April's Pick of My 12 for 12

Okeydokey (Yeah I know. I'm quaint)

It's a new month and time to pick another good habit to add to my daily routine. In January I added food tracking, with the goal of looking like Helen Miren on my 60th birthday too - well - maybe not in the bikini. Don't really like bikinis. Nor do I hope for the dangle-less neck skin, since I can't afford the surgery I'd need to have that jawline. But you get the picture. I'm aiming at my version of hot at 60.

So far I've done pretty well - clawing my way down to within 10 lbs of my old Weight Watcher's triumphant goal. There have been some ups too, sadly but at least I knew what caused them and several times, knowing how much I've already eaten in a day has proved to be the stop sign I needed to keep me from crashing into excess. Also - with the exception of one week when family duty really kiboshed my efforts, I've tracked everything I've eaten for 3 months.

February I knew I needed something different. February was a fractious cranky month. In February I chose to add prayer to my daily routine. I have my own highly personal way of praying. Well. I suppose everyone does. Mine combines meditation and searching with being open enough to see the value of what I get in answer to those prayers. I love it and it has certainly helped me as I navigated a tough winter. Now and then it's skimmed me over rough ground very lightly. It has been harder for me to squeeze my own special TheQueen type prayer into my days than I'd have thought it would be - I have not been as consistent as I'd like to have been - but for sure I have taken the time for this quiet introspective conversation with the divine a lot more frequently than I would have had I not decided to make the effort. And ... these are things I want to add to my life forever, so I have the next couple of decades to get better at it.

March, knowing things were only going to get tougher, I decided to go easy on myself and add only the habit of drinking enough water every day. Like prayer - I have not been quite as perfect as I'd have liked to be - but there has been progress. The big deal is weekends ... I really can forget to drink water on the weekends. So now when I make coffee in the morning, I fill a big 20 oz glass with water and leave it out on the kitchen counter. Two of those downed get me close to the goal.

And now it is April and though all the astrologers promise me the second half of the month will be much more fun - I still have to slog through the first two weeks. I shan't go into detail about this. Just know that right now is an inordinately demanding time for me. I am far more prone to wake up dreading the day and there's nothing I can do but slog my way forward. There is another side and I will get there. But I'm not putting any unnecessary pressure on my psyche, my spirit or my brain. What I will do is choose to add to my life something I know will help me both now, during these hard days, and later, when things slide into easypeasy land. For April I choose #2 on my original list.

2. Wear a pedometer and get those 10K steps
10K steps, 4 activity points, whatever you want to call it - the goal is to build into my life more movement - I move - but not enough.

I actually love activity and fitness and only drift away from it because it's easy to drift away from anything. I've also been pretty good about getting in some exercise each week. I'm going to make this month the one I totally concentrate on strengthening TheQueen and to start off right, I've scheduled a session with the personal trainer at my gym. 3:30 today. Can't wait!

So. I leave you with my Virgo Horoscope from Rick Levine: 


You can feel the winds of change blowing through your life, but you're not able to catch the right breeze just yet. It's as if the wind tries to pull you off course instead of pushing you toward your desired destination. However, trying to resist can wear you down quickly. Don't try to fight against the prevailing currents. Follow them until they settle down and then you'll be able to correct your course more easily. 

Ta now - may the new moon come quickly.

19 Degrees - First Weekend of Winter

Brrrrrr.  We've been so spoiled with our South Carolina winter that this weekend of  C C C Cold felt weird. It also felt rushed because I spent my Friday off in Richmond going from one eff up to another, worked all day Saturday and got to do the housework on Sunday all the while chasing dogs and husband away with the vacuum cleaner.

It's funny - I don't actually mind housework - and sometimes I actually love it - but I can't stand to do it when anyone else is around. Maybe if I had a maid or a helper I could do this work with an audience, but what I really enjoy about housework; the leisurely caressing of my furniture, the discovery of lost items, the frequent (multitude of?) pauses to read the instruction book for the cell phone or a chapter in a favorite book from my childhood - all these things need to be done alone and in private. They also quickly stretch a 2 hour task into 5. Alas, if I am seen Not Vacuuming by BD, he's right there asking me to listen to this or take a walk or don't I want to sit down and hear a poem??? A girlfriend once commented "If I have the flu and my husband sees me on the way to the bathroom to throw up he'll say "Oh good. You're up. What's for dinner?" I knew exactly what she meant.

So then it was back to werk on Monday without that rested feeling a whole weekend, with it's familiar, refreshing housework-Saturday and family-time-Sunday. I also went back without a current knitting project. I'm just undecided about what is next. Of course, there are always socks - but I can hardly count socks as a project. And no. I haven't finished Brica either. Baaaaad Knitter. I am blaming it on not enough cold weather till it's too much cold weather. I am actually ready for spring.

My cute little pedometer came on Thursday and I am trying to use it. I have a problem with all pedometers, though, because I don't wear a belt. This one specifically says "Don't wear with soft loose clothing - I am thinking, sweat pants? How many people like to walk in sweatpants -  everybody? But I will persevere. I've never had a pedometer that I really believed.


And even though this one promises rewards, I think most of them are apps for mobile devices I don't own anyway. They also offer some sort of wrist band monitor and I was really torn between the two - but there is something about actually getting to 10,000 steps in a day that boggles my mind. Can anybody really do that? or rather - can I really do that?

The replacement cell phone also came in on Thursday and not a moment too soon - because while in the Kroger parking lot in Hanover, after dark, somebody wanted to listen to the radio and ran the very shaky, 6 year old battery down. Fortunately I had slipped the new phone I hardly know how to operate into my purse. Also fortunately, ThePrince had his AAA card.

So. Altogether an unsettling weekend. Mars will soon be going forward again, though, so I expect More Progress all around. May your Monday bring you More too - more of whatever you want.