Odango

Sorry to hear you've been feeling so unwell. I hope your body manages to reset and recharge a bit while you're by the sea. Nonetheless, congratulations on finishing another challenge! And you've been writing consistently, that's amazing!!!

Wow! It's gorgeous!!!

True Mastery!!! Also, nasi with peanut (cashew) sauce, pepernoten... hello dutchie??? The only way pepernoten survive in our house is by taking a small handful, putting it on a pretty plate and SEALING THE BAG! haha! Amazing challenge again! Gotta keep the rhythm!

Love this!!! Good luck for this insane month! I love that you bought a nice notebook for your homework, writing with/on nice things that make you feel at ease is such a small thing, but so helpful!

That's perfect! See you in the next challenge then!

Yes! Staying away from mirrors is my motto! I've noticed that since I only have one small bathroom mirror, I've been thinking about my appearance a whole lot less and it's pretty liberating! (yay for internet shopping that doesn't involve any mirrors! doesn't work for every garment, but still yay!)

After giving it some thought, I think I want to put an emergency IBS plan in place for the next few days: 1. Ginger + honey tea before breakfast 2. Add fresh turmeric to meals/drinks 3. Focus on soups and boiled veggies + light proteins, low fat 4. No processed foods 5. Yoga every day, maybe focusing on poses that help with digestion 6. Stretch every evening 7. Drink over 1,5L per day (avoid cold water) 8. Meditation/breathing exercises for a few minutes any time I feel stressed I'll try to maintain this for as long as I can and until I feel better.

Aaaaaah! Fresh air, sea breeze!!! I totally sympathise with you and your body issues! I still struggle with feeling too short, and envying people with long legs, or thin legs (but especially people with both). The only thing trying clothes on at the store ever produces, is making me feel depressed and self-conscious You're not alone, so many of us have this issue. My skinny, long-legged best friend envies my curves and small waist and it still seems weird to me that someone so lean and balanced with beautiful long legs could ever be unhappy about how they look, but they do! I don't have solutions to share, just a warm internet hug and the belief that self-esteem can be built up, it just takes time

Congrats on finishing another challenge! It was not a bad week at all! Your work situation sounds super stressful. My mum's company (I mean where she works) has been laying people off as well and it's definitely not a pleasant climate to work in. Sending you some serenity vibes! Ready for round 4??

Sooooo, I didn't beat the lazy this week. My IBS symptoms flared up a little after Sunday, so I'm suspecting an accidental lactose poisoning when eating out As per usual, it took me a few days to realise that the reason why I'm feeling so meh is my gut being unhappy. I've been feeling nauseous and tired and just plain meh. Despite that, I did a lot of walking this week, almost everyday, and I only missed 2 evenings of stretching, so even though I did not complete my goal of dancing, i'm proud of myself for still moving despite feeling like s***. Food was still all good, pumpkin was eaten, soup as well! The real fail was sleep. I went to bed around 00:30 everyday this week xD I'll be continuing this week, since I started the challenge a little late. Hopefully I can improve my digestive comfort, because it has such a strong impact on my mental well-being. Also, today we went to the city's Oceanarium and I spent about 15 minutes watching the sea otters wash themselves and cuddle, it was pure bliss!

Holy crap! I've never been anywhere with such a high index Better avoid exertion.

PS: what I'm trying to say is that, broadly speaking, one unhealthy or very unhealthy thing (like smoking one cigarette) is bad, but won't damage you permanently if you're otherwise eating/living healthily and if you don't have a specific sensitivity to that thing.

Haha! First of all, I need to say that I'm not up to date, since I haven't been working in the field for a while. It depends on your respiratory and general health. You can go for a walk and be totally fine, but you could also feel some effect, I guess it's more like smoking one cigarette? IMO it depends on how much you want to go for that walk. If it improves your mood and mental space, then it's probably worth it. I mean, it's borderline to very unhealthy level, so I wouldn't go for a long walk, but 20 min or so? Sorry I'm getting back to you so late about this!

Of course, for you, there's all the ups and downs and things that didn't go as planned, etc. but from where I stand, I can see that you've done TONS!

True! You were talking about cardio in bad air condition btw, and I wanted to recommend you to check the air quality for your city (it's all available online). Cardio in high levels of pm10, pm2.5 is actually very unhealthy and outweighs the benefits of exercising. I worked as air quality policy officer for a city government years ago, so I'm always happy to share what I learned.

I was wondering how you got to 5 pages so quickly since I last checked-in (although, admittedly, it's been too long since I did!), and then I saw the jeans conversation! haha! I love it! And I get it! I found a pair of jeans that fit me just right last spring, for the first time EVER! It may seem vain but it's such a good feeling! The brand is Esprit (I know we have a similar body type so it might help). This summer I also splurged on a pair of wide leg jeans with a high fitted waist, it's def what you'd call a statement piece, but man they're comfortable! I don't know that it's necessarily the most flattering on me (it does check the butt-flattering box), but I just feel so good when I wear them that I don't care! The jeans (obviously looks different with big hips, but still gorgeous imo): Try everything, you never know what will make you feel great Also, you've been smashing this challenge!

Wow! Okay, this is EXACTLY what I need right now! Tomorrow I will tell myself "Today I love myself enough to exercise". You've been doing really well! My numbers usually look similar,, so I know it can be easy to see the result as "not completed", but from an outside point of view I can see how much you've done, you did AWESOME! Also, this write-in sounds awesome!! How's week 4 so far???

Oh, goodness! That sounds really bad! Don't feel guilty, you can't always prevent this kind of thing and it sounds like you're fantastic with them Take care! Pretty much how I imagine you and your nephew must be feeling.

Thank you!! It looks like cold season has started, lots of people around me are sick as well. I've been feeling better since yesterday, but feeling soooooo lazy xD I went for a 45 minute walk yesterday and today, the weather's been beautiful so I wanted to enjoy it, but I didn't have the courage to do anything else :(( Tomorrow I'll try to walk by the beach. It's going to rain again this week-end, so I have to enjoy this while I can! I hope I can beat the lazy! Wish me luck!

Finished the week-end off alright. I was sick today, some sort of cold/sore throat, so I spent the day under the blanket, drinking herbal tea, hoping the sore throat doesn't get worse. I stretched well every evening and practiced barre exercises on Saturday. I didn't have time for extra cardio, because I spent Saturday afternoon visiting new parts of the city and a cool museum about East Asia. I get points for CULTURE I hope I'm not sicker tomorrow so that I can dance more this week, but I'll rest if my body needs it. I might try some gentle yoga exercises, to get the joints moving, because I feel stiff today! Goals for the last week: - Stretch more consistently - Move more consistently - Continue with soups and veggies - Take it easy - Go for at least one walk along the sea shore

If you come across a local choir, go for it! It"s perfect to get started even if you don't read sheet music, and it seems that a lot of choirs have a wonderful atmosphere Great advice from your writing class!! I know all this stuff in some way, since I've struggled with this all my adult life, but recently I've had an extra strong ego-protecting paralysis going on. Like, extra, EXTRA strong. That's why I'm trying to let go of pushing myself and focus on self-love and inner peace. I can tell that's where the improvement will happen. It's a process though

Mid-week Summary! Food: Good! Eating soup, eating pumpkin, eating healthy (except for too much chocolate). Sleep: Meh, couldn't sleep Sunday night, so went to bed late on Monday, but a little earlier every day to finally at 23:50 yesterday. We have friends over today, so I hope it doesn't derail me. Life: In terms of quantity I did well, I applied to 3 new jobs and wrote drafts for a few articles. It almost all happened on the same day though Dancing: The Lazy got to me! I only danced on Monday, and I can feel my body getting super restless. Stretching: pretty bad. I was too lazy to stretch half of this week's evenings. Conclusion: I shall dance SAT and SUN + add walks or home workouts. I shall take my time to stretch well tonight. Keep eating healthy and use my restless energy to be active

Thanks! Sorry it took me so long to reappear and respond. I'm such a "flowy", "in the moment" person that my max level of planning is very low. I love to-do lists because they help me decant the million ideas that float in my mind, and leave total freedom with the when. So, it seems that having something planned every day is too constricting. I guess I keep avoiding the truth that's been staring at me for a while, that what I need is to feel safe and confident and then I'll do anything that's on my list and much more. It would be so much easier if I could just kick myself into being productive, instead of having to be at peace with myself and self-confident and all that Druidish personal-growth-being-an-enlightened-person kind of stuff... But there's a reason I'm here with the Druids I also avoided rice for a long while after doing my IBS elimination diet, but if I'm eating healthy otherwise, I can actually digest it pretty well so it's back in my staples. I just don't eat it everyday. Do you think you"ll reintroduce it at some point or is it a real baddie for you? I have a few of vocalisation exercises that I got from an expensive teacher There are good exercises on youtube too! The first thing to know is to warm up your voice by singing things lightly and strictly in your speaking range. An advice I seldom follow, so I'm also reminding myself right now xD I think anyone can sing, even on their own, the trouble is if you start pushing your voice like I do (I love Jazz and I love belting, so...), it's pretty bad if you don't have proper technique, which I don't. If singing is something you want to try without too much pressure, joining a choir is great! Quite a few of my friends joined choirs and they really love it, they were able to build their confidence, learn proper technique and now singing is part of their life, without pressure. Of course, if you like soulful solos like I do, singing in a choir is not the way to go, haha! To answer both of you lovelies, my blog will be what's called "lifestyle" I think. I want to share recipes, little things from daily life, and tips from my healing journey. I want to call it "Advice and thoughts on your path to Health" (that's the subtitle, not the name of the blog). There's also a weekly advice/thoughtful moment I want to share and that's been driving my urge to start a blog, but every time I write something, it feels more and more clearly like a podcast. I'm just even more scared of starting a podcast, hehe! But ideally, I'll have my cosy little lifestyle blog, and a weekly (or every other week) podcast to share deeper thoughts about life. I'm quite happy because I have about 5 or 6 articles/podcast scripts now, not fully polished but well-developed. I feel a little sense of achievement, so good I know no one will read/listen to my stuff at first, and maybe for a long time, but that's not what scares me. What scares me is the thought of putting something out there that's not perfect, or at least excellent. Rationally, I know my stuff will start out mediocre or alright, and that's normal. It's quite hard to accept it on a deeper level though. It really helps to share my thoughts with you but I'm sorry they're so long!

Love your dream story! Take care dearie. It sucks that being sick is disturbing your momentum. On the bright side, it''s also a perfect occasion to pamper yourself like crazy with zero guilt

First week wrap up: nothing to add. Today was a day of absolute laziness, but I enjoyed it! I went waaaay overboard with post-dinner snacking though, so I don't feel my best right now and I'll probably wake up more sluggish with a puffy face tomorrow morning. There's always a price to pay for late-night snacking... Good luck on Week 3 everyone!