Reflecting on Missing the Mark

As a recap I went to the gym to exercise 7/6,7/7 - 7/10,7/11,7/12,7/13 - 7/17,7/18,7/19. I did not exercise 7/20-7/27(today). Basically I missed exercise 7/20, and Also this week I did not exercise. 

Why didn't I make it to the gym recently? I think the housework and laundry got the best of me. I didn't have gym clothes clean. I have been in a rut and just haven't felt like doing much around the house. I had the objective to write about the fly lady program 7/16 (Sunday). I looked at my notes, and felt overwhelmed. The flaylady talks about not jumping into the whole program all at once, but slowly picking in habits slowly.  I was over thinking it, and trying to do too plan on doing too much at once. So I need to regroup and figure out how I can do things better. I could try to follow the 30 day habit building that the flylady teaches, the program that lets you tackle one objective per day. But I just am so behind on dishes and laundry and other household chores. I think when I would get home I just want to go into relax mode, and couldn't get the motivation back to do house work. Another thing is my energy levels, I think I need to get back to taking my b vitamins and methyl-folate. They seem to give me more energy. 

I've just been feeling overall down. I feel like I have gained so much weight, and not having the laundry done and wearing old clothes, just made me feel bad. I am starting to buy some new clothing items, so hopefully I can replace some of the skirts I have been wearing for almost 10 years, which really aren't the right size anymore. 

I need to have a game plan in place for when *I just don't feel like doing (insert whatever here)*. I do meet with my counselor next Tuesday, so we can discuss my wins and losses and how to continue on a positive goal reaching path. 

Over and out, Keep on being Determined 2b Determined to Find Excitement in the Mundane. 

Met my weekly goal!

My goal this week was to go to the gym and exercise 4 days in a row Monday through Thursday. And I did it! 🎉 Woohoo 🎉 In addition I clocked in by 8am all four days and Friday I clocked in only a few minutes after 8am. 🥳

This is a great accomplishment. I have been working on clocking in by 8 with my counselor for a very long time. Many months. I am really proud of myself. 

I am tracking my habits and medication taking time on the apps. I think it is helpful. There are reminders and I can see any trends. 

I am also tracking my exercises in my healthly lifestyle incentive program sheet (below)

Reflecting on how I felt all week. I was feeling tired earlier in the night. Thursday night and Friday (day and night) I felt really tired. On most days me and my husband worked together to get the dishes put up even though it was late. I woke up easily many times before my alarm even. I averaging 6 hrs of sleep. I am trying to track my sleep in the Samsung health app. I automatically registers when you are asleep. It works pretty good but isn't 100% of you wake up in the middle of the night. 

So this was a great week. I plan on building on this progress with the exercise and clocking in by 8 next week but I want to focus on adding more of the flylady routines. And I plan on writing more about the flylady routines in my post on Sunday. 

Until next time, Keep being determined 2b determined to find excitement in the mundane!

Consistency - I'm doing it!

An excerpt from my first entry in this blog in March 2012:

[All of these things], goals you can call them (I never liked the idea of a goal though), require consistency - a trait I don't naturally have. It is something I have to gain through desire, determination, and commitment. Motivation is hard to come by. It is my motto of the season to find excitement in the mundane. This is the only way I believe I can conjure up some motivation to do all the things I need to do for a better life but don't want to do. It is about convincing myself that I want this. I am not determined, but I want to be. I want to be determined, I want to be consistent. I need to be. All of my goals are nothing without consistency.

I want to meet my goals. I don't want to be still working on the same thing a year from now. I felt like every time I talked to my counselor, it was the same story. I'm pressing snooze, turning my alarms off without waking up. Still arriving to work late. It was getting old. Like when was I going to finally break the cycle!?

I am really happy to say that this week is day 4 in waking up early and clocking in by 8 and exercising. 🙌👏 

I need to keep it up. Today is Thursday morning. Yesterday I clocked in before 8am and went to the gym. 3rd day in a row! 

As I wrote in exerpt above "desire, determination, and commitment" this is what I need to keep it up. It isn't just one week that it takes to loose weight. It is consistently showing up to the gym and exercising. It consistently choosing healthy foods instead of sugary, fatty or greasy foods. Desire, I've got to want to accomplish my goals, and do what I have to do to get it done. Pack my bag the night before. Wake up when the alarm sounds. Even when you don't feel like it, you may be tired and just want to go to bed before taking care of the dishes or packing your bag, but get it done! A little more push, a little more desire, a little more determination. And the commitment to keep the consistency every day. 

I don't want to be in the same place a year from now. I want to meet my goals, and keep moving higher to other goals that are greater.

Until next time, Keep being determined 2b determined to find excitement in the mundane!

Tuesday 2nd Day in a Row

Okay so turns out my title is a pun. It's 2nd day consecutive and second day rowing machine. 

I made it to the gym and did HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) 

5min warm up 20 s/m
8 sets 45sec on 45 sec off  (11:15)
26-27s/m
5min cool down 20 s/m
Total 21 min

July progress on Healthy lifestyle incentive, click to enlarge 

I have done 4 workouts in July with 2x 2 days in a row. My goal is to get 4 days in a row at the Gym this week. 

It seems my main obstacle to going to the gym is having my gym bag packed. And since I have been getting in the routine of before bed packing my bag and picking out my clothes for the next day it has been going well. It seemed like such an obstacle over the past few months since I joined the gym, but this is really helping me focusing on my bed time routine. 

I am tracking my habits in the app Habitnow Android App. It has been helpful. I have some habits that are yes/no, and others that require a amount like hour and minutes (time).

Habits I'm tracking: 

• Take meds at 9pm (yes/no)
• Go to bed at 10pm (yes/no)
• In bed time (time value)
• Clock in by 8am (yes/no) and time value
• Exercise (yes/no)
• Shiny sink b4 bed (yes/no)

So far I have gotten two days in a row clocking in by 8am and going to the gym (exercise).

I am also using the app My Therapy Pill Reminder (Android app) In this app I put in all my meds including my prn, with the time I'm supposed to take them, and set up a custom reminder. So I get a gentile tone alarm to remind me to take them at a certain time. If you don't log it, it will continue you remind you after awhile. It also allows you to imput the time when you take them which turns off the alarm. So if you alarm is at 8:30 to take it at 9, but you don't take it til 9:10 you can put that in. It also tracks prn meds. So I can keep track of the times I had to take a sleeping pill. 

I'm excited for the next day! Let's keep this streak going. Got my gym bag packed ✔️

Until next time, Keep being determined 2b determined to find excitement in the mundane!

Monday - Great Start

Monday was a great day. It started with me waking up to my first alarm. And I made some tea for the road. I had a bagel and cream cheese and a premade healthy muffin. I wasn't very hungry so I took it with me. I had my gym bag and baby's bag packed the night before. I choose our outfits the night before. So it was easy getting ready. I left at 7:10 just as my time to leave alarm went off.

I clocked in at 7:53. Perfect! Early!

I had a great day at work. And went to the gym after. I did a steady

30 min row 20s/m 5 damper 3811m 195cal

I was a minute late to pick up David by 5:30. So I need to leave an the gym/finish a few minutes earlier.

I came home and watched good mythical morning (GMM), it was better not to watch in the morning, so I can focus getting ready. I spent some time with my husband (Chris) and baby. I folded one load of laundry. Chris pretty much took care of cooking dinner, grilled beef flanken. After dinner we jointly cleaned up the dinner table, loaded the dishes. And because it was just one meal I had space to add some of the larger dishes [from the night before] to the washer.

I took my meds around 9:30pm. And was in bed by 10:10pm. I took a melatonin at 10p. I said if I don't fall asleep by 10:30 I will take a sleeping pill. I turned on ANS on YouTube (Art Nature Sounds) ambient and I feel asleep no need to take sleeping pill. [YouTube Link] ANS Ambient it puts me to sleep every time.

Here is to the next day! Consistency.

Until next time, Keep being determined 2b determined to find excitement in the mundane!

Sunday *New Week* Get it done.

Today I had a leisurely morning. I did my devotional books. Reflected. Looked at my bible verse text journal. I got some things done around the house, I will list everything I did below. My mother in law came over and she had fun seeing baby. I had bought some meat for dinners, beef ribs and stew meat. I found a recipe for braised beef ribs and cooked up a storm. In addition to the braised beef, I made homemade mashed potatoes. I followed the recipes from "Tastes Better from Scratch" website. When I find the link I'll add it. It was delicious.

Things I accomplished today:

1. Cleaned the dining room table before and after dinner
2. Threw away all trash around the house
3. Unloaded and reloaded dishwasher
4. Shiny sink B4 bed
5. Packed my gym bag
6. Picked out my clothes for tomorrow
7. Shower/brush teeth
8. Picked up toys/clutter in living space
9. Wiped counters down
10. Baked muffins
11. Cooked a special meal
12. Took care of baby -feeding-playtime-naps-bed

Shiny Sink, Fly Lady routine

Goals for tomorrow: clock in by 8am, exercise at the gym, finish cleaning dishes (pots and pans) and put away dishes from dish washer.

Until next time, Keep being determined 2b determined to find excitement in the mundane!

Commiting to Consistency - Lets make it stick!

Today I had the day off to take care of my son who was sick. I took it as an opportunity to get a soft start on some of my goals. I looked into a couple of options for my fitness goals. First I thought I would do the empowered abs program. I laid out mat and got started doing the exercises. One set in baby started crying. After tending to him I tried the next two abs body weight exercises. One of them was very uncomfortable and I realized this program wasn't going to work for me. I am just not a fan of bodyweight exercises like that.

baby png from pngtree.com/

I didn't let that stop me from doing my exercises for the day. I decided to take a walk. The rain had stopped (it was a thunderstorm). In the past I had walked a mile around the neighborhood with the stroller, which is 3 laps. This time I decided to challenge myself and walk with baby in the Moby wrap (baby carrier). I thought it would be comforting to him and would also give me some more strength training. He weighs almost 19 lbs now. I needed to get 30min of exercise in for the healthy lifestyle tracking (more on that later). So I did 4 laps (1.5 miles) instead of my usual 3 (1 mile) to get 30min. And the average speed was was actually .3mph more than usual even with the extra weight. I could definitely feel like it was more of a workout with carrying the baby. But it wasn't too much just a little more strength needed, rather than a leisure stroll.

My walk workout summary

So at work we have a healthy lifestyle incentive program. If you workout 90 mins a week basically 30 min three times a week, you get $5 off your insurance each pay period. This is my accountability.

July 6 first entry 30 min

So instead of doing the bodyweight exercises (abs program), I looked on YouTube for some rowing exercise plans to loose weight. I know I like this form of exercise and I feel it is the best option for me to do something I enjoy and is effective. It is a full body workout. And if I am at the gym and have some extra time I can do some arm strength workouts as well.

I took a screenshot of the YouTube example rowing workout

So this program seems like I could follow it. I don't have to watch a YouTube exercise each time, I just follow the simple plan and do it. The program alternates from a HIIT (high intensity interval training) one day and a steady row the next day. With four days of active rowing and 2 days of leisure exercise such as walking or hiking. And one rest day. I think I would like to go to the gym M-T-W-TH, 4 days in a row, so I have Friday to get ready for sabbath. If I have a week where I have counseling on a Tuesday I might switch my gym day to Friday (sunset) time allowing.

Last quarter I had the intention of doing the healthy incentive program, but didn't follow through. I did go to the gym several times but not consistently. And I forgot to track it on the sheet. Also on days I missed, I kind of felt oh well I missed it this week so I guess that's it... And kind of gave up.

I need to think of the reasons why I wasn't able to have consistency last quarter.

There are barriers to my consistency that I need to accommodate for:

Challenges I have with making it to the gym are:

• Packing my gym bag the night before
• Arriving and leaving work at the correct time

So part of packing my gym bag the night before is going to be a part of my nightly routine that I am trying to develop as part of the flylady system (more on that in another post). These routines are developed to help get in the habit of doing things on the regular so you don't get bogged down when it piles up.

Some of the things I am utilizing for tracking my habits is an app called "Habit now". I am still playing with it to see how I can best utilize it. Currently I have habit tracking for night meds at 9pm and bed time at 10pm. I'll have to see if I can add some of the flylady routines in there. But so far it had been helpful with reminders and tracking if I did it. I just added tracking for clocking in at 8am. Waking up on time has always been a problem for me. I have the tendency to press snooze and lay back down. THIS IS A CRONIC PROBLEM for me. Developing those habits of taking my meds a 9pm or earlier and start winding down so I can fall asleep at 10pm is so important to starting the next day right. Lately I have been needing sleep aids to help me fall asleep and I don't take it right off the bat so it will be 11pm and I'm still not asleep when I finally decide for that extra boost with the additional pill. It is all a part of my bipolar illness.

Well that was a lot to post about, but I know it is helpful writing it and tracking it. It is a form of accountability and also helps me get in the right frame of mind. If I discuss my goals iny blog it helps me process and see how I am doing.

Until next time, Keep being determined 2b determined to find excitement in the mundane!