Small steps towards being a better version of yourself- What are yours?

[changingmylifecompletely28489]

Hello everyone! :-) Would like to open up a thread regarding (as the title suggests) small steps you guys take for a better version of yourself and in order to make yourself feel better. I'll go first:

1. I'm about 8 kg overweight so this is my second week doing tae-bo 3 times a week, eating carefully- cut out sugar almost completely, cut out bread completely, 1 cheat meal a week & drinking 1,5-2 l of water/day

1. I keep a personal planner to keep myself organised & I love it. It helps me a lot. I also have a to do list app on my phone and you can cross out the things you've done. Bloody love it.

1. I'm kinder to people in general & try to understand their struggle. I work in banking so I have my fair share of screaming and rudeness but I work towards always keeping my calm and not let it affect me.

1. I read. My target is 150 books this year, I have read 11 of those so far but I'm speeding it up a bit.

1. I'm more careful with my hair, make-up and clothes. I try to look stylish everyday and it's working! Also: lotion after every shower and bath, proper care of my skin & cuticle oil every single night.

I'd love to hear what you're doing to make yourself feel better & working towards a better version of yourselves...

1. Lose 2.5 stone. (18lbs lose so far)

2. Condition hair more

3. Reduce clutter

I'd love to read more books, but it's difficult with a child. Which 11 books did you read? Any recommendations? Last book I read was 'the bay at midnight' which was a holiday/romantic/murder-mystery combination but found it really gripping.

@MakingBaconPancakes best of luck!!!

My books are: 1. The book thief

1. The help
2. The time traveler's wife
3. Memoirs of a gheisha
4. The collector by John Fowles

6 & 7 - me before you & after you (there was a movie called me before you, actually liked the books)

1. The japanese lover- Isabel Allende
2. Of mice and men- Steinbeck (ok, this was a re-read ups)

10. The elegance of the hedgehog 11. The chemist- Stephanie Meyer & 12. I just started one on criminology about psychopaths.

:-) hope it's helpful! ❤

Ah I love of mice and men! And memoirs of a geisha. I could re-read that one loads of times. I also enjoyed the help, but now can only remember the film unfortunately..

Have you read that old one about the Australian girl? The Thornbirds?

I want to update my kindle now :D Thank you!

Loose 1.5 stone

Manage my finances better

Read more books

Try new activities and experiences

Give positive feedback to people eg compliment a new hair cut etc.

OP I've read all the books you mentioned! How weird and unusual ;-)

1.Lose probably 2 stone

1. Decide on a new job path
2. Run/cycle more. I did a 0-5k training course, ten weeks that ended just before the school Easter holidays. Only been once since
3. Also reading but 52 a year, seriously impressed at 150!! I've also read 11.
4. Going veggie.

Lose a stone
Sort out my prolapse
Get my hair coloured
Use hand cream regularly and file my nails
Get botox and fillers
Get laser treatment on broken blood vessels

• Start eating proper meals again and get my BMI up

-Try to stop eating so much junk and eat more healthily

• Learn to cook
• Get my hair coloured more regularly
• Trim my wardrobe to a more capsule collection - chuck out my cheap nasty tat and buy fewer, better quality garments
• get my shirts pressed at the dry cleaner (tick) and be bothered to start ironing my tops at home to look more put together
• get some statement pieces like a really good pair of leather leggings
• Get my acne sorted
• Get botox

(latter two going to be addressed through dermatologist appointment!)

Oh and

• rejoin the gym and start back doing strength training to try and be strong rather than skinny
• improve my yoga practice
• get my nails done regularly (tick! gelish every three weeks) and brows threaded and lashes / brows tinted

Two years of failed infertility treatment and miscarriages and after £40,000 down and no baby, now we've stopped treatment want to spend my money on something that actually gets results, and do something to make myself feel (and look) less like shit!

@MakingBaconPancakes no, I haven't, putting that on my list!!

I hope you all achieve your small & big goals! I love this thread! ❤

@Viviene that's amazing and who knows how many things we actually have in common?

@bananafish81 be strong!!!! I am so sorry you had to go through this! My thoughts are going out to you

@Jellyboobs AMEN to the job path! 🌺

1.get hair cut and coloured regularly
2.look into rhinoplasty(am going for a chin implant in the next few months)

1. Get new whiter cap on chipped tooth to match the rest of my whitened teeth
2. Always moisturise after shower
3. Practice yoga more often
4. Do weight training to improve strength
5. Core workouts
6. Not buy cheap clothes..buy good quality
7. Eat well and avoid sugar and caffeine(already do this)

10. Use my phone less 11. Sleep more 12. Read more 13. Declutter and find a home for every item 14. Pick up a new hobby 15. Pelvic floor exercises 16. Always wear shoes that give me height(am tiny)

1. Stop dyeing hair - looks better with increasing silver flashes in it, haven't got the lego hair look and not tied to getting an increasingly frequent 'badgers stripe' at root regrowth.

2. Bin shoes that aren't comfortable or shoes that look dowdy, fed up of making token gesture of heels which is usually a small heel that is neither use nor ornament.

3. drink more water

4. pick up c25k (on week 3, did it just over a year ago and got to a 10k run)

5. Read as much as possible, always read on a night now

6. Try to remember to put earrings in as have some lovely little cool pairs that have been saved for best for too long.

7. Try to grow hair (again!)

Lots of different responses on here, I am being nosey and hope other posters don't mind me asking, but why are you deciding to go for plastic surgery / botox? It seem sreally expensive and / or invasive, it's not something I would consider but appreciate everyone is free to make their own choices and just wondered why people have decided to go down this route?

regular pedicures too!

I have a really small chin and big nose and I just want to improve the perception I have of myself and not sigh when I look in the mirror..I want to feel confident in myself and if that happens life will improve. I've been considering it for over 2 years so not a lighthearted decision. If our self perception change then so does our reality

thank you for replying Turquoisa, I was just curious. I'm not perfect by a looooong stretch, but just decided to put up with what I've got.

Hope your surgery, as and when you choose to undergo it, goes well and you have a swift recovery x

@Turquoisa I had rhinoplasty when I was 17 - totally don't regret it for a second. As long as you're doing it for the right reasons, it can be a very positive thing

@JoyceDivision because the wrinkles around my eyes have got significantly worse in the last 2 years and there's nothing that any other intervention can do to improve them. No cream or exercise or anything I eat or drink can affect my crows feet. They might be laughter lines but when I smile there's crepey wrinkles rippling across my cheek, which I find very ageing. I use sunscreen religiously, I don't drink or smoke, it's just what my face has decided to do.

I wouldn't mind looking haggard if our treatment had resulted in a baby, but we've had to accept that we're at the end of the road and can't have children - and I refuse to be barren AND wrinkly!

I don't want to eradicate all sense of personality or facial expressions. I don't want to head down the frozen face path. I just want to be able to smile without a load of creases forming - which I used to be able to do not that long ago. So just want to do something to feel fresher and like I can smile without looking like a dried up old peach - like I always used to. Does that help?

The rhinoplasty was bloody years ago and it's not unusual for Jewish girls with massive conks to get them fixed when they finish school. I had a good surgeon who didn't put tiny little ski jump noses on obviously semitic faces. Anyone who I tell is absolutely flabbergasted that I had my nose done as they have no idea. Any decent work shouldn't be discernable.

I bought a decent quality but not expensive leather belt. It has made such a difference!

Good thread.

1. Maintain my weight loss. This is absolutely key for me. I've lost 2.5 stone and it has made a huge difference, but I've done similar before and regained. While I'd ideally like to lose another 10 pounds, my priority is to crack maintenance.

1. Get more sleep.

1. Drink more water.

1. Cut down on coffee. Helps with no. 2. I'd cut out caffeine altogether but have slipped in the last couple of weeks.

1. Keep up my cut down/capsule approach to clothes. I'm buying less but more expensive and it has made a difference, but I've still got some gaps.

Ooh I'd like to join in please! Have really neglected myself for a long time as I had HG all the way through pregnancy and was severely depressed for a long time before and wasn't taking care of myself. Now DD is 7 months and more manageable I can start looking after myself again!

1. Get back to pre baby weight again I did quite quickly and then started eating loads of cake so gained about a stone as my metabolism has obviously changed. But currently a large proportion of my wardrobe is too tight and I don't want to rebuy everything in bigger sizes.

1. Take care of my skin, never used any proper skincare products before as I really couldn't afford them as a teen so I've splashed out on some nice stuff which is arriving today in the post

1. Start ballet again. I did it from 4-17 and want to take it up again as I feel best in my body when I am strong and have good posture

1. Eat better and cut out some sugar, we have had far too many takeaways since dd was born and it needs to stop as well as my million cups of sugary tea a day habit.

I like the reading challenge OP. DP and I have started our own private book club, we buy one physical copy of a book and then I download the same onto my kindle app on my phone so I can read while feeding dd as pages are too tempting for her to rip. We've only just started but I know it is going to be a pleasant change from blankly staring at Netflix and trying to find something to watch that we will both like in the evenings.

1. Make the most of every single day.
2. Walk more.
3. Shop more ethically.
4. Put away my clothes.
5. Be nicer.