Wednesday Wellbeing Club | 11 August - 24 November | Week 7: Wednesday 29 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	+0.5k 😏	2.5k
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

Halfway through our journey: I've had a couple of big things happen on top of work and was unwell for several days and everything went down hill - as it does sometimes in life.

I was interested that there was a reaction in my weight. I don't get hyper wound up about these things: I've found that my weight can vary by a couple of pounds every day, and, throughout the day. I try to take a reading only once a week, and at the same time of day and in the same circumstances, usually the morning. I'm more interested in a general trend and we're going to get hiccups (or sometimes, nothing, which can feel very frustrating) from time to time. I'm aiming for the general trend.

Having said that, this was a week when eating, physical activity and sleep were disrupted.

Okay, things didn't go as planned, and I'm still here, showing up 🤗

2. Enjoy physical activity

Checking over on @actifit, it looks like two or three active days and then several days with very little and not much walking in the mix. It feels worse 😂! It's been a challenge coping with other things and feeling under the weather, but I'm also missing the benefits of getting outside and moving around. We're now into mammoth rain sessions in England and the temperature has dropped quite a bit since the weekend: the kind of weather when you're either forced to curl up under a comforter or you just want to anyway.

Time to get out the wellington boots, I think.

Better than I thought and improving 🤗

3. Eat well

The good news is I'm still eating tomatoes but other than that, there have definitely been some days of comfort eating shop bought ultra-processed food. Things began to get a little better over the past few days with some proper dinners with vegetables!

All those tomatoes and their anti-oxidant lycopene 🤗

4. Sleep more

A week of broken nights, although may be lots more sleep than usually. Things are starting to get back to normal - today, actually.

Okay, good sleep coming 🤗

5. Connect and create

This went okay, I guess because I tend to use knitting as a wind-down, calm-down distraction. I'm knitting something very simple and easy to follow at present, so easy to pick up and put down, and doesn't need a lot of concentration. There was also my sewing group on Thursday, which was fun and inspiring, I sorted out a few things and I found a new podcast which includes tips about organised knitting (one episode was called: Swatch in an Emergency - great title)!

Roaring ahead 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍

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:

When it all Goes Wrong

This happens for all kinds of reasons and building some kind of coping mechanisms can help.

I guess the number one thing for me is not dwelling on it or giving yourself a hard time when things go wrong or don't work out as you planned.

My techniques are:

• note what happened - writing things down or having some kind of record is helpful for providing realistic feedback about what has happened. I thought that this week had been much worse than it was, but when I checked back my records, actually, I had managed some physical activity and some semblance of eating well, leading to ...
• get accurate feedback.
• accept it - remember the tip last week about the words you use to send messages to yourself:

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

• check any learning - the learning for me was to have a few more easy to prepare meals in my freezer and cupboards and to start preparing my main meal earlier in the day.

Do you have any tips for when things go wrong? Because they surely will 😂

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, @phoenixwren, @old-guy-photos and @smilestitches! They all went into the Wheel of Names for the Wednesday Wellbeing Club.

This week's winners are @justclickindiva and @bearmol - 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
Week 6 - More about sleep}

^{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!}