I just kept on walkin’

Monday 1st February 2021

I’ve just noticed I haven’t actually written a blog post in 2021. I’ve written a couple but they were quite doom & gloom and I think we can all agree there is enough doom & gloom in the world without me adding my 10 pennies worth.
Aside from that, I’ve been busy walking. Just before the new year I signed up to move with mind. Filled with enthusiasm at the prospect of new year new me, I made a decision to walk 200 miles in 30 days, starting New Year’s Day. 200 miles, should be fairly straight forward right?
I really hadn’t thought this through! After taking my first week fairly easy and having a rest day, which I hadn’t factored in but desperately needed, I felt like I was behind. The pressure was on.
It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t working. Work was ridiculously busy, lots of people were off with COVID and towards the end I was walking before work and in my lunch break, which then meant working later to make up the time. I was exhausted, I’d had enough, I wanted to throw in the towel and if I hadn’t been doing it for charity I probably would have.

It has done wonders for my mental health though and I’ve seen a noticeable difference in my mood and have found that if I am in a bad mood before I go for a walk, I felt much better when I’m back, it could be that I’m too exhausted to feel anything else though.

I’ve also been really rubbish with my messages as well, so sorry to anyone I’ve taken too long to reply to, I was probably sleeping or walking and didn’t want to take my gloves off! With the walking taking up so much of my time, it made me realise that I actually do have a fair bit of time, which I really don’t utilise well. So, plan is to write more and do the things that are better for my mental health and less of the things that waste my time, such as scrolling through social media, which I have done way too much of. To stop myself from aimlessly scrolling, I’ve set up my screen time on my phone so that I can’t access my social media after 9pm and I have do not disturb on from 8pm until the morning. The plan is to spend my evenings writing and doing positive things for myself.

This months challenge is a 28 day plank challenge (yes Nat you read that right) I am AWFUL at plank. When I used to go to the gym with my bestie, I used to lie on my side and talk to her while she planked, because I simply couldn’t hold a plank for more than 5 seconds. I’ve already managed to do 30 seconds today so things can surely only get better?