Day Off!

I like challenges and being able to check off lists and look back at accomplishments. Several web challenges are out there at the beginning of this new year that entice me to run 365 days in a row. The perfectionist in me is really drawn to that. Yes, I could do that. 365 days - totally doable. It's just a mile. I could just walk a mile if I wanted. Doesn't even have to be a mile run. I find a challenge like this appealing - as I find 365 of taking a photograph a day, doing yoga every day, meditating every day, writing in my journal every day, not eating sugar every day appealing. Then I go back to Wayne Dyer's advice about taking life a day at a time, being in the present moment. I can make the choice today to eat well, meditate, practice yoga, run, write, photograph, and then gradually these things will become part of me, part of my daily life.

Instead of 365 days and then, "Whew I'm done!" I want to make those life-changing habits become... well, life. And in that I want to allow space for days off. Especially on something like running. I have some pretty ambitious goals for my year - a trail marathon in May, my first triathlon in July, a 50K in October. I'm gonna need some rest time in there! I know my body well enough to know that running 3-4 days in a row is good for me and then I need a day off, a day of rest. Then I'm goood for another 2, 3, 4 days.

I like the idea of more mindful eating but I also like the idea of chocolate chip cookies. So while I am putting more thought into what I put in my body, I also don't want to make an unbreakable rule for myself that cuts out one of my life's big pleasures! Then I'm just destined to fail and I don't want to feel guilt over a cookie.

I have added many activities into my life over the past decade or so that really bring me to a place where I feel so much peace in my days and where I truly enjoy getting up in the morning and going about my life. Those are the kinds of things I want to keep adding in, day by day.