It’s that time of year again, when we all reflect on our lives and the year gone by and many of us decide to make some changes and set some goals. I’m not a big fan of making resolutions as they feel like pressure I do not need and I’m tempted to break them very quickly, so I struck resolutions off my to-do list quite some years ago now.
I am however passionate about change; things do not stay the same and that is a good thing. As a Christian I’m learning and growing every day, just like Jesus did and even though on the outside it might look like my life is pretty much the same as this time last year it is the inner me I know that has changed for the better.
There are still plenty of changes that need to be made and the biggest one of all is losing some weight and becoming healthier. In the last year I have been diagnosed with cough variant asthma and early onset arthritis in my knees and that can’t be right for someone who is just 42 years of age. Losing weight has been a goal of mine for near on thirty years so this isn’t going to be an easy one to achieve but then the best things in life are never easy.
I’ve had a bit of a revelation in the last few weeks though and it is encouraging. I’ve been asking myself why I think I can have a different result (i.e. weight loss) when I keep doing the same things? I’m in a terrible pattern of trying to diet or ‘be good’ as I call it at least once a year and for two or three months I am motivated and I can manage to drop a few stone. Then it gets boring and my true love of food rears its head again and off I go in that same spiral of eating and dieting.
My revelation this year has been that I need to make small incremental changes and introduce new habits into my life. Habits for life in fact. The current NHS programme to help educate our nation is called ‘change for life’ and that is exactly what I need to do. Not diet, not ‘be good’, not anything for a short period of time but make long lasting changes.
It’s been fairly easy to identify that I lose all will power and determination as soon as I’m tired so the first change I’ve been making in January has been my bedtime. In bed with the light off by 11pm has been my rule, there has been the odd time later but massive improvements have been made in general. If I want to read my book I go up at 10pm so there is time before the 11pm lights off, not just tag it on the end and find myself still awake at gone midnight as had become the norm.
Hand in hand with this earlier bedtime has been an earlier wake-up time. I like the morning and thus it seems sensible to make the most of it before the house awakens, so at 6.30am I’ve been creeping into the lounge and reading my bible, writing my journal and praying. It’s been a very blessed time.
I now need to ensure that these patterns continue for the foreseeable future. Researchers seem to say that the minimum time it takes to form a habit is 21 days of continuous activity, but the more complex and difficult it is for you to personally adopt that habit the longer it will take. There is no strict formula but UCL suggest a good estimate is 66 days, that’s just over two months, yikes!
I’ve also had a health assessment in January and found out I am 47% fat and that feels like a scary figure but it is just that, a figure. A place I’m starting a journey from, it does not have to define me. There is no more ‘hello I’m Michelle and I’m fat’, it is now ‘hello, I’m Michelle, a child of God’, that is what defines me. It will be incredibly satisfying to watch this fat figure decrease, in more ways than one!
There will be more for me to update you on in coming weeks, but that’s it for now.
First two small steps, early to bed and early to rise. You know what they say about that? I’d be content with healthy, wealthy and wise!
What about you, have you got changes planned this year?
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33 Comments
All the best on your journey this year. I keep trying to get all my work done in the day so I can have the evenings free but I’m failing miserably at it at the moment!
Ness recently posted…Sunday Snap – The other Elizabethan Elizabeth
I hope you manage to make that change at least a couple of nights a week Ness, it has made such a massive difference to me, being able to turn off and really chill out. Mich x
I’ve just been on the change 4 life website funnily enough looking at the couch to 5k – small changes are3 definitely the way forward x
Ohh good for you Cass, I tried that last year and sadly I’m not built for running. I hope you do really well. Mich x
Mich, this really resonates with me. I do not need a diet I need to change the way I live. I know that I just eat too much and do not move enough. I feed the family really healthy, but I eat too much of it. I know that my medication makes me heavier than I want to be, but I need to do something about it once and for all.
It is not an easy thing to do Jen, as we both know. Hence I figure small changes for sustained periods of time until they become my norm are he way forward. I hope you find your motivation to do it too. Mich x
Good luck on your journey. Changing things over time is a great idea and something I intend to do this year too hence the new blog slowly lived.
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Yes I noticed and the blog name change is a big one, all the best with the changes you want to make Kizzy. x
Being a fellow arthritis sufferer I understand what you are going through. I am back on my Thinking Slimmer app to try and lose a stone and have been asked in for an MOT – terrified of what they are going to tell me
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Good luck with your MOT Kara, you always look really well whenever I see you. x
As someone who has made those changes for the past 2.5 years, I know 2 months can sounds a long time, but it wont when you look back and realise its been and gone. One day at a time and you’ll find yourself in a very different place 6 months down the line I promise! #sharethejoy
Thanks so much for your encouragement Lisa, always good to hear from people who have been there. x
I love it when you suddenly get a “revelation” and wonder how you never saw it before… isn’t it amazing to suddenly see something in a whole new light? I find that when your understanding of something changes, things that have previously felt impossible suddenly become possible! So here’s wishing you so much luck in the changes you are making – may they bring you the health benefits you are hoping for (as someone who has suffered greatly from various health challenges, I know just how much of a difference getting on top of even the “little things” can make!)
Yes Amanda, it really is amazing, you are right. Thanks so much for your best wishes, Mich x
All the best with the changes you’re hoping to make this year. I’m trying to make small changes over time as well and hope that, like you, if I stick at it for 21 days the good habit will replace the bad one.
Good luck to you as well, may we both succeed. Mich x
What a fabulous blog! I wish you all the best for your journey and I am definitely going to take some steps to improve myself as well after reading this! #SharetheJoy
Thank you Leila, glad to have inspired you. Mich x
I always try to go to bed early (mainly because I am exhausted!) but I have also been trying to enjoy a little morning time this new year for meditation and journaling. They are small things but they do make a big difference. Good luck with your weight loss this year.
Yes my earlier bedtime is so I can get up and 1/2 hr to myself before the kids wake. This is for prayer, reading my bible and journaling, so I totally relate and know the mass difference it makes. Thanks, Mich x
Mich I love this and love the new blog too! You’re so right to take small steps. Tackling everything we want to change in one go can be daunting and it’s all too easy to feel demoralised when one or two things slip by the wayside (as they will do naturally when we take on too much). You’re making sensible, manageable and measurable changes that you’re already seeing make a positive difference in your life. I wish you all the luck in the world with your 2016 goals my lovely and thank you so much for sharing this at #sharethejoy x
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Thanks Michelle, I had a nasty situation which meant I wanted to swap my more personal posts over here. I’m very glad I did and it feels like home already. Mich x
I, like you am looking to change my lifestyle which includes my food intake. I have tried various diets which only last so long but this year I need to change the way I view food
Sarah | Boo Roo and Tigger Too recently posted…Fast Ways to Transform a Room
Good luck Sarah, it is a hard thing to do but we can both get there and be so much happier for it. x
I love this post. Like you I’ve started to make small changes. I go to bed earlier, lights off by 11 pm, often a little earlier, very occasionally later. I’m up at 5.30 which means I get some time to meditate and pray as well as study or blog before my son wakes up at 7.30. Well usually, today, the day before my assignment deadline when I want to finalise it (because I’m busy for the next two days, was sick yesterday) he woke up early as well! I certainly feel a million times better for it. I started back at the beginning of December and I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s changed my life. x
Wow 5.30am, that is dedication Rachel, so glad you can feel the difference it makes though and isn’t it always the way that the little ones wake up just when we don’t want them to but I think when we realise it is just the way it is and embrace them and have a big hug or such we start the day on the right foot anyway. The same happened to me this morning, and I certainly enjoyed time with one of my girlies.
I love this Mich and I’m so pleased you’re making so small but incremental changes to your everyday. Surely getting up first thing in the morning to read your bible is absolutely the best start to your day. Well done! I really need to get to bed earlier too. We end up going to bed at 11 then watching some rubbish on TV for half an hour. It’s really not a good habit that is being formed!
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Indeed, it is proving the best start to the day. I have done it so many times before but then it falls away, so I am determined to start the day the right way ongoing and make it a habit for life. Thanks Suzanne
I wake up every day and think “I must go to bed earlier” and then never manage it. You have inspired me!
Good luck with your small changes, it sounds like you’re off to a fantastic start.
Thanks Emma, it’s still early days, so I am having blips but in the main getting to bed much earlier and feeling better for it. I can’t recommend it enough.
I so want to lose weight but I really need to make some changes for that to happen…instead of just saying the same thing over and over!!
Nichola – Globalmouse recently posted…A family stay at the Shangri-la’s Golden Sands Resort, Penang, Malaysia
I knwo, it is so difficult to get started and to make the changes, I pray we can both achieve want we want to this year.
Well done on your new blog Michelle – and I love your new way of thinking surrounding losing weight. The early bedtimes will definitely help – I’m the same, I need my rest! Congratulations on supporting yourself to make the changes you want to see. x
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