TikTok told me (because it tells me everything) that on May 14th, Jupiter shifted into Taurus and that’s a good thing for us Leos suffering for the past two years.
I don’t know what half of that means but in two years I got divorced, bought a house, survived on half an income with the same living expenses, put my kids through divorce hell, started a miserable new job, dated like a madwoman, and recently experienced a brutal heartbreak.
So whatever positivity the moons and astrology want to tell me, I’m taking it.
After excessive sleeping and wallowing after my recent breakup, I formed a plan to change my life. The dust settled on the craziness and now I want to live a happy life.
Eating healthy or trying new things won’t be the hard parts. Being on autopilot for decades and internalizing self-hatred is the most challenging because those are what drive many of my unhealthy habits.
My goal of going outside is tough, which sounds absurd given I pay a fortune to live in Southern California. Pre-divorce and pre-Covid, I didn’t focus on the outdoors because it was part of my life. I left the house daily for work and my weekends were jam-packed with kids’ activities.
Now I work 100% from home and I only see my kids half their lives (that still hurts to acknowledge). I get everything delivered because the junk I buy often isn’t in physical stores or the price is higher. I can easily spend days indoors avoiding the sun.
I wear fancy Korean sunblock and have over a dozen different sun hats, half of them in my car at all times. The sun and I aren’t BFFs. Time to amend our strained relationship.
Step one is to spend at least ten minutes a day outside. Seems simple, right? Not when you’re a vampire. Yesterday, I sat on my porch to eat a sandwich at lunch. Baby steps. It felt good.
I signed up for two golf lessons from two different women’s golf groups. I’m not athletic so there’s no point in making myself miserable by pretending I’m Misty May hitting volleyballs.
Not only will golf get me out of the house and in the sun, but it also forces me out of my comfort zone. I’m a creature of habit and those habits aren’t serving me. Plus, learning new things is good for the brain and lord knows, my cranium is a declining bag of mush.
This week, I left the house to work out at the gym which I rarely do since I converted my garage to a ghetto fitness space. My membership is $49/year (grandfathered in at 24 Hour Fitness) so I can’t complain about the gym’s crappiness. But it’s not a pleasant experience.
Last night, I dragged the kids to Planet Fitness because they had a special: $10/month. That’s in my price range, it’s nearby, and it’s a shockingly nice gym given the low cost. Like, really nice. If it’s clean, nice, and has signs saying “Judgement-Free Zone”, then I’m more apt to go.
Tomorrow is my first Date Thursday since forming my plan. It requires me on non-kid days to get dressed up and go out, whether on a real date or by myself. I’ve got plans with friends so I’ve hit that requirement for this week.
Detoxing sugar will be tough. I’ve eaten five Ferrero Rocher chocolates today and it’s not even 10 am. I’ll punt that one until I get the other goals fully incorporated into my life.
Water. Water sucks. I refilled my water bottle. Thoughts and prayers that I get through it today.
Two areas I need to consistently incorporate are my full beauty regimen and reading.
I don’t eff around when it comes to anti-aging. For me, it’s a hobby. But when I have the kids, my focus is on them and I feel dumb taking an hour for beauty treatments like NuFace when I only have custody half the time. For now, I’ll settle for incorporating all derma rolling and facial peels on non-kid days. It’s better than nothing.
My reading list is ginormous. It’s completely my fault for messing around on social media and doom-scrolling at night when I could use that time to read. Maybe I’ll stick with thirty minutes of reading before bed.
Speaking of beds, I also need to reevaluate my sleep habits since I average three or four hours a night. That’s aging me faster than my other bad habits combined. If I can make it a goal to be in bed by midnight, I’ll be golden.
Deep breath.
Bang the gong because the Glow Up has begun.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Rhett Wesley on Unsplash