No Excuses November

Halloween is upon us! And with that come plenty of tricks and treats. Once this night of mischief and mayhem is put to bed, I plan to treat myself to a month free... of excuses!

What do I make excuses for? Well, geez, everything! Last night my to-do list was pretty short:
- Take the foster pup on a long walk
- Do 15 minutes of yoga
- Clean the bedroom

Ask me how much I got done. Literally half of it. Tigger, the adorable Pomeranian we are fostering, got his walk which also got me some exercise (2 miles at the Farm Park tired us BOTH out) and I got about 5-7 good minutes of yoga stretching... and that's it. The bedroom looks the same (or worse) as it did when I got home from work.

Just wanted an excuse to put Hans Solo
on my blog

I mean, I did help cook dinner and did some dishes. And watched TV. And fell asleep on the couch at 9pm. What? I've been getting up at 5 lately to fulfill my foster mom duties of adequately exercising the shorty! 

Sometimes he brings seahorse on walks

Did I have time to clean the bedroom? Sure! It's not filthy, there are just a lot of clothes that need to be put away. Could I have completed my not-asking-very-much yoga session? Yes! But Tigger was getting in my way and I wasn't dressed properly and... you know, I didn't FEEL like it. 

Excuses. Let's be rid of them. 

And so we begin, No Excuse November! 

But first, Halloween. 

Halloween is going to consist of my first ever PEX party. This is a rave, I guess, with DJs and fire dancers and freaky people, oh my! My good friend, Quinn, has been trying for years to get Tom and I to join him at one of these and since Halloween falls so conveniently on a Saturday this year, we were out of excuses. So we shall go down the rabbit hole, appropriately dressed as a menagerie of Alice in Wonderland characters. Pictures will come later! 

Wheel of Fortune themed. Not the Vanna White kind.

While this is all fun and awesome, it's also the night before my No Excuse November starts. And the party goes until 4am. What a way to dive into a challenge, eh? 

I'll try to make sure I get to bed at a reasonable hour (although anything past 10pm these days is pretty unreasonable for me) so I can get up and take Tigger to his weekly Meet And Greet* and do my meal prep for the week. I've been woefully neglecting my meal prep the last two weeks after a disaster of a coconut curry chicken crock pot "recipe" (I threw a bunch of ingredients I'm not too familiar with in a crock pot and hoped for the best. There was no hope for this dish). I don't like neglecting my meal prep. I need it to keep on track during the week, otherwise I end up buying turkey wraps and eating take out for dinner. Take out is cool and all, but not something to rely on. 

It never looks this good

So what are we going to STOP making excuses for this month?

1. My messy house. There is just STUFF every where. It's not dirty and it's not a complete mess, but we've now been in our house for over a year and all the cleaning and organizing I swore I'd have done by now, isn't. And I really want to get it organized for our 2nd Annual Christmas Party (details after Halloween. I swear I don't have it all planned yet. Not ALL of it anyway) and so that I can use the winter months to plan my extravagant yard designs. Plus, I just FEEL better when my house is clean and organized. So it's time to stop dragging my feet on that. 

Not an accurate representation of my home right now, but
not all that far off

2. Yoga. I love yoga. I love it! I feel great every time I go to a class OR just take a few minutes at home for a good stretch. I've got dreams of getting certified to teach yoga, but I need to take my personal practice a lot more serious before I can consider that. So no more excuses. I attend two different studios and there is NO excuse for not getting to one class a week. And there is definitely no excuse for me not taking 15-20 minutes a day to do my own practice at home. 

3. Exercise. I know what you're thinking. Didn't I just talk about that? Yes and no. Sure, yoga is a great workout, but it's also about balance in mind and body and turning our focus inward and quieting our minds and breathing and... ok, I'll stop now. With exercise I'm talking more about cardio and weights. The foster pup forces me to get out and walk (or run!) a few miles a day. On good days we clock about three miles between the morning and afternoon. But I could take that more seriously as a work out for myself. Put on my gym clothes and actually run or at least speed walk with him. And I need to work on more targeted exercises as well, especially for my poor core and back that I can feel withering away as we speak, sitting in this lousy office chair I'm confined to. I feel SO much better when I work out regularly and I owe it to myself to make it more of a priority than I have been.

Remember that time we ran 10 miles?
Yeah, me either. 

How I feel after 5 minutes of jogging lately

4. Cooking. I love cooking! It's my favorite thing to do, next to eating. And I like cooking healthy. I like cooking unhealthy, too. I like trying new recipes and new ingredients and making it look pretty and showing off my skills to friends and everything about it. So while I need to get back on track with my meal prep, I also just need to get back to cooking for fun. When you don't have a dishwasher, it kind of takes the fun out of it, but that's just an excuse. And we're not doing excuses this month! 

I've had a chicken in my freezer for nearly a year. I must
cook that bird. Now. 

Tom and I are really good cooks. I want to cook
and eat all the food. 

There we go. Four big things to stop making excuses for this month. Appropriately, there are four weeks in November for me to report on my progress! Check back and keep me honest on my goals. I need you, dear readers, because I'm terribly unaccountable to myself. But I'd never want to let YOU down.

Sheridan's No Excuse November To-Do List:

1. The house: a place for everything and everything in its place. 
2. The yoga: breathe, stretch, center, repeat. 
3: The exercise: get moving and stay moving!
4: The cooking: not even a chore. Just think of the delicious aftermath. 

What are your No Excuse November goals? What do you ALWAYS put off because excuses? Tell us all about it and let's encourage each other! I bet some of our goals overlap and we can offer our own tips and tricks for getting out of our own way. 


 

*Tigger is adoptable through Home At Last Dog Rescue: www.homeatlastdogrescue.com  
They host meet and greets every Sunday at the Centre Square Shopping Center in Blue Bell from 10am - 12pm. Come meet Tigger and the other great dogs! If you are interested in adopting, fostering or volunteering, get in touch with me! Sheridan.Earle@gmail.com