HEALTH
Habits.
They are challenging to form at our age and easily lost.
I’ve been thinking a lot about health habits over the past week and I think I’ve lost many that my Mum taught me.
I’m taking mainly about food as that’s the big one for me.
Money was tight in our household (as in many) so the scope for biscuits, jam, sweets and cakes was pretty low. I’m sure it is for many now, but it wasn’t a bad thing. We were allowed one glass of squash a day and two biscuits (the dull boring ones) when we came home from school. There was nothing in the cupboard besides this.
However, as I earnt my own money I was really good until I had the kids. Then, their diets seemed to move in a way that my childhood’s hadn’t and because of work/pace of life etc I lot a lot of the healthy habits my parents had given me.
It’s no surprise then that as I lost these habits I’ve piled on weight.
I love crisps and nothing beats a few nibbles before lunch at the weekend. We thought that was posh in our youth, in fact, it just piles on the calories.
Take aways never happened in our home. In mine, it became a weekly thing with all the calories that entailed.
Alcohol was never a thing in my childhood but look at it now. It’s easy to spend thousands of pounds on at home drinking every year.
I think it is worth trying to muscle memory up some of those habits from my early days. They’re a lot better for my health than some of those I learnt after leaving home so let’s see how many good ones we can reinstate – our health will certainly benefit.
VOLUNTEERING
I’ve said no.
It’s our village fete on Saturday and I was asked to take the money, which means going around every stall every hour to take their cash off them so they don’t have too much in hand at any one time and so we can stash it in the safe.
I really like the neighbour who asked me, but I said no.
No is a very powerful statement and with volunteering, as with everything, you need to be able to say “no” as well as volunteer your skills.
I said no because I’ve been part of the fete for five years. On the last one (July 2019), as it closed I sat in my car and cried with exhaustion as my ordeal wasn’t over by a long shot. As everyone went home I had to break this enormous tent down with twenty odd rails, transport the rails to their storage home in someone’s house, clear the rubbish, break the tent down and get the stuff that didn’t sell off to a bulk buyer’s the next day. It was really, really horrible.
This year, I’d like to visit the fete and enjoy it, like a normal person. It’s someone else’s turn.
Of course, the challenge is that there may not be someone else, but sometimes you just have to look after yourself.
The great thing about saying no within your volunteer role is that is doesn’t impact your main world of work and family, it impacts your morals and mind. However, saying no is a great skill and even in volunteering sometimes you just have to say it.
CREATIVITY
I thought we’d have a look at unusual creative hobbies that you might like this week so here’s the list:
If they’re not for you why not go back to one we did in childhood and create a scrapbook of the summer? It could be something that you do with the family, or just for you, as a reminder of the wonderful things you did this year.
DREAMS
Create a dream collage
Manifestation of the achievement of your dreams is often helped by visual stimulus, a bit like that picture of us when we were thin (or fat) on the fridge door.
Create a collage of your dreams in any form that means something to you and then keep it somewhere you can see it – no one is going to make fun of you.
BEAUTY
Change one thing in your beauty wardrobe this week.
If you love a black liner on your top lid, change to blue
If you love a nude lippie go bold
If you never groom your brows book in for a wax
If you never exfoliate give it a go
If you’ve never body brushed try it now
If you’ve never face brushed try it now!
Getting stuck in our ways is the enemy of women over 40 and this includes beauty as much as anything – let me know what you do!
Comments will be approved before showing up.
