Planning 2021: a year of self-care

Usually Pippin's the one who poses like this, but Ziggy's got in on the act. His paw appears to be healing well – no bad smells, and it's dry – and he's taken to sleeping on the bed, which is usually Pippin's kingdom. 

I'm going to take a leaf out of Ziggy's book and take better care of myself in 2021, because I was in a bit of a state by the festive break. I started doing a bit of the small, physical care in 2020, like remembering to exfoliate every few days, and using body lotion (admittedly, that was more driven by being on lockdown and deciding to use up several years' worth of gift sets), but in 2021 I'm going to do it properly. That means not the fun things, but stuff that takes time and a little more effort. There's no point slapping on lotion if you're not getting enough sleep, right?

I'm going to try to do some form of exercise every day, even if it's just ten minutes of yoga. I hate exercise! Keeping things varied – a walk here, a bit of go-go dancing there, perhaps even a session of Evil Gillian's 30 Day Shred (I can't remember her real name, but it's on YouTube under 30 Day Shred) – should mean it doesn't get boring. I damaged my shoulders badly a few years back and it's amazing how much a single-go-go session can help when they're twinging. In 2021 maybe I'll be active enough that they won't start twinging, let alone need stopping. I'm still a member of the gym, but with the new variant of covid rampaging up and down Plaguey Island I'm in no hurry to rush back to it.

I'm also going to eat more healthily, so things like salad and home-made vegetable soup, not instant ramen for lunch. The occasional bit of comfort eating is fine – some days you've just got to have cheese on toast – but the healthy stuff should be the habit. I genuinely feel better when I eat better, but sometimes I just lack the mental bandwidth to do the sensible thing when there's bread and mayo to hand. 

Which is the other part of the year of self care: taking better care of my mental health. 2020 hasn't been great for it. I'm going to track both my mood and the hours I'm working. I'm going to take my anxiety meds when I need them, but I'm also going to take days off if/when the hours mount up. At least half the reason I make bad food choices and don't exercise is because I'm too tired, so getting enough sleep, not overworking, and keeping my anxiety under control so I don't wake up and go straight into HIGH ALERT!!! really is a fundamental part of the whole plan.

Errrr, so I suppose I ought to apologise for the lack of vintage in this post. There will definitely be some in the next post. In the mean time, Claret Duck has all the vintage I can offer.