Hello February!

Since saying Goodbye to January I've had a real burst of enthusiasm.  A little pop of energy.  A sudden feeling of needing to get on with things.  To get started.



Like I said, New Years resolutions don't sit well with me because January is still holiday mode.  But now I'm ready to get things moving, to set some goals.  To fire up for the year ahead (okay, even though a few weeks of it are already behind me!).

The other thing I'm not keen on about New Years resolutions is they are often so broad and long reaching "Give Up Smoking!" "Get Fit!" "Be More Organised!" "Eat Well!"

Then you wake up hung over and reach for the fags and something fried.  No-one starts resolutions on New Years Day, do they?  That would be maddness.

I don't smoke by the way, I'm just reminiscing.  And digressing.  So.

I'm not making any long reaching resolutions.  But what I am doing is setting some realistic achievable goals for the month of February.  Just February.  That's all.  Four short weeks in order to set some new habits in motion.  I'm not thinking about March or April or beyond.  Just February.

So here's where I'm at:

Alcohol

I'm starting with alcohol.  I don't consider myself a big drinker, but I am a regular drinker.  For me this usually means about a bottle of red wine a week.  Sometimes a little more if I go out for dinner.  And then there are the blow-outs when I catch up with a certain set of girlfriends twice a year.  You know who you are, bad influences you (okay, I love it).  On the scale of drinking, from a medical viewpoint I've no idea where I sit.  But mostly I'm okay with the amount that I drink.

I also have a pretty good history of non-drinking periods in my life.  I didn't drink at all for either of my pregnancies and first few months of breastfeeding my babies.  And even before that I would stop drinking for a fews weeks at a time here, a few months at a time there.  Mind you, I was probably drinking more heavily back then too.

I'm good with my drinking levels.  I enjoy a few glasses of wine with dinner a couple of nights a week.  But what's happened this year is that Melbourne forgot to do summer.  And so my natural propensity to turn away from red wine (and towards non-alcoholics like lime and soda) didn't happen.  In fact January turned into one long festival of film watching and red wine drinking as temperatures plummeted when the sun went down.  It was great, lovely and I really enjoyed watching some good movies and drinking some good wine.  But all of a sudden we were doing this three, four, five nights a week.  And even without having to rush out the door for school run I was feeling blah in the mornings and low in energy.  Very low.

No good.  Something needed to be done.  Then along came February and FebFast came with it.  So no drinking for me for the month of February.  Day 8, so far so good.  Though as the weather warms up I am fantasising about cold beers and Moscow Mules.  Maybe it will still be warm in March?

Water

I do not drink enough water. I'm sure I'm dehydrated.  Especially considering the amount of tea, coffee and red wine I drink.  I'm also sure that I often eat when I'm thirsty.  That's actually a thing.

So for the month of February I'm going to concentrate on my water intake.  Focus.  This means not being slack about carrying my water bottle with me everywhere.  I often leave mine at home, because I always, always pack my kids water bottles and have you noticed? Those things are heavy when they're full.  But, okay.  I'm not going to be lazy about that anymore.

We all have these super funky Contigo water bottles, that I love - mainly because I can drink one handed.  This may not sound like a big deal, but getting a water bottle I can operate with one hand has, I reckon doubled my water intake without me even thinking about it.  There were always times I was not drinking because I didn't have my hands free.

My next goal is to drink three water bottles per day.  This is easy because the Contigos are slim and in a few sips they're empty.  But they hold 500ml of water so if I can empty three a day that's 1.5litres with little effort at all.  If I can nail this by the end of Feb I might even aim for 4 per day in March.

By the way I have no affiliation with Contigo water bottles, but I am really happy with mine.  They are long lasting and actually DON'T LEAK - even when found upside down in my handbag.  So I'm happy to recommend them.  They are more expensive than I usually spend on water bottles, especially for the kids, but they're worth it.

Exercise

This is the month for me to up my weekly exercise.  I need to get moving.  Last year I was loving my running.  Then we all got hit with the flu and my running routine went out the window.  I'm not good when I stop doing something, I find it really hard to get back to it when I lose momentum.  Also I am scared about how hard that first run back will be.  I have lost so much fitness.

To be fair not all of it is just me being lazy.  The flu really hit us for six and for a really long time my energy levels were shot.  Much after I was well again I still felt flat.  I standby that it was better for me in that period to rest and not push my body.  I think that sometimes it can be detrimental to force yourself back before you're ready.

Having said that, the moment for me to get back to running has well and truly passed.  It's time.  And now I have two goals to aim for.

I'm planning on running the Mother's Day Classic twice this year!  I'm going to run the 8km event.  And then my gorgeous six year old daughter wants to run the 4km with me.  Granted we'll probably be walk/ running but it should still be fun.

But before that I've been roped into this.  Okay, maybe roped into it isn't quite right.  Maybe I took one look at the mud and the jumping castle thing and was like "Hells yeah! I'm doin' THAT!"  Okay, you got me.  I am totally the Mum at the kids parties taking up all the room on the inflatable slide.  I can't help it, I love those things.

My aim is to work up to exercising 4 times per week.  The only way this is possibly achievable this year, where it wasn't before is that my baby boy is going to be in kinder two whole days this year.  Phew.  That's big.  Deep breaths.  I'm going to try to ignore how I'm feeling about that and stuff all my emotions into my running shoes and hit the pavement.  That might not be emotionally healthy, but at least it can be physically beneficial.

Right now I am doing Group Training once a week.  So if I add running and Bikram Yoga and one other activity to that I'm good.  I'll also be feeling super smug, so be sure I will be telling you more about how I go with it!

Sleep

The last week I have aimed to be in bed by 9:30pm.  Because I'm tired.  I feel like I am trying to catch up on a lot of late nights in January, staying up late watching movies and drinking red wine.  Delightful.  But when your kids get up before six am every. single. day.  Well, not so delightful.

I haven't completely nailed this one yet.  I tend to let the clock get to 9:30 before I get ready for bed which inevitably leads to one last check of Instagram and suddenly it's 10pm.  

I've also been sabotaged by my son waking in the night a lot lately.  

So I'm going to try again this week for a 9:30 bedtime and see how I go.  I might not do this for all of February, but just until I'm feeling refreshed again and like I've had enough sleep.  I'm pretty over waking up feeling tired.

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So basically February is  about nurturing myself.  Helping myself to harness my best energy, so I can get done all the things I want to get done.  

Next month I have some goals to work towards around meditation, healthy eating and writing.  But I'm not thinking about those just yet.  I'm staying focused on what I can achieve right now and not getting too ahead of myself.

How is your February panning out so far?  Any plans or goals?  I'd love to hear about them.

Listen to AC/DC High Voltage