Good afternoon, how are we all?

I am still using my Walk With Me! and I was right, it is just a gimmicky thing but there’s something cute about it I like very much.  I think it’s the flashy light.  It doesn’t have a step count on it, just a wee light that flashes red until you reach your step target, when it changes to green.  You connect via infra-red to your DS and it tells you how many steps you’ve done and your walking style.  So far I’ve been an evening owl, a day-time horse and a day-time deer.  Hehe.  I put it on my cat for a while too, but she scratched it off too quickly.

It shows your day’s walking in a graph like that one.  And I’m having a lot of fun with it.  Every little bit of walking all adds up!  It is certainly encouraging me to move more.  I wouldn’t have paid full price for it, but I don’t think I’ll take it back.

As for my title - well DP and I did a major summer-clean today.  I wrote lists for each room of what needed doing and as I did it kind of came to me that changing our lifestyles is much like this.  I have far too much of an “everything now” attitude; as in I need to change every aspect of my lifestyle all at once right now.  It just can’t work like that - that’d be like trying to clean every room of my house simultaneously.  Not possible.  Instead, like cleaning, we need to tackle one thing at a time breaking down the house (lifestyle) into rooms (things we want to change about our lifestyle) and in turn, all the things we need to do in each of those rooms (the things we do to change our lifestyle).  It’s something we all know, but it just worked out as an allegory that fitted for me :)  I want to change my diet, exercise regime and attitude.  These break down into smaller things.  I’ve sorted out breakfast, stopped snacking and drinking fizzy drinks and alcohol.  I’m moving more and drinking more water.  I’m working on dampening the negative attitude.  Next I need to shape up lunch and tea a bit more - but I will get there.

Diet

• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Tea
• Snacking
• Drinks

Exercise

• More more more!

Attitude

• Positive mental attitude
• Can do!
• It’s not going to happen overnight, but we’ll get there…

Chicks I have to say, you are all so amazing.  Again I want to say thank you so much for all your lovely comments, you really are all the best.  You all know I’ve been struggling recently and it’s no deviation from the truth to say it is all your support that has got me through it.  More than my friends or DP, it is my friends here who all care so much and know exactly what it’s like to lose focus who’ve brought me back.  I have a big smile today!

I got some other news from the university today, too.  I won the Philip Burgess Prize, which is an award for outstanding contribution to the School of Psychology over the last academic year.  It really is an honour to be awarded it.  I just want to help people, but it is lovely to be recognised for the work you do.  I am attending the prize-giving ceremony on the 24th of June.  There’s also a £116 award, which is so nice!  The award was set up by a previous lecturer of the School, who set it up to recognise students who help out and make a difference.  I hope he’s at the ceremony so I can thank him in person.

I got in a 90 minute walk today for my “moving”, and I will do some crunches later too.  I am a bit of a freak but I love doing crunches.  Well, more I like the feeling of working my muscles.  I’m also going to get the new DS game “Walk With Me!” from work tomorrow.

It’s pretty expensive - £49.99 retail price, but I get 25% discount (the benefit of working in a games store) and have store credit from trading old things in so I won’t have to pay for it.  I know essentially it’s a bit gimmicky and a pedometer does the same thing but the game focuses more on moving rather than the specifics of what you’ve walked.  And if I’m really fed up of it, I can always return it.  Glorified step counter I know, but I’m a sucker for gadgets haha.

I hope you are all having great days and that you have good weekends.  I’m working all day tomorrow (when it’s supposed to be sunny, boo) till 6.15pm but the sun’s up until 11.45pm here until summer solstice anyway, so I should get to enjoy some sunshine.  Also working 5 hours on Sunday but it’s supposed to be torrential rain then so I don’t mind too much

Mango x

Hey everyone.

I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your supportive comments.  I am feeling a lot better about things right now, I think I needed to realign my thinking to avoid my obsessive behaviour and to gain a more realistic mindset.  All your comments did me the world of good!  Also one of Sunny’s posts, which told me in no uncertain terms in her wonderful down to earth way that being healthy is my responsibility, not something that can just be done on a whim.  I heart you Sunny :)  Hehe.

I’m not using the scale now.  I might hop on occassionally, but no more than once a month.  DP’s hidden it.  I have made myself a promise to move every day.  Not for a given amount of time or a given activity, just to move.  Walk, yoga, skipping rope, frisbee, gardening…  Moving is the important thing.  Obviously I am eating sensibly too and keeping to the no carbonated drinks or alcohol rule.  But working on moving every day I can make it a game, not a chore, and build up my activity levels as I go without the extreme focus on minutes gained, calories burnt etc. etc.

So I’m back girlies and posting again.

Oh yeah, did I say something about results?

….

I kicked those exams’ asses!  A, B+, B, B!!  I am one happy chickie!!  I need 3 A’s next year (perfectly achievable) to graduate with a First (I think it’s something like [something] Com Laude - sorry for the awful latin - for my American counterparts).  So yeh - I’m a happy girl!  And totally psyched for next year.  I’ve had the fright, I know what I need to do and I will work very hard for that beautiful degree

Mango x