This July I Will...
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themedalist
Posts: 3,212 Member
Happy July Everyone!
The summer months can be a little dicey. Schedules change, kids are home, trips get planned and taken, and though it's a wonderful time of year, it's pretty easy to let our anchor habits such as eating well, sleeping well, and exercising fall by the wayside. Let's not let that happen! What's one healthy habit you could focus on this July that will keep you on track and moving toward your goals? Maybe it's a continuation of your June habit? Or perhaps a focus on reducing your stress during this busy month?
Are you new to our group? If so, welcome! Let us know what your goal is and how we can help. And if you're joining us mid month, you don't have to wait for August to start working on a new healthy habit. Start now and you'll be well on your way toward your goal when August rolls around. If you're looking for ideas, our list of previous challenges can help.
If it's useful, frame your goal along these lines:
1. My goal for this month (This July I will...")
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit
4. How often will you do your new habit (daily is best if possible)
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit?
6. What help do you need from us?
7. What does success look like to you at the end of July?
Let's make it a great July!
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Replies
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My June goal of food logging was going well until my Dad's stroke mid month. I'm back home now. Did OK last week when I was visiting my family in Virginia. I am recommitting myself to logging all my meals on MFP in July and checking in here at least 3 times a week to note how it's going.6
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Hi everyone, New day, New month with plenty of opportunities to do over.
My goals for July are : Do my best to eat healthy, portion control and zero snacking between meals. Measured by: new habit formation, lose weight and feel good about my accomplishments.
Friends, help me stay on track. Namaste7 -
Greetings all! I'm in my 60's and my 40th Anniversary is coming up in February 2020. My long term goal is to lose 40 pounds by then, approximately 1.5 pounds per week. My goal for July is to get off my fat behind at least 30 minutes per day, at least 5 days per week. I do well logging my caloric intake, but suck at maintaining an exercise habit which hampers my weight loss. Measured by exercise log, net caloric intake, and weight loss of 6 pounds by 01 August.5
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This July I will eat vegetables and fruit as a significant part of my food intake.
I will plan my week's meals each weekend. I'm going to eat appropriate portions of bread/pasta - so I will have to fill up on veggies. Weekend meal planning/shop will remind me to think about macros, and vegetables will be built into my menu. For each day that I meet my goal, I will allow myself unlimited reading/buying an online book if necessary.
Success will be being able to walk comfortably and have pants fitting a bit more loosely.5 -
Okay, July will mean a lot of sewing and getting in the exercise will be tough with the heat, but I'm going to work on prepping meals for the school year.
1. This July I will do big batch cooking at least 4 times.
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal. Have the necessary ingredients on hand.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit. put ingredients for 1 big batch on shopping list each week.
4. How often will you do your new habit - I'll prep the food 1 day each week, but I'll also plan the thing I'll be cooking 1 day, shop 1 day, do preliminary prep work 1 day, and take the frozen meals over to my sister's freezer one day.
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit? Eating one meal that I've made.
6. What help do you need from us? Cheer me on.
7. What does success look like to you at the end of July? 48 days of dinner entrees in the freezer.
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I am very pleased with how my several different habits are going.
After a year on MFP, my daily logging and exercise and staying within calorie allowance has become pretty habitual and pretty consistent.
About two months ago I started changing my approach to house keeping. I am one of the many people who love a clean and orderly house, but truly dislike house keeping. So, I decided to do it piecemeal. Each morning before I leave for the barn to ride, I to one or two cleaning tasks (today, it was the Master Bath, 'swiftering' the downstairs floors, and cleaning the Powder Room. Tomorrow ... dust the downstairs) This way, each week I clean the entire house without ever having to devote large blocks of time. Am loving this approach and my house has never looked this consistently good!
Last month I started two new habits. The first was to get my financial life to a more healthy spot. I set a budget, log expenditures, and limit unplanned purchases to things that I thoughtfully decide to do. That went well and I will continue that to see if I can begin to make being financially more responsible habitual. I also started a monthly 'small project' list where I have a list of things I need to do and just go to the list when I have some free time and pick one of them. Again, that is working very well and I am getting things done that I have put off or simply forget to do.
This month I am adding a 'me' item. I have been interested in exploring meditation for quite some time. So, I have decided now is the perfect time to start. I have installed two apps (Calm and Headspace) and am experimenting with both to see which I prefer. I have picked shortly after dinner as my meditation time and have a reminder set to do it. I am using the apps to help me learn. I am interested to see how this all works as I there appear to be a lot of health benefits to meditation.
It is interesting how easy it becomes to make some pretty major changes when you make little changes a consistent habit. It is also interesting to me how all of these things complement one another in a way that makes them all easier to do. The skills and discipline I developed with the weight loss endeavor have really transferred to other areas of my life in a very good way.4 -
1. My goal for the month of July is to cut back on last night snacking.
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal is to try to be more conscious of size and nutritional value of any snack that I may have.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit is my evening shower.
4. I would like to do my new habit daily.
5. My reward for doing my new habit is better sleep and maybe little weight loss.
6. Receiving support and cheers from the group will help me meet this challenge!
7. The success would be a healthier mind and body by the end of July!3 -
1. My goal for July is to Meal Plan every week and stick to my plan 26/31 days, allowing for those occassional roadblocks.
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal: I will make a meal plan every Saturday and shop for ingredients on Sunday. I will prep for the next day, each previous evening. I will list my dinner plan on the whiteboard for my husband since he cooks dinner the majority of the time.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit: When I get up on Saturday morning and sip coffee while watching the news, I will print a weekly Meal Planner form from Half Size Me site and fill it out.
4. How often will you do your new habit (daily is best if possible): Meal plan weekly, prep daily, pre-log daily.
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit? Closing my Food journal each evening will be a feeling of success. I will close it and smile.
6. What help do you need from us? Support and cheers from this wonderful gruop is always the best help!
7. What does success look like to you at the end of July? I will have a better grasp on what items I mindlessly graze on and a better look at what I am eating on a routine basis. Hoping to be able to lose enough weight to be able to wear my wedding ring again after 7 long years....
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@PackerFanInGB Very nicely constructed plan. Hope all goes well with it this month!1
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@jan110144 Thanks! I am sure going to try! I really wanted to take a page out of your book and do a financial challenge this month like you did. I need to do that so badly, because i know I spend mindlessly and need to stop! But I think I need to do some research before I jump into that one because I truly don't even know where to begin!
It is one of the biggest things that strains my marriage. So, if I can get that under control, it would make not only me happier but my husband also....it would be a life changer! 0 -
PackerFanInGB wrote: »@jan110144 Thanks! I am sure going to try! I really wanted to take a page out of your book and do a financial challenge this month like you did. I need to do that so badly, because i know I spend mindlessly and need to stop! But I think I need to do some research before I jump into that one because I truly don't even know where to begin!
It is one of the biggest things that strains my marriage. So, if I can get that under control, it would make not only me happier but my husband also....it would be a life changer!
You might just start with logging everything you spend during the month ... with the only intent being getting a handle on just where the money goes. If you want to make the "analysis" a bit easier you can create some categories to put them in (e.g. food, utilities, gasoline, entertainment, etc.) Month two, you can just repeat the tracking process or, if you think you know enough, you could create a budget and then track your expenditures against that budget. The process really is a bit like losing weight ... you just have th chip away at it.3 -
Thanks @jan110144 ! I think that is what I will do. See where we spend, what we don't need or use (including subscriptions and memberships), unplanned spontaneous purchases, etc. Creating some categories is what I will do. Maybe on an Excel spreadsheet so I can really see what's going on. I know we are bringing in more than what our savings account says and it's just frustrating--especially since I want to retire in the next 5 or 6 years.
This month I'll do it unofficially, and maybe next month it will be one of my monthly goals.
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I am focusing my art energies this month on diving deeply into portraits. I decided to do something I’ve never done before. Copy the paintings that I love. And then use what I’ve learned on another image to create an original.
So far, I’ve learned a ton. It’s a little tough that I mostly like the copies, but I keep telling myself “you’re only on Say 1, 2, 3,” etc.
I will copy a Master Artist’s portrait 🖼and/or
create an original portrait 🎨each day of July.
If I LOVE how it turned out, I will place a heart after it!
July 1 🖼♥️ 🖼🖼🖼♥️🎨
July 2 🖼🖼♥️🎨(part 1)
July 3 🖼🎨(part 2)♥️
July 4 🖼♥️🖼♥️
I may modify this plan as I feel better & get back into full exercise mode, but so far I’ve had the time to do this & hope to persevere through July 31st!1 -
I am very pleased with how my several different habits are going.
After a year on MFP, my daily logging and exercise and staying within calorie allowance has become pretty habitual and pretty consistent.
About two months ago I started changing my approach to house keeping. I am one of the many people who love a clean and orderly house, but truly dislike house keeping. So, I decided to do it piecemeal. Each morning before I leave for the barn to ride, I to one or two cleaning tasks (today, it was the Master Bath, 'swiftering' the downstairs floors, and cleaning the Powder Room. Tomorrow ... dust the downstairs) This way, each week I clean the entire house without ever having to devote large blocks of time. Am loving this approach and my house has never looked this consistently good!
Last month I started two new habits. The first was to get my financial life to a more healthy spot. I set a budget, log expenditures, and limit unplanned purchases to things that I thoughtfully decide to do. That went well and I will continue that to see if I can begin to make being financially more responsible habitual. I also started a monthly 'small project' list where I have a list of things I need to do and just go to the list when I have some free time and pick one of them. Again, that is working very well and I am getting things done that I have put off or simply forget to do.
This month I am adding a 'me' item. I have been interested in exploring meditation for quite some time. So, I have decided now is the perfect time to start. I have installed two apps (Calm and Headspace) and am experimenting with both to see which I prefer. I have picked shortly after dinner as my meditation time and have a reminder set to do it. I am using the apps to help me learn. I am interested to see how this all works as I there appear to be a lot of health benefits to meditation.
It is interesting how easy it becomes to make some pretty major changes when you make little changes a consistent habit. It is also interesting to me how all of these things complement one another in a way that makes them all easier to do. The skills and discipline I developed with the weight loss endeavor have really transferred to other areas of my life in a very good way.
Such an awesome post, @jan110144! Meditation has changed my life. I use Calm, but I've also heard great things about Headspace. Daily meditation is one of my chief coping strategies in dealing with my Dad's stroke. I've learned I can choose not to follow every thought that pops into my head. And to stay focused on enjoying the present moment. I'm not worried about my Dad per se, as worrying has zero impact on my Dad's recovery. Before having a daily meditation session, I would have worried and worried, lost sleep, and not been as effective in dealing with the situation. Now, I'm well rested and can fully help my family with Dad's recovery.
I couldn't agree more that small changes lead to big impacts and that they tend to complement each other. Losing weight takes discipline, an attribute that has many applications in other areas of our lives!4 -
I am focusing my art energies this month on diving deeply into portraits. I decided to do something I’ve never done before. Copy the paintings that I love. And then use what I’ve learned on another image to create an original.
So far, I’ve learned a ton. It’s a little tough that I mostly like the copies, but I keep telling myself “You’re only on Day 1, 2, 3,” etc.
I will copy a Master Artist’s portrait 🖼and/or
create an original portrait 🎨each day of July.
If I LOVE how it turned out, I will place a heart after it!
July 1 🖼♥️ 🖼🖼🖼♥️🎨
July 2 🖼🖼♥️🎨(part 1)
July 3 🎨(part 2)♥️
July 4 🖼♥️🖼♥️
July 5 🎨+digital♥️
The critical voice keeps popping up, but so far, so good. I see improvement - must persevere!
I may modify this plan as I feel better & get back into full exercise mode, but so far I’ve had the time to do this & hope to persevere through July 31st!2 -
Becoming more habitual ...
Daily house cleaning tasks (to eliminate the need to dedicate large blocks of time to cleaning) going wonderfully. Not sure why I didn't think about this years ago! Also, the 'small project' list is also a winner. I'm actually starting to run out of items to add to the list!
Financial habits also moving forward. Just discovered a leak in my roof upstairs. Roof is 15 years old, so this may be more than a simple repair. :-( Looking at the 'little stuff', I am much more mindful in my spending. I am somewhat surprised at how much I spend at the grocery store, though.
Moving forward with the meditation. I have not found a time of day that feels 'right' yet. Mornings are already pretty crammed, so I have been doing the meditation exercises after dinner. I am thinking that time in the afternoon may be better. So, will experiment with moving from evening to after lunch to see if that feels like a better time. Trying to make sure I pick a time when I can do this consistently.
3 -
My July goal is going great!
- 12 meals are in the freezer, and I’ll take to my sister’s deep freeze today.
- I also got a lot of sewing done.
But the coming week is packed full of commitments, so I’m going to need to push hard to get it done. However, I’ve already added the ingredients for next week’s batch cooking to my shopping list.3 -
MadisonMolly2017 wrote: »I am focusing my art energies this month on diving deeply into portraits. I decided to do something I’ve never done before. Copy the paintings that I love. And then use what I’ve learned on another image to create an original.
So far, I’ve learned a ton. It’s a little tough that I mostly like the copies, but I keep telling myself “You’re only on Day 1, 2, 3,” etc.
I will copy a Master Artist’s portrait 🖼and/or
create an original portrait 🎨each day of July.
If I LOVE how it turned out, I will place a heart after it!
July 1 🖼♥️ 🖼🖼🖼♥️🎨
July 2 🖼🖼♥️🎨(part 1)
July 3 🎨(part 2)♥️
July 4 🖼♥️🖼♥️
July 5 🎨+digital♥️
July 6 Taking on-line class on Portraits l: Shadows & Lights - just what I need!
🎨L🎨R🎨L🎨R🎨L (originals - quick sketches from references with L & R hand, then painted on some!)
Blind contour 🎨L&R (kinda Picasso-Essie - deciding what to do with it - tried some things digitally)
Overlapping images 🎨 4 drawings- half L half R - now working on it with mixed media
The class & the warm Up exercises above extinguished my critical mind. I am going for expression now, not “perfection.”
Much healthier for me.
Ditto going back to not posting them to an art group. Better I venture on this oath without looking frequently for “likes.”
Have a wonderful day, my friends!
♥️💕❣️🍀❗️💕1 -
@MadisonMolly2017 , I shared your goal for the month with my granddaughter who is currently struggling with her art. Thanks2
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@MadisonMolly2017 , I shared your goal for the month with my granddaughter who is currently struggling with her art. Thanks
@77tes That makes me feel great!
Sometimes we have to protect ourselves as we emerge from the cocoon 🦋 2
