It's all about me, me and.... me!

It's so nice to have a Saturday when there are no plans. :0)

Jon was at work (as usual!) so I had the day to myself (as usual!), but instead of having lots of errands or meetings or shopping to do, I actually had nothing on the cards! Which is great - probably as a result of me being so organised lately (see previous posts), which is gonig really well. I'm loving the whole list thing. It wasn't even my turn to do the cleaning either!

It was an aboslutely gorgeous day, I wish I had taken a picture of the clear sky to show you, and it was really warm so i went for a run (Run number two of 2009 - making progress!) and it felt soooooo good just to be outside in the warm and the sun... and there was a slight breeze so running was really comfortable. I noticed that I can run a lot further in the warm as well, it's easier to breathe!

I took my bank card with me so that I could swing my Sainsburys on the way back, and as I crossed the road who should I see in the Starbucks queue? Marcus. And who was he with? Pearl and Mark! So I went up for a pit-stop and had a nice chat (hopefully I didn't stink too much!) before heading to Sainsburys to get the food in. Came home and had the house to myself. Which was cool...... for a while.

You know, sometimes I really look forward to having the house to myself and I have loads of plans of what I might do, but then..... I do feel a little lonely. It would be nice if Jon didn't work EVERY Saturday. In fact... it's 8.55pm and he's still not home. So glad I made my own dinner!

So anyway, I ended up sorting out some bits and pieces and sorting through my craft bits and then I made these postcards. Really simple to do, but beautiful and they make a nice little gift.

I then curled up in bed and read some more of Sense and Sensibility. I'm almost at the end now and I honestly don't know what's going to happen (I'm sure I've seen a dramatisation before but can't remember the storyline at all!), so I'm excited to get to the end.

So I guess from today I'm doing well on the fitness front and also developing my personal interests, which is cool - a bit of crafting and reading are always good. Let's not talk about the budgeting....... ;0)

As for living life on the front row, last weekend was really busy but I really made an effort to go to everything and you know what? It was a really cool week! Friday was our East London regional party for church, we had a really good turnout and it's so good to see everyone progressing and a genuine community being built out in our neck of the woods.

Sunday was a great day in Church! And I wasn't tired at the end of it either. Towards the end of last year I was quite run down and I couldn't last the day in church, which is really unusual for me. But on Sunday I went from 8am on team and served for the first service and went to a team meeting, had a really nice afternoon with Jon (it's always nice to see your husband!) and then went to the 5pm service before taking a new girl out for coffee afterwards - getting home at 9pm!

On Monday, even though my trains were delayed and I was tired, I still went out for some birthday drinks and then on Tuesday, we had a team night at church and I am so glad I went because it was such a great night. Gary went back to basics and spoke a bit about why we do what we do and what's coming up for the new year, and the rest of the night was prayer for all the different areas of church, driving everything forward etc. Was a good night, although I have to admit I was REALLY tired by the end, but I survived Wednesday and it was well worth it - just goes to show that you can get over the obstacles and make the most of everything, not missing out and still travel 50 miles every day to go to work!

health and fitness update - getting going

Happy New Year everyone! I kicked off 2009 with a morning run. I was a bit wary of the cold and debated for a while on the suitability of my limited running gere but when I got outside it was quite mild (cold snap? what's that?). I ran / walked for about 30mins which I thought was ok given it's my first workout for over 6 weeks and my first outside workout for ohhhhh, I dread to think!

I also had a brain wave! When I was doing the SITC programme I took a couple of pilates classes which I really enjoyed and found to really help - ok so my insides (the 'core') didn't know what had hit them but it was good, honest.

Now rather than finding a class which I know I'll never go to, I had thought about buying a DVD, but one of my goals is Budgeting and Finance (more on that later) so this month the pennies won't stretch that far...... so the next best thing? Youtube!

Here's a 10 minute workout I found just now - it's split into two seperate films but you get the idea:



I just need to find a spare 10 minutes in my day when no one else is around to have a go! I'll keep you updated on that.

Area 1 - Health and Fitness

Ok, so the first area of my life which needs a bit of a kick-start is my health. Back in October I took part in a London-based programme called Sweat in the City. I basically got a three month gym membership free and just had to feed back to the organisers on what I did and didn't enjoy.

I really got a lot out of the programme but towards the end I fell off the wagon, slipped out of my routine and never went again! (Ooops!). However, exercising more seems to have kickstarted my metabolism which, if I'm scientifically correct, means that I have to exercise more to avoid piling on the pounds. And I'm now noticing that my jeans are a little on the tight side - no it's not just the post-Christmas bulge either!

I know that I wouldn't be able to maintain a gym membership so I'm not about to waste my precious pennies signing up. However, I've decided to start running again. I won't put any grand targets and plans down because I suffer greatly from the guilt factor if I slip up. So I'm hoping if I go little and often that I will just slip into a natural routine that will amount to three times a week on average...... good plan? We'll see, I'll be logging everything on here so you can check on my progress (and give me a kick up the bum when needed!).

So now, to dig out my dusty trainers!

Goals

- To go running at least once a week, never feeling guilty if I miss a session but starting small and working up from there.

- To keep reading magazines like Zest and Health and Fitness, keeping the topic at the forefront of my mind and so beng healthier simply by 'osmosis' - it works, seriously!