St. Patrick's Day Health Goal

Last Friday was St. Patrick's Day, my favorite holiday.  My hometown has a huge celebration lasting the entire week.  I love it.  I didn't go home this year.  Every year I don't go home, I'm homesick.  I see people's pictures on Facebook and just miss it.  There are other St. Patrick's Day celebrations outside of Emmetsburg but there's just something special about Emmetsburg's celebration.  I decided we are going home for next year's celebration.  Our kids are old enough that they will love the parade and all of the kids' activities.  I also saw pictures of one of my high school friends' sister and their mom after completing the O'Round the Loch Run and decided I want to do that too.  The O'Round the Loch Run has been around for ages but I've never participated.  I'm not a runner or much of an athlete.  In high school, my cousin was the athletic one and I was happy to be her cheerleader (unofficially).  However in an effort to be healthier and more physically fit, I decided I should participate in a 5K.  Initially the plan was to do a mud run with my husband.  After all what could be more fun than a mud obstacle course?!  I might still do a mud run with Steve but I think my hometown's 5K would be nice as my first 5K.  I have no idea if I'll be able to run the entire thing or if I'll half-jog, half-walk it.  But that's my goal and it's out there now.  I do know I need to work a little harder to be ready for a 5K in a year.  I'll have to take up the dreaded sport of running.  (I seriously hate it.)  This Year of Health is about changing my mindset regarding my health overall and I hope I can change my mind about my athletic abilities.  I don't think I'm nearly as uncoordinated and clumsy as I've told myself I am.

March Health Goals Update

Here is my health goals update.  I promise I'll think of better blog titles going forward.  Well, friends, life has happened.  I've realized I need something visual to keep track of my goals.  I'm working on creating a chart so I can mark when I meet a goal.  I'm a visual person so a chart will work wonderfully and it'll also relieve me of having to mentally keep track. My water needs to be upped a bit but it's not horrible.  My water bottle at work holds 24 ounces.  If I want to meet my goal, I need to finish at least two and a half water bottles.  Finishing 3 water bottles would be fantastic but I'm not there yet.  Right now, I usually finish 2 water bottles.  I'm not walking hardly at all.  I need to start walking on my lunch hour.  I think it might be the only way I can fit walking into my day.  Previously I was walking while Steve gave the kids a bath or after supper but that doesn't seem to be working now.  I don't walk after the kids are in bed because I'm usually pretty tired and am getting things prepped for the next day.  I'm doing pretty well with March's goal of eating fruit with breakfast.  I missed a few days but have met the goal more days than I missed.  I'm counting that as a win.  Also a small health move I made was to give up candy for Lent.  I did slip up last weekend when I bought a candy bar on my way to West Des Moines.  However, by the time I remembered, I was back in the car and on the road.  I ate the candy bar anyway but have not any candy since.

I'm hopeful I can improve my walking and stick to my goals a little better going forward.  I knew the physical fitness goals would be the hardest to implement.  If you have any health goals, I'd love to hear about them so we can cheer each other on.

Health

Health.  Such a simple word with such a huge definition.  It's also the word I picked for 2017.   (I picked up the trend from the blogging world of choosing one word to define your year.)  This year I want to focus on my health.  I want to be healthier and feel better than I currently do.  This is not about losing weight; although losing 5-7 pounds would not be the worst thing in the world.  This is about taking care of myself so I can play with my kids.  This is about not feeling exhausted every single day.  This is a desperate measure to try to sleep better.  It's about making healthy changes to keep my increased health risks at bay (diabetes, high blood pressure, etc).  It's about being properly hydrated so my skin isn't so dry and my hands don't crack and bleed in the winter.  (Yes, that happens.)  This is an attempt to not be a stressed out frazzled mess.  It's also an attempt to get proper nutrition instead of eating junk.  This is not a diet but a lifestyle change.  But most of all, it's about making myself a priority.  I want the changes I implement this year to be long-term changes.

How am I accomplishing this?  I'm picking one healthy habit to implement each month with the idea that each month will build upon the previous month.  My goal for January was to drink 68 ounces of water every single day.  Am I doing this perfectly?  No, it's something I still have to work on.  I do best when I'm work with my water bottle on my desk.  I do worst when I'm at home chasing after my kids.  I've pulled out my home water bottle which holds 20 ounces and plan to use that on the weekends.

February's goal was to walk 10 minutes every day.  I think I hit that goal about half the month.  Not so great.  I'm still working on fitting walking into my schedule.  When it gets nice out, I plan to walk during my lunch break.  Steve and I also plan to do family walks in the evenings when it's nice out.  For now, I've been walking in my house for 10 minutes or on the treadmill in the basement.  A bonus with the treadmill?  I watch a Spanish-language show on Netflix and the time flies by.  Later in the year, I plan to increase the length of my walks and eventually add some strength training.  I'm a wimp and I'm a tired of being a wimp.

This month's goal is to eat a piece of fruit with my breakfast every morning.  So far, I'm doing great with this goal.  I didn't eat fruit for breakfast yesterday but I had crabby kids in the morning.  I opted to snuggle with them and eat only a piece of toast.  Eventually I would like to be eating the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables every day.  I'm not saying this is the only piece of fruit that I eat each day but it's the one I'm guaranteed to eat.

April's goal will be to eat a salad with lunch every day.  It doesn't have to be a large salad but I plan to have at least a side salad at lunch.  I also plan to set a goal of flossing every day later in the year.  Perhaps, that'll be May's goal.  I floss but not as often as I should.  I don't have all the goals planned out but that's OK.  I'm tweaking this every month to do what works for me.

So, the purpose of this blog post?  I realize I need some accountability.  I plan to post my progress each week.  If you would all be my cheerleaders, I would love it.  However, this is not a request for advice.  Please realize I've given this a lot of thought.  If my plan doesn't seem like something that would work for you, that's OK.  Slow, steady, gradual changes are what work best for me.  Please realize, I am a healthy person.  I don't have any health conditions that you need to be concerned about or worry about.  I simply want to feel the best I can and be as healthy as I can be.  If you would follow along, I'd love it.