Happy Saturday! Have you been watching the Olympics whenever you’re not sleeping or working? Yeah, me neither. Ha. Seriously, we are watching it all.the.time. Last night we ended the evening watching the Super-G with Lindsay Vonn and then skating with Adam Rippon, then this morning woke up to some USA hockey. And whenever I watch USA Olympic hockey I think of Coach Herb in the movie Miracle because that’s a favorite movie around this house. “Again! Again!” (If you’re familiar with the movie. Actually maybe when the Olympic Games are over, we’ll need to watch that movie again.)
Dear Olympic Games= fist pump to you.
Watching the Olympic Games is powerful because you witness the greatest athletes perform on the world’s most superior stage, right? We watch the Games from our living room as we lounge & snack on food and desserts, cheering on these highly devoted, relentless, goal-seeking athletes compete. As we put our feet up on the couch saying, “Whoa”, “Look at that!”, and “Oh noooo!”, with another bite of my snack.
The Olympic Games remind us that hard things are possible with unmatched focus, forgiveness when we mess up, dreaming and acting on those dreams, and cheering each other on.
The Olympic Games remind us of those Olympic athlete qualities to pursue our goals- dreaming, establishing/revising goals, and setting up a plan with determination and structure.
While my personal mantra has always been about self care and wellness (hello! Welcome to BeWellWellness, lol), a couple months ago I knew it needed a “refresh”. I needed to reevaluate what I was doing (and not doing) with some of my self care routines. Evaluate what I was doing and then where I wanted to go… with the determination of an Olympic athlete. 🙂
Refreshing 3 of my Self Care Routines
Reading
With age, my love for reading has grown progressively over the years. I’ve been wanting to read more. It’s like a cycle- the more I read, the more I want to read more. We all know there is power in reading, knowledge, and learning and as much as video and live streaming is on the rise, the value of reading with words on a page is not to be forgotten in my world. But I was thinking- where am I going to find time? Between parenting, working, and everything else in between- we all have our own version of “busy”. (I’m sure you can relate) So strategically I have found little 10-15 minute pockets of time to use to my advantage. It may not seem like much, but little moments add up.
I also joined a Book Club at work. It keeps me accountable. We meet every month and we have “homework” in the book we are all reading together, where we need to read the next two chapters (or whatever it is). Right now we’re reading Made to Stick.
Lastly, for years I’ve been wanting to read my bible all the way through. I have made many, many unsuccessful attempts while using various guides, reading plans, etc., but then every 2-3 months later I dropped the routine due to lack of consistency. Each time I felt so frustrated. Well friends, I have finally made significant progress and it’s because I found a reading guide that I connect with. The other guides and reading plans I used before were fine, but I didn’t connect with it. So I’m using the One Year Bible book and I’m really liking it. By the end of 2018, I will have read the whole bible. Now I’m a couple days behind right now, but this weekend I’ll be getting caught up. Hey, real life.
My book reading has been going so well that I now have A LOT of books waiting for me to read. A good problem to have, I guess, right? Funny how things change… with being a bit intentional. 🙂
If you have any book recommendations to share, let me know. I’m thinking of doing a “Book Review” as a separate post sometime- would that interest you? Just comment below.
Skin care
While my skin care products are not the focus here as much as my desire to develop a solid routine with consistency- morning and night time. Plus, drinking more water and wearing sunscreen- yes, even in the Dakota’s the sun is always shining so SPF is needed year round! (Side note- SPF is needed even if we don’t think the sun is shining) This is off topic but I will share with you that it could be frigid cold outside but that sun is always, always shining here in the Dakota’s. It’s bright and refreshing, and I’m always wondering where my sunglasses are located. Where are they?? Yeah, it’s rarely cloudy around here. The sun and sky are beautiful.
What am I doing? Cleansing + toner + moisturizer + eye cream every morning and evening. I was also using a serum for a bit but I just ran out and haven’t replenished. And then a couple times a week on different days, I’ll exfoliate and use a mask.
Cleaning my face with my routine has become one of my favorite things to do, and we’ll see how this evolves. I would be interested in any routines you have in place for your skin.
Nutrition
As a disclaimer, when talking about nutrition- this can be a loaded conversation with so many different factors. So let me just share with you that I’m very aware of what I eat, the ingredients I use, etc., for my personal needs/interests. However I felt the need to “refresh” some things and get back to basics with even more (consistent) water, less refined sugar (even in my coffee- geesh!), and even more veggies & lean protein than usual. I’ve established some temporary boundaries to get back to basics, and the challenge is refreshing (and difficult). Behavior change isn’t easy. When I just focus on the day to day (progress) then the long term goal (feeling refreshed and better) will come naturally.
The Olympic Games remind us that hard things are possible with unmatched focus, forgiveness when we mess up, dreaming and acting on those dreams, and cheering each other on.
At a time (mid February) where many people have given up on New Year’s resolutions (which I’m not a big fan of to begin with- but that’s another story), the Olympic Games are a gentle reminder that when we make mistakes and we’ve fallen off the bandwagon that we can jump right back on with fierce determination.
Now C’MON USA HOCKEY!!