Introducing my Big Three!

First a quick recap and the plan for tonight...

Monday Night’s To Do List was:

Work through my daily checklist.

  -- I did 5.5 of the 6 items on my daily list.  While not perfect, it is much better than the one item I was still doing actually daily.

Do my veggie prep on the stuff I bought Saturday.

 -- Veggies and fruits got prepped last night.

Do any additional food prep to help me stick to my menu plan.

 -- Prepped my lunch for today, as well as precooked veggies for Wednesday’s lunch.  I'll have some more to do later in the week, but this will get me started.

Give the rest of the dining room furniture a good cleaning.

  -- Didn’t do.

Along with the items above that I did do, I also folded two loads of towels.  Both were washed Sunday evening, though one load still needed to go through the drier when I went to bed that night.

How boring was that for others to read?  But I'm posting it anyway, because it helps me to see it in writing, what I did and what I didn't do.

Tonight’s To Do List is:

Really clean off the kitchen bar (which was that .5 item) as well as follow through with the other items on my daily checklist.

Do some of the things on the weekly check list, like empty all the little trash cans and sweep the floors.

Dust the dining room furniture, which is now in the room!

Wash dish towels and dust rags, if I get the washing machine leveled.

As always the list could keep going on and on, but I’m going to just stick with those things.  If one item doesn’t get done I will move it to another day.  If more than one item doesn’t get done then I didn't do what I needed to be doing.  If I do happen to get all four of them done, then I can always add to the list as needed.

And now, Introducing my Big Three, atleast the name for them that is, since I really introduced them yesterday. 

From this point forward I am going to start referring to the things that I mentioned before as my Big Three.  At this moment, daily/weekly (cleaning) routines, weight loss and saving/spending are the biggest things that I am focusing on.  Obviously there are many other things going on in my life, such as all the painting and redecorating, but that’s more cosmetic, and the Big Three are deeper issues I need to deal with.  I’m working on finding balance in my life, to get what I need done and to keep doing things that help me move forward. 

My current plan of action is to really work on doing my daily/weekly routines as I currently have them listed out for the rest of the week.  I will need to add to them, especially the weekly section, but first I need get into the habit of doing the main stuff every day.

While I am focusing on those I will work out how I want to attack the food/weight loss part of my Big Three so that by next Sunday I can start implementing those things.  It will just come down to telling my self no and making my self do the things I know I need to do.

By the following week I would like to have some idea how I will be tackling my spending/saving.  I know there will be an adjustment period, trying to figure it all out, but I can at least make postive moves towards getting started.

I’ve got to change things.  No, let me rephrase that, I am going to change things, starting now.

It is time to take a stand…

…against myself, the self sabotager.

I’ve learned that I don’t like the word no.  I’m sure I am not the only one that doesn’t like it.  Not only do I not like the word, I have trouble telling myself no. 

No, you don’t need to buy that. 

No, you have already spent enough. 

No, you really need to skip fast food for lunch. 

No, before you go to bed you need to wash dishes and clean up the kitchen.

In all of those, I know the no is better in the long run, I just don’t think in terms of the long run.  I also realize it is a matter of self control, but I just have trouble standing up to myself when I talk myself in to ignoring the no.

I know that if I keep up with the cleaning daily that it makes things a lot easier to maintain, and yet I can so easily talk myself into putting things off for a day or two or a week.

I know that I can eat healthy, and that when I do and watch how much I eat I can lose weight.  And yet, when it comes to lunch at work, I am often tempted to just give in and wasting money on some fattening, not very good lunch form some fast food place.  You know the lunch where you are afraid to look up the calorie count, because it’s probably more than half the amount you should eat a day.

I know that when my car payment and credit card bill is coming due I can curb my spending because I have no option but to pay them.  I also know that when those are taken care of, I have a bad habit of over spending when I get my next pay check.

I know these things about myself.  I also understand things out there that help you not do these things, such as a daily check list for ‘chores’ or a food journal or a budget.  Yet when it comes down to it all, I end up giving into myself instead of standing up and telling myself no. 

I can’t even begin to express how annoyed and frustrated I am with myself right now that I just can’t seem to keep doing things I need to do.  And to make it worse, I have no one but myself to blame.  It’s all on me. 

Now is the time to take a stand against myself and move on with my life in a manor that will be more beneficial for me in the long run.  I will have days and moments when I will fail, fall of track or will simply ignore the all important no.  Those days will happen.  I just need to make sure that those days come fewer and fewer and that when they do happen I don’t let it derail me completely.  I will need to get up, wipe the dirt off my ass and move forward from that point.  I just have to keep telling myself that.

So I am here, once again, ready to muddle through it all.

The first thing I need to do is pull out that Daily/Weekly list I made for myself of things I want to do around the house on a daily and weekly schedule.

The second thing I need to do is pull out the Food Journal and list what I eat every day.  I can still do this even if I am not closely counting my calories and at least be aware of how much I am actually eating.

The third thing I need to do is work out a budget, that works for me and that I can/will stick to it.  This is the one that leaves me feeling lost.  It should be easy for me since it is only me I have to be concerned with, but for some reason it isn’t, or I don’t let it be easy. 

This is me standing up to myself and doing what I need to do! 

Tonight’s To Do List:

Work through my daily checklist.

Do my veggie prep on the stuff I bought Saturday.

Do any additional food prep to help me stick to my menu plan.

Give the rest of the dining room furniture a good cleaning.

Where did February go?

I know that Monday is officially the last day of the month, but I can’t help but wonder where in the world the month went?  Can you believe that we are just about to cross off the second month of the New Year?  If this keeps up, it will be the end of the year before we know it.

While I am happy with my efforts for decluttering, letting go and organizing things so far this year, I know I just need to work harder on my daily/weekly routine.  I did awesome for a week with my original list, and then completely dropped the ball when I added to the list.  It had nothing to do with adding to the list, I’m sure a lot of it came about because I was focused in on painting the dining room, but that really is only an excuse.  Life happens and life goes on, and I can’t completely forget everything I’ve worked towards just because something else comes up.

So while entering this new week and new month, I will refocus my attention back to my routines.  I also plan to crack down on eating better so that I can lose weight again.  I know what I need to do to lose weight.  I know that it isn’t uber hard to lose weight.  Don’t get me wrong it does take work, but it is achievable.  And I know I can do it, since I have before.  This time I just have to stick with it, and keep it up.  But as I said in another post, this is the year of me, and I feel good about this year.

My weekend plans…

Tonight I plan to finish up painting the trim in the dining room, and cleaning up the mess in there.  I can’t wait to see the floor and the paint together! 

I will also sit down and start working on my meal plan, including calorie counts for breakfast and other meals that I can figure them for. 

Make my grocery list, go through coupons and go to the grocery store.  I haven’t been to the store since the 12th.  At the moment I don’t have a big list, but I do have some of the more expensive items on my list.

Do food prep for the week.

Maybe work on a small decorating project or two.

And relax a little!  After last weekend I have decided I need a little scheduled down time.  I do plan to get things done, but that doesn’t mean I have to be busy every second of the weekend either.

Here is hoping everyone has a productive and relaxing weekend! 

Daily/Weekly Routine - Adding On

Somehow even though I kept up with the weekly tasks I set for myself it wasn’t until last night that I had realized that I didn’t pick out any new ones to start on this week.  I had some ideas of what I wanted to add in, but I didn’t sit down and actually list them out, so they slipped my mind.

I debated if I wanted to start them mid week, or if I wanted to put it off until next week.  While I’d love to put them off until next week, I’m thinking this would be a good time to work on the not procrastinating thing.

Daily Goals:

Make the bed every morning

Keep the bathroom sink cleaned off

Stay on top of the dishes
Dry and put up clean dishes *new*

Clean off the cabinets and bar top nightly *new*

Prep breakfast the night before *new*

Take vitamins and fish oil pills *new*

Weekly Goals:

Make a Menu Plan and try to follow it

Sweep the floor 2-3 times

Dump small trash cans once a week *new*

Take trash straight to the dumpster when it is ready to go out *new*

Additional things I would like to work on this week:

Priming the Dining Room

Typing up the freezer list

I am off to make me a spreadsheet check list, so I can keep track of them.  Maybe checking them off will help me remember to do them. 

Just another Thursday, right?

This has just been one of those weeks.  Every day felt like it was a different day.  I’m not sure if it is back lash from last weeks work schedule or what.  On top of that I’ve on been one of those emotional roller coasters.  I’m pretty sure I can place where the mood is coming from, I just don’t know what to do about it other than just ride it out.

I just wasn’t in the mood to really do anything this week, so I didn’t.  That frustrates me because I think about the time I wasted not doing the things on my list, especially after I had such a productive week last week.  I can either sit here and dwell over the lost time or move on.  I’m working on the moving on part.

I did keep up with those three daily items to do.  I also swept most of the house tonight, so that’s another check for me.

Even though I was so not feeling it, I taped around most of the baseboards in the dining room and I put down some card board.  After that was done I talked myself into opening a can of primer and got a coat on one wall of paneling before calling it a night.  It wasn't much, but at least it was something. 

The dining room transformation is really finally underway.  Now lets just see how long it takes me to finish it.

The Plan: Starting a Daily/Weekly Routine

I realize that having a routine will help keep you on track and doing the things you need to do.  For me it’s always been hard to establish one.  Or maybe I just have never really made the effort to.  I don’t know.

It is easy to just go with the flow when you aren’t married and you don’t have anyone but work depending on you to be somewhere at a specific time or get something done by a certain day.  For me, if I don’t feel like doing laundry for a week or two, I‘m the only one having to do the sniff test to pick out clothes.  No one is going to gripe at me if there are dirty dishes piled up next to the sink.  And if I don’t have anything in the fridge to eat, who one is around to give me a crazy look when I just eat garlic toast and pickles for dinner?

As long as I keep the litter box scooped and the cat feed, he doesn’t care what I do.

I have an irregular work schedule in the evenings, and since I have a full time job to go with that irregular part time job, the bulk of my cleaning chores would have to be done in the evenings and on weekends.  Not to mention that work nights are the nights I never get things done, because working 8am to 9pm with a short break between makes for a very long day and I usually just want to eat dinner and veg out when I get home.

I am so not a morning person.  It is really pointless for me to try to get up early to do anything before work.  I can say I will, but I really know that I won’t.  I just don’t function that well first thing in the morning.

I’ll have to suck it up though.  While there are nights where I won’t want to do anything, I need to remind myself that by doing a little each night it will mean that I don’t have to spend a whole day or more doing everything.  I will just have to play around with it to find a schedule that works for me, I guess.

I’m awesome at making plans, but so far suck at really following through.  Instead of getting way elaborate and making a big plan I’ll never follow I have decided that I will start small and work my way up.  I’m going to start with a few items that I plan to focus on, then add in another one or two every week or so.

This week my goals are to:

1.  Make my bed every morning. 

I’ve actually been working on this one since the beginning of the year, but sometimes I still skip it.  When I switch over and start using my new quilt I want the bed to look good every day.  Other wise I should have saved the money and stayed with the same comforter, that’s been in a space saver bag for over a year, which is now in the garage sale pile with its dozen throw pillows.

2.  Keep the bathroom sink cleaned off.

I made a basket for items I use regularly that I can pull off the shelf, use and return.  Instead of separating my daily make up out into different plastic drawers, I put it in just one.  Instead of hunting and digging around I can just pull out one drawer and replace it when I am finished.  This is probably normal everyday stuff for some, but not for me.

3.  Stay on top of the dishes.

My grandma was one of those that wouldn’t leave a dirty dish in the sink before she went to bed, ever.  My dad is the say way.  Somehow, it missed me, and not by a little bit either.  I can go a week without washing dishes.  Of course that means when I do wash the dishes I have to spend forever doing them.  Currently the only dirty dish in my kitchen is my tea glass, and I’m still drinking from it.

As I said before I could totally keep going here listing out ten or more things I *will* do every day.  But I am still sticking with the baby steps they just work better for me.  With the task of painting the dining room coming up, I won’t have a lot of time to focus on a bunch of other stuff.  Instead of setting myself up for failure I’m trying to set myself up for success.  When life hits an even kilter I’ll worry about having a bigger list of things I just must do every day.  But for now, those three will be it.

I do have the weekly goal of doing a menu plan for the week.  This is primarily to help me from wasting food/money.  I am tired of buying food then just never get around to doing anything with it before it goes bad.  I’ll be working on ’My Plan’ for that as I go along.

One last thing, I do want to get in the habit of sweeping the floor regularly.  I’d love to say I would do it nightly, but again I’m trying to be realistic here.  I plan to sweep at least two to three times a week.  Who knows, maybe I’ll turn in to a daily sweeper, but then again, maybe not.

I didn’t really do anything productive tonight.  The most I did other than cook dinner was portion out the ground turkey and spaghetti sauce into bags and froze it.  I had thought I would tackle something cleaning or organization wise, but I just wasn’t feeling it.  After wondering from room to room trying to figure out what to do, I decided to take the night off.  Even though it is only 9:30, I am going to crawl into bed with a book and read for a while and call it an early night.  Hoping sleep will improve my mood for tomorrow.

By the way, yes my bed got made this morning, the bathroom cabinet is cleaned off and I am about to go wash my tea glass. 

I can check all three items off for yesterday as well. *smile*