Happy New Year!

Image courtesy of Heavypong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve been away from blogging for quite a while now but it’s already starting to feel as though I’ve never been away.

As we are already half way through the second week in January, it feels a little bit weird to be saying ‘Happy New Year’ still but I think I’ll keep things a bit traditional for my first post of 2016.

The reason for the delay is that I’ve been given a LOT of thought about the theme of my first post.  Last year, I spoke about not wanting to make resolutions because they’ve previously left me feeling like a failure.  But clearly that didn’t have the intended effect and I sit here around the same weight as I was last year, if not a few ponds heavier, and I’m still unhappy with my body and fitness levels.

So what went wrong and what am I going to do differently?

Firstly, I let too many things get in the way of me achieving my goals last year.  Some of these things I had control over and some I didn’t.  To cut a long story short, last year was Hectic (and yes, that IS Hectic with a capital H) and looking after myself pushed off my priorities list.

So this year I’m making myself a couple of ‘promises’ as I think this sounds a little bit more positive than making some resolutions:

1. I promise to be kinder to myself
2. I promise to prioritise the things I actually want to spend time on rather than the things I think I should be spending time on

That’s it.  Short and sweet.

This week, I was back to work after a two week break for Christmas.  In order to keep my promises to myself, I made sure that I left work at a reasonable time each night.  My plan was that I would go for a walk in the evenings to make sure that I clocked up 10,000 steps each day.  I did this on every day except for Saturday (when I forgot due to it not being a work day and by the time I remembered, it was raining so heavily that I think I would have drowned if I’d gone out in it – note to self, check weather forecast in advance in future!) and I even found myself agreeing to restart the Couch to 5K training plan which I did on Thursday & this morning.  I must admit I was a little bit nervous at first as I can’t remember the last time I ran, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought and I felt really good after doing it.

Although I was back to Weight Watchers for my first weigh in of the new year last Monday, I haven’t been very focused on my food this week.  However, I have made up 6 batches of different soups to take to work for my lunch each day and my goal for this week is to be more focused on my food choices.  I’m not going to promise myself that I’m going to stay on track 100% for the entire week but I’m going to aim for that.  If I can track for 5 out of the 7 days I’ll be happy with that.

I’m looking forward to getting to grips with the new Smart Points plan too.  I’m motivated by the way it seems tailored to encourage healthier food choices.  To help me, I’m stealing an affirmation that I’ve just seen on an episode of Fat: The Fight of My Life (I find these programs massively inspirational):

“The purpose of food is to nourish my body and mind.  I will not find comfort in food.”

I also aim to get my blogging mojo back this year.  I really enjoy it and I find it really motivating – I just need to make sure I prioritise it.

Now, in the interests of being kinder to myself, I’m off to enjoy a lovely, relaxing bath.

Thanks for reading,

FFF

P.S. Have you made any ‘promises’ to yourself this year? I’d love to hear how you’re getting on with them so far.