What My Days Look Like

Since this is my own record of my lifestyles change(s), I'm going to write down what my life looks like on a regular work-day basis. Sorry if anyone else reads this and it's boring...

5:40/5:45 (6:00 at the very latest...) - wake up and let the pups outside
- while they're outside I go into the kitchen and start pulling things out for lunch

5:50 - bring them in, feed them, take my thyroid pill

5:55 - go back to the kitchen, finish putting lunch together (sometimes that's just pulling out leftovers and putting them in a bag, other times it's making an almond butter and jam {simply fruit!} sandwich) and make breakfast (an egg and a piece of bread cooked in coconut oil)

6:10/6:15 - get dressed, grab purse, lock pups in my room (long story as to why this is necessary, but trust me, it is)

6:30 - grab breakfast as I'm walking out the door, eat in the car

7:00 - 4:00 - work

4:30/4:45 - get home, let pups outside, snuggle with them for a little bit, and if it's going to happen that day, exercise

6:00/6:30 - eat dinner (after exercising I'm normally not very hungry, so sometimes this is just a piece of toast and/or spiced almond milk (yum!)

7:00 - work on a project at home, sometimes take the pups for a walk, read, etc.

Try to have lights out no later than 10 so I can wake up and do it all over again!

There, wasn't that thrilling?

Don't lie.

I guess the main thing I want to remember is what I've figured out in terms of food. I've got the breakfast thing down. Seriously, I have an egg and piece of cracked wheat sourdough toast every single work day. It's a good thing that I love it. Sometimes on the weekend I'll cut a whole in the bread, use butter for one side of it, and then crack an egg in the middle of it. This takes longer than my weekday method because I normally scramble the egg to break up the yolk and fry it just like normal (it cooks super-fast this way). I do not like soft yolks, so on the weekend, I leave the egg to cook for a lot longer to make sure that yolk isn't soft at all (this occasionally leads to burning one side of the bread, oops!).

For lunch, an almond butter and simply fruit sandwich is my go to grab if I don't have anything else ready to go (see dinner). No matter what I'm taking I almost always include a huge salad - and I eat it all - because salad is good for you. (: It helps that I don't hate it.

For dinner, if I'm eating dinner, I try to keep it simple and mostly veggie-focused. I love to do ground bison (way better than ground beef in my opinion) and veggie stir-fry (light on the bison, heavy on the veggies). Sometimes I'll do that over long grain brown rice sometimes I'll just eat the veggie mix plain. I love spaghetti but don't have that very often (sugar-free sauce, of course!). Whatever I make for dinner I try to make sure I have enough for at least one or two lunches.

I eat pretty simply, and repeat meals a lot. Which thankfully, I don't have a problem with.

I feel like I've found a pretty good rhythm for myself food-wise. May it last forever!

One thing I invested in recently is a spiralizer. I had been making zucchini "pasta" with a julienne peeler, but the Veggetti (as seen on TV... which I've never seen on TV) is so much easier and faster! I want to start branching out with it (so far I've only done zucchini) and using it even more since I think it's a great way to get in more vegetables. I also want to do more cauli-rice. I've only made it once (to go with a bison and veggie stir-fry!) and it was delicious.

Adapting Expectations

Remember my ambitious list of all the goals / plans / etc I had for myself? And remember how I was going to try to be flexible in my expectations when it came to doing them?

If I may pat myself on the back for a minute, I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job.

While I'm trying to get on the treadmill (or outside, whichever) at least three times a week, I think I've only done it twice a week. And you know what? That third day that I'm hoping to get on? Oh well. I remind myself that I don't need to be perfect in order to be improving. Those two days I'm getting in are two days more than I used to exercise.

That being said, I do plan on walking / running three days a week, so that's still my overall goal. I'm just getting better in managing the perfectionism that can so easily come with goals. The whole - If I have a goal for three days a week and I miss one than I may as well not do the other two since the whole week is wasted.

I'm getting better at avoiding that mindset and focusing on the positive. This is huge for me!

Preparing for Failure

This seems like a good day to write this post. In spite of all my grand plans to jump on in and be awesome... I woke up at 6:40. To refresh your memory - I've been planning to start waking up at 4:30.

Yikes.

Last night I even took a sleep aid a little before 9. I fell asleep at 9:30. When I woke up to my alarm ringing I was feeling pretty proud of myself until I saw that it was my backup alarm set to go off at 5:50. I also had a notification saying that one alarm was missed. What?!

I have no idea how I did that. I need to check the volume and the alert option before going to bed.

Anyway, I have only a few minutes before I need to turn the lights off, but I wanted to say this -

Instead of beating myself up for not waking up early like I wanted to, I focused on what I could still control. I listened to my scriptures on my drive to work (not my preferred method, I'd rather read them from the book, but hey! it's something!), I said a prayer on my knees before leaving for work, and I food fasted so that I could help my body accelerate it's detox from sugar (that's not scientific, that's just me thinking that it helps).

The point is, I didn't beat myself up for not doing something I was hoping to do. I didn't focus on that "mess-up" and I didn't even call it a mess-up! I didn't throw the whole day away as a loss either.

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I used to be terrible at keeping up my spirits, energy, etc. after not sticking to a plan perfectly. I'm not saying I'm completely over that, but I'm saying that I'm getting better!

Goals / Plans / Whatever for the New Year

This post had to come sometime, right? And seeing as how it's the 3rd day of the new year... it seemed appropriate that it come sooner rather than later.

In my head I have a perfect picture of what my life will look like when all of my goals and plans become a reality. Or, a somewhat perfect picture. Since laying out a picture of my entire life would be way too overwhelming - and most likely extremely boring - I'll try laying out a perfect day.

Note: Every time I use the word perfect, I really mean "perfect."

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So here goes -

4:30 - wake up
4:35 - 5:10 exercise
5:10 - 5:30 scripture study
5:30 - 6:10 shower / get ready for work
6:10 - eat breakfast, finish getting lunch ready
6:30 - leave for work
7:00 - 4:00 - work
4:30 - get home
4:40 - 5:40 - take the pups on a walk
5:40 - 6:10 - make dinner
6:20 - eat dinner
7:00 - clean up dinner, pack leftovers for lunch the next day
7:30 - 8:00 - quiet / meditation time
8:00 - 8:45 - read / work on computer (job search, etc)
9:00 - lights out and fall asleep quickly - something that I have a really hard time with sometimes - so that I can wake up early and do it all again

Now that I've listed all of that out, I realize no wonder why a perfect day never happens. It doesn't allow for the time you have to run to the store in the middle of dinner prep because you don't have a critical ingredient. Or the time you decide to visit a friend on the way home and end up staying until 10 pm because the visit is so fun. Or the rare (to the point of extinction) evening you have a date with some handsome and dashing man.

So rather than try to live out a perfect day, now I'm going to just list the things that I hope to get done on a daily - or nearly daily - basis. Things that you can't see in the above list.

Here we go again (in no particular order) -

Daily:

• exercise
• prepare healthy meals
• eat healthy meals
• oil pull
• look for a new job
• read scriptures
• say prayers
• call a sibling (I have 7 - one for every day of the week! :)
• walk the dogs
• meditate 

Weekly:

• visit my maternal grandparents
• declutter something in the house
• do something fun with a friend
• work on at-home business (3x a week)

Monthly:

• get a massage
• visit my paternal grandmother
• go to the temple (2x a month)

While some of my goals for the year are included in the list above, here's everything -

• exercise Mon - Sat
• walk the dogs 3x a week
• don't eat sugar
• start networking better
• get more training if necessary
• oil pulling
• run a 1/2 marathon (signed up for one in April, but it's contingent upon my reaching a certain weight milestone since I don't want to completely beat my body up. if I don't reach the milestone by April, I'll sign up for another one later in the year)
• TRAIN for a 1/2 marathon
• go to Chicago (I have a traveling buddy lined up!)
• talk to my siblings more often (at least once a month each)
• respond positively - retrain my brain to look for the positives
• find a new job - that has a good chance of becoming a career
• meal plan
• weekly planning / goal setting
• move into an apartment or house of my own
• renew my membership with therapy animals of utah
• be more empathetic and understanding
• read scriptures daily
• when I get off track, get right back on track
• recognize that not sticking to plan doesn't mean I failed
• eat healthy
• attend the temple twice a month
• say twice daily prayers
• develop a healthier mindset
• be more cheerful
• lose 80 lbs - that may be a goal that needs two years to accomplish, so 50 lbs is my first goal
• be more forgiving of myself and others
• learn three songs on the ukulele (Christmas present)
• learn three songs on the guitar I bought many, many years ago
• become healthy and fit - not because of looks or a number on the scale, but because I'm not healthy right now and that needs to change
• decide what I want to be when I grow up

Reading over that list is slightly overwhelming for me. So I'll bring it down. Waaay down.

Spiritual

• pray twice daily
• read scriptures daily
• attend the temple twice a month

Physical

• lose 80 lbs
• run a half marathon
• improve hygiene (oil pull) 

Mental

• recognize the positive
• be more grateful
• default to cheerful

Personal

• get into a better job (and move into a new place)
• take a fun trip (Chicago!)
• spend more time outside

Okay, so that's still a lot, and some of these things will require other things from my longer list as baby steps to get there. I haven't laid out all the planning and tasks required for each one, but I'm starting to recognize exactly where it is I want to go this year. A big part of accomplishing them will be to set monthly goals that are more specific and measurable. So I'll work on that too.

As much as I like writing about them, I'm really looking forward to getting into it and making progress however slowly.

My next post should be - will hopefully be - how I'll be forgiving myself when I mess up. (:

What Am I Doing Here?

That's a good question.

Even if it's not one you asked (who's "you"? no one will be reading this, it's just for me), it's one I've been asking myself ever since I created this blog a few weeks ago (obviously posting right away was not a priority!).

I think there are a few answers to that question, and I think I'll discover a few more as I continue with this.

For now, this is what I'm thinking -

• I'm trying to be brutally honest with myself and what's happening in my life.
• I'm trying to make some permanent changes - knowing that progress will be an up and down process.
• I'm trying to lose 80 lbs.
• I'm trying to de-clutter my life - my possessions and my body.
• I'm trying to find a place inside my head where I can be truly and completely accepting of myself and where I am (as I write this one, it sounds a little psychotic, but I don't mean that I'll be living in my head, I mean that I want to change my mindset to be more accepting of myself - struggles and all - as I purposely work to improve myself).

That's a decent start for now.