Get Fit, Feel Epic - A Competition and a Challenge

I am the world's laziest bum.

Yes, you read that correctly, I am the world's laziest bum. That is a statement of fact, mixed in with a little smidge of shame too. You may remember that I mentioned in my 2013 Goals Post that I wanted to be healthier. This involved drinking less, eating less crappy foods and exercising more. How am I getting along with this? 2 out of 3 of these have happened entirely by accident; I used to be prone to a cheeky glass of wine with dinner every evening, now I've been either drinking water or fruit teas. I used to be really bad for eating huge portions and pigging out on junk food constantly, now I'm eating less during the day and my boyfriend Kris is helping to control my portions at meals. The lack of drinking and the eating less during the day occurred because since New Year I'd been suffering with the flu, so my appetite went flying out the window.

Where I've been less active is getting more exercise, which brings me back to my original statement: I am the world's laziest bum! I know why I've been lazy so far though; Since the bells heralded the beginning of 2013, I've either been ill or working (both at times too.). Right now, however, I have a week off work, and still not much has happened. After seeing this "Get Fit, Feel Epic" competition over at Sandra's Black Pearl Blog, I've decided to use this post as my manifesto to help me get fit and feel epic!

Under the heading of getting fit and feeling epic then, I've set myself some mini-goals to (hopefully) help me and give me a skeen bootin' (kick up the back side if you want the English translation).

1. Getting Fit - Don't get the bus you lazy swine!

Let me explain... Right outside my front door is a bus-stop. Only one service goes past, and it's every 15 minutes. It's called the K6 and it's a local service that takes me down into the town centre. Convenient no? NO! It's only a 15 minute walk into the town centre, so I need to stop using this devil-bus and walk more. Small step, but walking everywhere helps.

2. Getting fit - Use your diary.

During the summer, I attempted to either go jogging in the morning or swimming in the afternoon every day. When you work on a shift pattern, that's a terrible idea, because with rota shifts and extra shifts coming out of every orifice, it leaves very little time and energy to do so much exercise. What does work however, is scheduling time for it. Such an obvious thing to say, but it makes such a difference. If I set aside 2-3 days a week where I can do more exercise it will make all the difference in the world. Not only will I be helping myself become physically healthy, but mentally I will feel epic, knowing that when I put my mind to it I can be healthy.

For me getting fit isn't really about losing weight, although ideally I'd like to do that as well as a by-product. I just want to make sure that I'm looking after myself and not eating/drinking myself into an early grave (as some Scots are prone to do with our penchant for all things deep-fried...) In a perfect world, I'd like to get back to being as size 10/12 as I was when I was about 19, but I'd be just as happy if I stay the way I am now, because I'd rather be happy and healthy than painfully thin and miserable because I can't eat anything I want to. Not that that will happen anyway, I have boobs, hips and an arse, always have done and I always will!





This is what I looked like at my slimmest. I was happy then but that's not to say I'm not equally happy now. I just want to be healthy and not feel like crap!

Feeling Epic

Us lucky folk in the UK get to see the adverts for Money Supermarket, so whenever someone says "Feel Epic" this is how we hear it:

To help myself feel epic, I'm going to do a number of things.

1. Pay someone a compliment every day. I don't want to do this in any kind of forced or contrived way, I just want to spread the love and remind people that they're brilliant, fabulous and beautiful :) Awww!

2. Challenge myself. I'm already doing this in a way; I'm organising a fundraising gig night in March for the charity I work for, Scottish Autism. Last year, I abseiled down the side of the Forth Rail Bridge for them and raised £641, and I felt so good about meeting that challenge so I thought I would do that this year too by organising this concert. It's something I've never tried before and I am terrified but still excited about it at the same time. It feels good knowing I'm trying something new and helping people with a difficult condition too.

3. Don't be so hard on myself. This is going to be extremely difficult for me. I am the world's most neurotic worrier and I panic about the most ridiculous things. I am very lucky my boyfriend has a lot of patience and understanding for me, but I really need to learn to relax and not to sweat the small stuff. I'm also really critical of myself and I need to focus on the positives more.

And just to remind myself that I'm not that bad, here's a picture from my abseil:

I was completely shitting myself at this point, but I made it to the bottom. BOOYAH!

So hopefully, this is all going to help me get fit and feel epic! Now that I've put this into words, I have to do it :P at least that's the theory right?

Here goes nothing...

Christina xo