New Year's Resolutions

This year I am making a list and thinking hard about what I want to achieve in the next year.

This past year I had really only done two things new, I started this blog and I started going to the gym.

To be honest I didn't think either of which would last the year out.

The blog waxed and waned.  I wanted to try and post something everyday and I didn't manage that, but I kept it up all year, even when it felt that there was nobody reading it except for me.

The gym, well that was managed better.  I decided to go straight after work, I brought my gym clothes into work with me, and before even going home for my dinner I would go to the gym.  I did between 2-4 times per week all year.  I managed to lose over 30 inches off my body and lost over 3 1/2 stone in weight.  I lost 4 dress sizes in clothes and my fitness levels just shot up.

This year I am doing double the resolutions!!

1. Get to work on time, everyday!  Now that shouldn't be that difficult, I live a 20minute walk from my work, but because I wait for R to run me to work in the car, and he doesn't start work til later, I am ALWAYS late for work.  This coming year, if he isn't up I am just walking to work.  I will be on time.  (Plus the extra 20 minute walk will be good for me!)
2. Save money for Christmas.  This year, as every other year I was stressed to he hilt because of how to afford buyng pressies, food, drink etc to celebrate Christmas.  This coming year I will save a smallish amount every month so that come Christmas I have a decent amount of money to buy gifts etc.
3. Do something every week with R that involves fitness.  Whether that is go for a long walk, go swimming, climb a mountain, whatever.  Every week we are going to do something that will help make us fitter and healthier.
4. I am going to concentrate more on my eating this year.  Last year was good for my fitness, this year I am going to take it a step further.  I have a number of goals this year I want to achieve fitness-wise.  I am taking part in a 5 mile assault course thru mud for Marie Curie.  I am taking part in a relay for the Belfast Marathon.  I want to lose another 3 stone by the end of the year.  I am going to take part in a couch to 5k program starting on January 6th. 

Phew, just reading that scares me a little.  But putting it down here, for you all to read means that I will have to try harder to keep on track and do it.

What do you have planned for the new year?  Any resolutions you want to share?

Sponsor me, maybe

http://www.justgiving.com/Tina-Gough1

Jaffa Cakes Mud Madness is a commercial event that partners with Marie Curie Cancer Care to offer an opportunity for the charity to raise funds whilst people are having fun and challenging themselves.

Together we encourage participants to raise as much money as possible in support of the event to fund the care and support Marie Curie Cancer Care provides for terminally ill people and their families in homes right across Northern Ireland, as well as in the Marie Curie Hospice, Belfast.

It is on Sunday 13th April, 2014.

Please sponsor me, if you can.

If you can, share this page with your friends and work colleagues and encourage them to sponsor me too.

Thanks again

Tina

11 12 13

Today is the 11th December 2013, hence 11 12 13 as my title.

I often find myself becoming downhearted because my life is not as perfect as the girl next doors, or that person I know from the gym or my favourite blogger, or my facebook friend.

Then I slap myself up the head and remind myself of a few things.
1. We don't know what goes on behind closed doors.  The amount of times I have looked at a couple we know and thought "They are happy together, this one is going the distance" only for them to break up, because of cheating or whatever.  People put on their best face for the outside world.  Their blogs, their facebook feed, the bits of their life they share at the gym...its not the whole picture.  It is the part they want to show you, or the part they feel they can show you.  You might not know that last night they cried themselves to sleep, or that they are crazy busy at work and haven't had a lunchbreak in a fortnight.  The world only sees what they put out there, what you put out there.  We all try to put out the best possible image of ourselves, so next time you look at a facebook profile or a blog and wish for your life to be as good as theirs, remind yourself...someone is probably wishing the exact same thing about yours.
2. My life is pretty good in its own right.  Your life is pretty good in its own right.  I have my health.  I have a roof over my head.  I have a job.  I have food in my kitchen.  I am far more blessed than a good proportion of the world.  If you have these things, you are blessed too.
3. I am loved.  I have a husband who adores me.  I have a family who are always there for me.  I have friends who would drop anything to be with me if I need them to.  I have facebook friends who have turned into family.  I work hard to develop these relationships, because having people who care for me makes my life easier.  It is selfish possibly, but I believe what I put out I get back. 

So next time you start worrying about how the girl next door has the perfect hair and the perfect car and the perfect figure, ask yourself...who is saying the same about me!!??

Update pictures from weekend in Lusk

Sorry, these pictures were supposed to be attached to last weekend's post, but obviously I forgot!!

Weekend happenings

Me and my bestie at Victoria Square Christmas Tree

My bestie came to visit me this past weekend.  We had so much fun, and according to all my checkins on Facebook all we did was eat and drink!!

We went to the Belfast Christmas market, and to Bubbacue.  (Yummy)

Bubbacue, pulled pork, corn bread, fries, Mac and cheese and pickle

Peanut butter and chocolate cupcake and coffee at the Cupcakery, Moira

We went to the Belfast Giants ice hockey

game too, and I won two free meals for Bubbacue!  I was mightily impressed.

It was great spending time with her.  Roll on next year when we meet up again :-)

3 December 2013

Some days are busier than others.  Some lives are busier than others.  Some hearts are busier than others.

When you think about your life, are you busy?  Is your world filled with "I need to get that done."  "There isn't enough time in my day to do that." "I don't know if I can fit you in, I am so busy."

I appreciate that there are days when things get a little frantic, deadlines loom and things just have to get done.  BUT, do you save time for those you love?  Do you leave space in your life for yourself?

Around the holidays things get busy for all of us.  There is shopping to be done, houses to be cleaned, presents to be bought, parties and get-togethers to attend, and life gets bogged down in busyness.

It is all too easy to say yes to everything, not wanting to let anyone down.  However there is someone you are letting down at this point.  YOU!

You need to have time to relax and do nothing.  Time to run a hot bath and just wallow.  Time to curl up and read a few chapters of a book.  Time to catch up on that TV series you have been watching.  Time to breathe.

You also need to put as much time into your relationships as you do into your work.  Deadlines at work can create such a fuss in our heads, we work late to try and get them completed, we bring work home with us, we think about it on our time off.  But does this actually help us? 

Instead, could you take some of that time you spend worrying about getting work done and make a list.  Chose 3 things that need to be done and do them, before you leave work, then just leave work.  Don't bring any home.  Just for one night.  Work won't spontaneously combust.  The world won't end.  But you will feel a little better.  And your relationships will be better too.

Put some of that energy toward calling someone on the phone.  Put a smile on someone else's face.  Tell your mum you love her. 

If you do this just once a week for a month, maybe you could try it for an extra night.  Could there really be two evenings a week where you don't think about work?

This would soon develop a great pattern of getting things done and not bringing it home to worry over.  Because if you are anything like me the work comes home in a big bag, and it sits there, in that big bag, while I worry about how much I have to get done, and how I have no time to do it.  I don't actually do it, but I don't do anything else either...because I have no time to do anything else because of all the work I have to do.  I try to stay a little extra in work, get done whatever actually needs to get done, then make a list of three things I need to do first in the morning.  This habit means that I don't waste time first thing worrying about what needs to be done first, and that I don't bring work home with me.

Itts a win win situation.

Weekend adventures

I got married on 30 November 2012

It was the best day I could have imagined.  It was a very small wedding, only my family and his were there.  But we wanted to be with each other for ever.  We wanted to be married.  We didn't particularly want the wedding day, but that had to be first.

It was short, just a civil ceremony, but that didn't matter to us.

There were a lot of giggles during it, and a few tears, but at the end I was married to the man I love.

His dad came up to us after the ceremony, gave me a big hug and turned to R saying "I told you the first time I met her that you should never let her go".  I teared up a little.

This weekend was our anniversary.

We went for a weekend away, just the two of us.  It was luvly.  We went shopping, without buying much, we walked, we talked, we went for dinner, we got tipsy on champagne.  We slept, we ate breakfast, we went for an adventure.

This man personifies everything I could ever want.  He is kind, generous, giving, gentle, strong, funny, caring, stubborn, forgiving, and genuinely the nicest man you will ever meet.  And he picked me.  And a year later he still looks at me with love in his eyes. 

Everything isn't perfect.  We still have disagreements and fights and still go to bed upset with each other sometimes.  But we love each other and we promised this was forever.  So if it gets a little bumpy we hold on tighter.  We work thru our differences.  We don't let go.  And we come thru the stormy times and the water gets still again, and we enjoy ourselves.

Getting away and having time alone reminds us why we picked each other.

I love him.

He loves me.

If you have a partner who still makes you smile, tell them how much you appreciate them.

R, I love you very much.  I appreciate everything you do for me, and for baby girl.  Thank you for being in our lives.