2021: The Best Year Yet! February Edition

We did it, guys. We made it through the first 31 days of the year. We made it through Blue Monday and we made it through a month of another lockdown. We made it through a weekend of snow, and a few days of biblical rain.

Highlights of January? There were many! The 31 pictures all have a memory attached, whether it be food, a random sign, a film, the football or anything else. I love to take pictures, and even if the picture doesn't have a meaning to someone, they all have a meaning to me.

Last month also saw the start of my Marketing course as well. It's been nearly 2 years since the Comms and Marketing departments at work joined forces, and I've really enjoyed the Marketing side of it... more than I would have originally imagined, as a lot of it is through Social Media... blog posts like this or from marketing our website. But I know there's a lot I don't know, so 2021 is the year I'm doing a Certificate in Digital Marketing. This term is Applied Marketing - learning the fundamentals - and then that's followed by 2 modules of Digital Marketing Techniques, which I'm already excited for.

But anyway... shall we see what I have in store for myself in February? Yeaaaaah...!

FEBRUARY EDITION: PHYSICAL HEALTH

So - as I mentioned in January's blog post - I have managed to pick up a nasty case of shin splints, so my plan to increase the running increments by half a mile a month has so far gone down the bog hole... but don't worry! I have a plan to keep myself active!

Looking back at my step count throughout January, there were definitely some days where I did better, and some where I really did terribly... When you're in lockdown, it's easy to feel like you can't get out and go anywhere. In doing my runs I did manage to get outside, which felt great, but it was not for long and not for far enough.

So this month I'm slowing down the speed but I'm ramping up the distance. I'm challenging myself to do at least 5,000 steps a day on every week day and then at least 10,000 steps on the weekend. Again, this may not look like much, but on the week days in January I was consistently getting to around 4,000 steps (which included my run!) so I want to do better.

But that's not all I'm doing. Throughout January my sister was doing Courtney Black's 28 day challenge, so I'm setting myself the challenge of doing some of those too... and we'll see how much of a difference this all makes! I probably won't be doing one every day, but I'm determined to keep my fitness up to be able to get back to running in March...!

I lost just over 4 kilos in January with running 31 miles, which I'm extremely proud of, and after so many positive results with my runs - breaking my own PB 14 times - I'm determined to keep this going!

FEBRUARY EDITION: MENTAL HEALTH

Now I quite liked the 'take a picture every day' idea, but this time I've got a slightly different twist to it. I will be taking a picture a day... but of each Tom Hanks movie I watch. Yep, that's right. My mental health challenge this month is to watch 28 Tom Hanks films!!

Tom Hanks has been in a whopping 94 films - some much bigger than others with him being nominated for over 190 awards, including 6 Oscars (he won 2 of them!) - so I think I should be okay in filling all 28 of these slots by the end of this month.

Now, you ask, why Tom Hanks? Why not Matt Damon? He's your favourite actor...

Well, it's actually because there are still a fair few Tom Hanks films that I haven't seen that people would probably find quite surprising. I've never seen The Green Mile. I've never seen Road to Perdition all the way through. I've never seen Captain Phillips... and I've never seen Big. I've never seen Philadelphia. So... without listing every critically-acclaimed Tom Hanks films I haven't seen, I'm simply rectifying it... and can only apologise for not seeing these films before now.

To be honest, I'm quite excited because the thing I love about Tom Hanks is that he's such a versatile actor. He can voice a toy cowboy and he can play an airline pilot. He can play Fred Rogers and he can play Walt Disney. And with a new Netflix film coming out this month starring, you guessed it, Tom Hanks, we get to see him in action in the Wild West, riding a horse..!

Josie's probably going to hate me by the end of February, but I reckon there will be a fair few of these that are right up her street too, so we'll see how much complaining there will be, eh!

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THE OTHER STUFF:

FEBRUARY EDITION: FILM TALLY - 41, Tom Hanks tally = 17

Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Mean Girls, Toy Story 3, Iron Man 3, Toy Story 4, Thor: The Dark World, Big, Turner & Hooch, Boss Baby, Mamma Mia, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, Greyhound, You’ve Got Mail, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Catch Me If You Can, News of the World, Guardians of the Galaxy vol 1, Apollo 13, The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, To All The Boys: PS I Still Love You, To All the Boys: Always and Forever, Notting Hill, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Saving Mr Banks, Inferno, The Terminal, The Green Mile, Sense & Sensibility, The Kissing Booth 2, The Wedding Planner, Two Hearts, The Circle, Spider-Man Homecoming, Doctor Strange, Two Weeks Notice, After We Collided

FEBRUARY EDITION: BOOKS TALLY - 3

Dash & Lily

After We Fell

It’s Not Christmas Without You