If you haven’t guessed already, I’m referring to this:
It’s a journal, and I think it’s pretty cool. I bought it sometime last year, and during a cleaning frenzy it got swept into a drawer and it was forgotten. This is what it looks like inside:
The idea is to write one line every day, and, if you are able to keep it up, you have a succinct five year overview when you’re finished.
Five years a rather lofty goal, but not impossible. I figure there are other things in my night-time routine that I’m doing – such as brushing my teeth – so it isn’t too onerous to add this into the mix.
The space for each entry is very short, and allows for only one or two sentences. It’s reminiscent of the journal I wrote about in Canadian Family Magazine awhile back – you can read the online version right here – but this time around I’m not just jotting down my happy moments. (As useful as that was at the time.) For this particular journal I’m simply writing about what happened that day. I have found it to be a fairly useful exercise. Not only does it give me a moment to stop and reflect, but I get to choose how to summarize my day. This may seem kind of obvious. I’m the one holding the pen, of course I get to choose how to summarize my day! But will I let my darker thoughts/anxieties/ worries cloud the rest of my day? And take up space in my journal and become my last waking thoughts? That’s the question.
If you had to rate your energy levels on a scale of one to ten (one is barely getting out of bed and ten has energy to spare) how would you rate yourself? And if you could do something small to improve your energy level by a couple points, would you do it? (I’m thinking about tomorrow’s post already.)
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So. I’ve been doing this treadmill thing for a couple of weeks, and, good news, I haven’t quit yet. I don’t want to sound like I’m tooting my own horn here, but I wanted to share a few things that I’ve done to make it a little easier on myself. Who knows. One of these things might help you too.
- My gym clothes are super comfy. Nothing pinchy or tight that I need to struggle to get into. (I’m looking at YOU, SQUEEZY GYM BRA THAT LEAVES A DENT IN MY TORSO.)
- I always leave my treadmill outfit in plain view on the chair in our bedroom, that way, it’s always THERE when I get up in the morning. I roll out of bed and put it on right away. For some reason this helps.
- As per that previous post, I do not check Facebook before treadmill time. This would be akin to eating dessert before dinner. I JUST DON’T DO IT. I catch up on Facebook while I’m on the treadmill. I haven’t fallen off yet. Yay me!
- Sometimes I eat breakfast beforehand. I’m trying to be better at regular breakfasts. Coffee comes after.
- Treadmill time = twenty minutes. Sometimes it’s hard to do, and I’m itching to get off, but I don’t. I have to think to myself, if I can’t invest twenty measly minutes into my health every day, I am a stupid idiot.
- I’ve recently added my LiteBook to the mix. I will report on that later.
- When my time is up I find myself sufficiently sweaty and out of breath (this is GOOD). I take my shoes off, go upstairs, make a coffee, regroup, and get on with my day.
That’s it! So far it’s working. I’m pretty happy about that.
