30 Complaint-Free Days 

Day 26

20,225 steps!

I did this in 1 walk to Waitrose and back, plus walking round the house. Will I still be able to walk tomorrow?

I chose a very hot day to walk and drank over a litre of water. It brought home to me how fortunate I am to have easy access to clean drinking water. Many people have to walk far farther than I did just to collect dirty water to drink. 

At lunchtime the latest newsletter arrived from WaterAid - a charity I support. It made me realise how lucky I am.

Being Friday it was also bed change and house clean day. As I changed my bed I pondered how blessed I am to have such a comfortable bed and a selection of clean sheets to change. I would think that the majority of people in the world don't have this. Cleaning the house made me aware how fortunate I am to have a roof over my head and a house to clean, so many don't enjoy that privilege.

Then there was ironing! Now I do like ironing - I find it a very creative activity. But I also realised that I am so lucky to have a change of clothes (well, several actually!) and so I enjoyed the ironing even more - with a glass of Pimms to celebrate achieving so many steps.

We really are very blessed in this country and I finished the day with a greater sense of this.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring - and how many steps?

30 Complaint-Free Days 

Day 3

Today I complained - long and hard about my new Fitbit tracker! Yup - technology got the better of me!

The thing is - all I actually wanted was a simple pedometer to track my steps each day and this Fitbit tracker seems to be so complicated!

OK, I accept that I haven't had great success with pedometers in the past. They have worked - spectacularly simply and easily. My challenge has always come in keeping them for very long. I seem to have spectacular success in killing them off! About half of my past pedometers have ended up falling down the toilet - nice! The rest have managed to pop off my waistband or belt as I have got out of the car and ended up either being trodden on by me or run over by passing cars! So I thought that the wristband might be a bit more secure. Though quite how something on my wrist can track my steps I can't quite imagine. The way I throw my arms about when I talk I imagine it could believe I have done several thousand steps before I have moved at all. 

But I remembered to think of a better feeling thought to stop the complaints and came up with 

1. I am very fortunate to have a Fitbit.
2. I am sure I will eventually come to love it and it will transform my fitness levels - necessary now I am 60 years old. I intend to grow old disgracefully and have fun and I need to be fit for that.
3. I am blessed to have a lifestyle that requires me to keep track of my activity. Most people in the world do so much walking just to survive that this is truly a 'first world problem'.

Then the traffic almost got the better of me. I decided to take the garden waste to the tip and it seemed that every time I wanted to do a right turn 'the world and his wife' were waiting to stop me! But I was not really in a hurry and clearly everyone else was, so I calmed down and decided to find it amusing.

So what are my thoughts and pondering on my complaining today?

Well, I can reach for better feeling thoughts when I realise I am about to get cross, I can do things that  make me happy, I can make sure I leave plenty of time so I don't have to stress when I get held up in traffic, I can see the funny side and I can try to do things to help other people. I just need to remember how very blessed I am and trust that everything will work out for the best in the end.

ON the plus side - I suspect there is little danger that this step tracker will drop down the toilet of fall under a passing car! That has to be cause for celebration.