My school year has finished up. The grading and the reading and the meetings that have kept me from blogging and writing and just finding my place in the world are over and I can be selfish... at least for a little while.
For the next two weeks, I will covet my time, since little of it will be mine. The little bit of time I get to myself, such as now, in the early morning hours, I will cherish. I will use this time to clean up my office (which badly needs it), work on some craft projects and read and rest and reflect and hopefully do a lot more writing. I want to do morning pages. I want to read Sophie's World. I want to get healthy, not just physically, but also mentally. I want to be able to dance at my wedding, play with my eventual children and live a good long, healthy and happy life. And I can do it, with the help of some tools that I need to pick up again.
Tools are good things. They help you maintain, reflect, become better. I am a a huge supporter of tools, and I use a few on a semi-regular basis. Well.. anybody who really knows me knows that I do very little out of habit or on a regular basis. I can't even really seem to remember to take my meds every day. Hmmm
Anyway, here are a few of my tools that I have picked up as I go along my merry way...
Tool One: My big pink notebook. AM calls it my "bible" and it's sort of an apt description. I keep everything in there. It has 5 sections right now. The first is my planner, second is food stuffs, third is blog ideas and random writings, fourth is wedding stuffs, and fifth is financial stuffs. If I lose the thing, I won't be able to remember anything. It has a nice loop for my pink fountain pen and it is wonderful. I carry it with me nearly everywhere, though it does need to get cleaned out and replaced sooner or later... probably sooner.
Tool Two: My pen. I have a hot pink Levenger True Writer fountain pen with Hope Pink ink in it. (you may be noticing a trend.. it is my favorite color). I almost put Morning Pages as my second tool, but I don't really write them as habitually as I am supposed to. One of my summer goals that I will be writing about in a later post (probably tomorrow). My pink pen, like my pink notebook, goes with me everywhere. It is a reminder that I am supposed to write. It is a reminder that I can jot down a note and my weird kinesthetic brain will remember it more readily than just reading it or asking someone else to remind me.
Tool Three: Our big freakin' white boards. We have two in the house. One of them is our calendar, which we write up every month and our To Do List for that month. It hangs next to our front door in a prominent place near the table in the kitchen. The other, much more neglected one, is in my office, full of project ideas that never really get done. I have to work on this this summer.
Took Four: My phone. In this day and age, I couldn't live without my phone. AM is constantly saying that I am always on my phone and I'm afraid he's right. I use my phone to help track everything. It is my backup calendar which I coordinate with the planner in my pink notebook. It my food tracker, my mood tracker, my link to other people through Facebook. I use a few fitness apps, and am trying out new ones all the time (most of them are free).
My final and Fifth (and best) tool: AM and my friends circle. I cannot say how much these people have helped me. From my online big brother, RO, to our Stockton Writer's Group, I have so much support. Having a live in personal trainer and personal chef helps, as AM is constantly helping me be a better person and reminding me that I am so much more than I think I am and I can do so much more than I think can. These people have helped me and made my life amazing. They are supportive and give me great suggestions and kudos and high fives and big hugs and I appreciate and love them all for it.
Anywaysssss.... before I get too sappy... I am going back to bed. I walked 3.74 miles yesterday and I am SO feeling it right now. Now that I'm off for the summer, I plan on making writing part of my regime, as well as some reading, some exercising and a lot of snuggling from my wonderful AM! :)
Love and Lollipops,
ToryLynn
Showing posts with label refresh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label refresh. Show all posts
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Episode 77: 60 days
60 days ago, AM challenged me to a walking challenge. Today, I have completed the challenge. Because I messed up my knee (something about bursitis), my doctor recommended that I walk for 20 minutes a day, as just light exercise to get the knee going and work out some of the muscles. AM said that if we created a routine, a daily regime of walking, I could buy myself one small fitness item that will help me continue to get healthier. That item is a FitBit.
I have been trying to track my steps, exercise and diet on my phone, but I am beginning to find that it drains my battery pretty quickly and it's not really all that constant. I have to have the phone with me, it can't be on the charger, if I want to track the steps that I take. While they have apps for it, there are no really good apps to track your sleep patterns and sleep quality. The Fitbit promises to do all that. It's a gadgety thing that goes in a wristband that you keep on you at all times and tracks everything you do and then syncs wirelessly to your phone or computer or whatever to help you track. And I get this neat little gadget probably tomorrow (if I can find money in my budget for it) because I kept a goal and I stuck to it for 60 days.
They say that it takes 27 times of doing something in the same way to create a habit. 60 seems excessive, but it works for me. I feel wrong if I don't do my walking every night now. In the last 60 days, I have walked. Sometimes I walked during the morning, sometimes I walked in the evenings. Sometimes, after coming home from gaming or a movie or just hanging out with our friends, we have walked past midnight. The track that we take is simply around our apartment complex, two laps, which equals roughly between 2/5 and 1/2 a mile. I didn't always walk in the apartment complex. Sometimes on rainy days I would walk the same approximate distance twice around the grocery store from the produce section to the bakery section and back. Most of my random zombie walks down to the market and back counted for my walk for the day. Some days I exceeded my half mile by a lot, and sometimes I barely made it, either because of injury or illness (when you can't breathe for coughing, it may not be the best time to walk). But I made it.
I finished my challenge tonight with one last walk past the mostly brightly lit windows around the apartment complex. Inside, families and friends were going about their business, most of them watching television, or gathered in some other fashion. Some were using computers, and some were cooking a late meal. Over the last 60 days, I have gotten to know some of these people. The gentleman in the balcony on the opposite building always smiles and tells us to have a nice evening. A young mother yesterday told us that she felt it was a strange day when she didn't get a chance to say hello to us. Though we don't know names, only faces and location, our walks have helped us get to know our neighbors and our neighborhood better.
My next challenge is not to end the walks, but to continue them and add some more to them. Another lap perhaps, or some weight training that my doctor recommends for weight loss. Perhaps I will do both, but I know that I can create and maintain a habit for 60 days, and I plan on making more plans to become even healthier.
What do you plan to do with the next 60 days?
Love and Lollipops,
ToryLynn
I have been trying to track my steps, exercise and diet on my phone, but I am beginning to find that it drains my battery pretty quickly and it's not really all that constant. I have to have the phone with me, it can't be on the charger, if I want to track the steps that I take. While they have apps for it, there are no really good apps to track your sleep patterns and sleep quality. The Fitbit promises to do all that. It's a gadgety thing that goes in a wristband that you keep on you at all times and tracks everything you do and then syncs wirelessly to your phone or computer or whatever to help you track. And I get this neat little gadget probably tomorrow (if I can find money in my budget for it) because I kept a goal and I stuck to it for 60 days.
They say that it takes 27 times of doing something in the same way to create a habit. 60 seems excessive, but it works for me. I feel wrong if I don't do my walking every night now. In the last 60 days, I have walked. Sometimes I walked during the morning, sometimes I walked in the evenings. Sometimes, after coming home from gaming or a movie or just hanging out with our friends, we have walked past midnight. The track that we take is simply around our apartment complex, two laps, which equals roughly between 2/5 and 1/2 a mile. I didn't always walk in the apartment complex. Sometimes on rainy days I would walk the same approximate distance twice around the grocery store from the produce section to the bakery section and back. Most of my random zombie walks down to the market and back counted for my walk for the day. Some days I exceeded my half mile by a lot, and sometimes I barely made it, either because of injury or illness (when you can't breathe for coughing, it may not be the best time to walk). But I made it.
I finished my challenge tonight with one last walk past the mostly brightly lit windows around the apartment complex. Inside, families and friends were going about their business, most of them watching television, or gathered in some other fashion. Some were using computers, and some were cooking a late meal. Over the last 60 days, I have gotten to know some of these people. The gentleman in the balcony on the opposite building always smiles and tells us to have a nice evening. A young mother yesterday told us that she felt it was a strange day when she didn't get a chance to say hello to us. Though we don't know names, only faces and location, our walks have helped us get to know our neighbors and our neighborhood better.
My next challenge is not to end the walks, but to continue them and add some more to them. Another lap perhaps, or some weight training that my doctor recommends for weight loss. Perhaps I will do both, but I know that I can create and maintain a habit for 60 days, and I plan on making more plans to become even healthier.
What do you plan to do with the next 60 days?
Love and Lollipops,
ToryLynn
Monday, November 28, 2011
Episode 43: Back to (a new) life
I had planned a different blog post for today, but I forgot what it was. Anyway...
I have to get back on track. Thanksgiving week really screwed up my diet, and so now, I have to do something about it. I have to do something about my life. I have to something about my EVERYTHING! LOL
Ok.. so.. I have six months until my divorce is final. That is six months to get myself started on a routine, develop some good habits and start making myself healthier and happier, as well as help those around me be healthier and happier too.
I do a lot of complaining to other people about my own problems. I also do a lot of gushing to other people that I am in love. It just happens that way. It is because that is what is on my mind at the time. It's not that I don't listen to other people's problems, and it's not that I don't try to help them if I feel that I can do something for them, but I spend a lot of time talking about myself, and I think I need to stop doing that. I'ts very selfish. This is just something that I've noticed about myself. Now, of course, my blog is different. My blog is very selfish and I can be selfish here... because it is my blog. I try not to post anything *too* personal here, or rather, not something that everybody in my life knows about (or at least should be caught up about). I try to post here about my thoughts, but I won't put in details about private stuff, and I try to make sure that I don't get in trouble here. I have paper journals for writing out stuff like that.
But now, I have six months. A time frame for a goal. I think I like that idea.. a sort of deadline for a new life. I'm thinking about joining the Saturday afternoon Stitch n' Bitch group at my local Panera. I'm thinking about maybe going back into therapy for a while, just to have a professional help me work through stuff. (I have been off my pills for a few months now and I'm feeling incredibly stable. Amazing what growing up can do for your emotional state). I have more time to myself, to lesson plan and grade and work on becoming the best damned teacher I can be (in spite of my students). I know that I want to finish a novel in the next six months and start editing it for possible publication. I need to start writing fiction again... not some inane drabble about my life.
I feel refreshed.. renewed. Peaceful.
I know I can do this. I have the strength to do anything. I can pull my friends and loved ones along with me into this new life too, if they want to come for the ride.
Ok.. my ten minutes of writing for the morning are done. Breakfast is eaten (granola with soy milk and banana), and I have to go start a new day at school. Three weeks until Winter Break. Five weeks to pack up my old place and find a new one. I can live with those timelines.
Peace love and happiness to all!
ToryLynn
I have to get back on track. Thanksgiving week really screwed up my diet, and so now, I have to do something about it. I have to do something about my life. I have to something about my EVERYTHING! LOL
Ok.. so.. I have six months until my divorce is final. That is six months to get myself started on a routine, develop some good habits and start making myself healthier and happier, as well as help those around me be healthier and happier too.
I do a lot of complaining to other people about my own problems. I also do a lot of gushing to other people that I am in love. It just happens that way. It is because that is what is on my mind at the time. It's not that I don't listen to other people's problems, and it's not that I don't try to help them if I feel that I can do something for them, but I spend a lot of time talking about myself, and I think I need to stop doing that. I'ts very selfish. This is just something that I've noticed about myself. Now, of course, my blog is different. My blog is very selfish and I can be selfish here... because it is my blog. I try not to post anything *too* personal here, or rather, not something that everybody in my life knows about (or at least should be caught up about). I try to post here about my thoughts, but I won't put in details about private stuff, and I try to make sure that I don't get in trouble here. I have paper journals for writing out stuff like that.
But now, I have six months. A time frame for a goal. I think I like that idea.. a sort of deadline for a new life. I'm thinking about joining the Saturday afternoon Stitch n' Bitch group at my local Panera. I'm thinking about maybe going back into therapy for a while, just to have a professional help me work through stuff. (I have been off my pills for a few months now and I'm feeling incredibly stable. Amazing what growing up can do for your emotional state). I have more time to myself, to lesson plan and grade and work on becoming the best damned teacher I can be (in spite of my students). I know that I want to finish a novel in the next six months and start editing it for possible publication. I need to start writing fiction again... not some inane drabble about my life.
I feel refreshed.. renewed. Peaceful.
I know I can do this. I have the strength to do anything. I can pull my friends and loved ones along with me into this new life too, if they want to come for the ride.
Ok.. my ten minutes of writing for the morning are done. Breakfast is eaten (granola with soy milk and banana), and I have to go start a new day at school. Three weeks until Winter Break. Five weeks to pack up my old place and find a new one. I can live with those timelines.
Peace love and happiness to all!
ToryLynn
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