Day Seventeen is Swimming, 49 Waiting to Dive In

Wow. Now I'm down to the 40s in terms of days left. D-Day is exactly seven weeks from today. Technically, that amounts to one remaining goal a week. Wow.

Today I walked exactly eight miles. I went slowly, as to not re-injure the ankle from yesterday. I also went to Curves. With such a productive day yesterday list-wise, I didn't have many tasks to complete today.

I did get my "alternative activity" chart complete and printed off. This is the list of what I've come up with so far: First I will list the trigger, then the alternate activity:

Boredom: take a walk, read, write an email

Pain: take a nap, soak in the tub, take a painkiller, use I-Squeeze

Frustration: write about frustration, take stuff to Goodwill, take a walk

Procrastination: go over "to do" list, leave house

Fatigue: take a nap, get in bed, take a shower

Sadness: write about sadness, watch funny movie, look at photos

Anger: write about anger, jog

Leftovers: scrape food into trash

This is the first draft of many, I hope. I will add to it as more ideas come up, and take away those ideas that don't work. The main thing is to STOP and think about why I am putting something into my mouth, see if the reason is on this chart, then veer off into another direction rather than the pantry or refrigerator.

The rest of today was fairly uneventful. I did get two stories written for my book "Flu." I'm still a long way from completing this goal, but I'm proud that I finally have started. I just have to discipline myself to spend time every day writing.

This evening we had dinner at Demos' with Sam, Lynnette, and Molly. It was good as usual. My meal was nothing to brag about point-wise, but I enjoyed it.

Tonight will be an early night, as Lynnette and I plan to start at 5:30 am for our 15-mile training walk. I can hardly believe that seven weeks from today, we'll be finishing our first 20-mile day!!

Today was a positive day in terms of progress towards my goals. Some of the eight require more mental preparation than physical. The mental is often harder to develop than the physical. But today I took a step forward. Today was a quiet day. Small steps were taken, but I'm headed towards those goals. In seven weeks, I hope to have made them all.