Refocusing - What is it That I'm Gluing Together, Exactly?

Despite the title I haven't really lost my way (despite being on holiday and having people to stay which is often enough to totally throw me for a loop) - I'm still eating all of the right things and a very controlled (and allowed) quantity of the wrong ones, and I've developed a number of new habits that slot right into my life no matter how crazy it is, but I have lost a bit of focus and I'm not terribly excited by my new life right now.

Now, a lot of that's connected to the fact that everyday habits aren't very exciting - by their very nature they're background noise and really that's where I want a lot of my regular choices to be, in the background. That said, I'm only a wee way down this path, so I'm a long way from having the majority of my natural choices be the right ones for me, so. Refocusing.

I'm also looking to refocus the blog a little, too - in case any of my imaginary readers are concerned I will still be blogging about SW and exercise and recipies and my slimming "journey" in general, but I'm going to add some more to it, too. A lot of my thinking recently has been about revaluing myself a bit and that's not just all about diet, exercise and skincare - there are elements of housework and decluttering and taking care of my environment, of personal growth and support and other personal goals that I might not have uncovered yet (and yes, if you - the imaginary reader ;)- have read my previous goals, some of that stuff's already slipped in).


I am, currently, a little disconsolate - imagine Eeyore, but with slightly more propensity to kick things (does that count to body magic?) and swap the thistles for grapes - which is definitely to do with the fact that I've been kicking around in the same couple of pounds for the last few weeks (1 gain from a holiday, 1 gain last night from what seems like dodgy scales - from the whole class only 3 people lost at ALL) so I'm hoping that going over where I want to be and breaking down the steps I can find my inner Tigger again and kick this 2.5lbs in the behind and finally get my 4 stone gone. I'll kick off my focus setting with a review of the goals I've set so far:

1.Drink more water.

1.1.Fill my 1 lt bottle every day and drink at least that at my desk (also use at weekends, just for measuring purposes).

This is totally a habit during my working week now and, while I'm not so good over weekends (especially when I'm out of my routine), I am much better at being aware of my hydration levels.


2.Drink less diet coke.

2.1.I feel that I need the caffiene and/or the flavour over just the plain water sometimes (although the caffiene is psycosomatic) so experiment with various fridge teas (rather than aspartamine filled NAS squash) and try hot green teas until I find one I like.

I've been very successful indeed with this - I've instituted a new rule of no Diet coke after 1pm unless in company and I often replace my morning diet coke with an unsweetened latte (syns counted) instead. I've been drinking plain water more than anything else because it's been so warm, but I've worked out what I like for the colder weather when it comes.

3.Excercise more.

3.1.Unless it is pouring I will walk my 30minute lunchbreak around the river. It is pretty.

Epic Fail. I have moved more or less every lunchtime (other than the day I had to shift 12 large monitors, because I was knackered!) but I've not been out for the full 30 minutes in some time, I've just meandered to the shops and back. I am therefore better than I was (not moving at all) but not as good as I was when I was focussed on it.

3.2.Unless it there is a specific reason why not, I will get the train home to the further away station and walk up the hill.
This is becoming more of a natural habit, and with the way the trains run I generally get in either at the same time as I would, or a few minutes earlier. I do need to refocus on it though, so it's a totally natural habit by the time the weather turns (I'm going home, it's not like it matters if I'm soggy when I get there).

3.3.I will find out the times of the trains at the further away station in the morning and time how long it takes me to get there so I can see when I'd need to leave to use that instead. I have it timed and I have a timetable. I'm just not likely to go there unless I miss my regular train.


3.4.Investigate "bingo wing busters" on the internet.
I've found something that looks like it should work. I just need to try it.

4.Continue with SW

4.1.As I am - keep mixing it up, keep sticking to it.

Done but I need to look at the mixing it up bit more. Meal planning seems to be the way forward there.



More ephemeral goals

More groomed.

Hrm, yeah, well. I've decluttered my jewelry so I'm much more likely to wear some, but on work days I'm still slather-on-moisturiser-sling-up-hair and run. I need to add makeup into that more regularly.

Better body skin - if I'm going to wear sleeveless tops and shorts, etc, I need to have skin that's fit for humans.
I've currently got horrible excema in my armpits due to a deoderant allergy so I've been completely focused on healing that and nothing else.

House keeping routine.
Getting there. Slowly. I've bought a new hoover that actually sucks stuff up (which is useful) and I've decided to hoover my carpets and rugs on a tuesday evening before my SW class (because it won't annoy my downstairs neighbour) and I'll revisit it over the weekend if it needs it (if I've had visitors, usually, I'm not very dirty). Bedlinen is a saturday morning job (if I strip the bed and bung it in the machine when I get up I can get it hung up before I go out. The only time that's an issue is if I've someone in my spare room on a friday night as that's where I dry stuff) as is the bathroom (so I can have a clean me, from my clean bathroom, in my clean bedding). My kitchen I mostly just keep going every day so that it doesn't need much in the way of deep cleaning but I need to work out a good time for hard floor sweeping, dusting and straightening up the sitting room every week. Any thing else is really more deep cleaning, so I'll get to it when I get to it.

stop wasting all weekend sleeping and slothing.
Success. I've been up by 10am at the latest (and that was with a 2am bedtime the night before, thanks to visitors) for weeks - and usually by half past 9 or earlier. Any time after 9am doesn't feel "too early" any more (this is very much helped by the long days right now, but I'm hoping it'll be an ingrained enough habit by the time the clocks change) and I'm getting a lot more done as a result. I've also lost the ability to sit still in front of the tv/computer for long periods, so I've cut some of the TV shows I watch (and I dust/sort/declutter whilst others are on now). I think with a slightly more structured housework routine that this can only get better, too.




So, next I need to re-evaluate my goals and make some specifics to aim for - I like lists, so I'm going to get some longer-term project things in there, too and I'm going to keep on measuring my performance against them.

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