30 Complaint-Free Days 

Day 4

A much better day for complaining. I do believe that the only complaining I did was to myself about myself, which is interesting.

I have been able to accept everything else from everyone else - but not myself.

I suspect most people are the same - kinder to others than they are to themselves. I have read about the way we wouldn't speak to anyone else in the same way we speak to ourselves - and I am doing just that. I am complaining about so many things that I do and how I do them. I eat too much, drink too little water, don't do all the jobs on my list .....

I could go on.

So I clearly need to work out a way to develop tolerance to the fact that I am not perfect and I am doing my best. I wonder how best to do this?

They say that people should talk to themselves in the same way they would talk to a dear friend and be as kind and patient as they would be with that friend. It makes sense because if we can't be our own best friend and show others how to treat us then we can't expect others to treat us well.

I still need to be a little more disciplined though. Trouble is, I am ultra-disciplined when I am working (i would never be able to get to work by 7am or get anything done if I wasn't) but when I am not at work routine and discipline go right out of the window! Hmm.

That needs a bit more contemplation.

On a positive note, my Fitbit seems to be working well. I have done over 20,000 steps over the last 2 days and it doesn't automatically skip to distance now, which is good. I'm still not convinced that it isn't counting my typing and cooking as steps, but we shall see.

And, I came up with a 'recipe' for my own gluten-free cauliflower cheese grills today to use up some leftover cauliflower mash. They were delicious. I will develop the recipe further, but the first attempt was an accidental  success.

Onwards and upwards.

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.