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