April Recap and May Goals

I have very mixed emotions about it being May already. On one hand, I’m not sad to bid adieu to April, but on the other hand, how can it possibly be May? We’re heading into the 5th month of the year and it freaks me out a bit. Honestly, I hoped to be further along in my goals by now, so it’s time to get focused and get disciplined.

April Was a Bust. Period

This news should not be a surprise if you’ve been following my journey to get healthy. I had a relapse with my depression and lost my mojo outside of work last month. Thankfully, it only lasted a couple of weeks, although my motivation remains low. I turned to you for some help, which you all answered and gave me some very good advice on adjusting how I look at motivation. Thank you so much for your help; I truly appreciate your support.

Typically, I want to feel motivated first, then do the work with gusto. Whether it’s writing posts, designing websites, making a healthy meal or exercising. And in a perfect world that may be okay. But my world is not perfect. So some days (many days) the motivation to exercise or eat right isn’t there, even when I don’t have the blahs. And I can’t let that stop me from doing the right thing.

Like Tonya said in her comment, “99% of the time, motivation follows action, not the other way around.” I had been waiting for motivation to kick-in so I would do the actions needed when I should have followed Nike’s (and Tonya’s) advice to “just do it”. It’s time to adjust my views on motivation. Some days I’m going to just have to “do” it, whether or not the motivation is there. Hopefully, it will follow, but even if it doesn’t, as my friend Mackenzie also pointed out, I’m still taking action and moving forward.

And that is what matters most to me.

April Goals. Sigh.

Let’s not recap but none were met successfully. Some days I did manage to follow through with a few of them, just not at the consistency needed. Thanks to all of your comments, feedback and suggestions, I have some new ideas on how I’m going to approach my goals from here on out, which I’ll be sharing later this month.

Onward to May Goals

It’s important to learn from our past, but it rarely does much good to dwell there. In fact, it can actually do more harm than good, especially if we get stuck there, reliving our mistakes. So I’m choosing to move onward, because a bad month is just a small blimp in this thing we call life (thanks Prince).

The goals this month are simply an April redux:

• Swim 2 times a week. Do advance research (what exercises to do) to add a strength training goal successfully next month.
• Drink a minimum of 48 ounces of water every day.
• Continue with my vitamin and biotin regiment.
• Practice daily gratitude and find a trigger to remind myself to do it.
• Prepare some freezer and make-ahead meals.
• Regulate carb consumption.

While my May is busy, the goals still seem very doable and my commitment to getting and staying healthy remains strong. Most importantly, the fact that I did not give-up — when my old go-to move was to quit after a bad month — makes me feel even stronger and more confident in my ability to achieve my goal, regardless of how long it takes. There are days I wish to be the hare, but then I remember who won the race.

How did you do against your April goals?

Tanya