It has been just over a week now since my last confession and it has been one that has yielded mixed results. Like our esteemed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who has made 5 pledges aimed at improving the health of the nation, I chose 5 aimed at improving my own.
I have no clue as to what our right honourable friend has promised to do as the words of politicians these days rarely deserve any of the limited space still available in my memory banks. I was shocked, however, by the fact that I had to re-read my blog to remind me of my own 5 key pledges. This is probably why I do not have huge progress to report in this update.
This being said a slow start is not necessarily a bad thing. We have all made our 1st January resolutions and adhered to them before reverting to our usual patterns of behaviour, usually in my case, well in advance of February. So hopefully, by adopting a slowly slowly catchy monkey approach I will be able to pace myself and set myself achievable targets for overall success. God knows what will happen should I actually catch a monkey because I have absolutely nowhere to put one.
I have had some quite brilliant tips and suggestions and for those I thank you all wholeheartedly and do please keep them coming either here or on Facebook @ Sandra E Manning. So, without further ado then here is the official report on my progress.
(1) I managed to do 3 days of healthy eating since my last blog. On the 4th I am guilty of causing serious injury to a doughnut and had to put it out of its misery. This unfortunately lead to a chain reaction of similar incidents involving bread, cake and beer. Knowing that I had this blog to update today has, however, helped me to see the error of my ways and press the reset button accordingly. The trajectory of successful progress does not always have to follow a consistently upwards continuum and just because it doesn’t is no reason to abandon the mission overall. So, on this basis, I am claiming that some minuscule progress has been made on which I can continue to build.
I had some great suggestions for how to incorporate more movement into my current sedentary lifestyle including aqua aerobics, yoga (if only I could bend) roller skating ( if only I could roll) and belly dancing (if only it didn’t dance without the necessary tutelage). My flat-out favourite suggestion though was the burlesque chair dance class. Bingo! A chance to dress up, pose and pout is something of a no-brainer for a drama queen like me and to get to do it sitting on a chair and call it exercise? Well, it’s hard to see a downside to this one folks. I will keep you updated on my progress.
(2) In terms of my confidence-boosting aims just interacting with all the lovely comments and suggestions I have received has been a huge help. I am very much a people person and am looking forward to engaging more and more on this front.
(3) Another of my aims has been to be more productive in respect of my unfinished/abandoned projects and the ones I have yet to pitch with far more enthusiasm than I have to date. A big shout-out to the person who suggested various strategies to unlock writer’s block, of which one of them, was to commit to writing any old shit for at least an hour. Well, here I am unblocking away.
(4) Rediscovering the joy of music was the 4th of my 5 pledges. I have listened to more music this week but still haven’t plugged in my keyboard yet or dared to dust off a few scales vocally. I am hoping that as my confidence grows that my progress in this area will too.
(5) I am currently not good at saying no. My head nods up and down instead of side to side when responding to a request to do something that I would rather not. The pre-covid version of me would not have had the same problem and I am working hard to fix this current inability to assert my own views and opinions.
In summary
Not the most illustrious of starts but there are some green shoots of progress peeping through. There are no doughnuts, bread, cakes or beer in the house this week largely because I haven’t been shopping yet. I do, however, have a shopping list and beer is the only surviving item of the aforementioned on it. Remember it’s slowly slowly catchy monkey for me folks.
I am currently looking for a suitable chair to assist me in my chair burlesque ambitions, whilst writing this blog, listening to music and refusing to go to B&Q for stuff I don’t understand or give a shit about. Progress, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Further updates soon.