30 Days of Wellness

Life is crazy. This is all there is to say. Being a full time working woman who also happens to prioritize being a wife and mother of two three and under is never quiet or boring. It also can often leave very little time for making some of my personal priorities truly priorities and taking the time to ensure that they are accomplished. I am constantly telling people that certain periods of time are so short, that they can do a certain job, task, goal, etc for the semester, six months, or year that they are committing to. So it's time to stop pushing and encouraging everyone else to reach their goals and set priorities and start pushing and encouraging myself to do these things.

Thus I am entering.......30 Days of Wellness. No, this isn't some program I saw on an infomercial at 2 in the morning; this is my first small step in putting multiple goals in motion with the overall goal of bringing myself into a better state of wellness. For this first 30 days of Wellness I am focusing on the following areas:

Health

Finances

Spirituality

Today, let's take a look at my 30 day Health commitments:

I had 2 babies within 2 years and 6 weeks. Needless to say my body is slowly, limping its way back. I joined Weight Watchers back in February, by April I had lost 15 pounds! Yes, that is exciting and about half of my weight loss goal. For those of you who don't like to do math in your head, that means I have about 15 pounds to go. The discouraging thing is, I literally have not lost another pound since April (now I haven't gained any back either).

So today I am declaring it from the mountaintop that I am back on the wagon and committing myself to my weight loss goals. For the next thirty days I am committing myself to the following:

- Tracking my points on Weight Watchers

- Sticking to my daily point allotment

- Drinking enough water

- Eating at least 2 servings of fruit and 2 servings of veggies

- A minimum of 1 activity a day

- Cooking (or the hubby cooking) a healthy dinner

The last point also feeds into the financial health, but that is for tomorrow's post.

So, how am I measuring up today?

I just need to have some activity today. Some days this means I will work out, maybe do the Wii Fit, or 30 Day Shred, other days I will take the kids for a walk around the lake to look for ducks and geese. Today.....I haven't decided what it's going to be. All I know is I am signing off now to ensure that I can end my first day having stuck to my priorities.

What would be your areas to focus on and commit 30 days to prioritizing?

Setting Goals

Since I was in elementary school I have set goals. The first goal I can remember setting was to earn straight A's on my 4th quarter report card in 4th grade. Mrs. Lynn was my most feared elementary school teacher, but I still worked hard to earn straight A's. I must clarify that this was my goal and my goal alone. My parents encouraged me to try my hardest, not dictating that I had to get straight A's. On the last day of school I anxiously waited as report cards were handed out and excitedly opened it only to discover that I did not reach my goal. Yes, I was disappointed, but that disappointment did not last long. I had done my best, tried my hardest. I may not have reached my goal, but that didn't stop me from setting new goals that I strived to reach and surpass. Eight and a half years later, I set the same goal for my first semester of college. This time I reached it.

Some people enjoy having a New Year's Resolution, not me, I enjoy setting goals. I have short term goals (weekly or monthly) and long term goals (yearly or even more long term). I will be honest, I don't always reach my goals. That's ok. How can I measure the successes (and failures) if I don't have something to measure against? Here are some of my current goals:

Long Term Goals

- Lose the baby weight (still have 20 pounds to go, plus about an additional 5)

- Pay off our car early and start saving for a down payment on the next house ($100,000)

Short Term Goals (working towards the Long Term Goals)

- Join Weight Watchers

- Stick to my daily points on Weight Watchers, 7 days a week

- Work out for at least 30 minutes, 5xs a week

- Stick to our monthly budget and save as much as possible

My goals are flexible and can and will change over time in order to meet my long term goals. One of my greatest motivators in attaining goals is accountability. I look at a week as being M-Sun, so every Monday I will document if I reached my weekly goals. Do you need any accountability, someone to encourage you, help you to start over again on the occasion that you may fall short? Let me know, I would love to encourage you, and hope that you will be there to applaud my accomplishments and push and encourage me during the times of failure.

First Post Jitters

Six months ago, I agonized over the name of my blog. I searched creative names that I liked or thought were catchy, only to find that they were already taken. Like salt in my wound, the blogs had not been lovingly kept up to date and had been neglected for years (literally). In some cases, they never had an entry past one titled "Test." Here I am six months later, finally getting over my perfection issues (the need to have my blog looking pretty and completely set-up) and posting an entry. I apologize to anyone wanting to have the everyday wife life blog name, I feel your frustration. I am finally moving forward....