Are you enjoying your life?

21st October 2015

Beauty is knowing who you are and what you find important

What a cracking day my members had at the scales yesterday, I handed out quite a few 5% & 10% certificates, which shows it works. 

One member said something that really stuck with me yesterday, she said that her head and her house felt cluttered and she was starting with clearing the clutter from her house.  I realised I too need to start with clearing the clutter from my house, there's a task I keep putting off and it's partly down to the fact my office is a mess and I can't move in it, so that's the plan once I get back from my meeting this morning, I'm going to clear my desk.  I can't say I don't have the time as I should've been having my hair cut at lunchtime and I've postponed the appointment as I'm liking my hair as it is right now, so the cut can wait a few weeks.

I made beetroot soup yesterday, it was okay you know, I used 5 beets, stock and a tub of Philadelphia garlic and herbs light, mom liked it a lot, adding to her iron intake which is a bonus.

We had cod and quinoa for lunch, I quite like grains and they are so filling and again full of lots of nutritional benefits, 100g provides 57% of the RDA of iron, wow, that's impressive!  It's also full of dietary fibre, which is also a great benefit for my mom.

I love that I've got a fridge full of food to choose healthy meals from without much thinking, not sure what's on the menu today yet apart from haddock and poached egg again for brekkie, I really enjoyed that yesterday, then we'll have whatever has the shortest sell by date.

My headspace app today talked about 'enjoyment', pausing in your day to find the enjoyment in your life, or if necessary to create that enjoyment.  And according to a BBC article, those who enjoy life live longer than those that don't!

Sometimes I think we all get so caught up in making a living, we really do forget to make a life, so how can we stop and get more enjoyment out of the day to day-ness and reality of life, it'll be different for all of us and different things make us happy, where does your enjoyment come from, the thing with us overweight folk is sometimes we get it from food too much and forget there are other places to find it!

Who we surround ourselves with matter, get yourself a happy gang to hang out with, if you are continually surrounded by angry, depressed or sad people, it's catching, same goes for the happy, that's better to catch!

Always remember to count your blessings, especially when bad things happen in your life, do your best not to focus on them, stop and take a moment to count your blessings. Trust me I know how difficult that can be, it ain't all rosy over here, but we all have good things in our lives if we look hard enough.

Would getting in touch or spending time with others give you that enjoyment in your day?  I'm lucky I get to see lots of lovely people every day through my work. I do need to find time to grab a coffee with one very special friend who at the moment I'm only grabbing 5 minutes with in a car park after my Tuesday night meeting!  We work in different time zones ;) but we need to find a middle ground for a catch up.  Is there anyone you could call or have a coffee with that you know would add that enjoyment to your week.

One thing I've been trying to do and I know it's adding to my enjoyment of life is slowing down and taking time to savour my life.  For half of my week, I'm working at 100mph, that needs to give, I'm looking at solutions, whether it's to spread the work more out over the week, I'm not sure yet, but I'm thinking.  Is your work/life balance right, is it stopping you from enjoying your life? 

A great way to add enjoyment into your life and something we chatted about in meetings yesterday was to notice the little things that make you smile, notice when something tastes really good, or when you feel really content, stay focused on the now and the things that add the happy.

Do you truly enjoy whatever you're doing every day from talking to walking to eating?  Is it time to stop and treat yourself, and I don't mean to food, what about a bunch of flowers or a magazine and taking the time out to stop and read it.

Follow your passions, I'm very lucky because I'm evidence that if you do what you love to do, especially when it comes to making a living.

Most importantly on your weight loss journey, look at your achievements, don't focus on you haven’t done, or where you’ve failed at, think about how far you've come, then celebrate, focus on those achievements no matter how small, and continue to set yourself little goals along the way, focus on them, smash them and I guarantee that will add enjoyment and satisfaction to your life as you progress towards your ultimate end goal!

Yeah today I'm going to be aware of where the enjoyment in my life comes from, I already know one endless source is my mom, her witticisms alone add so much amusement to my day, just sitting here thinking about her makes me smile. 

This was just one of the many funny comments she came out with yesterday;

Mom "do you want a cup of tea or anything?"
Me "I'll have one if you're making one."
Mom "well you can't have one if I don't make one can ya!"

Yeah I'm blessed from my mom to my dog to all the wonderful people in my life who care about me, I'm a very lucky lady who has a great deal of enjoyment on a day to day basis.  Now to try and find the 'enjoyment' in tidying my office!  Mmm...

Anyway's have an enjoyable day BeYOUtiful, remember focus on the good!