If anyone else is in the same boat as me, you might be trying to get organised ahead of the children being off for six weeks at the moment. I was lucky for the last few years to be working from home and there for every holiday. Now I’m navigating a job outside of the home, a continuation of some working from home and the children so the planning and panic is real!
All of this while continuing to try and take some time to concentrate on making some changes for myself through the Healthy Lifestyles programme. There’s only 3 weeks until the end of term and that means I only have a few more weeks of my usual routine to keep up with the goals and changes I’m making before having to work out how I can continue successfully amidst the chaos of the summer holidays.
That’s looking forwards though, let’s look back over the last month as well as my latest meeting with Steph.
If you’ve been keeping up with my journey you’ll know that one of my reasons for signing up to Healthy Lifestyles was to get fitter and more active; feeling exhausted by the time I’d reached the top of the stairs didn’t exactly shout peak levels of fitness to me. As a woman of a certain age I assumed I was also experiencing some symptoms of perimenopause; hair thinning, brain fog, tiredness etc.
I made the decision to make a doctors appointment a while ago about a few symptoms that were bothering me. A phone appointment later and the doctor sends me for a blood test. Just 24 hours after the blood test a doctor calls to let me know I was suffering with quite severe Iron Deficient Anaemia, and suddenly so many of my symptoms made sense, especially feeling so unfit and struggling with exercise (something my gym sessions were showing me weren’t improving).
I’m now taking regular iron supplements and keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll start to feel brighter soon. I realise I have probably not been feeling great for a few years now but it gets put to the bottom of the priority list, time goes by and you realise you haven’t dealt with it. If you’re not feeling quite right, get checked out, don’t leave it assuming it’s something else like I did.
Anyway, I shared this news with Steph at our latest meeting and she’s set me a slightly different goal at the gym; to try and get there twice a week and concentrate more on my strength training rather than my cardio. The fact that I don’t have to worry about my cardio for a while is quite pleasing. Perhaps once I can make the stairs without being breathless, I might try the treadmill again!
While I had been trying to eat a little healthier than before, now I’m trying to make even better choices, choosing more iron rich foods; I’ll bet Popeye was never anaemic, so I’m taking a leaf (a spinach leaf!) out of his book.
Prior to setting my new exercise goal with Steph at our meeting, we started in our usual way with me throwing my shoes off (not literally) in the library and stepping on scales. As ever it’s always a choice and I like knowing how my lifestyle is affecting my weight so I choose to see where I am.
Surprisingly, or not so much when we dug deeper later in our chat, I had lost 0.2kg. I said surprisingly initially as I actually spent a week in Fuerteventura last week only returning on Saturday morning. The hotel was all inclusive so I was eating three full meals a day and had access to unlimited drinks. Weight gain was an inevitability as far as I was concerned, though actually that turned out not to be the case and as we chatted, Steph was not surprised that I had achieved a small loss over the month.
It turns out that the habits I have been creating with food over the last few months have become ingrained and I was subconsciously continuing to make good food and drink choices throughout my holiday while still feeling like I was making the most of the all inclusive offer. I was full, stuffed even, after most meals, but when breaking down what was on my plate I was still eating balanced meals. There was a choice of drinks so I was opting for the sugar free versions most of the time, again just out of habit. My philosophy has always been “why waste calories on drink when they can be used for food instead?”.
Steph and I then determined that I had also kept up the habit of wearing my fit bit throughout our holiday, mainly to keep track of time, but because it’s waterproof, I was keeping it on in the pool as well as when we were out and about exploring so I was sometimes reaching 10,000 steps without even trying.
So actually, it wasn’t a surprise that I didn’t pile on the pounds while I was away, the surprise was that I’ve been implementing small changes that have started to become habit and I hadn’t noticed.
One of my goals set when I met Steph at the end of May was to try and aim for 70,000 steps a week. I’ve not quite reached that goal yet, my best week so far is 60,000, though my best day has been almost 15,000, so I just need to concentrate on those lower days a little more and make sure I’m remembering to keep my fit bit on from morning to night. Let’s see if I can improve on those numbers in the next few weeks.
What I like about Healthy Lifestyles is that I’m holding myself more accountable than if I was just doing this on my own. Knowing someone else is in my corner and supporting me and giving me advice to move forwards is invaluable. And it’s completely free, which means it’s accessible for everyone.
If you’re spurred on by my story and you want to try Healthy Lifestyles check out the information below or come along to the next drop in at Madeley Community Library on Wednesday 26th July anytime between 9.30am and 12noon.
Introduction – Healthy Lifestyles Service – Telford & Wrekin Council
