Day 279 - 285

So, apparently I am at a point where I can blog about once a week. That's not the plan, but it's life! I don't know who said it first, but life is what happens when I was planning to do something else. In fact, that's a great way to think of this past year.

I am currently 80 days away from the end of the 365 day renovation of me that I started blogging about last year. During the past 285 days, I think I've renovated my thinking more than anything. At the start, I stated I wanted to work on 5 things:

• Skin
• Teeth
• Thinking
• Diet
• Exercise

I was satisfied in February when my dentist rated all of my teeth at 2s and 3s (all I know is that it's good and means that I improved my gum health from where it was with 3s, 4s, 5s and a couple of 6s...YIKES). I'm happy with the health, but I'm still working on the whitening. I'll report back on that at the 365 day blog. My skin is better. I'm taking medication that really helps me control my Rosacea. Also, I had a skin growth that was on my face removed and it makes a huge difference to me, although my family says they never even noticed it! As I said above, thinking has changed. Over the last year, I've become more realistic in my thinking about what I can achieve and more accepting of any results, regardless of the amount. Exercise and Diet have, once again, been the hardest to improve. I've actually been all over the place with these. I've lost weight counting calories, not counting calories and eating a vegan diet. I've gained weight just eating whatever I want and suffered every day because I just want to be normal. And what about exercise? Again, I just want normality. I like exercise, but have had a difficult time motivating myself to just put the time into it, making it important and non-negotiable. To combat this, I've added an app to my smart phone called RunKeeper and it really is helping me stay on track and helps me track improvement. The biggest challenge is to schedule the time and not let anything squeeze exercise out of my day.

So, all that to say I still have 80 days to make improvements and at least stop being all over the place and settle into what should just feel normal for me. With skin, teeth and thinking where I'm more comfortable it's just diet and exercise. For now, I believe in 80 days I can do three things I'll call Start-Stop-Continue:

• Start - exercising regularly using the RunKeeper to help me stay on track and motivated.
• Stop - over eating. that's it, just cease the madness eating and just eat normal portions and healthy.
• Continue - being open to all of the possibilities and how there is something to learn about me every day!

Now finally, when you take the time to walk outside and enjoy your surroundings, you might pass a rose bush in a public area and you should always pick yourself a flower as a reward for walking...like I did today...

This lovely little rose was on a bush as I took my walk at 9am this morning near my office. I had never even noticed the stand of bushes in the middle of a walkway near my office. So, when I took my walk, I picked a prize and put it on my desk at the office and had a reminder all day that I took my walk at 9am and enjoyed every minute of it.

That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by and checking in on my progress. I'll do my best to work in an update in a few days and share my exercise progress. Until then, have a great week and Godspeed, Voyagers!!