Well hey there friends! It's been a bit. A lot has happened since we last checked in. Over the last few weeks I've been listening to YouTube videos on life changes - weight loss and simplifying, mostly, and you know, none of these women who do the videos are like me. They're all young moms, mostly, trying to fit it all in while caring for kids or getting dinner on the table - I don't have any of that to deal with, but I'm perimenopausal, caring for an aging parent, working from home full time. I have hurdles, but they are not the same, and I thought maybe I should document all of this I am (planning) to do on Youtube, but that is not something I really think I'd be good at, you all know how I babble, and I've certainly never made a video before, but I am in need of a major self-improvement project and I have this space, so prepare yourself for:
Missy's Health, Wealth, and Home Overhaul, Extreme Edition
Mindset: I want to preface all of this with I am actually in a pretty good space mentally, overall. I love my body. Considering the abuse I have subjected her to - the overeating, the childbirth, the sedentary lifestyle, she has treated me very well. We get our tests every year, and we are overall pretty freaking healthy. We hike and do crossfit, and lift lots of heavy things. She is strong and fierce and more than a little itchy, which I need to scratch...yeah, so I'm just letting you know, I'm in a good space for this.
But, I am a middle-aged woman who still needs to learn to handle her stress in a healthy way. I tend to eat it. Sometimes in the form of multiple bowls of golden grahams, other times in the form of batches of chocolate chip cookies. My stress tends to like sweets. I have mildly high blood pressure and cholesterol, and I don't love that I take meds for it. Thanks to years of severe arthritis and obesity, my knees have little cartilage and sometimes flare up, making it hard to walk. And I recently read a great quote on Pinterest (I have no idea who said it), "I'd rather be the oldest one in the gym than the youngest one in the nursing home."
I started working from home full time during the pandemic and while I love it, my brain doesn't deal well with the chaos in the house. Perimenopause is setting in, causing fuzzy-mindedness as it is, and the clutter and mess make it hard to focus. Both kids still live here, and there are 6 fuzzy family members, and everyone has a lot of stuff, including me. I've been helping my mom out more lately, and we've started actually scheduling it, which makes it easier - perhaps routines and schedules will help with my house. I'm going to incorporate some of the basics from the Flylady system I used to use. It helped when I had my daughter, and it is easy to incorporate small habits with the whole "babystep" thing she does.
Finally, I'm going to need a new car, we will need a new roof and furnace soon, and my husband and I have started traveling more. I will be working on spending less on silly things, which will help with the clutter, I'm sure. Ordering online is just too easy, and most of the stuff I order is unnecessary. This bit will probably start after the holidays.
Plan of action: incorporating new habits every week or two, working on them and letting them become habit. Have you read Atomic Habits by James Clear? Some good stuff there, although I'm having a hard time figuring ways to make my eating habits fit with his 4 principles: "Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying." So this week we'll:
Health: Start intermittent fasting, using the 16:8 hour window, so fasting for 16 hours (between 7PM and 11AM) with an 8 hour eating window. For now that's where we'll stick. I started that last night at 7PM. Also moving every day, drinking the water, all that good stuff. This is pretty easy, as I've done it before.
Home: Making my bed every morning. I have never done this, since my husband and I each use a separate comforter, Scandinavian style, and it was a pain to make the bed. I started doing this goofy side by side thing, and I just like the neat lovely made bed, it makes me happy (make it attractive) so we're starting there. I'm also going to declutter a bit each day. Flylady does 27 fling boogie - I'm just going to go with 10 things for now.
I appreciate anyone who wants to read and comment and follow along and whatnot because I thrive when I have friends moving with me. See how I still write like there are thousands of you? But whoever is there and interested, let's do this.
