Here it is Thursday

and I do not have my shit together yet. I did well on Monday, though I didn't make 10,000 steps, but on Tuesday it all fell apart.  We had a volleyball game in Parker, AZ which is exactly 156 miles from Phoenix. According to Google maps it takes 2 hours and 30 minutes to get there. Factor in a stop or two along the way and boom, 3 hours later we are arriving at our destination or home depending on which way we are going. Even though I knew about this game all year, I did not plan for it. We had to get on the bus at 12:30 so I did not get my steps in that day. And we were on the bus for 6 hours and I did not plan for food. WTF was I thinking?  Actually, I wasn't thinking. So I ended up eating chicken salad sandwiches - with the bread - which might explain my inability to poop yesterday, as well as candy. Far, far too much candy. Then we did not home until 11 pm and yesterday I had to get up super early to go to the dentist - that was fun and a whole nother story. So I was really tired all day and felt like having beer. So we went to lunch where I had not only beer (lots, more than normal) but burgers with the bun. UGH!!!!  Oh, and let's not forget the milkshake for dessert. So it's no wonder that I felt all backed up - I was. But today is a new day and I have a new attitude and things will be different today.

I do not like the way I feel and I know exactly what to do to feel better. So why not just do it? I can say no to things. No one has forced me to eat candy or milkshakes. I am in control at all times. Time to start using my mindfulness again and get back on track. Starting right now.

Hard to take the leap

After my last post I was absolutely convinced that I was going to just jump on the AltShift thing. I had decided that $1,000 was not too much for my health and I was in. But all weekend I never sent the text that would start it. Everytime I thought about it, I had some excuse not to. And they were ridiculous excuses. But the more I thought about it, the more I seconded guessed myself. I know what to do and it's not that hard. I just need to do it. I did it for months and felt amazing, so it's not like it even makes me feel bad. Yes, the support would be amazing, but do I really need $1,000 worth of support? Will I need it forever? Will I reach a point where I can do it all by myself? Am I at that point already, but I've never given it a serious go? So I'm giving myself this week to get my act together. I know exactly what I need to do; walk, meditate, put foods in the right shift, and sleep. That's it. That's all I need to do. I can do that with my eyes closed. I will give myself this week. If, by the end of the week, I have not gotten my shit together, I will pay the money and join the group. But honestly, I know enough that I think I can do this on my own. So today will be Day 1.

A serious choice to make

I am faced with a very serious decision. One that could theorectically impact my whole life. Pardon me while I talk my way through it.

A little over a year ago I started AltShift and it changed my life. For the first time in many, many years I felt good. Really, really good. I had energy. I wanted to do things. I was happier. Just everything improved. Plus I lost weight. Lots of weight. Things went along fine while I was in school and had a strict schedule. Once summer hit, things started to fall apart. I stopped walking as much. My sleep schedule got all screwed up and my eating became sloppier. Once I returned to school, I thought that I would get back on track. That hasn't exactly happened. I'm much better than I was during the summer, but things are still not back where they should be. 2 months ago, they had the final AltShift Activate and I joined that, but really didn't participate much as things were still crazy for me. Then he pulled back everything because he started a new program. This program is a lifetime membership and there are 'lessons', weekly calls, a Facebook group, etc. Basically all the support you could possibly want to make this lifestyle permanent. But that is the only way to access him now. Before he had forums and a couple of other ways to access him for help. No more. Only through this group and that's where he's going to be devoting his time, which makes perfect sense. I want to do this program. I know that I need the support and the help to make this a permanent part of my life. I really want to do this. But it costs $1,000. Now that is really not that much money. It's for lifetime membership and something I will always have. I paid $1,000 for my orthotics from the Good Feet store last year and do not regret one cent of that. It was worth every penny to make my feet, knees, back stop hurting. And I'm pretty sure that I will not regret this $1,000 either, it's just that spending that is quite a leap. I really want to do it and I think it will be important for me to get this, but I also don't want to waste $1,000. I know me and sometimes I can be a flake. I joined a dog training group and have only visited it once. Hello!!! $300 and I don't use it.  Ugh!!!! That's not completely wasted as I have access to it forever, but I'm not following it like I should be. Then I think that I'll be getting $2,000 on the 25th for volleyball. I was planning on spending it on Mavy's training, but I could spend some of it on myself. So I could charge it now and then pay the whole thing off in a couple of weeks. I could live with that. It's just the thought of spending $1,000 on myself in one chunk that kind of freaks me out. Of course, I spent $450 on Activate over the last year, but that was in little chunks. And $1,000 for lifetime access is really not that much. It's going up to $1,500 once they reach 100 people so in actuality I'm saving $500. I also know that I won't be able to get it under control myself. I'm facing 59 years of programming that I have to undo. That is going to take more than 1 year of work. It might even be a lifetime thing and I will need support every step of the way. So there it is. I really, really, really want to do this but I'm a little iffy about the money. Guess I need to give it a little more thought.

That sudden, unexpected

I had one over the weekend. I spent the weekend in Washington, D.C. with about 200 science teachers from all over the country. As I listened to them talk about the research they do with their students and how they go about accomplishing things, something hit me. Those things are not necessarily for me and I should not feel bad about that. Following on the heels of that, I realized something about Facebook. I have cleaned out my Facebook a whole lot in the last couple of months. I don't follow any 'health or fitness' type people. I don't follow people who post a lot of selfies. I don't follow people who are extremely political on either side. I have restricted my feed to things that I like. I thought that would help. I found myself feeling inadequate and down on myself for not doing all these 'things' that others apparently did. So now I follow lots of teacher groups. I follow some planner groups. And I follow people I like to hear from. That's it. I thought I was good on Facebook. I thought that would help. It didn't. But I didn't take any real time to examine why. Then this weekend, while actually talking face-to-face with a bunch of science teachers I realized why. Even these people are posting their best on Facebook. They rarely, though it happens occasionally, get on and say wow, I really blew it today. Or I can't seem to cover the things I need to cover. Or I don't have the energy for all the labs. Etc. They are presenting their best face while still trying to get the help they need. And I make comparisons of myself to them. So I really am not helping myself at all. So I'm basically done with Facebook. Seriously. Done. I will go on once in a while to check things out or to look up something specific, but otherwise I'm done. I've got my own thing to do and I need to just focus on me and not what others are doing. So goodbye Facebook.

Starting to feel more in control

Looking over this blog, I notice that the last couple of posts have fallen into my old routine of complaining and whining. Wanting to change but not actually following through on it. I don't like that and it is extremely unproductive. Part of the problem was that I felt my life had spun out of control. Somehow that happened over the summer when I had more time on my hands than ever before. But whatever. Since school started, I've been working hard to get my life where I want it. Well, these last 2 weeks I've made significant progress towards that. I have set up my planner to track the things I want to do daily, and I've limited them to just a couple of things to get started. I have also made sure that I did those things every day. Okay, I did not do one thing every day. But I'm working on building habits. I've gotten far better at limiting my time on Facebook and it really makes a difference. In fact, I shut down the Facebook page when I'm done looking at it. I don't just move to another tab, I shut that tab down so I can't see it. That really helps a lot. Then keeping my planner up has really made me feel successful. I jot my to-dos or notes for the day in the upper box. The middle box tracks the things I want to do every day, currently, they are training Mavy (the one I've been slipping up on) mediate (10 minutes a day currently on a 12-day streak), and check the bank (I just feel more in control and less likely to spend if I keep on top of the bank balance, plus it keeps me on top of the bills). Last week I had to clean for 15 minutes every day also and that didn't work out at all, so I removed that. Then the bottom box I write something from the day. Something good that happened. Something I want to remember. Some feeling or event from the day. I also have large numbers in highlighter to keep track of what shift I am on. So this is working for me really, really well. It keeps me focused on what is important in my life. It helps me to create the habits I want to have. It helps me to see that I do a lot of things and need to remember that when I'm feeling down on myself - which was starting to happen a little. So there we have it. Getting back to basics and really feeling like myself again. Yay me!!!

We have a problem

Actually, I have a problem and I need to get a handle on it.

On September 10, 2017, I started AltShift. It has been an amazing year. I've lost a bunch of fat and inches (no I don't know exactly how much because I haven't weighed or measured myself in months). Things have been going well up until this past summer. I fell off things this summer. I lost the meditation, and I have found that is super, super important. I also fell off the walking. Summer in Phoenix is no time for walking plus sitting around the house doesn't lend itself to lots of activity.  Since school started back in August, I've been battling to get back on track. I've been mostly successful. I started up the meditation again and my current streak is 8 days - woohoo!!!  As soon as the weather got cooler I started walking to school. Afternoons are still a little hot so walking home isn't happening every day. But I've been making my 10,000 steps every workday. And food has been okay. Not perfect by a long shot, but okay. My problem is sweets. I've been eating way more sweets than I have in a long, long time. Just today I was at WalMart and thinking I wanted something sweet. I didn't examine why I wanted them, just searched until I found something small that I could eat quickly on the way home. Yesterday I had a Snickers bar. I've had ice cream for dessert and pound cake. I need to stop. I know that part of it is the stress I'm feeling from the volleyball. Though I'm trying hard to keep it under control, it gets out of hand once in a while. Part of that problem is also my 8-day streak of meditation. I went quite a while without meditating and I could feel myself getting stressed and angry. So meditating is helping with everything, but I need to get a handle on the sweets thing. I need to cut them out. Okay, I know myself and I have to face my problems before things can get better. So here I am facing things.

Whatever happened to..........

Whenever I am bored, I look up people I haven't heard from in a while on the Internet. Now, most of these people are the type who post every day on Facebook, sometimes multiple times a day. They tend to post a whole lot of selfies and constantly talk about their life in general. Then one day - poof - they are gone. No more selfies. No more day to day details of their life. No more nothing. Just gone. And I can't help but wonder where they went. What happened? Did they suddenly realize that posting their daily life on the Internet was not the best idea? Did they suddenly discover that some of this can come back and bite them in the ass? Did they get hit by a bus? What????  It's like you can't keep us updated on every single aspect of your life and then just disappear. That's not fair. No, not really, but seriously I do wonder about them. Studies have shown that people who post a lot of selfies and who share their life extensively have a fairly low self-esteem and are generally seeking approval from people outside themselves. So I can help but wonder if they suddenly came to a realization or if they just grew up. Of course, what does it say about me that I go looking for these people? Hmmm....something to think about.