My Happiness Challenge Day 33

Happy people...

33. Live in the present, not dwelling too much on the past or worrying about the future.

As I've said before, I think about my past mistakes too often and fear of making more mistakes often paralyzes me. But I think I am making progress on living in the present and taking steps to make the day I am living better.

I have started setting an agenda of things I want and need to accomplish and that helps me feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Whenever I start thinking about past mistakes I try to think about how it has made me a better person and what I learned from it but put it away as quickly as possible.

I am taking steps to make sure I have a long, happy life by learning as much about myself and what I want out of life so I don't worry about the future so much.

We just returned from vacation in Chicago today. Of course I couldn't resist stepping on the scale to see how much damage my pizza and beer only diet had affected my weight. I need to say that each day we ran or walked an average of 10 miles which we could only do because we have been running half marathons for 4 years now. We bought a case of water on our 2nd day so I was drinking at least 64 ounces of water per day. I made sure that I only ate until I was full and took leftovers back to our hotel each night and ate them for brunch after working out.

These strategies resulted in only a 4 pound gain (which we all know women can have in any given week!).

It may have been the best vacation we have ever had! Sunday we ran a 10k and I ran a personal best. Monday we went to a Cubs game. Tuesday we ran by the river walk to the Navy Pier, past Grant park up to Soldier Field and stumbled on a taping of Chicago Fire! We took a river architecture tour that was fascinating. After pizza that night we found a fun piano bar called The Redhead. Wednesday we walked 2 1/2 miles to North Street Beach and I stepped in. Yikes! Too cold for me! Then we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We had pizza pot pies at a place we'd seen on tv in the area. Then we walked back to the Navy Pier for fireworks. Every day we got out and explored and expirienced new things!

Now I'm ready to get back to the real world and my normal routine. I am refreshed and revilaized!

I am happy!