Exercise & prioritizing priorities

I've been having a bit of a problem making progress on some areas of my life that I have been wanting to improve on. Namely, getting back into the habit of regular exercise, getting up earlier, eating from (and enough of) each of the four food groups each day, and doing a better job staying on top of household chores. And then a couple days ago I read a great post where Crystal of MoneySavingMom talks about how to deal with exactly that problem here (scroll down to point #4). She had a great suggestion to make a list of all the things you want to work on (done), and then prioritize them.

Ahah. So I'll do that next, here we go:

1. Regular exercise
2. Eating from the four food groups
3. Household chores
4. Waking up earlier

Her next suggestion is to focus on one thing at a time, starting with the highest priority item, for 3 months, then moving on to the next one. Well, that makes a lot of sense to me! And it works out great that I have items to focus on for the next year, and also that waking up earlier is almost a year away, as Little M still is waking up once or twice to nurse throughout the night so I need my rest in the mornings often! So I guess I know what I need to work on through July, August & September - regular exercise!

I'm lucky in that I have an erg (inside rowing machine) out on the sunporch that I can use whenever I want. It's a Concept II for those of you who care about that sort of thing, and I make use of all the great online support and challenges that Concept II offers - check them out here. I am also lucky in that we live in an area with lots of trails and wild space for recreating, with public land literally right outside the house (the vast hillside across the road is all public land).

I am also a fairly active person, we go for walks with the dogs regularly, and I do yardwork on a regular basis as well, but I don't have a routine that makes sure I get enough each week.  I also find that even though I am out doing things often, because I am not out for the purpose of exercising, I don't feel like I am exercising as much as I should. So since I am pretty much a goal driven person, I'll set monthly goals - slowly increasing my exercise each week over the next 3 months. Because I am already fairly active, I'll try to intentionally do activities that are more along the lines of 'real' exercise, and not just yardwork to make up my weekly exercise quota :)

July - exercise 1 time per week
August - exercise 2 times per week
September - exercise 3 times per week

I think ideally I would want to exercise more, but with a little one, 3 dogs, a big garden & yard, not to mention being a working mom, 3 times a week is likely all I can fit into my schedule at the moment.

I'll try to keep you updated with how my exercise goal is coming, and look for more of these sorts of posts in 3, 6, and 9 months time as I move on to the next priorities!