jessicaelinor

October 30,2022 Maintenance is just as important as tiny steps

When working on achieving a goal, most of us want to make progress at it every day. We tend to become impatient and want things RIGHT NOW (Hello, Amazon!) However, maintaining progress is just as important so that we make keep charging ahead when we are able. We don’t want to wind up completely back at the start and lose all of our hard work!

I had a step goal of 10000 steps by November 6, 2022. I am holding steady at an average of 9000 steps per day. I could beat myself up and be discouraged. Instead, I am choosing to look at where I came from (7000 steps a day) and realize that I have held this number for a few weeks now. (I have even made it to 11000 on a couple days!) So, I am going to focus on maintaining it (I would try to increase it but right now, 9000 feels difficult for me so I want to wait until it feels a bit easier).

This maintenance is important. It is important to stay here and not slide back to 7000. or even 8000. It is important to not lose all of the hard work I have been putting in and the progress I have made.

A burst I have been working on is “no candy, sweets or desserts until Halloween.” Well, Halloween is tomorrow and I feel kind of “meh” about indulging in sweets tomorrow. I have felt pretty good the last 20 days and I am not sure that I want that to go away. There have been tempting moments but overall, it hasn’t been too bad. So, I may pick a day to indulge (Thursday night cheesecake factory) and then wait again until Thanksgiving.

Also, I may reduce how much bread I am eating. I am not ready to go full keto ( I love bread and missed it so much during my keto diet time). However, my husband suggested that maybe I could cut down how much I eat. So this week I will count all the pieces of bread I eat (chips and tortilla shells count) to evaluate where I should place my goal using tiny steps. For example, if I am eating 5 pieces a day, I will not reduce it down to zero but maybe reduce it to 3 instead? I will keep you posted on this.

To my 90 followers, THANK YOU! Have a great week!

October 23, 2022. You should have people over to your house every once in a while…

I am an introvert. The longer I am on this earth, the more I am convinced of this fact. It does not mean that I hate people. Instead it means that I need time away from people to get my energy back. My husband is the opposite. He LOVES being around people and that is what energizes him.

Being married involves compromise and my husband would love to have people at our house every night and every weekend, celebrating something. I would rather just have the quiet. So in true compromising fashion, he winds up going to the houses of other people sometimes and other times we have people to our house.

Today is one of the days we are having people over. It is an NFL Sunday and we live in Michigan. People are coming over for the Detroit Lions game. They are eating, drinking, and having fun. I have been cleaning for over an hour. So has he. Normally, our house is very tidy but little things can tend to get away from you sometimes. When you have people over, you see your house with fresh eyes. Here are some examples.

The coffee grounds around the coffee maker. (They don’t bother me, but it looks dirty)

The kitchen sink is uncluttered but could be wiped down.

The stove has come crusty bits on it from a pot that boiled over.

The mirror in the bathroom needs cleaned.

The kitchen rug could use a vacuum.

The crockpot (which is clean) needs to be put away.

Little things that don’t bother my husband and I but need to be attended to before we have company. Some of you might argue that if they are truly our friends, they won’t care. That is true. I don’t think they would care, but I care. And the house looks a lot cleaner all of the sudden with just these few items being taken care of.

So suck it up and have some people every now and then. Your house will thank you!

Thank you to my 90 followers! Hope you have a happy and healthy week!

Oct 16, 2022 The problem with tiny actions

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know that I praise the “tiny steps, habits, actions” way of accomplishing goals and tasks.

So what is the problem? When you think that something is so tiny, you sometimes stop doing it. I haven’t felt well this week (school crud that everyone has), so I haven’t attended to all the little steps that I talk about. And here is what happened.

My sink is full of dishes.

The laundry is washed and dried but just sitting on top of the dryer.

I found a chair to put clothes on that need to be hung up and now they have filled the chair.

The dining table is covered in stuff.

The coffee table is covered in stuff.

My bathroom has stuff all over the counter.

My suitcase from the weekend is still packed.

I have shoes in every room that need to be returned to the closet.

So I started working on the house this morning when I woke up and in 30 minutes, I am still no where near done with picking up all of these areas. The sink is full of even more dishes because I made beef stew. The laundry is now on our bed but there is more that is washing as I type. The clothes still need to be hung. The dining table is halfway cleared. The coffee table is cleared and the shoes are returned to the closet. The suitcase is unpacked.

It feels overwhelming. It makes me grumpy. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I CAME UP WITH MY SYSTEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!! Instead of resting today, I feel as though I have a lot to do to get the house ready for the week. This week I will put the tiny little systems back into place and get things back on track.

To my 90 followers-THANK YOU! What tiny little actions do you focus on to keep your life together?

My book is still being edited (it is taking longer than I thought) but I will put the link here as soon as I have it!

Oct 2, 2022 Don’t move too quickly

I wanted to have an average of 8500 steps a day this week and next week. However, this week is a funeral and parent teacher conferences. The time after school will not be my own. Therefore, I will do the best I can but I will also give myself some grace during a tough week.

One small tip, since I won’t have time to workout after school, is that I will park farther away and will walk to the farthest bathroom at my school. Every little bit counts. If I park in the farthest parking spot away from the door, it adds an additional 250 steps a day to my step count. Over a week that will add up to 1250. That is an extra two miles per month without doing anything else.

These little steps matter. Keep that in mind.

To my 89 followers, have a great week!

Sept 26-cleaning out the garage with tiny actions

We moved into our new house in the late fall/winter of last year. As with most people, we stuffed a ton of boxes into the garage to “deal with later.” I also cleaned out my classroom and stuffed even more boxes into it. The creme de la creme was when we finished our basement this summer and put a lot of the basement boxes into the garage so that we could drywall, paint, etc… So the garage has become a bit of a disaster.

We could still fit two cars into it (I am proud of that) but EVERY other square inch is taken up with stuff and it needs to be dealt with. I COULD spend an entire weekend cleaning and organizing and getting it taken care of, but I don’t want to do that. Instead, I am using tiny steps to get it cleaned up. Here are the first 5 days.

Day 1. Brought 3 Christmas presents (light up boxes) to basement and stored them with the rest of the Christmas decor. Put winter mats in back of jeep.

Day 2. Two college signs for the basement a paper towel holder and two cooler bags. Silverware from our wedding and two plastic containers that are empty

Also I have some energy and some time while something is cooking on the stove so I took about 5 gallons of paint down to the basement where we are going to store it more permanently than in the garage because we do not need it right now.

Day 3 is five more paint cans, a small bin and threw away some essential oils that were 5 to 7 years old and not stored properly.The goal is to every day put something where it supposed to be one or two things and also throw out some thing or discard some thing that doesn’t belong

Day 4. threw a way two teaching things, put two in my bag to take to school, moved around three shelves so that the more I organize I can start putting things where they belong and I moved a rake and a leaf blower. Also got rid of three shirts that had been peed on by my cat and put some cleaner in the hall closet where the rest of the cleaners are (husband noticed at this point)

Day 5. took some golf signs to the basement. Put tie cables into a bin. Put some shoes on new cleaned off shelf. Threw away 2 books. Hung up blower.

Thank you to my 89 followers! My book will be published to Amazon soon! I will link it here also!

September 11, 2022-where was I 21 years ago?

21 years ago I was studying in Paris when the Twin Towers were attacked. Each year, on the anniversary, I see images and news stories that I have never seen before.

A tiny action today is a quick prayer for peace. A quick prayer to help those who suffer. A quick prayer for grief and loneliness.

Not all tiny actions are visible and tangible. However, these prayers are said in hopes that they help others and that my tiny action of prayer can help others today instead of helping myself.

To my 89 followers-THANK YOU! I am in the process of editing my book that will be uploaded to Amazon soon so that you can see hundreds of tips that you can try! I will keep you posted!

September 2, 2022-31 days without social media

Wow! I actually did it. I stayed off Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest for all of August. And I am here to say, it was kind of amazing. There were a few downfalls-I didn’t see the “first day of school” pictures from all my friends and family, I missed the news that my former cleaning lady was killed in a car accident,I started obsessively checking my email, and I “got bored” a few times. Other than that, I DID NOT MISS IT AT ALL!

So this blog is about all the tiny actions that lead you toward your goals. I have written a book that is being edited and will be published (Oct 1 hopefully) about that process. However, if you have been following the blog for a while, I also talk about “bursts” that you can take toward your goals and my social media fast is one of those bursts.

Benefits

I read 13 novels/books.
I increased my step count each week.
I listened to a few inspiration podcasts.
I cleaned out parts of my basement
I started a new teaching job.
I finished writing my book (it has been in the works for 9 months).
I felt like I was choosing my life instead of having it choose me.
I stayed out of so much drama.
I watched a Netflix series with my mom.
I felt calmer and lighter-the summer days seemed to move slower (like they did when I was a kid)

Would I recommend something like this? ABSOLUTELY! I actually did that to a friend of mine. She joined me on the challenge and seemed to miss it a lot more than I did BUT she also didn’t turn off her notifications so she felt compelled to reach out to people if they reached out to her first.

So here is the big question, Am I going back on it? Right now? NO. Will I in the future? Maybe. I do miss looking at pictures and seeing the lives of some of my friends. I don’t miss the advertisements, political rants, and ickiness that sometimes comes with having an active account.

Here is my advice is you want to do a social media fast of your own. 1. Turn off your notifications. 2. Have someone in your life that can notify you of news (like deaths, invites to parties, etc…) 3. Start small-maybe give it up for one day, then one week and gradually work up to a whole month. 4. Have something “better” to fill your time with. I read novels and worked on my own book. These are things that I always want to do and never feel as though I have the time. I gave myself that time by avoiding social media. 5. Forgive yourself-my friend that was doing the challenge with me found herself in the hospital one night and to keep her mind off things, she got on Facebook. THAT IS TOTALLY ACCEPTABLE! Give yourself some grace if something happens. (She hopped right back off Facebook when she got home).

The biggest takeway from this experiment was that I wanted to feel in control of my life and I feel like I achieved that. I was mindlessly scrolling before this and now, I consciously consume the electronic information that goes into my head.

To my 89 followers-thank you so much! I hope you have an amazing weekend! Try “living” this weekend instead of watching others live online-you will be so glad you did!

August 10-10 days without social media

On August 1, 2022, I challenged myself to stay off Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for 30 days. I had many reasons for doing this which included feeling frazzled (it is summer and I am not teaching-I shouldn’t feel frazzled), feeling un productive, and probably the worst one-I felt like I couldn’t keep up (no matter how much I scrolled or read, there was always more!)

So, I stopped.

If you have been following this blog for a little while, you know that I believe in tiny little steps to get you toward your goal. However, sometimes you need a “burst” to get you farther ahead. A 30 day fast of social media is one of those “bursts.” So here are some of the results after 9 full days-today is day 10.

The days feel calmer and slower.
I have read 5 books already (2 were audio in the car but still).
I miss it a little.
I don’t miss it as much as I thought I would.
It makes me sad to think of all the time I had been wasting.
I wonder if any of my friends have noticed.
Yesterday was a stressful day and I just wanted to scroll Facebook to make myself feel better (I didn’t but it was a weird feeling of needing/wanting something to distract myself from the day I was having)
I am safer on the road because I am not checking my phone.
I definitely stay out of “the drama” of the lives of others.
I am not exposed to so many ads and the desire to buy stuff.
I woke up one night and read a book instead of Facebook-fell right back to sleep.
I am curious how the next 10 days will go.

I am a third of a way through this challenge, and so far, am really happy with the results. I don’t know if I will stay off it after one month. I don’t know how the next 10 days will go, but I will take notes and keep you posted. I am still in the clutches of my “no potato chip” challenge and I am also not really eating sugar. All of these things seem to be improving my life so I will stick with them.

To my 87 followers-THANK YOU! Happy Wednesday!

August 7-Week 4 of no sugar went pretty well

I had a bite of a chocolate dessert and macaroon. I also had a cookie at a graduation party. However, this is WAY better than before. I also started a “no potato chip” month and week 1 of that was easy!

I have snacked on nuts instead. It feels a ton healthier.

I gave up social media on August 1. I will write a whole post about that later but so far, it is amazing and a friend has joined me on the journey!

I am sad about all the time I seem to have wasted on social media. I have already finished 3 books and I feel a lot more relaxed.

To my 86 followers-thank you!

July 29-week 3 of no sugar was a disaster

Most of us don’t like to be told NO. We want what we want, when we want it, and how we want it. We are also great at wanting things that are in contradiction with each other. For example:

We want a beach ready body, but we want to eat whatever we want and however much we want.

We want to have lots of money in the bank, but we want to own pretty things and take nice vacations.

We want to be smart, but we scroll social media and television all day.

We want better relationships with friends and family, but we don’t want to hear that we might be part of the problem.

Saying NO actually gives us freedom instead of taking it away from us. Here’s what I mean. If you have been following this blog, you know that I believe in tiny incremental gains of achievement toward a goal. However, sometimes you have to BURST or sprint. For me, denying myself sugary foods is a BURST toward healthier eating. Every time I have done a 30 day “challenge” of not eating sugar, I feel and look better at the end of it.

This time was a bit different because I gave myself a pass and allowed myself a S’more or two around the campfire. This may be innocent enough for some people, but here is how it turned out for me.

One S’more, then two, then finishing leftover graham crackers for breakfast “so they didn’t get stale”, then popping marshmallows into my mouth when I walked by them and wanted something sweet, then finishing up the last open chocolate bar “so it didn’t go to waste.”

After typing these excuses, I can see how silly they look. However at the time I was eating them, I felt totally justified because it fell within my “S’more” parameter.

So on our return trip from the Upper Peninsula, I told myself “NO MORE.” And a small sigh of relief hit me. NO MEANS NO. NO SMORES, NO BITES OR LICKS OR ANYTHING. At least for 9 more days until my month ends and I reevaluate. I already feel better. People relax when you cut off any other possibilities from them. They know the boundaries. It is ok to give yourself boundaries. That is what I am doing for the next 9 days.

To my 86 followers, can you tell yourself “NO” and make yourself listen?