Goals

Being Brave, Challenge, Goals, Mental Health

Lent is Quickly Approaching

February 17, 2022 Nicole

I was confirmed a Methodist, raised by a Catholic and a Lutheran, and I was married Catholic. I consider myself a Catholic. For me the Easter holiday season is a season of fresh starts and cleansing. It is also a time to focus on what is important to us. You don’t have to be a Christian or a Catholic to make the Lentin season a season of cleansing for yourself.

The Lentin season is quickly approaching. We party on Fat Tuesday, then on Ash Wednesday (March 2, 2022) we start our cleansing and penance to Christ. I have been thinking about Lent and what I will be giving up for 6 weeks. It was a pretty easy decision this year.

Normally I give up soda or sweets. One year I even gave up being negative and judgmental. It was very helpful and even today I try to think more positively and I try not to judge others. This year I thought I would give up something much harder for me. Fast food! Why is fast food harder… because it is easy!

Stopping for fast food on your way home from work is easy or having that pizza delivered… easy! On the weekends who wants to cook? Whataburger? Sure why not! The great thing about fast food, besides the fact that it is easy, is the fact that you can fit (most) fast food into your calorie budget if you are counting calories or into your macros. It’s easy! With that being said, everything about fast food is easy, which makes not eating it hard!

In the past I would have said that fast food is cheaper than cooking at home. For the most part that is no longer the case. I can feed my family a much higher quality meal for far less money than McDonalds. In most cases the dollar menus are no longer a dollar and the value menus are not always a value. Even the $1 McDonalds sodas are no longer $1. What’s up with that?

Can we talk about the sodium and the calories in fast food? The calories are killer. I can make a hamburger and fries at home but the calories will not be close to what a Whataburger meal will cost me in calories. Don’t even get me started on the sodium. How on earth do they find so many extra calories and salt to stick on a bun? Maybe that is why they taste so good? Damn you Whataburger!!!

I digress… So besides giving up fast food, I will also be giving up meat on Friday as always. Giving up meat is never a problem for me. I can easily eat seafood or a cheese quesadilla and be perfectly happy. Have I told you that I could eat seafood day and night? There is no way to cook a shrimp that I don’t like.

I have been slowly easing away from fast food since the beginning of the year so I don’t think it will be too hard. The only time I see that it could be a struggle is when times get tough and I need an easy out for dinner or lunch. I can also see it being hard at lunch time when someone offers to pick up lunch for the group. The days that will probably be the hardest for me will probably be on my 9/80’s two Fridays off a month. Normally I grab something for lunch on my way home from running errands. I guess this Friday off will be my last Friday eating out for lunch for quite a long time. I am good with that.

I am actually looking forward to the challenge. Honestly how much of a challenge will it really be? Just tuck and roll and I will come out better on the other side. I have been enjoying my February daily exercise challenge. I did miss 3 days because I had a stomach bug. I was already dehydrated enough. I didn’t need to sweat more out. I don’t think I could have moved for those 3 days anyway.

I hope that you think about joining me and giving up something that is a distraction in your life right now. Maybe it is social media? Maybe you are not taking enough time for yourself and need to give up a time killer in your life? TikTok has to be the ultimate time killer. I highly recommend giving that up. I gave it up 1/1/22 and honestly I only miss it when I am bored.

I hope you will take this time to discover something that is missing in your life or something that you need to remove from your life. A cleansing time simply means a time of fresh starts and self-discovery.

Whatever you choose to do during this Lentin season I pray that you know that you are always better off being brave. Take a chance on yourself. You are strong and you can do it?

Fitness challenge? No more soda? No social media? Removing toxic activities or friends (family) from your life? There are so many options!!

Challenge, Goals

February Challenge

February 9, 2022 Nicole

I have started a February Activity Challenge that was created by Lauren at im_louiseLane on Instagram. So far it is going good. It is not too late to join in if you are interested. I have been making sure that I get at least 10 minutes of movement a day. I know that does not sound like a lot (because it isn’t) but it is a start. I have been walking and riding my Peloton bike.

I took a Peloton Disney Encanto class but I only lasted 10 minutes. It was great but it was way too advanced for me. I have noticed that all of the specialty rides are geared toward people who are either more experienced or more athletic. I am neither of those things, but I will get there and that is all that matters.

I will be taking another class tonight. It is good for me to move my body. I am enjoying the challenge because it holds me accountable and it makes me happy that I did something. It is so easy to let life consume us. More often than not we forget to take care of ourselves.

I typically work on my activity after dinner but I must admit there are times that is a struggle. I could do my activity in the mornings but I already get up at 4:30AM so the question becomes, do I really want to get up earlier? Most days’ no, but I have been having trouble sleeping these days so I might think about reconsidering that decision. If I am up already why not be productive?

I haven’t posted on here much because I have been allowing work life to weigh me down. It has been very challenging lately. Very!

I hope you all are doing well. Don’t forget to join the challenge if you are interested.

Don’t forget you are always better off being brave.

Being Brave, Goals, Mental Health

Get Out of the Dust and Start Setting Goals!

January 12, 2022 Nicole

Photo by Sebastian Voortman on Pexels.com

12 days in to our 2022 “Fresh Start” and I already feel left behind in other people’s dust. I am not comparing myself to anyone else, but I really need to get it together and focus. I think my head has been all over the place and focus seems to be …out of sight/out of mind.

I started a new job at the same company last week and I have yet to be told what my job is going to entail. I have no software access right now so I go in for 9 hours and essentially hang out. I assure you, that is getting old. My boss has been too consumed with getting all of his work done to make his deadlines to worry about me. I get that! I think the part of my lack of focus is due to the lack on being needed at work.

By the time I get home from work I am so tired from doing nothing that the nothing then carries over at home and I don’t feel like doing anything there either. I have masses amount of laundry that needs to be folded, and put away, plus a few dishes in the sink but I am not too worried about that…

My biggest lack of focus has come in my eating and exercise. I think my Christmas vacation of being a slug has carried over into being a slug in 2022!

My goal this week is to come up with a healthy menu plan with the intention of cooking some of it this weekend. I am want to come up with an exercise plan even if it is only 15 minutes a day for a while. I think it is going to take me a little time to get back into the swing of things. I need to get my husband motivated to do the same thing.

I am trying to cook based on what I have at home, adding fresh veggies and all of that. Unlike most people I am not trying to shop what I already have to save money to pay off those pesky holiday bills. I am doing it because we have more than we need and I need to start clearing out the freezer and pantry before I buy more. Our goal is to move this coming summer. It would be an easier move if we only have a few things left in the freezer. Right now the freezer is stuffed full. To give you an idea as to how full the garage freezer is, last night I stuck the ladder in front of the door fearing it was going to pop open.

So my goal: For this week it so come up with a Menu Plan, Exercise Plan, and plan something fun to do as a family.

One day at a time … It’s better to be brave, than to always live in fear of the unknown…