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I was traveling.
Maybe not the most fun way to spend a birthday, but it was actually really nice. I was road-tripping back from Philly where I had been visiting with family, and had lots of bus/car time to think about the start of this endeavour and the whats and whys of all the items on my list. It just so happened that my mom had returned my copy of The Happiness Project that week also, so I spent a lot of time comparing and contrasting that project with my own. I think in a lot of ways they are similar - the goal of both being to change small, everyday behaviours in order to have a larger positive outcome. I'm not going to try to convince anyone that reading books my family recommends or spending God only knows how many hours making a quilt will change my life. But things like this will change how I spend my time, which will shape what my days look like. And hopefully my days will be filled with meaningful things that I want to be doing. They might not be "exciting" things, but they will reflect a version of myself that I am striving to be more like. One of the lessons that I took from THP is that life is what happens every day, and it is how I spend my days, moment to moment, that matters.
Anyway, I'm back in Toronto now and excited to get started on everything! I had some birthday money kicking around so I went down to The Purple Purl today (thanks to a helpful reader suggestion) and got myself started on the knitting.
The woman there was super helpful and got me everything that I needed to knit my first project, a scarf. I decided I want to do my scarf in a ribbed pattern, so I sat down for a bit this afternoon and practiced - check out the end result:
Not too bad, right? I ran into some problems while binding off and in the process dropped 3 stitches, but otherwise I didn't make any mistakes. Crazy. I decided to hang onto this as a little momento of one of my early projects and use it as a bookmark.
I am pretty pleased!
I am also going for my first "run" tonight, so wish me luck. I downloaded the Couch to 5k app for my iphone, which I'm told is pretty good for very very very beginner-runners (which I most definitely am).
This is one that is going to be hard for me to stick to. I am a champion creator of excuses. When I don't want to do something I engage in pretty rigorous metal debate, but the "don't wanna" side usually comes out on top. I've found the only way around this is to just not start the process - if there something I'm not gonna want to do I have to just get up and do it before I talk myself out of it. This will definitely be the case with running. I want the end results - to be more fit, have more energy, etc., but because the benefits aren't immediate I am going to really struggle with sticking it out past week 2 when the novelty wears off. Any and all advice on this is welcome. Also, any runners who read this and have advice regarding what/when to eat before/after a run would be helpful. Thanks!
Well, your knitting is already superior to mine, so it's a good start!
ReplyDeleteAs for the running question - I find running first thing in the morning helps me avoid making excuses not to go, so I don't eat anything before but make sure I'm well hydrated before leaving. When I get back I'll have my breakfast - usually some whole wheat toast with peanut butter, and a banana. Nothing too fancy! Good luck!
That sounds like a good plan. I have been wondering when I will fit the running into my schedule and the best I've come up with is to wake up 40mins earlier and go then. Thanks!
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