A Month of Good Health

This kid loves to start his day off right

In The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin chose a different area of life to work on each month for a year. She came to the conclusion that before she could begin to improve in any area of her life, she needed the health, energy, and vitality necessary- so that's where she started, and so did I.

Here were my goals for February (I didn't start until February):

• Exercise everyday M-Sat
  
• Drink 8 glasses of water each day
• Toss, restore, organize
• Tackle a nagging task
• Act more energetic
• Kick bad habits
• Floss everyday
• No sweet/sugar snacking after 8
• Turn computer off by 9:30pm
• Go to bed in the 10 o'clock hour
  

So you are wondering how I did (come on, I KNOW you really are wondering)

• The two things that were the easiest for me to just start doing immediately and do 100% all month were exercising and flossing- which is surprising because for years I've always said "I need to be better about this", but never did. And just like that, because I had a chart and was keeping track of myself, I just did it. I alternate every other day between doing pilates/weights and a cardio workout. I went back and forth about signing up for a class (I really want to try Zumba), buying a DVD, and I went through a bunch of workouts on YouTube. In the end, I found myself sticking with some random set of videos that I actually really enjoy and I get a great workout.

• I was not succeeding at drinking enough water, and found myself at the end of the day feeling like I had to drink so much I would pop in order to make up for it. The way I fixed it was to make sure I had a glass every even hour starting at 8am and ending at 10pm. It totally worked, and now it's so automatic I hardly have to think about it.

• I cannot stand clutter and I also am a procrastinator of nagging tasks. So, I always found myself feeling like I couldn't function 100% because of my messy closets or all the items on my to-do list and in the back of my mind. I started going through closets and just tossing stuff and organizing. And if there is something I need to get done, I try to do it right away or get things done first thing in the morning. One brilliant thing from the book is when she talks about how much unnecessary stress her closet would bring her- full of clothes that she doesn't wear that make her feel guilty that she isn't wearing them and they clutter up the closet so you can't easily find other clothes. It felt SO good to get rid of tons of clothes!

• I wanted to get better sleep, and by cutting back on sugar at night, not staring at the computer screen for at least an hour before bed, and giving myself an earlier bedtime it really made a difference. I do some "flow to sleep" exercises and I even wear a sleep mask to block out all the light- I LOVE it. I really feel so much better everyday!

• The one I totally failed at was kicking my bad habit, which is picking at/biting the skin around my nails - such a nasty habit I KNOW. I have been "trying" to stop since like 9th grade. Fail. It was so hard to resist and it's just so automatic I don't even always notice I'm doing it. I mean honestly, what I am trying to do here, quit smoking? I need to wear gloves for a month or something. Any suggestions out there?

If you are still reading this, what a friend! It feels good to write it all out and make it more official. It will make me try extra hard so I can tell you how good I am at succeeding *wink*.

My "Happiness Project" is absolutely my best and most successful New Year's goal and I've made more changes in a month than I've made in a long time! Are you starting to understand how much I am loving it?