Blog 35 - Dates, Blogs, Sit-ups and Weight Loss!

As my birthday is looming and my 39th year is almost over, I thought I had better update you on some of the outstanding challenges. There are four challenges that I have been attempting throughout the whole year and will carry on right up until the last day, so although not officially completed, they are near enough done...

Writing blogs on my laptop, usually happened late into the night!

Challenge 1 was to write 40 blogs, this is blog number 36 and I have a couple more that I am planning to write by the end.

Challenge 6 was to do 40 sit-ups every day. I have managed to do this every day except for 2 days when I had a stomach injury following the Mudrunner! Some days were more whole hearted than others but at least they got done. To be honest I haven't noticed much improvement in my stomach muscles but I will carry on doing as many as I can just maybe not everyday!

Challenge 26 was to lose 14 pounds in weight. Unfortunately, this was one challenge that although attempted I have yet to complete. Although I don't really want to give excuses, as this should have been a fairly straight forward challenge, but I have struggled with Anaemia throughout the year. This condition has meant that my iron count has been incredibly low, which in turn has meant that I have struggled to control my eating. On Doctors orders, I was told not to diet but to try and eat small amounts regularly and as healthily as possible with foods high in iron. As I have struggled with tiredness I have at times over compensated with eating to give me the energy I need. So although increasing my exercise, I have throughout the year gone up and down in weight and the most I lost at any one time was 8 pounds just short of the 14.

I am gutted that I haven't fully completed a challenge but in one way this is good as I will need something to focus on when I eventually reach the age of 40 and have nothing else to do! So I have vowed to continue to focus on getting my iron levels sorted out and finally sort out my chubby self!

One 'Date Night' out on the town at a 40th Party!

Challenge 14 was to have 40 dates with my husband. At the start of this year when coming up with the challenges, I realised how much support I was going to need from family and friends, but especially from my husband as I had to rely on him more for childcare and financial help!! I wanted to make sure amongst all the craziness, that I made time to spend with Nick so that by the end of the year I didn't end up in divorce!

So I set the challenge to have 40 dates. As most families understand it was too difficult to have babysitting to be able to go out for all 40 dates, so some (most) of these dates consisted of turning off the TV and just giving each other attention, sitting down for a meal together and talking! Some of these 'dates' also included other friends with us, as this was the year of parties! So we had a combination of great date nights out celebrating with friends for birthdays and other events and dates 'in'. Quite a few of these date nights also consisted of us trying to squeeze in a few other challenges also i.e. pub visits, casino or darts for instance!

All in all although a hectic year, I have realised how lucky I am to have such a supportive husband and it has made us even closer. We will make sure that we continue to make time for each other in the future too!