Pandemic Week 42 – New Years!

Happy New Year friends! Are you into making resolutions?  I’m not usually one to make them but I’ve got my mindset in the frame of change.  So I’ve made a list and I’m doing small steps to reach my goals. SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely. I first learned about SMART goals in direct selling training, but I’ve since used it to adapt it to life in general. 

Right now I’ve got a ton of mental motivation, even though I don’t always have the physical motivation to actually do it.  But thoughts are a good place to start and what I’ve been doing is breaking it up into super small bites (How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!) so it’s attainable. So I’m going to put it out there. Not as a new years resolution, but as lifestyle change that just happens to be lining up with the timing of new years.  Everything I’m listing below I’ve been consistent in starting already. 

Movement.  This needs to be a thing. I am not feeling physically well – I’m getting OLD ya’ll! I’ve joined an online plank challenge in a group I’m in and we’re working up to do a 2 minute plank by the end of the month by slowly adding seconds every day. I’m also committing to starting minimum of 10 minutes moving.  Going for a walk if it’s not icy, stretching with resistance bands, dancing in the living room, yoga video – anything! I’ve realized since lockdown that I’m moving way less than when I go to work every day and normally would build movement into my day while out of the house.  

Food.  Increasing produce. I need more living food.  I’ve gone out and got a ton of produce to add to every meal and have for snacks.  I am cooking/prepping a bunch so it’s easy to grab and add to any meal. I’m hoping that adding all this fiber will help to feel fuller and therefore eat less other things and help to lose some weight so my knee doesn’t hurt so much anymore.  I can tell when I’ve gone up even 5lbs because I feel it in my knee and it goes away when I lose it again. 

Sleep.  I’ve been working on this for months now and it’s definitely better than it was 6 months ago, but it’s still not where I’d like it to be. I’m hoping the addition of the movement goal will help with that – but sometimes even when I’m physically tired I just can’t sleep with my mind racing. Thankfully for therapy, I’m working on helping that too. 

Side biz stuff. I’m doing some serious thinking there.  I’m thinking it’s maybe time for change. This likely will need to be a separate post once I make a final decision.  So look out for potential change there in the coming weeks. I’m excited with what I’m researching – it’s similar category to what I’m currently doing, but still need to weigh the pros and cons. 

Decluttering.  I’ve got SO.MUCH.STUFF! It’s overwhelming. I know this is going to seem super miniscule, but I’m pushing myself to touch at least 1 thing a day. Either trash it, donate it or put it in a proper place. It usually turns into more than just 1 thing, but just putting 1 thing as the goal makes it not feel overwhelming and I’ve had the mood strike where I’ll work on an area for 45 minutes and get way more done – but sometimes the only energy I have is to look at an old bottle in the fridge or cupboard and throw out something expired while I wait for my water to boil for tea. 

I had a welcome surprise this last week.  The kiddo approached me and asked me to teach him Heroclix!  He’d played a few games with me years ago when I first started playing to check it out, but he decided it wasn’t for him. He also hears me talk about it when I’m excited about going to tournaments – so he had a little bit of knowledge with it going into it.  We’ve played about every other day this last week and he’s picking it up so quickly! He’s doing a great job of remembering what his figures do – even the team abilities!  I can’t wait for my HOX case to arrive (hopefully next week, it releases on the 6th and I hope shipping comes quickly!) so we can play some sealed at home. I’m just excited that it gets us both off the screens for a while and spending time together that’s actually interacting and not just buried in screens. 

I got to see my dad this week.  We haven’t seen him in a few months, but he was in the city to help my sister with stuff so we asked him to help us grab some ice melter/salt for the walkway.  We don’t drive, so getting home big heavy things is super difficult and hardware stores don’t do delivery for it – only curbside pickup.  While we were talking, he asked me if I was still sewing masks.  I haven’t made any since the beginning of the pandemic, but I still had material, elastic and nose wires left so I did some sewing and got one made for him. 

I think that’s about it this week – lots of thoughts around here.  I wish you all a happy new year and wish you health and happiness. 

Until next time, xoxo