* exercise more. set goals to work towards.
I feel like I've been trying to do this already for years! Like every time I take one step forward, I immediately take two (or more!) steps back, due to being sick, spraining my ankle, being crazy-busy all of a sudden, etc. etc. Then other times, admittedly, I don't do adequate exercise because, well, playing on the internet and reading just seem like much more fun. It's so much effort. But, as I acknowledged in discussion yesterday, the first step is the hardest. The more I do, the easier it'll get. (And the more I'll be able to do for the same amount of effort - which is the point after all!) I just need to take the first step. Of course, rationally, I'm fully aware of the benefits of exercise and want them. But in the meantime, somehow I need to find the belief in myself somewhere that going for a walk is more fun/entertaining/all-around-good than reading my favourite blogs. Right now, I'm not convinced. I'll have to think on it some more.
* tackle cravings when I get home from work. eat a healthier/smaller snack.
I've managed to successfully kick the habit of eating chocolate at work after lunch. Even when I'm really stressed out. Yay Team Me! But now I feel the need to tackle my after-work craving. When I get home from work, I just want to sit back and relax, sometimes with just a cup of green tea. Other times, when I'm a bit - or very! - stressed, I have cravings for things like: cheese, meats (ham, salami, etc) or sometimes nuts. Last night's leftovers! Boy says - you're probably craving protein, just have a glass of milo or milk with protein powder instead. I say - are you crazy?! They don't taste anything like cheese or ham! Why would I want to eat those?! So, like with the chocolate craving, I need to think of a suitable substitute that passes enough for the real thing to fool my body. Or perhaps stock up on some small, low-fat snack packs to start with, and go from there?
* eat a healthier dessert or none at all.
Another food-related issue. Soon after dinner each night, I get a hankering for something sweet. It's a habit, I guess. If I put a bit of effort and forethought in, I have something nice and fairly healthy, like yoghurt and tinned fruit (in juice, not syrup, of course!). If I don't put in the above-mentioned, Boy and I end up eating any number of less healthy things that we have kicking around the house. Especially this time of year, when our Christmas hampers have arrived. *sighs* So it seems the solution here is a bit of pre-planning and a bit of mindfulness.
* find ways to de-stress effectively.
Yah, well! I'm finding this harder lately. Since I moved house. The bath here takes half an hour to fill, plus it needs cleaning beforehand as the washing machine drains into it and it constantly gets dirty. And it's much shallower than the old one so my tummy and legs poke up out of the water and get cold. So having a bath is now annoying instead of relaxing. So I switched to having a nice, hot shower instead. But now that's become an annoying exercise as well. A problem has developed with the taps, and no matter what I do, the water temperature is either a bit too hot or a bit too cold. No in-between! And when you do adjust the tap, the new temperature takes about 30 seconds to come through, so you start to think - perhaps I didn't turn the tap far enough, so you turn it some more and suddenly it's freezing! Unbelievably frustrating. So the old relaxing hot shower with a nice-smelling shower gel is beyond my reach now, too. I'm not quite sure what to do. I'm still having showers about 50% of the time at night, and trying not to let it get to me. I take comfort in two facts I read recently: 1. cool/cold showers make you burn more calories as your body is trying to keep itself warm, and 2. apparently it's better to have a warm/cool shower (rather than hot) just before bed as, if your body overheats it keeps you awake. Plus I still get to use the yummy shower gels. So yeah.
And plus trying to meditate again would help a lot too, I think. For a while I was managing to meditate a little. In discussion I was given a suggestion to try for 30 seconds at a time. That amount of time isn't daunting at all, and I was managing to do it just fine in bed before going to sleep. So perhaps it's time to revive this.
* go to bed earlier and get enough sleep.
So many benefits to this, yet so hard to convince myself to just do it instead of watching the last half of My Strange Addiction! Then of course I always regret it the next morning, drink an extra cup of coffee, and tell myself I'll go to bed on time the next night. And the cycle repeats over again! Again, a little mindfulness would probably help here, too. Thinking about the big picture. Sleeping is pretty good, after all. It's the getting-up bit afterwards that's a little sucky!
* be more mindful of negative thoughts.
I've already been doing pretty well at this lately, I've realised. I just need to keep going! I've been teaching myself to say, "no, I deserve better than that!" It's not often that I truly believe it, but it makes me stop short and think about what I've been thinking or what I've been about to do. So I'm not there yet, but I'm definitely on the way.
I've gone on a bit, haven't I? But I guess that's what you do when you're a bit drunk ;)