Linda is a very black and white type thinking person. If she makes up her mind to do something she does it all the way. In early 2008 she started this blog and except for rare instances, has done a post everyday. Last June 11th she decided to use the My Fitness Pal app to track all her food and exercise. Yesterday marked the 7th month where she hasn't missed even one meal of tracking her food or imputing her exercise. There are lots of cleaning goals. In November, she made a decision that she wouldn't go to bed unless all the laundry was washed, dried and put away everyday. (Same with dishes. No dishes are ever left in the sink or drying on the counter. This is one she has done for years.) Another is to hang her clothes up the second she takes them off; put her shoes in the closet and clean the bathroom every morning before she leaves for work. More than once she decided to read the entire Bible in one month. She divides the number of chapters by 30 days and makes sure she stays on track with her daily reading. (At church they spread the readings out over a year so she isn't doing the monthly schedule anymore.) Once she makes a conscious decision to stop or has reached her goal, she has no problem changing the routine. This morning she had to break the Sunday run a 5k for time tradition that shes been keeping. It was actually hard for her not to go to the gym before church, but she is doing Pump and Combat in a few hours and didn't want to start the week out with a possible injury. Many of her friends have told her to be more relaxed, go with the flow and not live by self-imposed guidelines, but she finds comfort in keeping them. I'm sure a psychiatrist would say she is broken with some sort of OCD. Maybe, but its not something she is ashamed of or feels that she needs to hide from others anymore. As long as it isn't destructive to her health or spiritual state (which happened years ago with terrible consequences) she is OK with it. Structure keeps her stress-free and on track.
