​My theme for May is Determination:
You are successful the moment you start moving towards a worthwhile goal. Charles Carlson
 
Guess who decides what goals are worthwhile? You decide for yourself. I think this month could be an easy month to falter. I’ve been working so hard the last four months and some days I can feel myself start to falter. Having the daily resolution chart is really helping me stay on track. Here’s my plan for May:
 

1. Continue to record food and blood sugars and drink at least 80 oz. of water per day.
2. Continue to walk 25 minutes a day and this month I’m upping my daily step goal to 10,000 (with the exception of Sundays).
3. Continue on my de-cluttering, paperwork, and creating challenges. I have made a lot of progress in de-cluttering things from our home. I will continue to work on this daily for at least 15 minutes a day. It’s amazing what you can get done in 15 minutes a day! The taxes are done and the paperwork monster is somewhat under control. My goal for this month is to keep on top of paperwork so that means dealing with any mail, etc. that comes in each day and recording business expenses as they come up. I will also continue to work on creating classes. This month I finished a keynote class I was working on and also submitted it as just a regular course and got it approved. In May, I will be working on getting set up to do some online webinar classes through my training organization to see how that goes.
4. I will continue to do a devotional and read my Bible each day.
5. I will continue writing in my book and posting in my blog each day.
6. I will continue with having vegetables with lunch and supper each day and fruit with breakfast and supper.
7. I am going to start one of Gretchen Rubin’s books that I haven’t read yet. I will start with Outer Order, Inner Calm and read it for at least 15 minutes each day.
8. I have two Facebook groups that I started, one for my training business and one for supporting Tom. My goal for quite a while has been to post in each of them daily but I haven’t been very consistent with it. In May, I will post in each group each day, either by scheduling them at the beginning of the week or by getting it done daily.

 

Yesterday was the end of Week 17! Here is my update for the past week:

Devotional: Did this everyday

Checking blood sugar/tracking food: Did both everyday

Fruits/veggies: Did well on my fruits and veggies except for yesterday at lunch. I ran out of veggies before I got to the grocery store yesterday afternoon (they had been out of part of what I ordered last week. I thought I had enough for the whole week, but I did not quite make it). I did have a fruit with my lunch instead. 

De-cluttering/paperwork/creating challenges: I did these everyday except Sunday (my planned day off)

Water: I continue to meet my water goal each day

Walking 25 minutes a day: I took at least a 25 minute walk everyday.

Blog/book: I posted in my blog and wrote in my book every day. 

8000 steps a day: I got at least 8000 steps every day except Sunday (my planned rest day). 

Tomorrow I will be posting my May resolution plans! 

This morning on my walk, I saw dozens of butterflies flitting around. Butterflies are so beautiful, but they don't start out as butterflies. They undergo a metamorphosis that changes them from kind of creepy looking caterpillars to the beautiful butterflies. I feel like I'm undergoing a metamorphosis of my own this year. I'm making changes in my life that are leading me to feeling better and having more energy and clearing clutter out of my life. As I approach my 54th birthday, I think it's fascinating that I can still make changes in my life and who I am as a person. I remember thinking around my 30th birthday that "I should have my life together more than I do". Here I am almost 54 and I still don't feel together. I wonder if other people feel that way too. Here's to 2020 being the year of my butterfly! 

May is just around the corner on Friday! This week I am going to be finalizing plans for my Happiness Project May 2020 resolution chart. I've also decided that I may need to re-do my 20 for 2020 list since the dang coronavirus has made some of the list hard, if not impossible. I figure it's my list, I can change it if I need to, right? :) 

How are you coming on your goals and plans for 2020? As I like to say, it's never too late! Every day is the start of a New Year! 

I enjoy listening to podcasts as I take my walks each day. My favorite one is Happier with Gretchen Rubin. I've been going back and listening to old episodes and really enjoying them. I also like to listen to Brene' Brown's new podcast: Unlocking Us. If you have never listened to any of Brene's audio books, you are truly missing out. Brene' is a shame researcher and what she has to say about shame and our emotions is very eye-opening and thought provoking. 

Do you like listening to podcasts? If so, what are some of your favorites? 

Well, my classes for the first two weekends in May have been cancelled and I fully expect that the one for the third weekend will end up being cancelled too. I understand and I know it's probably for the best. But it still stinks. 

Today is one of those days where I am just really struggling. I struggled to get out of bed, I'm struggling with what to write, and really I just want to sit in the recliner and veg out on my phone. I just keep reminding myself that Tonight Tracy will be upset with me if I sit around and don't get anything done. Then I called Tonight Tracy a bad name lol. 

​Happy Friday everyone!

We are almost 4 months through 2020 and my 2020 Happiness Project. So I thought it was a good time to ponder the question:
Is my Happiness Project making me happier?    
​     
The short answer is yes, I definitely think it is. To go deeper into it, let me explain why. This year started out with Tom in the hospital. I was determined to start my walking on the first day of 2020 and so I walked the halls of the hospital. It was so tempting to wait until after he got out of the hospital and “start on Monday” but I just had this feeling if I didn’t start then, I wouldn’t start at all. So I started. What I found out pretty quickly was that the walking helped me deal with the stress of the hospital stay. Before the end of January, Tom landed in the hospital again and this time I knew I needed to keep up my walking to help me stay sane and I did. Each month I’ve added things to my resolution list to improve my health (drinking water, eating fruits and veggies, tracking food and blood sugar) and these things are really helping me feel stronger and better each day. Don’t get me wrong, there are bad days or tired days. But I just feel better, which was my goal. Sure, I’d like to lose weight, but more than that, I just want to feel good.
 
In addition to the healthy changes I’m making, I’ve been working on getting control of the paperwork monster and the clutter in our house. Working on those has also made me feel stronger and better. I don’t feel near as stressed about stuff and having things organized has helped me to be able to take care of things when they come up. For example, when we got a bill for Tom’s ER visit from December that hadn’t been filed with the insurance, I already had a copy of his insurance card handy that I could send them in order to get it filed. I got our taxes filed on time, even with the extended deadline for this year and it’s so great to have that weight off my plate.
Being home because of the coronavirus has helped me to really work on some of these things and that’s been a blessing. So even though it’s tough financially, I am focusing on the positives of the situation. I also feel like it has allowed me to get into a better eating routine that I can carry back into life when it gets busier.
So yes, my Happiness Project is helping me feel happier and I am thankful that I started it. 

Good morning everyone! Here is my Happiness Project Update for Week 16! 

Devotional: I did a devotional and wrote scriptures every day this past week. 

I checked my blood sugar regularly and wrote down my food for each meal/snack every day this past week. My 14 day average on blood sugar has come down to 123 and my 30 day average is 134 (according to my meter). I can't wait till I do my  next A1C (average of 3 months of blood sugars) to see what it is!

De-cluttering/classes/paperwork: Tom and I have been working in our bedroom. We have got rid of a massive amount of books. Next up is our closet door. It has a shoe rack thing on it and it has stuff hanging all over it (very little of which is actually shoes lol). I finished my keynote proposal and submitted the course itself to CECPD for approval. Then even if I don't get any keynote opportunities, I can teach it as a regular class when that resumes. I tried out an app for tracking receipts but I don't like it so I've ordered a ledger and I"m just sticking to my typical pencil and paper method. However, this year I am not going to wait till the beginning of next year to total and write stuff down. I'm going to get caught up and then keep it up throughout the year. I worked on all three of these every day except Sunday. 

Fruits and veggies: I've done that all seven days this past week!

Water: I've drank at least 80 oz of water every day!

Walk/Movement 25 minutes a day: I've walked at least 25 minutes a day each day.

Blog/book: I've written in my blog and book each day. 

8000 steps a day: I did at least 8000 steps each day except Sunday (which I've designated as my day of rest). Tomorrow I'm going to write about "Is my Happiness Project making me happier?". See you all then!

We are having some really nice weather this week! Have you gone outside and enjoyed it? Tom got out with me and walked to the end of the block and back yesterday and I already took one 30 minute walk this morning. (I've also been taking several short walks throughout the day every day). 

​Hooray for Spring! Hopefully it's here to stay this time!