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I cannot believe that we are entering a new month.  This year is flying by.  Another month means I need to teach myself to stick to another habit.

I’m doing pretty well in the dishes department.  I manage to run my dishwasher at least once a day, which has changed how clean I can keep my kitchen.  It’s amazing.  I also am beginning to be able to put things in their place now that I am getting rid of the chaff in my house.

Now that we are entering March, I am going to start building a routine that I am dreading.   It involves my Under Armour shoes.  I am not looking forward to this month, which is why I chose one of the months this year that actually has 31 days in it.  I’m going to need every single one of them to turn this into a habit that I will be able to stick with.

I also wanted to wait to start this journey because I didn’t want to be a cliché.  Again.  I’ve made promises to myself over the years where exercise is concerned; started things at the beginning of the year and fizzled and burned out before the end of January.

Every.single.time.

As I’ve said before, this year I want to make permanent, sustainable changes in my life.  So for the entire month of March, I am going to walk.  Every day for at least 30 minutes.  If I can’t do it outside with Oreo –

then I’m going to have to buckle down and use the dreaded treadmill.

I actually like our treadmill.  It does exactly what it’s supposed to do and it does it well.  I just seriously dislike walking on it in the house.   I know that doesn’t make any sense – Hi, I’m Tracie and I’m a walking, talking contradiction most of the time.  Walking outside with Oreo doesn’t quite feel like exercise.  EVERYTHING about walking on the treadmill feels like exercise.  Which I hate with a passion.

One thing that I have found that makes is slightly less traumatic for ME is to actually dress for it.  I used to just wear whatever I had on at the time (more than likely my comfy yoga pants and my crocs 🙄), and let me tell you, that makes it much, much worse.  If I change into workout gear – and my supply is pitiful – it does something to my brain.  It doesn’t make the actual exercise any less horrifying, but it switches something inside me to say “Let’s get this done and over with!”.

Also, listening to a podcast or watching a YouTube video dramatically cuts down on the torture for me.  I can take myself out of the misery slightly, and I am not constantly looking at the time shouting “3 minutes!!!!  It has to have been an hour already”.  Never mind the fact that I set the timer for 30 minutes, but you get the point.

I am just the opposite if I’m outside with Oreo or the kids and Denton.  I am trying my hardest to be present.  That means paying attention.  To conversations, either with the family or the dog.  Don’t you talk to your dog?  To nature, even now in the dead of winter there are things to see.  Yesterday we saw six white tail deer.

They walked across the street right in front of us.  This is the only one I caught on camera.

Things are already getting ready to burst into Spring and I can’t wait.  The trees are getting buds on them, and everything here is getting a faint green sheen to it.  It’s lovely.  But you have to look for it right now.

I take my phone in case I want to snap a photo, but I don’t scroll through Instagram because I can do that another time.  I’m soaking up the last of this cool winter weather.  I know that Spring is going to be short and sweet.  I can’t wait!  Also, I figure that if I make walking every day part of my routine NOW while it’s still cool, when the weather turns into the boiling, roiling surface of the sun we call summer, it will be ingrained in my brain and I’ll do it anyway.  At least that’s the hope with these routines I’m developing.

Do you have plans to make simple changes in your life this year?  I would love to hear  about it!  How’s it going so far?

You can find all of the posts in this series here.