Shaping up and shedding for 2013

The usual new year good intentions to shape up sharpish started in earnest yesterday. We hosted Christmas for our whole family in December, as well as a new year Star Wars party, so we’d grossly over-anticipated how much food we’d need. It’s really stuck in my craw how much waste there has been as I’ve thrown away pate, salad, cheese, puddings and cream, and countless other items that have festered in the fridge. It’s bad enough that we spent so much un-necessarily, but the fact that we’ve been so wasteful when there are people starving bothers me more.

As such, we’ve still got a freezer full of sliders, mini pies and even mini fish and chip bites just waiting for another gathering, because we certainly won’t be eating it on the new 2013 fitness regime.

Last week was too hectic to get things started to my shame, but yesterday saw my first gym session of the year – 40kms completed, 1423 calories burned, and agonising muscle ache to match.

This Christmas I bought kettle bells to try and do more strength work at home, so it’s going to be a case of trying to get into the habit of doing a good stint of ab exercises each day to try and get my physique into shape before I head off on hols next month. My usual failsafe technique to get back into an exercise regime is to treat myself to new workout gear, but in light of heading to the States in a few weeks time, it seems a bit stupid to do that here when I can get some fab gear over there for a fraction of the price.

Note to self: Do not use as door-stops

Having battled through as much of the awful Christmas stodge, my body is positively welcoming the prospect of healthier salads, fish and stir fry dishes, and I’m on a mission to cut back on my biggest weakness – Coke. I’m currently drinking huge amounts of water with fresh lemon, but I’m not sure it’ll be sufficient to stave off the caffeine fix for long.

My Pinterest boards are proving a big inspiration – as well as looking for fitness advice and pins, the huge number of gorgeous toned women in beautiful clothes makes me determined to persevere and succeed…

Jump starting January – Happy new year!

Crazy start to the year – and I’m not complaining.The first January after I set up my own company was the quietest, most worrying month I’ve ever known, and ever since I’ve been worried that the same thing would happen year on year, particularly with the constant doom and gloom press around the state of the economy.

I learned a lot of valuable lessons in 2012, wasted a lot of time and energy on projects that were not worth the grief and effort they caused, and gave too many people the benefit of the doubt and allowed myself to be made a fool of too many times – not this year! Mistakes are learning platforms, not something that should become the norm.

So 2013 marks a new start for Faith! I’ve made the usual new year promises to myself about my personal life and my business life, but the most important one, for both, is to get my finances in order, and to make sure I started on the right track, I’ve been following Penny Golightly’s Jump Start 2013 to the letter to help me do it – a step by step, easy to follow guide to doing essential admin and organising your life and finances in one fell swoop – within days I’d discovered a policy I’ve been paying for that I don’t need, a standing order to a charity that I forgot I supposedly supported (had been a Christmas gift) and cancelled my monthly subscription to a wine club and my weekly Graze boxes, all of which equates to getting on for £50 a month. GO ME!

I spent most of yesterday getting the boyfriend to do the same thing – filing paperwork, checking outgoings, clearing out drawers right through to carrying out a wardrobe cull to give those clothes that no longer fit or that aren’t liked to charity.

It’s amazing how much peace of mind the simplest of tasks can give you, but if we can stick to it through January (the hardest part is definitely going to be Tenner Week where we each have to try and live on £10 for the week!) I think it’ll become something we do every six months to keep us on track.

I love starting the year feeling so virtuous!

It’s (nearly) the most wonderful time of the yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeear

Flood warnings aside, I am starting to feel slightly Christmassy now. I’ve got my organised head on and started stocking up (mainly on wine, to be fair) for the festive period, and have planned the Christmas Day menu, games and movie-schedule. Control freak? Me?

And the spare room is now piled high with gifts ready to wrap. I will not put the tree up until December 1^st on principle, but as far as parties and festivities go, I’m all set to go.

I tried to get into the mood last Saturday. I spent the day buying gifts in Solihull before heading to the famous Frankfurt Christmas market in Birmingham in the evening. Should have left it.

 I understand the concept, and I like the idea of it, but sadly, in reality, I find it frustrating and annoying. I dislike having to fight my way through hoards of people to queue for 30 minutes for my hot wine. I get annoyed when I then have most of my hot wine knocked all over me as I fight my way away from the sales stand. I reeeeeeally don’t like being coughed all over and being engulfed in clouds of cigarette smoke, and the icing on the cake is having to fight my way back to the sales stand again to get my £3 deposit back for the plastic cup that the sales team mistakenly think I’m going to fall in love with and steal.

But I do like the caramelised nuts.

Maybe I went too early – as I say, I don’t think Christmas should start until December 1^st when I can open my advent calendar (this year: Star Wars Lego). I love putting the iPod festive playlist on, unravelling the fairy lights and  putting the tree up while singing my head off and drinking hot chocolate. And on Christmas Eve, I love cracking a bottle of bubbly and sitting in front of the fire to argue with Adam about what constitutes a Christmas movie (me: The Holiday, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, A Christmas Carol. Adam: Gremlins, Die Hard, Elf) before watching The Holiday and preparing for our guests’ arrival…

But it’s a good four weeks before I get to that stage and there’s a lot to look forward to first.

Naturally, I’ve started stocking up on Christmassy outfits for various gatherings – one berry-coloured sequinned little number should arrive today – and I’m counting down to the first festive occasion in my calendar, the BPA Christmas lunch, which this year for the first time ever will need to be a dry affair as I have evening commitments (I don’t see it ending well). The highlight though, will be BeerBeauty’s Christmas Party – hosted by the legendary Beer Beauty herself, Marverine Cole, who will be guiding myself and 40 other ladies through a range of tasty ales – not a sparkling wine in sight – and matching them to mini pies and bites. A ladies-only affair, it looks set to be a fantastic night at the Old Joint Stock.

With a festive spa-break with my best friend Donna planned and my annual girls’ Christmas Eve champagne brunch to look forward to, I am so looking forward to cracking open the glitter and high heels and getting into the spirit of things. With heaps of work to do, something’s got to give, and I fear it’ll be the gym regime, but hey, Christmas is a time to be merry is it not?