New month! And, it’s May- which means we are officially out of my least desired two months of the year- March and April. From here it’s mostly smooth sailing. Weather will warm up pretty soon now consistently, then summer is always lovely, followed by my favorite (fall), and on to the holidays/winter, both seasons I really like. Once that yucky Wisconsin spring is done, I’m all good for the rest of the year! 😎
If we can kind of forget about our whole “covid/quarantine” adventure that ate up a bunch of the month, April turned out okay.
Looking at my habit tracker, there were some definite good trends:
Workouts- 25/30. I am back into very consistent workouts now and rarely missed a day. I obviously did home workouts during quarantine, but this week I got back in the gym 3 days, too. (Aiming currently for one Back/Biceps, one Shoulders/Triceps, one Legs). After time away I am always reminded how much I really love strength training. REAL strength training, in the gym (I mean, Beachbody kind of counts, but it’s really just not the same.)
I sort of decided to call it quits on picking running back up. Our trip in March and then our quarantine period threw me all off, and honestly, I really wasn’t enjoying it.
And, in a vain/purely aesthetic sense- running literally does the least positive things for my body. In fact, I feel like I look worse when I run as primary exercise form. For ME, strength training hands down gives me the best look (and feel). So, scratching running again, keeping relaxing walks for pure enjoyment.
Reading- Read at least 21 minutes 25/30 days. Finished two books, almost three…but I guess I’ll have to count the 3rd for May’s totals. (I was intrigued by Cal Newport saying he does not track # of books read and instead just focuses on TIME read per day. He said this allows him to actually read several books at once if he wants, quit reading a book if needed, etc. without the “pressure” (self-imposed) of trying to meet some arbitrary monthly or yearly total. Interesting.)
Yoga/Stretching- 4 times. Not bad! Average once a week, at least.
Photo Project – Worked on this at least 7 times (that I recorded). Making some good progress!! I just need to keep plugging away at this and stay consistent!
Gratitude- 30/30. Gold star. 😇
April shortcomings….
Reading w/ kids- 2!!! Bad. We started that new Beyond the Orphan Train book I mentioned, though (end of month). So, hopefully that will pick back up more now in May.
Screen time- Epic fail. Not even going to bother tallying the average. UGH. I do feel like I’m doing better with not checking it like, all the time at random moments like I used to. (Sometimes I still do, though). I really like Cal Newport’s suggestion (sorry for all the Cal references- I’ve been on a podcast binging streak here… hahaha…) about scheduling social media time in for certain specific times of the week. Like a little date with yourself and your phone (lol) but then you just don’t use it the rest of the time. I feel like this could be actually be a really great option for me, but I’ve yet to try it. The timer method/ iphone limit seems to have lost its power over me. Oops. 😬
Walks- 16/30. Okay, but not great. I’d really like to find a time of the day to consistently ALWAYS take a little walk, bc the outside time is wonderful. I’m fine with even a 10 minute walk. Doesn’t have to be much for me (though when it fits in, I love longer walks, too).
Water intake- I don’t really track this exactly, but mine has been weak. I drink a lot of other stuff…TEA mostly, soda (i know, i know), sparkling water….but plain old water always brings up the rear.
Okay, off to start my very 1st day in May, 2021! Asher has a swim meet an hour away and we need to leave in about an hour, so better go shower. How was your month??? Any big plans or goals for May?
Thought of the Day:
No matter what yesterday was like, birds always start the new day with a song. ❤️
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for us BOTH being fully vaccinated now. Ivan got his 2nd shot this week. Hoping the approval for 12+ comes soon so Ethan can join the club.
GRATEFUL KAE 
good job on the reading challenge. I’ve not been reading for 2 weeks now… which is not good but happens when my mind is all over the place. hope to get back to it soon.
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Yay for both having both shots. Hopefully he didn’t have terrible side effects!
The time tracking of reading v books is interesting! I can see the benefit of it, but it would be so much more work for me to track it that way. I like to see how many books I read/year but I don’t really set an aggressive goal – my goal is 60 which is really low for me. That way I don’t feel pressured to read shorter books, etc. And I will definitely abandon a book that isn’t working for me. I did that recently although I can’t remember which book it was… mom brain FTW!
Totally understand your thoughts on not loving running. I do love it but I find it works best if I run 3 times/week and then strength train 2 or something like that. I used to run 5 times/week when I trained for marathons but then I joined a running club that met 3 times/week and that’s when I got my fastest times. I think the strength training I did on the other days made a huge difference for me. Plus a lot of times those other 2 days of running were what I called “junk miles” meaning I just went out and ran X miles – it wasn’t a hill workout or speed or a long run. When I only ran 3 times/week, each run had a purpose. Granted that was in my run club days when I had the time and energy to really train for things. When I get back to running I guess all of my miles will kind of be what I used to call “junk miles” because I am in a different stage of life and don’t really care to PR. At least not for the next several years. Maybe I will feel different when our boys are older!
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