Purple

Friday:

This morning I drove the car to the mechanic to be serviced. Instead of walking straight home, I first went to a huge office supplies store nearby then walked the long way home, adding about 6,000 steps to the day, carrying two bags of goodies as well as a backpack. It was a cool day but I was practically carrying weights uphill. I got up a good sweat.

I love office supplies! Pens and paper and things to keep pens and paper in. I had one specific item I was looking for, and found it, but then bought some other matching stuff and a few extra things I suddenly realised I couldn't live without. The check out lady commented that she knew what my favourite colour was. Not only were the in-tray, pen holder, document folder, and miscellaneous desk-stuff box all a lovely purple, but my backpack and purse were purple AND I happened to be wearing a matching jumper. Yes, ok, I quite like the colour (but I do like other colours too). She commented that they had the pink clipboard folder in purple and I told her I already had that one so I needed a different colour for a different subject!

After doing some financial paperwork at home for a couple of hours, I spent at least half an hour cleaning my desk. I moved all the bits and dusted and cleaned behind them. I trimmed the dead leaves off the pot plant and added new potting soil and gave it a good watering. This is what my desk looked like before:

Then I laid out my new desk furniture. It's much cleaner and neater! The pot plant looks a bit bare because it is turned around the other way and there are less leaves on this side.

I've tried to tidy most of the clutter away and only have essentials on my desk. Some loose notes and scrap paper are in the box. I love the new look. And I love my new stuff. Now I just need to do all the drawers...

After the kids got home and had afternoon tea we walked up to get the car, or rather I walked and the kids scootered. Turned out it was nearly two kilometres, not one as I had thought, I made my 10,000 steps on the way. They couldn't find anything wrong with the car but just gave it a general service which it was due for anyway. It is another thing ticked off my list.

And it's the end of another week. So how am I doing?

Well I (very nearly) fulfilled my promise to use my CPAP every night in April, there was that one night without it when visiting Sydney. I've gone from struggling to keep it on for the required four hours, to averaging six hours a night then taking it off for a final sleep period without it, to now going right through to when I have to get up in the morning. I still feel a certain amount of resentment towards it, that I would like a break from using it; but physically it is fine, I am totally used to it. My sleep seems smooth every second night or so, I am still not a great sleeper but my nights have greatly improved.

I have been carb cycling for nearly two weeks now, since last Monday. I've stuck to it pretty closely with only a few extras on a couple of days. Progress not perfection. My weight went down sharply for a few days but then has been pretty steady for a week. I still have nearly a week before the end of this month's dietbet, which is when I'll re-evaluate whether I'll stick to this particular plan. I'm hoping my weight will start going down again when the time of the month is over, I'm likely retaining water right now.

I've done well with water, eight to twelve glasses most days (I include water-like substances in my count, but most of it is water with a squeeze of fresh lemon).

Exercise is where I've fallen down, metaphorically. Some days I do, some days I don't. It will be the next thing I need to tackle. I need to decide what a reasonable promise to myself is. Should I start Monday? Am I ready for the next step? And then mental health. But I feel I've got three of the five online.

Report card:
Diet: Good. Stuck to the plan.
Exercise: Good. Got my steps in with two decent walks.
Water: Good.
Sleep: Good.
Mental health: Good.