august, in conclusion...

With the first month of my happy, healthy year almost at its end, it's time to look back and assess.

Here's what I committed to just a few short weeks ago:

• eat stop eat
• 100km cumulative run
• early morning dates with Jillian
• breakup with energy squashers
• act more energetic

And here's what I accomplished: almost none of it!

I only managed to fast once before the never-ending antibiotic train began. I had only two Jillian dates (that's two sessions with Jillian Michael's workout DVD, for those of you who don't know Jillian on a first name basis). I gossiped more than I wanted, watched way too much TV, and let the clutter build up a few times (not too many times!) Some days it took everything in me to get out of bed; those days I wasn't acting very energetic at all. Life had other lessons in mind for me this past month, ones I couldn't predict back in July.

BUT (a big but!)...

There was one small victory which has had monumental effects. In just the fourteen days that I was actually keep track, I ran/ walked 113.78km, which means that I easily covered over 200km in all of August! It is an accomplishment that crept up from nowhere, when I was feeling quite down after a less than stellar month, and erased all of the bad. As I kept track of the kilometres everyday, I stumbled upon some age-old wisdom. Happiness and health are not about accomplishing some prescribed task or reaching some arbitrary destination. It may be a cliché, but it's worth repeating over and over and over and over again: happiness is about the journey and you have to pay attention at every step along the way. When I look back at how much I didn't do this past month, or focus on how much I have to do next month, I fall out of sync. But when I pay attention to the small things every day, like 2km here and 9 there, they build and build until one day I realize I've reached this incredible milestone and I'm much happier than I first began.

mxo