I feel like August flew by and was such a short month! I felt like I had more time in August so I was putting off getting some of my birthday freebies like the free products at Sephora. But I guess the month slipped by and I missed getting to do that. Oh well. Some months are just faster than others I guess. And since it’s now September, it’s time to recap my August monthly challenge and plan out my September one.
Last month, I wanted to make sure that I was eating more fruits and vegetables. And as it normally goes with my challenges, I wasn’t perfect but I had some great progress. I know in the past, I was better about eating fruit than I was about eating vegetables, but this time it felt like the opposite. I did get some fruit in my meals, but it didn’t feel as often and it felt much more deliberate when I was doing that. But with vegetables, I was able to make plans for meals that just included them and didn’t have to think about it as much.
I made sure that I always had some frozen vegetables so I could easily microwave them and add them to a meal. I also got a new veggie chopper so I could prepare things easier. I had a similar one before, but I can’t find it. I think I lost a box or two during my move because I keep finding random things that I am missing. But having something to make vegetable prep easier is a nice tool to have. I know I could just cut things with a knife, but I like having things that are about the same size, and using a veggie chopper is the easiest way for me to do that. And if that’s what it takes for me to eat more vegetables, that’s an easy thing for me to do.
I’ve been trying to prepare a big salad once or twice a week so I can just have it in the fridge and ready to eat when I’m having lunch or dinner. This has been so helpful with my goals this month and I know I will be keeping it up. I’m also trying to get back into making smoothies with fruits and vegetables, but that hasn’t become as much of a regular habit for me just yet. But I’m in a much better spot with my eating now than I was at the beginning of August.
After making some great progress in August, I’m hoping I will have the same results this month. And I’m doing a challenge this month that is new to me, but also similar to a past challenge. This month, I want to work on doing a nightly reset of my home before going to bed. In the past, I have made it a challenge to do a quick clean every day, and I’m still doing that and it’s very helpful. But something that I’ve discovered in my new home is that it is much easier for me to leave things dirty or not put away.
For example, in my old house, I couldn’t leave things in my sink or on my counter because I wouldn’t have any space left in my kitchen. This also made it hard to be motivated to cook sometimes since I knew that everything would need to be put away. But now, if I leave something in the sink and not put it in the dishwasher or if I leave some things out on the counter after cooking, I still have space to use my kitchen. I don’t feel the same urgency to put everything away. In a much smaller home, every little bit of clutter was magnified. I’m still a pretty clean person and I think most people walking into my house will say it’s clean, but I know that I’m not as clean and tidy as I would like it to be. So I want to do a bit of a reset every evening.
This will be different from my daily cleaning. This will be more about taking a few minutes in the evening to put away things that I took out. Sometimes it might be things I need to put away in my kitchen and sometimes it might be something I put on my dresser in my room that should be hung back up or put back into a drawer. I know if I just spend a few minutes each day doing this, things won’t pile up like they have the potential to do. And it should continue to help me figure out what other organizational things I need in my home. I know I still need more things like some shelving in my bathroom. But until I really focus on resetting my space every day, I know that I will still be a bit unsure of exactly what I want.
I know that when I started doing these monthly challenges several years ago, it was all about helping me become a better person and improving myself. And I feel like recently I’ve been really embracing that idea again after having some struggles with the challenges and goals I’ve set in the last year or so. But I’m really feeling good about what challenges I’ve been setting and so happy to see the positive results from them each month.
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Trying To Refocus On Goals (or Doing Another Reset This Month)
Finding A Balance (or Eating Healthy And Fun At The Same Time)
Spring Cleaning (or Feeling Pampered)
Always Cleaning (or At Least The Pandemic Helped Create This Habit)
Getting Rid Of Extras (or Cleaning House)
Another Bombshell Partnership! (or Doing A Healthy Detox)
