Making one small change each week

[ToriTheStoryteller]

I can't do overhauls, I don't want to count calories but I recognise that I'm living in a way that isn't making me feel very happy or healthy.

So, I'm going to make one change starting today, then add in another next week, and so on. By the end of the year I'm hoping that will ads up to a significant change for the better in how I feel, look and live.

Anyone else up for a more gentle alternative to massive resolutions? I'll update each week anyway even if no-one replies, so I record what I've done😂.

Week 1: No phone use after 8pm. I'm hoping that will improve my sleep, it's got out of hand in the last few months.

@Hatty65 what's your small change?

@brightpompoms I'm going to try not eating after my evening meal!

I'm dreadful for snacking mindlessly in an evening, and really need to lose (a lot) of weight.

@Hatty65 I do that and I do Intermittemt fasting. It's torture in the beginning but honestly after a few days it'll be your new normal

I keep chopping and changing my one thing.

But today after a chat with Dcs 13 and 11 we all decided to turn all electronics off at 8.30 and settle down for the night with green tea, cookies a shower / bath and reading before bed.

They are sitting with me and we are counting down..... 3 minutes to go.

Night everyone.

@Hatty65 I suggest brushing your teeth straight after dinner so you're less tempted!

@Cappuccinfortwo That's a great idea, thank you.

One a week feels a bit too fast for me, but I'm still on nicotine pouches rather than vapes, not done too well on the no social media after 9pm so starting that again today, and I added drinking a pint of water every evening just over a week ago. Slow progress but still, three positive changes are better than nothing.

as a tea addict, i have managed to leave an hour after lunch before a cup of tea, started when trying to improve my iron.

Lovely to see the thread growing each time it pops up in Active for 30 seconds.😂

After an awful week at work (redundancies at half an hour's notice, not knowing what the hell we are doing as whole teams wiped off the map) I wanted to feel good about how much I've managed to keep in place:
Phone use: gone through the roof this week with friends losing jobs. Not going to feel bad about that.
15 min walk each morning; 10 mins doing vitamins, moisturiser, flossing, HRT; apple with lunch - all stuck to most days.
Stick to work hours: gold star for this one as I probably managed about 10 hours of work this week with everything that's happened.

Amazingly the new habit of not snacking was stuck to every day. I managed it by doing a different workout every day, so it stopped me thinking about work for an hour as well as not giving me time to sit and snack.

Onto Week 9. It's going to be an easy one as this week will probably be shit. I'm going to end the day with a herbal tea instead of a normal one. I love the Pukka Nightime ones so I'll get back into having one of them.

Crumpetdisappointment I do that too, I leave an hour either side of food. It really stands out now when I visit someone and they offer tea 10 minutes before dinner just how odd it would be for me now!

Hatty65 it is hard but I don't think I've eaten after dinner for about two years now. The afternoon snacking though, that's going to be the one that I think will test me long term!

If anyone (like me) is struggling with daily flossing, my dentist suggested doing it at lunch rather than in the evening when you're tired. He said it's better to do it once a day than keep on skipping it because you cba!!

@ToriTheStoryteller So sorry to hear about issues at work! Are you public sector by any chance?

I have struggled over the past few weeks with maintaining positive changes. I am going to focus on no phone use after 9pm again. I've been gradually allowing my phone upstairs at bedtime so I'm back to keeping it downstairs and reducing temptation to look at it in bed!

Cappuccinfortwo that's a good idea. I do sometimes forget in the morning but I remember every night now because I'm stood around waiting for my HRT gel to dry before I can get the jammies back on. I think habits work for me if they are linked to something else so it's like I remember my HRT because I remember my flossing, moisturising and removing make up!

mum2jakie no, private sector. I am the same so I've decided it's going to be put in the kitchen at 8pm and that's it until the next day. No temptation then.

@ToriTheStoryteller You're doing well! I never floss in the morning. 😂

I'm adding daily morning flossing this week.

Fresh week; fresh start.

My phone tells me that I used it 3 hours and 13 minutes less than the previous week, so that is encouraging.

Have taken a full lunch break, including a walk out of the house.

Also managed to complete a small charity shop drop off, so fulfilling my promise to undertake some steps to declutter/improve home conditions each week.

Just need to sustain this....

Following with interest. I'm trying to read for half an hour a day and find it helps. I've also bought an adult colouring book which I started yesterday after lighting a candle and making a cuppa 😊

That sounds lovely, very restful ☺️

I’m still drinking the green tea, I quite look forward to it now. Unfortunately the daily apple and orange doesn’t always happen, and there’s no point if you’re forcing it down.

I need to put this as my screen background!

"if I die tomorrow I don't want DS to remember me as someone who was too frazzled and tired to stop and have fun."

Brilliant idea, OP!

Just to share, even though I'm not good at following my own tips - sometimes it's better to think about "tasks" in a sense of time by minutes/hour.

If I don't feel want to do the vacuuming while house and having put it off for too long, I "frame" the task by replacing it with a "30 minutes whatever" concept. That 30 minutes could have nothing happening if I just sit there with my phone, but alternatively I could just crack on and get the task out of my way and feel good about it afterwards. Same as going out for a walk, even though I'm really rubbish about it. (It's amazing you can motivate yourself to do gym twice a week. I can't even be bothered for once!)

"if I die tomorrow I don't want DS to remember me as someone who was too frazzled and tired to stop and have fun."

This is the bit that resonated with me too.
Can I join?
My first thing will be getting back to regular yoga. I think when you move your body regularly other things follow more easily.

Today I bought some multivitamins and gave myself a little manicure - cuticle oil and everything! Small steps 😊

Thanks- just prompted me to take my iron supplement today. This week's small change.

I'm going to try journaling to head off binge eating behaviours

I;m a terrible binge eater @CheeseSandwichRiskAssessment .

have you read the book Brain over binge? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brain-over-Binge-Conventional-Recovered/dp/B09Y63GKWP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1Q4KRU66KDBFV&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.083hjTWyi2k2i5mJSOeeT4kuYGniZt4BUThxyPrhHbq84jTe_1XD1KUVxX-2SqvP3yezVEpAowL_tyfxKW5wbtQJm-kNQp1-3Lw_MvcC6jsO4dXA22EHLJIMKKZ4-1XFMYssWglPt_IZHmm4a_rtdgMprE1ZL7-y1jzINCiXdL2lU787Ulr5b14OXOQ5bo09vI4_5VryBTUFUum8JCR9Qw5bXqV_TOUqIs8A07L2bUQ.ihQ-QCCigcsdg98mOergF9iBvZ_vfX-3FT1Z2fDdwNA&dib_tag=se&keywords=brain+over+binge&qid=1709488441&sprefix=brain+over+bindge%2Caps%2C258&sr=8-1

I confess it did not quite stop my binge eating but it did help with my bulimia.

I need to relearn how to eat to be honest. I find eating to be a fearful experience so might make my one change this week a thorough thoughtful process around food and how I feel about it.