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31 July 2012

Health Month!

Health Month is a great site--you set goals, which become rules in a game, but you're basically trying to build habits. And I love it so much that I went from 3 rules in May to 6 in June to 10 in July.
So, I decided that August would be a good month to pull back, avoid burn-out, and not work so hard. I only kept three of July's rules, and one (getting enough sleep) transformed into two rules: go to bed before midnight; wake up before 9am. I decided that making sure I took my meds was more important than making sure I took my vitamins (in terms of having rules for it). I decided that brushing my teeth nearly every day was pretty good as a habit, so I decided to switch that rule out for one about flossing more often.
But there were other rules--or rather, other types of rules--that I wanted to try. So, I'm going to go from not having touched my violin in (mmph) months to practicing twice a week. And I decided to make drawing my webcomic (that I also haven't touched in ... too long) a goal (three drawings a week).

All in all, I now have 12 rules for my "take a break" month ... Maybe I'm crazy. It still doesn't seem as bad. At the end of the month, when you're choosing rules for the next month, you can get suggestions based on that month's rules. HM suggested going from allowing processed food 4 days/week to avoiding processed food altogether! And while that is my eventual goal, I just wasn't ready for that right now.
For September, I'll either take a true rest month, or I'll go back to tweaking my diet:allow processed food 3 days/week, and no preservatives at all, maybe. Add an rule about avoiding white flour. But even though I have more rules this month than ever before, the lack of diet rules is a little liberating. (I figured eating vegetables every day was a no-brainer for me, now ... I also wanted to see if that was true, if this is an actual habit for me now.)