Success when I'm not looking

This is true, especially for me. I try to stay on the straight path, but life doesn't always like the straight path. Life throws things in your way and you have to adapt. I've been on summer break since May 17th. The first couple of weeks were okay, but the last few weeks have been not so okay. I've had way more deviations then I should have. I've had a lot of alcohol. I haven't walked near as much as I should. I've skipped mediation more than I've done it. And my sleep has been atrocious. Yet, in spite of myself, I have still managed to lose a little fat this month. Yay me.!!! 2.8 more pounds gone. How?? I'm not really sure. But I think I've gotten to a place where my body is in a good place and it keeps working well in spite of me slipping. Now, here's the fine line, I am not going to beat myself up for not doing everything the way I should, but I need to be hard enough on myself that I get my butt back on track. Today is July 1st and as good as any day to kick it in gear again. I got up and went on my walk this morning before walking the dogs. Yay me!!! I have successfully stopped grabbing Fritos twice. Yay me!!!  The thing that bothers me with that is I don't even really want Fritos, it's just habit. I've let a couple of habits sneak their way back in and I need to kick them to the curb. Again. We are having some friends over today but I don't plan on drinking and Hubby is making Jambalaya, totally a 3 shift meal. Yum. So it will all be good.

I need to start buckling down in all things anyway. I have to finish up my planning for the new school year. I have to finish the classes I'm taking. I need to kick it into gear and this will just be one more thing I get in line. I only have 3 more weeks of break. 😭 so I need to get moving. I feel good about this summer though. I got a chance to really rest and relax and I really enjoyed it. So no regrets, but it is time to start to get serious again.

Forward progress

One of the many, many things I love about AltShift is the mental part. We don't stop and start the program, we deviate and then get back on track. Kind of like taking a little detour. So if I'm on 3 shift and I have too much fat, I don't just throw everything out and start all over on 5 shift, I just make better choices the next meal and continue on the path I'm on. I like that because it doesn't feel like a failure. It doesn't feel like I have to start all over. Also, it doesn't allow me to put it off until Monday or next week or next month. It happens right away the next meal. So it truly is a slight detour because life's path is never completely straight.

So I started the summer with the intention of adding the gym to my workout routine. I even went for 3 weeks straight. But I wasn't getting my walking in and that bothered me. So rather than continue on the path I was on, I took a step back. I'm back to focusing on my walking. I walked every morning this week in the heat, and I feel great about it. Every day I've gotten over 8,000 steps and I've hit the 10,000 mark twice. That is a huge win for me when last week I had days that didn't hit 5,000. So I'm happy. So walking it is until every day is over 10,000. Easy. I'm getting there. And I freaking love walking. Love. It. I could walk for hours if the weather would cooperate. But that's okay, I do it.

In spite of all that nonsense, I'm still down .8 pounds. That's a little bit amazing. I know that I shouldn't focus on the number on the scale, I completely understand that. But when it has been a focus of most of your life, it's hard to let it go. Plus, I don't give it the weight (hahaha, pun intended) that it used to have. I use it as one more tool to see what's happening. That's all.

My body is changing. I can feel it and see it. I was going to list off the things that are amazing about my body but as I was doing it I realized that's not good. I'm going to focus on the parts I like and then what? Stress over the things I don't. No. That's not going to happen. My body is changing. I feel amazing. I love the way I feel and move and everything so how about we just leave it there.

It's gotten super hot here. It's been over 110 a few times already and it's only June. Ugh. I don't mind it now when I'm home on break. I spend a whole lot of time in the pool, but I'm dreading when I have to return to school. That will be miserable because I'm going to walk each day. Oh well, I'll worry about that when it happens.

That's it. Just a catch-up post. I see too many bloggers who stop writing and fall off the face of the earth. Not that anyone reads this, but I like to be able to look back on it.  Time to get my day started.

Monsoon season has arrived

and we got our first rain yesterday. Actually, it's still raining a little this morning. It wasn't a lot of rain, but it was rain. After living in Hawaii for nearly 30 years, where it rained almost every single day and sometimes twice a day, I never thought I would be so happy to see rain. But it's been 2 years here and I think we've had 2 or 3 good showers of rain. So every little bit is exciting. I hope it stays kind of rainy and cloudy today so that I can take Maverick on a short hike. The whole idea behind getting another dog was to have a hiking partner. It would be nice to actually take him hiking. But it's been far too hot to go out during the day and I'm not getting up at o'dark thirty to go. So that may happen today with any luck.

So this week has been better in that I'm not whining near as much, but I'm not at the activity level I would like to be. I haven't been to the gym all week. I haven't got close to my steps all week. I have, however, made progress in the things I wanted to work on like my curriculum so that's good at least. But I still need to up my game more.

The problem is when I get to working on something I get lost in it. Especially if I'm making progress that I haven't made before. Also, when I hit on a plan of action, I generally keep going because I don't want to forget either what I'm doing or my goals with it. Is that silly? Maybe, but that's the way I work.

I did get 2 new diamond painting kits but I have not gotten obsessive with them. I have worked on one but have actually gone days without working on it, so I think it was only the first one that sucked me in. Or was it the Arrested Development???  Not sure which.

Guess that's about it. Need to get moving but I really am getting so much done. I would like to be able to take a couple of weeks and not have to worry about anything. We'll see how that goes.

it is done

This is what has been completely derailing me for the past 2 weeks. Every time I had a minute to spare, I would jump on this and it would be hours later before I realized it. Well, now it is done and I won't be working on it anymore. In truth, it was this and Arrested Development that kept me occupied.

They made a new season of this and I thought it would be good to watch the first 4 before watching the new season. And it was a good idea, as I had forgotten lots. But the seasons of this thing were long, 22 episodes - like it used to be. Anyway, I would sit down to do my turtle and turn on this and boom, hours would go by. It's nice to be able to lose myself in something but this was getting out of hand. Now, both are done. I finished Arrested Development last night and the turtle this morning. So that is the end of that. I do have a couple of more coming but I'm going to have to be more disciplined with them.

The good news is that this has kept me off facebook most of the week and that has been nice. That part I need to keep up. I just basically closed Facebook and turned off the notifications. Out of sight, out of mind is true in this case. I will go and look but after just a few minutes get bored and close it again. It's really the same thing over and over and over and over..........Enough of that.

Now I need to get back to work and structure the rest of my summer so I get things done. I have signed up for 3 classes that I must complete quickly. I need to take my Praxis tests for chemistry and biology. And I need to get my courses organized. Plus I need to get back on the walking wagon. That has slipped a whole lot since school ended.

This picture popped up in my memories yesterday:

Look at me!! Look at me!!! I'm freaking huge. My arms are gigantic. I have no neck at all. And look how I fit in that chair. I still sit in that chair but I take up a whole lot less room now. I know that motivation should be intrinsic and not extrinsic, but looking at a picture like this from 1 year ago really makes me want to keep going. So getting in my steps will be a priority for the rest of summer. Even if it's hot, I have to do it.

Okay, that's enough. Just needed to document the end of the sloth period of summer. Having some friends over today and need to get some things done.

Time to stop the whining and excuses

There are parts of this blog that I really, truly hate because it is all a bunch of whining. I don't delete it though because it reminds me that I do that. Well, the last few posts have been of that variety. Whining. Excuses. And nothing much getting done. I need to change that and I need to change it now. I have spent the first 3 weeks of my break basically sitting on my butt. It is time to get things rolling again. Part of the problem, and yes, this is an excuse, is that I got this stupid diamond painting thing that I'm kind of obsessed with. I probably spent 5 hours working on it just yesterday. It is almost done and I think it will help when it finally is done. The thing is I sit and work on it while I'm rewatching Arrested Development to catch up for the new season that came out last week. I've been letting my desire to do those 2 things overrule all other desires. So I'm faced with a dilemma. Do I continue to work and get this thing finished that will free up a whole lot of time to get school work done, or do I use my brain and override my desire to work on it and do other things?  I honestly don't know the correct answer. Of course, I want to just finish it. Maybe I will do that. Instead of fighting myself to do other things with that sitting there tempting me, I'll just finish it. I could probably finish most of it today if I work at it. Once that is done though, I will lay out a plan to get everything else I need to finish done. I have 3 classes to take and a curriculum to write. I need to get to work. Okay, Monday I will start devoting time to school work. I will finish this diamond painting this weekend and that will be that. Done and done!!!!

Time to get things done

So the thing I've been struggling with most is getting my steps in. I have not hit 10,000 steps in probably 3 weeks. The closest I've come is around 8,000. Not good enough. So I came up with an idea this morning. What if I broke the steps down into smaller pieces and set times for them to be done?  So if I want 10,000 steps and I'm awake from 5:30 - 8:00, that means that every 3 hours I need to have about 2,500 steps in. So it's 7:30 right now and I have 1,410 steps. I need another 1,000 steps in 1 hour. That's easy. So I need 2,500 by 8:30 am; 5,000 by 11:30 am; 7,500 by 2:30 pm, and 10,000 by 5:30 pm. That would have me finishing up my steps right around the time we walk the dogs at night. Perfect. That seems so much more doable than sitting at 6 pm and looking at 8,000 steps that need to be done. So I'm going to give this a shot today and see how I do.

Mental Health is a precarious thing

I tend towards depression. I truly believe that about 12-13 years ago I fell into a deep depression. I really did not care about anything. I stopped caring about keeping the house clean or doing anything good for myself because I felt it was all useless anyway. Then we went on vacation, our truck caught fire and we got evicted and weird as it sounds, that caused me to snap out of my depression.  I was forced by circumstances to make a change and that change resulted in my being snapped out of my depression. Once I realized what was wrong, I realized that I needed to pay close attention in order to not get dragged down again. Since then, I have been depressed a time or eight, but as soon as I realize what is happening I take actions to counter it. Also, and I think it's because I'm more aware, I try not to let it happen. Well, it happened. Ever since school got out I've been a little off. My last couple of posts are how I haven't been able to get my steps in or how things were not going as planned. These are signs that I'm letting depression get to me. Also, I stopped filling out my planner  - a sure sign of depression. I was using a bullet journal but I know myself and that was just an excuse for not using my planner. So that's all over. I filled out my planner today and I'm going to do the things I set out to do. Today is the last day of feeling all mopey and saddish.

I read something a long time ago that said you should get up and get dressed every day - all the way down to your shoes. So I'm going to take that advice. I spend most days in a bathing suit and I think I need to set limits on that. So I'm going to get up, shower, and dress in the mornings. After walking the dogs, I'm going to create a to-do list and then get to doing.  I have a whole lot I want to accomplish this summer and we are already 3 weeks gone. I need to get my butt moving. So starting tomorrow, things will be different. I am determined to be successful this summer.