So my word of the year continues with a post on how I interpreted nourish in May 2019.  For the second month running, I didn’t manage my ‘nourish’ day of self care, work is crazy and I’ve worked every Thursday this month, whilst its good for the financial reward, its not worth the compromise on my work life balance, its just very difficult to say no …

However, I have had a real focus on my physical health this month.  In March, I decided that I needed to focus on my running.  I love running but over the past few years, its been without direction or purpose.  In March with the lighter mornings, I started a training programme and without fail, every week I have run at least three times as per the plan.  I’m getting up at 5.15am on some mornings to fit in a run and feeling great for it.  The purpose was to start being competitive (with myself ) again and this month, I signed up and ran my first (and second) Park Run, a 5k timed run.  I would love to do one every week but with our local Park Run 19 miles away (we live in a rural location), Mr S working on average two Saturdays a month and swimming lessons, its a logistical feat to attend.   However, I’ve definitely got the bug and I’m going to aim for one Park Run a month.

Also on the theme of physical health this month, I got a new Fitbit with a HR monitor and I love the stats.  One of my #19for2019 was to walk on average 12k steps a day and I’m quietly confident on my data so far this year that this will be achievable.  However, the upgrade has given me stats on more aspects of my health, notably heart rates.  I did a bit of research on what the rates meant and I am amazed at my results.  I like to think that I am on the healthy side of life, I walk lots, eat pretty well etc.. but it appears according to the charts, I am in great health on the cusp of excellent!  I am delighted that my heart is in such a good state.  I have been monitoring my heart rate on a daily basis, interestingly its raised at work and much lower on non work days, again I think I’m picking up a theme on how I need to focus on a better work life balance, perhaps a focus for a nourish post later this year.