I’m still trying. I think that is the important thing to remember. I haven’t given up and I have some more ideas. I’m having some difficulties with exercise. Drinking plenty of water has been the easiest goal to meet. I’m doing pretty well with my diet. I’m eating at home and this week I have some healthier options planned. I started a class on Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and it has been wonderful. We meet two hours a week and I always look forward to that time. I also started a new knitting project because it is fall and I have yarn that needs to become a sweater. So, I feel good mentally, spiritually, emotionally, but I need some work on the physical. I know my endo is affected directly by my diet. I know regular gentle exercise helps my migraines. Why can’t I do the things I want to do? My flesh is so weak! Maybe I will build up to a 20 minute workout. That sounds ridiculous, but obviously I’m not doing 20 minutes so I have to start somewhere. My plan will be to do the PBS and then organs in place and half frogs and then diva derriere. Maybe once I get moving I’ll want to do the whole workout and if not at least I did something.

I really didn’t want to move again today. I didn’t want to finish my workout after I started. Know what I had to do to get myself motivated? Visualize Zac Efron. I gotta do what works for me. I have to imagine that I might one day meet Mr. Efron and if that were to happen I don’t want to be a hot mess. It doesn’t matter that I will never catch a glimpse of him, let alone meet him, I just needed to believe the lie long enough to get moving. Now I am glad that I made myself move. I do feel better, I have energy. I know two days of working out does not make me a health guru or even moderately in shape, but I feel better. And feeling better is one of my goals. I’m gonna call today a win and it’s only noon.

Day 1 – Complete

Day 2 – Complete

I can’t really call this week 2 anymore so I’ll go with step 2. Today I added exercise to my routine. I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to sit down and look at my phone. I wanted to make coffee and put my slippers on. Why is moving so difficult? I just have to tell myself to start and then keep moving. After I do my PBS I have to tell myself to keep moving. Move onto plies, jumping jacks, just keep moving! I like T-Tapp because I don’t need any special equipment, I don’t even need to wear workout clothes. I have done T-Tapp in a dress. It should be so easy, but I don’t want to move. So, even though I don’t want to, I will. Tomorrow I will tell myself to MOVE. I’m not focusing on results, I will focus on daily goals. I can’t change yesterday, but I can work on today.

Monday – T-Tapp Complete

I need a pause button on life for a couple of days. When everyone is healthy and happy it is pretty easy to keep up with life. As soon a something goes wrong everything begins to disintegrate. My youngest woke up at 2 am on Sunday with a sore throat, she still isn’t feeling well and my priorities have shifted. Now my oldest isn’t feeling well. So, I’m going to take one more week to focus on my water consumption. If I get sick, more water will help and even if I don’t get sick I can focus on my kids without adding more to my plate. Now we just have to juggle picture days and mountain bike races, doctor appointments and test results. Adding exercise can wait for another week.

Week 1: 90 oz of water a day COMPLETE

Week 2: 90 oz of water a day

Week 3: 20 minutes dedicated movement

Week 4: Balanced meal planning

Week 5: reward with a new class

I think a pot of chicken soup is in order. Time to get out the Instant Pot.

Thursday. This is the day that my resolutions usually fall apart. I’m tired and hungry and just want to quit. That is why I’m taking it slow this time. All I have to focus on is water consumption. I’ve been drinking 90 ounces every day. Today I’m using a smaller glass, so we will see how that works. I’m feeling pretty good and I am looking forward to adding exercise next week. I’m not a person to look forward to exercise, but 20 minutes of T-Tapp instead of looking at my phone will feel good. Already my body is looking more like my body and less like my grandma’s, so that is progress! I am not going to weigh myself regularly. I know that is a big deal for many people, but my body can change a lot without changing weight. I have a couple pieces of clothing that I will be using to gauge my progress. I might take some measurements too, but I’m not too concerned with numbers right now.

Right now, I feel good about what I have accomplished. I’m going to focus on water until Sunday and then my attention will shift to physical activity. By adding exercise I feel confident that my water intake will not decrease. I’ll still keep track of how many glasses I drink, but if I forget I won’t worry about it. I know one week won’t be enough to make a habit stick, but I’m hoping that these goals lead into the next goal.

Water is the foundation of better health. Exercise should lead to more water consumption. Feeling and seeing the results of exercise will inspire me to improve my diet.

I don’t want to change my diet drastically. That is usually what burns me out the quickest. I’m not focusing on losing weight, I want to make healthy, balanced meals that my family will enjoy. They don’t want frozen pizza and chicken nuggets anymore. They would also be unhappy about a green smoothie diet, or a grain-free vegan diet. I need to go through my recipes, find healthy choices my family likes and plan accordingly. I have an entire year of menus, it shouldn’t be too hard. It won’t be hard. I can do this!

I know it isn’t actually September 1st, but I do better starting challenges on Monday. So, this is the first week of my September challenge. Today and rest of the week I will focus on water intake. I’m not certain about how much water I should be drinking. I took my weight divided it in half and that is how many ounces of water I’m trying to drink. I think that is still an accepted way to figure out how much water your body needs. I just Googled “how much water should I drink” and apparently I should now be drinking 2/3 of my body weight. I didn’t need a calculator for half, but I need one for 2/3. OK, so I guess I need to drink one more glass every day. Less than one glass, but I like to make things easy and I already had to do math.

So far today I’ve had 75 ounces of water. If I have one more glass I will exceed my goal. I feel pretty good about today. I was home most of the day and that made drinking easy. I’ll have to remember to pack a water bottle when I’m out of the house.

Day 1 : COMPLETE

Day 2 : COMPLETE

Day 3 : COMPLETE

Day 4 : Under goal

Day 5 : COMPLETE