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Aug. 10th, 2012 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluecastleSo I was grumbling on twitter yesterday about how I felt like my life needed changing. Not big changes like where I live or where I work. Sure those could be more exciting, but that wasn't the kind of dissatisfaction I was feeling. It was more like making the good things better. Like ... what would my life include if I was a better version of myself. So I made some notes about the kinds of things I think the ideal version of me would be doing on a daily basis.
The list looks something like:
drink more water
exercise
eat dinner at the table
clean the house regularly/a little bit every day
read actualfax books every day (also magazines and fic, but MOAR BOOKS)
make time for journaling/writing/creating
empty the cat box daily!
After staring at the list -- and being poked with good advice via twitter -- I decided to pick one thing to focus on. that's why exercise is up there at the almost top. The water thing is up there too as it both goes hand in hand with the exercising, and I've slacked off the habit lately, and the headaches are back, so....
But I'm trying to do all this in tortoisey fashion. Slow and steady. Something I can do every day and consistently and maybe eventually have the kind of life I THINK I could have. MAKE THE SMALL CHANGES. A drawing group I used to follow is based on Danny Gregory's book EVERYDAY MATTERS. I was reading his blog yesterday in the middle of all this and thinking that that phrase is useful for more things than just drawing. Everyday matters. What you do everyday matters. Isn't there a quote about what you do making you what you are, or something along those lines?
Anyway... so. Exercise. I'm starting small. Just 10 minutes a day this week, and then I'm going to increase that periodically. Ideally I'd like to get back to the couch to 5K thing, but I'm SO out of shape that I need to work up to that. So the goal right now is just to move a little more. Get out and walk to the corner and back. Just do a little something to get moving and get in the habit of moving every day. In the very ideal-est world, I'd be able to afford the Y membership and be the kind of person who could get up early enough to spend 6-7 a.m. in the pool every weekday morning. But for now ... just do a little bit more every day. Motivation is NOT my strong suit, but I am hoping that if I tackle this thing first that I'll end up with more energy to attack the rest of the things.
Many of them I'm sort of doing. Sometimes. Like that eat at the table thing. I've only ever been able to keep up with it for like a week and a half. then I decide that plunking down on the couch with my dinner plate is a great thing "just this once" and before long every dish I own is piled up around the couch. When I eat at the table I'm WAY more likely to take the dishes to the kitchen and wash them. So. Eat at the table.
The cleaning thing is something I've got to figure out soon. My house is a tip! I haven't vacuumed in something approaching MILLENNIA...
But I have been working on reading a book every day for 20 minutes. This works out to be something like 1 chapter (depending) or 25 pages. I've been doing it right before bed, but that's also dangerous because of how tempting it is to say "I'm too tired." But mostly I get it done.
I've also bought and started keeping this month what is officially a 5 year journal. There's just space for a couple sentences about your day. That's been fun. Smaller and more achievable than "journal every day" is "write a couple sentences every day."
That writing/journaling/creating line is also kind of nebulous ... but in my ideal day there needs to be creative time in whatever format feels right for that day. So more thinking to come on that one.
And then the catbox thing. It usually gets done about every other day, but every day is ideal and I just need a kick in the pants. And if I'm keeping a sort of daily checklist ... why not add that, right?
So anyway. I know I re-start plans like this all the time, and I have no reason to think this is any different, but maybe maybe maybe.
You can't change your life if you don't change your life ... right?!
The list looks something like:
drink more water
exercise
eat dinner at the table
clean the house regularly/a little bit every day
read actualfax books every day (also magazines and fic, but MOAR BOOKS)
make time for journaling/writing/creating
empty the cat box daily!
After staring at the list -- and being poked with good advice via twitter -- I decided to pick one thing to focus on. that's why exercise is up there at the almost top. The water thing is up there too as it both goes hand in hand with the exercising, and I've slacked off the habit lately, and the headaches are back, so....
But I'm trying to do all this in tortoisey fashion. Slow and steady. Something I can do every day and consistently and maybe eventually have the kind of life I THINK I could have. MAKE THE SMALL CHANGES. A drawing group I used to follow is based on Danny Gregory's book EVERYDAY MATTERS. I was reading his blog yesterday in the middle of all this and thinking that that phrase is useful for more things than just drawing. Everyday matters. What you do everyday matters. Isn't there a quote about what you do making you what you are, or something along those lines?
Anyway... so. Exercise. I'm starting small. Just 10 minutes a day this week, and then I'm going to increase that periodically. Ideally I'd like to get back to the couch to 5K thing, but I'm SO out of shape that I need to work up to that. So the goal right now is just to move a little more. Get out and walk to the corner and back. Just do a little something to get moving and get in the habit of moving every day. In the very ideal-est world, I'd be able to afford the Y membership and be the kind of person who could get up early enough to spend 6-7 a.m. in the pool every weekday morning. But for now ... just do a little bit more every day. Motivation is NOT my strong suit, but I am hoping that if I tackle this thing first that I'll end up with more energy to attack the rest of the things.
Many of them I'm sort of doing. Sometimes. Like that eat at the table thing. I've only ever been able to keep up with it for like a week and a half. then I decide that plunking down on the couch with my dinner plate is a great thing "just this once" and before long every dish I own is piled up around the couch. When I eat at the table I'm WAY more likely to take the dishes to the kitchen and wash them. So. Eat at the table.
The cleaning thing is something I've got to figure out soon. My house is a tip! I haven't vacuumed in something approaching MILLENNIA...
But I have been working on reading a book every day for 20 minutes. This works out to be something like 1 chapter (depending) or 25 pages. I've been doing it right before bed, but that's also dangerous because of how tempting it is to say "I'm too tired." But mostly I get it done.
I've also bought and started keeping this month what is officially a 5 year journal. There's just space for a couple sentences about your day. That's been fun. Smaller and more achievable than "journal every day" is "write a couple sentences every day."
That writing/journaling/creating line is also kind of nebulous ... but in my ideal day there needs to be creative time in whatever format feels right for that day. So more thinking to come on that one.
And then the catbox thing. It usually gets done about every other day, but every day is ideal and I just need a kick in the pants. And if I'm keeping a sort of daily checklist ... why not add that, right?
So anyway. I know I re-start plans like this all the time, and I have no reason to think this is any different, but maybe maybe maybe.
You can't change your life if you don't change your life ... right?!
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-10 03:26 pm (UTC)I have a tip that worked for me RE water- ymmv:
Obviously having a water bottle or lidded cup (we like the Alladin ones that are shelves with the travel mugs at Target) and keeping it full will help. If it helps add a few drops of MIO or part of a crystal light single. Decaf tea also counts as water.
But what worked to help me get in the habit is super dorky - I had a bunch of those little beaded elastic bracelets (probably from my mom) the ones with tiny seed beads- I put 8 on my left wrist and moved one to my right wrist every time I had a glass of water. You'll forget to move them sometimes and there will be days when there is one forlorn little bracelet on the right and some days they'll bug you and you'll take them off but little by little you'll get the habit going. I'll still do this for a day or two if I'm not being good about hydrating. Of course I used bracelets because I had them- any sort of visual trigger would work.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-10 04:20 pm (UTC)but when I do ... I've been ... appropriating the crystallized lemon juice packets from the cafe downstairs to add to the water bottle. just enough zing to keep it from tasting like icky water!
onwards... :)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-10 04:29 pm (UTC)What's really helped me drink more water is using those little Mio water additive thingys. I hate plain water that isn't bottled (and I don't want to buy bottled) but I love Mio flavored water, and I have no trouble sucking down eight cups a day or more when I use them. They can even travel with me, though it would confuse waiters, I imagine. You start out with a glass of water with lemon and suddenly you have tea. Magic!
A guy I knew years ago told me his therapist had asked him, "What can you do today? Can you do ten situps? Then do ten situps." Don't focus on tomorrow, just ask yourself what you're able to do today and then do that. It's good advice, when I remember it. Mostly I forget to ask myself.
I'm trying to ease back into creativity, too, both writing and sewing. Then I look at my house and feel guilty, but that doesn't make me get up and clean the house, either, so I do nothing. I'm going to do a little of that what can I do today thing and do some straightening up and then pick a pattern to start on, I think. You've inspired me. :)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-10 05:24 pm (UTC)Yeah, if I had the money/time/gumption I'd LOOOOVE to swim every day. I'm too much of a couch hog to like most forms of exercise, but I'm a water baby at heart I think.
But YAY for the small steps forward. Even teeny tiny steps in the right direction are still good things!
<3
no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 03:31 am (UTC)