Pigeon Point Lighthouse...my place of retreat
I have become painfully aware that in my efforts to live a productive life and work on weight loss I have skewed my life drastically out of balance. I took this last weekend off to do some soul searching and to come up with a plan to get the balance back. Being off kilter hasn't impacted my weight loss goals yet but I can see it quickly becoming a problem...hence I am sharing this with you here.
Part of my soul searching involved making a list of the top 20 things that I like to do and then writing down next to each one how long it has been since I've done them. I had a rude awakening! Here is what I discovered:
- Camping...real camping...in a tent and cooking on a campfire (so long I can't remember)
- Hiking (2 weeks)
- Fishing (~27 years)
- Swimming (1 week)
- Sewing (1 month)
- Knitting (1 day)
- Playing in rivers (1.5 years)
- Outdoor cooking (so long I can't remember)
- Nature walks (20 years)
- Museums (6 months)
- Taking classes (so long I can't remember)
- Relaxing in nature (0 days!)
- Bowling (6 years)
- Jumping rope (20+ years)
- Swing dancing (5-6 years)
- Jumping in puddles (20 years)
- Going down giant slides (20 years)
- Riding horses (25+ years)
- Painting (7 years)
- Baking bread (1 year...real bread...like Challah!)
So after the shocking truth trout slap of this list, I have decided to make sure to include these things (plus all the other stuff I love to do like taking pictures, singing, having cooking adventures...) in my regular daily life. No more sitting out the fun stuff because I have to pay the bills or whatever other grown-up reasoning I'll come up with. I mean, I will work, of course, but I will also remember to play. And by play I mean do fun things that I like to do for me! To kick this off I have picked 3 things from my list that I am going to work into my regular schedule. (Drum roll please)
- Plan Spring Break camping trip
- Bake some challah and share it
- Sit outside for 15 minutes every day
Here are some other small things I can do to bring back some joyful balance:
- Sing with my church choir
- Buy a jump rope (I have one but it's too long)
- Take my camera on walks
I will be reporting back next Monday with news on how it all went!!!!
