Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

Baileys_Babe

The cake looks yummy. The trainers look fantastic.

I love that your brother is encouraging you to be your best version of you.

That is good news regarding the reduced premium for your life assurance. As you had already committed the £25 per month I think you should priorities your health and well-being.

savingholmes

Thanks HSL, Leftat , Lucielle and Baileys_Babe

Yes, it's because cake 🍰🎂🍰 is so moreish that I rarely bake too. I did think the 🍓 counted as food optimising. Also had six types of veg with the roast potatoes 😋 and beef earlier.

Time with friend was nice. When she left, I couldn't keep my eyes open and went to bed after my previous post...

I am really looking forward to the trainers arriving, also ordered water proof spray for them and a new burgundy tunic to wear to yoga. A spendy day but as I say some of what I had planned to get after Xmas was bought for me.

If the trainers fit ok, I may buy a second pair for walking in that were more like £50. Although I did buy some walking boots a while ago. They are in the garage somewhere I will aim to find them first and then see if I still want the second pair...

skint_spice

Remember there are lots of free exercise videos in YouTube, just to stretch your £25 further.

savingholmes

Thanks @skint_spice. 

It's that thing of I know what to do and how to do it - just doing it is the hard bit. The first step has to be eating the right foods at the right times of day. The second needs to be a radical reduction in the junk food I eat. The latter would save me £ which I could then use to fund healthier food or days out / fitness activities etc. My brother and my DS have had some success with intermittent fasting... DS lost loads of weight by going veggie. I don't want to go veggie - but I'd be happy to reduce my meat portion sizes... I may try the smaller plate method too - so I feel like I have a full plate and therefore not deprived but I'm gradually scaling back the portions. I might even do 5:2 again where you eat a lot less 2 days of the week but the other days eat 'normally.' It does reduce your appetite over time. Will let you know how I get on. Had porridge tonight to offset all the cake earlier... Going to have an apple shortly too. I'm cooking a veg soup for another day... I do like healthy food - I just eat too much full stop. 

Longer term, once I've reduced my house contents - I may create a dedicated yoga space. A peaceful retreat where I can also do regular meditation so I get 'deep rest' even while awake... May be worth getting an app to help with that too. 

I am a member of the gym and need to go more! It would be lovely to establish a regular routine and go swimming again. It loosens up my muscles and increases my flexibility too but is gentle on my body. I'm not ready to do the other parts of the gym yet. I need to make sure I book on the balance classes again though.

Someone asked about £tsy - sorry your post is on a different page so lost track of who - I don't have a shop yet but I plan to - so hopefully my brother's incentive will help me push past procrastination and do it. 

My family also think I should let 1 in 2 things go from my home... Now that would be another interesting challenge. They said - if you even have to ask yourself should I keep it - the answer is no - let it go. They said I held onto things too long: people, weight, stuff etc... now needed to be a time of letting go. They are not wrong. If I achieved that or even close to it - it would be life transforming. I would feel so much lighter and my energy would increase. I have way too many belongings and yet am not a naturally tidy individual. I want to reduce the amount of stuff I have so it's easier to make time to do the stuff I really want to do like art and writing - rather than feel I'm spending lots of time clearing stuff away - before I can even begin doing art etc. Need to stop organising my clutter and let it go. 

jwil

The cake and trainers both look fab.

I feel like we are very similar and have a lot of similar goals (and bad habits!) hopefully next year will be our year

BellaLasagna2018

Strawberries are low in calories and full of vitamins 😉

MovingForwards

The yoga retreat sounds like a wonderful idea as you could put relaxing images up and have some natural smells eg candles, oils etc. 

Smaller plates do help with portion control, but I would suggest not trying to tackle too much at once.

Sunshine_girl2

Loving your new trainers SH . There are loads of fitness videos on YouTube I use Lesley Sansome walking videos usually every morning. 

Enjoy your day today. 

beanielou

Cake looks lush.

savingholmes

Hi BellaLasagne, beanielou, jwil, mf, sunshinegirl2

Thanks for posting. Had a mostly enjoyable day painting and listening to a story while the kids were out. 

Then a dose of family drama - and feel knocked sideways... Feel like someone dropped poison into my well... Going to take a while to recover my equilibrium.

In better news. DS has managed to get the TV swivel arm off the wall for me. So I have holes to fill and biro!!!! to cover where Ex had drawn a line!!!  But it's already an improvement. He would be willing to have a go at putting my desk together for me - but the instructions have gone missing - I knew where they were a week ago but now that I finally need them they have disappeared.