October is the new January

Everyone around me seems to be setting October Resolutions.  Which is pretty neat and serendipitous.  Having just returned from the Fall Squam Art Workshop in New Hampshire, resolved to tap into my inner creative self, it's perfect timing.

The site that got me started with my October Resolutions is Health Month.  I found this site via another blog, along with Health Month's sister site, 750 Words.  I'm doing both of them.  My Sugar-Free resolution is one of my Health Month goals.

While at Squam talking with my new friends, I mentioned these sites and coincidentally, Retta had just heard of them as well, and also started using them!  :)  Buster Benson, the creator of the sites, has done a marvelous job in their design and function.  I encourage you to look them up, especially if there are habits you'd like to start, or stop.  He turns writing and goal-setting into games.  You earn badges, fruits, and points based on your actions and can write your own rewards/consequences for when you succeed (or if you don't succeed).

Then, we both found out about 30 Days of Yoga via a Squammie's website and both signed up.  That starts October 7th.  Again, I encourage you to look this up, especially if you like yoga, or want to make it a habit.  Usually the class is $100 for 30 days, but for the month of October, you pay however much you want, and Marianne will donate every single dollar to help support people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa.  How can you go wrong here, right?

Then, I learned about krissie is thankful through Retta's blog list, and yep, we're both doing that.  As I mentioned in a previous post, Krissie is noticing things every day in her life for which she is grateful, taking pictures of them, and sharing one every day on her blog.  We all know that your attitude is your choice.  You can choose to be positive, but you can also choose to be negative.  Focusing on what you're grateful for can help you opt for the one that makes you smile.

I may as well take this opportunity to post today's Thank You:

Thank You, Jill!  For giving me your sewing machine for the mere price of lunch at El Torito's.

(And yes, I realized as I was cropping the pic that the sewing machine is backwards...that's how much of a beginner at sewing I am! :)

THEN, I found out about San Diego's Veg Pledge Week starting today, and of course I'm doing this as well... I actually just switched to vegetarianism a couple of weeks ago, so this one isn't really a challenge, but more of an encouraging validation.  Every day I'll get an email with tips, inspiration and menu ideas.  They're also having events all over the county this week.  I think I might check out tonight's event, Interactive Quiz-Show Presentation by Michael Greger, MD.

WHEW!!!  That's a lot going on!!  :)  But, it's all good...............................

October 1, 2010 goes down in history as sugar-free for me!

Mission Accomplished!  And yes, today was pretty easy, although my office-mate brought in donuts and coffee cake to work this morning!  Ugh!  (In her defense, she didn't know about my resolution.)  And there were a couple of times when I thought how great a cookie would taste, and as I started to think about how to get one, I suddenly remembered the goal I set.  Those little memory lapses resulted in short, tiny twinges of disappointment, but they quickly went away as I invoked my "the urge will pass whether or not I indulge in it" mantra.


I went to lunch at El Torito with my co-workers and I was so paranoid about accidentally eating sugar in something that I looked up the ingredients in tortilla chips!  Just FYI - tortilla chips do not contain sugar.

So I'm going to steal another idea while I'm at this, why not?  I got this idea from krissie is thankful, one of the bloggers that Retta follows (thanks, Retta!).  Every day I'm going to take a picture of something that I'm grateful for and then post it here.  Obviously, the idea is to focus on all the good things in your life every day.  I'm a pretty positive person and I think I do that anyway, but this project sounds fun and you can never think too positively, right? 


So here's today's:

Grateful for my home, my small humble apartment that doesn't seem like much, but to me is my sanctuary.  

What are you thankful for?  Please post in the comments!  This can be fun.  :)

Good night and Naturally Sweet Dreams to you!  

So far, so good!

So far, so good = my mentor's only entry on January 1, 2008. Funny. But I know why. This first day will be the easiest of all 31 days. My motivation is the highest, it's new, it's fresh. I do feel strong. Today should not be a problem.