Category: goal-setting

Get Organized Month

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New Year’s Eve is approaching quickly. The time to set a resolution that I think should be easy to achieve.

January is Get Organized Month all month. Per Google the focus is: Decluttering physical spaces, optimizing schedules, creating better habits, and boosting overall well-being. The themes are: Often ties into New Year’s resolutions, emphasizing fresh starts, productivity, and managing stress.

What better time than at the beginning of the year to Bring in the New Go out with the Old. I’ll write soon about ideas I have for getting organized in January.

The first article I ever published was in the Women’s Forum of the local newspaper in January 1990. The column I wrote was titled Time to Start Spring Cleaning.

I was the first person back then to make the connection that the beginning of the year was the ideal time to clear out the mental cobwebs in our head as well as the physical clutter in our home.

Clearing out the clutter in January and “cleaning up” our negative thoughts about what we’re capable of are habits that can serve us well at this time of year.

The last sentence of Time to Start Spring Cleaning was: And when you open up a can of chowder you might just discover a whole new you.

Cheers! To having the courage to express ourselves. To having the capacity to let go of what’s no longer serving us. To having a life unencumbered by the stuff weighing us down.

Atomic Changes

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A wise woman asked me to think of this:

“Where might a small change in my routine or habit create more energy?”

I opted for drinking a 23-ounce aluminum bottle of water every day at or near 7:00 a.m. consistently.

This is a question I think everyone should ask ourselves when we’ve reached a plateau.

And hey, I was excited to think that a shot of espresso in a tiny cup could lift fatigue.

It can be hard to change or break negative behavior. The book Atomic Habits is out of print however it’s likely available as an e-book or to check out of the library.

At the end of this James Clear guide is a two-page summary of the specific ways to replace an old habit with a new one.

Atomic habits I think are the ones to shoot for before things reach the point of requiring a drastic overhaul of everything all at once. Which is an impossible feat to accomplish.

Engaging in micro-habits to begin with if you ask me is the way to sustain the lifestyle and spark your motivation to continue.

This is where filming and living life in a slow beat production counts. To rush, cut corners or take shortcuts is a halfhearted approach guaranteed to be shoddy and precarious.

In the long run it’s always wise to take the long view if you ask me. Using the 90-day action plan in the book Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions could be the start of long-lasting or forever-lasting behavior change.

What if what you and I want to do is start something new and not replace an old habit? What if there’s nothing you want to change only a habit you want to add?

I like Google’s AI response. Per Google:

To start something new without replacing a negative behavior, focus on adding positive actions via habit stacking (linking new to old habits), starting incredibly small (micro-habits), changing your environment to support the new, and using mindfulness to build awareness, making it about growth rather than removal, with supportive plans and celebrations for progress. 

I wasn’t a fan of using Google until its first responses turned out to be excellent AI information that I could really use.

A small change is like an atomic habit. If we can micro-dose our happiness in tiny joy “snacks” each day as one expert calls them why not micro-dose the goals we have in smaller steps in the form of daily sub-goals?

More on these ideas coming up in a review of National Get Organized Month in January.

First coming up here a review of a new cookbook that if I remember right has just come out this fall.

On Not Liking Chocolate

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Dr. Ede the author of Change Your Diet Change Your Mind parts ways with other experts giving nutritional advice.

The Integrative Health Coach I employ told me that beans, grains, and fruits break down into sugar. Sugar can exacerbate depression and anxiety.

Dr. Lipman cut out the habit of consuming quantities of beans. Eating too much beans can cause a diabetes concern apparently.

The advice to have dark chocolate I haven’t taken to heart either. As I really don’t like eating chocolate. My Health Coach told me that in her practice they’ve turned away from recommending that people eat dark chocolate.

I have eaten dark chocolate too long ago to remember when the last time was that I ate it. In fact I stopped buying dark chocolate years ago.

The strange thing is that I don’t often do what experts who hang out a shingle tell you to do. I trust my Health Coach because of my intuition that she knows what she’s talking about.

Also: I trust what friends tell me that makes sense. Years ago a friend told me he became a vegan. It was likely for ethical reasons. His mood worsened. When he returned to eating red meat his depression lifted.

Armchair advice to be certain. Yet intriguing insight that could very well be true.

In this blog I would like then to touch on how exactly to get happy and get more energy. What specific action can we take to lift ourselves up?

I’ve begun doing these things and will report back on the effects.

Real Talk About Mental Health

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Recovery is not a “one-and-done” deal. Healing is a lifelong process. Some of us will take pills. Others won’t have to.

When you’re not managing your condition as a full-time job it can free up your energy to focus on other things. I will refer followers to buy the summer issue of Magnolia Journal. To read the Chip Gaines Last Word essay. He wrote that choosing to wear the same outfit (the same brand of tee shirt, jeans, and boots) every day freed up his energy to devote time to the things that were more important to him than choosing what to wear.

Gaines knew our emotional energy is finite. The theme of the summer issue of Magnolia was boundless. The editors list the dictionary definition of this word: They contrast this to their definition of boundless:

Traditional Definition:

  • Having no boundaries; vast, unlimited, or immense.
  • Abundant; limitless. 

Magnolia’s Definition:

  • To see ourselves and the world around us through a lens of unlimited potential. 

Illness is not a dead-end. It offers us yes the chance for a boundless life. The fact is that if taking medication gives a person the potential to have a better life I say: Go For It.

Define unlimited: Not succumbing to internalizing that we’re hopeless. Not comparing ourselves to what other people can do and have. Expanding our limits and shifting our mindset to think: “What if?” and “Why not?” when it comes to dreaming.

What I’m against: In the evening TV news commercials sell drugs and state that a side effect can be fatal. You could die taking those pills. There’s a cost-benefit analysis to calculate: is this risk worth it to find relief from an illness?

The goal is to get rid of the shame that surrounds getting a diagnosis. A woman told me that when she was told she had breast cancer she didn’t want to tell other people. The woman thought they’d look at her with pity.

Shame lives in secrecy silence and judgment. Everyone should be proud of who we are and what we stand for. Our lives aren’t easy having an illness. Yet they can be better.

I know that if I didn’t have a disability I wouldn’t be the person I am today: championing that people living in recovery can have our version of a full and robust life.

We can have this life not despite our condition. Because of it.

Creating a 10-Year Plan

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I’ve always thought a person should give themselves 10 years in which to achieve a goal. If you study and practice numerology you will follow along in a 9-Year cycle. Either way this entails giving yourself what I coined decades ago a lifeline not an impossible restrictive deadline to accomplish an outcome.

My take as an optimist is to take the long view. In terms of expecting that when you turn 60 or 65 the best is yet to be. Why give up in one year or worse 2 months when you don’t get what you wanted?

Expect that you can have a better life. Having something to look forward to can keep a person going. What if we could envision that 10 years from now our life will be extraordinary beyond how it is today?

As I’m fond of saying in Italian: “Creo nell’impossibile”–I believe in the impossible. I’ve always thought that what others said was impossible was indeed possible.

Far healthier to give ourselves the gift of a lifetime to carry out our goals. Break into one-year each sub-goal to bring us to the end goal.

This is about all I want to write about serious topics.

Coming up: a recipe for pistachio Affogato–a cool treat for spring and summer and really any time of the year.

Wait Lifting

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I learned everything about health fitness and nutrition by checking books out of the library, talking to a health coach, and trainers at a gym.

Decades ago, I was appalled to see on the cover of a women’s magazine the come-on: Drop One Dress Size by Tuesday.

Why is this kind of advice given to women and not men? Why aren’t men scared to weigh 200 pounds?

Either way if a person is not willing to invest 4 years to get healthy when they have the rest of their life to live, they’re setting themselves up with unrealistic expectations for how quick they should see results.

It’s possible that most of us will live to be 65–retirement age if we’re lucky. Why the fixation on quick results if you’re 30 or 42 or 50? Far better to give ourselves 4 years to see lasting change not the typical 2 months then quitting with a yo-yo outcome.

The waiting is the hardest part. Only nothing worth having comes without effort. The goal is not to set the bar high for our health. We simply must set the bar. Reaching higher takes time.

In the coming blog entry I’m going to write in more detail about what I originally wrote about in 2007 when I was the Health Guide at a website: My idea of formulating a 10-Year Plan for achieving a goal.

Thriving After a Setback

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This Michael Jordan quote paperweight I bought in a museum gift shop a long time ago.

It gets at having the courage to risk change to get what you want in life. Everyone living on earth experiences pain heartache and loss.

Adversity is our friend. When we struggle and can see the light of day afterward we can be proud of ourselves for overcoming whatever the setback was.

What if the hardship won’t go away? That’s when we go with Plan B: handling what goes on to the best of our ability. More than this doing what comes easy to us that we enjoy can help us live through the challenge.

However long it takes to emerge on the other side we can get there wiser, stronger, and in a better position to create that new world and life for ourselves.

Our personality powers us through. The beauty and benefit of experiencing a setback is that we realize “enough is enough.” No longer can things go on the way they were before.

Creating a new routine does take courage and perseverance. It takes time to bounce back. We’re not Wild West cowboys falling off a horse getting back on and galloping into the sunset right then.

Wanting a quick outcome will set us up to feel like a failure when we can’t meet the restrictive deadline we set for ourselves to achieve something. Decades ago I coined the term of giving yourself a lifeline not an impossible deadline to carry out a goal or plan.

To rush cut corners or take shortcuts often results in a half-hearted outcome. Who can be proud of that? Far better to give ourselves gentle affirmations as we go about each day taking on the new habit or routine.

The new routine I created after the arm injury has been “so far so good.” Seeing a positive difference after 3 weeks has motivated me to keep on keeping on.

It’s often repeated that it takes 21 days for a new habit to form. You can use the book Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions. It’s a guide to a 90-day Action Plan for replacing a negative behavior with a positive one.

What if we don’t need to replace an unhealthy habit? What if we’ve been living our lives and we’ve simply come up against the reality that our old lifestyle is unlivable today?

That’s when asking Why you want to change something and What you can do to begin the new routine is the first step. Also to figure out: When you should do the new thing and How to do it and Where.

For the little old blogger that I am this was a fairly simple strategy: I changed what I ate each day and when I ate the food. I began to lift weights again 2x/per week as often as I could.

Coming up the details. I’ll end here with saying that rewarding yourself along the way for your little victories as well as milestones is called for.

It’s not often easy to change what’s not working. This is often because we feel like a failure if we don’t see improvement quickly.

Instead each of us should Enjoy the Process. Which is exactly why practicing mindfulness is called for.

Giving ourselves at least 3 weeks to create a new habit is the way to carry on. I’m giving myself those 90 days that is 3 months to see what happens.

Seductive Food Claims

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Kind bars aren’t kind. They contain natural flavor. So does Honey Nut Cheerios. And Snapple. It can seem unhinged that I’ve taken up a crusade against this food and drink ingredient.

Other food products to steer clear of are the ones with unhealthy fats according to Dr. Lipman. Unhealthy fats are corn and canola oil, cottonseed and vegetable oil, safflower and sunflower oil.

Skinny Pop popcorn has sunflower oil. Amy’s Organic soup has safflower or sunflower oil. So–I buy only the Amy’s soups that are free of these ingredients.

Other Amy’s boxed frozen products have safflower or sunflower oil too. Admit to you I can that for a spell 8 or 9 years ago I relied on Amy’s boxed products for dinners in heavy rotation.

I for one think cooking real food is the way to go when you have the time, energy, and money to do so. Following the guidelines in How to Be Well I think can lower a person’s costs for food in the end.

I would say think twice about the claims that a food product is kind or skinny or all natural. Even just buying regular produce not organic produce is better than loading up on these kinds of snacks.

It’s not as simple as the calories in versus calories out equation. It’s what you eat not the number of calories that counts. Food and drink companies can make all sorts of claims. I would say that at least 80 to 85 percent of the claims aren’t true.

Each of us should enjoy finding buying cooking and eating the food we do. I say if you want to eat and drink whatever you do that’s your choice and it should be accepted.

In here I simply want to talk about what I’m doing to live my life well and whole. I hope what I write resonates with followers. Take what you think will help you. Leave the rest of the information on the side.

Real Talk About Health

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We need to have an honest talk that centers on the idea of how much a person “should” weigh:

NOT 103 pounds for 90 percent of us.

A talk about how much exercise a person really needs to do each week:

NOT 2 hours a day every day in the gym.

A talk about why people are looking in our plates and judging what we’re eating.

Instead each of us should be enjoying the food on our plates guilt-free.

In the coming blog entry, I will revisit a topic I’ve touched on in here before: The use of unnatural ingredients in food products.

I don’t want to live to be 80 if I’m in poor health and need 5 or 6 pills to swallow each day for health issues.

After I talk about food I will delve into how I’m changing my eating plan and firing up the kettlebell again. To regain my health and fitness after the freak accident with my arm.

My hope is to encourage and motivate readers to create a SMART goal this year. One that is Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and Time-Focused.

It’s not realistic to want to weigh 127 pounds when you weigh 205 pounds. It’s not smart to mindlessly consume food and drink products.

I’ve studied nutrition and fitness for decades by checking books out of the library to read for free. What I’m writing about is not a gimmick or sensational so I’m not going to get a book contract to peddle that pablum.

I’m an ordinary person who’s figured out how and what to eat by reading a book like How to Be Well by Dr. Frank Lipman, MD. I’m reading my copy again for a refresher.

Can we really believe the Medical Medium who allegedly channeled an Angel or Spirit to get and give health information? I don’t think so.

Common sense is not common today. Expecting quick easy results to our health and fitness goals sets us up to feel poorly when we can’t meet this strict restrictive deadline.

That’s why I’m giving myself one whole year in 2025 to reboot.

I also don’t think we should frame a goal as engaging in self-improvement. I happen to think the majority of us are OK the way we are. Instead, I use the term self-development project to talk about a goal. Striving to learn a new skill or adopt a better habit over time. Not because we’re deficient or inferior in anything. Only because we want to “level up” from where we are today.

We don’t need “fixing.” Even though people like the media darlings given column space on the internet and book contracts judge and attack us for a myriad of sins.

Each of us should start where we are. Chances are we have what it takes. Even though we could feel ashamed and buy into the myths out there that say we’re not good enough. That if only we buy a product an influencer is selling we’ll magically become worthy lovable have a better life or whatever.

Read on for the topic I’m going to resurrect in here: the use of unnatural ingredients in food products. This has been my wheelhouse in terms of nutrition and what I think is the biggest culprit holding us back from optimal health.

Creating Our Ideal Lives

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Marie Kondo was at it again with the book above that she published one year ago.

Kurashi is Japanese for “way of life” or “lifestyle.”

The way you live in your home can enable you to achieve your ideal life. Marie Kondo said that after doing the work her clients often were happy in their current home and stayed there. Or were able to move into their dream home a couple of years later.

Toying with using the word ideal has been hard. Then I realized that the ideal life is an authentic life. In this regard it IS possible to live your ideal life when you’re true to who you are and what your purpose is.

Each of us can thrive when we find our “kurashi” at home where we can be our authentic selves (and have beloved books on the shelves).

A tidying tip I recommend is to line up the spines of books right to the edge of the bookshelf. Refrain from placing objects in front of books. Presto–instant order joy and calm.

My intuition tells me that when we don’t like our living space it’s because we’re out of sync with ourselves.

Even in a bedroom in a halfway house a person can decorate with a poster of The Cure or listen to music or buy a colorful bedspread. We can make our homes our own wherever we live at any time in our life.

Right after turning 58 I started to embark on a new routine with atomic habits.

Was it the start of drinking water or the burst of spring cleaning that gave me more energy. On an odyssey I’ve been to create my own sustainable “kurashi” at home as I near 60.

In the new Marie Kondo book she has worksheets you can photocopy to write on to plan your day.

More in future blog entries about how I–a real person not a celebrity–changed her life for the better.