Do More of What Makes you Happy!

Work has been quite busy recently and yesterday I decided to take a break from presentation writing and head off to the gym to Just Jhoom, which I love! As I was stood waiting for the class to start, two ladies were having a chat, their conversation went like this:

 I’m pretty sure if the Bollywood music hadn’t kicked in, they’d have moved on to how they hate puppies, cupcakes and sunrises. They appeared to be deliberately trying to out-misery one another!

  This goes completely against what I’ve been working on the last few weeks. I’d been feeling really out of sorts and not my normal happy self. I spoke to my sister Lucy about it and she said “remember when that woman at work put in a complaint about me because I was too cheerful? I want to be that happy again”

  So it set me thinking, about what was making me unhappy. I came to the conclusion that I was generally just under appreciated and not doing anything to make me happy. I also realised that I was the one who wasn't appreciating myself and not doing any of the things that I enjoyed. 

So, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks really focusing on me and what makes me happy. I decided that at least once a day, I would take time out for me and do whatever the hell I pleased and I would also enjoy it!

  I’ve walked on the beach with Cyril, which is one of my favourite things to do. Sitting at one of the beachside cafes with a coffee, gossiping with Lucy and listening to the waves roll in and out.

Cyril on the beach

 I also re-introduced myself to my Kindle, finished off a book that I’d been trying to read since Christmas (quite fittingly a Jackie Cooper) and started another that I’d downloaded because someone recommended it. “The Girl in the Photograph” by Kate Riordan. So far so good, it reminds me a bit of “Rebecca”. Plus the sheer joy of spending half an hour sitting with a brew and reading is really helping, because I love it, I’ve always loved reading!

  I’ve also set aside time to go to the gym and do the classes I like, rather than trying to squeeze in a quick half an hour to walk on a treadmill, which I don’t really like. And although Cyril is limited in the walks he can do at the moment because he’s recovering from leg surgery, I’ve made sure those 10 minutes count. We’ve headed off to places I love, such as Newstead Abbey. We may as well have a 10 minute walk in what I think is the most beautiful place in Nottinghamshire!

Newstead Abbey

The result of all this? Well I feel better and as a result my diet has been better, I’m eating far healthier, I’m happier, my trousers are getting loser again and I’m not using food as a way of cheering myself up. In fact for the first time in ages, I don’t have any chocolate in the house! Not even an “in case of emergency bar”

   

Better to be the One Who Smiled First

I love this quote and it’s something I always try to do. When you first do it, you feel a bit daft, but before you know it you’ve had half a dozen conversations with random people and the daftness has definitely faded. If I didn’t do this, how else would I know that Snoop Dogg (or is he Snoop Lion now?) has a member of his posse called Rat a Tat Tat? It’s amazing what you can learn from random men in pubs!

  At the train station a few weeks ago, I ordered a couple of coffees and the lady behind the counter treated me like she’d just found out I had been round to her house and chopped all the arms off of her jumpers. She was really rude! As she crashed and banged cardboard coffee cups around and sighed at the fact I wanted milk, I found myself chatting nonsense at her. I went for the obvious weather smalltalk (grunt) wasn’t it busy today? (Another grunt) she must see all sorts in her job (grunt grunt) I could see the woman look at me like I was completely mental. As she finished our coffees and I paid I said; “have a lovely day”, the look on her face was priceless and she grunted back “yes you too” and then she actually smiled!

  For the last week, I’ve kept a note of every time someone’s paid me a compliment, when I started this, I thought it might be a really short list, but actually it hasn’t been. I’m normally really rubbish at taking compliments, so when someone says;

“That’s a nice skirt”, I’ll normally reply with something like “oh thanks, it was only £10.00 from Sainsburys, I’ve had it ages” (other supermarket clothing ranges are available)

  The first compliment I received was from someone telling me that my nails looked nice. They do, Sam who does my nails is a genius.

  As I made a note of the compliment, I thought I bet that’s the only one I write down. Then as I posted a link to last week’s blog, my friend Steph left me this message;

  To be honest it snowballed from there. I noticed even the tiniest of compliments “nice handbag”, “I really enjoy reading what you write”, and “Isn’t your dog well behaved” (Believe me that’s probably the biggest compliment I’ve EVER received!)

  My friend Paula also left me a voice message, which really made me smile and was just what I needed to hear at that point.

  I noticed that gratefully receiving the compliments, meant that in turn I said nice things to people and tried to help people where I could. I also noticed that I started to treat myself better. I’ve made time to go to the gym, I’ve taken Cyril for a walk, really enjoying the peace and quiet and the chance to just wander with him, rather than worrying about having to get back for something. I’ve made loads of lovely fresh food from scratch and enjoyed being in the kitchen. I’ve spent time in the garden painting the furniture, that I’ve been meaning to do for ages, I didn’t even get stressed when Cyril decided to help me and got paint on his bum. I even found myself saying no to things I really didn't want to do, as well as having the confidence to say when I didn't think things were right.

  I’ve also lost another pound this week, so that also added to my general sense of well being, even though after a weekend away with my sister and friend Julie, which involved Fish & chips, ice cream and wine, I’m not wholly sure I deserved it, but I’ll take it.

  So if you didn’t join in last week, this week just try it, see how many compliments you do get throughout the week and make a note of it, I guarantee it will put a smile on your face!

The Three Little Pugs

After a couple of weeks of not being able to get to meeting, but sticking to my diet (apart from one takeaway with a friend on Saturday night) I was actually feeling fairly confident when I headed to the scales. However my confidence was severely misplaced and I’d put on a pound! I know it’s only a pound, but I was gutted.

 Takeaway aside, because that’s the first one I’ve had in months! I have done a fair amount of exercise. I haven’t become a gym bunny, what I have been doing is dog sitting. Alongside my lovely Cyril (who is allegedly part beagle, part pug, as you can see he’s clearly all pug!)

Cyril the alleged Beagle / Pug cross!

Can you spot the pug? 

 We have been joined by my Dad’s dogs, Barney and Buddy, 2 pugaliers (part King Charles Spaniel, part pug)

Barney & Buddy

This is the first time I’ve had all 3 for a week, as well as my cat and my sister’s cat and carnage doesn’t quite cover it! Imagine the "Big Brother" house with Perez, Katie Hopkins, Wylie Coyote and the burglars from "Home Alone" and that's pretty much the level of carnage.

I swear I am doing about 4 hours cardio everyday. Not only are we all going on lovely walks. Walking 3 dogs is quite the art form, I’ve bought this contraption, which allows me to put Cyril (the biggest) and Buddy (the smallest) on the same lead, they look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito in “Twins”, but as they like to run around a lot and Barney’s more of a casual stroller, this is the best option. 

 Most days one walk becomes two, and they are accompanied by phrases such as these;

• “You’ve got your hands full” (other dog walkers, normally with well behaved dogs to me”)
• “Don’t wee on his head” (me to one of the dogs)
• “We don’t need an old sock” (me to one of the dogs) You will be amazed how many odd socks there are in the world, who goes for a walk and takes a sock off halfway round or accidentally loses one? (well anyone over the age of 5?)

  Not only are bonus points earned by walking the dogs, they are also earned by the constant opening and closing of doors to let the dogs onto the other side of them, because apparently a closed door is an offensive door, although if the door is left open, I then end up running upstairs to prevent a row with the cat.

A rare moment of Cyril & Pudding getting on!

  I’m pretty much managing 10,000 steps a day by these means!

When I looked at my tracker (Weight Watchers speak for the place you write everything down that you eat) and I realised that over the last few weeks, it was rare that I had eaten my points everyday. Most days I had between 5 and 10 left and I never touched the activity points.

Since my bewitching a few weeks ago (being hypnotised) I haven’t eaten any form of chocolate, cake, biscuit, desert and try and buy things with a really low / no sugar content) I know in the past I’ve been guilty of saving points so I can eat (a lot of) chocolate throughout the day. All within my points, but I think I’ve sacrificed better choice meals for chocolate.

So now I’m trying to eat better meals and snack less and eat enough. Lets face it if I’m doing the right things, at some point it’s all going to click!

  Plus even though it's taken me hours to write this blog, there are rare moments of peace!

Cyril & Buddy snuggling

And relax!!!