A testing

Well, I think I passed this one.

The roommate and I have been walking regularly every other evening for the past week and a half. We haven't skipped a time yet.

The roommate is out of town for a couple days and tonight I walked alone. (I have to say I was quite tempted not to walk!)

I did it though. And I'm proud of myself for it. I did a good job today! :-)

Back in the tennies again

It was so beautiful out today.

I walked to work. I should have yesterday but I snoozed a little too long. (Oopsie!)

My day seemed just a little bit better for walking to work.

Plans

With the frigorific* front moving in tomorrow, I am planning on cooking all of tomorrow afternoon.

I am working at the library for a few hours in the morning but then I have dedicated my afternoon to making homemade mac & cheese, potato & ham soup, and bread! Ambitious I know but I am holding myself accountable to get this done.

This will be part of my meal supply for next week and I am going to freeze some for later. I am kind of liking this meal-planning thing.

One thing I have already realized is I have to be flexible. Wednesday a project I couldn't get out of came up at work and I had to leave for lunch later than usual plus it was shortened so I had to improvise a little. But it worked and I'm good.

I think I will be eating better and healthier.

I hope.

No, I know I will -- I have celery in my fridge . . . to snack on! That is already way better than anything I have had for a long time.

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*word of the week

Heart and soul

The dawning of a new year . . .

Resolutions for my physical life:

• Resolutions in this area of my life seem to be the hardest of mine to keep.  However I will do my utmost to keep this one -- my goal is to participate in some form of physical exercise at least 3 times per week.

Resolutions for my spiritual life:

• Follow a Bible reading plan.  I was doing some research to prepare for this goal and there are a lot of web resources for this type of thing.  I ended up choosing a chronological plan to read the entire Bible in a year . . . a little ambitious I know but I think I am up to this endeavor.
  
  
• One other thing I would like to do is to participate in some kind of group Bible study this year.

These are my life goals this year.  I have already begun on the uncluttering and the Bible reading plan.  Nothing like jumping in with both feet.  I am already excited for the new year!

5 things I ate today

1. Crepes filled with chicken and asparagus (delicious!)
2. White chocolate pecan and apricot scones (yummy!)
   
3. Homemade pizza (with homemade crust)
4. Brownies (decadent!)
5. Turtle tart (ditto!)

Diet? Quite possibly starting tomorrow!

And a one, two, three, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I'm trying to get back into an exercise routine. This means going to bed earlier so I can get up earlie. As you can tell by the time stamp on this post I am not doing very well.

So far I have only gone to bed late, set my alarm for earlier, and snoozed until I had to get up.

I'm hoping I get tired of that soon and decide to get my butt in bed earlier! Because I am determined not to adjust the time I set my alarm clock for.

My exercise plan currently consists of aerobic/pilates/etc workouts I recorded (because there is no way I am getting up at 5 am to watch it live) off ESPN and walking to work.

Today would have been a great day to walk but I had places to be during my lunch break and I needed a little extra time to mow my lawn during my afternoon break so I drove to work today.

I am planning on walking tomorrow.

This is a good plan because I am probably gonna snooze through my alarm :-P

Oh well, there is always Thursday!

I'm walking

I have been walking a lot the last couple days. Which is good . . . for both my body and my mind. Obviously, it is good to get up and around. It is also is relaxing.

Tonight walking home from work was the best part of my day.

I am trying to get in as much walking as I can -- hopefully it will become a habit.

A walking habit.

Resolutions revisited

As I begin my second year of blogging (yea!) I thought I would evaluate the progress of my New Year's resolutions.

1) Spending habits & saving -- I'm getting better at this. Using coupons, curbing my unnecessary spending, saving more, paying off my debts.

2) Household management -- I still haven't gotten the hang of this one yet but I am still working on it. I think this one is hard simply because I dislike the cleaning part. :-P

3) Health and fitness -- I have been doing pretty well on this one I think. Walking and eating fairly well.

4) Spiritual life -- This one still needs some work but I have some things in the works.

5) Focus on those around me -- This one I have to be constantly aware of but I think I have been doing better.

Overall, I think I am in a better place than I was 6 months ago. Which I think is the point of resolutions . . . to better one's self.

I just need to keep pluggin' along.

Walkin'

Yeah! I've started walking to work again. As soon as I woke up this morning I stuck my head out the door. Cleo ran and hid when I did a jig and sang "I'm walking to work today!"

The last couple weeks it has been too wet to walk. Not that I will melt in the rain but I really dislike getting all damp and having people endure looking a my wet puppy dog look all day.

That may be a little vain but that's the way it is.

I am still anxiously awaiting my trees to start budding. My neighbors must think it strange to see me peering at my trees every time I walk out the door.

Tomorrow I am going to get my lawn mower ready to use on Friday. I can't wait for the smell of freshly mown grass!

Forget I said anything

Did I say I was happy with the summer weather? That, of course, was before I hiked up a "mountain" in 80 degrees (plus humidity). It has taken me all day to recover. Well, at least an hour or two.

A friend and I went hiking this morning. This morning because I thought "hmm . . . it being summer now, maybe the earlier we hike the cooler it will be." Hah. Wrong. Still hot. However . . .

Blessing #1: Communing with nature.

We stood 8 feet away from two deer and a fawn. (Although not this particular deer and fawn because I didn't have the foresight to bring my camera.) We also saw a raccoon, multiple squirrels and chipmunks, and a woodpecker.

It's amazing how beautiful animals are in their natural habitats.


Blessing #2: My fallibility.

I came to the realization that I am not as fit as I thought I was. I came to this understanding as I was gasping for breath two-thirds of the way up the first hill. Again as I gulped water at the top of that hill. Again as I glimpsed a bench at the top of the next hill and thanked my lucky stars it was the last hill we were climbing.

Many may not consider this revelation a blessing (I may not consider it a blessing), however I believe sometime in the future I will.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the walk down. Now what to do with the blessings . . .