Began and ended with rhymes

Tip for the day: get the walking out of the way!

It's Friday, I'm on a vacation from work and at the beginning of a glorious 4-day weekend. The weather looks to be fabulous, I live near a beautiful village with a canal running through it, and I don't have any serious responsibilities until Monday morning. So I can lie around and do nothing, right?

Wrong!

My new mindset is that I need to do something healthy early in the day, to set the tone. Today I met a friend and walked for 45 minutes, Half the walking time was to a canal-side diner, where we stopped for an English muffin and iced coffee, then the other half of the walking time was going back to my car. It felt great! Over the years, I've begun to take to heart that old saying, "21 days makes a habit." It has helped me to get rid of bad habits and incorporate good ones into my life. Now it's getting me out there walking. At this point, I don't feel comfortable missing walking on any given day.

Now I am doing for myself what I promised I'd do today: sit and catch up on my reading. I am rewarding myself for working hard over the past two months, preparing for and executing University Commencement activities.

In the past, I've always rewarded myself with a gooey treat from Starbucks and a venti-sized coffee that was more like liquid candy than coffee. Nothing wrong with either of those things, you understand. Starbucks is still one of my fave places. But I am starting to rethink the ways in which I reward myself. Food isn't really an ideal reward, unless it's healthy food. Unfortunately, I'm not yet at the point where I view healthy food as a reward (although I believe in my heart that I WILL get there :) , so I'm trying to think of non-food kudos to give myself. And allowing myself the luxury of 5+ hours of reading (interrupted only by updating my blog or checking out the occasional Facebook update) is an absolute delight, and something I rarely ever get these days, what with work, chores, church activities, and taking care of my four kitties.

I even put off my grocery shopping until tomorrow. Even though I'm genuinely excited about buying, cutting up, mixing in a salad and eating fresh fruit, I'm going to enjoy my day of well-earned downtime. I may not get 10,000 steps in today, but then again, I may, as I'm already over 5,000, thanks to that earlier walk. Sometimes it's ok to pamper yourself.

Tomorrow? Chores await. Today? Life is great!