Update on the challenge I started

Who remembers my blog about the Challenge? A sort of self improvement thingy that I supposedly started on the third of January. It was inspired by my friend Melanie and 2 Facebook posts currently doing the rounds.

See them here if you are interested:

http://brightside.me/article/how-to-change-your-life-for-the-better-in-just-one-month-505/

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/12/52-fun-things-try-a-new-one-each-week-of-the-year/

I promised an update so here it is, for what it is worth. The word fail is in my head!

Week 1. Purifying the body and mind

Step 1 - Get up earlier.  My goal was actually to make sure that my light is off by midnight and that I was up by 8.30. I did manage to stick to this for the whole of week 1 but week 2 has seen me slip back to reading, browsing etc. until the wee hours. So little time during the day. I can't say that I noticed any real difference in a few more hours of sleep because I didn't really sleep anyway.

Step 2 – Better nutrition.  My goal here was to try to eat more light, healthy but nutritious meals and they needed to be easy to make, quick to cook and relatively cheap. I wanted to try a new recipe each week. I did actually do this on week one. I cooked Mujaddara which is a kind of pilaf made from rice and lentils. It isn't particularly light, but it is nutritious, healthy, cheap and easy to do. It was OK but could do with being a bit spicer. I might make this again. Find the recipe here

Step 3 – Sport I.E. Exercise. I am going to try and incorporate some simple stretches into my day. BIG fail here, it simply didn't happen. Lack of time I think. I did keep to my 10,000 steps everyday though and actually lost 2lbs. (8stone 10lbs now).

Now to the list of 52 new things to try. The idea is obviously one a week for a year.

Week 1. Write a handwritten note and post it to someone you haven’t been in touch with for a while.

Another big fail. I did not write a letter. I have decided who I am going to write too though so that is positive. Just need to stop procrastinating and just do it.

So all in all not the best of starts! I haven't even looked at the week 2 goals and it is nearly week 3. I'll take a quick peek now…………

Clean up your personal space. This one is about de-cluttering and getting rid of unnecessary “stuff”. I think I can put a tick against this one. I am pretty good at doing this anyway and the last few weeks I have had a bit of a purge on several things. I have gone through all our DVDs CDs and books and have sold a lot of them on Ziffit.com to raise money for 3CDR. I have also sorted out all of our shoes and boots and winter coats and jackets and lots have gone so I am happy that I have a result here.

Sort out your personal business. This is about completing those promises that you have made to yourself but not got around to doing anything about. The author says that you either fulfil them or strike them from your list forever. I have been promising myself that I will find the time to really learn how my Cricut machine works and what I can actually do with it. I think I can put a tick here too as I have managed to have several sessions on it this week. I have also made a note for next week to prioritise time for this.

Sort out your social life. This one is about surrounding yourself with positivity and so ditching those friends and acquaintances that make you feel depressed and miserable with their negativity. Learning how to say no. Not sure what I could have done here as my friends are not like that anyway. Maybe the best thing to do here is to just be kind and offer a smile to anyone I meet. I shall try to carry that on to next week.

And lastly from the 52 Week list: Make someone a birthday or celebration cake. It was little Jackson's 3^rd birthday this week but my cake making skills are nowhere near Verity's as she makes cakes for a living. So another fail! I might carry this over to next week and make a cake for everyone at the kennels to celebrate Beanies birthday.

To be honest, I have realised that this is not a good challenge for me. It is just another pressure and more things on the never ending to do list. So I am ditching it. There will be no further updates. What I am going to do is to keep an eye on that 52 week list and try and do some of those. A new thing each week is a lot more doable. I think it also needs to be something new. Trying out new things and getting a little outside of your comfort zone has to be good.