the Craziness Continues into Week 2!

So despite my lack of little updates of my week 1 progress, I knew that you were all excitedly waiting for my next big post! ;) You were probably as excited as this little girl, right!? And I thank you because it gave me enough motivation and accountability to DO IT!!!!! YAY!!

What did I do exaclty!?

I simply was establishing some holy habits!! In fact, all week long I worked on a seriously huge project and I made some SERIOUS progress!! I had 17 "experiences" and 3 "projects" left to get my Young Womanhood Recognition as a leader. And NOW!!!? Now, I have 6 "experiences" left (and 3 are in the process of finishing) and 3 "projects." So that boils down to 2 hours of personal progress a day, completing at least 2 "experiences" a day! And 11 experience done and checked off my list!! That's A LOT! And I am so excited to have such a huge chunk done. My goal is to finish all the "experiences" and "projects" by November 7th, which is SUPER close!! But I am on my way!!

What worked? How did I accomplish such a huge amount this week? I worked during Brynlie's 1-hour nap, while Trav and Brynlie had some after-work-bonding time, and if I had to then I finished up after Brynlie went to bed. So basically that's what all my free time was spent doing. But it worked because I only had one goal to do this week and again, I knew you were all counting on me to accomplish my first goal!!

 

So what's going on for week 2 of being faithful, fit and fabulous!? Creating a "life paragraph" in order to keep the rest of my goals I choose consistent with my overall long-term goals. And then YES choosing an area to work on! Wahoo! Because this is real-life and my life is a lot like yours where there seems to never be quite enought time, I will hash out and reveal my life paragraph....later!! :) But I will tell you that this week, week 2, I will be conquering FOOD!

I want to create healthy quick go-to LUNCHES and snacks, find and buy some great protien powder, and even begin preparing 2 months worth of freezer meals! I'm excited because currently all my meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) are very spur of the moment, whatever is in the fridge, anything quick to make, and that's not always the healthiest. The 2 months worth of freezer meals will hopefully all be crock-pot meals (mulitply the "easy" factor) and the time given to that project will go towards one of my personal progress projects mentioned above!! YAY!

Mostly for my sake, let me be a little more specific:
Tuesday: Find some fun lunch, snack, and even dinner recipes. Gather, gather, gather!
Wednesday: Prepare some lunch items beforehand (cook rice and freeze). I do better when I don't have to CREATE three healthy meals a day (too much cooking and cleaning), but cook some bulk food items to keep me from grabbing a box of cereal. I'll explain this more in detail Wednesday.
Thursday: Buy some protein powder, and cook and essemble more lunch and dinner items.
Friday: Buy some protein powder (as a plan B if it doesn't happen Thursday), and cook and esseble even more lunch and dinner items. (2 months worth of dinners is a lot to essemble, even three days won't be enough but it's progress)!
Saturday and Monday will probably be the same as Thursday and Friday.

I'm guessing that I'll be updating you a little more this week on my progress, but ya never know because, again, this is real life where there is just never quite enough time! :) Enjoy your happy Tuesday!

establishing holy habits: week 1

It's Monday! Yay! I'm so excited to really get started on this journey to become a little more faithful, fit and fabulous!

The first thing that Connie covers is "establishing holy habits." There are three holy habits: prayer, scriptures, and personal promptings. Referring to these three holy habits, she says, "We know what they are, we know they're effective, and yet we get casual. ...Although we may understand why prayer, scripture study, and personal promptings are essential, sometimes we aren't consistent. Why is that?"

She talks in depth about why we are inconsistent including: busyness, not trusting His promises, changes in routine, distractions, and everything else. She continues to inspire me through her relate-ability and "juicy" ideas to be more consistent with these three holy habits.

So, week 1: choose one goal from these holy habits and do it!!  (Ex: pray from the heart, read scriptures with a question in mind, or keep a promptings journal.)

When I first started 8 weeks ago, I chose a goal to spice up my daily scripture reading. I love the scriptures but it's hard to feel excited about reading ALL the time. I wanted to feel EXCITED to read. So my specific goal was after I read for 15ish minutes, I had to draw a picture to sum up what I read. (He he!) Secretly I love to draw and never really give myself time or a reason to. So this was really fun for me. I noticed how the little extra brain power to turn thoughts into a picture REALLY spiced up my reading and helped me remember what I read! (double “yay”) This lasted three days. Not sure why and I really should randomly do it again, for fun!!

But now that 8 weeks has past, something in Connie's explanation sticks out more than spicing up my scripture reading. She says that this goal during week 1 can be starting a habit OR it can be a one-time project. hmmm...

I'm in Young Women's and as leaders we can also work towards getting a (or another) Young Womanhood Recognition. At the first of the year I challenged myself to get mine this year. It’s September and I have done a third of what I need to. So this last week, I went through what I have left and categorized them into "one-day", "a few days", "two weeks", "three weeks", and a "month," projects. It turns out I have roughly 10 "one day" projects and if I do them all in a week, I can finish the rest of the bigger projects by November 7th, which is YW in excellence where they celebrate the girls but also those who have gotten their recognition!

So that's my goal this week. I want to do all 10 "one day" projects during Brynlie's naps and for my scripture reading. To keep me accountable and to push me to do it even when things get busy, I'm going to drop you a line (...er post) about how each day is going. Something short and sweet. Then at the end of the week, I'll give you my “post-it note” filled with my synopsis (wahoo.) and my new goal for next week!!!

Does this sound like something you want to try for a week too!? I'm mean, not necessarily working on Personal Progress, :) but establishing or spicing up one of these holy habits!!! Do IT!!! When I feel spiritually charged, I feel much more likely to accomplish great things! So if something has caught your eye, do it, do it, do it!!! You won’t be alone!

So here it goes!! AHH!! I'm publishing this and heading off to start my Personal Progress! Such a fitting title to a goal to become more faithful, fit, and fabulous!!! Ha Ha! Love it! 

Have a fabulous Monday! Love the encouragement of productive Mondays!!