“What Gets Me Motivated?”: The Necessary Questions of a Constant Procrastinator | #ThisGirlEats

I started this year so full of beans. Armed with cheesy resolutions, pretty Paperchase planners and crazy ideas for the new year, I was absolutely determined that this was it. I wouldn’t get lazy, I wouldn’t let things slide – how could I, with all this great inspiration and motivation to keep me going?! Nothing would stop me, not this time.

 

Of course, that didn’t last. I live in the real world and, sometimes, the real world hands you a crappy week, a stuffy cold, a foul mood and an insatiable craving to stuff your face that you just can’t ignore 🍟🍔🍕 These things happen but, if you’ve held onto that initial spark of hope that started you on your journey, you can pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and get on with things.

But what happens when your motivation starts to slide?

I’m naturally quite chilled out. That, partnered with a habit of being somewhat pessimistic and often beating myself down, is a slippery slope to spending hours on the sofa in same hoodie watching Netflix for the third weekend in a row, living vicariously through social media.

When you get to that stage, it’s a lot harder to just throw yourself back into the swing of things. You realise you don’t even know what the swing of things is anymore. You get stuck in a rut, which is somewhere I’ve unfortunately wound up.

However, I refuse to let this last. I’m setting out to reclaim my bright, optimistic attitude that kicked off the year because I SO want to get out of the rut – but how to get myself motivated again? 🤔

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Well, first thing’s first – what actually motivates me? I’m sick of being down about how I look; this was going to be the year where all that changed. I want to lose a few pounds, sure, but more importantly, I want to be happy, I want to feel good about myself. Truly good about myself, you know? That feeling of proper fed-up-ness when my jeans don’t fit anymore is something I’m pretty done with now.

I guess the next thing to ask myself would be, how do I make motivation work for me? I’ve not got the ‘New Year’ buzz anymore, so it’s all down to me to create my own motivation. For me, this all comes down to routine and planning. Having a ‘To Do’ list forces me to crack on, planning things out in a journal gets my creative juices flowing, and sticking to a self-care schedule really helps me – I’m a creature of habit, so if I get into a routine then it’ll all soon become second nature.

Even writing about it is getting me all jittery and raring to go, so hopefully this will be the thing to kickstart my motivation again! How do you stay motivated? Leave a comment and let me know – maybe it’ll help me on my journey! 💕

 

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What I Learnt From Publishing My Most Embarrassing Food Habits Online

If you’ve kept up with #ThisGirlEats, you’ll know I spent the last month or so keeping a food diary published it for all the world to see 😬

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It was all about learning to live a healthier lifestyle. I wore my bad habits like a badge, telling everyone that yes, I can eat a whole pizza on a Tuesday night all to myself. I can’t say I always wore this badge proudly – but I wore it nonetheless.

It’s easy to munch your way through half a pack of biscuits in front of the telly and not even notice; it’s easy to grab a hot chocolate every lunch break and think you’re just treating yourself. Writing down every morsel I consumed – no matter how embarrassingly gluttonous – forced me to take a look at what I was putting in my body.

Sometimes it was hard. Really hard. But it made me realise I’ve got some serious bad habits that need to be squashed immediately if I want to move forward with a healthier lifestyle.

I learnt loads about myself by doing this, but these are the five main changes I need to make after reflecting on my 30-day food diary.

  1. Cut out the fizzy drinks every. damn. lunch.
    Choosing the “diet” version isn’t a free pass when it comes to fizzy drinks. I’ve had it in my head that a fizzy drink will make me feel more full or give me more energy for the rest of my shift, but it was getting out of hand. Now I choose squash or water with my lunch at work, and find it easily cuts out five fizzy drinks a week.
    Five! 😱 
  2. Please stop ordering takeaways – for your health and your bank balance!
    Throw out the menus. Block Just Eat from all home devices. Delete the Dominos app. Desperate times call for desperate measures and, after logging my eating for just one month, I realise my lack of willpower when it comes to ordering in is getting DIRE. It’s a lethal cocktail of junk food cravings and plain ol’ laziness, but it reeeeeally needs to stop! I can’t afford it, and my body can’t either!
     
  3. Five-A-Day is a minimum, not an achievement! 🍏
    I’m not too bad when it comes to fruit and veg. I pack meals full of vegetables, and I’d say I hit the Five-A-Day target at least 75% of the time. But it’s not something I’m conscious of – if I eat them, I eat them. If I don’t, I don’t. I think I’d really benefit from just being more aware, planning ways to fit at least five portions of fruit or veg in every day – stick an apple in my lunch, throw some salad on the plate, chuck an extra veggie into the pot of chilli con carne. Just something to think about.
     

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  4. Packed lunch isn’t just for the playground, y’unno.
    I’m a decent cook. I’m creative. I’m passionate. If I took lunch to work everyday, it’d be more than a dried-up ham sandwich and a pack of ready salted. Pastas, wraps, club sandwiches, salads… There are loads of lunches I can make at home which are tasty and satisfying. I’d save some pennies, and they’d definitely be better for me than whatever I find in the work food court!
     
  5. For God’s sake, get off your butt and do some exercise!
    I am SO BAD AT EXERCISING. Don’t get me wrong, when I go out for a run or do some yoga in my living room I always feel better. Heck, even just going for a long walk every day – which we did in the summer – makes me feel healthier. But the THOUGHT of it? Nah. Sitting on my sofa right now, wrapped in a fluffy blanket with a cuppa, there is
    literally no part of me that wants to get up, whack on my sports bra and go for a run. I know I should. I know that making the effort to do a little more exercise every day will make probably the biggest difference to my health. I just need to leap over that mental barrier and get some motivation. Any tips?!
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SERIES: My Journey to a Healthier Lifestyle #12 | #ThisGirlEats

10AM: I feel a health kick coming on… They usually don’t last long, but I reckon I can squeeze at least one good day out of it.

11:15AM: YUM. I’m so jumping on the bandwagon here, but I’ve been mega-tempted by these cute little overnight oats jars I keep seeing on recipe pages and food blogs lately, so I decided to give one a go. And I will DEFINITELY be making one again! So easy to just chuck everything in a jar last night and wake up to it being ready-to-go this morning. Lazy breakfast is the only kind of breakfast I do.

FOOD DIARY

Breakfast
😍 Overnight oats (porridge oats, fat-free yoghurt, mixed berries, sliced banana, drizzle of honey)
😍 Green tea

Lunch
😍 Wholewheat pasta with pesto, fresh tomatoes and a sprinkling of low-fat grated cheese
😍 850ml water
😍 500ml summer fruit squash

Dinner
😍 Two low-fat sausages in a part-baked baguette with cooked onions and ketchup
😍 Cup of lemon and ginger tea

SERIES: My Journey to a Healthier Lifestyle #11 | #ThisGirlEats

8:30PM: Oh. My. God.

8:40PM: This dessert is amazing. I mean, I know I say lots of food is amazing, but this one really is. We’re out for dinner this evening for a birthday and are talked into having this particular dessert by someone who swears by it and, to be honest, I’m not exactly going to put up much of a fight. Chocolate? Tick. Ice cream? Tick. Gooey sauce? Tick. But then it comes out looking like this…

chocolate etna

And it tastes EVEN BETTER than it looks. Try to imagine that! You can’t. The only way you can truly understand the pure indulgence of this gorgeous dessert is to go have some for yourself. Believe me, this is not a dessert you’ll want to share…

FOOD DIARY

Breakfast
🌺 Cup of green tea
🌺 Strawberry jam on toast

Lunch
🌺 EAT. – Firecracker chicken toastie, salt and vinegar crisps, Diet Coke

Dinner
🌺 Out for a birthday meal at ASK Italian – Penne al Pollo Della Casa (oven baked chicken and mushroom pasta) with shared Parmesan Garlic Chips ; Chocolate Etna for dessert (chocolate dome with melted toffee sauced over the top and vanilla ice cream inside)
🌺 White wine spritzer

SERIES: My Journey to a Healthier Lifestyle #10 | #ThisGirlEats

3:30PM: You know sometimes you just really fancy something? Like pizza (always) or Channing Tatum (never – like, I just don’t get it). Well today I got a real craving for Nando’s. I’m not obsessed with the Peri-Peri chicken chain or anything, but sometimes there’s a kind of hunger that only a chicken wrap can solve – and yes, I’m a lemon and herb. Fight me.

4:15PM: I’ve convinced the work lot to come to Nando’s with me for lunch. Win.

FOOD DIARY

Breakfast
🍗 Green tea

Pre-work brunch
🍗 Cheese, onion and mushroom omelette

Lunch
🍗 Nando’s chicken wrap with avocado and halloumi, with Peri-salted chips
🍗 Diet Coke

Post-work
🍗 Cup of tea

SERIES: My Journey to a Healthier Lifestyle #7 | #ThisGirlEats

2PM: The nurse at my appointment today told me I’d lost weight since the last time I saw her when I hopped off the scales *internal happy dance*. I decided to take that as “You’ve lost a few pounds since last time, good on ya!” 👍 rather than “You’re not as fat as the last time you were here.” 😬

3PM: Followed the successful trip to the doctor’s up with a slice of cake. Obviously. But it was gluten-free so that makes it healthy, right? Well, no. Actually, lots of gluten-free food is loaded with hefty doses of sugar, fats and other naughty things to make it taste less, well, gross. This tasted quite nice, as it goes.

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8:45PM: This dinner was WELL worth the wait. Ever since our trip to Prague last January (as you can see from this blog’s lead photo, we had a great time) I’ve fallen in love with Czech food and goulash is my favourite thing to make from my Czech & Slovak cookbook, especially with the helping hand of the slow cooker. Easy peasy.

FOOD DIARY

Breakfast
🍲 Cup of green tea

Lunch
🍲 Cheesy beans on toast
🍲 Glass of orange squash
🍲 Small Diet Coke
🍲 Small slice of gluten-free Victoria sponge
🍲 500ml water

Dinner
🍲 Slow cooked beef goulash with garlic bread
🍲 Small pot of chocolate mousse
🍲 Glass of orange squash

SERIES: My Journey to a Healthier Lifestyle #1 | #ThisGirlEats

I’ve been trying to commit to changing the way I think about food for a long time now; however, last night pushed me to my limits. It’s not the first time my tummy has been so disgustingly full of ill-advised takeaway pizza, but I’m hoping it will be the last.

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#ThisGirlEats was created as a gateway to adopting a healthier lifestyle without changing absolutely everything about our day-to-day lives. Weight loss clubs and gym memberships are expensive, complicated ingredients are a ‘mare, long-winded recipes aren’t practical and strict, low-calorie, don’t-eat-this-don’t-eat-that diets just suck!

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But it’s time I really started living the #ThisGirlEats life – not just posting a fabulous new healthy recipe online one night, and then binging on chocolate the next.

So I’m kickstarting #ThisGirlEats, incorporating gentle exercise, nutritious food and a better, more positive outlook into my journey to a happier, healthier lifestyle – without restricting myself, turning my world upside-down, or making myself feel guilty for enjoying food.

It starts today! And what better way to force myself into it than documenting it? I won’t be publishing every single day, but I’ll be keeping you updated at regular intervals so you can see how it’s going!

DAY ONE

9:30AM: So, today hasn’t started out great. I’ve woken up to no electricity thanks to a power cut and no 4G connection thanks to what I can only presume is the gods hating me. Or possibly karma.

Anyway, I can’t make myself a cup of tea or catch up on last night’s Eastenders, and I’m pretty sure both my phone and laptop are about to die. But I’ll try to give a brief run-down of my morning so far – a big bottle of water, and some living room exercise. That’s about it. I’m planning to take little walk before heading to work, though, just to kill some time. Seriously, I’m so bored. How did people live before electricity? Even my books are on my Kindle these days, and it’s out of battery! Argh!

9:05PM: I am STARVING. Boots is alright, but it doesn’t last you through a late shift. I can’t be arsed cooking when I get in because I’ve got a 6AM start tomorrow, but if I don’t eat something now I’ll never make the bus journey home!

FOOD DIARY

Breakfast
✨ 850ml water
(I never really eat breakfast anyway. I know, tell me off, whatever.)

Mid-Morning Snack
✨ 2 leftover slices of BBQ pizza
(I know this is pretty much the exact opposite of everything I’ve just said, but it was leftover! It was either eat it or throw it out – not gonna happen.)
✨ 850ml water

Lunch
✨ Boots Meal Deal – BBQ chicken wrap, sour cream Pop Chips, Shapers Hot Chocolate Nougat bar, Diet Coke.

Dinner
✨ Chicken and bacon wrap with chips (okay, so not the best start. But, as much as I hate to admit, I’ve had worse days…)
✨ Cup of tea

Exercise
✨ 30 squats
✨ 30 weight lifts
✨ 30 push-ups
✨ 30 sit-ups
✨ 15 minute walk before work