Anyone up for a ‘sort yourself out’ supportive encouraging thread?

[SpringOn]

Hi,
I’m 47, feeing old. I’ve very much lost my way with style, exercise, hair, you name it.
I need to:
lose two stone
decide what to do with my witchy mostly grey hair (I’ve been growing out dark brown dye for 10 months, decided to go grey, but I feel so old! Don’t know whether to go back to dye or stay grey).
mu wardrobe is a disaster. I have some decent smart work stuff but my casual clothes are basically lairy leggings and hoodies. I am a size 20.
My house needs a good clean and de clutter
I want to grow veg and have lovely flowers in the garden

Good bits:
I have a great husband, three fab kids and a job I love
I walk the dog for about 20 mins every day

Anyone want to join for self- improvement on an encouraging thread?

Thank you for the prompt @SpringOn and for keeping us going 😁

I'm doing well with exercising each day - walking or yoga.
I'm eating better & more mindfully too.

I've got a written list of things to achieve for today - sorting money/paying bills, putting away a mountain of washing, and doing a tidy round before I go back to work tomorrow.

@Temporaryname158 I can totally relate to your situation! I've had a week off work & know I have 130+ emails to tackle, some meetings to set up and I should have started writing a paper for a course I'm on. I told myself I would start it on my week off but I've been so tired, I've just needed to switch off from work. So, here we are now thinking about what needs to be done 🤷‍♀️
I'm sure I will get round to it.

Here's hoping we have a nice productive day.

I had an almost great day yesterday. Spent most of it on a gorgeous coastal walk, followed by a 3km row...after which I had an asthma attack and ended up eating anything I could get my hands on just to distract myself. Sigh!

Anyway, as some of you aren’t feeling great either, here’s a picture of a puffin. I came across a few during my walk yesterday, which always fills me with joy! 🥰

My plan for today is to take it easy. I may go for a gentle walk, but will probably spend the rest of the day recuperating.

Oh what a beautiful photo @SparkleHard ! What a treat to be able to see these Puffins like that! Sorry you had to deal with an asthma yesterday though, hope you've managed to take it easy today.

I got a few jobs done today - unfortunately, that included visiting four different shops in three different towns to get something I needed for a DIY job! Still, I got it and it is done now. I'm trying the little and often potter approach to other jobs.

Back to work after a two week break for me tomorrow. I'm expecting to feel tired as I need to go back to getting up at 6.30 am rather than 8-10 am.

I need to sort out how I spend my evenings if I'm going to make any real progress. It's all very well and good getting stuff done at the weekend/time off from work but most days are working days...

Hi everyone and welcome back to those of you making progress behind the scenes. Some really solid wins going on - well blooming done!
@SparkleHard what a beautiful photo. Thank you for sharing it. I love puffins. The world is better because they exist!

I’m clinging on a bit with a tricky work week ahead of me. Today I have managed to do my run, make the kids lunches for tomorrow and clean the kitchen. About to have a bath, then it’s the run-in to bedtime as it’s a school night. I have a three day work trip starting tomorrow. I generally eat terribly and don’t drink enough water and don’t exercise.
so with that in mind
Do 8000 steps each day
Drink lots of water
Eat healthy food when I have the choice
Be mindful and don’t let anxious thoughts get on top of me

On the plus side I have some lovely new clothes to wear! Going to wear my new trousers and top tomorrow 😁

Have a great week all. Keep up the good work. Remember, small steps, consistently made will move us all forward.

Hi everyone,
Back to work tomorrow! And as Mondays are my most stressful days by far, just very modest plans:
-drink enough
-go for a walk when I'm home
-take 15 minutes walking through the house tidying up in the evening

On Tuesday I can think bigger again 😂
And I really enjoy the Happier podcast that was recommended here. It also has a good length, enough to get the most basic stuff done.

Have a good start into the week/back to school everyone

I’m still here clinging onto the wagon. Slightly restricted to lying/sitting at the moment due to a leg issue. This has not gone well for the weight. Have been getting up to do 5 mins cleaning/tidying/sorting every hour or so though.

Tomorrow’s goals
Tidying & dusting living room & sweeping the floor. (A lot of this is done it’s mostly dusting and sweeping)
Filling water bottle first thing and then drinking all of it during the day.
Picking up more multivitamins when I go to the pharmacy.
Cleaning out the fridge.

I’m back! I’ve had a busy week and as usual everything I wanted to do for me was put to the back of the to do list. I’ve read this thread from the beginning again and love it even more than when I first read it.

The basics for me every day this week are:

• drink 1 bottle of water (750ml) - currently don’t drink any water so baby steps
• start logging calories - I’ve never done this for more than a few days at a time. I’d love to start eating in a calorie deficit but first I’m going to concentrate on just logging everything
• Take a photo of something small that makes me smile and post on Instagram - I used to do this everyday and it was so good to look back and remember the quote “every day may not be good but there’s something good in every day”. Sometimes it’s hard to notice but there really are so many reasons to smile every single day
• Tick one thing off my epic declutter and organise to do list

Additional things on tomorrows list:

• Spend 1 hour doing some work I should have done weeks ago
• Plan when I’m going to work on a report I have due on Thursday - I desperately need to stop leaving everything to the last minute and submitting half arsed work. I can do so much better if I was able to stop procrastinating!
• Be productive at work - it’s a long day tomorrow so I want to leave feeling like I’ve accomplished a lot

Good morning,
And a good start for everybody who is back to work/the school run 💐

Morning campers! Yes, end of school hols. Overwhelmed by work but happy to have uninterrupted time to do it in! I smashed through some house stuff over the weekend and feeling better for it though was collapsed by Sunday afternoon and had two glasses of wine last night and accompanying headache this morning. Gah. Still, there aren’t any experiments in the fridge any more, the kitchen is in better shape and I got all of the collected crap out of my bedroom so that’s a win.

Today:
Get a walk in (not sure when or if this is realistic but will help if I do)
If feeling good enough fast from 4 pm
Clear craft project (not mine) out of living space (living with people with different standards is hard and a cause for much tension in my house/life).

Have a good Monday and week. Happy travels @SpringOn : I struggle when I travel tho have started a list of things that did or didn’t work which I build on after each trip. Go easy on yourself. My current basics are to drink water and avoid coffee and wine.

@sundaymorningcall i have a glass of water as soon as I wake up before my first coffee. I think about how dehydrated my body is after a full night and then feel smug that I have already had some. Also if you are a visual person I found See How You Eat a really easy alternative to calorie counting: it’s a daily food diary but you just take photos. Not the same as calorie counting but it helps keep me mindful of what I’m eating. I don’t use it all the time just when focussing on what I’m eating.

Morning all.

Water bottle is full (and have drunk some).
Operation clear out the fridge has been started.

So far so good.

Morning all. Just checking in whilst waiting at the doctor's. She is running late!
I think I bored myself into actually doing a few things yesterday. Not much but I did wipe down the outside washing line that has been out all winter so that I can start drying washing outside again. I don't tend to dry washing outside in the winter as I'm in a first floor flat and it is a trek!
I left out a double duvet cover to get darked on! I'm hoping it will be dryer when I bring it in this afternoon but it was slightly drizzling when I came out earlier.

My targets for today:
Prepare my work ( tutoring) and go out and teach
Bring in duvet cover!!!
Put another load of washing on before I run out of clean trousers.

There are other things I'd like to do but those are the top 3!

Hello - I am here still - have started a Slimming World style eating habit as it worked for me a few years back. Not following the rules to the letter but eating the breakfasts that I used to like (bran flakes) and having more protein based meals, less sugar and fat. I need something to follow but don't want to pay £5 a week to be told I'm fat LOL! I have lots of the books so just need to change some habits - just had a satsuma instead of a bag of crisps.

Managed to do 14K steps on Sunday! The weather will help me to get out and about a bit more too (hopefully).

How is everyone else doing?

Done very little today, stomach ache and spotting. Over the weekend have cleaned the fridge out, kitchen surfaces and appliances, changed dog bedding and ordered dog flea and wormer. We do a bit of dog boarding and daycare and been busy with that being Easter. Making an effort with MIL too. Tired but am going to make the effort to walk a couple of dogs.

I’m still here clinging onto the wagon
I love this @RafaistheKingofClay

First day back at work went fine (although perhaps slightly tired from getting up earlier than I have been), in fact I think I enjoyed it!

I'm pleased with my current morning routine (ditched using the snooze button months ago and leave for work earlier now - so much better) and I've added in a small tweak to be daytime eating. Oh and I've gone back to almost daily weighing - I need to see the number, even if I don't want to...

It is my evening routine/habits that need a serious change. I'm going to have to start small and challenge myself 10 mins+ of cleaning (laundry/dishes/tidying doesn't count as that gets done anyway) whilst listening to an Audiobook or Podcast and 10+ minutes of Piano practice. I would like both of those to be an hour really but that is way too daunting to start with. That will also keep me off the wine and the boredom/habit snacking too... I hope.

Ooo @IWasGlad tell us about your morning routine / food tweaks / evening routine when you get the chance. I love hearing what other people do to see if I can steal ideas. My evening routine is very simple: after dinner I shut the kitchen down for the day (wash up / put away / tea towels in wash / dishwasher and washing machine on timer) and that’s it. I’m too tired to do anything else. I do everything in the morning (I get up v early normally).

I failed to fast today but managed my other jobs; need to use my early morning hours tomorrow to finish a presentation so may need to run in the evening which I really really struggle to do. Off to bed now! 😆

I've managed to go swimming today. Not been for months. It felt good.

Had quite a good start at work yesterday. Came home shattered but managed not to hide under my blanket but go for a walk and tidy up, so went to bed feeling quite proud. I just ran to the toilet every 15 minutes. My body needs to get used to much more water intake 😊
My 3 for today
-drink enough water/fruit tea
-go to the gym
-no sweets

I had planned to update last night but came home from work utterly exhausted and went straight to bed.

Yesterday wins:
Finished work that was due
Took photo of beach at sunset for my one thing that made me smile
Made a plan on how I’m going to get the next piece of work done
I didn’t finish the work to do list I had set but I did complete one really good piece of work instead that I’m pleased with

Could’ve done better:
Didn’t drink water as I had it ready to take to work then forgot to pick it up on the way out the door
I didn’t log calories either because I forgot

I used to post on the ‘one small thing a day’ thread on here so I’m going to start posting on there again as I like the accountability and ticking off one thing on my massive to do list. Today I set up my ring doorbell account on my phone and washed my makeup bag.

Started a wishlist of clothes I would like to buy. I’m stuck in a clothes rut where I’m not buying any decent clothes as I don’t want to be this size forever. I’ve been this size for 3 years now so maybe it’s time to invest in some clothes that actually fit! The dream would be to have a wardrobe of clothes I absolutely love rather than just something that fits and does the job. I also don’t really have a style or any kind of idea what I’m looking for. I’m going to get back on Pinterest and the style and beauty board on here for some inspiration.

Today's basic 4:
Drink one bottle of water
Log calories
Take photo of something that made me smile
One thing off my epic to do list

Additional 3:
Leave work feeling satisfied I've done a good job * *
Use my new torture device pen on some pesky skin tags I have
Brain dump everything I need to do for work and work out my priorities

Sounds like everyone had a productive day yesterday, let's hope for the same today.

My morning routine is really nothing special @BunsenBurnerBaby - it's just much better than it was! Maybe in the future I'll get it even better but I'm going to leave it until I've got the evenings sorted. Here goes though...

• Alexa alarm at 6.30 am (followed by phone alarm at 6.31 across room just in case, I get up on the first alarm though).

I used to set the alarm for 7 am and then snooze button all the way until 7.30 ish...

• Immediately tidy bedroom/part-make bed and weigh in every other day or so. Go down stairs make coffee and tidy up kitchen if needed/put a load of laundry on

I used to just leave bedroom a mess rushing about grab toast or something and leave for work most days

• Come back up stairs with coffee and go on MN or my online diary (use it as a thought dump rather than long-term record) until 7 am

I would often to this for much longer if it was a morning when I didn't need to be in work until later

• At 7 am brush teeth etc (now do a full 3 mins in sections and do full interdental & floss routine in the evening) and get dressed. Make sure bed is completely made and bedroom and ensuite tidy

Change here is a regular time to start this and the teeth brushing being so much better (used to be less than 2 mins prob with worse technique, even with electric toothbrush)

• 7.20/7.25 grab packed lunch and anything else I need for work and leave

No breakfast - I use to do IF a while back and got into this regular habit then. I now keep breakfast at work and have it around 11 am. Now just moved lunch to about 3 pm and then dinner is 7 pm.

• Arrive at work 7.30/7.35 am

Used to arrive at 8.10 am ish and even though I live locally to work the traffic was way worse and it would take be 2-3 times as along. Now I have a more relaxed start and feel properly prepped for the day.

7 am - got to go and get dressed now 😀! I'll have to catch up later. Anyway, as I said...it is just much better than before...maybe in the future I'll get up earlier and exercise or something but that is way off at the moment!

@IWasGlad sounds good that you've found little ways to improve things.

Had a reasonably good day yesterday. Wrote some intentions and managed most of them, including meditating, some housework tasks and tracking food. Drank more water too and generally felt better in the evening and when I got up this morning.

Also got up early this morning and had a nice bit of quiet time making lunch and doing jobs while listening to a podcast. But then was a bit snappy with kids and got into stupid confrontation with DS, so need to go back to finding a better way to manage those little frustrations. And need to get more work stuff done today - hopefully planning pomodoros and being in office rather than wfh will help.

Thanks @prettygirlincrimsonrose - just got to keep going and build on it!

Sounds like you've also made lots of positive changes! Love how podcasts etc. make doing things feel easier.

Evening are definitely going to be my focus for now (along with keeping the other changes I've already got going at home/work and in my head). Last night I did manage my 10+ mins of cleaning and piano (in addition to the laundry/tidying/dishes etc I already do) - I did 20 mins of each (and a bit more piano later) and I enjoyed it. Today I am SUPER tired so those two 10+ minute targets feel like a lot right now - I know all I need to do is start though and now is probably the best time...

Last night I did my 10+ mins cleaning and practise - I really want to keep this going, and build on it. It sounds so minor but...it seems to be working. After that though I had wine (not good - old habit trying to ditch), and that worked in taking the tiredness away. I could really have done with being tired at 9 pm, going to be and sleeping though!

I don't think I can put off sorting out my sleep for much longer either if I really want to make changes in my life...

Morning all. Got 2 tip runs of garden and house rubbish done yesterday and temporary fencing up round the pond. Today helping DH clean and paint one of our paths in the garden to see how it looks. Also need to contact garage to get SORN car looked at. Nice to have dry weather.

Managed to hoover the stairs and mop the hallway before taking dc to swimming last night. Had lots of water and walked 14k steps. Early bed as shattered. Small wins!!

this evening, am determined to sort out our kitchen. (Or at least the main table).