Wednesday Wellbeing Club | 11 August - 24 November | Week 6: Wednesday 22 September 2021

Welcome!

The Wednesday Wellbeing Club is for anyone who, like me, wants to make some lifestyle changes. It will run every week for fifteen weeks until Wednesday 24 November 2021.

I'm aiming to lose 6kg in that time with the intention of improved health benefits and the opportunity to reduce medication. You might have other health goals - being more active, giving up smoking, getting more sleep.

Each week, we'll check progress against the Rule of Fives I set out in the launch post. You can write your own post each week, or you can just leave a comment on each week's post about how things are going for you.

I've taken the idea from the Saturday Savers Club over on the @eddie-earner account where a group of savers come together to support each other every Saturday.

The Rule of Fives

I'm using the Rule of Fives as my framework through the time that the Wednesday Wellbeing Club is running. By the end of the fifteen weeks, I am hoping that these will become habits - things I do anyway, without thinking too much about them.

Here is my Rule of Fives for each week:

• Lose 500g.
• Enjoy 5 x 30 minute sessions of physical activity.
• Eat 5 x 80g portions of fruit and vegetables each day.
• Get 5 nights x 8 hours sleep.
• Spend 5 x 30 minute sessions of connecting or creating.

(You'll find more detail in the launch post and the back story).

Let's Check In

Here's a handy little chart to check progress week by week:

Goal	This Week	Overall
Lose 6k	0.5Kg ❤️	3.0k
5 x 30 mins activity	❤️	❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 😏 😏 ❤️
5 portions fruit and vegetables	❤️	❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 😏 ❤️ ❤️
5 nights x 8 hrs sleep	😏	🙂 🙂 😏 😏 🤔 😏
5 creative/connecting sessions	❤️	🙂 🙂 🙂 ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

1. Achieve a more healthy weight

We're into the slow and steady with another 0.5k lost this week and 3.0k overall. We need to have a little stop and celebrate here, that's 3.0kg, or 6.6lbs or the best part of half a stone! Yay! My neighbour obligingly said, "you've lost weight, I can see it". That's always the best news, isn't it, when other people start noticing? We have to celebrate these milestones along the way (actually half way to my target) otherwise we get lost in the grind and it's easy to get disheartened.

On track and surging forward ❤️ 🤗

2. Enjoy physical activity

It's been a busy week of Cleaning Out the Garage, Sorting Out Cupboards and generally Tidying Up. I'm starting to de-clutter, it's time for lots of things To Go 👉 🙀. Although not many steps have been involved, there's been lots of stretching, lifting, running up and down stairs, twisting and turning and yard sweeping (excellent for core muscles and resistance training). There have been a couple of trips to the recycling centre, too (always good for banter - this time I was being teased about the small scooter I was throwing in the scrap metal container, "somehow, I can't imagine you on that, love"). I have also found a new You Tube channel with short stretching and strength building routines (and long ones, too, if you want longer) for Seniors (some are for pain relief) which I am enjoying.

On target and then some ❤️

3. Eat well

You might say I'm on the tomato diet at the moment - at least three portions a day of gorgeous home-grown delicious tomatoes. They're sweet and so tasty! A real success this year although I was despairing of them ever ripening a while ago. There were so many, some were cooked into tomato sauce last week and frozen for colder times. There's still some on the vine (and several bowlfuls ripening in the sun in the front window. The temperature is starting to drop at night and will go below 10 degrees next week, so I think the remainder will all be brought inside to ripen at the weekend. However, this might be the first year that I'm not left with lots of green tomatoes.

On target ❤️

4. Sleep more

A week of mixed blessings - some good nights and better days and others that were all over the place including one night when I woke from one of those dreams you think are real and had to get up for a cup of tea before going back to sleep and then waking feeling hungover and drugged!

Poor sleep also makes me feel so hungry, even when I've eaten, I'm still craving a big bag of chip shop chips! I was surprised after such a physically active week that I was struggling with getting into any kind of routine.

Lots to do, or may be more winding down needed ... 😏

5. Connect and create

Lots of time spent this week clearing out my garage (I can walk across the floor now), which is going to become my workshop. Finally, I have a plan, which is to condense three sets of shelves into three (these store all kinds of household things - tools, spare electrical parts, cleaning and decorating tools and materials, laundry equipment). I want to get to a stage where I don't have to move anything to get to something else!

On target 😍

How's your week been?

Where are you up to in your wellbeing journey? Just starting? On your way? Achieving lots or wondering how to change things? Let us know in the comments.

Showing up is where it starts - everything else follows 🙂

2. Hot Wellbeing Tip

Each week we'll explore an aspect of the Rule of Fives. We're going to talk about:

Sleep ... again ...

Kate Mikhail has written a practical book called Teach Yourself to Sleep. Here's a few tips from it:

• Our words have an effect on us - writing or saying words out loud are solidifying and codifying ideas and it is what you are telling yourself and well as saying to the rest of the world. It's not helpful, she argues, to describe yourself as a bad sleeper - that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy:

The words we choose alter our feelings, perceptions, hormones and behaviour, including our sleep. ^(Source)

• Embrace and amplify your body's response to light and dark. In the morning, make the most of morning light to wake up (remember the benefit we discussed in earlier weeks of going for a walk in the morning) and get ready for sleep at night by dimming lights, taking a screen break (designed to keep you engaged and awake) and using techniques like a warm bath 90 minutes or so before bedtime.

• Weaken the negative effects of stress through walking in nature, meditation ( I love knitting for this purpose), and have an armchair offload:

Ideally this would involve sitting in a relaxed space that isn’t your bedroom, giving you time to reflect before heading to bed, once the rush of the day, and/or TV shows are over. Once again, it’s more impactful if you have an inkling of the biology and science going on. By giving yourself this time to think, or jot down any notes, what you’re really doing is moving worries or preoccupations from your brain’s emotional HQ, the amygdala, to your problem-solving pre-frontal cortex. ^{(source as above)}

And in other good news, "your brain will look for solutions while you dream."

Some ideas to remind me to focus on developing good sleep habits!

As we say about saving in the Saturday Savers Club - start small and start today. I've chosen a Rule of Fives that set out my plan and will help me - but you might have a Rule of One or any number up to Five. The only thing you need to do is to show up, the rest will follow.

I'll be back next week with my check-in. See you then!

EDS for Comments

Each week there'll be an opportunity to win EDS tokens for comments. I like EDS income tokens, they're a great way to build an extra pay-day for yourself each week. You can see the EDS report on the @eddie-earner account.

Last week, we had comments from @bearmol, @justclickindiva, @missaj and @phoenixwren! They all went into the Wheel of Names for the Wednesday Wellbeing Club.

This week's winners are @missaj and @phoenixwren - check your wallet!

^{Wednesday Wellbeing Club
Back Story
Launch and the Role of Setting Goals
Week 1 - Setting SMART Goals
Week 2 - Walking is Good, Brisk Walking is Better
Week 3 - Wellbeing and Taking Care: Prevention and Amelioration
Week 4 - Sleep: the fundamental well-being factor?
Week 5 - A word about stress}

^{Saturday Savers Club
I run a savings club every Saturday over on the @eddie-earner account. We're aiming to save £670 ($800) by the end of the year using the 365 day savings challenge. You can join any time of the year and set your own goals and plans (some people are saving Hive, others Bitcoin, some their local currency). We share savings tips and there's a free giveaway every week.}

^{Wednesday Wellbeing Club
I'm hosting a Wellbeing Club on Wednesdays from 11 August until 24 November 2021 in the Natural Medicine community. It's for anyone who wants to make a lifestyle change. We have a weekly check-in and share wellbeing tips, and a weekly giveaway. Here's the back story and the launch post with more information. Everyone is welcome.}

^{First Monday - NeedleWorkMonday Community
Every First Monday of the month, I host a Live Chat for an hour from 7pm for the Needlework Monday Community. Bring your knitting, sewing, crochet (or nothing, that's okay, too), a nice cup of something, and join us for a relaxing hour of chat. Find our more in this post}

^{Three things newbies should do in their first week and, for most things, forever afterwards!}