​January Happiness Project Wrap-up
            I cannot believe it is already January 31st, 2020. On the flip side, I cannot believe it is finally January 31st. This month has seemed endless (especially the last week!)
            If you’ve been following along, you know I started a Happiness Project for 2020 (based on Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project). January’s theme was energy and health. To improve my health and energy levels, I decided to:
Walk 20 minutes a day (did this every day!)

• Drink four 16 oz bottles of water per day. I did this from January 4th forward (once I made the rule for myself that I couldn’t have Sonic drinks until I finished my water for the day lol).
• De-clutter 15 minutes a day. I did really well on this until the last week.
• Check AND write down my blood sugar 3 times a day; breakfast, lunch, and supper. Did this every day!
• Write down my food. I didn’t worry about changing any eating habits at this point, I just wrote it down-the good, the bad, and the ugly. Did this every day!
• Post in my blog daily and write in my book daily. These help me with mental health as writing is one of the ways I deal with my emotions. In addition, the blog gave me a level of accountability for my resolution list. I missed one day for both (last Friday when Tom was admitted to the hospital) and another day for the book (one of the days this week when Tom was in the hospital).

                        I learned some valuable lessons this month:

• The walking really helped me deal with all the stress that was going on this month with Tom being hospitalized twice. It was also really good for me to step out of my comfort zone and try the treadmill. I enjoyed it more than I thought I ever would. The crazy thing is, I actually found myself looking forward to and almost craving the movement. I. Just. Can’t. Even.
• I thought I drank a lot of water already, but tracking what I drank made me aware that I wasn’t drinking as much as I would like. I also noticed that a couple of things that have been hurting me for quite a while (my shoulder and a cyst on my hand) seemed a bit better once I increased my water intake. Not sure if they are related or not, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt!
• De-cluttering 15 minutes a day was a challenge. Mostly because the amount of clutter around me is overwhelming! There’s the virtual clutter (e-mail, computer files, text messages, etc) and the physical clutter around my home. I will just keep working on it a little bit at a time. Working on de-cluttering my virtual clutter made me realize that I need to schedule doing that into my week or day to stay on top of it.
• Checking and writing down my blood sugar three times a day (at breakfast, lunch, and supper) was extremely helpful. I started noticing patterns (especially coupled with writing down my food). Plus just being aware of what’s going on is so beneficial.

 

• Tracking my food was also eye-opening. Like I said above, I didn’t change any eating habits; I just wrote it all down. But I started noticing what foods made my body feel good and what foods made my body feel sluggish and bloated.

 

• Writing in my blog and book: Posting in the blog helped me to have accountability for my resolutions. It was also helpful to write about what I was doing and share it with people. There were days I only wrote a sentence or two there and in my book, but it really helped me coping with my feelings. I had actually started the book a while back as a way to help me chronicle what is going on with Tom and express my feelings over it. As a teenager, I started writing poetry to help me deal with emotions (and I still write poetry) but putting all my thoughts and feelings and the nitty gritty of this battle into writing (even if nobody else ever sees it) has been very cathartic for me.

 
Overall, I’m very pleased with how January went and very much looking forward to February. Tomorrow, I’ll be posting my February list. It will include January items plus some new ones for February. 

What is love? Happiness Project
You may remember that I created a theme  for 2020 of:
Be loving
Be thankful
Be happy
With a bonus “Be Tracy”
 
So….
 
As we move towards the end of January and the beginning of February, I’ve been working on my resolution list for February. February’s theme is “love”. To be clear, I mean more than romantic love. I’m talking about love for family, friends, acquaintances, strangers, even people I don’t like. Plus love for myself. So to have a month that is focused on love, I decided that I needed to define love. The dictionary defines love as “an intense feeling of deep affection” or “a great interest or pleasure in something”. But I think the best definition comes from the Bible in 1 Corinthians 13 verses 4-8a:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. 
 
Let’s break this down:
Love is patient. The dictionary defines the adjective patient this way: able to accept or tolerate delays, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.
Love is kind. The adjective kind is defined: having or showing a friendly, generous, and considerate nature.
Love does not envy. What is envy? A desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to (someone else)
Love does not boast. What does it mean to boast? To talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities.
Love is not proud. One of the definitions of proud says: having or showing a high or excessively high opinion of oneself or one's importance.
Love does not dishonor others. To dishonor someone means to bring shame or disgrace on
Love is not self-seeking: To be self-seeking means having concern for one's own welfare and interests before those of others; self-serving.
Love is not easily angered. Anger is a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility.
Love keeps no record of wrongs. I think this one speaks for itself.
Love does not delight in evil but Love rejoices in the truth. Again, this one seems to speak for itself. If one loves others, then one does not delight in their misery.
Love protects. Love keeps safe from harm or injury.
Love always trusts. Trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.
Love always hopes. One of the definitions for hope says: grounds for believing that something good may happen
Love always perseveres. When we persevere, we: continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty or with little or no prospect of success.
Love never fails. When we fail, we break down; cease to work well

So that's love in a nutshell, so to speak. Stay tuned tomorrow for my January wrap-up and Saturday for my February resolution list. It will include items from January plus some new resolutions. 

I got a little ahead of myself yesterday and posted my week 4 update a day early, lol. 

Tom's still in the hospital, but getting better each day. I've still been exercising/walking while he's here which has been really helpful for me. 

How are you doing on your goals for the year? 

I cannot believe we are 4 weeks into this new year! So here's an update on my  resolutions. Needless to say, Tom being in the hospital has put a kink in things, but I still think I'm doing great at it!

Tracking blood sugar and writing down food: I'm still writing down my blood sugar and food. 

Walking: I have managed to walk at least 20 minutes everyday. 

De-cluttering: Unfortunately, I have missed the last several days of that.

Blog and book: I only missed one day on the blog and writing in the book so I'm happy with that. 

Water: I've drank at least four 16 oz bottles of water each day. 

How are your goals for 2020 doing? 

It's Monday morning and we are still at the hospital. There had been talk of letting Tom go home today but I'm not sure yet what will happen. I do know we are both ready to get home. 

I have been keeping up my walking and water drinking and doing the best I can with everything. 

I went outside today to walk since it was so nice. I ran across a Prayer Labyrinth at Mercy that you walk the labyrinth to the center and then pray. I found myself praying every step of the way and it was very cathartic. I plan to go out there again later. 

Tom was admitted to the hospital early yesterday morning. (By early, I mean we came here about 1:00 a.m.). 

However, I am still walking! I've made it a point to get out of the room and walk the halls of the hospital the last two days. So...go me! :) 

Yesterday was so cold and dreary and icky that I opted to do  my Yoga DVD instead of go for a walk. It's called Yoga for the Rest of Us by Peggy Cappy. I like it because she uses a chair for balance and it's really quite a good workout. It did not get me many steps though lol. 

​How are you moving your body this week? 

Hello everyone! I cannot believe we are already three weeks into this year! So here's my update on my resolutions for this month. 

Water: I am still drinking at least four 16 oz bottles of water a day. I've drank almost 12 gallons of water so far this year!

Movement: I am excited to report that I've walked/moved at least 20 minutes a day everyday this year! I even stepped out of my comfort zone and tried out treadmills this last week!

Tracking blood sugar and food: I am continuing to track my blood sugar three times a day and writing down what I eat. 

De-cluttering: I missed doing yesterday's de-cluttering. Well, a more accurate statement would be that I started clearing out old text messages and got distracted reading them and didn't get very far. Otherwise, I've done at least 15 minutes a day every day this year.

Overall, I'm very happy with how things are going and super excited to start making my February list of resolutions. February will be arriving before we know it! 

I'm attaching a picture of my goal chart (downloaded from Gretchen Rubin's site).  

What was your favorite thing to do when you were a child? This can be a clue to helping you figure out what makes you happy as an adult! 

For me, I've loved reading for as long as I can remember. I can remember going to the library in Mangum during the summer and checking out books. We'd come home and I would read all of mine the same day. My mom would get so annoyed and remind me that we weren't going back for 2 weeks. I'd just smile and say "I can read them again". As an adult, I still love to read. It relaxes me and makes me happier. 

Share in the comments some of your favorite childhood memories!