It was just summer.
The traffic was manageable.
I was sipping away by the pool every week.
and.. and.. I was constantly 30 days away from a “trip”.
Once school is back in session I claim fall, which means I have to cut all ties with summer. Yep. Sweet, vacation mood summer. This summer was my favorite! I took full advantage of it to the point that I put my favorite hobby on hold– YOU! Oh how it feel so great to be back!
Let me give you a run down (insert the Office quote) of the festivities!
- May — I joined a girls weekend in Austin with my favorite coworkers and then met Caleb over the holiday weekend in Baton Rouge, LA.
- June — Caleb graduated flight school and we moved him back home! Then we celebrated my birthday at my favorite Cajun joint and I drank ALL of the hurricanes.
- July — Celebrated more happiness and homecomings before Caleb went to Michigan for the month and I went on a 5 day Mother-Daughter cruise!
- August — Caleb came home for a week and then he we to Dallas for another week and got back and began working nights and is now about to go back to Dallas for xxx days and so every time we see each other it is a party.
LIFE. IS. GOOD. Life is great. Life needs less cocktails and more kale.
- Water. Summer is all about the cocktails, the vacations, and the pool days. A little T.M.I for you– My practice has been “drink water until your pee is clear” and before this summer, I would wake up to the clearest pee. Once Cinco De Mayo came, I saved the water for the pool and the ice in my drinks! What’s the harm in having non-clear pee anyways? Pretty much a lot. We are 60% water with our blood containing 90%. Water does quite an impressive number to our body! Simply remembering those two percentages has helped me begin chugging all day long! If you’re hankering for more benefits of water, you can find 15 of them here.
- Commit to three activities a week. MOVE YOUR BODY! Whether it be simply taking the dog for a walk Monday-Wednesday-Friday, or gathering friends for a kickball game, just get off the couch and move around. During the summer months, I move my least because it’s dangerously hot, I usually have a margarita in my belly or hand, and it’s just so dang hot. Being that I am a total sloth of a person, this year’s motivation is coming from The Pink 5K in October. A run partly sponsored by the company I work for with plenty of familiar faces and colleagues attending. So, I can’t be a total sloth and show up race day yawning because after that first mile, there’s still two more!
- Pack your lunch (and eat it), every week day. Take it out to the car and eat it if that is what it takes! Friends, eating your self-made lunch 5 days a week will not kill you. First, it will literally help your bank account and second, it automatically gives you 5 (FIVE) meals that were “spot-on” for the week. Sometimes that’s all it takes to begin feeling better, to begin making better decisions, and to begin moving forward to the life you want for yourself.Consistent lunch takeout is such a pet peeve of mine and in all honesty it’s because around here lunch is easily $13+ dollars, $2,028 annually 3x’s a week, and it screams LAZY. Not having a lunch from home either means that you don’t cook dinner, you “don’t eat leftovers” (boohoo), or that taking the Tupperware out and spooning a serving into it requires so much energy that you just can’t even. It’s that simple.
Bring your lunch. Save your money. Help your waistline.
For dramatic effect: $2,028 (5 years of work) = $10,140. - Journal your meals. I can not express how helpful this is for me. Earlier this year I shared a post about the habits I had in 2017 and since revisiting those, I have been reminded of how easy it is to “throw the baby out with the bath water” when you’re not giving much attention to your diet (fuel for your body, not being on a “diet”). My journal is NOT calorie, macro, or numbers based. It’s simply what I eat in two colors.
- Whole, real, nutrient rich foods that promote health in black.
- All of the “worth it” choices in purple.
- Purple allows me to quickly observe how many “worth it” decisions I make in a week, and black encourages me as it says “but look at all of those “great” choices you made!”
- Set a goal. Here’s the deal about goals, they don’t have to be drastic. They can simply be “shower each night before bed”. However, most of us place our biggest goal right in front of the others and stare at it every day not acknowledging that it takes all of the other goals to make it to our ultimate dream. Set baby goals that will allow the big ‘ol daddy goal to shine!
Wholesome Joy 