31 Days to a Fresh Start

It's February 1. I just wrote my monthly entry in my leather pen+paper journal. I guess there's something for me in the number 1. It's more about do-overs than about dominance. February 1...31 days have expired in 2012 and today I get a fresh start.

"Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning." Lamentations 3:23 (NLT)

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)

I have three areas I need do-overs, fresh starts, a new thing:
1) Fitness. It's time to take my fitness seriously. I was actually pretty challenged by Gary Thomas' Every Body Matters. I'm 52 and it's time to stop pretending that it will get any easier. Today I have strapped on a pedometer (love this one!  http://tinyurl.com/6t98s6m) and have started recording my daily choices.  I have read via a variety of sources that keeping a food and fitness journal is a big indicator of success. So I picked this one up at King Soopers last week (http://tinyurl.com/7guouo9). 

In my "mega-Taylor-household-clean-up-and-out" I finally got our basement family room/execise gym in shape. We found the treadmill. Todd built the weights rack and plans to finish building the fitness bench. So in the words of "The Biggest Loser" -- no excuses!

• I need to eat more regularly - food can be a nusiance for me so I will skip meals and then become shaky and ravenous...and then eat whatever is closest and easiest. So February is about eatting three meals a day and two healthy snacks.
• I need to move more - February is about walking at least 8,000 steps a day; using my basement gym; taking Jake our beagle for walks; trying out the Zumba DVDs my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday in November; doing some kettlebell routines with Bob Harper (via DVD).

2) Organization. This has been a lifelong challenge. Growing up my mom was on me all the time to pick up my room. There's just so much always going on and organization has never been a strong suit. I'm a girl with piles. But that's just not working anymore. I need to make a new plan. Pick up daily; plan ahead for dinner (or as my husband knows only too well, there just might not be one); get a cleaning schedule in place and then do it; and commit to doing the most important stuff early in the day.

When you are driven and working 60+ hours a week, leading Bible studies, mentoring women, parenting a teenage and being a wife and housekeeper (I have never been particular good at the last role), the tempo of life seems to foster a natural organization. The part-time work schedule I now enjoy has also spawned a sluggishness that I'm tired of. Time to get moving and get productive and organized! And not in binges that leave me wiped out. Time to figure out how to do this daily and not in massive spurts.

3) Devotion. I've become random in my study of the Word. Time to focus on completing the study of David that I'm in the middle of (http://tinyurl.com/8xlk72z) and enjoy the silence and solitude of an empty home and expansive deck. Time to wrap up in a blanket, light my Abbey of Gethsemane candle and enjoy the presence of a loving heavenly Father whose mercies are new every morning.