Keeping up appearances.......

Dolphin1

Hi HappyNow et al :hello:

Sorry for abandoning you for the last few weeks. I think I may have mentioned that I haven't been well. The doctors are not concerned about it being anything serious but still something that needed investigating therefore I had some hospital tests booked for early January and my focus has been on getting through those.

The tests are now done (sort of), one test was completed and the results will be sent to my doctor eventually but the other test didn't go well and had to be abandoned, the whole thing was quite traumatic so left me a bit shell-shocked for a couple of days and absolutely gutted that despite the ordeal there will be no results from it.

Anyway, all that aside, there is nothing that can be done now until I speak to the doctor which won't be until next week so I have decided that I need to do more to help myself feel better. That means setting some targets that will improve my general health. So, here goes...

1) Eat/drink healthily - My Christmas eating seems to have extended in to January. We seem to have a lot of crap still in the house but it has long dates on so I'll just put the stuff away for now and try and forget it's there.

2) Exercise - Get back in to walking regularly and do my back exercises more often.

3) Cut back on eating out - We wasted a lot of money last year eating out so I'm looking to make some savings here.

4) Meal plan - This is crucial in helping me achieve targets 1 and 3.

I know I have been putting the kitchen cleaning off for some time now but frankly it is just not that bad, in fact the whole house is just not that bad so I will not be setting specific cleaning targets this month and just generally try and keep on top of the day to day stuff. Anything more than that will be a bonus.

HappyNow, you have made such a great start to the month that it has inspired me to stop moping around feeling sorry for myself and actually take steps to try and improve the situation so thank you for that.

milann

Sorry to hear you’ve had to have gruelling tests Dolphin.
You’ve made a tremendous start to the 20s Happy. :beer:
I’ve managed the gym membership twice already this week, been knitting cardigans but the SW regime could be better. I still have too many goodies from Christmas calling out to me.....

Seasidegal58

Happy - belated birthday wishes! I won't leave a cake in view of your nice weight loss!:D You've made such a good start to the New Year!

Dolphin - I'm so sorry to read that you've been unwell and the tests were so trying. I hope you get some good news on the first test when you see the doctor, but your health goals sound excellent. I wouldn't worry about the cleaning - it'll get done!:)

Milann - left over Xmas goodies are the bane of the New Year diet resolution! Well done on the knitting!.

I've cut down my weekly Ad Hoc spends budget to £20 this week and going forward. I had to spend £10 on suitcase locks at the airport owing to the fact that I'd forgotten to put the lock on my suitcase. If I hadn't had to pay out I would have had a clean Ad Hoc spend week!:mad: Still it'll teach me to be more unfotgetfil!

HappyNow

Oh Dolphin, how awful for you. I'm really sorry to hear about the failed test. I hope they can either find an alternative test or else get to the root of the problem without needing it. You didn't specify what caused it to be abandonned, but is it something where sedation is an option? Anyway, I agree with you that looking after your health is especially important right now so extra motivation for your targets. Please keep posting updates here or I will worry about you!

SSG and Milan Both off to flying starts - almost! Well done

My own targets are going very well, with the possible exception of the financial one.

1) Take better care of my body and health.
Weight - Weight up by just half a pound at 8st 10.5 but still generally going down slowly.
Calories - Now up to 4 blue (under-calorie), 3 green (ideal calorie for steady weight loss) and 3 red (over calorie) days. In two of the reds I've still used more calories than I've eaten. The faily one was last night when Master Happy and his GF treat me and Mr H to a meal out as my belated birthday pressie. It was tapas and I have literally no idea how many calories were in there so I took a guess at 700. But - get this - I DID NOT HAVE A PUDDING!! Even though everyone else did. Didn't even miss it.
Water - 6 glasses drunk each day. I've got into a routine with this one. I even chose water with my meal out last night.
Exercise - More than 10000 steps most days, and the lowest I've done was 8500.
Sleep - Last night was the best yet - almost 7.5 hours.

2) Sixteen alcohol free days in January. Still only four so far but there's only been one day when I've had more than a single glass of wine.

3) Pay at least £700 off the unsecured debt. I will manage this in January but it's not looking great for Feb and March. Two car insurances due February, plus we've booked a city break to Barcelona in March. We used Tesco points to offset some of the hotel costs but it will still cost £400 plus spending money. It was a deliberate choice though because we're getting older and there's a lot of places we want to see. The minimum CC payments won't be a problem and hopefully I will manage a bit more.

milann

January week one - so far so good
- gym
- sw gained a pound and a half over Christmas and New Year - I can live with that. Now to see the back of it and much more
- knitting progressing nicely
- using food
- tidying as I go along could be better - off to catch up

Seasidegal58

Happy - WELL DONE ON NO PUDDING! And also the on water - it's become a habit now hasn't it?:)

Re the spends - well - there are always months where one's spends are more expensive. Plus I agree with you on getting older and wanting to travel. I feel like this myself.

Milann - you're doing well!:D

Dolphin1

Thanks for your kind words everyone!

HappyNow wrote: »

You didn't specify what caused it to be abandonned, but is it something where sedation is an option?

The procedure was a gastroscopy and I have had two before so there was not a chance that they were doing it without sedation. I can't remember much about the previous two so I was expecting the same again but this time when they gave me the first bit of sedation it had no effect. After the first 3 attempts, they gave me some more sedation but it was too late, my body was on high alert and was having none of it. After 2 more attempts, they said we had to stop. My throat was very sore for days after.

I think the problem was not getting enough sedative in the first place. Apparently, they have started cutting back on the amount of sedative they are giving. I think it's to get people through recovery quicker so that they can get more people through the system but I'm sure the NHS would argue otherwise.

Dolphin1

milann - Well done for mostly keeping on track with your targets!

SSG - How annoying about the suitcase locks! I have done that before.

HappyNow wrote: »

Pay at least £700 off the unsecured debt. I will manage this in January but it's not looking great for Feb and March. Two car insurances due February, plus we've booked a city break to Barcelona in March. We used Tesco points to offset some of the hotel costs but it will still cost £400 plus spending money. It was a deliberate choice though because we're getting older and there's a lot of places we want to see. The minimum CC payments won't be a problem and hopefully I will manage a bit more.

HappyNow - You are doing very well on your targets. Can I ask though whether you should really be attempting to pay £700 per month off your unsecured debt if you are not setting money aside for spends that you know are going to happen such as the car insurances and holidays. Perhaps you could reduce it to say £500 per month and put the rest away in to savings so that the payments to the unsecured debt are consistent and you always have savings to draw on. I worry that one month you won't be able to meet your minimum payments because you have been trying to pay them too much and not saving anything. Have you got an emergency fund at least?

(Tell me to mind my own business if you want! )

Dolphin1

Update on targets...

1) Eat/drink healthily - So I didn't hide the crap away quickly enough so most of it has now been eaten. At least I know it won't be there tempting me any more.

2) Exercise - I have started walking again regularly but have only done my back exercises once so need to try harder with that.

3) Cut back on eating out - We had breakfast out yesterday but it wasn't expensive so that's fine.

4) Meal plan - I'll be doing this today. I need to go through the two freezers. They are not full but there will be stuff in there for quite a few meals if I plan when to defrost things.

savingmore

hello happy now and everyone else.....i have been ill the last few days and have read through your whole diary.....it’s just like reading a book. have really enjoyed yr writing and living through your ups and downs.

would love to join! and see you get rid of yr debt one day soon.

i am the same age as mr. happy and gearing towards saving for retirement. like you i am 5’2” and want to get down to 8s 10-12llbs. got to my highest this time last year and finding it hard to lose the last half stone.

my goals are

only drink alcohol one day a week (yikes)
8-10,000 steps a day
5 glasses water day
15 mins of exercise a day

i started running a few years ago but find these days it’s either too cold, too icy, too rainy, too windy, too hot or too many leaves on ground. i probably can run about 3 days a year! i did do couch to 5k 3 years ago, but my homing instincts took me back to couch.

new year, new vibes. i have found yr diary quite inspiring and i love yr sense of humour. looking forward to getting to know you all.

:j:j:j:j