September is coming to a close and with it ends the first month of our happiness project. As I look back over my resolutions chart I think I did alright, but not great. In all honesty I’m disappointed in myself this month. I feel like I didn’t excel at any one thing. I really wanted to power through this month, to pass with flying colors. Pass? Yes. Flying colors? Definitely not.
I keep reminding myself that I chose the hardest things for the first month. People make new years resolutions to exercise and eat better every year and fail. I tell myself these are big changes, that new habits are hard, but this type of thinking feels like I’m making excuses. I know I can do better.
I did okay in the food department. I brought my lunch to work almost every day, and when I didn’t I would get Subway. Dinners are going alright too. I really don’t mind cooking, and I don’t even miss eating out that much… I just miss the convenience of it. Making dinners requires so much planning. Plan your meals, plan your groceries, plan your meals around your workouts. Sometimes it’s just so easy to order something. No plan, no groceries, just a phone call. It has been difficult to go from someone who doesn’t cook to someone that cooks dinner every night. I think once I get a collection of meals that I like I can throw them into a rotation and not spend so much time looking for meal ideas.
Exercise. It has been my biggest struggle this month. I’ve been having a really difficult time getting a routine going. I will pat myself on the pack for going, without fail, to yoga twice every week this month. Mornings have been my second biggest struggle, especially this last week. About mid-month I switched from getting up and walking my dog in the morning to getting up and working out in the mornings. It was unsuccessful. I think I did three workouts in the mornings. I really want mornings to work, it’s the initial getting out of bed that’s the hardest part for me, I’m always convincing myself I have more time. I’m not sure if it was easier to get up and walk the dog in the mornings because it’s not that difficult or because I was still riding the momentum of starting the Happiness Project. Lying in my cozy bed is way more appealing than getting up and working out. In that moment exercise is the last thing I want to do. Once I get up and it’s too late to work out or even walk the dog I feel annoyed with myself. I need a new strategy for mornings.
I’ve done well with walking. Since my pedometer broke the night before the project started I decided to abandon the goal of 10 000 steps. With the exception of a few days where I was running short on time in the morning I have been consistently walking to work. Every weekday this month I have walked either to or from work (many days both) and on days when the weather was nice I have made the effort to take Slone for an extra long walk.
I think the two biggest things I need to work on are organization and accountability. Organizing my meals and my workouts will help me be more effective. Some ideas:
- print a weekly calendar and have my meals for each day on it, put on fridge
- print a weekly calendar for workouts
- have Sunday be my “prep for the upcoming week” day in which I make a new meal calendar, workout calendar, buy groceries and update my ipod
- do weekly progress posts on blog to add accountability
- have regular discussions with Melissa about our progress
- be more specific with goals (ex: only allowed to get credit for waking up at 7 if I get out of bed immediately, can only get credit for working out if I feel like I challenged myself)
- create weekly themes, a specific set of goals I really want to focus on and be perfect with for that week (ex: try a new recipe every night this week, stretch every day during my lunch break this week)
- move my resolutions chart out of my bedroom
- choose bigger nagging tasks, list them somewhere visible and do one every week (my tasks list was more of a regular to do list, I was using small tasks to avoid bigger ones)
- create rewards and consequences for meeting or not meeting certain goals
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