Little things

Who’d have thought it, but lunchtime workouts are turning out to be my saviour these days!

When you’re not leaving the office until sometime around between half 7 to after 8 every night, it’s difficult to find the time or motivation to get a workout in in the evenings, but a lunchtime class allows me both a decent opportunity to sweat and burn off some calories, and, as was the case today, a much-needed opportunity to vent some frustration and get away from my desk for an hour.

I’m also finding I’m falling more and more into a routine with this eating thing at the moment … and part of that routine is making sure that I’m not being too routine, and that I’m being conscientious about my eating and tracking.  For instance – I had always assumed that a pack of stir-fry veg would be zero points, because all the veg individually are – but according to the tracker it’s 2 points per portion! Who knew?  Dutifully noted though.

I spent what little thinking time I had to myself today, going through a bit of an interesting mental exercise.  Yesterday, I mentioned that, among other things,I was feeling rather overwhelmed by my debt, and the task of clearing it (and p.s. thanks for the nice comments as always – much appreciated!).  Today – with the benefit of a clearer mind after some sleep – I thought about it a different way.  You see, it’s so similar to the feelings of hopelessness when overwhelmed with a large weight loss to be accomplished, that I carried that analogy a bit further.

When I started this health challenge, I knew I had a long, looooong way to go.  To help avoid the overwhelming size of my challenge, I avoided thinking about the whole, and just concentrated on the task immediately in front of me, and occasional mini-goals to aim for.  Soon enough I found, that even without needing to be perfect in my efforts, I was chipping away at the whole big amount, and had made surprising progress.  And this debt is just the same.  I’ve scared myself enough to be in the right frame of mind to want to deal with it and commit myself.  Now, I need to stop worrying about the sheer size of it, and just concentrate on the little day to day achievements that help me get a bit closer to my goal.  Take my budget a week at a time, and focus on getting that right.

And where I felt utterly bereft of not having any holidays yesterday, it occurred to me that the only way to solve that is to have something to save for.  A goal to work towards.  That goal is simply a holiday of my choice, wholly paid for upfront – no credit cards involved.  It might not be skiing, but it will be something I’ve chosen and want to do, and having something to work for will keep me a bit more focused.  And like the diet – saving up for those occasional treats stops me feeling like I’m being denied anything – I’ve just got to weigh up what it is I want – a bit more on a day-to-day basis, or be a bit more strict and have an occasional controlled treat.

I can do this.