#microresolutions

I know it’s mid-month, but with the start of marathon training I made some changes to my routine.

I am adding strength training to my fitness routine. Thee days a week I do about 30 minutes of lifting. I’ve been neglecting this for a while.

Also I am making a effort to eat more protein. I am tracking what I eat and following a meal plan to get around 140 - 150 grams of protein a day. I might increase that in a few weeks. This means a lot of protein shakes and a lot of chicken.

I am still reading at least 15 minutes each night (my July goal), and usually more. I am actually reading a book on micro resolutions:

I am still having trouble getting enough sleep. I fall asleep fine, but I almost always wake up around 3am and can’t go back to sleep. 

It’s July, time for an update on my microresolutions project. June was supposed to be a reset month to get back on track.

Food: I did much better in June. Even with my birthday and Father’s day I still lost weight each week.

Soda: I had one soda in June, and that was because I had a free one at the movies for my birthday. It was a caffeine-free diet cherry coke, btw. Otherwise, no soda.

Sleep: I did better at getting more sleep, but there is still room for improvement. 

Screen time: I still used my phone in bed too much, so I will work on that in July (see below).

Burpees: I had planned to do some every day, working up to 50. It didn’t happen. While doing them one morning in the first week I felt something in my leg and was limping around the rest of the morning, 2 days before my half-marathon. So I stopped for a while, and when I started again I didn’t do them every day. I worked up to 40, and went from being able to do only 2 in a row to sets of 10. 

This month my goal is to read more. My plan is to read before bed at least 15 minutes. That will also help with the screen time and probably sleep. I’ll also take a few more weeks off from soda, and try to keep going with good food choices.

I’m going to take a month off from the push-up/squat/whatever challenges. I have plenty of exercise planned with duathlon and marathon training.

1. Stop smoking in my car

My bigger goal is to quit smoking for good. I will throw out the car ashtray and whenever I feel like smoking I will tell myself: “It smells 104% better if you don’t smoke in here.”

2. 100 crunches/day

My bigger goal is to be fit. I will do 100 crunches before bed, at my own pace. I will tell myself: “It worked in the past. I am motivated to do it again.”

3. Wash & moisturize my face daily before and after sleep

I have been doing this for the past weeks and it has almost become a habit. Writing this here to keep me motivated. I will tell myself: “Your face is almost acne-free. Soon it will be scar-free too.”

4. Keep an abundance log

Last year I travelled to St Tropez with my family on a self-growth journey to relax and find myself. I started an abundance log back then and things went from good to wonderful. I should write before bed a few things that happened that day that I am grateful for. I will tell myself: “remember how this makes your life wonderful.”

The key to microresolutions is telling yourself something.

Why try major changes when you know willpower will probably sabotage you? Instead try micro resolutions: A small, targeted behavioral change that is attainable and permanently sustainable.

1. Go to the gym at least 3 times a week.

Well, I actually want to go to the gym every day, but I think that's a little over-ambitious, due to the fact that for the past two weeks I have been waking up after midday. So hopefully this is a middle ground.

2. Cook a meal a day.

I really need to learn how to cook healthy food, so I'm taking this month as an incentive to learn how to cook cheap student food that isn't carbohydrate based. I feel like refined carbs are like that best friend who can make you feel so happy, but also inserts the odd bitchy comment about how you need to lose weight. Also, I'm pretty much an unemployed bum at this point in time, so I need to do something mildly productive, otherwise I genuinely think I might become part of my sofa.

3. Watch a film I haven't seen before a day (with 5 days allocated to seeing films I have seen before (read: TSN))

I literally thought of this resolution in February and have been waiting for it to roll around ever since. This is definitely the best one. I also just got a LoveFilm giftcard which definitely makes this resolution even easier to achieve. I already have a few films in mind but I'd love a few suggestions, so if you know any good films (I'm into everything but horror) let me know, here or in my ask, I will be forever grateful.

4. Read 5 books this month.

One of the reasons I was really excited to finish high school is because for the past two years the only things I've been reading are either textbooks or books about medicine, so I was really happy at the prospect of having time to read books just for fun again. However, finding time to read isn't that easy when you have a Tumblr and a dashboard that is impossible to tear yourself away from (not to mention a complete lack of willpower), so if I manage to do this I will be happy.

I think I can safely say I failed all of my March microresolutions, which is pretty disappointing but this March was MADNESS (shitty joke alert) and shit happens, so I'll get over it.

Learning from my mistakes and looking forward optimistically, I'm only setting myself one resolution this month:

1) Cut down my junk food intake in general, and stop eating refined carbohydrates everyday. 

The goal isn't as quantifiable as usual, but I'm planning to stagger it, decreasing my intake as the month progresses. Around Christmas I went through a really rough time, and probably felt more depressed than I'd ever felt in my entire life. I fell into a funk and started comfort eating. I'm really unhappy to say that this led into a habit and has continued up until now. Even though I'm happy with my life right now, I still eat crap food on a daily basis and that's not right at all.

As of tomorrow, the cycle is ending. Not just for my physical health, but also for my well-being; I look and feel worse than ever, completely unhealthy and sad at my state. I realise that it's a very long process and it'll take more than a month, but hopefully this is the start of something I'll continue for a very long time. I want to feel confident in myself and my body again.

So this year I decided that instead of making a New Year's Resolution, I would try and set myself mini goals for each month, in the hope that they would be more achievable and then I would be able to carry them through for the rest of the year. My ones for March include:

1) Aim for 6 hours of sleep every night/ 42 hours a week. This might seem like sleep deprivation and a low target, but I actually barely sleep at all nowadays. If I manage to achieve this I'll be pretty happy. My mood swings decrease when I sleep a lot as well, so hopefully I won't spend March slumped over my books in a sleepsick/grumpy state.

2) Finish reading my SLR manual and start actually taking photos with my nice new Canon.

3) Read a non-medical, non-academic book.

It sounds bizarre but my life has been overtaken by medicine and work and I don't even read anymore, so this one is really important to me.

4) Cut my caffeine limit to 3 cups a week.