The day I broke my little toe...

...it was silly. I was dancing the night away, having a fabulous time with friends, such a good time in fact, I took of my shoes to dance some more. Then someone kind of kicked my little toe, as soon as it happened I thought it was bad. I went home shortly after, luckily everyone felt it was home time so I didn't need to mention my toe.

The next day, I knew it was broken. I couldn't move or touch it and it was agony. Now I know breaking your little toe isn't that uncommon - I believe some people don't even notice! Trust me, I noticed!

Apart from it being painful and inconvenient, I am most annoyed that I can't continue my running (ok, fine - jogging/walking at the moment!) It's so frustrating to have started something, done well with it and even enjoyed it to the extent where I look forward to the mornings I do my little runs, and now because of my stupid toe I won't be able to do it for a while!

Apparently it can take up to 6 weeks to heal - I'm really hoping for 1 week tops - I will keep you updated - in the mean time, I'm the one with an awkward limp...

Challenge 3 - failed!

It's happened...I've failed my first challenge of the project. I haven't done my 50 sit-ups for the last 3 days...

Maybe it was inevitable, but I like to think all of the challenges are realistic. This challenge was realistic, I just forgot! I know, how can you forget your challenge?!

Weirdly I've just been reading about enjoying failure in the "Happiness Project" book - I'm not sure I agree with everything Gretchen Rubin says on the topic, but I do think failure is something we have to accept, but I won't let it defeat me!

I am starting this challenge again! I will let you know how I get on!

Couch to 5k - Week 2 - Run 1

Ok, ok, calling it a run is probably a tad ambitious, but it's much easier to say and write!

I've just comeback from my first session of the Week 2 podcast for the NHS Choices, Couch to 5k scheme.  I woke up this morning, couldn't find my usual running trousers (which weirdly are actual winter running trousers I bought from Aldi nearly 4 months ago and then never wore! I knew they would be usual, must remember to tell Alex I was right!) 

Anyway, after getting dressed I then saw Alex still in bed, all warm and snuggled, so decided to get back into bed - should never do that - and nearly didn't go for the run! 

Thankfully I hate waking up earlier than I need to, so I HAD to go, otherwise waking up would have been a waste of effort!

The session consisted of (or at least I think it did!):

• 5 minute warm up walk
• 90 seconds of jogging (that's a 30 second increase from last week) followed by a 2 minute walk (also a 30 second increase from last week) x 5 (I think, I mean I did count, but I can't be sure that I didn't lose count whilst trying to distract myself - that should be a new fine art form - stay focused whilst trying to distract yourself!)
• 5 minute cool down walk

I must look really funny when I go for this session. I mean I usually wear the running trousers from Aldi, as I couldn't find them today I had to wear my baggy yoga pants, my Aldi waterproof jacket with a fleece thing in it (which I think does the job perfectly!), in fact I even have actual running shoes, nice black sketchers, probably the most expensive trainers I ever bought and I actually hadn't intended to use them for jogging, I just thought they looked nice!

The bits that might have looked for interesting are the white faux furry, Russian style hat (sadly I don't resemble the model in the image I have used!) and if people can see them at that time of morning, my delicate, chocolate brown, leather gloves! Oh well I will treat myself to new stuff once I'm up and running 5k on a weekly basis, that and when Christmas is over!

Book/Reading - The Happiness Project

I thought it was about time for me to provide an update on what I am reading (it is after all one of the elements of this project!). Currently it's Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project", which was, as previously mentioned, recommended to me by my friend, Emma. 

Emma first talked about the book to me when she was reading it, then kindly sent it to me once she finished - its the kind of thing her and I are constantly discussing and we both find very interesting. Obviously the book is of great interest to me now that I'm writing the blog - I just wish I had picked it up sooner! 

I'll be honest, I found it a little difficult to pick up and start reading, but that may have been because I was trying to do a very similar thing myself. One of my first reactions to the book were "I wish I could run my project and write about it without working a 50 hour+ week on the side". That aside, I am loving some of the tips, the de-cluttering is something Alex and I really need to do, but it just seems to stay on the to-do list, which is actually another aspect of her project. One of my favourite things about the book is that Gretchen Rubin refers back to "being Gretchen", which put simply means being true to who she is, not some ideal version of herself. 

I could do with doing a lot more of that. "Being Sophia" is by no means an easy task (all my own fault of course!), I do set myself up to fail a lot, then really beat myself up about it - I can be my own worst enemy! (Aren't we all?!). In part doing "The Challenges" has really helped me with that. Simple, targeted goals that are achievable. 

Reading the "Happiness Project" has also confirmed a lot of things for me in my own "Self Improvement Project". I have a full time job so my project needs to run differently. Research has to be done on the weekends. I very often write my blog posts at work during my lunch break, then send them to myself via LinkedIn (we can't access our personal email accounts from work), then actually publish the post in the evening (and I do try to proof read before doing so!) 

I frequently publish posts within minutes of each other - I have contemplated fining a way of timing it, but I'm mainly writing this blog for myself. 

I've just thought of something else I really like through reading the "Happiness Project" - being in an environment of growth will always make us happy, even if the emotion on a daily basis is not (e.g. I am currently always pushed for time since committing so much time to my Self Improvement Project and blogging about it, so I often feel stressed, however over all doing this project and writing this blog is making me feel happier - much happier actually!) 

This post has got a little long - I'll leave it there for now and report back on more findings from the Happiness Project at a later point!

A little grammar lesson: Affect vs Effect

The difference between affect and effect seems really important for The Self Improvement Project! 

I've come across a website called Grammar Girl, which seemed very appropriate, this is what she says: 

"The majority of the time you use affect with an a as a verb and effect with an e as a noun."

When Should You Use Affect? 
Affect with an a means "to influence," as in, "The arrows affected Aardvark," or "The rain affected Amy's hairdo." Affect can also mean, roughly, "to act in a way that you don't feel," as in, "She affected an air of superiority." 

When Should You Use Effect? 
Effect with an e has a lot of subtle meanings as a noun, but to me the meaning "a result" seems to be at the core of all the definitions. For example, you can say, "The effect was eye-popping," or "The sound effects were amazing," or "The rain had no effect on Amy's hairdo." 

"But why Aardvark?" you ask. Because there's also an example to help you remember. It's "The arrows affected Aardvark. The effect was eye-popping." It should be easy to remember that affect with an a goes with the a-words, arrow and aardvark, and that effect with an e goes with the e-word, eye-popping. If you can visualize the sentences, "The arrows affected the aardvark. The effect was eye-popping," it's pretty easy to see that affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun. 

I thought that was useful!

Check out the full post here:http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/affect-versus-effect.aspx

Challenge #3 - Update

Day 2 of Challenge #3, so far so good, I've done 50 sit-ups a day. The thing is I'm not exactly sure I'm doing them right...I also don’t thing I should be doing the 50 sit-ups in one particular way? 

I'm currently doing the sit-ups in bed, which seems to make them both harder and maybe easier at the same time! 

Anyway, I really want to make sure that this Challenge, apart from having the gratification of being able to complete it, will also have an affect (should that be effect? I always confuse the two!) on my stomach…even if it is just a little! 

Time to do some research into this! I will report back on my findings - I will also look into the grammar of effect and affect, seems rather important in this project!

Couch to 5k - Week 1 - Complete!

I have completed the first week of the Couch to 5k program! 

I'm going to be brutally honest here, when I did the week 1 podcast which involved: 
- 5 min walk (warm up) 
- 8 x 60 seconds jogging followed by 90 second of walking 
- 5 min walk (cool down) 
the first time, I thought it was easy peasy (despite getting up at 6am, so it was completely dark and of course it was raining)! I have just finished my last one, and I honestly felt like the one today was harder than the first one? 

Obviously it wasn't in that it was still 60 seconds of jogging followed by 90 seconds of walking, but I tried to do it all a bit faster. In fact I was hoping to do my usual loop three times instead of my usual two! Error - I still only did two loops, and was close to tears by the end. 

My lesson, when Laura (podcast voice person) says to pace yourself so that you can complete, do as you are told and don't try to show off! 

I'm really pleased to have finished my week 1 of the program and looking forward to week 2!

I think I may have recruited both of my sisters to start doing the Couch to 5k program, and I even think my partner Alex is considering it! Although we won't actually be doing the runs together - my sisters aren't in the same city, let alone country as me! I believe Alex will be doing his runs in the afternoon/evening, whilst I will continue to do mine in the early hours of the morning! Its still fun to know you're all in it together!