As I’ve shared a few times, I have a friend, I check in with them at the end of every day.

This started as a simple give them a tick if I’ve stayed on track that day to working towards my goal. For anyone that knows me, I have lots of words to say so sending a simple emoji wasn’t ever going to be all I sent, thankfully they enjoy getting the updates.

Anyways, on April 14th, 66 days ago today, I decided to evolve update to be the following:
Food, Water, a Win & a Learn. This allowed me to shift the focus from solely my “weight” to be more focused on an overall life upgrade. After all, weight is only a number on a scale and whilst I have a “number” range in mind, I want to be healthy in more aspects than just my weight.

I decided that today on day 66, I wanted to share my learnings.
Each day, this is something I learnt (or didn’t in some cases haha) but even when I didn’t learn, I am grateful I took the time to still reflect on my day.

A Bonus learn to kick things off, take time to tell the people you care about just how much you appreciate them. My friend who has been on this road with me, I don’t know I have the right words to express my gratitude. In my reflection of writing this post, I came to realise, they are my only friend that regularly asks me about what’s going on & how I’m feeling. This could be the nature of our conversations but I would be foolish not to take a moment to recognise them in this post. So you know who you are, THANK YOU, for being my friend and just being you.

Without further adieu, here is 66 days of lessons from the past 66 days of my life:

• I need to be kinder to myself in my self-talk when the scales aren’t showing me what I want or expect (ate 2 salads as my main meals yesterday and somehow the scales went up) 

• Today I survived. 

• That you never know who’s watching or paying attention so just to keep doing what I’m doing & sharing what I’m sharing because it might be helping more than I realised… those who don’t wanna see can delete me.

• Some days I struggle so much with focus and That audiobooks require focus I found particularly within the first chapter I would catch myself thinking completely about something else cause I had a million things to do today. And that the whole telling yourself NOT to do something makes it so much harder had my MRI tonight and she said “just try not to breathe too deeply because you’ll move” so I spent the whole thing more focussed on breathing than a normal person should.

• If nothing changes then nothing changes… not really something new but something that encouraged me to set my alarm for 5:30 to do a 6am journaling with Michelle tomorrow!!

• Just how important reflection is, as mentioned earlier just taking the time to look at how I am showing up and if I feel I need to do better was encouraging to see I’m in a good place. I think there’s always room for improvement so I wouldn’t say I’m nailing it but I’m proud of how I’m doing between work, home and balancing my own desires/dreams.

• Rest is important. 

• I’ll be honest, today was incredibly tough, I spent most of it in tears because I was hit with a wave of grief & missing my dad. So, my lesson is that 7 years on, that life is hard, and I’ll never be the same. 

• That sadness is ok and I don’t need to try and hide from it. 

• I had to negotiate/talk myself down on like 10+ occasions today to not just say stuff it and not care today, an important learn because I am just tired and obvs been an emotional few days, but I learnt that I have control and I CAN stick to my new habits. 

• Today was just a reminder that staying the course when it’s hard or doesn’t feel like you’re moving forward is the most important time to stay on track. 

• The things I don’t have control over I have to let go and not hang onto. It does nothing positive holding on

• I had a few today but my biggest one I think is that my biggest kids love language is quality time and going out to surprise her was 2.5 hours out of my night but worth more than anything money could buy. 

• That sometimes you just gotta be brave and do things that make you uncomfortable like rollerblading at 37!!! 

• I am more mentally strong than I give myself credit for some days. 

• My default thing to reward myself is food, so that’s gotta change now. 

• Nothing exciting to report today and that’s ok.  

• After 8 weeks of being pretty incredible, the hard day hit, my lesson was that “a bad day doesn’t mean a bad life & I’m strong enough to face tomorrow”.

• Haha I honestly don’t know today… that there’s still work to do cause mentally I’m feeling disappointed in myself but equally felt I needed tonight.  

• A friend got me talking today about life, what I’m doing with all my goal setting and study and MAN it was exciting, my learn or lesson is that my excitement really cemented I am going in the right direction. 

• I have a superpower when it comes to putting things in the right spot on my craft projects – so I can eyeball the right spot without measuring. 

• The importance of planning & prioritising life and tasks, the mental freedom it has given me of late has been invaluable. 

• Today was a hard day. 

• I think the importance of kindness to myself after my first “fail” and that it’s a drop in the ocean of who I am now so just keep going.

• Tired or not, I won’t achieve my dreams by not doing the work. Even if it is little by little. That and a few of the core questioning techniques I’m learning about are similar to sales techniques taught throughout my current career

• Hmm… not a huge lesson day today except for some reflection time as mentioned above has meant I am feeling I need to knuckle down…

• When self-doubt starts to creep in, in other areas of my life that I need to check myself there and reframe because otherwise it will flow into other areas of my life/friendships.

• When you’re not feeling confident on where you’re at, spend some time looking at where you started & this helped me immensely today. 

• We used kindness on ourselves today. It was a rough day in a ton of pain 

• Nothing exciting today & that’s ok. 

• I don’t do so well not having “stuff” to do haha, the family did all the chores and cooking this arvo and I was lost but managed to get some reading and a nap in so it was nice. 

• a few today… That sometimes it’s important to pivot your plans to set yourself up for success, e.g., I planned study, but I needed to prep meals and then tomorrow I can do some study.
  And then second lesson was the importance of seeing things through; I had gotten to 50 on my list and not gone back to it… it was time to finish it today. 

• I am filled with the fear of failure with my study… BUT… I also spent time reflecting that I need to just do it, risk getting it wrong so I can learn from it and not be stuck and not progressing… I will grow if I get something wrong & that is a GOOD thing. 

• Starting my day with my journal is a great day.

• I am unsure what’s happening, but I am thinking I need to sit and do some writing to work my head out. I am feeling unsettled maybe, maybe stuck? I have no idea haha, but I just know I’m not feeling like I’m kicking goals and I have the awareness that it’s in my control to work it out. 

• My morning reflection really helped get into what I needed to do to set myself up to do a bit of a “restart/refocus” & seeing my friends happy makes my day. 

• That tomorrow I need to prioritise rest, mentally, emotionally & physically…. My everything is screaming out for it.

• I need to take time to reflect and just readjust/tweak my actions when I’m feeling like progress is slow. It doesn’t need to be all or nothing, focus on my 1% 

• I can do anything for 60 seconds at a time, even running!!!!  

• Actively planning extra movement has been a great way so far to keep it on track. I feel good then not just physically but mentally because I am achieving it.

• I need to not be shy/afraid to share my thoughts and writing because I never know who it’s helping/affecting or challenging…

• Soak in the wins, big or small

• I don’t know l have anything notable today. 

• Win AND Learn: I can do a 3-minute ice bath.

• I am who needs to show up for me, I am in complete and full control. 

• I am ok with changing my plans when I need to for my well-being as long as I do it for the right reasons.

• My daughter is a savage, woke up, saw our leaderboard so did the maximum 15 minutes so that now the only way to win is reduce the temp of the bath this is my life now, ice bath challenges. 

• My heart is happy when I am working on me and my future. 

• Music really makes running better haha something to focus on rather than the pain I was in

• I can do things for 66 days. 

• Preparation is key to staying on track.  

• I am trying to not beat myself up & remind myself that “one hot day doesn’t make a summer” as long as I get back on track tomorrow, it’s a drop in the ocean.

• Slow progress is still progress, I need to focus on one day and one step that’s what’s in my control. 

• In challenging moments, focus on the things in my control and I can still achieve the things I am dreaming of 

• Kindness is needed on tough days. 

• I’m feeling frustrated and emotional & that’s ok. I just need to not stay in those feelings for long. I also wrote a blog about it to help get it out. 

• Sharing our stories are important, it can help people with their own journeys. 

• Give yourself time and space when not feeling amazing & doing things you love will help.

• I need to rely on myself and myself only when it comes to my goals. 

• Long weekends are so needed & we need more of them.

• Some days are just hard.

• The importance of letting yourself drop your bundle, cry it out & then create space to move through how you’re feeling. 

• When things are chaotic, I benefit greatly from stopping & creating an action plan/list of how I’m gonna get through it. 

• Kindness is free – SnagChat night is always so rewarding.

• I need to accept help more easily when I am overwhelmed. 

• I have full control over my nutrition, and I can adapt to the situation I’m in.

• That at the end of my days, reflecting on the ways I have had successes and learning not only helps me to improve who I am, it helps me be grateful for the things I have.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope that no matter what is going on in your life, you take the time to find something to celebrate or learn from.

Love, MrsJRad