My personal springtime challenge – Week 1

I have just had a lovely holiday up in the Western Isles. Skye, Harris & Lewis. It has been really good, the weather was glorious, we took plenty of exercise, ate well and talked lots. The picture below is of one of the Callanish Stones in Lewis, dating from 2,900 to 2,600 BC. they are several metres shorter now than when they were built.

How inspirational, to think they were done with primitive tools, no cranes or machines to help them. It makes me realise in a way how lazy and self centred we have become. These stones could not have been put in place without a massive effort by the local communities. Everyone must have had to help.

The peace as we drove round Harris & Lewis was amazing. We would go a few miles without passing another car. (Thankfully, because many of the roads are single track with passing places. They really weren’t built for Motorhomes / RV’s))

I feel I have come back renewed, so in that spirit, I have set myself a springtime challenge.

4 weeks of being sensible with what I eat and drink

4 weeks of taking daily exercise

4 weeks of doing the things I keep putting off

4 weeks to give myself some space in my life, by clearing out things, by cutting down unnecessary tasks, and focusing on things I really want to do.

This series of posts will be a daily log of my progress. Both good and bad.

Day 1 – Sunday 15th April.

I am quite an organised person, and before I head off on holiday, I always clear up before I go, so yesterday I came back to a lovely clean house, hence there are no immediate chores to do, apart from a little ironing which will only take 10 minutes. The weather today is sunny and while I hesitate to say warm, it is certainly no longer cold. So a lovely day for a walk. Out with the pedometer (phone, as the battery on my normal pedometer has died) The picture below is of the Morton House Belvedere in South Edinburgh. We walk past it most days. I always think it looks so strange, with only a couple of windows. Apparently it dates from the early 18th century. From the upper floor it has stunning views for miles around. It is next door to Morton Mains House, which was the Dower House for Mortonhall House. I am sure I have read somewhere it was used as a sewing room by the ladies of the house.

 

The area of Mortoun (now Morton) dates back as far as 1264. John Trotter, the first Baron of Mortonhall was buried in Greyfriars churchyard in 1641. As a wee bit of Edinburgh history, many years ago, there was a little dog, known as Greyfriars Bobby who refused to leave his masters grave. You can read the story in my earlier Edinburgh post.  The wee dog has a statue, just outside the graveyard, and modern legend (1990+) has it that you should rub the dogs nose for good luck, with the result that it is forever being repainted!

Good – 14,035 steps, (one hour walk, two hours gardening), lovely simple healthy meals. No fancy sauces or desserts.

Poor – I ate a couple of biscuits and had a couple of glasses of wine

Day 2 – Monday 16th April

A clear dry day, but with a cool wind. I had an item to post from my Folksy shop (a sale – yeah!), so I took the opportunity to walk to the Post Office and then around a local park, and back to the house, via the big housing development that is being built across the road (650 houses!), in what was once green belt. Edinburgh is exploding! It has grown 20% from 2000 to 2006, and another 20% since, so there is a huge demand for new houses. These new houses are twice the price of ours! What was farmland about 500 yards away is now blooming into another 1,000 houses!

Good -10,633 steps

Poor – I ate a couple of biscuits and had a glass of wine

Day 3 – Tuesday 17th April

A clear but very windy day here. My husband and I set off for our normal walk, but the wind was so strong we took the short one instead! I did a long outstanding job and re-hung one of my lounge curtains. The gathers had gone weird and it was hanging off on the last hook, I confess it has been like that for ages, but yesterday morning out came the steps, and it was all sorted in 10 minutes. Why had I put it off for so long??

Good – No wine! Only one snack.

Poor – 6,587 steps – less than my desired 10,000

Day 4 – Wednesday 18th April

Today I opened a multi-currency account, so that it will make it easier when we are in Europe this year, and all being well the next time we are in New Zealand. I even went to Costco and got all the boring things like Kitchen Rolls, soap powder, and avoided unnecessary items!

Good – No alcohol or snacks. I went to a function and avoided everything except for a glass of orange juice! Steps 10,795

Poor – Nothing really! How good is that?

Day 5 – Thursday 19th April

A walk in the morning. In the afternoon I went to my Spanish class. After a couple of weeks off, it is amazing how quickly I forget it.  Did some clearing out, as the dustbin gets emptied tomorrow morning. Out to dinner this evening, so I let myself off the leash a little.

Good – My husband and I had a lovely Thai meal with friends. We ate and drank pretty sensibly! Steps a whopping 18,537! That’s about 13km or 9 miles. How good is that?

Poor – Nothing really, another good day

Day 6 – Friday 20th April

Met up with my husband’s nephew and family from NZ this afternoon. Had a walk round Edinburgh Castle and Princes Street.

Then a meeting to discuss my forthcoming exhibition – how posh does that sound? Edinburgh is becoming really busy again – the tourist season has started, for sure

Good – A lovely family day, that doesn’t come our way too often. We both really enjoyed it. the children are 10, 8 and 4, so at a really interesting stage.

Poor – Nothing really, another good day

Day 7 – Saturday 21st April

I was assisting with a club Open Day today, a lot of standing around, so the step count is down, but I am knackered – standing is harder than walking! The freezer in the kitchen died (or rather the door refused to close). So husband has stuffed everything into the freezer in the garage. A chore for next week to try and sort it out.  At least everything got squeezed in… He also wins the prize for hard work. This morning it was sunny, so we decided to take our breakfast outside. We were really put off by some animal’s leavings, an obviously fresh bone, some droppings etc. We think it was a fox. We have had problems with all our planters being dug up. So I said, I thought we needed to empty all the planters, and jet-wash the patio. By the time I left for my club, he had already emptied half the planters and got the jet-wash machine out. While I went to the club, he spent 5 hours cleaning about half the patio. And then he cooked the dinner for me coming in. What a lovely man he is!

Good – Steps 6,833, the count is down but with 7 hours on my feet, I feel I passed the exercise test. A lovely home-cooked roast chicken dinner with loads of fresh vegetables.

Poor – I collapsed in front of the television with a glass of wine rather than doing something sensible

Week 1 – Summary

For us it was quite a busy week, we got a lot done, but as I look back at the week, I did very little blogging and equally little creative work. So the week vanished in a haze. Plenty of walking, but also some TV time, that is pretty much a waste of precious hours. However, I wouldn’t have missed the family time or the social time for anything. It’s all about balance.

I’ve eaten healthily, by and large. A few sneaky biscuits when I was at the club, but relatively few snacks.

As for exercise, I have walked a pretty good 78,756 steps, 55km, or 35miles. When you put it that way, it seems pretty impressive!

So next week – less TV, and more ‘making stuff’.  Some more reading and meditation time, to give me time to think. Keep up the exercise. I read recently where someone uses his walking time as meditation time. I’ll have to look into that.

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