Hello and welcome to the last weekend of January. I am so ready for this month to be done with, January feels like the longest month of the year. After last week, when I was getting it done but being a brat about it, I’ve worked on having a better attitude. Part of that has been about reminding myself about all I’ve got going for me. It’s been pretty cold around here, ok it’s been -28 C in some parts of Canada and here it’s hovered about -1 or 2 C so not very cold but it’s been cold enough that I’ve been glad to have a home and central heating that I can afford to run and yes money has been and will continue to be a bit tight around here but not so tight that I worry about the roof over my head. My decisions are about whether I can afford a haircut this month or nice handcream vs. a cheaper one, not a choice between heating the flat or food. There are a lot of people, in the UK, that I know, making those choices at the moment. At the beginning of the month I set some goals to help me plan and build, the type of life I want to have. It’s not easy for me to do, but it is a luxury that lots of people just don’t have. Reminding my inner brat of that this week, has made life much easier.
1. Drinking. There 31 days in January and aside from the New Year’s Day champagne, I’m not going to drink in any of them.
26/26 – 26 days down, five more to go and there is a manhattan in my future. There have been days, Wednesday night for example, when the trains were difficult and it took me 2 hours to get home, where normally, I would have said ‘sod it G&T time, I deserve it’. That didn’t happen, getting out of the habit of rewarding myself for a hard time with alcohol is a good thing I think.
2. Food. I will take a packed lunch to work every day and I will eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
Lunches 16/16 – It should actually say 17 times out of 16 because I made lunch every day and didn’t eat it on Tuesday.
Five a day 26/26 – Not really sure how I managed 5 a day this week, it felt like I wasn’t eating enough vegetables, but I counted it up and there it was, I’m pleased that I’m doing this without thinking about it!
3. Coffee. I’ll drink it three days a week for January (probably Friday, Saturday and Sunday!). The other 4 days of the week I’ll drink herbal tea!
15/15 – On Thursday morning, I realised that I was really looking forward to coffee on Friday morning. I like redbush and lemon and ginger tea but not as much I enjoy the coffee on my coffee days.
4. The messy cupboard. By the end of January it will be tidy. It will have new shelves, I will be able to find things in it!
1/1 – Done. It’s still tidy and it was so easy to set up the bed for Ma on Saturday night and it’s generally so much easier to get to everything, that I’m finding it much easier to do things like the ironing and that hoovering because I don’t have the 5 minute struggle to get to the tools I need!
5. Sleep hygiene. Sunday to Thursday sleep rules are. No computers after 9pm. In bed and ready for sleep at 10pm.
16/17 – I had a slip and on Thursday the lights didn’t go out until 10.30, which I completely blame on the book I was reading, I got totally wrapped up in it and just had to finish. Generally, this week was not a good week for sleep, which is normal for this time of the month and also the reason for the migraine on Tuesday. Those things are great reminders for me of why it’s important to set these habits, it wasn’t a good week for sleep but I got back to sleep quicker and the migraine was shorter (when in that kind of pain 7 hours rather than 24 is like a gift from God!). Also I’m always a bit more sensitive to bright screens after a migraine, so shutting the computer down is easier!
6. Self Care. I will moisturise every day, I will remove hair weekly and I will look after my feet!
26/26 – I’ve finally used up the bottle of moisturiser that’s been sitting next to the bath since sometime last year, my skin is so soft I almost want to stroke me!
So one slip this week but the first in the month. I feel really good about this. I know that these are all pretty simple goals but I’m so pleased with myself for sticking to them so far and I want to give as much focus to them in the next five days as I did at the beginning of the month to finish well!
Nic Dempsey 