November 2020

I’m hungry!!! Feed me!!! Feed me now!! This is the voice of my stomach reminding me everyday that I am in a calories deficit…What I normally do to shut it up is to think about all the progress I have made, the sacrifice done but specially how well I look on those pants! Is it easy? NO! Is it worth it, so far it is a yes!

But eh, don’t think that I always think on that way… most of the time I’m just watching the time to see when it’s my next meal. So far what I have found that works is to trick my stomach with some hot tea or water, but he’s smart, so after that, it starts to cry again and to scream like a little baby…

How I have survived to 9 months so far? Training my mind and time nutrition.

Time nutrition for me is the easiest part. I have made a calendar for when I can eat and what to eat. I set up some alarms with Google Home to not forget to eat. Yes, sometimes happens. And now you will ask, hey Alex, didn’t you say that you’re hungry all the time? Well, it happens that when I’m working and I’m busy, my mind forgets to announce to my stomach that it’s time to eat.

Mind training. I believe most of the efforts & results come from the mind. Having the right mindset will help you to accomplish your goals. So when I’m hungry and my stomach makes noises, I try to think in something else or just say to my stomach “it’s not the time to feed you yet, you need to wait. Drink your tea and go to sleep.” It is hard, and not always works, but it a big step of controlling your cravings. When I feel down and I’m hungry is when I think about how I look and what do I want to achieve. If I eat when it’s not the time, I will feel bad, and no one likes to feel bad, isn’t it?

I can’t say that I have now the total control of the situation, but during this 9 months that I’m trying to put my mind in the right place, I can say I have more control over myself and my cravings. And of course, I’m hungry!

So now I’m on my second lockdown… and if you ask me what’s the difference between the first and the current one…. what can I say? “There is no difference” was my first thought… or maybe yes. Let’s think about it.

In the first lockdown, people was panicking, let me rephrase it, I was panicking. Why? I didn’t want to be infected or maybe I didn’t want to be marked as “infected”. Or it was just the fear of the unknown sickness? Looking back at that time and comparing on how I feel now, I think I’m more relaxed. I’ve been already 8 months at home and I now see as well around me that people feel less stressed. Not anymore those big queues in the supermarket, no more toilet paper war etc. Does it mean we don’t care anymore about Coronavirus? I don’t think so, I believe it’s just we’re all getting used to and adapting our lives to it.

But coming back to the title of my post, weekends, how are those different now from before? Before COVID my weekends were quite busy, I used to make a short weekend abroad once per month, have lunch with a friend if I stayed at London, have Chinese lessons on Saturday’s mornings or just stay home. Now my weekends are all the same. I’ve been keeping the Chinese classes on Saturdays via Zoom but I have to say that in October I’ve just let them go. I couldn’t stand more to be in front of the computer 4 hours on a Saturday morning after being working from home the whole week.

Instead of that, now on a Saturday morning I have a relaxed coffee in bed, after I have breakfast, I work out for an hour, I take time for myself, shower-bath-face mask- beauty time whatever I want to do to make me feel good. Self-care is called. Lunch and relax in the couch. I try to read but the truth is I spend my time on internet or chatting with friends and family. Time for a snack and it’s already 6 pm. Time flies! So we normally eat at 8.30 so I have 2 and a half hours to decide if I go to the couch again or I cook… I normally do both 😉 Time to cook, eat & chat about the day, yes… about the day…, clean the table, wash dishes and Netflix time… so Saturday’s gone.

And now it’s time for Sundays… Sundays for me is the day that you plan to do a lot of things and you end up doing nothing of what you’ve planned because you’re tired or worst, bored. I always wake up planning that I want to this and this and this… but as long as the day passes, I feel less energised and just thinking of relaxing…in the couch. So I have an internal fight with myself where I try to obligate me to do things and not just have the whole day in the couch or watching Netflix. Today after my coffee in bed, I made pancakes, we went for a walk as it was not raining, lunch time, clean the apartment, siesta time, meal preparation for the week, snack and I’ve just realised that tomorrow is Monday and the weekend has just passed…

Even though I think my weekends are now quite inactive as they were before, I keep looking out of my window and I see the life of my neighbours where the only thing they seem to do is just watch TV… So I feel proud that at least, I keep myself busy and I move out of the couch!