Progress not perfection.

As of tomorrow, we will be 3 weeks into the season of Lent and about 3 1/2 months into the new year. As you may recall, I made resolutions for both. My New Year's resolution is to establish new routines. My Lenten resolutions are to exercise and track my eating every day. 

So how am I doing? I think a popular phrase from AA is applicable here: "Progress, not perfection." I have not been as successful with any of these resolutions as I had hoped, but I am happy to report that progress is being made.

The first resolution- establish new routines- is probably the one I struggle with the most. My job is new to me, and its also new to the agency where I work. I was hired as part of a new team to learn and implement a specific type of therapy. So, there isn't a senior person on our team to teach us things like how to mange our schedules. We're all figuring things out as we go along. A little more than 3 months in, I feel like I'm just getting the hang of how to schedule my work week. I'm also adjusting to the fact that I no longer have a 9-5 schedule. My new schedule is more like noon-8. 

What have I learned? Most importantly, I've realized that "before work" is my new "after work." Any non-work thing I need to do on a weekday- the gym, appointments, cleaning the house, seeing friends- has to happen in the morning before I go into the office. The challenge of this is not sleeping in. In the beginning, I did that at least a couple times a week. Now, I'm doing much better- once a week, tops.

On a related note, I've learned that I must get to bed on time. When I get home at 10 or 11, I have to resist the temptation to watch whatever TV I have on the DVR or get into some other project. If I stay up late, I will blow my mornings. I don't get this right 100% of the time, but I am steadily improving.

I have not been 100% successful in my first Lenten resolution- to exercise every day- but I am still trying. Before I made this resolution, I was down to working out about 3x/week. That's low for me. Now, I'm back up to at least 5x/week. As an added benefit, I'm finding that this resolution helps with my goal of establishing routines. If I want to exercise every day, I have to get up on time. In turn, every day that I get up on time helps me continue getting up on time. 

In service of both my routines and my exercise, I recently join a pool across the street from my office. In fact, I joined it so recently that I haven't done any swimming yet! Its going to take a little work to figure out when I can get away from the office to do my swimming, but joining the pool was the first step. Maryland is currently experiencing an early Spring- temps in the 70's in March!- which is a good reminder that tri season is coming up fast.

My second Lenten resolution- tracking my food- is where I have been most successful. As with the exercise, I'm not at 100%, but I've probably improved from 50%-85%. I am happy with that, even though I'm still waiting for the results to show on the scale.

So, there we are. Progress, not perfection!