campbellmc22

Let's talk about turning life around. I posted Monday, and really made progress Tuesday, Wednesday, and this morning. I ate according to my plan and within my calories. Yes, it meant I relied on Trader Joes salads and pho with friends, but I made healthy choices. Last night, I wanted to give up and grab a sugary drink at Starbucks. I drove to the Starbucks and walked up to the door, only to find they closed an hour before I arrived. This was a great blessing. I went home and didn't miss the sugary drink. It's all about little steps. Sleep: Commitment to start these good habits starting tonight (sleep between 10pm and 6am to start - this is my commitment) Addiction: No alcohol, 91mg (morning coffee) plus 71mg (evening iced coffee) equals 162mg total caffeine Food: Tracking and getting back to it Exercise: Nothing yesterday Day job: Coded the CSS for website's footer Accomplishments: Didn't drink a sugary coffee drink at 8pm at night, still practicing my coding (really proud of this), cleaned my house - no laundry or dirty dishes to be seen, ready to start Thursday with a fresh start and take Friday off for a long weekend Other thoughts about yesterday: Do then document. Look at all I accomplished! It's a matter of building these habits day by day. I'm doing it.

Definitely. Love this! Buahahahaha. No. No, it doesn't. Nice try though. These are all great things. I am so inspired by your process. You are making great commitments to yourself. It truly sounds like you are building balance and taking care of yourself. Keep posting because you truly are helping me work through some of my own stuff in my life. It helps me so much to see the way you plan, execute, and celebrate. Thank you!

Oh Snarky and Vibrantella, Yes, yes, yes! All the yes. And this feeling makes me even more annoyed because it means my brain is weak compared to my sugar addiction. What do you think, would increasing our mindfulness help us in moments like that? **NOT ADVICE*** Sincere question... Because so many Druid-Masters tell me that if I were just more mindful in the moment, I could overpower that monkey-mind that just thinks "sugarsugarsugar"... Balance! That's the druid way! By cultivating balance, we can focus our energy where we want to, whenever we want to. That includes losing the extra pounds that naturally creep up on us when we aren't being diligent. Instead of trying so hard to be perfect, and better and better, I want to follow your example and cultivate balance instead. The rest will follow in its own good time.

Agreed. This is always a cycle for me too, although not super regular timing. Sometimes I can power through for months before my body plateaus and sometimes it plateaus after a few weeks. But it all evens out in the end. The most important thing is you are FEELING BETTER - FEELING HEALTHIER! Taking control of my eating habits like you are doing is a self-fulfilling habit. Yeah, I could nitpick over a plateau that but that's a small picture thing that works itself out after pushing through the plateau. Keep building those good habits and eating right, and it won't matter in the long run. You'll live at your optimum weight despite how long it took you to get there. We're doing this together, Druids! We've got this!!!

Welcome back online! Looking forward to hearing about your adventures in Korea - including Tai Chi when you get settled into it. Keep posting here!

SO productive and glad to hear about you whistling! How are you feeling about all these changes? Are you feeling better? Do you feel a difference in your happiness/accomplishment levels?

As if by magic, Steve's Nerd Fitness article this week is exactly what I needed to read: https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/ready-player-one-10-tech-hacks-to-lose-weight-and-level-up-your-life/

Over the weekend, I did not keep consistent sleep habits. I broke my 284 days of sobriety from alcohol. I gave up on myself and my goals and my progress. Big deals? Yes. Insurmountable? No. I know this because I am back on these forums. Back to posting to all of you. Owning up to my misstep. People make a big deal about the alcoholism thing and sobriety, but what I have found is my food addiction is just as important. It's all connected. When I'm humming at all six cylinders and focused on my health, I don't struggle with the booze as much either. I need to figure out a way to turn these bad habits around. It starts with the sleeping habits, the eating habits, and then keeping my house clean. If I have a clean space, then I can thrive and create. If not, I want to vegge and not take care of myself. I'll report back tomorrow with which steps I took to turn my life around again. Make myself a better human and a better druid again.

Glad you had a lazy Easter. Hope it was recharging. I'm intrigued by the zero-spend approach to your finances. Sounds like something I could employ for April. I still haven't made my budget for April because I really haven't done much of anything lately. It's no wonder my mental health is feeling a bit fragile when you spend your non-working time binge-watching television shows. You have inspired me. Take care of yourself this week.

This is a huge accomplishment. Having a space that is free of clutter is an important foundation for the rest of the changes you are trying to create in your life. Be proud of building this habit. Keep focusing on the things that are going well and maintaining those "going-well" commitments. You can hammer away at the commitments that are not going as well when you can, but don't lose ground of the stuff that's going right! You are a rock star!

You have a lot on your plate right now. Remember to have patience with yourself. I love that you're counting dish washer as a victory. Being in school is a lot of hard work, so some days laundry and dish washer are great accomplishments. Keep pushing through. You've got this!

Yaaaassss. When I am happy with myself and my choices, I sit in meditation much easier. It's when I'm not proud of myself that I get all agitated and don't want to be alone with my thoughts. It's a chicken-and-egg-thing though because the more I meditate, the happier I am with my choices in general. I know I'm a better me when I meditate. Hope you had a good Easter weekend at relatives. Progress not perfection.

Sleep: 10:30 - 6:30ish … Addiction: No alcohol, 154mg caffeine (16oz latte from french bakery) Food: Started rough with french pastry and whole milk latte, ate banana & TJs salad for lunch, Trail mix for dinner, then came home to peanut butter and crackers at 10pm - not good Exercise: Just walking to class, nothing special Day job: “Coded” CSS -- worked for hours to learn this stuff Accomplishments: Started the trend of **do then document** with a little planning because of breaking habits; updated nerdfitness; CSS for class Other thoughts about yesterday: Panic attack at 11:30am. Turned on an emergency meditation to calm myself and realized I was also hungry. Eating a banana at 1pm helped. Wow, reporting is hard. I’m really digging this. Breaking habits. Hard. All I wanted to do yesterday is plan for the future. That’s why you see all the “wow, this is hard” comments. I’m feeling much better this morning about getting a handle on these things and reporting back instead of planning and ruminating. My brain hurts from learning to code and changing my thinking habits.

Thanks @Jakkals! Forgiving myself is the druid thing to do, but I suck at that. I really do. I wallow instead. Which is the absolute worst reaction because then I'm not helping move forward from the mistake either. I'll look for your book.

I totally understand this feeling. Looking back you may have heard a voice inside of you say "but I need an introverted night." That's one of my biggest challenges right now: hearing that voice and listening to it. I know I need to take care of myself first, and it's not selfish - it's creating the best me I can be. That will make me better for others in my life too. Take care of yourself. You have all been through a lot recently, so there should be some extra room for tenderness and understanding - no matter what you need to get done. You can always offer your guests and parents that gentle reminder "we've all been through a lot these past few weeks together, so right now, I need to make some space for me ... and my laundry." You've got this. Boundaries are the hardest thing in the world for me. Setting them up in my head ahead of time helps me articulate when the time comes without sounding like an agitated b. You know what I'm talking about? When you've worked yourself up for a perceived confrontation and it comes across all aggressive? I'm working on stating my boundaries in a way that isn't confrontational - just matter-of-fact. I have to do laundry. That's a fact. No drama.