Good habits

New Habits

At the end of June, I was watching my sister Marsha do her daily (YES, DAILY!) exercise and I felt so out of it, exercise-wise! I hadn't done anything much for a long time, even tho I have had times in my life that I have been very dedicated to exercise of one form or another. I had a bazillion excuses and I was just NOT doing much of anything exercisy. Marsha challenged me to start on July 1st and try to walk a little every day. Well, it's August 14th and I'm here to tell you that I have purposely walked every single day since the first of July! Even with all I've been thru in this time period, I've done it. As some old cowboy star used to say ..."No brag, just fact!". When Jon was in the hospital, I'd walk the hospital halls and use my iPhone as a stopwatch so I could time and keep track of how long I walked. I don't do loads of walking yet, but I am trying to do about half an hour each day and if that's not possible, I do a little less, but I always do something. My ultimate goal is to do an hour a day. EVERY DAY! I have a treadmill and that's where I usually walk. Remember those bazillion excuses I mentioned earlier? Well, I can't use most of them if I walk on my treadmill. No more "it's too hot" or "it's too cold" or "the humidity makes it hard to breathe" or "I can't be out in the sun very long because of my medication" or any of that. Reasearch shows that if you do anything for 21 days, it become a habit. With 45 days under my belt, I'm hoping that I'm well on my way to making this daily exercise a life-long habit.

Old Habits, Revisited

I'm starting back to work, driving a school bus, in a few days. That means no more going to bed a midnight or later. That means no more sleeping in. I started last night shifting my habits in the hopes of getting used to going to bed at 9 pm or 10 pm, once again. I should have started two weeks ago, but I didn't. Life was kind of in a major upheaval then and I barely slept, let alone getting the right kind of sleep. Since I get up at 5 am on work days, I need to be in bed and sleep well from no later than 10 pm! I have mixed feelings about going back to work. It will be very good for me and I know that, but it's also the signal that summer is almost over. It seems like we wait so long for summer to get here and when it finally does, it's gone as quickly as a flash. I get that same feeling, working for a school district, that I used to get as a kid when I was a student and summer was coming to an end. It's sad. But it's also exciting...the prospect of a new year and of new beginnings. I'm trying to focus on the exciting part...and I'll get back into the habit of getting up early, working, and I'll love it!

Now if I can just break a few OLD habits...I'll have it made!