February Goals Recap

This month has been a lot of work, but I think I've done well on my goals:

• Exercise - I, with my husband, have been using online workout videos to get in exercise sessions each week. We started with every other day, but haven't quite kept it up. I try to be realistic with life getting in the way, but really my life is dependent on my health, so I need to work on that.
• Increasing Up Time - I've really met this goal. During the week I spend at least 2 hours "up" each day...typically the majority of that time is walking. I haven't successfully maintained 10,000 steps each day, but I do reach that goal often and am usually above 8,000 per day.
• Water, Water, Water - I wish I knew the ounces I've been drinking (I don't track that), but I bet it's a lot! I drink a ton of water every day. I haven't noticed any affect from it yet, but I'm sure it's helping.
• Nutrition - This area I probably struggle with more than exercising! I think I have improved (homemade whole wheat bread, less and healthier desserts, healthier breakfasts), but I have yet to enjoy the improved nutrition. I've read about people who actually crave healthy foods after eating right for long enough and I'm hoping to get there one day.

February may be ending, but I will still be working on these goals. Meanwhile onward to March!

Random Thoughts - Health and Fitness

"Today, more than 95% of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise." 

- Mike Adams 

NaturalNews.com

I don't want to be part of this statistic! I know I need to do better making a difference in my life - choosing healthier foods and making a bigger effort to exercise. 

My main focus on exercising or activity this month has been walking. I found this quote and in a conformation biased way I agree with it: 

"Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far." Thomas Jefferson

Notice how Jefferson says to "Habituate yourself." You need to do the work and put in the effort. No one can do it for you.

I know I have been improving. I might not see it on the scale, but 2 hours of walking each day counts. It counts for me. All of my workouts count. My good choices count, especially so when I feel like making bad ones. I know I can make a difference for my health - body and mind. 

Image: Jennifer SweetOnVeg

"I've always believed fitness is an entry point to help you build that happier, healthier life. When your health is strong, you're capable of taking risks. You'll feel more confident to ask for the promotion. You'll have more energy to be a 

better mom. You'll feel more deserving of love." 

Jillian Michaels

Walking Walking Walking

Image: Peter Blanchard 

Increasing my steps each day isn't easy. My legs get tired (wearing shoes in the house and switching between my two pairs tennis/running shoes each day seems to help). I don't like getting sweaty and out of breath (I know that means I'm working hard, but it's not pleasant to deal with every day). 

My new favorite way to add steps is by walking (fast paced, but maybe not quite speed walking) while watching TV (Olympics anyone?). I've tried reading while walking back and forth in the house, but it sometimes makes me dizzy. I know I can't put as much effort or speed into walking when I read either. 

You're supposed to reach 10,000 steps a day for a healthy lifestyle. That's equivalent to 5 miles! I am trying to attain that many every day (I've reached it a couple of times), but it requires dedicating at least 2 hours of walking to reach it. I'm trying to lose weight and get in shape, so I can accept that I have to put in that much work, but for other people that seems like a lot of time dedicated to walking! 

If you have workouts during the week as well could you diminish this number? For example, say you workout for 30 minutes 3 times a week. Do you really need 10,000 steps each day? Especially on the days you're working out? An intense workout burns more calories than walking. 

I'm just not sure what to focus on...getting 10,000 everyday or trying to dedicate more time to workouts, even if they are short. What do you try to aim for in steps each day? Or what kind of exercise schedule would you suggest for a beginner to exercising?

My Mantra

This is my mantra. It seems simple, but it's not. It gets tiring to eat right when you see fabulous but fatty food on the television and internet. It's hard to always work hard when you are tired of working out and you don't see progress. When both of the first lines aren't working out you don't feel good. I know because I get to that point a lot. 

I get tired. Tired of cooking homemade meals. Tired of staying active. Tired of making the right choices. Don't we all? Yet I press on. I want to feel good. I want to feel positive about the way I look. I want to know I'm doing the best for my body. I want to be healthy and fit for once in my life. I've heard that happiness is the key to health, but I think it's the other way around. Health is the key to happiness. If you aren't healthy you can't truly be happy because there's always that part of you that knows you aren't feeling good (either mentally, emotionally or physically).

I want to be happy. I have a whole year of plans and projects to get to that goal. I know I'm not going to get there without this key step - Health. It's all encompassing. You have to be healthy - physically, in your relationships, in your career, emotionally, and mentally - in order to be healthy. I want to feel good, so I'm going to eat right and work hard, even when I don't want to. I will feel good.

What's your mantra? How do you motivate yourself, especially when you aren't seeing improvement?

A Newbie to Healthy Eating

My switch to healthier eating has been pretty recent. Sure I've been telling myself that I have been doing better since September, but in actuality I wasn't doing that great. I dislike eating healthy. I have cravings for fast food, ice cream, pizza, you name it! I know that these foods aren't going to help my goals of losing weight, so I've been slowly moving towards a healthier lifestyle in general. It's hard! Here's what I do:

• If you are going to choose an unhealthy food, try to add something healthy to it. I still eat pizza, but I make it homemade (store-bought dough) and add spinach, onions and peppers to it. I use turkey sausage and low-fat mozzarella. I still get that yummy pizza taste, but it's not as bad for me. 
• Think about the money you save. It's been getting easier and easier to turn down those packaged goodies in favor of fruits and veggies when I look at my grocery receipts! Fresh food seems to cost a loss less and since we're on a budget going healthy is more economical. Make the effort to wash and chop up your own produce instead of buying the more expensive versions that do the prep for you.
• Hold yourself accountable. It has made a huge difference sharing my health goals with my husband. He reminds me of them (because I've asked him to) when I might be tempted to eat unhealthily. We make the meal plan together and shop together so that it's easier to make good choices. 
• Make switches slowly. In the last month or two we have almost doubled the variety and amount of veggies we used to eat, we now make our own whole wheat bread, we stopped buying muffins and pastries, we only buy natural pop (and not much of it) and we don't buy ice cream anymore. We used to buy ice cream at every shopping trip, so that was a huge change for us! We are still trying to eliminate processed foods, but we recognize that it is slow. Just pick one focus each week (or month!) and agree on it as a family. If my husband was still eating unhealthily, I wouldn't be doing so well. It's hard to succeed when there are unhealthy options available in your home. Start small and move your way up.
• Treat yourself a little. While we don't buy ice cream (or haven't for about a month...we'll see if we can last!), we have started buying frozen fruit bars. They still have that satisfying sweet taste, but they don't have the high amounts of fat from ice cream. I think it's important that you don't totally deprive yourself (not that we'd starve). You are still going to want treats, just try to make good choices that will still give you some satisfaction.

What changes or moves have you made to eat healthier? I'm always looking for more ways to improve. 

Olympic Spirit

Don't you just love the Olympics? It's so inspirational seeing all the athletes competing. It inspires me to improve myself physically, even though I know I will never compete in the Olympics and probably in any sport to any extent at all. 

It amazes me to see the speed, agility, skill and sheer awesomeness of these athletes. It makes me want to do better and increase my own abilities. 

I know I can improve and I know I will. Just this week my weight has stopped fluctuating for my morning weigh in. It's so encouraging to see the number staying low! Now I want to start seeing it move DOWN. 

I've been increasing my steps each day (which I read today can also decrease your risk of heart disease). I did have a poor eating day on the weekend, but I'm not going to let that stop me. Even if you have a low day for exercise or your diet don't let it stop your overall improvement. One bad day can't stop you! 

How do you keep yourself on track? Do you allow yourself "low" days? Do you have a specific routine coming off of those days? Let me know!

The Happiness Project: February Goals

The theme for February is Health. Through the last couple of years my health has taken a dive. I've been stressed and busy finishing school and getting married. My life has finally smoothed out and I am in a set routine! I want to take advantage of this and get healthier and lose weight. It's so disheartening to look at pictures and just see the weight adding on! So I'm going to be attempting to introduce some healthy habits this month with the following goals:

• Exercise - I want to get a set exercise schedule and routines set up so that it's easier for me to get exercises in on a regular basis. I'm hoping to work up to every other day. 
• Increasing Up Time - I KNOW I am not active enough, but besides exercise sessions I want to work on just being UP! 
• Water, Water, Water - I don't actually drink very many non-water beverages, but I can always drink more water and I'm hoping drinking more will help with the health of my skin especially.
• Nutrition - I never manage to eat enough fruits and veggies and I'm sure there are a lot of other areas I need to improve on as well.

Well that's definitely a lot to work on! I almost don't have high hopes of actually improving this month, but if I can set myself up to improve that would be a success.

January Goals Recap

January is pretty much over. So here's an update on how I've done this month with my goals:

• Monthly Family Photo - We took one! So that's a success.
• SMASH Books - I have my very first SMASH book. There are no pictures in it yet (I'll wait until the end of the year to print them), but I've planned out generally how I want it to look.
• Birthday Presents - I only had one family birthday in January and I sent two gifts. There are none in February, but 4 in March! So I'm working ahead and trying to figure out gifts for everyone.
• Display Photos - I've definitely made improvements here. Our fridge is now covered in photos! Also I have gotten around to finding photos to put in various frames and now (at least in the main living areas) there are lots of them up! 
• I've also done a good job of journaling every night, even though that wasn't a goal initially. 

So overall I think January was a success, but I think I started out with an easy month. Some of the other months (February!) are going to be much tougher. So stay tuned for my next post where I talk about my new goals for February!

Product Envy - Recording Memories

While I have been trying to do better at recording memories, I've found two products that I'd really like to try. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to just buy things that I'd like to have (who is?). So I've placed them on my wishlist and maybe someday I'll actually get to test them out. Until then, I'll share them with you.

1) The first product is a lovely Journal Set from the makers of SMASH books. It's so pretty and would make my journaling much more enjoyable. I especially love that it includes some sort of Washi Tape.

2) The second product is a set of 36 Fine Permanent Markers. I love all the different colors and imagine using them in my SMASH book, journal, daily planner, birthday cards, etc. 

So what do you think? What products do you wish you could afford?

Stop and Treasure the Moments

I was thinking about this quote today and realized how well it applies to my happiness project, especially for this month's goal. It perfectly sums up why I want to make an effort to make memories and record them. Memories are our record of what we've done with our lives. I don't want to miss my life. I want to be able to look around right now and fully soak it up. I also want to look back later and be able to remember how it was. 

I can think back on certain times in my life and remember certain things about those times. However, it's impossible for me to remember it all. I sometimes regret not recording how I was feeling or what I was doing at those times in my life. Wouldn't it have been great to look back at those memories now? 

Displaying Memories

I am not an expert picture hanger. I think I've tried once and I'm pretty sure it was NOT level! Thus this goal is a little tough to master! I do have photos that are in "non-wall" frames (what would you call that?). But you can only devote so much shelf space to pictures. And so I have grandiose dreams of an entire gallery wall of photos. Realistic? Not really, but I can dream.

I've been trying to do some research (Pinterest counts as research right?) before I enlist my husband in a nail pound, frame hanging, head tilting party. I found this very helpful article from Better Homes and Gardens. In order to figure out the layout they suggest tracing your frames on scrap paper and taping it to the wall. I think this will work perfectly for us because you can adjust it and level it before you ever make a hole in your wall. Perfect!

What methods do you use for hanging pictures? Any suggestions before we take the plunge? 

The Happiness Project: January Goals

I mentioned in my last post that I am starting a happiness project this year based off of Gretchen Rubin's book. Each month I'll focus on a different goal (with sub-goals to get me there) towards making my life happier. Similarly to Rubin's motivation, I'm not undertaking this project because I'm actually unhappy - it's just that I don't think I'm happy enough. I've been enormously blessed (a wonderful husband, financially stable, a safe place to live, and the necessities and luxuries of life) and I feel that I should show it. I feel that all too often I don't seem happy enough and thus - hello happiness project!

January's overarching goal is memories. I want to remember all the little (and big!) things, be able to share them in the future, and cherish them forever. I believe that memories mean so much to us. Creating and treasuring them brings me a lot of happiness, but I usually don't do a very good job of doing this! I have several specific ideas to help with this goal:

• Monthly Family Photo - I'm not talking studio or professional shots. I'd like to have a record of us throughout the year. I don't think we record how we change through the year and there are so many changes! Just getting a quick photo once a month will help record these.
• SMASH Books - Those monthly photos are going to be added to my first ever SMASH book! SMASH books are like scrap books, but better in my opinion. They seem to be less time and effort intensive. They have cool backgrounds and prompts, come with a pen/glue stick, and in many different themes! They basically take a lot of the work out of scrap-booking. Perfect!
• Birthday Presents - My typical birthday present to my family is a phone call. Not too special right? I realize it's better than nothing, but I'm hoping to do a little better this year. The plan is to send each of mine and my husband's parents and siblings actual gifts (even if just a card with a written note) in time for their birthdays - the first is next week so I better get cracking! 
• Display Photos - I have plenty of digital and even printed photos as well as empty picture frames, however none of these are actually hanging from my walls. I'm hoping to get at least a couple up on display this month. I love looking at pictures of my family (especially couple shots of me and the hubs). Looking at those smiling faces just fills my heart with love and puts a smile on my face. Obviously and effective happiness strategy! 

How do you record your family's memories? Any tips or ideas for me? Please share!