What I’m Into (and how my February habit went)

 

At the end of each month, I’m writing a post about what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to, and I’m also including updates on the goals I set for myself each month.

I’m a little late with this month’s, as its already March 5th.   Whoops.

What I Read

Secrets from the Eating Lab

At first, I wasn’t sure what to think about this book, because the beginning chapters made me think the author thought there was no point in trying to eat well. But as I read further, I started to see that her point is that diets have been scientifically proven to be ineffective at helping people get healthy, especially when you look at long-term results.

And the second half of the book gets into strategies for sustainable healthy changes, which will not magically help you lose 50 pounds in two weeks, but which will help you get to a healthy weight for your particular body.

For the Love

This is from Jen Hatmaker, and I really liked it.   She’s really entertaining and down to earth, and I thought her words about giving ourselves grace (and giving that same grace to others) were very wise.

This is a fun read, as evidenced by the fact that I got through it in just a few days.

Breaking Busy

I kept seeing this book pop up all over blogs that I read, and since my library doesn’t have it, I actually bought a copy.

(notable, because I usually just read what my library carries!)

While this book was ok, I just wasn’t all that wowed by it. I’m not sure if the writing style didn’t click for me, or if the author’s personality didn’t click with me or what.   It wasn’t bad..it just didn’t keep me anxious to read the next chapter like For the Love did.    And the information it contained wasn’t all that earth-shattering for me either.

Definitely not a re-read for me.

A Jane Austen Education

I picked this up on a whim from a library display.   I didn’t really dig it at first (so much analyzing of books that have just been fun reads for me!), but I grew to like it more as I kept reading.

I don’t think I’ll ever think as hard about novels as the author does, but he did open my eyes to some things in Austen’s books that I hadn’t seen before.

What I watched

Um, nothing.

I sat here for a minute or two thinking about it just to be sure, and yeah, I think the truth is that I didn’t watch anything at all.

What I’m listening to

I’m afraid this is about the same as last month.   We’re still playing lots of Adele around the house, and I’m still catching up on the Fizzle indie business podcast when I’m in the car.

I’m nearly caught up, though, so I did add Anne Bogel’s What Should I Read Next? podcast into my library, so I’ll catch up on that this month, I think.

I’m also listening to a few tracks from the newest Indelible Grace album.   I rarely like a whole Indelible Grace album (a little too folksy for me), but I usually like a track or two pretty well.   On this album, I like 1) Come Ye Souls, 2) Speak, I Pray Thee Gentle Jesus, and 3) Thou Are My Life.

Goal Updates

My February goal was to do four stretches every day.

This, I discovered, was a little bit optimistic.   While it’s fairly easy to work this into my daily routine during the week, it was really hard for me to remember to stretch on the weekends!

So, I’m going to modify my goal and say that I’d like to stretch 5 days a week.   That’s still way more than I was stretching before, and it’s a more manageable goal.

I’m using a free printable goal calendar from Craft Street Design to track my progress in March (when you visit the site, you should see a pop-up offering the freebie with email signup).

It’s got handy-dandy circles to fill in each day, and I think seeing the page on my wall will really help me remember.

My continuing January goal was to cook with each of my kids once during the month.   I didn’t do quite as well with this, but I got 3/4 cooking a meal, which is more than I was doing in 2015.

And March is a new month, so I get to try again!

March Goal

For the new month, my goal is to do time-tracking and actually stick with it for a month.   I’ve done some time-tracking here and there before, but I always fall off the wagon about 3-4 days in.

So, this month, I’d like to time-track my weekdays and I plan to do that in 15 minute increments.   I’ve tried doing it before in half hour or hour segments, and my life is just WAY too fragmented for that.

I’m often lucky to spend 15 minutes on a particular task, let alone an hour.

The great thing about time-tracking is that I find it to be a sort of self-correcting process.   When I write down how I spend my time, I tend to spend it better.

(It works like writing down the money you spend.   Or the food you eat.)

Here’s a productive (and tracked!) month.