As I mentioned last month, I’m keeping goals small and manageable this year

Before I get into February, let’s have a brief recap of January.

In short, I didn’t do well.

Let’s start with the successes, budget was a big tick, I didn’t use my credit card and I didn’t spend over the money I had in my purse. I didn’t buy lunches and I really worked on emptying the freezer, which I mostly did.

The not so great list was everything else.

• I wanted to walk 10k steps every day and hit 310,000 for the month. I was thinking I really missed this one but in fact, I walked 263,711 in January. Which is much less worse than I thought I did. So I was 46,289 steps short.
• Yoga every day. I didn’t think this one through. It’s really hard to commit to an activity that you need space for, when you are packing up your flat. I did four days of yoga before the whole thing became untenable and I decided to push this one to March, assuming that I’m back in the flat and it’s organised enough to do it. Also giving the current state of my hips and lower back, it’s something I’m going to need to do.
• 10pm bedtime and Golden Hour, nope. This was something I should have done but didn’t do consistently. This is on me, I gave in to my worse impulses. It was January, I was stressed by the whole concept of moving and I didn’t do a good job.

Having said that, I feel I did alright in January. It’s always a difficult month and I was extra stressed by I didn’t over spend, I did get the flat packed up (which is something made so much easier with Ma chivvying me on and Sue and Richard organising a trip to the dump).

So let’s talk about February. I’m at Ma’s, probably until at least 18 February, I’ve already mentioned that living with Ma, exerts some natural discipline because she’s doing a bunch of things for me (cooking dinner, washing and ironing – this is the most ironed my clothes have ever been!) and I’ve reverted to doing what I’m told! However, I didn’t realise until last week, how much I needed it, because like almost everyone else I know, the three COVID lockdowns and hybrid working have left me a bit adrift, and I didn’t realise how adrift, until I did a full week in the office.

Continuous days in the office require a discipline that I’ve lost over the past three years and it’s been kind of nice to find it again, in a supported way, and to realise that I want more of it. Look, I do know this about myself, but one of the things I really want for this year is ease and a lot of ease comes from preparation and discipline. It absolutely sucks that this is the case but there it is. So with that in mind and with the knowledge that I’ll be back in my house (God and builders willing) sometime this month, here are the small things I want to do in February:

• 70,000 steps a week (which I’m basically getting done by Friday because of the walk between the office and the station five days a week), to equate to 280,000 by the end of February;
• Stretching every day because my hamstrings are tight and so are my hips;
• Food prep on the weekend, so that breakfast and lunch are ready and consistent;
• 10pm bedtimes on school nights;
• More office time once I’m home (3-4 days once I’m home, it’s every day while I’m at Ma’s); and
• I’d like to have the flat sorted and everything unpacked by the end of this month, building work permitting.

That’s all I’m doing until Lent, when I’m adding my tradition ban on sweets, cakes, biscuits and crisps and I’d like to make time for the examen every day.

See you for the wrap up in March!