You may be wondering what a Green Goat has got to do with this blog’s price of fish?
Well, the title reflects three big things in my life. Being a mum, Green travel and Astrology.
You see I am a Capricorn – a goat according to the astrological definition. Those born under this star sign apparently have an inner determination to climb the mountain of success.
Well, my goal here is simply to become a greener, healthier and all-round better version of myself.
But first, to be a better person I need to practice what I preach. I work on a project called Connect which was set up to encourage greener travel in Blackburn with Darwen – promoting things like walking, cycling, car sharing…you get the drift.
So my seven-year-old daughter, in her youthful wisdom, recommended that I ought to use allteration to describe this title, so I heeded her advice and the Green Goat was born.
As a full-time working mum, with a child who has more hobbies than time, I’m never going to become an Elle Macpherson disciple. But one can have aspirations. Can’t they?
The fact is feeling unhealthy and overweight actually makes me miserable – when it becomes a struggle to simply get your boots on in the morning you know something needs to be done. FAST.
And that all started with a climb up the snow-topped Lancashire beauty spot, Pendle Hill. But it wasn’t such a wise move for this go-getting goat.
No it wasn’t. Tumbling down the hill was an unfortunate start to my fitness attempt. The picturesque scene of wintery whiteness was somewhat blemished by my abominable snowman impersonation.
Thankfully the freshly-fallen powdered snow meant it was nothing more a bruised dignity, so I wasn’t going to let that stop me in my tracks.
Indeed, the following day I parked the car a 30-minute walk away from the town hall where I work. I wanted to treat the car to a cheap valet really, so the walk was a forced consequence.
But it was a good one. I loved that walk into work.
It gave me some quality thinking time. I got to squeeze in a bit of exercise and best of all it was FREE.
But what made me smile most was when my tech-savvy colleague told me to check my phone. Unbeknown to me it had cleverly recorded that I’d taken 6,000 steps – all before I’d opened my first email. Well done me because previously, I’d have struggled to achieve that number in a week, never mind in one day!
The aim is to reach 10,000 steps by the end of each day. This apparently helps to burn an extra 400 calories whilst doing my green bit by walking more and driving less.
The first day I’d done just over 9,000 steps. The excuse for my failure lies with the size of my iphone 6 I’m afriad. You see, it doesn’t acknowledge that I’m a girl and that I don’t usually wear clothes with pockets so it can track my every move.
So I’m going to invest in something more user friendly – something you can wear even when you’re sleeping. My dad and his wife use these devices and it’s working for them. They compete against each other to see who can reach their target steps the fastest, who can do the most steps and who can burn the most calories.
I’ve decided I’m joining that friendly competition because there’s an old proverb that states: “Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life.”
That’s why I’m taking this one step at a time…