N.B. for some reason it won’t let me attach photos so I will add them separately to FB.
Waking in the mountains we soon discovered to our horror that we had run out of LPG and couldn’t make a cuppa! The nearest gas station was 35mins away at the coast so certainly not the end of the world and it lured us in to somewhat zombie action.
As with every January 1st, I was one of the many committing to new years resolutions, keen to start this year and indeed decade with gusto and a positive direction.
While travelling I have realised how self critical I am, how valuable I find a sense of daily structure, and how important my feeling of good health and fitness are to me both physically and mentally.
So stock take – weigh in and progress photo. I’ve gained 12 pounds and look flabulous having overindulged. I use the term flabulous as I’m trying to speak more positively towards myself. Usually I’d go into crying meltdown and emotional eat over weight gain so this is progress.
Still with my trusty team around me, I know I can get fitter and healthier again. Ernest is my running and resistance trainer, Jasper is vegetable and peanut butter tester and Mabel is sleep advisor to ensure I get 7+ hours.
My resolutions are:
- Be kinder to myself
- Drink at least 2 litres of water each day
- Exercise 5 times a week with focus on improving fitness and health rather than weight loss
- Follow my habit tracker to create daily structure
To this aim, I’m continuing my daily meditation in the morning and adding a second love and kindness meditation after exercise or at bedtime. I use the brilliant 10% happier app and they are doing a free meditation challenge starting on January 6th, so if you would like to join me just pop a comment and I will send you the link so we can motivate each other.
For Water, I went all gungho and signed up for WaterAids Just Water challenge. Bye bye coffee, yogi tea, hot chocolate, juice…anything except water. Knowing how huge a challenge this would be I’ve officially done it as part of a team (Mia, Paul and Rachel) so we each have a minimum of a week, but Mia and I are going to attempt the full month! I’ve survived day 1 but was a right grumbleweed from no coffee…proof I’m addicted 🙈
So fitness, well again I’ve gone full in and signed up for RedJanuary which raises money for Mind. The running element consists of 20 runs of any length over the month, but you have to be active every day. Be it run, walk, swim, skip, box, yoga…literally anything that moves your body 😊 Beyond January its #Gymshark66 which takes the commitment to 66 days which is scientifically how long it takes to establish a new habit.
My final resolution also helps keep me accountable as each day I can tick off the habits I’ve done on my Habit tracker app, and hopefully not forget anything.
This has the makings of a great plan so let’s wait for the results!
Our actual day
Fueled on water, we had a lovely walk along the beach. Mabel rolled in the sand, Jasper went in the sea, Ernest played with a 4 month goldie puppy (no I’m not allowed one, even though they are adorable). It was a huge change to our usual wrapped in several layers speed walk around whitlingham.
I then went for a 5k run inspired by all my friends who got up early in the UK to do parkrun and then a Betty Rocker workout on the beach. Side note burpees and stars are even harder on soft sand 😱 Conscious I had negative thoughts reminding me of the strength I’d lost, I decided to follow it with a loving:kindness meditation which is especially nice as you can send good thoughts to others you know might also be struggling.
It did the trick and I celebrated with more water and a yummy peanut butter energy ball I’d made. They are going to be my tasty healthy treats post workout to satisfy my sweet tooth. Another tip is to have a favourite podcast or playlist you listen to only when exercising.
After lunch we ventured out onto the beach again for walks. Ernest dug holes and buried Jaspers tail and I ultimately decided not to brave a dunk in the sea…nobody else did either lol.
This evening I’ve caught up with the blog while Mark feeds his Duolingo addiction. I’ve still half a bottle of water to drink…I really wish I didn’t hate plain water so much. Then bedtime routine and a sneaky game of backgammon.
Starting the year as we mean to go on lol.
I hope you are feeling positive for the year ahead. Remember nobody is perfect, if you slip up on the resolution just get straight back on. Habits can be a bugger to change but light consistency over the whole year will do you much better than perfection for a few weeks. I’d love to know what you are working towards this year, whatever it is – you got it! 💪