Nic Dempsey

We’re already into the third month of the year! Congratulations on getting through two of the worst months of the year. I say this like March and April are walks in the park when in fact they are not, especially if you observe Lent, which starts tomorrow. (I had some thoughts on how the hungry gap and Lent go together a couple of years ago and you can read them here!)

However, the days are getting lighter, and the clocks go forward at the end of the month and I’ll spend some of March and early April acting like I’m on E because of how much happier I feel due to the additional daylight and I’ll start to enjoy caring for the flat and the plot because I’ll be more awake.

So I want to set some more realistic aims for March, all of my January plans went pear-shaped when I caught a cold, so although I didn’t fail totally, I didn’t do as well as I might, March is my time to re-group.

I’m back on my low spend kick, because in April, I pay more tax and all my bills seem to be going up, and I’ll be paying to go into the office more, so I need to use March to get into good habits.  Therefore, I have £200 to spend on food and anything else. The bulk of that will be on food because it’s not getting any cheaper, I’m budgeting £12 a week and £44 for the two oddbox deliveries, which leaves me with £100 for any other spending, and there is already £48 committed to Laithwaites for wine. That should break me of buying lunch when I’m in the office and get me back to pre-pandemic food prep. I’m not going to give anything up for Lent but I am going to go back to my no treats that I haven’t made myself. In the Catholic Church you have Sundays off this obligation, and I’m not going to do that but I am going to give myself some exceptions, 11^th March which is our team meeting, every Saturday Ma brings pain au raisin (which will probably shake out to every other week), Mother’s Day and the weekend that Ma and I are having the nephews overnight, because it’s also Lu’s birthday and we’re having a belated Mother’s Day for Ma and Lu the day after.

All of this taps into the other food related aim I have in March, which is get back to menu planning and food prep. I still cook for myself but  I need to get back into food planning. The joy of being at home so much is that can wing cooking. That’s fine but my lack of planning is having an impact on the days I’m in the office, so ‘more planning, less sushi’ is my motto for the month.

Another thing that need to be improved, is my ‘exercise’ regime. My fitbit records my activity and I pleased and surprised that I generally get the required 22 minutes a day gentle exercise, what I don’t get is the cardio, so I’m going to change that and make sure that three days a week my 22 minutes is cardio, given my general lack of fitness, it shouldn’t be too hard to get my heart to beat faster!

That’s it, gentle things that will reset me from winter survival to spring joy!