March = Massive Modifications Part 2

Day 3 // Thursday, March 3rd

• I did 16 minutes on our row machine, 1 minute wall squat, 1 minute plank, and five minutes of weight lifting/ab work.
• Bare bones for homeschool. I had a lot of Legos to post on eBay so I spent most of the day taking photos, researching pricing, and posting.
• No shopping! Which Thursday is 1/2 off day at one thrift store where I typically find quite a bit to resell (and I find a lot of joy in organizing the children's books for better browsing). 
• I woke up with a slight headache, and overall just didn't have a lot of energy the entire day. 
• No alcohol cravings. 
• Definitely upped my water - I've never kept track of oz. so I honestly don't know how much more but it's been at least 3-6 more pint glasses per day.
• I had 2 pieces of chocolate to end my evening. So failed there on the no extra sugar, but honestly it was worth it to keep my motivation going! 

Day 4 // Friday, March 4th

"Hey, let's have a no spend month!"
*Your sole vehicle decides to break down.*
"So, aside from the $500 to the truck, let's have a no spend month."

Whomp. Whomp.

• Probably only worked out for 10 minutes. 50 weighted (8lbs) jumping jacks, 30 weighted scissor jumps, 20 weighted high knees, 20 weighted butt kicks, got on the ground and upped weight to 15lbs for ab twists, flat back toe touches, and flat back leg raises. My heart rate was up, and I was feeling really great for about 5 minutes.
• Pounding headache. Upset tummy. Probably my least favorite part of detox. My energy levels were down all day. 
• Homeschool. You know the song "We Don't Talk About Bruno" on the movie Encanto? Well, that's sort of how I'm feeling..."Let's Not Talk About Homeschool!" It is my biggest area of failure in this journey so far. Monday is a new day, and a new week to get back into a fun routine with art projects and history lessons. I WILL find the motivation!!
• No shopping! No desire to!
• Husband had beer with his lunch (not in front of me...he just told me, but..) I found myself a bit jealous. Beer and a burger sound good. Went to my in-laws and would typically have a glass of wine but that wasn't a temptation this time.
• I think I had a normal amount of water, didn't up it.
• Again, had 2 pieces of chocolate to end my evening. Need to kick that. I also had a few pieces of salami, a piece of cheese, and a handful of pretzels. Definitely did not need that late night snack...probably boredom or that hand to mouth habit and water wasn't cutting it.

Day 5 // Saturday, March 5th

• So, zero energy or motivation have hit. I woke up, got on my phone to look at the weather, our bank account, eBay, read The Bible, photo album perusing...basically anything to keep me from getting my bum out of bed and working out. I like to work out on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning. Then drink a full glass (sometimes two) of water. Make an egg breakfast of some kind. And then move on to coffee. Today I skipped it all and went straight to coffee.
• My mood has dropped. Groggy. Lacking that pep.  
• The girls' and I had to go to Walmart for Qtips and a personal item for myself. We noticed winter jackets on mega clearance. I picked up the girls' winter coats for next year...originally $49.95 on clearance for $9! 
• No alcohol cravings.
• Water intake was normal.
• I made chocolate chip cookies and ate two. FAIL!! 

Day 6 // Sunday, March 6th

• Slept in until 9am. No workout!

Aaaannnnndddddd...I accidentally quit tracking! 

Sooo, here we are Thursday, March 10th and I wouldn't even begin to know what happened the past four days. 

I can tell you I'm still alcohol free though!

Our family is looking to buy a home and gosh darn, the market is not friendly at the moment. Homes that we looked at 3 years ago are going for double or more. 
I literally just want to own a home, have two working and reliable vehicles, and enough "fun money" every month to enjoy life! My prayer is to THRIVE not just survive through life. My prayer for all of you reading this is the same! 

May you thrive!

I woke up with a headache today. Like a pounding headache. Pushed through and got up. 

We looked at a house; when we were done it was lunch time. The girls were both begging for fast food, but I drove us home to save money! I'll be honest, the lazy part of me definitely wanted to stop. 

Anyway, these past 10 days have been challenging and rewarding. 
I'll try to keep track of the days better. 

Thanks for following along on this journey with me!

Love, 

Nicole

March = Massive Modifications

In the weeks leading up to my 33rd birthday I knew change needed to happen.
Big changes.
Massive modifications in lifestyle. 

I homeschool our two girls; they're in 1st and 3rd this year. I had gotten pretty lazy with it. Most days we would only do Math and English. We set out with the intention of having a different area of study each week: castles, bugs, trees, love, Lilly's pick the week of her birthday, and Penny's pick another week, etc. Instead, we would do Math and English and then they'd saunter off to their room to play Barbie's or read books. Which, admittedly, I loved! I loved the time and space to do whatever I wanted. But again, I set out with an intention of what I'd do with that time and it always seemed to end with scrolling social media mindlessly.  

Another area of failed intention: only drinking Friday - Sunday's. It got bad. SO BAD. I would drink a bottle to a bottle and a half of wine every night. A six-pack of hard seltzer? Gone in one night. Keep in mind that is 600 non-beneficial calories consumed - for what?! The day I realized I had a real problem was when three days prior we had bought the big jug of Tito's vodka and my husband looked in the freezer and it was 3/4 gone.
"Didn't we just buy this?" He questioned.
"Just let me live my life!" I snapped back. 

Yet another area of failed intention: spending extra money and not being purposeful with saving. As I'm sure is the case for most areas, the housing market here is insane. We are in a rental that wants to up our rent $450 more/month when our lease is up in June. I'm completely beside myself as we've been needing to save for a down payment on a home, so that cuts into our savings. Gone are the days of homes being priced for a single-income family to own and live comfortably. 

Oh geez, yet another area of failed intention: moving my body/losing some weight/water consumption. Back in 2018 I had an office job and started gaining a couple pounds. No biggie, weight fluctuates. Fast forward to today, I have at least 20 pounds I would like to lose. I've adopted quite the sedentary lifestyle. Sitting, laying, and lounging take up a lot of my day. 

Okay, so back to a few weeks before my birthday...I started mentally prepping myself that come March 1st I was going to be drastically cutting some things out of my life and working on building better habits for a lifelong healthier future. A week before, I had mentioned to a couple people that I was going to quit drinking the whole month of March. No alcohol for a month is something I've done a few times over the past few years; I mentally prep and had made it through each time. But back in December I had decided to not drink the whole month of January. January came and I honestly don't think I made it three days without drinking. [Insert yikes face.] 
March 1st had to be different. No caving into the craving this time!

February 28th I wrote on my Instagram and forgot to write down what I wrote to put here so it won't be identical but you'll get the gist. 
'Tomorrow's my birthday and I want to go into my 33rd year with healthier habits. I'm going to quit drinking the whole month of March [maybe longer], no social media [undetermined amount of time - Instagram/Facebook/TikTok], and the whole family is doing a "no spend" month. We're only going to spend on what we need, not want. Meaning no thrift stores [which is going to be the hardest for me - especially because I had started reselling and bringing in a nice little income with that], no Target/Walmart/Sportsman, no going out to eat. I'm going to move my body at least 20 minutes a day, up my water intake, and no sweets!' 

Something I didn't share was my goal to get back to doing more with homeschooling.

So, there you have it! A whole month of drastic changes. 
It's day 2 and I've already been challenged!

Last night, for my birthday, we went out to sushi. You're probably thinking what I felt, already failure on no going out to eat! HA! HOWEVER; we would typically order sake and we didn't! So, I was pretty proud of that.

Today I wanted to sleep in, but I got my bum moving and did 11 minutes on our row machine, a 1 minute wall sit, and about 5 minutes of weights. Not quite the 20 minutes, but more than yesterday so there's that. 
After Math and English we went to the public library and both girls got a library card and checked out a book. We've been home for one hour and Lilly already finished her 65 page chapter book! She recited what the whole story was about...almost word-for-word...she's our talker and apparently speed reader. 
We did buy a birthday gift for their little friend, but no extras! 
I haven't had any crazy withdrawals from alcohol yet. I was honestly expecting way worse. 

There you have it. My update on the first two days of detox, building better habits, and my intention for the next few weeks. 

Have you ever quit/changed a habit?
Have you ever started doing something new after being fairly set in your ways?
Curious what encouraged you along the way?

Thanks for reading friends!

Much love,
Nicole