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What we thought was going to be a really hard
change to make, what we thought was going to be
a month of iron will-power and sacrifice is turning
into one of the most positive months of
our lives. The decisions we are making are so
flipping obvious now we're actually living them. |
We're now almost three weeks into our new family approach to living - call it a kind of detox if you want to be all hip and trendy. It's hard changing a lifetime of behaviours. It's hard breaking habits, and that's why having the eye on the prize at all times is important.
It's about rewards and it's about ambitions; it's also about acknowledging that the actions you took before had consequences - I guess it's about adulting LOL.
So where are we as a family 3 weeks on.
* Skin:
okay, so after a very visible reaction to the change in our diet and most importantly alcohol reduction by 75-80% less alcohol, my skin has literally transformed. 3 weeks on and I'm positively glowing, which at 37 is a nice perk. My skin feels much more velvety, like the cover of a good book, the pores have reduced and it's definitely in better condition, I now just need the tiniest dab of moisturiser to look like I've a full face of makeup.
After last weeks spot outbreak taking me back to teenage angst, this is a welcome relief. I had four great big zits (there's seriously no other word for them) across my neck / jawline - something I have never had before. Not only were they painful, but they we a weird distraction. This also happened across my shoulders. Obviously in the age of google, I looked this up in terms of alcohol reduction and yep, there, clear as day, this was my body detoxing. It was that visible. It was that causal. That was the crap pushing out of my body.
* Energy & Mental Health:
You really aren't going to like this but yes, I have WAAAAAY more energy. Eating lighter, smaller and better balanced portion sizes before bed, and not drinking half a bottle of wine + means I'm getting far better sleep quality. I've not had an attack of insomnia in almost twenty nights. My temperature fluctuations at night are settling down.
I'm finding the morning and the school run a LOT less of a struggle, to the point I'm almost sociable when in the first hour I wake up (and trust me, my family have learned over the years to let a sleeping bear lie when it comes to mum and bed)
I am SOOOO much more productive as a result.
The house is more organised, better kept. I've tackled jobs that seemed sometimes overwhelming and all of this is leading to a much better state of mental health and reduced stress responses. Our evenings have suddenly become viable time to do something other than sit on the sofa and drink wine. We're better as a couple at tidying before bed and this feels like some of the mum working from home burden is being considerably lifted.
As a result of the house being better organised and more efficient, I'm getting more time to actually do my work. I could never settle to write in a messy house and that ate into my time and motivation.
*Weight Loss:
I'm going to reiterate that this is not a weight loss project, but it is a welcome side effect and upholds my belief that if you get life in the right balance, then weight is naturally maintained at a healthy level.
I'm guessing there are two factors that are causing my rings to finally spin around and my watch to slink up and down, and my jeans to need pulling up (I haven't weighed myself as I don't want that to become a focus and then I lose track of the real objective)
1) the thousands of less calories we are not consuming through alcohol / wine -- but this is important; we're not replacing our evening drinking with replacements; mostly because all of those we've tried are crap. We've gone to drinking a cup of tea / green or black and that being enough. Dinner is Cranberry and tonic, a single glass, which is the only bearable soft drink.
2) generally more energy meaning that the metabolism is kicking in and burning off calories.
*Money:
We have saved hundreds of pounds in the first three weeks, which after Christmas has knocked some of the deficit that Christmas brings about. We are well on target to meet our 10k savings this year.
*Children & Values:
Our children lead a very privileged life, I'm not going to deny it. Our philosophy has always been that as long as they are kind, compassionate, empathetic and not spoilt dicks, then they could pretty much have what they wanted when it came to books, stationary, magazines, day trips, fossils, fillet steak and lobster (trust me, our eldest is one of those) etc etc -
We reflected that although our kids seriously rock - and I mean they do. They care deeply about the planet and the vulnerable of the world (almost to the point it weighs too heavy on our 10 year old empath's mind) we also had to acknowledge that our kids were losing sight of the value of money.
International travel, tasting menus, patisseries from the Savoy, theatre trips etc were all becoming part of their 'norm' which is kind of what we wanted, but at the same time, there has to be a true appreciation of how many hours of the day job goes into paying a restaurant bill of a few hundred pounds, of how many books sold it takes to upgrade to business class on the plane - and how CHOICES have to be made to spread money out as best we can to maximise the experiences we have, pay the bills without worry, and to stash away for the future.
Never is this more apparent than in the super market and the 'Can we get' mantra that seems to pour out of a lot of children's mouths. The solution to this has been the lists, which also have the pre-checked prices next to items. The power of being able to say 'It's not on the list' was immense, it was like Wonder Woman's arm shield.
I must have said 'It's not on the list' about 20 times on our last supermarket trip - and do you know what, there wasn't a SINGLE challenge about that. Not a single comeback, just a sort of huffy acceptance - and you should have seen their face when I said they could get an 80p treat of creme caramel pots that wasn't on the list. I don't think I've seen such appreciation for anything from either of them in a long time.
*Planet & waste
I can sense that previous habits are being broken and new ones are being established. The food waste bin was full this week and although we didn't quite make our waste target of 1 black bag last week, we have two days to go and we have only filled one black bag of rubbish in our kitchen. This is an insane difference. We were usually around 4 black bin bags and two recycling boxes a week.
This week we are looking at 4 recycling boxes + a full food recycling bin and just one black bag of landfill rubbish.
Two huge cotton shoppers were filled with veg from the green grocers, significantly reducing the amount of packaging we normally have from vegetables from the supermarket.
We had begun to make the change to cotton bags about 3 years ago but have been a bit haphazard, often forgetting them. But we have used no plastic carrier bags in 2 weeks - that's about 6 less plastic carrier bags floating around the ocean, landfill. I've got into the habit of a foldaway in my pocket and visiting the supermarket only once or getting home delivery has made a big difference.
There have been no straws or coffee cups in three weeks either. It's the small things that add up. I think that that action alone has reduced our plastic / cup consumption by one standard carrier bag full of waste - over a year, that's significant.
It's three weeks in, not long enough to become habit changing / breaking behaviour yet. But let's put it this way, Feb is coming and Dry January is becoming just Dry and the things we are putting in place are becoming sustainable and part of our routine.
Here's to better health, better bank balances and a better planet.
