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've set out below. 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.
Achieve a more healthy weight
My over-arching goal is to lose some weight I've found hard to shift. I've been very successful at easily losing weight, and maintaining the weight I am now, but I've never got past those last five or six kilogrammes. I know there are huge health benefits in getting to a lower weight.
This is my SMART objective (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound), but it is also a passive outcome that will result from the remaining activities in the Rule of Fives.
Enjoy physical activity
This easily gets jettisoned by work. This has become a greater problem since the beginning of lockdown when I am no longer regularly travelling to and from a workplace. I also get caught up in wanting to achieve the @actifit 10,000 steps a day (30 minutes activity achieves about a third of that), rather than doing what I can in half an hour.
These competing priorities lead to unhelpful stress. I need to let the @actifit target go, concentrate on thirty minutes a day, let Newton's first law of motion do the rest and record however many steps result, extrinsic rewards or no extrinsic rewards.
Eat well
Again, easily jettisoned by work when crisps and frozen pizza become far too frequent, even though I dislike both. In England, we have the five-a-day mantra, that is eat five 80g portions of fruit and vegetables a day. The challenge is keeping that going when I'm working.
There are other aspects to eating well - reducing refined carbohydrates (flour and sugar), moderate amounts of protein and sufficient amounts of fats and oils in addition to fruit and vegetables. And there is cutting down the frequency of eating and eliminating snacking.
I'm aiming for two meals a day - late morning and early evening - with a fifteen hour overnight fast.
Sleep more
I really enjoy going to bed early! I'm aiming for eight hours of sleep each night. I like to wake and start working early, so that I have done two or three hours when I am at my best before the world wakes up and starts distracting me. I schedule meetings for the afternoon, I like finish work by 3pm at the latest, earlier is better! The rest of the day is for me.
Connect and create
This is about building alternatives to work and other stressors of life. It's the mental equivalent of having a shed to retire to. Like physical activity and eating well, I have other things that I want to do with life that tend to get pushed out by the demands and impact of work.
I'm setting a Rule of Five about taking thirty minutes five days a week to focus on connecting with people (a letter, face-time, meeting for coffee) or creating (sewing, knitting, crochet) or self-care (a warm bath with Epsom salts, green tea and classical music).
1. Check In
Each week I'll be checking in with the Rule of Fives through the Wednesday Wellbeing Club to see how I'm getting on. I'm building on things I've learned through learning to save. It may seem simple to say "start saving" or "lose weight" as if you do or don't do it. But I've learned that it is about learning how to do it over a period of time and building up those memory muscles.
Other things that really help are reporting or being accountable in some way - even if no one reads or votes or comments, I'm being accountable to myself by posting each week - and ... just showing up. Whatever you are able to do or not do, or how life has thwarted your intentions, it is worth just showing up: everything else follows.
2. Hot Wellbeing Tip
Each week we'll explore an aspect of the Rule of Fives. This week, we're going to explore goal-setting.
It really helps, when you want to achieve anything, to have a specific target or goal. In the Saturday Savers Club, we set a goal of achieving £670 of savings in the course of a year.
More than that, it helps to be clear about the benefits of achieving that target or goal. For me, that £670 is put aside for travelling. For the Wednesday Wellbeing Club, there are huge health benefits of losing even a few more kilogrammes, including a sense of purpose and achievement.
I've chosen a goal that is specific to me and one that is comparatively easy to measure - I will be able to see over the period of time whether I have lost weight. It's important to choose your own goals that are right for you, where you are now.
As we say about saving - 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.
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.
This week's winner is @erikah - check your wallet!
Wednesday Wellbeing Club
Back Story
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.
Three things newbies should do in their first week and, for most things, forever afterwards!
