Exhaustion

I am exhausted. It is barely 10pm and I am already exhausted, despite having done very little save a little washing up and boiling my Christmas puddings (which involves pouring water into the pans at intervals). Hardly taxing.
I don't know when or how this gnawing fatigue came creeping over me, overcoming my every move and thought. The tiredness gets me, makes me forget that I am hungry, causes me to lose things, wheedles tears from me for little or no reason and jump-starts me into fits of stressful anxiety over yet another thing that I have remembered to add to my ever-growing to-do list.
I should jettison the to-do list. I know that. But without it I would forget what I am supposed to be doing, or what I should be doing.
It has been a while since I published to this blog. I doubt people still read it, as there is very little of use or entertainment on it nowadays. Maybe one day. When I have time.
When I have time!
The doctor has diagnosed me with RDD - reactive depression disorder. Caused by stress. Caused by doing too much, by volunteering, by taking extra on myself 'because I can take it'. Because nobody else will. Because I feel guilty saying 'No'. No to friends, no to my mum, no to everyone. It cannot be said. I have been brought up to believe saying 'no' is selfish. It is putting my own needs before others' and that is wrong.
And now as a result of this residual guilt I have broken down, fallen apart, faltered at the first new hurdle, collapsed and feel the weight of everyone's expectation bearing down on me, the would-be Atlas.
So take my few, my paltry words, my sporadic, less-than-entertaining blog posts as they come.
I am exhausted.

James on the Power of the Tongue

Eat your Way to Five Pounds a Day

Jabba loves dat chicken. MMM finger lickin' good.

I have been trying to eat less by eating smaller meals, more regularly. 

However I have been failing. We keep being sent sweets and treats to the office, which means that instead of slowly losing weight, little by little, I am probably gaining the pounds, little by little, until a month before the wedding I suddenly wake up out of my desk-fodder induced stupor and cry: “I am never going to fit into my Pronovia 2013 collection design”.

This is the fault of a desk job, according to workplace health advisers Vielife. A survey conducted among Brits found that 12 million of us suffer from “Nutrition Attrition”.

This means workers have eschewed their five a day in favour of free cake and easy sandwiches, which may be convenient, but it is hardly helping them to work effectively and healthily.

The data showed that more than 40,000 working adults in the UK - based on Vielife online health and wellbeing assessments - show that 36 per cent of working people have poor nutrition, creating personal health risks and losing 3.5 weeks of productive time each a year - an urgent wake-up call for employers and businesses.

Only one out of 10 people said they eat the recommended six portions of fibre per day and less than one in five people manage to eat their five portions of fruit and vegetables.

Actually, I am good like that. I eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. I just like to wash them down with a packet of crisps afterwards.

However, Vielife found that people with a ‘good’ nutrition score have a 6 per cent higher job satisfaction score and 15 per cent higher mood score than people with a ‘poor’ nutrition score.

Stress levels increase for those without a decent diet - perhaps not surprising; but absenteeism increases. Respondents with poor nutrition scores report 50 per cent more sickness absence than those with good nutrition scores. That’s 4.8 days a year per employee against 3.2 days a year, costing the average UK organisation an extra 576 days for every 1000 people employed.

This means productivity declines, costs in cover increases and the whole team suffers as a result of one person’s doughnut disorder.

But if we ate better and cared more for ourselves and our staff, we could not only work better but maybe also play better, take up hobbies, have energy to do other tasks or go to events more often.

What this means for providers is that they should be kind to my waistline and instead of offering the odd lunch or chocolate goodie, they should just hurl a banana in my direction.

What this means for me is that if I want to earn more and to be more productive, eating healthier and fresher means I might lose those 5lbs but I’ll gain £5 a day in additional revenue through freelance or selling more of my handmade jewellery and cards.

This will also help to paying for that dress.