I’ve been enjoying the start of April, until today. I wanted to go out for a morning run before going on an old train this afternoon with some friends for a three course meal, but I threw up during the night. Today my stomach is killing me and I don’t want to eat or drink anything (I’m forcing myself to drink water). It seems I’ve caught a stomach bug, so instead of going out today, I’m chilling at home with my two dogs sleeping beside me and listening to choral music which I’m singing at two upcoming concerts. And what a better way to cheer myself up by writing a blog!
Many of you now know the drill. I set myself some goals on New Years Day and at the start of each month, I write a blog updating you all on how I’m doing in reaching my goals/resolutions. I’ve already achieved two of my goals and am working towards my other ones.
It’s always hard to decide where to start with a blog like this. I guess I’ll start off with poetry first, as something rather exciting happened last month. I went to the monthly poetry night Find The Right Words and decided to read some of my newer works. I didn’t know until shortly before that a podcast was being recorded! This was the first time that the organisers of the event decided to record the night. The podcast is available to listen to on soundcloud, which you can find on my blog about the evening. I cringe at the sound of my own voice on a recording, but it’s so exciting for me that I’ve been recorded. The poem which you can listen to on the podcast is called ‘The time I found £45’, which is also on my poetry blog Poclaretry if you wish to read it.
I’ve definitely not met my goal of writing one poem a week. Even though I thought by setting this goal it would encourage me to write more, you can’t really force yourself to write something creative. It feels artificial and not genuine. However, walking to work the other day made me realise that one of the best ways for me to think of creative ideas is by walking. The time it takes me to walk to work allows me to think of all sorts of ideas, including blog posts. I definitely want to walk to work again very soon, especially with the improving weather conditions.
Of course walking to work more often will aid me in improving my fitness further. The walk to work is 2.4 miles, so 4.8 miles a day. Furthermore, I ran over 10km for the first time! I ran 14.5km in 1 hour and 37 minutes. Obviously I still have a way to go, another 6.5km to run the distance of a half marathon, but I am thrilled that I wasn’t struggling like I thought I might be when going past the 10km mark.
My body weight is the same story as my previous goals update. Despite eating lots of chocolate and hot cross buns, I still weigh 15.9 stone. It’s a good thing that I’ve not piled on the pounds over Easter and going to the gym/running is helping out too. Unfortunately I won’t reach my goal of losing two stone by my sister’s wedding. It’s just over two months away and losing that much weight in such a short period of time would be detrimental to my health.
However, I’m currently happy with myself. There are parts of my body which I don’t like, but I think everyone is the same in that respect. I’d like to lose the body fat/weight on my upper arms and a bit off my stomach. I love my thighs, which are probably considered large in the society in which I live since I don’t have a thigh gap, and I love my calf muscles. I also feel great when I feel my bum jiggle about while I’m running along; I love my large rear end. I feel flabulous!
Feminist wise, I’ve not done much recently. I was invited to join a facebook group which I love checking on a daily basis. It’s a group where feminists alike from all different backgrounds share their own experiences of sexism and/or gender equality, while also sharing motivational posts that feminism is still needed. I would like to write a blog about a recent internet movement where women post themselves with reasons why they don’t need feminism, which I saw on this facebook group. There are mixed views towards this, which I would like to explore in more depth.
Despite not getting any closer to my goal of losing two stone by June, I think I’m doing pretty well overall. I’d like to aim for running 17.5km this month, make a start in losing some body weight, write a feminist blog and write some poems. I also set up a facebook page last week, which you can like if you want to follow me on there too!
Happy reading and blogging!
Many thanks,
Clare Bear
Clare Bear 