Where I am at now...
Wow this year has whistled on by! It's been a year of so many changes and exploration from traveling around the Far East and returning to Europe. It's now the start of the wintery months here in Europe which is great in some ways and not so fun in others. Being a sunshine baby I am not enjoying watching the sunsetting in the early afternoon. But on the bright side we are getting close to the shortest day of the year and the days will start to get longer. There is always a silver lining.Between job hunting, freelancing, studying, focusing on tidying up/clearing out the home space, a sick dog, fitness and eating well; it's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. This is without adding in the social side of seeing friends, family and extra activities. I think when I have a bit of stability I find it easier to plan and organise myself. At the moment this has been up and down which has been a challenge.I've felt a time pressure so to help alleviate that I've looked a few life hacks to free up time. My main ones are I love cooking but I felt I was spending ages in the supermarket shopping for little bits or trying to figure out what to cook. I've started using a company called Mindful Chef who do food ingredient deliveries every week. I have a choice from 8 menus each week. All of the dishes are gluten, refined sugar and refined carb free. The meals are £7 per person. The produce is fresh and packaged conveniently for the week. It's been amazing. I've cooked things I wouldn't have thought of and challenged myself to try new ingredients. I would highly recommend trying a company like this if you enjoy cooking and want to save time and money.Then the second time hack I have been using is a laundry app called Laundrapp. I tend to only do the bulky items like bedsheets and towels with it. It means that I am not constantly washing and trying to dry lots of things in the living room. The service is door to door with time slots with a mini map to track the driver. It's not something that I use every week but it is definitely something that I use when I feel its going to be a busy week and I am time poor. Budget wise it's pretty reasonable as you can do a bulk price for the whole lot rather than per item.The third one is scheduling and writing things down - I do favour a paper version but due to my tidying up I've gone digital to save space! By documenting what I would like to do and necessities I can have the satisfaction of ticking off items and when I am having a moment of "I am not achieving things" or "what have I done with my time this week" I can look back to see what I have completed. It's a great tool for keeping motivation and persistence with tasks. I am currently using iCalendar and Google Calendar. There is a bit of duplication but it works for me and inviting people to events.For my fitness journey, I've started using the Let's Start Yoga eBook by Jessica Olie. There will be updates as I progress and comparisons of how my body changes. Here is one of the shots of me getting my groove back into yoga... It's funny that taking the photos made me realise where my body is actually at and where my mind is! I'm happy to accept this is the stage I am at and where I was a while back was where I was. I know where I want to be and it's going to be the small steps that get me there. I found Jessica Olie on my instagram and I really love her attitude and authenticity. Check her feed out for some inspiration.
For a more intense work out I use Amanda Bisk's Fresh Body Fit Mind program. I discovered Amanda through Instagram when I was traveling at the start of the year (yes I am an avid Insta user!). It's basically HIIT that you can do any where and you don't need any proper equipment to do it. It's super convenient and the community that Amanda has built up are super supportive and friendly. I did this earlier in the year and I am returning to it again. I will do a post about how I get on with it.My favourite podcast at the moment is Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso (founder of Nasty Gal, author of Girlboss and Nasty Galaxy) which is Sophia interviewing women leaders within their field and getting insights to what they've learnt on their career path. It's a podcast that I find really inspirational, I learn about other businesses that I may not have come across on my own, and I find it leaves me empowered when I finish listening to it. It's a weekly program.I like to consider myself as an organised person and I stumbled across an author called Atul Gawande. His book called The Checklist Manifesto is fascinating. Atul is a trained surgeon and looks at the efficiency of the modern world. It reinforces my love of a good checklist. Check it out as me explaining it won't do it justice at all.