Beat The Heat challenge - Week Nine

It's the penultimate week! Appologies for the lateness however ^_^;;


1 - What have you achieved towards your goals this week?

Absoloutely nothing. I've been much too busy, but that's not necissarily a bad thing!

2 - What have you done to make yourself feel fabulous?

This past week has been pretty amazing. When I've not been at work I've been at ChildLine or treating myself to some new none foody things or spending time with family. I think it just summed up how I've been feeling recently when Ben's aunty kept telling me how wonderful I was looking. I don't know whether it was the fact that I was wearing my new outfit or my weight loss (I'm a stone lighter than I was last time I saw her, which isn't much considering I have 12 more stone to loose but it's got to count for something!) or because at this little point in time I feel so fulfilled with life I must just be radiating awesomeness. Or maybe it was just a lovely mix of all three of those reasons. Maybe it's because I was actually physically able to go with them on a long walk with her dogs (if she isn't careful I will be stealing her new 1 year old labrador puppy!) without being crippled over in pain/gasping for breath halfway through it. Maybe I'm just all round fabulous in general this week? I can't tell you what I did to make myself feel fabulous, but there is no shortage of awesome all around me making me feel that way anyhow!


3 - This is week 9 and the final week of the challenge! Is there anything you want to really push to achieve now?


I may not have a hope in hell of meeting all of my goals...but if you'd said to me 9 weeks ago; "In ten weeks time you will have a job, spending just about every day out and about even days you aren't working, looking forward to long walks, socializing and making merry, feeling fabulous and sexy and confident about yourself and your future, and your flat will be so clean and tidy that even your mother in law will have to agree" I would have laughed at you and said "yeah, right, jog on mate, not in ten weeks".


I know it sounds really cheesy but I joined this challenge for a reason. I had no drive to do anything with myself and no means to do it anyhow. I can put my hand on my heart and say I wouldn't have applied for this job had I not given myself the goal of x number of job applications a week, because I didn't think I'd get it.


I think, all in all, I'm happy with where I've come to thanks to this challenge, and I'm ready to wind down, learn what I have to learn, and look forward to the next one in a few weeks time.


4  - How have you felt throughout the challenge? Has anything been more difficult than you thought? Anything easier?

I've generally felt pretty good and motivated. In fact I'd say drumming up the motivation to do "stuff" in general was easier than I thought it would be; I just needed the drive and the reason to do it. Sadly this motivation crumbled in the face of my beloved food. This is really something I have to work on, which I've known for a long time and keep complaining about. I know it's there and I know it's something that only I can fix. Perhaps in the next challenge I will make it all about changing those attitudes; not necissarily loosing a set ammount of weight, but if I've been succesful in changing my attitude towards life in general for this challenge I can surely focus that energy on changing my attitude towards food in the next.


5 - Where do you fit in your family? Are you a middle child for example? How does that effect your "place" in your family?

I'm the eldest and it's a double edged sword. It's been great having two baby siblings who I love and adore with all my heart. I'm so lucky that I have them and I'd give the world for them if they needed me to. On the other hand I did everything first and kinda have to be a "role model" for them, and let's not be coy here, I havent been the greatest role model! I often feel I have to guard what I say (although this isn't so bad now that they're growing up too). Sometimes I feel guilty that, for example, my sister (the middle of us) cannot do things that I did because dad is afraid it will have an adverse affect on her the way it did on me, and because I messed up my A levels and Uni my parents have been harder on her than they were on me. On the other hand, I get to watch her and my brother have things that I never had (laptops and ipods and gadgets and driving lessons) whether that is because there is generally more money around or because the money only has to stretch to support a family of four instead of five, I'm an adult and I love them I don't feel jealous per se....since I was 18 I've either owned or shared a second hand computer, so I really just hope that they appreciate that they are able to have these beautiful new things!

And then there's the fact that as the grown up I now live away from the family, have settled down and am attempting to establish a family life of my own, which is a wonderful thing to be doing and I'm happy that this is where my life is right now; however, sometimes I feel left out of my family. Don't get me wrong, it's mostly because of the distance and that is a lifestyle choice that I and I alone made. If I lived closer to the family I would no doubt go to the cinema or theatre or what have you with them and get to partake in all the family celebrations with them and see my sis when she performs at her concerts and all that wonderful family stuff. I love living in Liverpool however, and if I lived closer to home I'd probably be having constant arguments with my dad or some such shit, our relationship would not be as good as it is; but I do miss those family connections. Ben feels the same about his too. The situation also means that I don't always feel so close to my siblings the way that many other siblings do; I watch my friends have an acive social life with theirs, but it always seems so forced with mine because we barely see each other.

Gah, it all sounds so bloody terrible doesn't it? Hahaha! It's not a perfect situation and it's all down to living so far away I'm sure. I love them all dearly and if I could go out with my sis and bro more and do things and have an awesome time it'd be great, but as this is the situation we're in, we just make the best of it.

Anyhow...I'm afraid I've been much too busy to find you a positive picture this week. Perhaps I will post two next week?

Till later folks!