Posted in 2026, thoughts

A New Year

My birthday was yesterday and with that always comes my thoughts for my “new year”. It’s a nice little reset four months into the actual new year.

A couple of things I’ve noticed. I spend too much time reading other people’s blogs instead of writing on my own TWO blogs. This one and my family one.

I spend too much time, again reading, trying to “figure myself out” through astrology. It has given me an understanding of myself but I want to make sure I don’t lean too hard into it. What happens when I finally figure it out? Like the dog who catches the car. Will I be any happier? Not likely, so maybe I’ll try to keep some of that mystery alive.

I continue to work out every day but it’s only been since last week that I am coming to grips with my diet. What’s the old saying? It’s 10% exercise, 90% diet. I reinstalled the My Fitness Pal app and have been tracking my food. Keeping it realistic to lose a 1/2 pound a week and that appears to put me at the healthy part of my diet overall. Of course, with my first weekly weigh in, I gained 2/10th of a pound but I’m blaming it on the soy sauce with the sushi for my birthday dinner. I just have to stay realistic. Overall though, I feel great!

We haven’t started any biking yet this year and I’m looking forward to riding on my Specialized that I bought last September. I managed to sell my first bike, the Salsa, last week and I’m glad that someone starting out will get to enjoy it. With that said, I’m going to take each opportunity that comes up to ride without thinking about what’s on my desk or that “I need to be there”, when it’s likely I don’t really need to be there.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the first four months but I always appreciate that birthday reset!

Posted in 2026, life

A Mantra for Monday

This morning in my dark workout room, the soothing voice of Chelsea Jackson Roberts flowed around me. “I Will Do My Best”.

10 minutes to repeat that thought to carry it with me throughout my day.

What is my best? For today it is:

  • Ignore social media not relevant to my work
  • Start with the hard things or “swallow my frog” first thing
  • Be present – which is another one of her mantras!

Being present can sometimes be more difficult than doing difficult things or ignoring social media. I look too far forward, or try to solve this problem or that before it even arises. Wasting my present time over the future.

Will I succeed? I don’t know but,

I will do my best.

Posted in 2026, Healthy Living, life

A Different Lens

As I rounded the corner this morning

I’ve been starting my morning workout with a 5 minute Peloton meditation. My favorite instructor is Chelsea Jackson Roberts. Her voice is so calming.

Some days she has a mantra and today’s was “Today I choose the lens of love in how I treat myself and how I treat others.”

I carried that with me forcing myself to not beat myself up for doing a low impact cardio right after a lower body workout! Should have done a core workout!

I will focus on carrying it with me through my day. Some days I get in the office and all thoughts of kindness and goodness fly right out of my head. I need to remember that we all come from different “places”. How we were raised, how we were taught, even how our last boss or ex-husband treated us. We’re just all here trying to do the best we can.