January Planning ...

So how is your January so far?  Are you a resolutions type of person or do you prefer planning and goal setting?  I generally prefer the September new year - historically when my children went back to school - but slowly that will be shifting with my last one now in sixth form.  To enable me to plan for 2018 though I took a look back at the goals I set myself back in September to see how I am getting along and what I need to tweak.

And of course January brings the opportunity to think about summer holidays so I am including that in my planning too.

Diary and pen from Paperchase // Bullet Journal from www.bulletjournal.com

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​First of all an update - we moved our business out of the home office and into a new rented office - this has been fantastic, why did we take so long to do it?  The house is my own again now and home and work are separate.  That then meant I got to use the log cabin as a gym and storage space as well as extra personal space - a 'she shed' and it is all pretty much set up now although I'd like to do some more to it but there is no rush.

I wasn't very well during the late summer and autumn but I pressed on with my exercise and nutrition (mainly macro tracking on My Fitness Pal) but by December I had to take a break from it all, I was extremely tired, very busy and a bit fed up with the constant need to track all my food.  I needed to cut myself some slack and remove the pressure.  It definitely helped!

So my new year goals are updates of my September goals really:
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• Get back to my exercise routine, I have started with HIIT's at home in my gym and will continue seeing my friend and personal trainer once a week to do strength training.
• Find some structure and focus again with meal planning.  I had gone a bit off track although it didn't matter too much, and it is good to have some down time occasionally but I will be following recipes from the body coach which are all tailored to me so I don't have to overthink it all.  I find I am better when I have boundaries with which to work by, given the choice of 100's of recipes from all my recipe books I just give up and go to M&S but if I have a limited choice I am more likely to make better choices.  It works for me!
• Sign up for a Memory Walk and raise money for the Alzheimer's Society - still at planning stage but I will let you know more once I know more!
• Learn to change some of my habits so that I can build up a better routine and stick to the changes I want to make, I am doing this with the guidance of Bev from Floresco Fitness and Fat Loss Coaching and her Diamond habit change programme.
• I still haven't completed the online blogger course I signed up for!  I should now have time so no more excuses!
• Wardrobe de-cluttering seems to be an ongoing task and one I never quite get right.  I buy too much!  But I am not sure that will ever change so I need to relax a bit.  I am currently working my way through some unloved items though and putting them on eBay or putting things aside ready to go to the charity shop.
• I am trying to reduce my social media habit which is a bit of a problem seeing as I decided I wanted to blog!  So my main plan is to find a better balance - to look at it at certain time slots rather than being tempted to scroll mindlessly throughout the day.  I love getting ideas from other bloggers on Instagram, I love seeing what my friends and family are up to but I do find that the increase in advertising and sponsored posts means my feed is way too busy.  
• I have been unsubscribing from lots of emails recently - the ones where I bought a product once or made an inquiry once.  Not from my favourite shops or bloggers but the more irrelevant ones so that I can reduce the number of emails I have to flick through to get the ones I want.
• I also want to get a bit more organised with my home routines.  You know doing certain tasks on certain days so that I know where I am and when I can have free time to exercise, blog, meet friends etc.

And finally onto the fun bit ... holidays.

• First we are off skiing again this year, we don't go every year preferring to alternate it with a bigger summer holiday.  I am finalising the details of the holiday now.  And another reason to make sure my fitness is back up as otherwise I won't keep up with the rest of the family.
• Then I am very busy organising a trip to Sri Lanka, we have family who live there and set up and run a charity - Dogstar Foundation - do take a look, they do amazing work and their story is inspirational.  We are combining a holiday with my daughter doing some volunteer work in preparation for personal statement and university interview, we will travel home before her and she will head home a week or so later (yes I am very nervous about that)!

Love
Michelle xx
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I always love spending time with my daugther!  Skiing in Austria with the family in 2016 and a holiday in Turkey with my sisters in 2016