Don't worry, I haven't forgotten that my watch word for this year is "Awareness." Believe it or not, awareness HAS been something liveable for me so far. I've become more aware of how I'm contributing to problems in various relationships I'm in. I've become aware of how I am spending (and overspending) money. I've aware of many obstacles that stand in my way of achieving my weight loss goals, in particular. I've become more aware of what is causing stress in my life. Because I tend to be a control freak, the fact that there are many factors totally OUT of my control makes it hard, but since I'm not the Master of the Universe, I need to let some things go and work on my attitude in dealing with them.
Now, mind you, I haven't found solutions to many of those problems. The spending thing is really a challenge. Fact is, for my household, I am the spender. And the shopper. The cost of healthy groceries, in particular, is stressing the hell out of me. Finding ways to make healthy meals that don't break the bank, and finding foods that fit both my diet and my teenager's finicky eating habits are . . . . a challenge. I've never been so aware of inflation before - particularly with groceries. I used to LOVE going to the grocery store, and now I'm starting to hate it. I think the solution is, I need to start shopping at Aldi's for canned/frozen foods. Most of all, now that Spring is almost here, I need to start going to the Farmer's Market every Saturday morning and buying fresh fruits and veggies at a hopefully more reasonable price.
Small indulgences in my eating too are not small. When you have my middle-aged metabolism, those small indulgences really add up.
Awareness needs to lead to changes in behavior - not just in the big things, but more importantly in small things. Those small daily choices, between eating that late night snack or just going to bed and getting some much-needed sleep. I need to do some different self-talk. To convince myself that that the little choices, to work out on the treadmill for 20 minutes or to sit and watch CNN about rehashed political news is a small choice that makes a big difference. What's really crazy is I can do both - I can watch CNN while working out, but doing is a choice I need to make and it DOES make a BIG difference. On one of my self-help tapes, the writer said, "A little is a lot." It is SO true. Awareness is leading into little changes, and those little changes will add up - either in a positive or negative way. The choice is mine.
2 comments:
Yes, why does fruit cost more than meat? Glad to hear that with two months down in the year you are still on track with your self-guidance. I read this little thing a few weeks back and find myself mentally referring to it sometimes. It's awareness in a different way.
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/2007/11/the_spoon_theory.php
Finding the perfect knitting bag would help with the concept of "enough" because we wouldn't have other "not right" bags cluttering up the place.
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