just stopped updating our spreadsheet regularly. Please take a moment to fill it out before the time gets away from you. It's much harder to be accurate when you're having to work from your long term memory!

How is everyone feeling about this? I'm offering a bonus point (added to your total) for each person who leaves a comment telling us how they are doing/feeling/looking etc. Have you seen any changes? What is hard and what has become automatic? (If you aren't a registered blogger, you can still comment as "anonymous". Just sign your name at the bottom of the comment so we know who you are.

For Just One Week Update--Procrastination

Well, it is obvious that one thing I've been procrastinating is this post! You may remember that one of my goals for last week was to take care of one thing I was procrastinating every day. I was excited about the goal, but found that it wasn't realistic for every day--even every day in a week. My Mondays are absolutely swamped, and my list of things I was putting off partly had to do with taking care of things during business hours--thus, things that can't be done after the kids are in bed, after I've done my walk, and before I go to bed early! To make up for it, I tried to do more than one thing on the days when I could actually make time to check things off my list. Here are some things that I had procrastinated and that I accomplished this past week:

• Filled out appropriate labels, packaged up, and dropped off at the UPS store some GapMaternity returns (they have to go back via mail if you bought them online.) If you know me at all, you know that I am postally challenged. These items had been waiting around to be sent back for at least 6 weeks.
• Called Countrywide to check in on my mortgage, which is set to adjust this spring. Breathed a sigh of relief that it isn't changing.
• Renewed my Ensign and Friend magazine subscriptions, which had expired in September. I have been reading them online, but it's not the same. Shocking that I let it go so long, I know.
• Conquered my ironing pile. This may not have been paperwork related, but it was surely procrastinated. Now everything is ironed and hanging in someone's closet.
• Got QuickBooks all caught up and reconciled for my husband's business.
• Submitted a rebate.
• Cleaned out my purse.
• Made sand dough for our Roman Aquaduct project (I'd been planning that for three weeks.) Sadly, I still procrastinated making the archways for another three days and the dough was too crumbly to produce sturdy archways. Sigh.

My other goal was to stay off the computer until noon and until I had studied the scriptures. You'll notice on the spreadsheet that I read all 7 days--I couldn't bear to miss out on computer time. I did complete this goal, and am going to try to carry over the spirit of this goal without actually setting it again this week. We'll see how I do.

In this coming week, I will check off five things that I have been procrastinating for way too long. I will not procrastinate doing this until Saturday!:) I will also spend more time in the afternoons and/or Friday doing school things. We have been getting all the basics in, but I want to be sure that we are getting enrichment studies in as well. We will do at least one Valentine's Day craft, we will make those elusive Roman Aquaducts, and we will go birdwatching (weather permitting). And I will get in my five days of exercise--I only hit 4 last week.

How are your goals coming? I am really struggling to get in my exercise on the weekends (Friday-Sunday), even if I only need to exercise one of those days. Any suggestions on what's working for you?

For Just One Week Update

"Is that the alarm? It can't possibly be time to get up already!"--Michal, every morning last week.

So here I am, reporting on my personal goal. You can participate in this program as well by going to Liz's blog (My Ice Cream Diary) and joining the fun. We set goals for one week at a time, trying to see what is achievable and reasonable in our efforts to self-improve. Liz is blowing me away with the goals she is setting and meeting. I have been less than stellar and am ashamed of myself. I'll try to set more realistic goals this week--and to be less flaky!

My carry-over goal of getting up before 6:00 am Monday through Thursday and by 7:00 on Friday just plain did not happen this week. My cold got worse, my kids got sicker, and I flaked out. On Monday I peeled myself out of bed right at 6:00. On Tuesday, when my alarm went off, I felt like crying. Jared said, "So you got up at 6:00. Now go back to bed." I guiltily did just that. Thursday was the only day I made it, and that was because my ride comes at 5:20 to take me to spin class and I don't have a good way to call her and cancel at such a ridiculous hour.

I've decided that this get up early thing is a great goal for me when I'm not sick, pregnant, and dealing with sick kids who think they need their mother in the middle of the night. Go ahead, call me wimpy. I can take it!

My new goal this week (besides the exercise and scripture study that we're working towards on this blog) was to clean my room every night before bed. I did it Monday-Thursday. Friday I felt like I deserved a medal for getting out of bed, let alone baking bread, wearing makeup to the doctor's office, and doing the grocery shopping after dinner. The two baskets of clean laundry that needed to be folded and put away? They got put on the floor to "take care of tomorrow." But it felt really good to take care of things on a nightly basis and I found that if I did that, it never got to be a big mess. Which is nice, because my room always seems to be the last priority in the house. I'm not going to officially carry this over as a goal next week, but I'll be keeping it in mind.

My goal this week is to get up by 6:00 on mornings when I actually got to sleep the night before AND to teach my kids at least 3 math lessons EACH this week (as we took a semi-holiday today, I'm not aiming for 4). A game of Triominoes does not count as a math lesson. I have been procrastinating and avoiding math like a 3rd grader since Christmas. Perhaps because my 3rd grader procrastinates and avoids math and I don't want to deal with it. But I need to for their sakes. And I think it will help me get my needed groove back when it comes to morning routines and homeschool.

And along with that, I'll be trying to get more out of my daily exercise. I am loving the daily scripture study, but the exercise could use some improvement in terms of effort, output, and sweat.

How are your goals coming along? Leave a comment, be a dear!

Feedback. I Need Some.

One down, one to go. Holidays, that is. We made it through Christmas and have a few days until the New Year.

I don't know about you girls, but I have found it to be more challenging than I anticipated to stay focused on my goals in December. I am, however, really getting geared up for goal achieving in the New Year. I know it is cliche, but I am all about a fresh start, and especially after the overindulgence/ lack of routine/ general sloth of the holiday season, I am never more ready to change my ways than I am in January.

So, here's my real question for you: What should our New Year Healthy Habit Challenge look like? This one hasn't worked out so great--most of our participants haven't checked in in weeks. But maybe the holiday was the problem. Do we need to charge $20 up front to join and promise that you'll get your money back if you achieve your goals? Do we need to set up a penalty for not meeting a weekly or daily goal (but have it be free to join?) What would help motivate you? The point is to help you achieve your goals . . . So ponder on that question and then leave a comment with your input. PLEASE!