Bushwalking

For our latest bushwalking adventure, click here!

Definitely the absolutely best way to make me happy and peaceful!!  I come alive when we bushwalk through any kind of nature.

Aaaaahhhh…..

A sign

I started to realised this morning, that I like coming home from work and watching my favourite show and snacking.  I have spent years uncontrollably overdoing this action and not wanting to do it.  This was always my addiction, the thing that I needed to change in my life.  The activity that I would completely stuck in and not be able to claw my way out of.  But now that I am feeling my story beginning to change over the last few days, it dawned on me that I my attitude behind this activity is starting to change.  Coming home and chilling for a while is my downtime after work.  And now that I have focused goals though my charting activities, there is always something that I am keen to do after an hour (or one show!) 

So I realised that instead of stopping the snacking that I enjoy, I simply need to swap what I eat.  I have enjoyed getting colourful, healthy food prepared and ready for a photo and this is all I need.  I can still enjoy this time and not feel guilty about it.  Things are changing.

And then the freakiest thing happened after work while I was watching a recorded TIVO show.  A new advert came on TV.  Normally I fast forward through the ads, but I was distracted with something else and heard this.  “You don’t have to stop it, swap it.”  What was that???!!!

It was an new advert for healthy living, saying exactly what I had concluded just a few hours ago.  What the??!!  Talk about receiving a sign.  This just confirmed for me that it is okay to indulge in this relaxing.  It is good for me, it is what I enjoy and it’s okay now because my attitude behind it has changed.  Enjoy beautiful food – good enough to be photographed!

I am quite flabbergasted by this turn of events.  I just love receiving signs. 

The end of the week

I started a new little project today – photographing all the food that I eat each day and then turning it into a collage.  It certainly makes you accountable for what you choose to eat. 

Do I really want to photograph that?  No?  Well I can only eat what I photograph, so no eating that! 
How can I make this plate look really nice?  Add some lettuce and tomatoes.  Looks much better and healthier!

On reviewing the day’s foods, I realised that I need more vegetables during the day.  This project will be great for me and hopefully another way of finally achieving my goals and becoming happier and content with my life.

It will also be an opportunity to sort out some more photography skills.  Some of today’s shots were a bit blurry – I’m used to photography outdoors not indoors, so I looking forward to getting better at that.  Turning my plates into works of art is also an interesting way of eating well and bringing more colour and visual appeal into my meals.  This is fun! And it covers my creative activity for the week.

I’ve continued to work on my table, with some more weeding, hedging and cut up fruit and veg.  It was also great today to feel well enough to get back to walking.  There are a few things I haven’t done and need to do tomorrow – sanding and the cross trainer.

Being in the two-week wait (see pregnancy blog), I’m a bit nervous to go to Curves, just in case. Probably irrational, but there it is. I’m not taking any chances.

The activity I am most pleased with is the weeding and hedging. It is so great to begin getting on top of these tasks.

The activity I am least happy with is the fruit and veg. But I’m excited about my new food project and believe that will help a great deal!

Overall, this new project is beginning to give me a sense of getting on top of my life, of being the person that I want to be and feeling pride and a sense of achievement.  I am grateful to be in a place in my life where these things are working for me.

 

ACTIVITY	ACHIEVED (week starting 5/9)
Weeding	Tuesday, Saturday
Hedging	Friday
Curves	Not this week (2 week wait)
Walking	Saturday
Cross Trainer
Non-regular household chore	Monday
Sanding (painting preparation)
A creative activity eg. Scrapbooking	Saturday
Blogging	Monday, Tuesday, Saturday
Keep cut fruits and vegies for snacks	Monday, Thursday, Friday
Geocaching	Getting to know how to do it – Tuesday Finding some - Saturday

Two more beginnings

Today I got out in the garden to do the weeding. It wasn’t necessarily a good idea, still being sick. It was cold and windy out there! But I ended up doing a good hour. It’s funny how you always know that once you get started, you just get into it and keep going. I’m grateful that this new plan of changing my story has brought about the motivation to get started!

I don’t think I will be doing anything else on the list today, but to have made a start on the weeding is great.

I have added a new activity to the chart today. Geocaching. If you don’t know what it is and are curious, here is the website. The activity is right up my alley and I have been meaning to do it for months. I have gotten organised on it today and have planned a few nearby caches to look for. Once again, the goal is to find at least one cache a week.

Yesterday’s non-regular household activities was cleaning all the bathroom doors, tops of the tiles and all the hard to get to places that the mopping misses. Of course, in doing those activities, I saw so many more non-regular activities to do! Lots more opportunities to change my story.

I find myself disappointed with today. I have no reason to be. The weeding and finally getting ready to geocache are big steps forward. I think it’s about the need to get back to exercise and to always eat the cut fruit and vegies. I’m about 80% better now, so I should be able to get back to regular exercise soon. I’m sure that will make a big difference.

 

ACTIVITY	ACHIEVED (week starting 5/9)
Weeding	Tuesday
Hedging
Curves
Walking
Cross Trainer
Non-regular household chore	Monday
Sanding (painting preparation)
A creative activity eg. Scrapbooking
Blogging	Monday, Tuesday
Keep cut fruits and vegies for snacks	Monday
Geocaching	Getting to know how to do it – Tuesday

A beginning

Due to still being sick, I haven’t been able to begin today as I would have liked.    However, there has been some small progress.

As I wondered around the house tidying, I found myself being grateful for things laying around the house so that I had the opportunity to put them away.  At times I can get annoyed at continually having to tidy up and having to clean up after others.  But today, I was grateful.  These things give me the opportunity to begin to change my story.  In the case, to one of the joy of taking care of my home, of making it a continual journey of cleansing and activity.  Things laying around mean activity and the pleasure of keeping it keeping it neat and tidy.  Of gratitude for my home and the beautiful renovations that we have done.  Activity and the peacefulness I am looking to find within that.

And I have been doing my best to keep eating cut up fruit and vegetables.  It has been intermittent.  Yet, as I write this, I feel inspired to continue to do so even more. 

I also feel inspired to find one of those non-regular household chores and do that.  Just a little one, but one that I often see and mean to do but don’t get around to it.  I’m off to do it now.

Writing today’s post has been a blessing and a motivation.  I am grateful.

 

ACTIVITY	ACHIEVED (week starting 5/9)
Weeding
Hedging
Curves
Walking
Cross Trainer
Non-regular household chore	Monday
Sanding (painting preparation)
A creative activity eg. Scrapbooking
Blogging	Monday
Keep cut fruits and vegies for snacks	Monday

CHANGING MY STORY

For Years, I’ve been trying to change my story, without actually using those words. But I heard these words again this week and something about them struck a chord in a completely different way. I need to change my story.

There is happiness and positivity in my life.  But there is also a darker, underlying side that runs through all aspects of my life and needs to be changed.  I have written for my own journal a long appraisal of this dark side of my life, but I find myself not able to post it here.  It is raw and it is negative and is not where I want the focus to be.  So, for the purposes of creating the story, I have just written a little bit for Part One.  Part Two is the best bit, because that is me beginning to make the changes and THAT is my focus and is what puts a smile on my face.

 

PART ONE – THE OLD STORY

The one thing that controls all of my life and how I feel about it, is my eating disorder.  My weight issues, food addictions and all that goes along with them, filters through and negatively affects every aspect of my life.  From wanting to prepare for our wedding, to getting dressed in the morning.  From socialising with others to feeling good about myself.  From my career to my home life.  There is a sadness to everything.

This needs to change.  I desperately need it to change. 

There are so many things that I want to do but I just can’t get it together to do them. It seems to be all I can do to just get through the day and come home again.  Because once I’m home, I just want to hide away and shut down. But this is not what I want for myself. I want to come home and still have an active brain. I want to come home to the joy of my own activities. I want to come home to my own life’s pleasures.

It’s time to change my story.

 

PART TWO – THE NEW STORY

The plan is two-fold.

One - is to have a weekly list of things I want to do and make sure I do all of them at least once. I don’t have to finish the activity, or even do it for very long, I just need to do it – at least once.

Two – is to feel daily gratitude for the wonderful things that are in my life, and to focus once again on being positive.

All of things on the plan, at this stage, are things at home. Because that is what I want most of all, to awaken my home life, to be active in the home, to do all the little things that need doing, to get out in the garden, to do the little things, and create even more of a welcoming, warm and cosy home than we already have.

Step by step, my story will change. Recording it here will not only keep me accountable, but will help me to see my progress and see how things are changing. And it means I can share it with you, which is such an important thing to do.

And so it begins...

 

ACTIVITY	ACHIEVED (week starting 5/9)
Weeding
Hedging
Curves
Walking
Cross Trainer
Non-regular household chore
Sanding (painting preparation)
A creative activity eg. Scrapbooking
Blogging
Keep cut fruits and vegies for snacks