Building a better, stronger Dree... one day at a time.

I fall off the blog wagon every few months or so. I blogged WAY more when I was teaching, but now my job doesn't yield as many cute stories. Everytime I think about blogging again, I go through the "what the hell should I write about," "no one reads this crap anyway" routine.

But now I'm back. AND... I have something to write about. Woot!

I recently re-read a blog that I wrote at the beginning of this year, and I had a list of my New Year resolutions posted. For the first two months, I kept up with it... and then, as usual, the blogging fell to the wayside. But I'm happy to report that I am still keeping most of my resolutions. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that some have actually become a way of life now.

The two things that I've been working on the most are my decluttering project and my eating better/exercising. The decluttering was the easiest to tackle, and it's been an ongoing crusade to rid my bedroom, car, closets and storage unit of the things that are no longer necessary in my life.

The challenge to make healthier food choices was also less daunting than I thought it would be. I've been more careful about reading labels and limiting certain foods (carbs and soda were the biggies). I've been making more food from scratch (I even started growing my own herbs!) and I'm working on portion control. That's a tough one.

Exercise was my Everest. I have never been able to make exercise part of my daily routine. Since I made it a resolution, I put it on my priority list. I bought a wii to help me get motivated. A few weeks later, I found a walking game for the wii, which is interactive and keeps track of miles walked, calories burned, steps taken, etc. The wii use was sporadic for awhile, and even though I enjoyed it, the walking tapered off. Then this summer, I somehow got back into it. But this time, I went a step further (no pun intended). I found a fitness channel on my cable's On Demand, and discovered Leslie Sansome's Walk at Home program. I tried 1 mile in 20 minutes. Totally do-able, so I started doing it every day. I learned that my mom has a Leslie Sansome DVD that includes a 1 mile walk with handweights. Score! Now I had variety! When that got boring, I added the wii walking game into my rotation.

I am amazed by what's happening. I used to hate even the thought of exercise. But now I love the way I feel after I walk. I'm completely energized and I feel so accomplished. When I first started, the 20 minute mile left me sweaty and panting. Now the 20 minutes fly by, and my recovery time is much quicker. When I use the wii game, I've been averaging 3 miles an hour. And it has become part of my daily routine.

I could certainly be doing more in the way of exercise, but this is a huge step for me (again with the step puns, lol). I plan to gradually add more - maybe actually join a gym or drop in on a Zumba class. But the important thing is that I made a plan and I stuck to it.

I rock :)