This February “I Will” ... Newcomers Start Here
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MadisonMolly2017
Posts: 10,987 Member
Welcome! We are glad you are here!
💙 For information on achieving your goals through tiny habit changes, please Google “BF Fogg.” He has some very short talks < 3 minutes and longer interviews.
The bottom line, habits trump motivation. Tiny habits give us confidence in our ability to be successful in changing our behavior, which leads to more tiny habits, which then leads to success.
The book Atomic Habits by James Clear has been helpful for many members. He also has a free (short) email he sends out every Thursday that ALWAYS has something I find very wise/insightful!
💙 It's a brand new month! What's your favorite part of FEBRUARY?
What healthy habit would you like to work on this month? Is it something new or a continuation of your January focus? Whatever it is, let's dive in and make it happen!
💙 If you are new to our group, welcome! Please let us know what you will be working on and how we can help! Just a suggestion: set a reminder to check-in periodically with us. Check-in daily, weekly, or as often as works for you, but let us know how you are progressing! We're here to support and encourage you, but if you don't post, we can't cheer you on!
💙 You might frame your goal along these lines:
1. My goal for this month (This February 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? (Small positive feedbacks reinforce the habit you are trying to build.) An arm pump, saying “you did it! To yourself, stickers, hugging yourself...
6. What help would you like from us?
7. What does success look like to you at the end of February?
Optional:
Short form for tiny habits:
AFTER I ________________________
I WILL __________________________
Examples:
After I brush my teeth, I will floss one tooth.
After I drink my afternoon coffee, I will put on my walking shoes.
After I put away my breakfast dishes, I will prep 3 servings of vegetables for the day.
After I clean up after dinner, I will plan tomorrow’s dinner & move necessary items from freezer to refrigerator.
After I weigh myself in the morning, I will drink 2 cups of refreshing, cool water.
After I start my coffee brewing, I will stand on each leg for 30 seconds.
You get the idea!
💙What can I do today that will make my Future Self proud?
💙 For information on achieving your goals through tiny habit changes, please Google “BF Fogg.” He has some very short talks < 3 minutes and longer interviews.
The bottom line, habits trump motivation. Tiny habits give us confidence in our ability to be successful in changing our behavior, which leads to more tiny habits, which then leads to success.
The book Atomic Habits by James Clear has been helpful for many members. He also has a free (short) email he sends out every Thursday that ALWAYS has something I find very wise/insightful!
💙 It's a brand new month! What's your favorite part of FEBRUARY?
What healthy habit would you like to work on this month? Is it something new or a continuation of your January focus? Whatever it is, let's dive in and make it happen!
💙 If you are new to our group, welcome! Please let us know what you will be working on and how we can help! Just a suggestion: set a reminder to check-in periodically with us. Check-in daily, weekly, or as often as works for you, but let us know how you are progressing! We're here to support and encourage you, but if you don't post, we can't cheer you on!
💙 You might frame your goal along these lines:
1. My goal for this month (This February 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? (Small positive feedbacks reinforce the habit you are trying to build.) An arm pump, saying “you did it! To yourself, stickers, hugging yourself...
6. What help would you like from us?
7. What does success look like to you at the end of February?
Optional:
Short form for tiny habits:
AFTER I ________________________
I WILL __________________________
Examples:
After I brush my teeth, I will floss one tooth.
After I drink my afternoon coffee, I will put on my walking shoes.
After I put away my breakfast dishes, I will prep 3 servings of vegetables for the day.
After I clean up after dinner, I will plan tomorrow’s dinner & move necessary items from freezer to refrigerator.
After I weigh myself in the morning, I will drink 2 cups of refreshing, cool water.
After I start my coffee brewing, I will stand on each leg for 30 seconds.
You get the idea!
💙What can I do today that will make my Future Self proud?
4
Replies
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I'm going to try this AGAIN. 😛
My goals for February are:- To track and TAKE my medication daily.
- To increase my water intake. I'll start slowly by filling a three-cup water bottle each morning and making sure I drink it by the end of the day. The bottle will stay in the refrigerator.
- The third thing that I'm not remembering at the moment???
4 -
Please head to the Chalkenges & look for this post. We’d love to have your thoughts there!
It looks like this:
2 -
So is everyone ready for February?!! In light of the decluttering fest also going on I am going to take a look at ALL my habits and declutter them. Which habits are beneficial and are leading to more health, energy and happiness? Which habits are just added on and routines which no longer serve the original purpose and need to be reviewed? At work we normally have a team of folks who are not involved in the process who map each process looking for waste or better ways to approach. But I don't think I can sign up the cats to be partial judges. they already feel I do not clean their box or keep their dishes full enough!
Recent habits over the past 6 months since i joined this group which I have carried over:
Jan - continue teeth care add face and bed prep
Dec - tooth brushing
Nov - photo organizing in detail and flash driving
Oct - extra weight training, photo favoriting and organizing
Sept - worked on rehab from injury and maintaining
Aug - get off the roller coaster and 800 cal burn daily on Apple watch
4 -
@SummerSkier Your cats look smart enough to judge, but they'll let you do the talking for them, I'm sure. Reflecting on which habits make a difference in our life is a great idea. We probably need to "Find our why" when picking a habit, keeping it, or letting it fall by the wayside, like what you said.
I recently threw out my goal sheets but some of the habits that have carried through over time are:
Drink a glass of water from my coffee cup before putting coffee in it,
Take vitamins,
Read at least 10 pages of a physical book every day,
Fill out daily intentions page first thing when I go upstairs,
Hydrate - Lotion 2X/day (current)
THE one thing that has helped maintain these are that they have a trigger. The action is linked to a previous action. For example, when I go upstairs, I do my intentions page at my desk (table), then I immediately read the news, then my email, then check MFP. Like clock-work.
I'm still pondering my next move. Can't be too hard or it feels like a burden and I feel resentful and resistance sets in. Then I just white knuckle it until the end of the month which is no fun! And not that productive.
Tiny habits...one at a time...build on the last.
Can't wait to see what everyone will be up to next month!4 -
💙 It's a brand new month! What's your favorite part of FEBRUARY? My favorite part of February is looking at Gardening catalogs and dreaming/planning my spring garden and flowers. This year I think I'm going to start some of my plants from seed.
February Goals
I think I can move to another goal this month, since getting up earlier is going well. This month I am going to focus on being intentionally active at least 15 minutes per day. I really need to do this, and I really am not an exerciser so this will be tough for me. But it's important.
1. This February I will... get 15 minutes of intentional activity per day.
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal. After washing supper dishes, I will slip on my shoes, go downstairs and pick an activity. I will set the alarm on my phone for 15 minutes. I will do one of the following: Body Groove videos, Leslie Sansone Walk A Mile video, Yoga DVD, Tai Chi DVD, walk on treadmill, play game on the Wii, etc.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit: Washing supper dishes.
4. How often will you do your new habit (daily is best if possible). Daily I hope. If the knee pain becomes too intense, I will either take a break or do Gentle Chair Yoga video that day.
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit? My reward will be the evening wind down of taking a shower or bath and getting my pj's on. Also adding a checkmark in my Habit Tracker.
6. What help would you like from us? Ideas of non-impact cardio would be awesome! I have bone-on-bone arthritis in my right knee and it makes it tough to stick to exercise!
7. What does success look like to you at the end of February? Success will look like 24/28 days marked off on my Habit Tracker. Perhaps my waist feeling a bit looser in my jeans?
Key
Treadmill: 🏃🏻♀️ Yoga/Tai Chi: 🧘🏻♀️ Leslie Sansone: 🚶🏻♀️ Wii Fit: 🏓 Body Groove Dancing: 🎵
64 oz water: 🥤 Up by 0800: 😎
1/31: 😎🥤🎵
3 -
PackerFanInGB wrote: »💙 It's a brand new month! What's your favorite part of FEBRUARY? My favorite part of February is looking at Gardening catalogs and dreaming/planning my spring garden and flowers. This year I think I'm going to start some of my plants from seed.
February Goals
I think I can move to another goal this month, since getting up earlier is going well. This month I am going to focus on being intentionally active at least 15 minutes per day. I really need to do this, and I really am not an exerciser so this will be tough for me. But it's important.
1. This February I will... get 15 minutes of intentional activity per day.
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal. After washing supper dishes, I will slip on my shoes, go downstairs and pick an activity. I will set the alarm on my phone for 15 minutes. I will do one of the following: Body Groove videos, Leslie Sansone Walk A Mile video, Yoga DVD, Tai Chi DVD, walk on treadmill, play game on the Wii, etc.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit: Washing supper dishes.
4. How often will you do your new habit (daily is best if possible). Daily I hope. If the knee pain becomes too intense, I will either take a break or do Gentle Chair Yoga video that day.
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit? My reward will be the evening wind down of taking a shower or bath and getting my pj's on. Also adding a checkmark in my Habit Tracker.
6. What help would you like from us? Ideas of non-impact cardio would be awesome! I have bone-on-bone arthritis in my right knee and it makes it tough to stick to exercise!
7. What does success look like to you at the end of February? Success will look like 24/28 days marked off on my Habit Tracker. Perhaps my waist feeling a bit looser in my jeans?
Key
Treadmill: 🏃🏻♀️ Yoga/Tai Chi: 🧘🏻♀️ Leslie Sansone: 🚶🏻♀️ Wii Fit: 🏓 Body Groove Dancing: 🎵
64 oz water: 🥤 Up by 0800: 😎
1/31: 😎🥤🎵
Sounds like another awesome plan, @PackerFaninGB!
The only exercise I can think of is swimming but with CIVID hard to do.
Maybe tai chi? I here it is great for brain & body. Ah I see you have that!
Looks like you are all set💖2 -
@PackerFanInGB , I’d love to get into gardening, but I’m pretty ignorant. Here, things grow well if they get enough water, but for some weird reason Southern Californians don’t garden much and haven’t since I was a kid.😕
1. This February I will.declutter at least 5 minutes 6/7 days per week.
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal, before I read I’ll tackle one clutter “hot spot.”
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit
4. How often will you do your new habit 6/7 days (I like to take Sunday off).
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit?
6. What help would you like from us? Cheer me on
7. What does success look like to you at the end of February? Several hot spots will be cleared and tidy.
Hot Spots
Parents Estates File
Photo Box
Bedroom bookshelf
Sewing drawers
Today I worked on the Estate File.
4 -
February Goals
This month I am going to focus on being intentionally active at least 15 minutes per day. I really need to do this, and I really am not an exerciser so this will be tough for me. But it's important.1. This February I will... get 15 minutes of intentional activity per day.
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal. After washing supper dishes, I will slip on my shoes, go downstairs and pick an activity. I will set the alarm on my phone for 15 minutes. I will do one of the following: Body Groove videos, Leslie Sansone Walk A Mile video, Yoga DVD, Tai Chi DVD, walk on treadmill, play game on the Wii, etc.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit: Washing supper dishes.
4. How often will you do your new habit (daily is best if possible). Daily I hope. If the knee pain becomes too intense, I will either take a break or do Gentle Chair Yoga video that day.
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit? My reward will be the evening wind down of taking a shower or bath and getting my pj's on. Also adding a checkmark in my Habit Tracker.
6. What help would you like from us? Ideas of non-impact cardio would be awesome! I have bone-on-bone arthritis in my right knee and it makes it tough to stick to exercise!
7. What does success look like to you at the end of February? Success will look like 24/28 days marked off on my Habit Tracker. Perhaps my waist feeling a bit looser in my jeans?
Key
Treadmill: 🏃🏻♀️ Yoga/Tai Chi: 🧘🏻♀️ Leslie Sansone: 🚶🏻♀️ Wii Fit: 🏓 Body Groove Dancing: 🎵
64 oz water: 🥤 Up by 0800: 😎
1/31: 😎🥤🎵
2/1: 😎🥤🚶🏻♀️
3 -
@PackerFanInGB , I’d love to get into gardening, but I’m pretty ignorant. Here, things grow well if they get enough water, but for some weird reason Southern Californians don’t garden much and haven’t since I was a kid.😕
If I lived in Southern California, I probably wouldn't garden either! You must see green year round, I'm guessing? In Wisconsin, by February I am so sick of snow and brown leafless trees that starting seeds in little containers in the house gives me a peak into spring...I think that's why I love it! :flowerforyou:MadisonMolly2017 wrote: »
Sounds like another awesome plan, @PackerFaninGB!
The only exercise I can think of is swimming but with CIVID hard to do.
Maybe tai chi? I here it is great for brain & body. Ah I see you have that!
Looks like you are all set💖
Swimming is what I would really like to be able to do. When they finally lift the bans in Wisconsin, I plan to look into a membership to the Y so I can do water aerobics or even just water walking. I think it would do my joints a lot of good, as well as everywhere else in my body!
3 -
I will use the Short form for my tiny habits this month:
AFTER I __finish what routinely needs to get done in the morning__
I WILL __start decluttering/ spring cleaning for the February Declutterfest this month!! __
I am going to also declutter what I was keeping track of on my experimental paper tracker the last two months, and simplify it. I will focus on only a few for February. It became overwhelming after a while to track so many, but I did it at first to see how I was doing on past habits, and then because it started out to be fun coloring in the squares 🤣📊🌈 👀. so many colors and not enough habits to track 😁🥴😵 to be really colorful. Each habit had its special color 😉. I haven't made a final decision yet. But I think I know what will end up on it. Only two, or three, at the most 👍😊 this month.
For my tracker here I will continue to track paper tiger and regular decluttering again as I have been doing, as well as adding February's Declutterfest. I have to continue with papers and what I have been doing.
Declutterfest's 🦋 will only include the specific Declutterfest area .
Paper Tiger 🐯 = file cabinet/ old papers
🌿🐯🌳 = hidden papers (such as found on book shelves or in drawers/closets)
📄📬 = new paper and/ or mail
🧩📚 = stuff
💻📱 = digital
🦋 Declutterfest (because the areas will transform into a much nicer place)
🤠🌺1 -
Love reading all your thoughts and plans!
Feb 1 = M 🌟, W 🌟
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Feb 1 = M 🌟, W 🌟
Feb 2 = M 🌟, W 🌟2 -
I must admit that I am not feeling the love for Feb habits or decluttering this week. Not sure what's up with that. I made a small decision for Feb to just have a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast every day. period. Nothing earth shaking. Our family and me always have high #s for cholesterol so this keeps the GOOD #s up. Easy enough to add 100 cals..
Summer2 -
@SummerSkier I think that the earth shook just the right amount for what direction you are taking your habit in. Eating oatmeal is a great habit to choose for February... and so yummy 😋🥣.
🤠🌺1 -
February 1: 📄📬, 🦋
February 2: 📄📬, 🦋
🤠🌺1 -
@SummerSkier
Great plan!
Totally worked, as I’m pretty sure I posted, for ALL of my cholesterol numbers. My doc says they can come down 20 pts. What I didn’t realize was how much it would elevate my HDL.
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My I Will:
I will eat at least one serving of veggies or fruit at each meal (and snack)!
✅Feb 1
B:🍎 L: unsweetened applesauce
S: radishes
cherry tomatoes 🍅 & onion 🧅
✅Feb 2 B: 🍎 L: pplesauce
S: carrots Large Greek 🥗 (lettuce tomatoes green-onion red pepper lemon juice)
2 -
Feb 1 = M 🌟, W 🌟
Feb 2 = M 🌟, W 🌟
Feb 3 = M 🌟, W 🌟
Nice work, people! @SummerSkier, I like the oatmeal idea. 🌞1 -
OK, call me a copy cat, @SummerSkier! I hadn't even thought about using oatmeal as a goal until you posted yours. However, I had been told by my dr on Tuesday (was that just yesterday?) that I should increase my fiber intake and he mentioned oatmeal. So I went home and found Pinterest pins for overnight oatmeal recipes and got some advice from my daughter on how she makes it. Then today, I read your goal and "ding" (darn it, no bell icon or light bulb)! Thanks for the idea.
I like the oatmeal packets, but I had never in my life made oatmeal from scratch until this morning. What an adventure! Just oatmeal and milk was pretty bland so I added a little brown sugar. Meh, still nothing so I added cinnamon and a packet of stevia, and it was pretty good. I can get used to that and make do without the brown sugar.
1. This February I will... eat a bowl of oatmeal every day.
2. The small actions I’ll be taking to accomplish this goal. Have overnight oats ready in the frig if I don't want to make it fresh every day.
3. The trigger or cue to remember to do my habit: Post my last cholesterol numbers on the mirror along with projected numbers if I behave myself:#
4. How often will you do your new habit (daily is best if possible). Every day.
5. What reward will you immediately give yourself for doing your habit?
6. What help would you like from us? I have never kept track of fiber intake so I don't know what's considered a good amount to get each day. Dr. said ultimate goal is 25 but I shouldn't worry about getting that much. Any suggestions are welcome.
7. What does success look like to you at the end of February? I will feel that I'm consistently doing one thing to improve my cholesterol levels and overall health.3 -
I add blueberries and cinnamon.2
