Bienvenidos to My Wellness Journey 04.2021. I am providing a monthly update to the goals I set in January, here. Except my last update, the one for March, disappeared with the theme update. But if you click here you can check out my February progress report. For 3 years, I have journaled about my wellness goals which has helped keep me more accountable.
We are just back from a week-long, whirlwind trip to Ohio and Kentucky to see our moms. The only exercise I got while we were gone was power lifting my fork. Ate too much. Moved too little. So this post is going to be more of a progress-less report for the month of April.
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MY WELLNESS JOURNEY 04.2021
As a reminder, I began the year giving myself a 2.5 as a starting score in each category. Anything different indicates a change. Hoping to have all ‘5s’ in every category by the end of 2021.
PHYSICAL HEALTH – 3.5 (up .5)
- Lose Covid lockdown weight: about 8 pounds depending on how much I have indulged before weigh-in on Saturday mornings. For the record, yesterday I was 143.8 (first part of January). At 136 pounds, my clothes fit so much better. Before our trip out of town, I weighed 139.1. But too many bowls of my mother-in-law’s chili and slices of her cherry pie have me back at 142.9 the day after we got home.
- Workout 4 times a week: we have our video workouts, and our mini-gym in the garage, and warmer weather on the way. I have put together a playlist of video workouts that I have discovered for seniors and fitness beginners. We were doing well on this. Were. But the week away was disastrous. Then PC had a migraine – his first ever – when we got home. And because we are attached at the hip, his migraine kept me from moving and exercising, of course!! Back on track this week. Have started doing kettlebell video workouts…great fun.
- Walk everyday: video walks in the house for bad weather days, walks in nature when the weather is pleasant. Was participating in my third StepBet walking challenge until our trip. Missed two of my step days because it is hard to walk aboard a plane. That darn ‘fasten seatbelt‘ sign is very restricting. I’ve earned almost $11 for the first two challenges. And will be signing up for another one ASAP. Love getting paid to walk!! Learn more here.
NUTRITIONAL HEALTH – 3.0 (up .5)
- Cook meals at home 4x a week: want to do this and track my Weight Watcher points until I get this extra weight off. Continue subscribing to HelloFresh and enjoying their low calorie meals. Have enjoyed using the HelloFresh recipes to make the delicious meals from ingredients I purchase myself. I was tracking my WW points until…THE TRIP. Back to tracking this week. Back to eating better and cooking meals at home.
- Smoothies: in the mornings. Need some new ingredient ideas to spice things up. We are not drinking these every morning like we were. Fruit is zero points on Weight Watchers but there’s still all that sugar. I think maybe the sugary fruit was adding calories, if not points to our diet. So we are only enjoying smoothies a couple of times a week now.
- Alcohol and sweets on weekends: going to be more careful about this again. Well, there was my birthday cake that I overindulged in the first part of April. German chocolate. And then the cherry pie in Ohio. Oh, and the 3 times we enjoyed lattes with John and Greta at Winan’s. Something we don’t drink at home. So, yeah, not so much.
SPIRITUAL HEALTH – 3.0 (up .5)
- Quiet time: at least M-F, getting up early to do it first thing. I did quiet time 50% of the time, so need to do better.
- Bible journaling: a couple of times a month. Well, I may have eaten like a pig lately but I have also been Bible journaling. So there’s that!! One example, featuring my WOTY: light.
- Gratitude journaling: every night. Again, pretty consistent with this. Only missed 3 days in the last 61 days. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
MENTAL HEALTH – 3.0 (holding steady)
- Duolingo: food for my brain. Was doing great on this, too…UNTIL…yeah, that. The trip. But hey, I am in the amethyst league and have over 5K experience points. That’s something, right?
- Weekly artistic activity – #100DayProject: we choose a creative project, do it every day for 100 days, and share your process online – so going to work on my ever-lovin’ mosaic. And continue scrapbooking, painting, collages. Have completed several 2-page scrapbook spreads for my niece Shelby’s wedding two years ago. Finished my Valentine’s wreath…albeit after Valentine’s Day, but well ahead of next year. Loved making my quirky birds with Jennifer Chamberlin online and my sister Valerie on Facetime. And the mosaic will be finished by the #100DayProject deadline of 05.10.2021.
- Goodreads goal: Meet or exceed my reading goal for 2021. Turns out you may not be able to walk on a plane but you can read on one. And throughout the whole trip. Here is a goal I seem to be excelling at. At least there’s one!! Proud to say I am 4 books ahead of my 2021 goal. Guess what else? My book club is up to 97 members. Is that nuts or what? We just voted on our May read. The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth. Really good so far.
RELATIONSHIP HEALTH – 3.0 (up .5)
- Visit family: want to visit Brennyn, Cady and Mustafa desperately; go see my mom and PC’s mom. I surprised Cady by showing up for their family Disney World trip in March. We had a wonderful time together. Making plans for summer birthday celebrations together in July. And of course, just back from our trips to see the MOMS.
- Planned activities with PC: plan purposeful activities and not let weekends come and go without having fun. Here’s one place my bucket lists come in handy. Check out my spring bucket list, here. We have a 3 day weekend coming up so hope to have some fun with my Prince then. Maybe we can give our taco run a go.
- Strengthen relationships with grandbabies: especially need to show love and spend time with Cady on Facetime or phone calls. Cady and I had a great time bonding in March. But it is so hard to keep up that same relationship over the miles when we are apart. We have read a few times. Highly recommend the book Click’d by Tamara Ireland Stone for the ‘tweens in your life. Really want to encourage Brennyn to allow us to get Cady a phone for her birthday. Then Cady can call me when she likes. Whether she is with Brennyn or her daddy. And vice versa.
PREVENTATIVE HEALTH MAINTENANCE – 2.5 (holding steady)
- Monday manis: give myself a manicure every Monday. Toyed with the idea of a professional manicure and pedicure before our trip but just HATE spending the money on that. See the next category. So did-it-myself. And did-it-myself again today. Which just happens to be a Monday.
- Skin care: sunscreen, bedtime complexion routine, occasional facials. Had one terrific facial in March and have an appointment for another one this week. Woo hoo!! Basking in that post-facial rejuvenation below.
- Routine health care: make appointments for routine checks – dentist, dermatology, mammogram, vision. Remember my toothache right before the trip? Does that count as my annual dental check up?
Guess not. Have a follow-up visit in June. Will make appointments for vision and dermatology next.
FINANCIAL HEALTH – 3.0 (up .5)
- Continue saving each month: saving a little each month. Yes.
- Save for Christmas, Disney and birthdays: investigate Christmas Club and Vacation Club accounts as well as ways to save for Disney. Came home from Disney with a little money left in my Disney account. Going to apply it to the birthday beach celebration in July.
- Watch spending: don’t pull the trigger on impulsive purchases. Managed to fairly successfully avoid the Amazon daily deals in March and April that had me spending money like a rich lady in February. Have purchased some things for the spring capsule wardrobe outfit formulas with Alison at Get Your Pretty On. Namely these overalls. Just the right amount of distress and slouchiness. Which I LOVE. And these tops. This puffed sleeve floral, and this one for Lauren as a thank you for feeding the kitties while we were gone. Was so glad to be back in a Loft Outlet again. Oh, and this squashy (not to be confused with squishy) colored pencil skirt for $12.00 Also bought this steam mop with its 4.6 out of 5 star reviews to use with spring cleaning that’s scheduled to begin next week. Hmmm, guess I haven’t done to well in this category either. But I can’t blame the trip for this failure!!
So, if I can stay home this month, I should drop the weight I picked up visiting the moms, should get back to exercising regularly and back at my morning devotional routine. I started today with my quiet time at 5:00 am, went for a walk and tracked my points. So yay me!!
YOUR TURN
How are you progressing on any wellness goals you set for 2021? Hope you will continue to cheer me on my wellness journey. Maybe we can inspire one another toward a last half of the year. And finish with a bang!!
Stay well, my friends. Thanks for coming by to visit. Don’t forget 10 on the 10th coming up on…you guessed it, the 10th!! 10 things you hate (or strongly dislike) to do. Grab the graphic, here. Sentence a Day link up tomorrow, Currently on Wednesday and Where Bloggers Live on Friday. Whew. Hope you will stop back by!!
Fist bumps and elbow taps,
I loved reading this Leslie. I would like to chime in about your smoothies. Our naturopath was adamant that eating fruit is absolutely fabulous because it is real food with wonderful nutrients. The natural sugar is not the bad guy. I know not everyone believes this, but something good to research if you’re on the fence. For our smoothies I’m always trying to get in at least 2 veggies too, so at least I’m starting off on the right foot in the mornings. Today’s smoothie: red cabbage, frozen riced cauliflower. banana, strawberries and grapes with goat milk.
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Thank you, Jodie. In my ‘right’ mind, I know that fruit is good for us. There’s a reason why it doesn’t have points on Weight Watchers and is low in calories. Thank you for reassuring me. I do enjoy our smoothies and feel like we are really doing something kind for our bodies when we have them.
While I am tracking points like a champ and exercising every single day the weight just isn’t budging much. I am increasing my activity and adding in two workouts a day which finally seems to be helping. I’m hopeful that once I get some of that muscle tone back that I lost during surgery/ post op. that the weight will begin slip sliding away again. I’d still like to drop between 8 & 10 lbs but at least I am not gaining anything back. Even cheating like crazy this Saturday I saw the scale right back where it was pre- weekend on Monday and that was such a relief as I typically had been dropping pounds during the week and gaining it all back on the weekend only to work all week to see the same numbers by Friday.
I am kind of in the same place you are. Track well most week days and then get off track on the weekend. We haven’t exercised as much since our trip to KY and OH, too. We seem to roller coaster…we will exercise and eat well for a few weeks and then crash and burn with Dairy Queen, eating out and sleeping through our morning workouts. But here comes summer and you and I will both make progress now that the weather is better.
It sounds like you’re doing great! The trip was probably worthwhile for your health too, gotta see the family!
You are so right. Seeing my mom helped my wellness!
It sounds like you’re doing so well, despite the trip which accomplished many other things instead! I love your Bible journaling.
Thank you so much!!