It took a week of making a conscious effort to sleep, eat right, drink water, take time out each day for myself and forgive myself, but I can officially say that the pieces of the puzzle are back in place and I am feeling so much better. What a lesson in remembering to bring the simple life to every day life. I am now off work for the rest of the week, enjoying a couple of days at my parent’s house; I currently have a cat snuggled up on my lap and I’m reading about some volunteer projects I’m interested in! Before leaving work I finished 2 major projects, but more than that, I got to the point where I knew that I’d accomplished as much as I could, I worked ahead of all expectations and if some things don’t get done until next week, I’m 100% OK with that! That’s a big step for the perfectionist that is Frugal Trenches!
There’s no point re-hashing the goals for September as I have no clue how many no-spending days I had, but I do know I made it as a vegan and for that I am very very proud!
So, some realistic goals for October are as follows:
1. To get into bed (lights out) 7.5 hrs before I need to be up, each night in October.
2. To have 16 no spending days.
3. To exercise for an hour at least 5 times a week
4. To figure out where on earth I am going to live!
5. To lose 1/2 a stone (7 lbs) that I put on during the stressful 3 weeks!
Regarding the month as a vegan, I can honestly say that when things were “in control” and life was plodding along normally with the odd hard day thrown in here and there, it was so easy. I was amazed at how easy it was to find vegan food around London, to cook vegan food myself etc, the hard part came when life kind of went on a downward spiral, when I was working 14 hour days was travelling around the country, often leaving my flat by 4:30 in the morning and not returning until 10pm. Those were the days it was increasingly difficult and near impossible. It often meant doing without or grabbing many snacks (fruit) instead of meals and that can be tiresome! On the whole, it felt very very good when I could get the balance right – lots of protein in the form of tofu, chickpeas, lentils etc. I’d love to do it again, but for this month I’m focusing on being easy on myself. I think I’ll challenge myself again early next year and see if I can make it for 6 or 8 weeks. I think there are very important reasons to be a vegan, I just think you have to be in the right place. So, for now, I’ll stick with being a vegetarian and try to have a vegan day or two a week! Thank you for all the encouragement with the veganism, you are all so wonderful!
And in response to my last post about the world, here is a link to a site all about Happy News. I responded to the comments made in the comment section. I’m glad people enjoyed the post. Just to clarify, I do know/see/worry about the terrible things that DO happen in the world – Sudan, Burma, China etc. Through my volunteer work, reading the papers, listening to the radio and supporting projects, I know that horrific, truly horrific things, happen to people. I remember meeting a wonderful lady whose family was killed in front of her in Africa, she was then tortured. I think my point in the post below was about two key things I notice. Firstly people “turn off” from what is happening around the world, I remember once talking about what was happening in Africa to a woman (who is a teacher!) in Canada, she looked at me point blank and said “why do I care about an African kid”. Now, I know she is in the minority, but I do think that a lot of people become acclimatised to the images we see AND are disengaged from them. I don’t know how to fix that but hope & pray the world becomes more empathetic. On the other hand, and I think the point of Stuart’s essay, is that this fear of “home crime” that crime is lurking around every single corner has made people look inward, made people scared to look at anyone in the eye, made people scared to help strangers, made people take on a me vs. the world attitude and that is not at all helpful! Okay, those are my thoughts for now, I may add to them at some point!
Excellent progress, well done you!! I think with clocks going back this month, going to bed earlier will be something to look forward to, haha!! Good luck with house hunting as well.
glad you are in a place where you are able to get back on track with your excellent goals. I agree about the veganism- I enjoy vegan food and have basically become a vegetarian seeing as I live with a vegan and eat mainly vegan meals at home. Frankly, I couldn’t commit to vegaism the way my husband does. or I choose not to , as it were. I like the option of the occasional pot of yogurt or cheese souffle. I have to say, though, two and a half years of meatless meals means that I find meat a bit off-putting these days . It just lost its appeal, maybe at some point that will happen to me with dairy? I agree with you that there are excellent reasons to be vegan though. Especially when one thinks of how many resources are used in the production of meat vs. veg fare.
Well done indeed on September.. and especially for a vegan month.
Enjoy October and enjoy that sleep!
Like you, I read a lot of stuff that happens to people around the planet. Stuff that other people don’t really want to deal with. Like you, I sponser a child because I believe that just one person helping one other person can change the world. There are truely amazing people walking this planet like the Africa lady you wrote of. Unfortunately the public seem to dwell on football players or Big Brother contestants.
I wish I had the time to do some volunteer work, so I wish you well with your volunteer work FT.
Considering that September wasn’t easy on you, you’ve done brilliantly. How on earth do you manage? I know I’ve said it many times before but you really are inspirational y’know.
Good job on the whole veganism thing! Even when times were rough, you stuck with it. Well done!!
Good luck this month! It’s nice to have you back
good luck! the goals look great and very manageable.
in fact, someone was just shot on my block on saturday afternoon. but, just because there is bad stuff in the world (near and far) doesn’t make me lock my doors and cower under the covers.
regarding crime not lurking around every corner – you don’t live where i live.
LOL I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who lost tally of no-spend days!
Congrats on making it as a vegan