I swear to God that 2015 was about 5 months long. Definitely not the normal 12 months. And yet here we are in a fine and dandy, fresh new year. Well, actually a grey and rainy one, but who's being pedantic about it?
December has zipped past, Christmas has been and gone, and with it New Years Eve, and I apparently start a new job in 2 days (gulp).
New Year's, being what they are, are filled with fond looks back at the last year and resolutions for the next one. 2015 was an odd year, but also a pretty awesome one. I started in the mountains on my second ski season in Meribel, spent 4 months unemployed over the summer whilst I stubbornly held on for the right job, paid off all my debts finally, went surfing in Morocco, went to Wimbledon, the Formula E in London, the Rugby World Cup, outdoor cinema at Kew Gardens and lots of other fun stuff, moved back to Bristol and into a new flat with an old friend, started the new job (and technically a new career, as a contractor), travelled round Vietnam, took a last minute ski trip to visit old friends in La Plagne and generally relaxed in December as I was between contracts. I made new traditions with my Dad at Christmas as our first festive season with just the two of us and spent New Year with two lovely friends, champagne, our pyjamas and Jools Holland like a proper adult. And for the first time in 6 years my back seems to have pretty much magically fixed itself meaning I feel strong and able.
All in all it was a pretty stella year.
I also spent quite a lot of time and energy trying to unravel my war with food, both by getting myself back on Weightwatchers as soon as I got back to the UK in the spring (with some limited success), and by taking a long hard look at what causes my overeating in the first place. I haven't written about it yet as I hate being all like "Guys! Guys! I've found the answer to losing weight and keeping it off and it's easy!" before doing an epic crash and burn, but basically speaking I've been trying to address my emotional eating, and I wouldn't be lying if I said that my weight loss trend this year has followed that.
For the first couple of months back on Weightwatchers, I followed my all-too-common theme of lose a few lbs, put a few lbs back on in an annoying cycle that seemed to involve a lot of effort for little result or movement. Then right at the end of September I was getting really fed up and via a series of fortuitous events was prompted to go a bit introspective and start considering why I struggled so much.
The more I looked the more it made perfect sense to me, and the more I read about it, the more obvious the way out seemed. And sure enough, the weight started to slowly drop a bit finally. Through October my weight gradually went down half a stone, then in November I was travelling for 3 weeks and somehow lost another 2 lbs. Even over the course of December's ski trip, and the festive period, which would usually each be a disaster all on their own, I only put on about 4 lbs - to put that in context, it's a running joke between myself and my friends that we normally put on half a stone each week we're away skiing, this year it was 2 lbs from the ski trip and 2 lbs from Christmas.
Of course, it's not easy. In October and November, I was all over it, but being home for Christmas I started to take my eye off the ball. Not completely, but just a bit. I'm more than chuffed that it was only 4 lbs, and I'm still starting this year lighter than I finished my ski season (I'm not really sure where I was at the start of the year proper as I wasn't doing WW's at the time). I also picked up an awesome new habit as a result of all my research and soul searching and now keep a regular journal. And now it's time to get back to normal after all of December's disruptions and make some more progress.
I'm back home in Bristol and I made a few New Year's Resolutions - some with friends and some with myself.
Resolutions:
- To make a commitment to my health and wellbeing and continue working on my emotional eating and being kind to myself (I'll do a separate post on this at some point).
- To make 2016 the year I finally start saving money and really take the gift my grandma gave me and work with it.
- To keep myself up to date and on top of the admin that goes with running my own company and generally be a bit more organised about life stuff.
January challenges (which I'm doing with my friend Jo):
- Staying off alcohol for the next 4 weeks to give ourselves a bit of a detox into the New Year.
- Staying away from takeaways for the next 4 weeks - home cooked food is best, but I'm still allowed to eat out for social occasions.
- Complete the first month of my half marathon training plan with a view to doing the Plymouth Half at the end of April.
Jo has her own set of challenges (apart from the alcohol one which we're doing together) but we're supporting each other.
2016 is looking great so far. I have a new job I'm excited about and two more ski trips booked for February and March. At least 3 races are planned for this year - the Plymouth Half, the Bristol 10k and another Colour Rush Obstacle Race in May to get me moving again. Who knows what other adventures there will be but I'm excited to find out!
Happy New Year!!
1 comment:
Happy New Year!
Post a Comment