Spring Is In the Air…

Probably it’s not, really - it’s more of a false spring, I’m quite sure, but it feels so nice.  It’s cloudy and a little damp, but it’s so warm and the air is so fresh and has that wonderful smell that you only get on the cusp of the season between winter and spring.  Equal parts melting snow from the mountaintops and sprouting tulips from the valleys.  If the sun would come out it would be sheer blissful perfection, but I’m not pushing my luck.  I’m quite ecstatic enough just to be able to open the windows and freshen the house a little.  It’s wonderful.

Spring always makes me sort of nostalgic and wistful but in a really wonderful way.  It makes me want to just open myself to all the wonderful feelings and smells and breezes.  I just sort of want to hug the whole world, silly as that sounds. 

I’m really happy with the way the weekend has gone.  I did well yesterday with food - not perfect, but really well.  I didn’t have quite as many servings of whole grains or fruits and veggies as I would have liked, but I didn’t really eat anything I shouldn’t have with the exception of a little more sodium than was ideal.  Nothing outrageous though.  I also had a marvelous workout that I was really proud of, which has not been the norm lately.  I feel a particular sense of momentum today that is really pleasing to me as it’s very unusual for me on the weekend.  Today I have not had any trouble staying on plan and more than anything I just feel incredibly motivated. 

I’m getting so much done around the house, which adds a lot to that feeling of purpose and efficiency and accomplishment.  There’s still so much catching-up to do from having worked two jobs for so long, and there’s just nothing in the world I like better than creating order from chaos.  (Unless, perhaps, it’s list-making.)  So despite the 20 piles and baskets of laundry in various stages of completion, the dirty dishes from having cleaned out the refrigerator, and the bedding that still has to be put back on after having been cleaned, I am feeling pretty awesome.  I’m a Housekeeping-Dieter Ninja today! 

I made myself a calendar…just got a wild hair the other day and thought it would be neat to go ahead and have a calendar to track my on-plan/off-plan days.  So I made one in Publisher - nothing too fancy, but pretty cool.  On each month I put a picture - random stuff: one is Bob from TBL, holding cupcakes and looking all sly, and I captioned it “Is it worth it?  IS it?”; another is a squirrel with a Reese’s cup in its mouth and the caption is “There’s no RIGHT way to eat a Reese’s.”  (They’re one of my weaknesses.)  Silly stuff, some of it…but some isn’t.  There’s a picture of my kids with the caption “There’s always a good reason not to quit.  Usually more than one.” and a picture of my Dad - who passed away from cancer when I was 16 - when he was sick, holding our cat, with the caption “Life is so short.  Make the most of every single minute.”  All of them are good reminders to myself when I feel tired and depressed and futile; at least, I hope they will be. 

So my plan was to get stickers to put on the calendar on the days when I’m on-plan, but when I went looking all I could come up with (on short notice) was different-colored stars.  But I thought that wasn’t a bad idea, because I can color-code and put different colors on for different degrees of “on-planishness”.  (My word, thank you.  Ha.)  So depending on just how closely I stuck to my plan, I get a red star, a green one, a silver one, or a gold one.  If I blow food and exercise on the same day, I get no star at all.

The idea is not only positive reinforcement (and/or negative!), but also to be able to look back and see how I did on weeks when I had good results, as well as when I have not-so-good results.  It’s probably over-complicated and who knows how long I’ll keep it up, but the idea suits my OCD pretty well. 

And now I need to stop rambling and get back to my Ninja Housekeeping.  That’s going to have to be another hat, right there, though I think it might be more of a doo-rag.  Heh.

Happy Sunday, all!

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Oh, and BTW, I bought and took a pregnancy test yesterday.  Negative, of course.  Today, I started my period.  Heh.  There you go.  Big relief though; perhaps now my body can start to get back to normal.