Wednesday 19 February 2014

Re-starting Blog

Apologies for the time since my last post, I've been having internet problems and just plain forgot for awhile. I will get use to sharing here eventually.
O.k first off though I haven't been posting here I have been working through my list I have ticked a few things off, changed a few goals, which I will update here this week, and I've actually added more goals as well, so I knocked off the 1001 title as good knows how long this list is going to be.
I will post a separate post for each completed goal so I am able to link to them from the list I will probably add one to two completed goals a week until I am all caught up.
I haven't started with the healthy eating, exercising and weight loss goals though, I've been finding these goals a lot harder than I first thought, I am roughly 6 stone over weight, but I suppose I just haven't noticed how much I am eating or how lazy I have gotten to exercising. To combat this I have introduced accountability to another person and have asked for help from a trainer at work (Ironically I work in a gym/pool) so tomorrow I have a half an hour session with her, help!!! I have also spoke to a swimming instructor so I can restart swimming lessons, before I got hit by a car I started on my learning to swim goal but obviously after that incident it went by the way side so I'm going to start up again. I'm also supposed to be having a session tomorrow but we will see as I don't think my body will be able to accept to sessions, if not I will start next week.
Right now I have bored you all to death with that, I will post again on Thursday with the first completed goal.

Thursday 3 October 2013

Day 9: Lots of searching

Annoyingly I have spent most of today looking for my camera!
Good news - I found the camera, Bad news - I cannot find the usb cable for the life of me so I've had to spend just over £12 to get a new one, gur!!! Would have had to spend more if I lost the camera though.
On a related side note the pictures in this post are not mine, I will replace with my own pictures tomorrow when I get the cable.

First off today is my first book towards my 5000, only 4,999 to go.... (God help me)
1. The positively productive writer by Simon Whaley

Available here at amazon

This was a re-read as I have read it before and I love it, one of the best writing books I've read, if you are a writer buy it straight away, don't ask questions - you will not regret it! I give it a 9/10, Simon's book is not a how to write book it's a how to keep writing on the dark days book, which if you are a writer you will know they like to rear there ugly heads often. Covers lots of good topics like goals, rewards(My fave section), quick wins, booster cards, A positive writers year and so much other goodness. If you are a writer - don't hesitate!






O.k for all the non-writers who read this blog there is also the healthy eating and exercise, yay.
Got to say I haven't exercised in a long time and it showed today. I did complete the full 20 minutes but it was more a walk, jog, stagger, crawl sort of affair.
Never mind I'm nothing if not determined (read stupid) and I will try again tomorrow with the same plan, hopefully it will be a little easier.
My playlist for the walk/jog was:
22 by Taylor Swift
Good time by Carly Rae Jepsen
Bad romance by Lady GaGa
I gotta feeling by Black eyed peas
and Thanks for the memories by fall out boy
I need to buy some more music for my mp3, I have very little music for running and exercise.


Lastly today I got my first Graze box delivered, I have the biggest trouble with snacking as I usually have a packet of crisps or a bar of chocolate and as fun as that is doesn't fit in with my goal to have nutritious eating habits, so I thought I would give this service a try as I get the first box and the 5th box free. Each box comes with four different snacks from a wide range to chose and you can rate each snack saying either to bin it, try it, like it or love it, which is a good feature.

With my first snack box I got:
Inspired by Jaffa cake - which is Belgian dark chocolate, orange raisons and roasted hazelnuts
Super berry detox  - which is blueberries, cranberries, goji berries and green raisons (far to healthy for me but we'll give them a try)
Healthy popping corn - which is basically popcorn you heat up in the microwave - I like the sound of this most
and finally El picante - which is paprika baguettes, spicy chilli peanuts and jumbo corn

Just my luck I don't like nuts and I get them in two of the snacks, oh well I'm not allergic so I will try them all and if I don't like them I'll rate them as bin it. I'll post a review on this at the end of the week and at the end of my five week trail for you all.
One of these a day will get me to the end of the week and I'll buy some fruit tomorrow for the second snack.

That is about all today, Making a start on things for the list and as soon as the cable arrives I will add my own pictures to this post, hopefully it will break up the text. I'm going to post tomorrow the goals I have already done, there's not many about 5 I think and I'll post pictures to go along.

Love to hear your comments as always, have a great Thursday,

Claire

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Day 8: I'm feeling better

O.k sorry for not posting for the last few days, that cold knocked me for six and I've spent a good few days in bed recovering, this is what is called sods law when you want to get started on something!
Oh well better late then never and  had some time to play games and read (which is always nice!)

I'm going to make a start on my healthy eating plan tomorrow as well as start training for the super sprint triathlon, which I am both excited about and petrified at the same time. I got Get into Triathlon magazine at the weekend and I'm making my way through it, there is far to much to take in first time so I may be re reading it several times before my head wraps around everything.

In there is, what looks like, a really good plan for sprint distance, however to do it you need to be able to 1) Swim 200m non-stop, preferably front crawl (the last time I got in the pool I was able to do 25m with a 1 minute stop before I moved back to breast stroke, and this is with a swim teacher as I'm not a good swimmer), 2) Ride your bike for at least 45 minutes (this one is a possible, I could do 45 minutes on a spin bike before my accident) 3) Run non-stop for 20 minutes (not a chance in hell, I can just about walk 20 minutes). Baring all that n mind its safe to say I cannot start on this exact plan, however I haven't found any on the internet that interest me so I'm going to modify the plan a bit and see if I can do the 3 pre-requisites by the 1st November!
There you go I've put a date down, you have all seen it now I have to honour it (head in hands), as I'm already a bit through this week I am going to start properly next week and just work on the running one to start off with as it is the area I am most worried about as I have weak ankles.

So this week the plan is to:
Wednesday: Go for 20 minutes (Start with a brisk 5 minute walk and then alternate between 1 minute walking and 30 seconds jogging)
Thursday: same as Wednesday
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: Go for 25 minutes (start with a brisk 5 minute walk and then alternate between 90 seconds walking and 60 seconds jogging and 30 seconds running)
Sunday: Go for a long walk (at least 40-45 minutes)

That's the exercise part, for the food I will post at the end of each day how I did.
I am also starting my three university courses so I will keep you updated on progress there, I need to find my camera for the photography and design courses but it appears to have grown legs and gone for a walk it's self!

I hope every one is doing well on there goals and I will post about my first session tomorrow!

Always love to hear your comments,
Claire

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Day 1: So it begins

I've made a start today, although as luck would have it I have been in bed half the day resting with a stinking cold.

However I have made a smaller list with the goals I want to start off with:
Adventure:
1. Ride the millennium wheel
2. Tour the imperial war museum in London
3. Visit 30 museums in Britain
4. Visit the 9 major London museums

Books:
5. Attend a writing retreat
6. Complete a national novel writing month (Write 50,000 words in a month)
7. Complete the writers Bureau comprehensive writing course
8. Complete the writers Bureau poetry course
9. Complete the writers Bureau writing for competitions - the way to win course
10. Join a writing group
11. Read the bible
12. Visit the British Library in London
13. Write 50 poems
14. Write 50 short stories
15. Write a book
16. Write and sell a readers letter

Career/ Education
17. Achieve a BA Hons in Visual communications with the OCA
18. Earn a bachelor's degree in creative writing and design
19. Learn to speak Spanish
20. Master Adobe photoshop

Food:
21. Stop wasting food

Health:
22. Be my ideal weight (10 stone, 10 pounds is my top BMI)
23. Have nutritious eating habits
24. Make exercise a regular habit - exercise 4 times a week every week for 1 year

Hobby/ Skill:
25. Complete every lifetime wish of the Sims 3
26. Complete Killer sites web developer from scratch course
27. Finish 20 video games completely
28. Learn to create a website
29. Learn to draw
30. Learn to mesh for the Sims 2
31. Play a Sims 3 family to 10th generation

Life:
32. Become more productive
33. Complete all courses and books from personal excellence website (30dlbl, 30dbbm, anti-procrastination, 10/10 esteem, stop emotional eating, earn passive income, build million-page view blog, personal excellence books volumes 1 and 2)
34. Work through the artists way course and the sound of paper course

Sports:
35. Complete a super sprint triathlon
36. Learn to swim
37. Run a 5k
38. Walk 10,000 steps a day for 365 days reaching 3,650,000

Travel:
39. See the clock tower at Big Ben
40. Visit the tower of London

These are the goals I will most likely achieve first, though there are the really big goals I will be working on when I can as well such as publishing 1,500 articles, fillers and letters, reaching 1000 bog posts, the "Read's" section, write and design for 10,000 hours, write over 1 million words, Dine in the 50 best restaurants in the world, eat the BBC's "50 things to eat before you die" and the Sims creations. I will post my progress on these to - I may do an overview at the end of the month or something, or just post when things happen.

I've made a start on earning my bachelor's degree in creative writing and design, I'm doing 3 modules this year, A215: creative writing; U101: Design thinking - creativity for the 21st century and T189: Digital photography - creating and sharing better images. They all sound enjoyable though I am going to be so busy for the 10 weeks that T189 is going on for.

If I am feeling better tomorrow I am going to make a start on the health and sports goals.

Right I think I have bored you all enough for one day so I will posy again soon.

I'd love to hear your comments,

Claire

Monday 23 September 2013

Day 0: And in the beginning

Hello and welcome to my journey,
My name is Claire and I am a 23 year old dreamer. I live in England with my mum, her boyfriend and 3 cats.

At the start of this year I decide to write down a list of what I wanted to achieve in my lifetime (Due to a unfortunate accident when I got hit by a car the year before, but don't want to go into that story right now).

So I dug out my life list I wrote when I was 17, after reading John Goddard's "Another check mark on the list" in chicken soup for the soul, I had roughly 150 things on that list though by then I had completed some and others where just not relevant anymore. So I set myself a goal after reading a couple of lists on the internet so see if I could come up with 1001 things I wanted to achieve or experience before my time is up, it has taken me just over 8 months to complete and a lot of headaches, but here it is (To the right, in sections).

The only order they are in is alphabetical to their sections. Some of these goals will take years, some will take hours, some will be achieved, some won't. Many are selfish, some are selfless. Some mat seem generic, some are very personal. All of them are important to me in some way or another.
I have started this blog to document my journey to achieve these goals, and will use it as a sort of public diary, I will post my progress on each goals and have a separate post with pictures when I achieve one.

One or two things to start, I don't for one minute expect I will achieve all of these goals before I go, this is just an exercise to see what I personally can achieve. I expect many will be forted by time, money and just plain bad luck. So no negative comments or pessimism about how these will never happen please. Positive energy only!

If you have a blog yourself on what you are trying to achieve or on topics I seem interested in please post a link and I will gladly take a look.

Lastly this list is not set in stone, I am only 23 and do not know enough about myself or the world to be able to know, I may try to climb my first mountain and absolutely hate the experience, however I may try hiking and love it, so things will change as I go along, I will let you know in the blog what changes.

I hope you enjoy and feel free to comment!

Claire