Day 505

1.  Was woken at 1.30am by the sound of an Etsy alert on my phone.  Unfortunately a 'favourite' and not a sale but a 'favourite' is better than nothing and it did mean that I could just drift off back to sleep.  The moral dilemma of whether I would have woken Al and the boys in my excitement of a sale I can leave for another day!

2.  Marathongirl750 is now on both Pinterest and Instagram!! But I haven't really got a clue what to do with either of them!

3.  I think there must be a better way to try to drive views than by taking a screenshot and putting it on Twitter but it's all I've got for now!

4.  Legs feeling remarkably OK to say I ran twelve and a half miles yesterday - I think the run walk run strategy might just be working. I may have a different take on that when I set off for my run tomorrow!

5.  HusbandofMG750 otherwise known as Al or sometimes Mr L did fifty catches with five juggling clubs this evening! This is hard, and he's been working at it for a long time and I just wanted to take the opportunity to say YIPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

London - 230
Glasgow - 27
Total Distance covered     845.5 miles

Day 504

1.  Absolutely the most beautiful morning for a run - all twelve and a half miles of it! Thanks for your company FMG.  Glasgow here we come!

2.  A little early to see any results from my five days of dieting the fact that I saw a giant haystack whilst still feeling like I look like Giant Haystacks made me have a rye smile to myself mid run!

3.  No mental image, nor desire to not 'break the chain' was going to stop me from eating a rather enormous brunch post run! To be fair it was probably a smaller portion than I've eaten regularly in the past but after a week of relative starvation it felt HUGE and most welcome - thank you Al!

4.  On Etsy this morning logged in as the maiden name version of me so I could add some bags to my basket and see what happened to the postage (it combines in case you'd like to buy two!) I managed to accrue 8 listings views! But that REALLY is cheating!

5.  Well done to sisterofmarathongirl750 on running 10 miles this morning! Definitely in agreement with you that you've more than made up for the other two and a bit miles with a teenage daughter shopping trip this afternoon!  (But did she walk you as far as I did in Brighton?!)

London - 231
Glasgow - 28 FOUR WEEKS!!!
Distance covered              12.5 miles
Total Distance covered     845.5 miles

Day 503

1.  Up before the sun and still not for running! Really hoping that I catch up with myself soon - these early mornings are killing me!

2.  Long run planned for tomorrow, time to volunteer at parkrun again! Which gave me the opportunity to cheer H on and watch his sprint finish (I missed it last week - although he tells me you got a good view of it fellow parkrunner!).

3.  Very glad I did as I think it will be the only chance I get to see him - the little horror went sub twenty five minutes!  His friend CM went sub twenty three which is just rude on your first attempt!

4.  BUT I have discovered the 'Age Graded League' on the parkrun page! Doing better than I thought (or at least my eighteen month old PB is!) number 297 out of a possible 1000 - sometimes it pays to be a woman of a certain age!

5. Post parkrun the day just seemed to disappear on me - which isn't great to say we were home by 10am! No jobs ticked off my to-do list, not least because I never found time to write one for today!

London - 232
Glasgow - 29
Total Distance covered      833 miles

Day 502

1. Up before the sun in an attempt to get my jobs done - couldn't quite shake the feeling that I should be donning my running kit and trainers and heading out with FMG!!

2. I'm guessing our return to pre dawn running will come round soon enough!

3. Itsy bitsy day - and despite my early start I don't think I achieved all that much. 

4.  Have sold a bag to another friend and popped one in the post to another - 3 down 36 to go. But I can't help but feel like that's cheating! 

5. Al returned from his guitar lessons last night with a donation as his teacher didn't want to take 'name the bear' options away from other people! Very nice of him and yet aaaarrrgggghhhhh all at the same time! 88 remain!

London - 233
Glasgow - 30
Total Distance covered      833 miles

Day 501

1.  I was always at risk of crashing after yesterday's euphoria - and bang! Down I came this morning with a bump!

2.  Al went back to work on Tuesday, the boys went back to school today. Dougal and I didn't enjoy our day very much.  Going to take a bit of adjusting to just being the two of us again.

3.  Hatched an idea last night to offer a free progress colouring-in page with any bag sold to my new FB group in the hope that it might generate a few laughs which might just might convert to orders - my fingers are still crossed!

4.  Etsy views are up, which is GOOD but my failure to be able to convert these to sales is BAD and kind of sticks a pin in the bubble of excitement I felt when they started to increase - but I shall persevere.  Meanwhile Al has been sent out to his guitar lessons armed with the 'Name the Bear' sheets! Be warned parkrunners they are coming your way soon!

5.  Four mile run with Dougal this afternoon.  That was rubbish too.  Thinking about it, my black mood might have more to do with the fact that I'm hungry than anything sales related! Three days in to my diet and I'm starving!

London - 234
Glasgow - 31
Distance covered               4.2 miles
Total Distance covered      833 miles

Day 500

1.  By the time I went to bed last night I was already panicking about how I was going to get through my to do list today! By the time I got up I had an email from the Business Bakery

"Day 2! Today's tip is don't get burnt out! It's tempting to do as many micro actions as possible in the early days of the 100 Day Goal but small steps EVERY DAY will get you there in better shape!"

It's like she knew!

2.  Break my chain (or rather not breaking it) worked - I went to the gym this morning!

3.  A visit from an old friend this morning - and my first sale of the 39 remaining bags! Pleased to have sold, gutted that she chose one I was thinking of keeping for myself, more than a little excited to be in a position to colour in my first bag on my progress map!

4.  A post of my chart in the group chat has brought with it many likes and positive comments admittedly most from fellow colourer iners but a suggestion that someone might buy - fingers and toes crossed everyone!

5.  500 days in! WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!! I'm in a good place and feeling more positive than I have done for a long time. Seems like a good time to share a totaliser with you... edging ever nearer!

London - 235
Glasgow - 32
Total Distance covered     828.8 miles

Day 499

1.  Day 1 of my 100 Day Goal challenge is complete! I have ticked off four actions and generated some much needed traffic to my Etsy shop.  Who cares if the views were from Latvia and the US especially as I now (having completed action 1) offer international postage!

2.  I have had to remove the link to the Facebook group chat to accompany the challenge from my news feed as it would appear I am not alone in finding the thought of colouring in my reward chart as the best bit of the day.  Who knew there were so many of us procrastinators out there who would rather discuss which picture we had chosen to colour in than actually do any work!

3.  Having distanced myself from the conversation I decided to make my own! I have kept the aforementioned heart for colouring in once an action is complete, I have drawn some lovely bunting with 100 flags to mark off the days, but by far my favourite is a page with 39 shopping bags to colour as I mark off each sale! It's been a productive day!

4.  As a motivational tool we have also been alerted to a concept coined by Jerry Seinfeld which involves marking off days on a calendar for every day you do the thing you've committed to with the idea being that you 'Don't break the Chain'. I now have two very large red crosses through September 1 on two separate sheets - one for training, one for diet! Tomorrow's squares await their outcome!

5.  Run this morning with Dougal - legs felt like lead and just couldn't find any running joy at all.  But at least H was around on my return to discuss my running stats with! Asked if he wanted to see my splits, and not quite up to speed with the fact that this refers to my time for each mile, he replied "You can't do the splits mum!".  Thankfully I knew better than to try to prove him wrong!

London - 236
Glasgow - 33
Distance covered               3.8 miles
Total Distance covered     828.8 miles