The Exercise of Gratitude

 As I warm up for the New Year's lotions, I realize that starting each day with a gratitude is priming the pump. As the day wears on, I recognize gratitude for other things. For instance, I started today with "Today I am thankful for vivid dreams". They were helping me process emotion.

Yesterday's written gratitude was, "Today I am grateful for weather forecasts." Slowly but surely a cold front and winter storm is taking over here. By tomorrow, there will be snow on the ground. "Workout sponsored by mother nature" - lol, certainly not the one I would have chosen.

So as the day goes on, I am thankful for a warm house (returning indoors after taking Benji out). I am thankful DH remembered a grocery item 'the kids' want this evening. I am thankful for what my body can do - even with slick sidewalks, I was able to keep my balance on the dog walk.

Annoyed by having to use distilled water, I become aware of my gratitude that the lead pipe is no longer in use transporting water into our home: I am grateful that work was done-people I don't even know personally-to improve our quality of life.

I am thankful to have a large enough home that my surly spouse can retreat to his writing room. After he did that, I learned that Betty White had passed. That could be feeding into his mood; he tends to take these things hard.

I am grateful for jigsaw puzzles to keep my hands out of the cookie jar. I've thrown another 'resolution" in to make it a trio: Eat sitting down. I was feeling grumbly about not yet achieving it for even one day (I started practicing on December 26th), and turned it immediately around into "I am grateful to be learning a new habit". And now as I type this, I am grateful for days when the gratitude flows like this. Not every day does.

Happy New Year and may you recognize the blessings that surround you. 💓💓💓

Warming up for the New Year's restaurant lotions

 😂 I'm still laughing about the autocorrect or autofill predictive text that resulted in New Year's restaurant lotions instead of new year's resolutions.

One of my attempts will be logging gratitude each day. To warm up, I've been writing in a physical journal, and I think I'll keep doing that. It's much more efficient than electronic logging these days. I can catch you up in periodic blogs. So far, I have:

12/26 Today I am thankful for weekends. 12/27 Today I am thankful for sleep. 12/28 Today I am thankful for alley lights. 12/29 Today I am grateful for a flexible dog - thankful Benji let me sleep in when I needed to.

I had planned to get up at my usual time on a work day, since I worked yesterday and will work tomorrow, but DH's loud TV interrupted my night's sleep at 11:30. Sure enough, when I turned it on this morning, the volume was at 23. I turned it back to 17. Couple that with broadcasters raising commercial decibel levels as the evening gets later, and ... well, not a hill I'm gonna die on. It is what it is. It may get worse when he retires and can stay up even later - at which point a discussion may be necessary.

My other stated resolution is "no vending machines". The warm-up on that one has been successful; but with reduced working days due to holidays and break, and ready treats still hanging around, the urge-desire-compulsion has not been there. I've started to buy 15g carb potato chips with the groceries - perfect snack for re-diagnosed diabetic DH, or at least that's my excuse - and I can toss one in my lunch bag to ward off the vending machine cravings when they inevitably resurface.

On a whim, I added "eat sitting down" to the lotions. 😂 I have not yet succeeded in that warm-up. Yesterday I almost got there; then in the evening I dived into some leftover holiday sweet treats and I know I ate one of them standing up. Sigh. It takes time to develop a new habit. The weight's at 167.5, and I'm not pleased about that, but I'm not sure what I'm willing to do to change it. I rode the exercise bike this morning and DD will pick me up for yoga in a little while. Later, I'll have a dentist appointment followed by a cold winter walk with OKM (bringing/wearing the heavy wool coat). A full day for a not-at-work day!  Have a good one 💖

I Made It!

 What a year.

Last year, I earned the social distancing run’s 100 mile medal: the Corona Lisa.

This year, since I started when the year began, I entered the 300 mile challenge. I figured I could go a mile a day, and that left 65 days of wiggle room.

Well, I managed 300 miles in 350 days:

“

AAAAAAAH!! AAIEEEEEEE!!!! YEAAAAAAH!!! 

CONGRATS ON REACHING MILE 300! PLEASE EXCUSE US WHILE WE OFFER YOU A CONGRATULATORY SCREAM!! 😱 😱 😱”

Thank you to OKM for getting the final push of 2.6 miles with me last night.  And giving me someone to be with as I opened the medal. She made me put it on:

I have said no more year-long goals. This was tough - like commitments I already have, a marriage, a job. It takes work to renew and keep those commitments, and it’s all a bit too much in addition to the work of getting it done. So, another “one and done” for my life’s scrapbook! 😀

When I was healthy and feeling good, I thought about trying for 500 (even better medal, Van Gogh self portrait with ‘you can Gogh the distance’). When the hip posed problems this summer, I thought I’d never make it. I had hoped to return to running short distances; that didn’t happen.

But I am here now and happy to take the remainder of the year ‘off’, or at least easy.

Oh, and the no more year long goals? Oops, I already have two resolutions in the hopper for New Year’s: trying gratitude every day (haven’t figured where to post/publish - likely FB or MFP), and no vending machine purchases. I’m not terribly serious about either one - I’ve always been a New Year’s restaurant lotion skeptic, acknowledging they’re frequently discarded - but SparkPeople evidently worked my personal calendar around to this, so here I am! On to 2022!

Eeking out these last miles - 10 to go!