Ok, so the summer is coming to a close. My kids are done with camp, but not yet back in school. They are home with me ALL DAY LONG. My electricity bill is through the roof. I haven’t been tracking much. So I’m ready for the fall change.
I’m taking this time to get ready for a new routine, explore new recipes, a fresh outlook, and ways to keep myself interested.
I started thinking back to when I first started WW. Before starting the plan, I initially thought:
“I need to join a gym.
I need to buy an air fryer.
And a Fitbit.
And new sneakers."
These ideas are all good! But I can get easily wrapped up in the thought of buying new things. It’s fun to shop and get new stuff. But I don’t have the money or space for it. And honestly, I prefer to get rid of stuff instead of acquiring more.
From the beginning, I always heard something inside tell me, “Utilize the resources you have. Don’t try to change your circumstances - instead, maximize what you’ve got”.
So instead of my wallet, I use my imagination. It’s a free resource we all have. And it’s my favorite tool.
I use my house as my gym. Seriously. Instead of paying a gym to move, I put my headphones on and clean. I look at the laundry like it’s a race to the finish. I haul baskets of clothes up and down the stairs and fold them as fast as I can. And I bet you would be shocked to see how many squats you can get cleaning the bathroom. Organizing closets, cleaning the refrigerator, vacuuming - you will get activity, I promise! Especially if you put a bounce in your step and do it whole-heartedly. Your mind is off of food - and at the end of the day, your house will sparkle. But if you enjoy the gym... keep doing it!!! Don't let my Rocky IV (training in Russia) approach keep you from doing what works best for you.
As for an air-fryer… as much as I want one, I can’t bring myself to buy one because I found ways to do similar, if not identical things in my toaster oven. But I’m pretty sure the crisp you get in an air-fryer is a little better and faster. So if you already have an air-fryer - keep using it! I’m ok with the toaster oven for now. My only point in mentioning this is to say that you don’t need special kitchen apparatus to make it on this plan. You can find ways around it.
Today, as a fun exercise with my kids, we are going to tie up our right hand, and see who can go the longest using only their left hand throughout the day (we are all righty’s). Restrictions actually make us think differently because we are forced to look to other resources for a solution. It’s just so easy to go on auto-pilot. We get stuck in patterns of thought, and can’t see past them.
That’s how it can be on our journey. I’ve been on the WW plan for over a year now, so I need to see things differently to keep it fun. When you look at monotonous, ordinary things you see day in, and day out, it’s hard to find something new in it. But it is there!!!
So… this fall, I’m rolling out a new category on my website called, “Food for Thought”. This is the category where I get to ramble. I try to avoid lengthy introductions on my recipe posts because I find it’s a little frustrating to sift through a lot of verbiage when you just want to get to a recipe. But every now and then, I like chatting about stuff pertaining to my journey. So if you are still reading this, thanks! I hope to share things that help and inspire you. If not, you can easily ignore this category and just look for the recipes. :-)
