Beat The Heat challenge - Week Three

It's the beginning of week three already...I can't believe how the time is flying!




1.       What have you done this week to work towards your goals?

•  Admittedly I haven't done much on the weight loss side. We're living off of a relatively limited menu at the minute for various reasons and it's very difficult to keep strict with ourselves in these circumstances. I've spoken to Ben about how dull our menu is (not the food itself, the food is actually wonderful if I may say so myself, but in that we eat the same meals on the same days every week generally) and we've come up with some nice ways to mix things up again but making sure our calories are still in check as it were. All that said, I'm still plateauing, but I haven't had my usual massive weekend fluctuation. I have a feelig that if I stick to my initial commitment of actually working out I'll probably break it this week.
• As for the Christmas presents, I think I've already mentioned the scarf restart. Going by the time table of this challenge the scarf should have been done...however I'm not too phased. It doesn't take two weeks to whip up a pretty necklace. I'm pretty happy with how this is going.
• Working towards my day zero list is totally going awesomely, by Friday I'll be able to cross off my vitamin challenge. The only thing I haven't started yet is the working out every day because I'm a lazy old thing. I think this week, my energies shall have to get really focussed on this particular aspect of my life...time to get REALLY moving!
• I've been sniffing out all sorts of recipe's to try, but unfortunately it will be another two weeks before I can actually do anything. Despite having said rice pudding last time, I was inspired by the tele box the other night to create more Indian inspired food and shall probably be fixing up a Tandoori Chicken feast the way my mum used to make when I was about ten. Ben is excited. I don't think he's ever had home made Tandoori chicken before...
• Again, I only actually found two jobs to apply for last week. However, I'm not beating myself up because I've managed to get a telephone interview, and you never know, if I actually get a job I think that pretty much renders this challenge complete! So, you know, wish me luck!
• I was completely lacking in the energy department from about Wednesday onwards last week. I did get the bathroom sorted on the Monday and the "Command Centre" as it has now become known was done on Tuesday, and a year and a halfs worth of paper work was filed away or shredded as appropriate on Wednesday so I did make headway towards getting the flat finally sorted. This week we're on to the living room, and I completed all the weekly chores I needed to do this morning already so I have no excuse not to get the living room up to scratch over the next seven days.

2.       What have you done this week to make you feel fabulous?

I got all dolled up for the cinema on Friday. Whatever the occassion, I love curling up my hair and putting on "The Mask". If I could, I would have an entire dressing room full of makeup and hair bits. Always makes me feel wonderful!

3.       I wrote about gadgets this week (my fav one anyway), do you have any gadgets that help you to your goals or are you a low tech kinda person?

I don't have too many gadgets but, as I mentioned last week, that's more because I've never had the cash to buy them. What I do have were either gifts or hand me downs. I don't really mind. I make the best of what I have. My best friend at the minute is google calendar, as I've been scheduling all my chores rota's with that, kind of like how FLY lady did with the cozi calendar, but built with my home specifically in mind, and on google so I can flick between my email and G+ etc. It's just there, I don't need to go looking for it, and it's fab. As for weight loss, the best tool I have to hand is MFP. As someone messaged me last night to say (which was a total shock, actually, as it's never happened before in the year I've been using it and at first I was a bit...wow...) I don't neccesarily write everything down there, especially not since I started to track my calories over a longer time period than day to day on my laptop. It's still really useful to check my BMR, BMI, and calories in meals and recipe's so it generally still gets used day to day for one or more of these things, and of course because I like the weight loss badge I can then slap onto the side of my blog :D. I do have a bit of a gadget wish list though. I really want a Kinnect for the Xbox, however it's totally impractical for our flat because it's so tiny. I also want a heart rate monitor so I can work out how effective my workouts are (I like to know I'm making a difference, and at the minute I feel like I can walk down the street and actually be gaining calories for all the good I'm doing!).

4.       We are half way through the year, what have you achieved so far (in all aspects of life)?

Let's be frank; not an awful lot. That's why I signed up to this challenge. I have learned to knit, however, and of course I have tentatively stepped towards making this flat a home (which will in itself be a mega life time achievement if you ask me!). I've lost 12 pounds since January. That's an achievement. Not a huge one, a tiny drop in the ocean of how much I have to loose, but it's still an achievement. I have some sort of direction towards which I am aiming my life, which is also something to be proud of since the past few years have been spent swimming aimlesly. Yeah, not a lot, but that's still better than "nothing at all". Oh, and of course I have set up a blog which is read by people I didn't have to bribe to do so. You guys totally rock!


5.       Tell me one of your secrets to achieving goals and living a happy life?

Well, I'm absoloutely not a guru on this matter. But one of the biggest things I've learned over the past year or so is that it's one thing to talk, another thing to get off your bum and do it. And it's only by getting off your bum and doing it that things will ever actually happen. It's possibly a bit shocking that it took me 24 years to learn this (of course, I'd been told it before, but being told and actually realising it for real are two different things) but once again, better late than never.

And, of course, to end it all, here is my positive picture for the week:

This is me and my baby brother a couple of days after my birthday. Of course, he's not really a baby anymore, because he's turning 13 this week! But he'll always be my baby bro of course ^_^ Happy birthday to the Natty Nat!