Spring Ahead to Better Habits in April
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I made it! 😀 Thank you @77tes
My habit for April is to increase my dental hygiene. I am pretty decent about spot flossing and water pik at least 1 time a day and brushing 2x but our teeth are so precious I want to get in the habit of total floss 2 X per day and waterpic 2x also. My trigger for these will be after lunch and after dinner. And if I have time during my morning brush routine as well. My reward will be dental health! So worth it for me of the not so great genes on tooth decay. 😔
looking forward to getting to know the group and enjoying this month’s poetry. Which honestly is the highlight for me and stays with me all day. 💯😍😍
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I didn't set anything for April, so...
Walking through April with a spring in my step!
1. This April, I will walk more and get back to healthier eating.
2. The small, actionable steps I plan to take towards this goal are to find reasons to go outside, like taking things to the recycling bins, or going to see how the greenery and blossoms are springing to life in the park. For healthier eating, I'll pre-fill my daily snack-stacks with a breakfast porridge-drink and fruit, nuts and seeds. I'll also clear the kitchen of clutter, clean out the fridge and buy healthier ingredients and have soup regularly.
3. My reminder or cue to keep up with my habit is, when I find myself scrolling, or getting too comfortable doing nothing, I'll fill a bag with rubbish and get outside. Foodwise, I'll clean and clear to prevent lazy eating.
5. My reward for maintaining the habit will be to listen to a song I like.
6. How can we support you? Share a song or tune you like, whether upbeat, melodic, inspiring or fun.
7. What will success look like at the end of April? I'll feel fitter and less sluggish.
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Walking through April with a spring in my step!
After a good walk in the park with a friend on Sunday, I felt good on Monday. I also ate fairly well both days and had soup for dinner.
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Sympathy
By Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
I KNOW what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals —
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting —
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings —
I know why the caged bird sings!April 8 poem
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Way to go @77tes!
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@SummerSkier , so glad that you have joined the group!
I love your goal for the month. Dental Hygiene is super important. I think it’s B.J. Fogg in TinyHabits who uses flossing one tooth as an example of a tiny habit.@BodyTalking , Your plan for getting outside is a great idea. Take out the rubbish to get off your couch,brilliant! I really appreciate your photo and video. I take photos and include them in my daily journaling. Celebrating with a song is such a fun way to pat yourself on the back.
@Interbeing , thanks for cheering me on!
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Miles in April: 32.8
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🪷💐🌺
April 8 - I walked 3.4 miles before lunch since it was my day to meet up with my Curves friends at the park.
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haha. I like the one tooth idea. I have progressed to doing 1/4 mouth at a time but I mean it does not even take more than a minute or two to floss so if I can’t make the time for that I deserve the 2 hr dentist drill appt right?
It’s nice to be back and to chat about habits here. @77tes the poem was sad today but deeply moving. Thank you for sharing. Easy to mistake joyful singing for hopeful praying. 🙏
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Lines and Squares
by A. A. Milne
Whenever I walk in a London street,
I'm ever so careful to watch my feet;
And I keep in the squares,
And the masses of bears,
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who tread on the lines of the street
Go back to their lairs,
And I say to them, "Bears,
Just look how I'm walking in all the squares!"And the little bears growl to each other, "He's mine,
As soon as he's silly and steps on a line."
And some of the bigger bears try to pretend
That they came round the corner to look for a friend;
And they try to pretend that nobody cares
Whether you walk on the lines or squares.
But only the sillies believe their talk;
It's ever so portant how you walk.
And it's ever so jolly to call out, "Bears,
Just watch me walking in all the squares!"A fun poem for April 9
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@SummerSkier , whoa, trading a minute of flossing for hours in the dentist’s chair is definitely motivating! Years ago I was dealing with receding gums and had to do those long scaling sessions every 3 months. That got me motivated to up my dental hygiene routine! In fact, after reading your post, I’m going to floss right away.
Miles in April: 35.5🌸🌻 🪻🌷🌼
🪷💐🌺🥀
April 8 - I walked 3.4 miles before lunch since it was my day to meet up with my Curves friends at the park.
April 9 - I got in a mile before breakfast!
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@77tes hahahah.. Step on a crack, break your mother's back…. Step on a line, break your mother's spine. I think those childhood changes came from the poem.
As far as the receeding gums. Really the waterpik and the flossing together saved me from having to do those deep cleaning scalings. (I also think my dentist just got a new machine and was trying to sign everyone up at that time). But I am continuing on and even tho the habit reminder was eating lunch and dinner I find that if I do it when I think about it or am in the bathroom, that also helps to get extras done.
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Walking through April with a spring in my step!
I haven't done very well at getting myself moving this week but today till Sunday is when it'll be more important because I'll be at home more than Mon to Wed. I've done okay with steps but would like to get more, so I'll start the day with an upbeat, happy tune.
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It’s been a busy week and I haven’t made time for my workouts, and the last 3 days I’ve been out on the production floor, so no extra water either. On the plus side, I’ve reached my goal weight.
4/6 - 2 mile walk4/7 - 1 mile walk
4/8 - 1.5 mile walk
4/9 - No tracker
Sometimes you get off track, but it’s temporary. Keep up the great work everyone!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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🏃♀️💃🧘♀️🏋️♀️🌱🏋️♀️🧘♀️💃🏃♀️
🏃♀️💃 APRIL 2025 💃🏃♀️
🏃♀️💃🧘♀️🏋️♀️🌱🏋️♀️🧘♀️💃🏃♀️📍Personal Stats:
Terri, in Northern Ireland: age 78: 5’2”
- Working on strength/stamina/flexibility
- All my stats are in the normal range for my age/height.
- Weight < 140: Fat% < 22%: Muscle% > 27%
- CI < CO
- Steps > 5,500; Fitbit Zone Minutes, >150 per week
- Intentional exercise > 50 mins daily
- Active hours > 6 daily
📍Weight Stats
- SW: 227 lbs: UGW: 140 lbs
- Aug 2017: Started maintaining < 155 lbs
- Continued to drop slowly
- Nov 2019: Final maintenance range 130 < 140
- April 2025: maintaining under 140
📍April 2025 Focus:
My aim is to maintain health and fitness by developing/consolidating supportive Solid Habits. Working on stamina this month.
🔹Consolidation of habits Focus:
I am doing > 10 minutes HIIT > 3 times per week
Wk1🏃🏼♀️➡️🏃🏼♀️➡️🏃🏼♀️➡️🏃🏼♀️➡️: Wk2 🏃🏼♀️➡️🏃🏼♀️➡️ Wk3. : Wk4 : Wk5 :🔹Maintenance 130 < 140
Wk1:👌 Wk2: Wk3: Wk4: Wk5:📍Daily Solid Habits: I like to frame my aims in positive terms.
♦️Food
* log All food and drink; stay under goal; balance macros/micros; Hydrate adequately; limit ‘empty’ snacks♦️Exercise:
- 5,500+ Steps daily; 50 + minutes intentional exercise; Fitbit Zone Minutes > 200 per week
♦️Mind/Body/Soul/Spirit
- Daily Mindfulness Practice/Meditation
- Practice Self-care
- Positively reframe thoughts
- Learn something new
- Communicate
- Create/adapt positive habits
- Puzzles/Art/Craft/Write/Read
- 15 mins Daily Declutter session
THERE ARE NO QUICK FIXES OR SHORTCUTS to achieving permanent change.
🔹REMINDERS: One or two thoughts which might give heart to some of you.
- Daily weight fluctuations are [b]normal, [/b]and can be more than 2 lbs a day for no apparent reason.
- A general downward trend is what we are looking for. Eating out can cause apparent weight gain because of high sodium levels, but usually goes quickly. Drinking extra water helps with this.
- The human body does [b]not [/b]react instantly to what we do to it. Sometimes it can take several days to see results.
- Plateaus are a normal part of the process. The body is consolidating and adapting to your new way of eating/exercising.
- The closer you get to your goal weight, the more difficult it becomes to lose weight, as your body becomes more efficient at using what you feed it.
- When you exercise you build muscle, which takes up less space than fat, so use measurements as well as weight to assess your progress.
- Getting/Staying fit and healthy requires a lifestyle change for most people.
👍Stick with the process. It DOES work! But it does take time, effort, and most of all, patience!👌
Terri 🏃🏼♀️
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Well said @TerriRichardson112 !
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A. E. Housman. 1859– 1936
"Loveliest of Trees"
LOVELIEST of trees, the cherry nowIs hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
April 10 poem
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My favorites are the cherry and apple trees.
This year did not disappoint!
I have decided to change the trigger for my habit to 2 things. One is when I am in the bathroom and 2 is to keep floss available in the car, at work and kitchen so it is easy to pick it up. I have graduated from 1 tooth to 1/4 mouth when I am just "fitting it in" but really I should do all the places. It is not like any single tooth is more valuable.
@TerriRichardson112 I love your habit to increase your stamina at 78. I find so many seem to write off getter "BETTER" when we are past a certain age. My focus for the entire year has been to change my attitude. For years I gave in to the after 60 the best you can hope for is to hold the course idea. Now I have taken the approach that you are NEVER too old to improve. YOu might have to go slower to get there but the sky is the limit!
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@BodyTalking What a great start to the day! “Walking on Sunshine” will definitely put a spring in your step!
All those workouts have a cumulative effect @hcoleman232 , so missing a couple isn’t the end of everything!
Super cheer for hitting your goal weight!
Seeing your post gives me hope that I’ll get back there.I’m singing “You are the Champion!” in Celebration 🎉 👏 🙌🏽 🎈 🎊
@TerriRichardson112 , I love your posts! So much food for thought! Hooray for your regular HIIT workouts! You’ve inspired me to get my strength training done today.
@SummerSkier , haha! So your comment as well as others got me wondering where “Step on a crack” superstitious come from. According to my source (it was on the internet, so it must be true), it is a very old superstition that cracks in the earth were portals to all sorts of bad stuff. So Milne and the old schoolyard rhyme were referencing that.
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Miles in April: 39.3
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🪷💐🌺🥀🌸
April 8 - I walked 3.4 miles before lunch since it was my day to meet up with my Curves friends at the park.
April 9 - I got in a mile before breakfast!
😀April 10- One mile (actually more) before lunch
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hi folks crazy week at work sounds like everyone is walking a great inexpensive exercise. Got a 2.25 mile walk in at lunch at little over a 19 minute pace but I think I am done for a few days took a tumble in the driveway a rough hump in lawn near driveway from winter and went ——over tea kettle, sitting here with ice bag on my ankle eating ice cream and ibuprofen! To add to it my mom back at er yesterday for issues with her Alzheimer’s. It will get better I think but stay the course folks and enjoy your walks
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Binsey Poplars
By Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
felled 1879
My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
All felled, felled, are all felled;
Of a fresh and following folded rank
Not spared, not one
That dandled a sandalled
Shadow that swam or sank
On meadow & river & wind-wandering weed-winding bank.O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hew —
Hack and rack the growing green!
Since country is so tender
To touch, her being só slender,
That, like this sleek and seeing ball
But a prick will make no eye at all,
Where we, even where we mean
To mend her we end her,
When we hew or delve:
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
Strokes of havoc unselve
The sweet especial scene,
Rural scene, a rural scene,
Sweet especial rural scene.April 11
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Oh, sorry you took a tumble and are dealing with your mom’s health problems! @snowshoe072 That’s so stressful! Still, you got in a good lunchtime walk! I hope the ankle is soon better.
@SummerSkier , I love the photo of the spring blossoms! I won’t get into a fight about which is loveliest since I’ve never lived where there are apple trees. 🤣 Keeping floss available is a really smart way to make the habit easy.
Miles in April: 42.2🌸🌻 🪻🌷🌼
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April 8 - I walked 3.4 miles before lunch since it was my day to meet up with my Curves friends at the park.
April 9 - I got in a mile before breakfast! 😀
April 10- One mile (actually more) before lunchApril 11 - A mile before lunch. Saving myself for dancing tonight.
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Love the Wild Swan
By Robinson Jeffers“I hate my verses, every line, every word.
Oh pale and brittle pencils ever to try
One grass-blade’s curve, or the throat of one bird
That clings to twig, ruffled against white sky.
Oh cracked and twilight mirrors ever to catch
One color, one glinting flash, of the splendor of things.
Unlucky hunter, Oh bullets of wax,
The lion beauty, the wild-swan wings, the storm of the wings.”
—This wild swan of a world is no hunter’s game.
Better bullets than yours would miss the white breast,
Better mirrors than yours would crack in the flame.
Does it matter whether you hate your...self? At least
Love your eyes that can see, your mind that can
Hear the music, the thunder of the wings. Love the wild swan.April 12
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@77tes yesterday's poem was so poignant. I have witnessed the ever expanding highways and the deaths of so many majestic trees that sometimes my heart aches.
Still keeping up with the dental hygiene habit for the month and working to make it a long term ingrained thing. It should NOT be that hard to take a few extra minutes esp since i already have all the tools and already perform the tasks to some extent. We shall see.
Hang in there @snowshoe072 hope the ankle was just a quick thing and is already well enough for you to get some walks in!
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@SummerSkier , in my neighborhood, the trees are being replaced by big apartments/condos with zero green spaces.
Miles in April: 47.3
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🪷💐🌺🥀🌸🌻🪻
April 8 - I walked 3.4 miles before lunch since it was my day to meet up with my Curves friends at the park.
April 9 - I got in a mile before breakfast! 😀
April 10- One mile (actually more) before lunch
April 11 - A mile before lunch. Saving myself for dancing tonight.April 12 - Mile done before lunch. Tired after dancing last night.
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April 13 poem
For Palm Sunday
The Donkey
BY G. K. CHESTERTON
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.1 -
I did okay on Thursday and Friday but Saturday was not good because I had a headache and shoulder tension. Today is better and I'm working out the knots. I also got 12 hours sleep 😊
I've filled my snack-stacks for the week ahead and got some recycling and rubbish out.
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Celebrated reaching my goal weight with pizza and ice cream. 🍕🍦🥳 And a few other unhealthy options. 🤷♀️ Not going to sweat the small stuff. Back to healthy choices tomorrow as I’m planning on cheese & crackers with wine this evening!🍷😃
4/10 - 2 mile walk, Lower body/Abs
4/11 - 1 mile walk
4/12 - 2 mile walk, Upper body/Abs
4/13 - 2 mile walk
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@BodyTalking , I’m Celebrating those successful days with you! Sorry your Saturday was given over to headache, but flag you got caught up on your sleep. That’s the best headache remedy.
Bravo on prepping for the coming week. Your future self will definitely thank you.
“Happy” is a great way to celebrate the spring in your step.@hcoleman232 , you’ll get no judgment about your celebration choices from me. I believe allowing yourself a splurge from time to time helps keep a healthy lifestyle sustainable. Good job on the walks and workouts!
Miles in April: 50!
👌🎊🙌🏽🖐️👏
I’m celebrating being halfway to my goal of 100miles this month before the month is half gone!🌸🌻 🪻🌷🌼
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April 8 - I walked 3.4 miles before lunch since it was my day to meet up with my Curves friends at the park.
April 9 - I got in a mile before breakfast! 😀
April 10- One mile (actually more) before lunch
April 11 - A mile before lunch. Saving myself for dancing tonight.
April 12 - Mile done before lunch. Tired after dancing last night.April 13 - I got my mile in before church this morning.
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@77tes Way to go!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 You’re doing an awesome job! Celebrating with you! 🥳 🎉
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