Dear ones,
Welcome to Wellness Wednesday, 02.2019. Linking up with my friend Natalie at Natalie the Explorer and some of my dearest blogging buds for an update on my 2019 wellness goals and some heart health tips.
Wellness Wednesday, 02.2019: Goals Update
I shared my wellness goals for the year in this post, last month. Really enjoyed participating in this series last year and felt like I became more conscious of my own wellness and as a result, healthier! Hoping to do even better this year.
Here are my goals:
And here’s how I am progressing:
Physical Health – 3.0
- Work back to running 5K (want to run more regularly again) – following my 5K training routine, check it out, here.
- Lift weights (at least 4x a week) – not back up to 4x a week but every time we go to the gym.
- Walk 7,200 steps a day and 3 stories (build walks back into my daily routine) – how did I get 10k steps so easily before I retired? Struggling to get 7,200 steps these days.
Nutritional Health – 3.5
- Eat more veggies and fruit (and cook meals at home 4x a week) – cooking at home much more often; keeping track of my menus on my Living Well Planner.
- Drink 75 ounces of water a day (pretty good at this already) – yes, ma’am.
- Alcohol and sweets on weekends (I’m looking at you cinnamon glazed almonds and white wine) – have returned to alcohol on Saturdays but have eaten more than my share of Valentine’s M&Ms; thank goodness the holiday is behind us, but now the M&Ms are on my behind!
Spiritual Health – 3.5
- Quiet time 5x a week (M-F, bonus points for the weekend) – probably averaging 4x a week.
- Attend church more regularly (at least once a month) – haven’t been yet this year, but have plans to change that this weekend.
- Gratitude journal before bed (get a new journal and get started) – new journal purchased, using it about 5x a week.
Mental Health – 3.5
- Work puzzles and play word games, practice Spanish (Wordscapes, Word Classic, jigsaw puzzles, Brainscape/Duolingo) – Still enjoying playing Wordscapes, Word Classic and Draw Something on my phone, need a small jigsaw puzzle to work, and need to return to my Spanish language study.
- Weekly art date (do something creative or attend something artsy) – on the docket for this coming Monday when I will be scrapbooking via Skype with my sister Valerie in Houston.
- Read 3 books a month (yikes) (in order to meet my Goodreads goal) – currently reading Girl, Wash Your Face; It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way; It’s Never too Late to Begin Again and Educated. My virtual book club has just begun reading The Library Book together. Would love to have you join us!
Relationship Health – .5, yes, that bad
- Unplug at 9:00 pm (already a minute late tonight) – nope, have really been lousy about this.
- Date night 2x a month (bucket list activities) – no real date nights yet, but stay tuned…this weekend is going to change that!
- Skype with Brennyn/Cady & Lauren/Lucia (read books to my babies) – we haven’t read a single book together but I have FaceTimed with all of my girls a few times.
Maintaining Health – 3.0
- Use sunscreen on my face daily (moisturizer with SPF) – every single day.
- Floss (why do I hate doing this so much?) – using those little toothpick things with the floss on one end but rarely floss; has to change.
- Take vitamins and minerals daily (multi, vitamin B, C, D – LMNOP – flaxseed oil, biotin) – yes, almost every day.
Financial Health – 3.0 (added this after reading my friend Dani’s post; meant to add it originally but forgot!)
- Save money for Christmas – not ready to think about that yet but need to get started.
- Pay off Amazon card – haven’t used it in over a month, making payments 2x a month.
- Have money in my checking account at the end of the month – yes, and saving $10 out of each of my paychecks…baby steps.
Not too bad for the second month of the year. I guarantee my progress will be more impressive this time next month. This weekend I am going to accomplish some great things! 💕 💕 💕
Heart Health
Just in time for 💕Valentine’s Day💕, those of us linking up for Wellness Wednesday, 02.2019 are sharing heart health tips in addition to our goals updates. Coincidentally, our local news shared some interesting facts related to cardiovascular health that caught my attention tonight. Did you know that heart disease is the leading cause of death in men and women? Here are a couple of things we can do to keep our hearts healthier from The Cleveland Clinic.
- Eat health fats, limit trans fats. Read those food labels, gals, and look for 0 percent trans fat.
- Practice good dental hygiene to include daily flossing. Looking in the mirror for this one. Poor dental health can cause gum disease which can increase the risk of heart disease. I brush 3-4 times a day but that flossing…
- Get enough sleep, 7-8 hours a night. I need to get to bed right NOW.
- Move about. Staying seated for long periods of time is bad for your health even if you exercise regularly. I need to start walking a few minutes every hour at home and at work.
- Avoid secondhand smoke. I do.
Starting tomorrow, I am on a mission to floss, floss, floss and begin addressing my wellness goals in the areas where I am struggling.
Your Turn
What wellness goals are you struggling with this year? Where are you most successful? Leave me an update in a comment below or link-up your Wellness Wednesday, 02.2019 blog post below.
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Wishing you the very happiest 💕Valentine’s day, tomorrow,💕 surrounded by those you love most. And lots of chocolate.
Family hugs,
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Coincidentally heart health was in our news reports this morning too. Obviously a world wide problem. I have borderline high blood pressure, it’s fine when I test it at home with my own monitor but put me in a doctor’s surgery and it goes sky high – I think it’s called ‘white coat syndrome’! I also have to go back to docs next week to discuss a recent blood test so I’m guessing I could be facing some kind of medication for something 🙁 and I’m putting up my BP by worrying about what has shown up!
Hope that by the next round up of your goals you have ticked a few more off the list, have fun this weekend!
I guess all of the news programs tied heart health to Valentine’s day. Been thinking of you since your recent blood work and results. Glad your health professional is on top of things. My father had very high blood pressure so we kids have all monitored ours but all 3 of us seem to take after our mom, with low BP.
All of your goals are so worth it and I can tell you really put some time into putting them together! I should really do puzzles and things like that for my mental health and to keep my brain working properly! One of these days I will put together and thoughtful and beautiful list like you have! I think you are doing great Leslie!
xo,
Kellyann
Kellyann, hope you know how many are thinking of you this weekend. With all you have had going on, I am sure your brain has had to work overtime and you don’t need puzzles at all to stay sharp. But I found after I retired, I became brain lazy. So doing puzzles has helped me.
Wow, you are doing great with your goals especially in light of the challenges you have been facing. I would like to join in the virtual book club but don’t see any link – Could you email it to me please?
Oh, Juhli, I am so glad you would like to join the book club. Just seeing this so I dashed over to email you with the details. Thank you for your interest!!
You have set yourself some very big goals, Leslie. Congratulations on your progress. Thank you for sharing this and helping to inspire us!
Happy Valentine’s Day to you and PC!
Thank you, Donna. Hope you had a marvelous time Mexico. I was looking at our photos from a Cancun vacay in 2013 just this morning. Ready to go back! There is nothing like the beach.
You’re doing well with your goals, Leslie, and I know you’ll accomplish them because you persevere. Thank you for linking up on Wellness Wednesday with me this month. Have a lovely Valentine’s Day!
We have really upped our workout routine so I am looking forward to reporting on my progress for Wellness Wednesday in March, Hope we can keep it up!!
Great work with your health goals, Leslie. I’ve just entered two fun runs with my daughter and Saturday Sisters. That helps us to work towards something plus I always do the Mothers Day Run with my daughter. On the heart health, I didn’t realise the impact of gum disease and the heart. I just had a dental checkup so I’m okay there but interesting to know. thanks for the tips and here’s to a happy and healthy week!
How fun to do a run with your daughter! Someday I would love to do that with mine. I did do a 5k with my daughter and granddaughter when she was very young. It was fun and she managed to jog/walk the whole way.
I’ve really been trying to cut out sweets, coffee, alcohol, etc. M-F and I drink only water or hot tea (with nothing added, but I do like tea unsweetened) and then I relax Saturday and Sunday and I’m not strict. Weekends are just too hard, we eat out more and the kids aren’t in school. I’d like to eventually try to be good on one of the weekend days too, but haven’t gotten there yet. Ha!!! I really want to do a race again and it’d probably need to be a 5k since I’ve only been running 7.5 tops every week lately. I’m working more on strength and weights. I do weights 3x a week and cardio/run 2x a week.
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Maybe you can just start back to running with a 5k. That will be a cake walk for you. We are trying to do several different things at the gym. Running has always been my go-to but it is getting harder on my body. Our gym just got rowing machines and those are a workout. And doing weights is so good for preventing osteoporosis. We eat out a lot on weekends, too. And I tend to forget…yeah, right…to track my points on weekends. Have decided no matter how bad they might be, I need to track them. And then maybe I will do a little better about making wise choices when we do eat out.