Neglect & Abuse - are you guilty?

Friendship is a promise of future loyalty, loyalty no matter what comes.  Promises are the bricks of life and trust is the mortar.  Stephen Carter

I'm spending the weekend with my besties and we are having the best time, unfortunately we're two missing this time round which is really sad because these has been an annual event for a few years now, however there's always next time. xx

On the drive down to Chantel's me and Sarah were chatting continually as you do when you haven't seen each other for a while, we didn't even come up for air, actually yes we did when we had a couple of 'heading towards old ladies moments', you know the ones when you're trying to think of something and you can't for us it was trying to recall the name of Star bursts when we were kids, we googled it in the end, thank goodness for the internet.  We joked that future trips would be full of moments like, "you know him that was in that film, who was married to her who's dead now", yes it happens to us all eventually.

So one of the conversations we had was how Sarah had gained half a stone over the last couple of months since starting her new job and she was about to explain why when I interrupted with the word, "neglect!"  She looked at me initially shocked at my use of word, then nodded and agreed that the only reason she had gained weight was because she had been neglecting herself and putting other things first.  Don't get me wrong I wasn't judging, hell I do it as does most of the people I've ever met, its called being human, its because we are so rushed and busy and have so many things to do that we tend to put ourselves and our wellbeing right at the bottom of the to do list.

When we are tired our brain sends us messages that we need energy, and it means we need to go to sleep and recharge unfortunately we misinterpret the messages and instead of thinking sleep, we think food!  We know food gives us energy so we go to the kitchen because sleep isn't possible as we have so much to do, and we overeat.  Again because we're tired we don't want to be bothered with cooking something healthy and instead we eat quick which is usually junk food, fast food, crisps and chocolate etc.  So now we've gone from neglecting ourselves to abusing our bodies with the wrong food!

I have so much to do before I go on holiday next Friday and the obvious thing to do would have been to stay home and get ahead with my 'to do' list but I knew I needed to stop and recharge, I needed time with my friends and I needed to relax.  I feel fantastic this morning, we had a lovely afternoon yesterday, sat and ate nibbles and drank wine whilst catching up on the last few months.  Then we moved into the living room and all sat on the couch and watched a movie called "Switch" which was really good, then by 8.30pm we were all snoozing and I love that we were in bed by 9, I've finally got them in bed at the same time as me.

This morning I woke at 6ish and put on my running gear, I don't know the area at all so had a quick look at the map on my phone (the gps is rubbish on my phone so it doesn't actually show me where I am!) and headed out, I turned right and in front of me was a huge hill so I decided to walk to the top of that then start running, I thought if I keep turning right I'll end up back where I started, mmm I did eventually but it was 7 miles in the end!  I managed to run 6 miles before getting the worse stitch and had to stop so walked the half mile back to the house.  Ooo running in the dark down country lanes is interesting, you start to see things in the woods that aren't actually there!

As I was running I was thinking to myself I work hard and I play hard so it makes sense that I need to exercise hard too.  I'm so glad I went because I think I ran off my hangover, we're all sitting round now chilling before we go for a Toby carvery for lunch.

If you've read this today and thought mmm neglect and abuse is a bit harsh, think about it, if you have kids would you not feed them all day till 3pm cos you were busy?  Would you throw a bag of crisps and a Mars bar at them every morning as they walk out to go to school?  I hope not, so why is it okay to treat yourself that way?

It's something worth pondering?  And I'm not suggesting your change everything instantly and never eat junk again.  If you love crisps and cakes, suddenly replacing all treats with fruit and rice cakes is doomed to failure.

You can't do everything quickly, we tend to be unrealistic about our goals which lead to demotivation and feelings of failure and hopefully you all know that's an unhealthy cycle to get into.

So today, slow down and agree that you are making changes and getting healthy but you're not in a rush!