Well, I may have forgotten to update a week... or two, but I'm back. Everything overall has been going okay, but I honestly just forgot to pop on here and make an update. In that time, I celebrated my dogs 15th birthday and my 38th birthday. It wasn't anything wild, but I did take some time off for both, which was much needed. Spent my birthday with my best friend, her husband and daughter. It was a lovely evening filled with homemade pineapple pizza (my personal favorite), laughter, and chats.
In regards to this project, I have been consistent with working out, which is the most important thing I want to maintain. I'm crossing my fingers here and really hoping that I've gotten into the groove of turning it into a habit. Even on my days off where I've slept in, didn't really want to get up and start my day (besides obviously taking my dog to the bathroom), but I still, without hesitation did my morning ritual which included working out after brushing my teeth & skincare and before my morning coffee.
The Belly Dancing is still going great, I'm thoroughly enjoying it and honestly, the time just flies when I'm doing it. The only thing I decided to switch up is doing strength training three times a week and walking two times a week. I'm also upping my workout time to 25 minutes, tentatively I might add. I've been feeling really good about the 20 minutes, and every time I have increased the time, I've been enthusiastic about it and felt ready. I'm a bit weary on the 25, not quite sure why, hence the tentative nature. So, with that, I'm going to aim for 25 minutes, but as long as I hit 20 minutes I'll be okay with that as well. Then I can reassess if I need to stay at the 20 minute mark for another week or I can maintain a second week of 25 minutes.
One hurdle I've been combating is my bedtime and morning ritual; I haven't been going to bed at 10:20pm or waking up at 6:20am. I have noticed, even with me having a hard time maintaining a solid bed and wake up time, rolling out of bed at 6:30am still seems to suffice for everything I need to do in the morning. Especially on work days, which was my biggest concern in regards to time. One of those aspects is in regards to me not putting my phone away an hour before bed time. Doom-scrolling is still a major issue for me, I might actually have to look up tips on how to combat that because it is becoming a bit much.
When it comes to the hobbies... well... my mobile phone game has been taking up a lot of my time, so on a positive, that is a hobby I love and enjoy, but I also want more productive hobbies. Things that get me away from screen time. I've gotten back into listening to audio books, I finished the Education of a Coroner, which was a compelling and enthralling read for me. I have a fascination with all things in regards to death and dead bodies. Probably should have been a coroner or an ME, I just can't stand the thought of going back to college. Right now I am listening to A Short History of Nearly Everything. This one is a longer book, but I am over half way done with it right now and should finish it in the next day or two. That would mean I would have hit my reading goal of 25 Books in 2025. I am curious as to how many pages all my books would equate to. This year I have had some fairly large reads and would love to compare that to last years.
I have still been baking every week, although it seems like designating my hobbies (such as baking on Sunday's, gaming on Saturday's, etc) is not conducive to my goals. I've been constantly making the 2-ingredient biscuits for my breakfast and no complaints on my end. It's an extremely easy bake, it doesn't give me the wet dough ick, and it's quick to throw together.
Last night, I definitely did some gaming though. Played some BL3 with a friend online which was nice. Usually I'm just gaming alone, but they were available for some shenanigans. I would like to challenge myself into playing all my Lara Croft games. I have a multitude of them but have never finished a single one of them. Those games are a bit hard to wrap my head around for me to figure out what needs to be done. I'm better when there is some direction or guidance of what needs to be done, much like BL3.
As for the other hobbies I've mentioned interest in doing, having touched any of them. Two of them need to be done on my computer and I'm going to be honest, I don't enjoy being on my computer. Have no idea why, my computer is very nice, I have a comfortable chair, but for some reason trying to sit down and accomplish anything at my computer feels like pulling teeth. Because of that, I feel I really need to sit down and reevaluate my hobbies and maybe think about switching some out. I'll journal on it, brain dumping ideas and see what I come up with.
Speaking of journaling, I did purchase a new journal for 2026. I've been doing fairly well at keeping up with it, better than I have in the past. The journal I am currently using has entries dating back to 2023. In the time I've been writing in it this year, there are more entries from 2025 than '23 & '24 combined.
Well, I think that is enough for now. I'm pretty sure I covered everything, but if not, I'll make little notes for myself and make sure I discuss things next week (and actually make a note to not forget to update this). Thanks for taking time out to read! Until next time!
