Day 43 / End of Week Ten

It’s difficult to tell anymore what I’m doing – it’s too hot to think.  Breakdown:

• Goal One: Complete a sixteen-week fitness programme – Epiphany: as long as I do my workouts at 5.00 in the morning, all goes smoothly.
• Goal Two: Repair my relationship with food – I’ve been eating really well this week, Natalie is cooking almost daily and her meals are spectacular.
• Goal Three: Meditate every day – Still not the best connection this week; I’m starting to feel paralysed by the housemate situation.  I shouldn’t use it as an excuse.
• Goal Four: Go out and have fun once a week – This has started getting blurry, we’re going out so much.
• Goal Five: Read eight works of fiction – Nearly done with the fifth book now, moving on to number six soon.
• Goal Six: Put a thousand euros in savings – No further action required on this yet.
• Goal Seven: Drink summer wine – It’s getting to the temperature where drinking is becoming difficult.  Not much wine this week.
• Goal Eight: Rock a sundress – My dresses are well in my rotation now, so much so that I’m ready to declare this item DONE.
• Goal Nine: Improve my sleeping habits – I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever sleep through the night as long as there are other people here.
• Goal Ten: Leave the house at least once a day – Oh yes, for sure.
• Goal Eleven: Take care of my skin – My skin is looking great – the one benefit of hot weather.
• Goal Twelve: Organise my hard drives – Just waiting for the house to empty out.
• Goal Thirteen: Care for my hands and feet – My feet are doing much better.  Baby oil to the rescue!
• Goal Fourteen: Switch to a standing desk – DONE.
• Goal Fifteen: Visit a spa – Very much looking forward to this.
• Goal Sixteen: Plan an end-of-summer celebration – Only six more weeks until autumn!

Time to start reconnecting with my life.

 

Day 50 / End of Week Nine

The number of people in this house is steadily going down, so things should be getting easier over the next couple of weeks.  Week Nine wasn’t a complete write-off, but I know I could have been a lot more diligent.

• Goal One: Complete a sixteen-week fitness programme – I’m not sure if I’m actually getting more fit, but I’m definitely keeping up with the programme.  It just seems really easy.
• Goal Two: Repair my relationship with food – This week has been pretty lax in terms of greasy and fried foods, but hey, I had three house guests.  Things will slow down in the coming week.
• Goal Three: Meditate every day – I’m looking forward to reconnecting with this in Week Ten.
• Goal Four: Go out and have fun once a week – I’ve had so much fun this week I’ve lost count of how many outings it was.
• Goal Five: Read eight works of fiction – Ah, I’m still on my fourth book.  I’ll make an effort to finish it today.
• Goal Six: Put a thousand euros in savings – No further action required on this yet.
• Goal Seven: Drink summer wine – I don’t think I’ve had a single glass of wine this week, but we’ve certainly had plenty of cocktails, so I won’t judge too harshly.
• Goal Eight: Rock a sundress – I wore one of my sundresses when we went rafting on Sunday.
• Goal Nine: Improve my sleeping habits – The nights have been warm and it’s been difficult to rest. It’s just a fact of life in mid-July.
• Goal Ten: Leave the house at least once a day – This happens automatically.
• Goal Eleven: Take care of my skin – I still have one small patch on my face but the rest is fine.
• Goal Twelve: Organise my hard drives – The rest of this may have to wait a couple of weeks until the house is empty again.
• Goal Thirteen: Care for my hands and feet – Ugh, my feet look terrible.  I definitely need a pedicure this coming week!
• Goal Fourteen: Switch to a standing desk – DONE.
• Goal Fifteen: Visit a spa – Again, I might wait until the house is empty and I’m on my own.
• Goal Sixteen: Plan an end-of-summer celebration – Seven more weeks to go!

Time to start reconnecting with my life.

 

Day 57 / End of Week Eight

The end of today will mark the halfway point of this project.  I’m aware that the second half will be more difficult than the first (due to a combination of hotter weather and emotional burnout), but so far I think I’ve done really well.

• Goal One: Complete a sixteen-week fitness programme – It is definitely getting more challenging to get out there, even in the early morning, but I’m persevering nonetheless.
• Goal Two: Repair my relationship with food – I’ve been eating really well, and even though I think my intake is up my weight has stayed pretty much the same.
• Goal Three: Meditate every day – Although I have been doing this, it’s difficult for me to settle down with so many people in the house.
• Goal Four: Go out and have fun once a week – We had a huge dinner at a really fancy steak restaurant a few nights ago, along with lots and lots of cocktails.
• Goal Five: Read eight works of fiction – I’m still on the fourth book, but it’s a short one, so I’ll finish it quickly.
• Goal Six: Put a thousand euros in savings – I’m ahead of schedule!  I now don’t need to do anything else about this until Week Thirteen.
• Goal Seven: Drink summer wine – We’ve been drinking rosé spritzers quite a lot, and what I’ve been calling “ghetto sangria” – red wine mixed with Sprite.
• Goal Eight: Rock a sundress – I’m wearing my sundresses regularly now.
• Goal Nine: Improve my sleeping habits – The nights are still cool, so the sleeping is pretty good.
• Goal Ten: Leave the house at least once a day – I don’t even have to think about this one anymore, it just sort of happens without effort.
• Goal Eleven: Take care of my skin – Huge improvements this week; my face is almost entirely healed.
• Goal Twelve: Organise my hard drives – I only have a small amount of work left on this.
• Goal Thirteen: Care for my hands and feet – This is a constant struggle, especially in the summer, and I’ll admit I haven’t done all that well this week.
• Goal Fourteen: Switch to a standing desk – DONE.
• Goal Fifteen: Visit a spa – I got a professional massage in my home this week, but I’m aware that doesn’t count as visiting a spa.
• Goal Sixteen: Plan an end-of-summer celebration – Only eight weeks to go!

I’m really proud of myself and looking forward to the second half of this project.  Onward and upward!

 

Day 64 / End of Week Seven

I can’t believe I’m nearly halfway!  The weeks are really flying by.  Mild weather this summer has definitely helped.

• Goal One: Complete a sixteen-week fitness programme – I’m totally back on track with this, and in fact I’m working out more than I’m scheduled to.
• Goal Two: Repair my relationship with food – Basically I’ve been eating salads.  The weather doesn’t really allow for much more, even at milder temperatures like we’ve been experiencing.
• Goal Three: Meditate every day – I’ve been better this week, but I still need to step it up another notch again.
• Goal Four: Go out and have fun once a week – Yesterday I went out on an impromptu hike, and it was more fun than I could have possibly imagined.
• Goal Five: Read eight works of fiction – Finishing up the third book today, moving on to number four.
• Goal Six: Put a thousand euros in savings – Still on track, don’t need to do anything else until Week Nine.
• Goal Seven: Drink summer wine – I don’t think I’ve had a single alcoholic drink this week, but starting tomorrow I have a second house guest coming in, and he’ll definitely be bringing some wine.
• Goal Eight: Rock a sundress – I now have two sundresses!  I’m going to wear my newest one tomorrow to pick up my house guest.
• Goal Nine: Improve my sleeping habits – It’s been very cool at night, so I’ve been sleeping well.
• Goal Ten: Leave the house at least once a day – Yeah, this has been easy given the mild weather.
• Goal Eleven: Take care of my skin – It’s still about the same as it was last week, but at least it’s not worse again.
• Goal Twelve: Organise my hard drives – I finally started working on this!  There’s not as much work as I thought.
• Goal Thirteen: Care for my hands and feet – I took care of the pedicure issue, and my cuticles are looking pretty good.  I could use a foot massage, though.
• Goal Fourteen: Switch to a standing desk – DONE.
• Goal Fifteen: Visit a spa – Did I mention I could use a foot massage?
• Goal Sixteen: Plan an end-of-summer celebration – I’m so excited to be nearly halfway there!

I’m going to sprint to the halfway point next week.  Life is good.

 

Day 71 / End of Week Six

Strep throat kicked my ass in the latter part of this week, no doubt about it.  I’m struggling even to fill this Week Six report out. I’ve been in bed all day.

• Goal One: Complete a sixteen-week fitness programme – I took today off.  I’m not going to beat myself up about that.  I need the rest.
• Goal Two: Repair my relationship with food – It’s hot enough now that I’m not really eating much, and also being ill doesn’t help my appetite.
• Goal Three: Meditate every day – I’ve been phoning it in mostly this week, meditating in bed.
• Goal Four: Go out and have fun once a week – We did go out for drinks on Friday, and of course there was the resort day on Saturday, all lovely.
• Goal Five: Read eight works of fiction – I’m still on my third book, but it’s going really quickly.
• Goal Six: Put a thousand euros in savings – Still on track, don’t need to do anything else until Week Nine.
• Goal Seven: Drink summer wine – I haven’t had much in the way of wine this week, but we did go out for cocktails!
• Goal Eight: Rock a sundress – I wore my sundress on Friday, cocktail night.  I was very self-conscious in it.
• Goal Nine: Improve my sleeping habits – I’ve had more sleep than I care to mention.
• Goal Ten: Leave the house at least once a day – I didn’t go out today, but I’ve been ill.
• Goal Eleven: Take care of my skin – Yeah, it’s definitely clearing up.
• Goal Twelve: Organise my hard drives – Zero progress so far!
• Goal Thirteen: Care for my hands and feet – I got rid of my old pedicure, but still need a new one.
• Goal Fourteen: Switch to a standing desk – DONE.
• Goal Fifteen: Visit a spa – Not yet, working on it.
• Goal Sixteen: Plan an end-of-summer celebration – Starting to look forward to this.

Next week I just want to start feeling better, that will be good enough for me.

 

Day 78 / End of Week Five

Week Five has definitely been a turnaround week. Also, I can’t believe how quickly the weeks are passing – it’s been an eye-opener in more ways than one.

• Goal One: Complete a sixteen-week fitness programme – Honestly I’m starting to think this is never going to get any harder. I just don’t find it a struggle to run for an hour straight, so asking me to run for twenty minutes straight is a joke.
• Goal Two: Repair my relationship with food – I certainly made some good choices this week, much better than previous weeks. I can feel my eating habits shifting.
• Goal Three: Meditate every day – I have an hour set aside this afternoon, and that will make two days this week that I sat for a full hour. The rest have been shorter sessions, but that’s okay.
• Goal Four: Go out and have fun once a week – Yes, I went out on Friday, and it looks like I’ll be going out again on Friday this week.
• Goal Five: Read eight works of fiction – I’ll be starting my third book tomorrow, so that’s me caught up. I feel really good about this.
• Goal Six: Put a thousand euros in savings – Halfway there! I can’t believe how putting money away is literally just a matter of deciding to, no matter how tight my budget may be.
• Goal Seven: Drink summer wine – The wine rack has arrived, and it’s gorgeous, and it had four bottles in it but now there are only three because I’m working diligently on my goal.
• Goal Eight: Rock a sundress – Ugh, when will I ever do this? I’m starting to wonder if I even want to.
• Goal Nine: Improve my sleeping habits – I’ve slept really well this week, probably because it’s been raining a lot and the nights have been cool.
• Goal Ten: Leave the house at least once a day – Still no problem whatsoever.
• Goal Eleven: Take care of my skin – I had more than twenty blemishes on my face, and now there are only eight left. I’d call that progress.
• Goal Twelve: Organise my hard drives – I’m starting to realise that this goal is not going to complete itself. I actually have to do it.
• Goal Thirteen: Care for my hands and feet – I’m going to give myself a new pedicure this weekend, but at least I seem to be reining in the dry skin issue.
• Goal Fourteen: Switch to a standing desk – DONE.
• Goal Fifteen: Visit a spa – Not yet, working on it.
• Goal Sixteen: Plan an end-of-summer celebration – It’s starting to dawn on me that this will come up sooner than I expect, and I shouldn’t completely ignore it.

Bring on Week Six!

 

Day 85 / End of Week Four

Seriously, Week Four has been tough. It’s kind of difficult trying to incorporate a houseguest into an already busy schedule, and on top of that I had a bit of bad family news to deal with (nothing so terrible, just some drama like all families have). Nonetheless, soldiering on:

• Goal One: Complete a sixteen-week fitness programme – Apparently the first four weeks of the programme are intended to be pretty easy, and I can expect next week to get significantly harder. We’ll see. No real struggles so far.
• Goal Two: Repair my relationship with food – I think I did a lot better this week, though admittedly it’s difficult to tell when I’m eating out so often. But I’ve been choosing salads over fried foods, so that’s one good thing about summer.
• Goal Three: Meditate every day – I’ve stepped this up, and I even did a full hour one day this week. I should be doing an hour every day, but baby steps.
• Goal Four: Go out and have fun once a week – I’ve definitely done this, more than I probably should have, but hey, life is short.
• Goal Five: Read eight works of fiction – I’m still finishing up my second book, but it’s a really great story and I anticipate starting on the third book within a few days. After that I’ll be all caught up.
• Goal Six: Put a thousand euros in savings – This week I’m going to put in my next instalment of €250. I think doing it four weeks at a time works well.
• Goal Seven: Drink summer wine – I plan on buying a wine rack this week, and then… watch out!
• Goal Eight: Rock a sundress – I still haven’t worn my dress… maybe this week?
• Goal Nine: Improve my sleeping habits – I haven’t slept all that well because of the family drama, but my sleep habits have been good, so that’s at least something.
• Goal Ten: Leave the house at least once a day – Yeah, this has been no problem.
• Goal Eleven: Take care of my skin – I forgot to report on this yesterday, but it is actually a lot better. Still not completely healed but I’m definitely getting there.
• Goal Twelve: Organise my hard drives – This has been so far from my mind this week. Time to think about it.
• Goal Thirteen: Care for my hands and feet – Dry skin ahoy! Also, I need a new pedicure.
• Goal Fourteen: Switch to a standing desk – DONE.
• Goal Fifteen: Visit a spa – We’re still working on this one, but it’s on the horizon.
• Goal Sixteen: Plan an end-of-summer celebration – Not time to think about this yet.

I’m looking forward to turning over a new leaf next week.

 

Day 92 / End of Week Three

I’m feeling tired at the end of this third week, but I know I’ve made some positive progress.  I find it difficult to sleep well with a house guest here, but I’ll slowly get used to it.

• Goal One: Complete a sixteen-week fitness programme – No issues whatsoever.  Getting fitter is easier than I expected.
• Goal Two: Repair my relationship with food – I spent the first half of the week eating junk, but pulled out of the nosedive in the second half of the week.
• Goal Three: Meditate every day – I’ve done really well aside from today – it was difficult not to fall asleep.
• Goal Four: Go out and have fun once a week – I’ve been out a couple of times, and I’m going out again on Friday afternoon.
• Goal Five: Read eight works of fiction – I’ve really done well catching up on this, and I think I’m set to be back on track by the end of next week.
• Goal Six: Put a thousand euros in savings – I’m already starting to think about the next installment.
• Goal Seven: Drink summer wine – I chilled out a bit with this, since I kind of overdid it the previous week.  This coming week I want to find a balance.
• Goal Eight: Rock a sundress – I got a dress!  Now I just need to wear it.  Easier said than done.
• Goal Nine: Improve my sleeping habits – Sleep sounds so wonderful right now.
• Goal Ten: Leave the house at least once a day – So far, so good.
• Goal Eleven: Take care of my skin – My skin was doing so much better last week, but this week has been a bit rough.  Time to take one step forward instead of two steps back.
• Goal Twelve: Organise my hard drives – It’s about time to start thinking about this one.
• Goal Thirteen: Care for my hands and feet – My hands definitely look better this week – time to work on my feet.
• Goal Fourteen: Switch to a standing desk – DONE.
• Goal Fifteen: Visit a spa – I’m allegedly going to the spa next week with Natalie.  We’ll see.
• Goal Sixteen: Plan an end-of-summer celebration – Not time to think about this yet.

It’s been a good week, overshadowed slightly at the moment by the fact that I’m so tired.  Still looking forward to next week, though.

 

Day 99 / End of Week Two

Is it possible that the second week has gone even more quickly than the first did?  Here’s this week’s round-up:

• Goal One: Complete a sixteen-week fitness programme – Week Two was more challenging, but still not anything I couldn’t handle easily.  Here’s looking at next week!
• Goal Two: Repair my relationship with food – My chief goal this next week is to pay attention to this above all else.  I didn’t do terribly bad this week, but I wasn’t terribly great, either.
• Goal Three: Meditate every day – I’ve been ever-so-attentive to this, and I’m definitely reaping the benefits!
• Goal Four: Go out and have fun once a week – I went out on Thursday this week, and it was fun, but this week I want to do something even bigger.
• Goal Five: Read eight works of fiction – Okay, I’m behind on this.  Hoping to catch up this weekend and get back on track.
• Goal Six: Put a thousand euros in savings – No need to worry about this until Week Five, since I’m all paid up until then!
• Goal Seven: Drink summer wine – I wanted to get started on this, and I did!  I’ve had one bottle of sort-of-nice wine, and one bottle of really nice wine.
• Goal Eight: Rock a sundress – Still haven’t done anything about this, but the project is young.
• Goal Nine: Improve my sleeping habits – I’ve been better about this over the past few days.  I’m going to bed at decent hours and waking up at decent hours.
• Goal Ten: Leave the house at least once a day – It has surprised me how easy this has been, since my inclination is to stay in whenever possible.  I’ve been using it as an excuse to go out for ice cream, though.  But that’s okay!
• Goal Eleven: Take care of my skin – I’m getting there, slowly but surely.  My skin is healing but I need to have another week of diligence before it will really start looking right.
• Goal Twelve: Organise my hard drives – Still waiting to get started on this.  One good thing is that I actually located a drive that had been missing, so that helps.
• Goal Thirteen: Care for my hands and feet – It seems like my hands and feet are getting worse rather than better.  Time to moisturise!
• Goal Fourteen: Switch to a standing desk – DONE.
• Goal Fifteen: Visit a spa – I got some information on a spa near my home, and I’m going to price up a few treatments this week.
• Goal Sixteen: Plan an end-of-summer celebration – Not time to think about this yet.

Another great week, really pleased with my progress, but next week is going to be more difficult because the weather is finally heating up and I’m not looking forward to that!  Have to keep a positive attitude, though.

 

Day 103

I need to inject some new life into my days.  The hot weather has been holding off so far but I feel myself getting depressed because I know it’s coming.  I must resist; I must concentrate on the fun and fulfilling things I’m doing with this project.

I completed my fitness programme like a good girl today, and then sort of ruined it all by eating enough food for five people.  Still, some of it was sushi, so that has to count for something.  The rest of it was pizza, though.  Way too much pizza.

So yes, tomorrow I resolve to do everything I need to do to have a really powerful and positive day.