Welcome to February! Here in New York it is cold, gray, and wintry mix-y. Personally, I’m a little tired of it, it seems like we’ve been getting a snow storm every week. What’s it like where you are?
I kind of feel like the weather has been cramping my style a little bit this week. I know that’s kind of silly, given that it’s only Tuesday, but I’m annoyed that I’ve already had to rearrange my schedule because I couldn’t run this morning (because of the aforementioned wintry mix). Now, I guess that in the interest of full disclosure I should mention that originally I didn’t have a run planned for today, but because I didn’t do it yesterday I figured I would fit it in today instead. And, um, I didn’t do it yesterday because I just couldn’t get up when my alarm went off. So.
Rather than get annoyed about it, though (and I was very annoyed about it earlier), I decided to just readjust my plan for this week. Here’s the revised schedule:
With luck, tomorrow it will just be rainy morning and not a frozen morning. Cold rain I can tolerate, but I’m not keen on the possibility of slipping on ice or slush and breaking something.
In addition to ushering in some minor schedule-specific changes, I feel that this is a good time to usher in some more global changes as well. At the beginning of January, I did a run-down of a few goals that I wanted to revisit each month. These goals were grouped into categories: food, home, body, and mind. I, er, didn’t really do all that well with any of them. But that’s okay! And since it’s a new month, I’m not going to linger on them too long, except to say that they were the inspiration for the theme I’m giving to February: Follow Through!
I’m great at declaring that I’m going to do something; I’m not great at following through and doing it. My reasons for backing out of things are various and sundry, and range from fear to sheer laziness. And while I’m working on learning that it’s okay when you don’t follow through on everything (I mean, obviously some things are more important than others), I do think it would be a good idea to focus on following through with a couple projects over the next 28 days, especially when the projects are things that scare or challenge my comfort zone in some way.
This month, I’ll be working on following through with:
- Keeping a food journal: Food has been pretty difficult for me lately and I’ve found myself slipping very easily back into bad habits. Safe foods and lack of variety are two big problems that I need to deal with, and a good way to do this would be by writing down what I’m eating so that I have a concrete way of evaluating it.
- Running consistently: As always, right? I am getting back into a habit, though, and I plan on continuing in that vein. The hardest part will be sticking with it once it becomes a regular thing and I start to see improvement. That always tends to scare me and make me want to back down.
- Practicing yoga outside the home: I have a couple Groupons I purchased that are just sitting collecting dust right now. I’m very comfortable picking out a class from YogaDownload and practicing at home. Now I need to take my mat to a studio, and make use of the classes I’ve basically already paid for.
- Using the free workout pass I requested from Lucille Roberts and going to see if I am interested in joining until the weather gets nicer. Like the Groupons, I’ve been meaning to use this (I’ve only had it for a week or so, but it expires after two), but I just haven’t. What can I say? I get nervous about places that are new and unfamiliar!
Will you be working on following through with anything this month? Do you have any goals for February?
I came to run 
i have some goals that i made at the beginning of january that didn’t get met during the month, i would like to work on them this month though! they include increasing my yoga practice and strength training to 2x per week for each of them. i didn’t even come close to that last month!
Doing yoga is one of my goals as well. I’ve only been once to a studio, but plan to attend weekly in February. And now that’s I’ve openly voiced this goal, I’ve probably jinxed myself…
I’m ready for winter to end! You’re right – it’s a wintry storm every week and it definitely throws a monkey wrench into everything. But never fear, spring is just around the corner. It’s February! Not too much longer to Valentine’s Day which if for nothing else, is a good mid-month break in an already short month. Hang in there!
I liked that post a lot, Emilie. You’re doing exactly what it takes to reach the goals you set for the year. I think so, anyway.
The cold and the snow don’t bother me so much. I guess I just got used to it. Running on a slippery surface is just a matter of speed: it will not make you fall IF you slow you down. I love running during winter, because the air is so fresh, but slush really sucks.
I’m with you – I have a hard time following through. I revisited my food journal this week and have been doing a great job. I hope to stick with it!
Don’t be too hard on yourself! It’s so great that you’re recognizing your challenges and thinking about ways to overcome them.
I’m the same way about announcing that I’m going to do something, and then not following through. I think I’ll take your example and follow through on things this month. Hopefully, it won’t be a passing fad! 🙂