This post is a collaboration with O2, but as always, all thoughts and experiences are my own.
At the start of this year, I made a promise to myself that this would be the year that I would really focus on myself – both physically and mentally and three months in, I’ve made some big differences. My iPhone 12 has been a great source of help to me and has helped me to make changes to my well-being routine so I thought I’d give you a bit of a wellness update from me and also share a couple of the different things I’ve been doing that have made a difference to my own personal wellbeing so far in 2022…
It might surprise you to know that my phone has been instrumental in a lot of the things I’ve been doing and the changes that I’ve made but it makes perfect sense when you think about it. Your phone (if you’re anything like me) is never too far from your hand and has such a wealth of accessible apps and features that can really inspire you and keep you on track with the things you want to achieve.
Fitness
This was top of my 2022 goals and has been a big life change for me so far this year. I have my exercise bike which I really enjoy and until the last couple of weeks I’d go on that for anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour at least four times a week. I’m very motivated by seeing progress in black and white though so the tracker in the Health App is perfect for letting me log my miles. It motivates me to see how much I’ve done and encourages me to not miss a session as I don’t any week to show I haven’t done anything or for my average to come down. I’m up to about 32k on a good day so I’d like to see that come up which again motivates me not to stop until I get there.
I have done less on my bike this last couple of weeks though as I’ve been trying to get out and do more strenuous activity that gets my heart going. My Fitbit tracks my steps, heart rate and all sorts of other stuff as well as logging my exercise on there so I have that linked to my phone so I can really see how well I’ve done.
Yesterday for example, I went for a walk with my friend and it was the hardest walk I’ve ever done and probably the most physical activity I’ve done since I was at school as I just haven’t really pushed myself to anywhere near my limits. It wasn’t a long walk on paper buy was very hilly, involved a fair amount of really rocky terrain and at times, I genuinely though I was going to need to be carried out which made me feel a bit dissappointed in myself.
But I kept going, made it to the end and the first thing I did when I was sat with an ice cold drink in my hand was to check the app on my phone to see the stats from the walk. Not only had we done the walk in the time stated on the website, I’d burned 948 calories in that 90 minutes and really given myself a workout.
The walk itself was 4.65k but the elevation during the walk was 141 metres which is substantial and shows how steep some parts of the walk were. Looking at the stats made me feel ridiculously proud of myself and wiped out the dissappointment I’d initially felt at how hard I’d found it.
I finally understand why they say that exercise is good for your mental wellbeing as well as physically because I genuinely feel happier in myself.
Weight Loss
Improving my fitness was only part of my health goals for this year, I also wanted to lose weight consistently to get to a weight that I’m happy with. I’m doing it for me because I want to be happier in my own body and because I know that losing weight will have some significant health benefits for me which is a huge motivator.
I tend to lose weight in bursts where I’ll lost a stone or so and then have a day off which turns into a week and then a month before I just stop pretending I’m just on a break. 😂 I’ve lost about four stone since I was at my heaviest in these little bursts and the good news is that once I lose it, I do tend to keep most of it off .
I’ve realised that diets or eating plans where any food is ‘unlimited’ just isn’t for me because if you tell me that pasta or potatoes are free and drill into me that I can eat as much as I like then that’s exactly what I’m going to do and that’s not good for anyone. The only real way to lose weight is to eat less calories that you burn so with that in mind, I started using MyFitnessPal which is probably the most used app on my phone right now.
I plan the main parts of my meals in advance and pop them into the food diary and section and I go in and add anything extra that I eat with the meals along with my snacks as and when throughout the day. This is my plan for tomorrow for example…
I popped into M&S on my way home today and picked up a couple of reduced bargains so I have more pre-prepared meals in there than I usually would but it gives you an idea of what I mean.
Breakfast is porridge which is quite high in calories for what it is but it’s super tasty and quick so it’ll be a lovely start to the day and counting calories means that I can eat it and just have less elsewhere. Usually, I’d have scrambled eggs on toast for the same calorie amounts.
Lunch has to be quick as I’m working from home and it needs to be something I can cook and eat quite quickly so I’ll probably just leave this as is with yoghurt or pear for pudding and then tea will be the cottage pie but I’ll serve with a big pile of broccoli and whatever other veg I have about.
Keeping track of what I eat is the only way for me to feel in control of it and having the app on my phone means it’s super easy to log what I eat – especially as MyFitnessPal has a barcode scanner to make it even easier
Mental Wellbeing
These last couple of years have been hard on us all in one way or another and we’ve all been impacted in different ways.
I know I’m probably not alone in this one but I’ve neglected myself and my own needs massively and although it probably didn’t seem like it to people who know me, I definitely withdrew into myself quite a bit and stopped thinking that my needs were just as important as others.
So when I was writing my list of intentions (which is just a fancy word for New Year’s Resolutions), I wanted to really consider the things that made me happy that I’d just let slide and these are the things I came up with:
- Keeping in touch with friends – How easy it is to keep in touch with your friends using your phone? This was the easiest resolution to keep and by far the best one of them all as it’s made me so happy to fully reconnect. I use Whatsapp and Messenger mainly and it literally takes me two minutes to send a message to keep in touch!
- Listening to Podcasts – I use the Podcasts app on my iPhone 12 to listen to podcasts on my way to work on a morning and I often feel really motivated or inspired by the end of my drive.
- Taking photos – This is something I used to really enjoy and my camera was pretty much equal to my phone in terms of me having my hands on them daily. I just lost my joy in taking photos somehow so I’ve been trying to take more photos again. The camera on my phone is amazing and very easy to use with better results than I was ever able to achieve on my camera on auto mode. Gradually, I’m starting to feel the happiness again that I used to feel when I had my camera in my hand.
So there you go, just some of the ways that I use my phone to help me with my wellness journey! What about you?
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