Hello beautiful people of the interwebs! Its a rainy and chilly day here in East Texas. Normally these kind of days make me want to curl up and stay in bed and finish season 5 of The Walking Dead. But instead, I put on my brightest mustard yellow sweater, because I always gravitate towards yellow when its a rainy day. Life has been INSANE! So I've been slacking on the Fit & Happy posts, and most posts in general. Today I can finally breathe a bit so I wanted to recap how things have been lately. I'm focusing mostly on mental health and happiness today so get ready for some heavy stuff. In case you've missed it, each (most) Tuesday I'm writing my goals and recapping the previous week's goals in my journey towards mental and physical health/happiness. You can find the previous posts here.

Fit & Happy where have you been? I've been slacking lately! Truth be told I've been insanely busy with school starting back up and launching the new Gypsy Beard web site! Also, I been getting swarmed with questions and new design clients, which is so so exciting! This is my busiest season to date and it's only January! Anyways, in case you've missed it, each Tuesday I'm writing my goals and recapping the previous week's goals in my journey towards mental and physical health/happiness. You can find the previous posts here.

So here's a recap on my recent goals and how well I followed through.

- Incorporate Goals Into A Daily To Do list. I cannot tell you how much this helped! For the most part, every goal I make that doesn't get accomplished is because I forget to pursue it! I set an alarm on my phone for several important tasks such as the days I want to work out, plan meals, set aside time for painting or music etc.


-Studio / Shop Room I made small progress here. But there's still a lot to be done. Ideally, I'll have a full functioning photography studio that I can break down and reassemble quickly.

-Continue To Make Healthy Food Choices I caved again and have eaten fast food a few times since I quit. :-( I regretted it as soon as I ate it too! I felt so horrible! I felt like my body hated me for it. I felt tired and gross and heavy. It's important to listen to what your body says, and mine was definitely telling me "Screw you for eating that cheeseburger! What are you doing to me?"

-Get out! Sadly our trip got pushed back due to our schedule. Oddly enough though, I have one class that I have to drive an hour away for that has really done wonders for me mentally. When you have a job with very little physical human interaction, go to school online and most of your friends live across the country it can be lonely! Getting out and interacting with likeminded people has been healthy for me.

-Organize The Adult Things I've made big steps here recently with taking care of business. I've got a long ways to go though.

-Spend An Hour A Day Playing Piano / Painting / Drawing I've overcompensated here haha. I've been painting and drawing like crazy! I started an art challenge where you draw or create something everyday. I've been sharing on Instagram with the hashtag #2015yearofart. There are a few other people I know who are participating and are doing a much better job at keeping up than I *cough cough* but its still fun. 

Also, I bought a UKULELE! I'm so excited about this haha. I've been wanting one for awhile and when Santa disappointed, I took it upon myself to get one. I can play a few chords so far but I'm learning! I'm having trouble with tuning it just right but hopefully I will get the hang of it. Maybe I'll be brave enough to share me playing one day. 



I feel pretty good with where this year is going so far. I need to exercise more as always but I'm doing better than I was. Here's are my next goals.


- Learn To Tune & Play A Song On My Ukulele!  This is self explanatory but hopefully I'll have time to really work at this week.


-Just Get Stuff Done & Don't Lose My Mind If I make it through the next few months without a breakdown, that will be a huge accomplishment. With how crazy I expect this semester to be with school and freelance work, I've got to just focus on getting stuff done. I'm not going to stress about much else other than spending time with family. I just want to make it through the semester in one piece haha.

-Continue To Make Healthy Food Choices I'm doing well apart from the random fast food nightmares. Ugh. I want to drink even more water and eat even more fruits and vegetables and plan out our dinners a little better. 

-Get out! After missing our trip to San Antonio & Austin, I've got a serious travel itch! I've been dreaming of Colorado or the desert. Maybe I'll be able to get away for a day or two in between the work/school madness. I'm sure I'm going to need it. Spring break anybody?

-Get Lots Of Sleep This goes without saying... I'm going to need it. No more late night Netflix binges and getting up early for work. 

I've learned something about my happiness lately. Doing the work I love, staying busy painting & drawing and making progress whether in school or work has really contributed to my mental happiness. A huge source of my unhappiness has been being stuck at a day job that doesn't feed my creative soul. I'm still working there during the day, but I don't dwell so much on it now that I have other outlets that are keeping me so busy. Have you noticed something in particular that adds to your mental happiness? Or do you do anything that really relieves stress for you?

 I'll be tracking my journey on Instagram & Twitter with hashtag #fitandhappytues


 

Last week I decided to start a new featured called Fit & Happy Tuesday geared towards motivating myself to get healthy mentally and physically and for tracking my progress and goals. Last month I laid out my long term goals as well as goals for this past week. It's helped having these goals in the back of my mind as I go throughout my day to day life.

So here's how it went this past week with my week one goals.

- Limit TV/Computer time to only 1 hour a night. I definitely cut back on TV a LOT this past week. I don't know if it was exactly an hour but it was definitely a lot less time. Baby steps! haha

-Begin Yoga This did not happen. I thought about it but I let procrastination and laziness get in the way. It was a busy week but that's no excuse. There's a new yoga place in town that I think might actually want to join but we'll see....

 -Cut Out Fast Food I caved twice. I'm going to have to plan meals better and grocery shop more strategically, otherwise fast food is going to be a huge problem for me. On the plus side though I didn't get fast food several days for lunch at work like I usually do.

-Spend At Least 30 Minutes A Day Doing Something Cardiofied This past week I was definitely more active. I didn't get in any jogging or soccer, but we did take a few walks and did a lot of shopping. Walking around a mall for 3 hours surely has to count as exercise because I'm always exhausted after that. I had a market last weekend so spent a lot of time heavy lifting and on my feet standing for several hours at a time. We also went indoor skydiving and I was brutally sore in my arms the next few days after that.

-Begin Cutting Out As Much Sugar & Caffein As Possible I did great knocking out energy drinks and Dr.Pepper this past week. Coffee will always be my friend though I think. Again, baby steps! 

-Clean Out The Pantry & Fridge Luckily all of the sweets were gone before I wrote last weeks post. We aren't big chip eaters either so that helps. Aside from Christmas cookies I don't think we'll keep anything sweet around for quite awhile. 

-Begin A Cleanse I made it three days haha. Better than nothing though!

-Declutter Mentally & Physically I can already say that once I set my mind on being more positive and happy that I've noticed a difference in my attitude. I'm feeling more confident in myself and realizing my self worth. I'm standing up for myself and loving others more. Decluttering the house will have to wait for this week haha.

-Trying Something & Go Somewhere New We went indoor sky diving and it was awesome! We went to iFly Dallas in Frisco and it was a blast. My parents paid for it as my birthday present this year. It was definitely the most daring thing I've ever done. I can't wait to do it again or to try something else new. Our instructor was an awesome dude and really made the experience memorable. He even let my son walk out and check the "tunnel out and explained it all to him even though he didn't participate.






- Enjoy Thanksgiving. So it's really hard thinking about being healthy and all that Thanksgiving week. Regardless, I think its important to not over do it. I plan on enjoying Thanksgiving. I probably won't eat a piece of every pie though.

-Feed On Feeding My Heart & Soul I plan to focus on spending time with family and friends this week and really soaking in their love and company. I'll be attending a Friendsgiving this weekend too and I cannot wait. Great food and great people is what its all about.

-Cutback On Meat So I don't think I'll ever be able to be a vegetarian, but I really like the idea of cutting back how much meat we consume. My son could live off fruit and vegetables but not me. I think we could do 3 days a week without meat.

-Spend 30 Minutes Every Day Being Active I think I'll keep this goal permanently. Now if I could just get my treadmill fixed.....

 -Cut Out Fast Food I'm going to keep at this one too.

-Get Rid Of The Things We Don't Need I've got a 5 day weekend! This week I'm going to focus on creating a peaceful home. (As peaceful as a place can be that in inhabited by a boston terrier and a 7 year old boy). I plan to clean out closets and get rid of unneeded things. This is the perfect time to donate old clothes and toys. This will also get rid of the stress I experience with clutter and looking for things last minute!

-Go Somewhere New This week I think I'll focus on going somewhere new. Surely my 5 day weekend will allow for exploring somewhere new. New places always inspire me and get my brain turning. 

-Spend an hour drawing / painting There is something so relaxing and therapeutic about getting into my artistic zone. It's been too long.

That is it for week two. What struggles have you faced in getting healthy and happy? If you want to join in on this with me or blog along let me know in the comments! I'll be tracking my journey on Instagram & Twitter with hashtag #fitandhappytues