Sustainability

Sustainability.

That's a buzz word right now, in agriculture, in environmental sciences, in many other areas.

Sustainability (noun): The ability to be sustained, supported, upheld or confirmed.

Sustain (verb):
1) to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure.
2) to bear (a burden, charge, etc.).
3) to undergo, experience, or suffer (injury, loss, etc.); endure without giving way or yielding.
4) to keep (a person, the mind, the spirits, etc.) from giving way, as under trial or affliction.
5) to keep up or keep going, as an action or process; "to sustain a conversation."
6) to supply with food, drink, and other necessities of life.
7) to provide for (an institution or the like) by furnishing means or funds

(Definitions from Dictionary.com)

Did you read that up there? To keep from giving way, to keep up or keep going, to supply with food, drink and the other necessities of life? Right now, I'm all about finding things that are sustainable. That help keep me in balance. Because while the last year has had it's good moments, it has not been pretty in so many ways, and one of them is my health/fitness. And that is one thing that I do have control over.  However, over the past year, I've also come to realize that there are some things that I need for this process to be sustainable. Because clearly, what I did before is not sustainable, otherwise this graph:

would look very differently. So this year, rather than making any resolutions to make big changes to my lifestyle, exercise or diet, I'm focusing on small changes that are hopefully more sustainable. So here they are:

1. Eat mindfully. This means being aware of what I'm eating and consciously making decisions to eat/not eat as well as what to eat.  I am tracking my intake/journaling because it keeps me honest and forces me to consider what I eat. Eventually, I hope i don't need to rely on a journal, but that's in the future. 

2. Increasing movement. This means so much but again, I am not taking huge swings. There's a lot going on in my life right now and some of that means that I either don't have time or don't have the energy to make time to work out every day. So the goal is one run a week, and buying a fitness tracker to make me mindful of being active during the day (thinking about a Garmin Forerunner 15, but not sure yet). 

3. I also signed up for JillFit's Moderation365 course, which I hope will help get me started this year. 

So here's to starting my journey again. I've walked this road before, and can do it again. My hope, prayer, and dream is that I can do it in a way that is healthy (physically, mentally, and spiritually) and sustainable.