Welcome to October everyone!
This means it is time to report on last month’s goals and set up this month’s.
Reminder of September Goals:
- Healthier Body: Begin the 200 Squat challenge… again.
- Healthier Mind: Do a Sudoku puzzle every day.
- Healthier Spirit: Take five minutes to pray every day.
- Healthier Food: Incorporate a new whole grain in my diet every week.
So how did I do? Well, not so great. I should have thought more about my schedule when making my goals. With two chapters of my thesis due and 8 days of work related travel at the beginning of the month, I got off on a bad start and it was hard to get back into the routine.
Report!
- Healthier Body: Begin the 200 Squat challenge… again. I started off strong, then tapered off during my week of travel. For the rest of the month, I’ve done about 5 squat workouts, but was terrible about recording them. I will definitely be keeping up with the squats though, as even with my few workouts, I’m feeling and seeing the results.
- Healthier Mind: Do a Sudoku puzzle every day. I actually did really well on this challenge. Probably because it was fun and easy to do anywhere, thanks to my iPhone. I only missed three days out of the month. I really enjoyed using it as a tool to wind down and refocus afterwards, although I’m not sure how much it helped my mental math skills.
- Healthier Spirit: Take five minutes to pray every day. Wow, outright fail. I thought this one would be easy, but I kept forgetting. However, I was much more aware of the prayer concerns of the people I know and love and prayed for their concerns on the days I remembered. I think I would be more reminded if I had a written out list that I kept and looked at every day of prayer concerns. I just need to get back into the routine.
- Healthier Food: Incorporate a new whole grain in my diet every week. I only went to the grocery store 2 times the entire month and did not have a lot of time for exploratory cooking. This was poor planning on my part. I’m still excited to try more whole grains though, and I still have my bulk goods, so I’m going to try more this month.
Now for October goals. As I mentioned before, this month I’ll be trying to use the website Health Month. My goals are as follows:
- Healthier Body: Weight training 3x per week. After walking around NYC last weekend, my shoulder was in excruciating pain. And I am the only one to blame. I’ve been slacking on strengthening and it needs to stop so I can survive all day in an office chair in the future.
- Healthier Mind: Finish drafts of all three chapters of my thesis. Very personal, but I feel I can’t clear my head until these tasks are done, and they are eating me alive. Now is the time to really buckle down.
- Healthier Spirit: Meditate three days a week. I keep going back to meditation and that’s because I feel it calling to me. Maybe with my health month “game” I’ll be more likely to make it a priority.
- Healthier Food: Drink 64 glasses of water per week. This one came about when my husband asked me why I hadn’t refilled the water filter and I realized I hadn’t had one drop of water or other fluid for two days. It happens to me when it starts to get cold, as I don’t have any trouble drinking water during the summer. Got to stay hydrated! I’m using my nalgene bottle as a measuring device, as it holds 8 glasses of water.
Journey of Health Enlightenment 