Welcome to January - the Month of no money, dull days and feeling fat!
By Lucy Bell
I love January. It feels like a new start for me every year, a blank page of delight. I spend January looking at what I did well at last year and what changes I want to make for this year. I look at work and what I enjoyed and what I want to do more of. Every year I start with healthy intentions: I will start swimming or cycling and eating more veg. I never get to the stage where I change my life and it happens permanently…until I’m hoping this year. As a menopausal woman I am really feeling the symptoms, restless nights, aching body, joint pain and I have massively gained weight this year. Those symptoms I don’t have I think Sandy is having - between us we are really feeling the lack of oestrogen! I don’t want to be unhealthy, and in fact I do eat well but on top of all the healthy stuff I pack in a load of sweet carbs, butter and yummy stuff! Or at least I did. This year after some research and discussions on various diet plans I have decided to eat to help my symptoms. I know a fair amount about healthy eating so figure I should be easy. I have taken elements from various diet plans and seen how they work, I have also looked at food that are supposed to help menopause symptoms. Things like Broccoli, green tea, fish and olive oil. I have also researched things to cut out, these aren't rocket science, refined Carbs, processed food, sugar and bad fats…there goes my butter! I am also looking at exercising. I am not an inactive person but don’t do a lot of formal exercise. I have decided to start a skipping group…not rope skipping but happy kid like skipping. It's a great exercise, easy on your knees and you can’t help but smile whilst doing it. This will probably be in Sandown to start on a Saturday morning at 10 am before the other group I belong to, the outdoor swimmers meet at 10.30 for a dip in the sea! I have also signed up for adult ballet in February, it's been 42 years since I did a plie’ so that will be interesting! I am also doing a bit of dance fit which is hard but fun! I have been vlogging my journey, using only short clips, and honest clips…not trying to get those shots that flatter my double chin! I am hoping by documenting my journey it will make me stick to it as nothing else has worked in the last five years. I will put my January Vlog out at the start of February and hope to do a very short film each month for a year in the hope that Christmas next year I will be fit and healthy!!
