Beat The Heat challenge - Week One

Well I've spoken about it often enough and here we are, the first week of my first seasonal challenge!





1.       What are your goals for the 10 week challenge? 

My goals are to loose another ten pounds, make at least five Christmas presents, work towards some of the goals I've already set on my Day Zero list, expand my recipe journal, keep on track with my job hunt, and last but not least, to FLY through my household chores each week. I've written more about my goals already in my challenge page (link on the right) so for more details on how I plan to hold myself accountable and achieve these goals you can head over there. For future reference I shall also be keeping track of my progress there so if you like check back to see how I'm going!

2.       Why did you pick those goals? What makes them important right now?

For goal one, lose ten pounds, I've chosen this to keep my mind focussed on the short term. When I think oh, I need to loose a couple of stone by the end of the year I get complacent and I never stick to it. However, by choosing to make this a goal for the next ten weeks I know that I am fighting to achieve this in a short ammount of time, and this will help me achieve my goal of loosing those couple of stone by the end of the year and ultimately eventually get down to my ideal healthy weight. It is important right now because despite having been trying for the past year to stick to loosing weight I have not been succesful in doing so and have instead yo-yo'd up and down in the range of 16 pound. If I loose another ten pounds over the course of this challenge, I will have broken the 16 pound range and I will be able to say that in the course of the year I have, over all, lost over 16 pounds, which is important to me.

And now for the other goals haha! Well, without writing an essay on each singular goal like the first one, each of these goals is important to me for one reason; I'm desperately trying to kick myself out of the habit of laziness in which I find myself having been unemployed for over a year now. It's difficult to keep motivated and productive at all in such a situation, even when chores and tasks are piling up all around you. My other five goals should keep me busy and hopefully by the end of the ten weeks I will indeed have shaken this bad habit. I will be productive, active, healthier in both body and mind, and have a home life I can be proud of instead of the lazy, shameful waste of space that I am now.

3.       What’s your biggest excuse reason for not doing something and how are you going to stop it getting in the way? 

No excuses or valid reasons, I'm just lazy and badly motivated. Ok, it's difficult to admit that on here, but I think it's important to do so if I'm going to achieve these goals. Not every day is spent bumming around on the internet of course...some days I get more done, some days can you believe it I get even less done. But given that my goals are all focussed on breaking up this cycle (I don't like what I am, what I've become, how bone idle I am, I never have liked it and I've tried on many other occasions to break it, but without success) I need to face up to my horrid lifestyle. Haha, if I manage to do it this time, I might actually have interesting things to blog about!

Anyway, how do I intend to stop this self propogating cycle of laziness getting in my way of these six goals? That's a good question actually, but having given it some thought I intend to make a daily schedule and stick to it. This could in itself be a seventh goal, to stick to that, but I think so long as these goals are achieved then my task will be complete and I will be well on my way to a better lifestyle. In fact that's pretty much what I see this challenge as being, a complete lifestyle overhaul.

4.       Are you a planner or do you go with the flow?

I'm stuck in the middle. I love to plan, absoloutely adore it. I could be a great PA because I would have each and every second of the day scheduled and commited to memory! However, when it comes to my home life at least, I don't always stick to plans once they are made. It'll start off well, but then something won't go according to that plan, and then something else won't, and then I'm all pissed off and the whole thing goes out of the window because oh, what was the point in planning it all in the first place? Such plans are surely only good for the work place where they get done! The same happens with my weight loss to be honest...I start great, then I have a bad day and the next thing you know the whole week is out of the window and I get stuck in a rut.

I think for this to work, I'm going to have to become more easygoing, would you believe it. Make my plans, yes, by all means, but if something comes up to disrupt my plans then absorb it into the schedule and carry on with the next item on the agenda. I've done it at work before, so I should be able to do it at home too!

5.       Tell us something that will help us get to know you.

Haha, I suppose that all makes my life sound terrible doesn't it! No that is only one aspect, and like I said, some days are great and others not so much, everything changes and no two days are precisely alike. I don't consist entirely of this unmotivated old cow. So some other side of me...well since I'm new to this challenge thing and some of you will have never read my blog before, I'm Bex, I'm married to Ben, have been for two and a half years now, I live in Liverpool but I'm from near Durham in the north east originally. I have a fascination with all things geological but having had a bit of a fall out with it at University my professional life lies somewhere else...where exactly is a mystery just yet, but I'm hoping to go back to Uni in the not too distant future and eventually I'd like to put my listening skills to good use and become a counsellor (If there is something I know I'm good at it's listening!). I have a multitude of hobbies because when it comes to rest and relaxation I get very bored very easily. Aside from partaking in the playing of video games, my most recent fascination is knitting but I also make jewellery, play the flute (only in private because I'm a little self concious, but I still derrive joy from it) and even partake in a spot of writing from time to time.


Positive Picture

One of the weekly challenges is to post a positive picture, so for this first week I'm offering you this little tidbit;

It's an old picture that a good friend recently found lying around. Taken with an actual camera with film that needs developing, would you believe it! Anyhow, this is from December of 2005, the end of my first semester at University. I'm stood there on the extreme right hand side next to Ben (don't we both look young!). This is a positive picture because at this point in my life I was still relatively active and generally happy. It wasn't until after the New Year that things began to slide downhill for me, on various levels, that ultimately would end up where I am now in my life. At this point in my life, everything was going pretty much according to plan. I was overweight, but not extremely so the way I am now. Compared to now I don't think I look too bad.

Since my goals are about making a lifestyle overhaul, the first few steps on getting back on track, I offer this as a positive picture as to what "on track" actually looks like. No, things obviously weren't perfect, and things never will be perfect, but this is my ultimate aim. To be happy, surrounded by friends, active, working towards something meaningful and useful in my life. Not just sat here at my laptop thinking this is as good as it'll ever get and I should get used to my lot in life. I can put things right again, and this picture doesn't need to be a reminder of better days but a kick start to them instead.

Also, I still have that top...let's make just one longer term goal, that by the time the clock runs out on my Day Zero list, I'll be able to fit into it again!