The 7- Week Plan: Feeling like a Monday but someday I’ll be Saturday night

I have been professionally trained to set objectives, create plans, decide how to determine if the goal or objective has been met, and then set up systems and tools to track progress against the objectives. In its most simple form, this is basis of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E).

My boss likes to laugh at me sometimes when I talk about stuff or make suggestions– “oh my god you’re such an M&E person!” , which, I suppose, is a compliment considering that’s what they pay me for.

So, it will come as no surprise to her that while on vacation, I decided that I need a plan.  A Clear Away The Gloom Plan. A You Are In Charge Of Your Own Destiny Plan. A Happiness Now Plan. Generally, the main objective, or thing we want to have achieved with this plan is “Heather is happy and healthy”.

To do this, I’ve decided, rather unilaterally and without any remorse because I’ve already consulted the only direct beneficiary of this program – me – to make myself a 7-Week Plan.

Why 7-weeks?

Well, I read somewhere that it takes 6 weeks to create a new habit, and considering how stubborn I am, the extra week seems like a reasonable buffer if I want some of this stuff to stick. Also, it’s a practical marker because 7 weeks from the start of the Plan, I’m flying to Brisbane to:

a) Kick my Christmas holidays into full swing, and

b) Sing my face off at a Bon Jovi concert, and

c) Meet up (for the first time) with someone who I’ve enjoyed getting to know and has become rather important to me over the last 6 or so months*, and has promised to be totally ok with me singing my face off at the Bon Jovi concert

* unless he’s reading this, in which case, clearly what I mean is “someone who is alright and meeting will be cool, cause I’m super casual etc, no biggie, I super love platonic relationships”.

So the plan. 

For the next 7 Weeks I will:

1. Stick to my Isagenix program  

Isagenix is a nutritional cleanse that my brother introduced me (and multiple members of my family) to; I sometimes suspect that this was his way of retaliating for the fact that I would occasionally steal his Halloween candy growing up. Or maybe it’s just that karma is only a bitch if you are? Isagenix mainly involves replacing two meals per day with their shakes, having a couple healthy snacks throughout the day and then one healthy meal featuring lean protein and vegetables, and drinking loads of water (your weight in lbs, divided in half, and then drink that many oz per day). Additionally, once a week you are supposed to do a ‘deep cleanse’ by not eating anything at all and just having their ‘deep cleanse’ powder, which is, obviously, so fun. I signed up and did it for a couple of months after I got back from Canada in July, but quit doing the deep cleanses after the first one because I was a monster to be around (I tried to hide it on the outside, but in my head I was stomping on helpless villagers and purposely aiming my fire breath at their fields and easily flammable structures). I think I lost about 12 lbs, but I’m really not sure because at the time I started I had a crappy scale and the new fancy scale I got wasn’t quite fancy enough to figure out what I weighed 2 months before I bought it. I’ll probably tell you more about that experience as we go along, but for now know that I’m back on the wagon.

A selfie I took around lunch time the first time I tried to do a full day deep cleanse. The fire breathing commenced around mid-afternoon.

2. Exercise 2 hours per week

I wanted to say 1, on the premise that it’s 100% more exercise than I currently do and I want to set myself up for success rather than failure, but then someone suggested that you’re really meant to do like 4 hrs per week generally, so this seemed like less of a cop out and perhaps more in the spirit of the challenge.

3. Connect with at least one friend that I haven’t been in contact with in awhile

Like everyone else, I get caught up with life and work. I’m pretty good about keeping in touch with people that I see online often (ie. on Gmail chat, or Skype), but considering the time difference and the fact that a surprising number of the people I like best in the world aren’t as consistently online as I am (yay iPhone!), I’ve decided that I’m going to put in a little effort here.

4. Extend an invitation to do something with someone

On the same train as putting in some effort with people in other parts of my life, I’m going to put in a little effort to connect more regularly with the people that I like that are easily accessible here. Sure, it’s going to be more difficult to do that now than maybe it would have been in the past because a lot of people I really like have left, but there are still plenty of people still here. It’s easy to sit back and wait for people to invite you to do things, but I think a more proactive approach might be in order.

5.  Do at least one fun thing on the weekend

A homebody at heart, I find it really easy to spend the entire weekend at home, watching TV or fiddling on the internet. But there is a clear distinction between being content and being happy, and between spending time and making use of time. For the next 7 weeks I’m going to make sure that I’m actively making good use of my weekends by doing at least one fun thing, with other people. Lucky for me, there’s a beach not too far away!

6. Update this blog

So, I kinda like writing this blog. And even though I do get enjoyment from knowing that some people are reading it, or from having you leaving comments or letting me know that you are reading it (thanks!), I also get a lot of my enjoyment from the actual process of writing and posting it. So I’m going to try to do it a little more. As luck would have it, weekly updates on the 7 Week Plan will count.

Additionally, there are a few smaller goals I feel I should set for myself – small victories people, small victories. 

By the end of the 7 Weeks I will:

7. Host one dinner party – we haven’t had people over in awhile, and usually when we do, it’s because Annalisa suggests it. Since I don’t want the invites I get to dry up, I’m going to take the reins one night.

8. Find a hobby or start a project – Apparently “watching TV” and “online dating” aren’t great hobbies. So I’m going to sort out something else.

9. Learn Twitter – I get it, but only sort of. I don’t have any 8 year olds around to explain it all to me, so this is my chance to figure it out on my own. Will you tweet with me?

10. Learn how to do something new – We should all be constantly striving to learn new things. Twitter won’t count, and I’m not sure what this might be yet, but I’m open to suggestions (as long as you don’t suggest that I learn Instagram, because: baby steps people).

11. Make a new friend – People are always leaving and I like to joke (read: not joke but wish I were joking) that I’ve used up all the time and energy I have for making an effort to make new friends. I know there are some really solid new people kickin’ about. So to one of them I say, “I’m coming for you”.

12. Figure out what the heck I’m going to do for Christmas – If I haven’t figured this one out by the end of the 7 Weeks, I’m going to be really panicked. The plans I thought I had fell through, going to Canada will cost an unreasonable $4000 so that I can get sick on the plane and spend a week on my mom’s couch, and staying in Honiara just seems like an undeserved lump of coal (when I definitely deserve to be on the Nice List).

Also, in celebration of being reunited live and in concert with my man Bon Jovi, and in keeping with my claims that he writes the soundtrack to my life, I’ve decided to try to infuse a little Bon Jovi lyrical flair over the next 7 Weeks – as if you needed something else to be excited about.

So, that’s the Plan. 7 Weeks, 12 things. 

I have a tracking sheet and everything.

I'm telling you about it to help keep me honest. Let’s see what happens.

PS. I ran out of steam writing about the final days of my holiday, which means you’ve missed a bit of stuff like...

... the story I was going to tell you about the truck full of little people who were driving around town making lots of noise and trying to get people to come watch their ‘midget fight club’ matches

...or how I was going to try to explain to all the non-Aussies in my life about what a ‘bogan’ is and how a big group of them walked in to pizza hut in only their bathing suits (and probably later went to see the midget fight club)

... or a little chat about how the second last hotel inspired Nisha and I to coin a new term for ‘something that looks great until closer inspection’ (“we totally got Puri Bunga’d”)

... or my suggesting that maybe I was a little old for the very last hotel we stayed at because I truly believed that the poolside DJ was playing his music louder than necessary and was not at all inspired to line up along the side of the pool to have anyone pour alcohol directly into my mouth  

Maybe next time.

Note: I’m writing this at the same time as my Week 1 Update. Click here to read that.

And if you want to read the posts I did get around to writing about my holiday and missed them before, you can check them out here:

Bali: Day 1 - 3 (or please stop reminding me)

Bali: Day 4 - 6 (or, Second Honeymoon Begins)

Bali: Day 7&8 (or, Thanks for the Lift)