Challenge

 After my last post on exercise, one of my friends challenged me to do 40 days of exercise.  I'm on day three and feeling awful but good!!  There is a saying in Japanese "Mika hi boz", which means giving up after 3 days.  The saying comes from Japanese Buddhism, becoming a monk is very hard so most people give up after 3 days!  I'm not giving up!  I can't give up.  I dread doing the exercises, I've found a channel on YouTube that has different levels of exercise, most for seniors or beginners, a lot of chair exercises, which I'm doing at the moment.  I feel good after but just getting going seems hard!  I'm not sure why!  Forty days takes me until March 21st, I think!  So I have to keep on! 

The reason I feel awful is the weather. It has suddenly changed.  Last week was cold, it didn't get over 10C all week, then suddenly we had rain (and a thunderstorm yesterday morning) and highs of 20C.  I feel really wiped out, the air pressure is low and giving me headaches!  Feels like spring has started!  I'm a bit worried as feeling this tired with the humidity and temperatures just up 20C, how will I cope in the real summer!  

The past couple of days I've been sorting out cupboards again, which is tiring physically and emotionally. I have to downsize, my brain knows this but my heart doesn't want to let go! I keep telling myself that the things I'm dumping are just things but it still isn't easy.  Part of it is letting go of things with more memories.  The first lot of stuff I threw out was stuff that I didn't have an attachment to, so a lot easier.  But as I throw out the easy stuff the harder it gets  Does that make sense?  For example, I have a lot of books I bought for my kids to study English, they've been used but are now just taking up.   space.  I bought these when Hannah was a year old, we visited England to see Mom as she had terminal cancer, so 21 years ago!  Part of the problem is I can remember Mom looking through them,  that was the last time I saw Mom as she passed away a year later!  When I pick them up I can hear her voice as she read passages from them.  I know these books aren't Mom but the memories they evoke are so special. I knew this move would be hard and we haven't even got to the crunch but even now it's so painful.

Have to keep going, no choice!

I made lasagna the other day.  Not that healthy but very nice.  I overcooked it a bit!

Overcooked lasagna

Soon it'll be too hot to make these kinds of meals so I'm doing a lot now!