One Month Down

So, I am coming up on the end of the first month of the new me and I feel pretty good about my success. I have received one of the best complements, my husband is proud of me for taking this new me so seriously. :) It has been pretty rough being on time though. I am just not used to it, but I will be soon.

This is what I learned:

Being on time requires planning ahead which I have never really been very good at planning ahead. So that was an important thing to know. I realized the days that I did not plan ahead I was late or racing to be on time. No good, as I could have been pulled over. Thank goodness I was not, however, I probably should have been.

Being on time requires wanting to be on time until it becomes habit. Not there yet but I will be one day.

Also, being on time makes my day start off a little bit easier because I am not rushing and completely out of breath by the time it comes to finally getting to work.

Finally, being early allows me to take the stairs at work. Six floors up, ten stairs per flight, two flights per floor = 120 stairs and that is good exercise.

Which leads me to my new task for the month of August: exercise and dieting

I have lost all of the baby weight now and my goal for month of August is to lose 5 pounds. 5 pounds is not an outrageous goal but the path to get there is going to be tough because I still have a tendency to eat like I did while I was pregnant. I was hungry all the time in between being nauseated. Now, I don't have the nausea just the large appetite which has caused me to retain the weight that I wanted to lose before I got pregnant. If I can get down those five pounds by eating right and exercising perhaps this time it will stay off a little while longer. We shall see.

Updates:
I have started a book recommended to me and sent to me by my bff Abby, Keys to the Kingdom.

I have started working on two craft projects and I am working on getting them done soon. I just need hot glue, sand paper, and spray paint. You are trying to guess what it is aren't you? you won't! I will show pics when I'm done. Promise.

Clipping coupons to help with saving rather than only spending.

What can I say...the new me is on a roll!

Doing Better

So this being on time thing is much harder than I ever could have imagined. It not only takes waking up earlier but also planning ahead. Two things I don't do often. But this week I did pretty well. I was on time for work 2/3 days and on time for everything else that I planned. I also got almost everything done on my to-do list that I wanted to do. I am now working on my reading list and also some art projects. I am so on top of things.

As for the rest of my life...we took Maggie camping last weekend for the first time. She had a great time. We slept in a cabin, she played in the river and tried to eat rocks and she got to see and pet some horses. She just laughed and had a good ol' time. We went on walks every morning and she slept really well after playing all day.

My house is clean for the most part...however I haven't been using my list. That will be my goal for this week. To check off my list in my cleaning book.
Thanks to everyone who made book suggestions for me. I will look into it this week.

Work in Progress

So far this week I am 2/3 for being on time. I have been on time for work, meaning early (one minute is early for a beginner like me.), however I have been late to a few other engagements like breakfast on Saturday. So, overall I am doing pretty well.

So, now I guess I have to make a list of what I intend to accomplish over the next year. If I have it written down, then I know that I have something to keep me accountable. Here we go!

Changes for the better:

1. Be on time
2. Be more crafty
3. Read more/ watch less TV
4. Stop using the snooze button
5. Exercise more
6. Spend less money/ save more money (for instance using coupons and putting more money in the savings account.)
7. Stop complaining and arguing (or at least decrease- Let's be realistic I only have a year)
8. Follow through with my plans (from November) on how to clean my house better

That is all for right now. I think a great list or at least a great starting off point. Now all I need is to figure out some good books to read. If you have any suggestions let me know. I have a few craft projects already lined up and a starting point for cleaning my house. Now, obviously starting all these things at one time would be crazy but I will slowly add to the few things that I have started right now and will take suggestions on other things that might make a good change. But first let's start with some good book suggestions. Let me know what's good. Its been a long time since I really got into a good book/series. So...

And so it begins...

So I made it through the first week of the rest of my life, or at least this year. At the top of my list of life changes is the thing that so many people dislike about me. And it's really hard to dislike me, let me tell you.

Tardiness...
Most people can count on me for one thing: being late. I race into work and I clock in at the very last minute before I will officially be late. I have been like this for as long as I can remember. I don't know where it came from either. My parents are both people who usually show up early. My best friend is the most punctual person I know. She was even in charge on my wedding day of making sure we stayed on task so that I would get the free photo from the photographer for starting on time. But me...I don't know what went wrong. I didn't get the early gene or something.

My husband complains a lot about me being late everywhere I go. I always have the best of intentions though. I get in plenty of time and I hit the snooze button (we'll come back to that) and I shower rather quickly and then I go through the rest of my morning routine and there is no reason why I shouldn't leave on time and yet I am always racing out the door five, ten, or more minutes later than I had originally planned. I like to stuff as much stuff into my time as possible.

This is going to change starting with the SNOOZE. The person who invented the snooze button must have been a last minute kind of person like me. They planned to sleep that extra 7 minutes and decided that those last 7 bonus minutes make a huge difference. They don't. I got up this morning without using the snooze button (and yesterday morning, too!) and I felt more rested. What was Mr. Snooze button thinking?

So, if you are keeping track that is Megan- 2 Snooze button- 1 ( I pushed it once on Sunday, forgetting that it was the beginning of new me. I'm not even sure if I should count that one but I will to keep my conscience clear).

Also I clocked in early twice this week! Go me! This whole not being late and changing my life thing may be just what the doctor ordered. A good friend in high school left this quote in our senior year book and I think I should remember it every morning SNOOZE comes calling. "To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late." Words to live by...words to live by