Change!

2010 is all about change for me. Call it my mantra. Call it my Little Word of the Year. Call it what you will, it is Change.

Hopefully my goals will also reflect my focus on Change. Here they are:
1. Get $125 from Laura Clark ~ this I will do by losing 25 lbs.
2. Keep a Gratitude Journal ~ Elder Eyring suggested looking for the hand of the Lord in our lives daily. I hope to remember to appreciate all that the Lord has given me, even "when skies are gray and days are dark and life kind of gets you down."
3. Exercise 3 to 5 times per week ~ during the winter when I just want to stay wrapped up in warm blankets and during the summer when it's just too dang hot.
4. Organize, organize, organize ~ time, sewing room, stacks of papers all over my house, files on my computer, pictures in albums, etc.
5. Read and learn ~ take the time daily to study, ponder and learn new things.
6. Take a vacation ~ I will need one by the end of this year.

My one word mantra is "Calm"

1. stop biting my nailswhen i am stressed!
2. say more positive things - find the good - instead of dwelling on the negative.
3. establish a better evening routine for my kids: scriptures, prayers, make lunches, pick up, get bags ready for morning, homwork, ready for bed - then TV.
4. Eat dinner together. Actually plan meals and prepare.
5. Pray every morning
6. Date night once a week

Laura Clarks Word and Goals

I've decided my one word mantra for 2010 is NOW. It is to remind me not to procrastinate and do it NOW, if I don't lose weight NOW, when will be a better time, I need to live in the moment and appreciate NOW, rather than always focusing on something else.

My 2010 goals are:

1) Create and follow a schedule and chore system, with rewards, for my children.

2) Create and follow a schedule for me, i.e. fly lady. My reward will be the time I save looking for things and not paying the fines I pay for late library books and the reduction in stress!

3) Create a healthy menu plan, including grocery lists and recipes, for one cold month and one hot month.

4) Read the Ensign from cover to cover each month and read my scriptures every day.

5) Do the things necessary to lose weight.

6) Magnify my calling as the Family History Consultant.

It was extremely hard to limit myself to only six, but the achievement of these goals would really make a difference in my life?

I'm excited to see your word and goals!

Logging food and exercise

We found this fantastic sight that help you log food/calories, water intake and exercise. It is really easy to use. You fill out personal information and set your goal and you are good to go. It has every food imaginable. Every costco item we have punched in has been there, restraunts, even the red Mango which I had never even heard of until we drove by Saturday. It gives progress reports and predictions of where you will be if you keep up the pace. The most amazing part to me is to see the calories of different foods. I didn't know a banana has almost double the calories of an apple....did you? It really is interesting. Bruce is hooked and walks around with his I-phone figuring everything out. It isn't quite that easy for me, but I try! It is free and can be found at www.myfitnesspal.com.

More about goal setting ~

Here I am again, posting from someone else. I have come to the conclusion that other people have far better things to say than I do. This is from a blog post by Heidi Swapp:

I hadn’t really thought about the fact that this was even a whole new DECADE until I was watching the amazing Dick Clark last night. I think that it made me even MORE excited and READY for this new year… and NEW DECADE!! I thought back to where I was 10 years ago…I remember it vividly. There is no way that I could have guessed where I’d be today then. It’s SO exciting to me to think about what the next 10 years holds!

I have mentioned that I was working on something very cool for kicking off this NEW YEAR –but more than that, it’s really a strategy for getting what you WANT out of this year, (this decade)… recently, I attended a seminar about GOAL SETTING and the focus of the message was to “PLAN WITH THE END IN MIND”… have you ever heard that? the cool thing about it… is that by planning WHERE you want to end up… you harness the power of your sub conscious mind that will be looking for opportunities and relationships that will get you what you WANT! This whole concept is totally proven and blah blah blah… but I want to give it a try for myself… so really, I have put this whole thing together for ME, and thought that you might want to join me on the most AMAZING journey ever. I am sure that like me, you have found in your life if you set your mind to something, you can pretty much do anything! But when there are too many things to juggle, too many distractions or obligations that press on you, it’s so easy to loose sight of what you really want! Or what you set out to do.

So before you go with the whole : “I am just not a goal-setter” or “I hate new years resolutions- I just break them anyway”….consider thinking of the whole thing back to front: PLAN WITH THE END IN MIND.

You can visit her blog here.

The 6 change method

There is a lot of good information on the blog Laurie directs us to in her post and it has some good ideas on breaking bad habits, etc. Here is the main idea here for the 6 change plan to get you started, but spend some time looking around the blog too.

1. Pick 6 habits for 2010.
2. Pick 1 of the 6 habits to start with.
3. Commit as publicly as possible to creating this new habit in 2 months.
4. Break the habit into 8 baby steps, starting with a ridiculously easy step. Example: if you want to floss, the first step is just to get out a piece of floss at the same time each night.
5. Choose a trigger for your habit - something already in your routine that will immediately precede the habit. Examples: eating breakfast, brushing your teeth, showering, waking up, arriving at the office, leaving the office, getting home in the evening.
6. Do the 1st, really easy baby step for one week, right after the trigger. Post your progress publicly. (Read more.)
7. Each week, move on to a slightly harder step. You’ll want to progress faster, but don’t. You’re building a new habit. Repeat this until you’ve done 8 weeks.
8. You now have a new habit! Commit to Habit No. 2 and repeat the process.