Week one of the Feel Better Project ended yesterday. I thought I’d give you guys a little update. Also—I’d love to know how your week went, if you’re playing along.
The first week of March is a week off for me. Generally, I try to do something fun on my week off. The plan was to go to Pittsburgh with my husband. That went completely out the window when every single person in our house got sick. One at a time.
Not COVID, thankfully. More likely the Norovirus. We each had a whopper of a 24-hour stomach bug.
We ended up going to Buffalo instead. It’s closer and we went for a shorter time.
And while we were there, my father-in-law (who has severe Alzheimer’s) had to go to the hospital by ambulance because of a severe UTI. And my older daughter’s dog Mo got into some cookies that had raisins in them. She died.
I had absolutely no idea that raisins were so toxic for dogs. Please, do not ever feed your dog anything with raisins or grapes in it.
On the positive side, our new dog King Louie came to live with us. And he’s a doll. That’s him in the picture above. (We will not have raisins in our house, maybe ever again.)
So. Yeah. The first week of the Feel Better Project was—whoa. But, to be honest, I’m glad that I started this. Because I am feeling a little better and feeling better makes getting through this kind of week easier.
Here are my March tiny changes/habits/goals:
Eating: Weekend vegetarianism. I’m going to read the book and only eat meat on the weekends.
Moving: Literally, just 10 minutes of any kind of movement that I wouldn’t ordinarily do.
General health: Make a follow up appointment with my family doctor regarding yesterday’s whole ER adventure.
Sleep: Go to bed by 1 a.m. every night. I’ve tried midnight for YEARS and it never happens. So I’m pushing it back.
Self-care: Log what I wear everyday — even if it’s my pajamas.
Space: Work on my bedroom for 10 minutes a day.
Eating
Um…this one is not going the way I wanted it to. I did have three vegetarian days this week. And I ate better in general. No fast food, even while we were traveling. Less junk—again, even though we were on a road trip.
I’m just going to keep at this one in week two. I like the idea of vegetarian days. I don’t think that Weekday Vegetarian is exactly right for us, though. I think my goal will be five vegetarian days a week.
I did get the book and I’m reading it. As expected, it’s awesome.
Moving
I actually do more than ten extra minutes of moving this week. Louie means that I need to get up and take him out in the morning. And I did a bunch of walking in Buffalo. It’s getting warmer (yay) and on Sunday the time changes so it’ll get dark later (double triple yay!) I’m looking forward to taking comfortable walks outside.
I think this week I’m going to try setting a timer to remind me to stand up every hour while I’m working. Just that—stand up. It’s forward motion.
General Health
My husband’s taking his parents to our family doctor on Wednesday and he’s going to make an appointment for me while he’s there.
Sleep
I actually have gone to bed before 1am every single day this week! However better I feel, I 100-percent attribute it to this. I also got new bed pillows and a new mattress topper, which made a big difference comfort-wise.
I definitely have not been sleeping enough, I’d say the last couple of years. This week I slept 7 or 8 hours a night and it was glorious.
Self-care
This was hit-and-miss this week. I didn’t do as good a job of logging as I wanted to, but I did get dressed every day. I’m reading Todd Herman’s The Alter Ego Effect right now and he talks about having a totem that lets your brain know that your Alter Ego is taking center stage.
I’ve been thinking this week that maybe something about getting dressed is my totem. Maybe putting on lipstick. I know how ridiculous that might sound, but I won’t put on lipstick if I’m in my PJs. And if I’m dressed and I have lipstick on, I’m on, you know?
I read a story when I was a little girl that’s stuck with me for decades. A woman lives in a rundown house. She buys a geranium and puts it on her table. Now the table looks ragged, so she fixes it. That makes the walls look sad, so she paints them. That makes her feel frumpy, so she puts on a pretty dress.
Maybe lipstick is my geranium. If I put it on, it’ll help me to take better self-care all together.
Space
I got most of my closet cleaned out this week. Including packing up a big old bag of donations. Since I wasn’t home for half the week, I didn’t get as much done as I expect to the rest of the week.
How I’m Feeling
I’m still trying to figure out how to quantify ‘feel better.’
Last Saturday and Sunday, I had Norovirus. I actually spent most of Saturday in the ER because it presented first with weird chest pressure and I legit thought I was having a heart attack.
I wasn’t. Full heart work up later, at least I know my ticker is in good condition. And on the plus side, they gave me something for nausea, which I was just starting to feel when I got there. So I bypassed that whole part of it.
But in general, I feel better. More rested. A little less stressed. A little less anxious. I think this week I’m going to brainstorm how to judge this project. I’m just not sure.
march has felt like more like 'fresh start january' for me this year and that's fine by me. feeling better is a really noble project. i think i'm very much leaning into not fighting the feels this year and the more good ones, the more better, amirite? <3<3<3 brava!
So sorry about Adrienne's sweet Mo. This week was hard here as well as we also lost one of our dogs, Reese. She was almost 16 years old, though, so we were on borrowed time. We also had a death in the family early this morning and that's sad of course.
I was inspired by your 'Feel Better' project and have been taking some time for myself every day - just a few minutes in between writing and work and caregiving - it's made a real difference. I've also been catering to our youngest, who is autistic, and getting him out in the community more. While it's more work for me it also is good to just be out of the house more (which I haven't been.doing).
Here's to next week being an easier week for you (and us!) and your Feel Better project going full steam ahead!