WEEK TWO “I Will”: March 8 - 14, 2021
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themedalist
Posts: 3,215 Member
Hi Everyone!
Let’s continue our march into March with our Week 2 challenge!
Rather than setting an “I Will” for the month, let’s set a weekly “I Will.” Week 1 was a rousing success! Let’s keep the ball rolling.
At the end of the week, you can assess how it went. Then keep the same plan or modify your plan & commit to whichever you decide for the next 7 days.
Why?
* Sometimes, we get further into the month, and we get a little bored or our enthusiasm flags.
* Sometimes we realize there is something more important that we need to focus upon.
* Sometimes, we’ve mastered the new habit in the first week or two!
Let’s give it a try!!
🌸Maddie & 🌼Denise
@MadisonMolly2017 & @themedalist
Newcomers! 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 MARCH?
What healthy habit would you like to work on this WEEK? Is it something new or a continuation of your February 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 WEEK, 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 this WEEK?
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 (and this week) that will make my Future Self proud?
TRACKERS can HELP establish your new habits. Some of us do these on paper (even coloring them as an additional reward), and some use fun emoticons 🎉❤️🍎 in their posts to track.
Here’s a site with a bunch of paper trackers.
https://thepetiteplanner.com/21-free-printable-habit-trackers/
There also seem to be quite a few free apps for phones that will help you track your habits.
Of course, you don’t need to use any tracking system.
😃😃
Let’s continue our march into March with our Week 2 challenge!
Rather than setting an “I Will” for the month, let’s set a weekly “I Will.” Week 1 was a rousing success! Let’s keep the ball rolling.
At the end of the week, you can assess how it went. Then keep the same plan or modify your plan & commit to whichever you decide for the next 7 days.
Why?
* Sometimes, we get further into the month, and we get a little bored or our enthusiasm flags.
* Sometimes we realize there is something more important that we need to focus upon.
* Sometimes, we’ve mastered the new habit in the first week or two!
Let’s give it a try!!
🌸Maddie & 🌼Denise
@MadisonMolly2017 & @themedalist
Newcomers! 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 MARCH?
What healthy habit would you like to work on this WEEK? Is it something new or a continuation of your February 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 WEEK, 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 this WEEK?
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 (and this week) that will make my Future Self proud?
TRACKERS can HELP establish your new habits. Some of us do these on paper (even coloring them as an additional reward), and some use fun emoticons 🎉❤️🍎 in their posts to track.
Here’s a site with a bunch of paper trackers.
https://thepetiteplanner.com/21-free-printable-habit-trackers/
There also seem to be quite a few free apps for phones that will help you track your habits.
Of course, you don’t need to use any tracking system.
😃😃
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Replies
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Happy New Week, Everyone!
I am rolling over my focus from last week: to drink more water. Instead of pouring a cup of coffee or hot tea right away, I will first have a drink of water. The desire for a cup of coffee or tea is the cue to have some water first.3 -
Thank you Denise! I love the photo and am copying it over for my photo file.
I forgot to mention what I love about March and that would be the return on my Purple Martins. Many people wonder why I do not upgrade my house windows from the old single pane drafty ones I have now to energy efficient double panes. Well the reason is that I can HEAR my Purple Martins singing and gurgling in March - Jul. Even with the windows closed. They are such a joy to manage (I have a colony with 12 gourds) and I feel like altho I do not contribute a lot to society it is my way of giving back to nature for all the wonder and beauty she provides to me.
My one habit for this week that I am going to work on is doing one household chore daily, I have sadly fallen down in this respect since last year and need to up my game. So writing down the chores I will do and not getting lost in the weeds here I go. (please don't laugh at them)
Sun: Remove all the dead vines from my porch and reset the lights
Monday 8 March: Vacuum the living and dining room
Tuesday 9 March: Vacuum the bedroom
Wed 10 March: Vacuum Savannah's room and the kitty hallway
Thur 11 March: Change and wash bed linens
Friday 12 March: Sweep and scrub Kitchen floor
Sat 13 March: Vaccuum corners and nooks in Kitchen
Sun 14 March: Dust
Now I understand that most normal people do these all the time day in and day out. But I follow the Ann Richard's (previous Gov of Texas) train of thought on housework.. so to me I have to actually deliberately set these small tasks up in order to actually do them.
What will trigger these actions. Coming here to hold myself accountable
What will be the reward: being DONE at the end of the week!!!!!
What do I need from the group: understanding and support
bON
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@SummerSkier, I really like your focus for this week. Few people enjoy house cleaning and I think that’s because it’s a pretty big task. Breaking it up into bite-size pieces makes it easier. You’re not trying to do it all at once, just a little bit every day. Bravo!3
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I’ll continue my vitamin D goal (Health) by taking an extra vit D tablet and getting more sunshine, and hook another goal to it. I think that’s called habit stacking. My camera is always by the door and I will pick it up and put it in my pocket every time I go out for some sun. That way I can work on my practice photography goal (Learn). And I’ll be looking for birds to photograph so it will fit another goal of bird identification (Learn). There are spring birds singing already🙂. No Martins here though😕4
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I’ll continue my vitamin D goal (Health) by taking an extra vit D tablet and getting more sunshine, and hook another goal to it. I think that’s called habit stacking. My camera is always by the door and I will pick it up and put it in my pocket every time I go out for some sun. That way I can work on my practice photography goal (Learn). And I’ll be looking for birds to photograph so it will fit another goal of bird identification (Learn). There are spring birds singing already🙂. No Martins here though😕
@nebslp I love this & your deep
Thinking on your goals shows!1 -
I’m continuing my 2100 cal, split meal plan.
3/6 & 3/7 perfect with no cravings (actually decreased hunger) by the 2nd day.
Kept busy with the art studio refresh.
And a long, long walk!3 -
Sun task complete. Vacuum already out and staged for today
I realize part of why I stopped this habit was that I was no longer doing a walk mid morning. In the past I was doing the cleaning after I returned from my walk. This has to do with having more work meetings all morning long and instead going for a second run at lunch to maximize effort.
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Checking in. I am continuing with last week's goal of logging into a tracker.
The picture of the flower is so pretty. I can't wait to see flowers again. It feels like it has been a long cold winter.4 -
Just checking in.... I like that some are continuing their efforts from week one!
Sun: Remove all the dead vines from my porch and reset the lights.
that was a bigger task than expected. wow. I had to split it up and do it in a few sessions.
Monday 8 March: Vacuum the living and dining room
I managed only the living room and the hallway started. The dining room required more prep moving things around so I could do a decent job so I am going to reschedule things a little bit.
Tuesday 9 March: Vacuum the bedroom dining room
Wed 10 March: Vacuum Savannah's room and the kitty hallway around litter box better
Thur 11 March: Change and wash bed linens (also getting my hair done. It's been almost 6 months!!!!)
Friday 12 March: Vacuum the bedroom (always best to do after I change the linens due to flying feathers)
Sat 13 March: Vacuum Kitchen
Sun 14 March: Vacuum any left over areas and Dust3 -
]I’m continuing my 2100 cal, split meal plan.
3/6 & 3/7 perfect with no cravings (actually decreased hunger) by the 2nd day.
Kept busy with the art studio refresh.
And a long, long walk![/quote]
3/8 Perfect Day
A bit hungrier than the other days but likely due to earlier awakening & I learned if I begin my day earlier (esp with a 2-hour walk) I need to adjust the meal times!
Feeling healthy. Spent time actually making with beads & sequins.3 -
@SummerSkier What a pretty porch you have! Now that you figured out what changed for you with your schedule, you can just tweak things a little and you can still get everything done. Great goal! My cleaning "schedule" is very loose! How bad is it? Guess it's been awhile since I (fill in the blank) so maybe I should ... It can get bad! But the dishes are always done
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@SummerSkier What a pretty porch you have! Now that you figured out what changed for you with your schedule, you can just tweak things a little and you can still get everything done. Great goal! My cleaning "schedule" is very loose! How bad is it? Guess it's been awhile since I (fill in the blank) so maybe I should ... It can get bad! But the dishes are always done
yeah - I have basics that ALWAYS get done - like cleaning up dishes and cleaning up after the cats but the other stuff tends to be too loose. My week 2 is stretching out a bit because even breaking it down into specfic areas I am having to be very thorough to get it done. And with 5 kitties well I probably SHOULD vacuum every day. I am sure I could fill up the container....
But I always feel a lot better with a bit cleaner house and if I could ever get it organized AND clean I think I could keep it that way easily. Just getting there after 30 years in the same house is crazy difficult.1 -
My reworded and revised short form for my tiny habit during week two:
AFTER I: finish up things that need to get done first, and hopefully before starting something new or random that pops into my brain, or at least when I realize that is what I did....
I WILL: continue working on updating the new paper telephone book.
(After the paper phone book finally gets finished, I will update my phone's contact list information with only what might serve me better by being included in my phone contact information.
Then.... after the above is completed the next part of this plan is that I will get back to other papers in the 'old paper', or 'more difficult to deal with paper tiger' categories, that I still need to just finally finish them all. This will also still be separate from the paper maintenance that I still do nearly every day, or easier paper, or even looking for hidden paper which is mostly easy to deal with when discovered.
This will be for any paper that I am just not getting to for any number of reasons, or seem to have real or perceived roadblocks to just getting them finished and/ or started. Or may require multiple actions that need to be done first 🙄.
💥🐯💥
🤠🌺1 -
I will continue to log as I did in week one:
March 7: Rest day
March 8: 💥🐯💥
March 9: 💥🐯💥
Last week, on Saturday, March 6th, at the end of week one I wrote the following: "It will be easier when I get to the next older book and papers as many things won't be relevant anymore, and also because I will have the current information already entered."
Well, this must've been hovering in the background of my mind, because on Monday, March 8 I suddenly had the thought that why not go through all of the old phone books, church directories, and any other papers/ menus etc in the drawer now. In other words instead of working from the newest to the oldest, go through everything in the drawer from the oldest to the newest.
And so I did. Anything in any of the old books that was still relevant, current, or needed to be verified I simply cut out of the books and put these papers into the front of the 'newest' of the 'outdated' book that I had been working on.
In doing it this way I effectively eliminated all of the visual clutter that had remained in the drawer, and I will now be working on transferring only what appears to be current, or verified into what will now be the only book in the drawer.
The addition of these extra pieces of paper seems so much less work to be done than still needing to go through what had remained in the drawer. Now it is only the matter of transcribing and/or verifying some of the older information while continuing to finishing up only one older book.
🤠🌺1 -
@SummerSkier your week two I will looks very doable, and a good way to get your weekly housekeeping jobs done. I really like your beautiful porch also!
@themedalist yes, that was such a lovely picture that you used in the first post!
I enjoyed reading all of the posted week two plans shared so far! And of course gleaned new ideas and thoughts to think about this week.
🤠🌺1 -
@texasgardnr WOW!!!! I am totally impressed with your change in approach. It seems like in one HUGE swath you have made about 90% progress by consolidating.
Progress continues this week and the more I do, the more I get done. LOL.
Tuesday 9 March: Vacuum dining room
DONE and that involved moving a lot of cat scratch pads under the table and such. I also decided to revisit the front porch area and bought some more permanent lights which come on a string. I will be working to hang those this weekend I think. And much easier to replace single bulbs in them vs having to cut down old Xmas light strings when they quit.
Wed 10 March: Vacuum Savannah's room and the kitty hallway around litter box better
Done. And this task grew to be a clean up of the closet cat box area which I haven't done in a couple years. Amazing how much litter builds up in there. I have a lot of catch carpets in there so it's not too hard to do, just a lot of dust and moving things around.
Thur 11 March: Change and wash bed linens (also getting my hair done. It's been almost 6 months!!!!)
Friday 12 March: Vacuum the bedroom (always best to do after I change the linens due to flying feathers) adding to this my handyman is coming and is going to fix the faucets and toilet which I have been living with for over a year now... I will also ask him to help reset some of the blinds/curtains which have pulled out of the wall. He's actually my AC/Furnace guy but I love he is small business and doesn't overcharge. He is a talker tho....
Sat 13 March: Vacuum Kitchen
Sun 14 March: Vacuum any left over areas and Dust
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@SummerSkier Thanks! Yes, indeed, it does seem, AND it also looks like, I took a huge chunk out of the paper, as well as the actual work, of the phone book updating task!
You nailed it for Tuesday and Wednesday's planned cleaning list!! Well done 👍😸!!
At the moment the phone book drawer currently has no paper in it 😏. Only the tools, and the small box with business cards and timers, tape measure and some small miscellaneous items that live in the box. Another day I will tidy up the drawer just to make sure there is nothing that slipped in unnoticed. Or if anything can be decluttered or relocated now. We have not had a 'junk' drawer in the kitchen for many years. But this drawer was the closest one to looking like it was one with all the phone books stuffed in there 😵🥴.
Week two 'I Will' :
March 7: Rest day
March 8: 💥🐯💥
March 9: 💥🐯💥
March 10: 💥🐯💥
🤠🌺2 -
I’m continuing my 2100 cal, split meal plan.
3/6 & 3/7 ✅✅perfect with no cravings (actually decreased hunger) by the 2nd day.
Kept busy with the art studio refresh.
And a long, long walk!
3/8 ✅Perfect Day
A bit hungrier than the other days but likely due to earlier awakening & I learned if I begin my day earlier (esp with a 2-hour walk) I need to adjust the meal times!
Feeling healthy. Spent time actually making with beads & sequins.
3/9 ✅ beading, sorting beads, friends
Bedtime “mouth” hunger. Got a fizzy water & went upstairs. Woke up not hungry at all until my bedtime.
3/10✅ Sorting beads, friends, art group
Same bedtime “mouth hunger” actually withstood it much of evening. Saltier lunch/dinner. Fizzy water. Ignored it. My calories were used.
5-day calorie average: 2,100❣️
2100, 2100, 2098, 2099, 2103
I have not really hit a set calorie target for a long time. I’d shoot for a range.
I’m actually really liking the idea of a set number now.And spreading the food out over the day is working well too.
Made spaghetti tonight & just cooked 2 servings for us. No worries about eating extra! One serving was actually too much -surprisingly. I think the smaller meals are “shrinking my stomach”1 -
Maddie, I assume you have done TDEE charts to see what your cal intake is over time if you level load?
I really liked this version and input my info in it for many months.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7gGXXQIy4R4ejRRNkZHZHFDOW8/view
Eating at a fixed calorie level is quite enjoyable. Esp when you can increase it over time.
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