June Review: Half Way!

Planted: nothing, too cold and running out of room!

Wrote: learning stories, two portfolio reflections, chapters for the book, a blog entry

Discovered/ learnt/ wondered: passive sentence structures; i tuhia e Tiffany… and memorised the ara reo Māori karakia

Successes: cracked 10 kilos lost this year, total of over 27 kilos in two years

Struggled with: not reaching goal weight by the six month mark. SO close! Serious seasonal fitness plateau.

Highlight: Paul’s birthday

Six months down, six months to go! So far, all in all, I’ve achieved everything I’ve set out to do. The only thing that hasn’t happened are the rewards I put down in the plan, but they were the only things that had conditions attached, anyway. I’ve read books and written prolifically and done a bunch of physical challenges. I can count on one hand the number of weeks I didn’t reach my stepping goals, but since I exceed step goals most days it all balances out in the end!

This month’s goal was walking up St. John’s Hill and down again. I made this goal because June is (usually) when the cold weather really starts to kick in, and it’s also when I start getting busy with work for next wedding season. I needed an activity that was manageable with dodgy weather and didn’t take up much time, but was still a good challenge.
Well, I managed to fit these trips up the hill three times a week in to a busy schedule in between rain showers, but I did fail with one aspect. It wasn’t the challenge I was expecting it to be! It was a pleasure to find out that I might be physically fitter than I think I am. So what was meant to be a twenty minute cardio burst of exercise a few times a week after a gym session, came to be a leisurely fifteen minute stroll which I used to admire the way the trees were changing and the unique view of my town. Different but equally important rewards. If nothing else, it proved to me that the past six months, at least, has been good for me.

So I stand by what I wrote in my last blog, I’m finding winter really hard. It seems to be affecting everything, from how much I exercise to what I eat to how I want to interact with the world. But I’m half way and have achieved pretty much every goal. July brings me a squat challenge that I’ve done before and know I can achieve. August brings me a book. How hard can the rest of the year be? The weather will start to get warmer soon, and I will keep reminding myself that the way I feel right now is as much environmental as it is emotional and physical. This is the beginning of the downward slope, leading me right to the finish line!