Living La Vida Lockdown
**Post originally written 14/04/2020**
Today is the start of my second week of the Next 90 Days challenge by The Hollis Co./Rachel Hollis but officially it’s the start of week three as in lock down mode I lost a week and started late, despite me thinking I was SO on top of things. So far I have watched the teachings on Perspective and Choosing Joy and I cannot recommend them enough, sign up just to get the teaching even if you don’t follow the Five To Thrive part, it’s all free and so helpful with keeping your mind in a good place. This week’s teaching is on Habits so I will be diving into that once the kids are in bed*.
For Five to Thrive you need to:
Drink water
Give up a category of food that you know you shouldn’t be eating for 30 days
Start each day with gratitude
move your body for 30 mins a day
Get up an hour earlier than you usually do and use the time for you
That lovely post yoga selfie, I’m not sure whose hair is scarier
The points are a lot more fleshed out on the site obviously. I am drinking 8 glasses of water a day (I miscalculated at 10 for the first few days – I’m amazed I didn’t burst) and it has really helped me reduce my caffeine intake which was getting a bit out of hand again. The food category I have given up is snacks after 8pm, that tends to be the time I mindlessly snack when I really don’t need to eat. I’ve been pretty good with my 6 Minute Diary and my version of the Start Today journal though the timings do vary a bit depending on the kids leaving me alone long enough to write (honestly, they are glued to me). I have been doing my yoga and challenging my self to hold some of the poses longer than I usually would and try some of the more advanced ones (no, not to any great success but now I know how much I need to keep going!). Due to ongoing ankle and knee problems, high impact exercise is still not worth trying but I have been finding that I’m getting a good workout even at my level and plenty muscles aches the next day. The getting up an hour earlier may happen at some point but not for now – I know my limits in this season.
This challenge is proving to be the distraction I needed from all the news and has eased my anxiety about trying to have a plan in my head for the hundreds of variable future outcomes that I shouldn’t be wasting my energy on. One day at a time is enough to get through just now; I am well, my family is well, we have a roof over our heads and we have food in the cupboard and chocolate, we have chocolate.
Some of my creative therapy
Despite being at home all the time, I am far less productive than when I was working, making for the business, doing (some) housework and of course sorting the kids’ lunches and doing the double drop for nursery runs in the morning and after work. I was non-stop. I’m finding it quite nice not to have to pack bags each night like I have had to for almost 5 years but I’m also finding it hard to accept that I can’t do as much as I want to. All those posts on Instagram people share about how lock down isn’t a productivity competition have been helpful in relieving the pressure I put on myself. Let’s not mention the good old comparison trap for now, I’ll deal with one insecurity at a time.
Some other things I do to help keep the stress in check –
I’ve got a loose routine for our weekdays now which is good for me, and probably the kids but mostly me. At the weekends it all goes a bit off but then my husband is usually home so it’s OK, plus it means I have some kind of marker for what day it is.
I’ve had a couple of Skype and Whatsapp video calls with pals I haven’t spoken to properly for a long time which have been really nice.
Even having something as seemingly small as stopping for Radio 2’s Popmaster at 10:30am on weekdays to play along with my sisters in our group chat has been really good, our 3 in 10 responses are quite creative!
Like the rest of the rest of the UK I’ve got on board with baking. I used to love baking so much but gluten free baking is such a pain in the backside, you can do absolutely everything it says and you still end up with something that might look like cake but tastes like a cross between sand and clay. I’ve had one ok bake, would have been good but I didn’t have all the ingredients so it was forgiven and one aesthetically pleasing cake but was easily the worst cake I have ever made. Even the birthday cake I made my husband using waaaaaaaaaay too much xanthan gum (my first time using it) was better! I’ve promised Hamish we’ll make some cupcakes so if you have any succesful AND delicious gluten free cupcake recipes speak up!
The offensive ‘cake’. Only half decorated due to Hamish’s unreasonable dislike of raspberries.
Are you joining Great British Lockdown Bake off crew, learning a new language, converting your business online or just chillaxing your way through this time?
*The kids didn’t settle well so will try again tomorrow night ( repeat until I get to watch it)