What should I do with a year off work?

[Ayearinthelife]

I have had a pretty stressful life and I am now in my early 50s. I lost my job recently and I have decided to take a year off from work to sort out my mental health, physical health and fitness. I need to lose weight and get stronger.

I'm not really sure what to focus on first or how to fill my days for the next year. My DC are adults and no DGC so no strict family responsibilities.

I have some money but not loads. Probably a budget of about £7k over the year to pay for anything I plan to do. My DH is happy and able to cover all bills and expenses for the year.

Any ideas? I want to focus on health and fitness, hobbies and fun learning opportunities. Thank you.

Go on a pilgrimage and find yourself

If it were me I would plan some travel to visit family and friends living in other parts of the country/world. I would also do some voluntary work to have a bit of structure and to 'put something back', I would do several exercise classes a week as well as yoga and possibly a few yoga weekends/retreats. I would spend some time with elderly relatives. I would have a couple of craft projects on the go. Read a couple of classic books. Learn some new recipes.

Volunteering will help you make new friends and feel good about yourself.

I'd spend 3/4 months abroad over the winter for starters. Get full of vitamin D, take long walks all the time, read outside.

Get outside - walking/hiking in beautiful places if you are physically able. Look at OS maps and LDWA for trails. Start small, explore your local woodlands/parks/nature reserves/coasts. Find a hill and walk up it. Basically have adventures outside.

I would travel, whether that’s around the Uk or abroad.

I would do some creative courses, art or crafts, or a yoga or reading retreat somewhere beautiful & relaxing. I’d sit and knit, crochet or sew.

I would read lots of books that I never usually have time to read.

If you like podcasts I recommend the 'Tough Girl Challenges' podcast. It's full of stories women doing inspiring things.

Volunteering is a good idea, as others say, things to give you some structure otherwise before you know it, you could be 12 months down the line and no further forward.

Learn something new - evening class?
Gym membership/personal training?
Any hobbies or activities you've previously enjoyed or would like to try? Not necessarily something physical, but there are lots of "back to hockey" or "back to netball" type groups around.
Do some fundraising?

A pilgrimage sounds interesting! I was thinking of finishing off the year with a walking holiday somewhere in Europe? Having that to aim towards getting fit enough to do easily? I am an only child and both my DPs and my DHs parents have passed away. I have spent much of the last 7 years caring and working and it's led to exhaustion, but I'm hoping not total burnout. I volunteered for an organisation but they shut down (hopefully temporarily) in 2020, I am hoping to get back in the same room with them sometime soon. I think volunteering for something physical (not mentally draining) would be good though. I will have a look at the local volunteering page.

Reading would be great, I haven't read a good book in decades and it would be brilliant of I could get back to it.

I would love craft projects but I wouldn't know where to start! Can anyone recommend something that isn't too fiddly or takes up a lot of space?

My life has been very practical and I've been focusing on what I need to do and I forget what I like to do.

I am nervous of doing yoga, but I would love to do it. I need to build up though maybe. My flexibility is dreadful.

Op I did this and it transformed my life. I don't want to describe it here as it would be outing but if you want, PM me and I'll let you know what I did.

It's such a good idea.

Ma Baker if you want a lovely making bread course, recently relocated to Wales from London but one of the best things I've done. Exercise classes, pottering about, bit of volunteering, self-care takes up a lot of time if you do it properly.

Don't restrict movement to yoga, it doesn't suit everyone. You Tube is excellent for movement stuff, I like Tom Merrick, GMB are good and there's lots of Pilates.

There are a lot of functional fitness things to do as well. Avoiding sarcopenia is a good aim to have!

I'd love to volunteer at a national trust property, go travelling, do a course and chill out for a bit. A year can go by very quickly.

This is a popular pilgrimage route that I keep coming across at the moment be/how-to-hike-the-camino-de-santiago Camino de Santiago I haven’t done it but I think I’d like to.

Shameless bookmarking but I am saving to take a year out next year and need more ideas as well 🙂

I think I would plan a walking holiday first. Nothing massively ambitious but a week in the Lakes doing the lowest 3 or 4 Wainwright's. I think that would set me up for a more focused next 10 months.

Based solely on my interests, I would do the following-

1. Write for a minimum of two hours a day.
2. Get through all of those cookbooks I’ve collected but never really used and set myself a goal of at least two dishes and one new baking recipe a week.
3. Pick a very random topic and become an absolute expert in it- like beetle varieties or something.

I'd go to India , a retreat to just be .

www.healingholidays.com/destinations/indian-subcontinent/india

I've just taken up cross stitch as something to do with my hands and avoid spending all my time looking at screens.

I also think I'd like to travel a little. With a year that I didn't have to fit in with anything else I'd be able to plan some low cost city breaks - Copenhagen, Florence, Paris and perhaps the Black Forest to finish off.

I did similar some years ago now. Had an amazing time walking, taking photos and blogging about it.

Started in my local area as had no car at the time and discovered so many places only accessible on foot. Took some great snaps of sunrises and sunsets, changing seasons etc. Am lucky to live fairly rurally where there's some great scenery.

Branched out into further areas using public transport and got really into wildflower identification. Built quite a social network online posting about my finds.

If I had had more money and access to a car I would have loved to extend this to coastal areas of the UK as well as mountains of Scotland and Wales.

The dream would have been (and still is) travelling to all the countries whose scenery I've fallen in love with, Italian lakes, Tuscany, Provence, that sort of thing.

I look back on those photos and remember the time fondly, even though there were some long days and gruelling treks, it really changed me, in a good way.

I would start with a month in the retreat that Nick Knowles went to, to really kick off the weight loss / movement etc

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xs1v8

Take a few craft courses once back home. Volunteer with young people or home start for helping young families

I'd do a yoga retreat and get qualified as an instructor.
Somewhere hot and lovely. You'll lose weight and build a great foundation to support fitness goals.

Thanks you everyone, such a lot of good ideas, I will focus on the volunteering because I agree that is a good idea, I am a bit scared of just watching the TV every day and the day just being filled with netflix. So I spoke to my DH and we are going to move the TV into the spare room and we are both going to watch it as little as possible.

I have never heard of sarcopenia! (I just looked it up - you are right it is a good thing to avoid!). My DM had osteoporosis when she was very young so I have been worried about that for a long time but my diet has just been dreadful recently, and my strength is very poor. But I think my fitness is salvageable and I need to prioritise it. I'm a bit nervous but excited about starting new things. Evening classes and the gym are good things to look into, I live within short walking distance to a college and a local leisure centre. I need to just do it.

Self-care is something I have never focused on and I want to spend the year getting to know it well! I have all these little thoughts and ideas but no idea how to build a structure out of them.

I used to love hillwalking in my youth, I can walk, just not comfortably at the moment for long periods of time? I could do maybe a 2 hour walk at a slowish pace? Anything more than that would be too much at the minute. I will start looking at local routes. I haven't done any walking at all in this area so I don't know where to start or should I get the right boots before starting?

I will check out that podcast about tough girls. I have a lot on my list already!

And the vitamin D is a good shout! Looking at supplements is something I need to add to the list as well as learning healthier recipes!

If I had a year off I would walk the length of Norway. That's my dream. Just me and my tent.

What you could do with the walking is set a goal of a certain number of miles to complete in the year and then do a spreadsheet of it.

My cousin does something she made up called three things. Every day she does
a) something which is good to do (eg. volunteering, studying for her course)
b) something creative
c) something for her health (eg. sport, trying a healthy recipe)