October Happiness Project

As we head out of September and into fall, I examine last month’s behaviors to see if I stuck to my happiness project plan.

· Make bed

In a sleep induced stupor I made my bed first thing every morning. Even when I wasn’t sleeping in my bed. I made THE bed. Wherever I was.

· Clear out a drawer- or several.

Okay this was ambitious. And never happened.

· Stop dumping clothes on the ground.

I have finally broken this habit. I had to occasionally rescue a few socks but at least I’m not tripping over bras in the middle of the night.

· Exercise

Today not only did I exercise at the gym, I actually walked to the gym. If you knew how close I was to the gym, that would be far less impressive than it first sounded but it’s still extra exercise. I renewed my diet and am really serious about losing weight. Which brings me to my next point.

Month: October

· Stop eating crap

I consume crap. Like all the time. And then I kid myself because I eat healthy, small portions at home. All that progress gets erased when I go out and eat fast food or huge portions and I’m only gaining more weight. I’m not going to ignore it anymore. I lost thirty pounds once. I can lose the weight again.

· Stop drinking energy drinks

I’m good at giving things up (I’ve lived eight years without alcohol) but maybe I could finally give up Monster. I started drinking it when I was about seventeen and somehow I was hooked. I’ve been on meds since I was eleven and they always made me sluggish and kind of tired. Monster counteracted this although it usually left me feeling kind of crappy in another way. Although I don’t think this was what the doctors intended, I replaced alcohol with Monster because it gave me something to drink at parties. Little kids drank Coke. Adults drank Monster. I wanted to participate with my friends so badly on my 21st birthday but medically couldn’t so just drank the Monster instead. Although it hasn’t sent me to the hospital like alcohol did, I know it can’t be good for me.

· Sleep less

Most people’s goals are to get more sleep. I tend to oversleep. I feel permanently drugged most of the time which, as you can imagine, makes it hard to function. It makes it hard to wake up on time, to get to the gym, to even do basic tasks like brushing my teeth. I want to wake up and appreciate my life.

· Stop spending so much money on crap

Well, maybe that’s mean. It’s cute crap. Usually it’s stickers (even though I have thousands and who needs another sticker about banana bread?) or washi tape. I just always feel an urge to buy something like it will make me happy. Usually I immediately want to return it but I’m too embarrassed. I wonder how many sales have been made because of that.

These are really hard habits to install but a girl’s got to start somewhere.