Category Archives: self

How the technology in my life has changed during the past three years (birth announcement)

By Kate Davis | Published: November 25, 2011

Two weeks ago I gave birth to my son, almost exactly three years after my daughter; arriving the day before her birthday. It was a very different experience as he arrived within 3.5 hours of the first contraction and within 17 minutes of arriving at the hospital!

So far, I’ve been surprised to notice how my use of technology has changed in those three years. In most cases the technology was previously available, but just hadn’t made it in to my life.

  • we made the initial birth announcement by group text message as opposed to email (this is partly down to having a phone I can manage to text from and being on an inclusive package)
  • showing off our son on Skype to my sister in Japan within 5 hours of him being born, last time although I was registered on Skype I only got a webcam the following Christmas
  • my smart phone enables me to keep up to date with friends, family and news through email, facebook and news apps, and I can use it one handed so it is easy to use while I’m nursing, previously I had to find a bit of time to use my computer
    Using laptop with baby on lap

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Why do we ignore life essentials?

By Kate Davis | Published: October 15, 2010

Image by kaneda99

I have to admit that I’ve felt sluggish over the last few months and found it difficult to get going. I’ve looked at this from several different angles such as having the wrong tasks or working at the wrong times of day, but I’ve been missing the obvious; I’m lacking good quality sleep.

Adequate sleep is crucial to proper brain function – no less so than air, water, and food …Any amount of sleep deprivation will diminish mental performance The human brain

I’ve know for several years that getting more sleep would make me feel happier, but I suspect I’m now getting less than previously because I get so absorbed in the book I’m reading I forget to put it down (sometimes for hours).

After just one night without sleep, concentration becomes more difficult and attention span shortens considerably. With continued lack of sufficient sleep, the part of the brain that controls language, memory, planning and sense of time is severely affected, practically shutting down. In fact, 17 hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.05% (two glasses of wine). This is the legal drink driving limit in the UK. BBC Science

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I completed my 5km Race for life

By Kate Davis | Published: June 8, 2009

Kate having completed the Race for Life 2009Every year Cancer Rearch UK organise a series of women only 5km (3 mile) sponsored runs across the UK. Although they are called Race for Life everyone gets a medal as the aim is to finish anyway you can, whether it is running, walking, pushing a pram or wheelchair or doing a three legged race.

I’ve always been a sprinter and thought I’d done my only long distance run when I completed a Race for Life 7 years ago, but signed up for this year after it was suggested it would be a good target to lose some of my pregnancy weight. I was keen to run the race despite having only completed the distance once before, but found it difficult to find time to train and two weeks before the run the furthest I’d gone was 1.6km and that only involved 6 minutes of running.

However, I’m pleased to say that on Sunday I completed my Race for Life along with another 2500 women. I ran about half of the course and completed the distance  in under 42 minutes. I’m also pleased to say that I have already raised my sponsorship target of £100 with more money still to come in.

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Something you may not know about me – I’m a cyclist

By Kate Davis | Published: August 13, 2007

Cycling Kate 1993Okay, I admit it, that title is fabricated a little bit, it should really say I used to be a cyclist.

I used to go on holiday where we cycled to all the locations we stayed and carried all the gear on our bikes. I have cycled around the Eastern and Western Scottish island, Northumberland and Norway. However, when I went to university I virtually stopped cycling and certainly nothing serious.

So why do I mention here?

Yesterday my husband serviced our bikes and we went for a cycle ride. It was really enjoyable cycling on one of the National Cycle Networks through the villages near where we live, particularly as we hadn’t done the route before. It was only meant to be a quick ride so we got some exercise, but somehow, our 20 minute cycle became almost 2 hours! The route took us to almost outside my work before we turned round, which means I now know the safe route to cycle to work and once I can do the ride quicker I can join some of my colleagues who frequently commute to work on their bikes.

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Wheel of life July 2007: tired and lethargic

By Kate Davis | Published: July 23, 2007

I have felt tired and lethargic during the last month and forgot to take action to improve the balance in my life. However I believe my relationships and close family score have increased because I have started making more dates to meet up with friends and family, in fact we had friends round for dinner on Saturday night and took the opportunity to use as much of our wedding china as possible, producing a 4 course dinner. I have decreased the level for money because I have not done any of my usual routine during the last month, such as checking statements. 

wljune07.gifWhat I am most disappointed with is that I have not worked on identifying my goals, let alone taking action to achieve them. In fact, I have been lying to myself that I am working on them when actually I’ve just been faffing and stalling.To make up for this I am going to sit down with some paper this evening and make some good progress at the start of the next 30 days.

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Exercise the route to happiness, so why am I resisting?

By Kate Davis | Published: June 8, 2007

I have been procrastinating on writing this post because I haven’t wanted to think about how I would benefit from more exercise. In my post What is happiness? I listed exercise as one component that was suggested in the book Making Happy People: The Nature of Happiness and Its Origins in Childhood. I can fully understand that exercise is a component of happiness because when I’ve been regularly exercising I’ve had more energy and felt more of the opportunities offered by life. However, I am currently in an exercising dip and have been for a few months (OK at least six) and I’m struggling to get out of it.

kate on day after weddingOf course, exercising will also help me towards the other two components of happiness I’m considering at the moment; sleeping and attractiveness. I’m particularly keen on the last one, because I’ve noticed I’m starting to get a little podgy so some of my clothes don’t fit as well as they should. Additionally, Penelope Trunk suggests there are also business related benefits such as increased IQ and increased resilience to difficult times, in fact she feels regular exercise is no longer optional.

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The attractiveness of happiness

By Kate Davis | Published: April 25, 2007

bride kateThe second component of happiness I’m going to consider is attractiveness. I know there is little I can do about my features (without taking drastic action) but I know I can do more with what I’ve got. It may just be women, but when you have the perfect outfit for an occasion you know you look good so it adds to your happiness. The biggest experience I’ve had of this was my wedding day, I would have been happy however I looked, but having the whole outfit certainly helped. Unfortunately I don’t look as good as I did on my wedding day every day, but it highlight the reasons why not:

  • I was wearing a designer dress
  • I spent months finding the dress
  • some else put my hair up
  • some else did my makeup

Unfortunately I am not that organised most days; I wear whatever clothes I find first in the morning, all my clothes are looking tired because I dislike clothes shopping, I tend to put my hair up in a pony tail or leave it down with no styling and I rarely wear makeup.

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Sleeping my way to happiness

By Kate Davis | Published: April 18, 2007

baby KateI’ve chosen to consider how sleep affects my happiness first because I think it has the most obvious effect. You know when you’re tired everything will be just that little bit harder, things will irritate a little bit more and its more difficult to remain calm, positive and, well, happy.

I’ve never been a good sleeper. In fact, my mother tells me I only slept for 3 hours a day as a baby. Wouldn’t it be great if that was the case now, all that extra time to get things done.

However my problem, now, is not being able to get to sleep; I don’t understand people like the husband who can fall asleep in the middle of a sentence or if he sits still for too long. So it frequently takes me an hour or two to get to sleep and I will then sleep until the alarm goes off when I wake up tired. What I would like, is to fall asleep quicker so I got more sleep and would then hopefully feel less tired, happier and may wake up earlier and have more time in the day.

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What is happiness?

By Kate Davis | Published: April 6, 2007

For many years, whenever I’ve been asked what my goal in life is I’ve said happiness. However, I’ve never really thought through what that means. I think I always thought that happiness was something that happened to you, so one day I would wake up and be happy. Nice idea, but I’ve now learnt it is something you need to work at.

I recently read Making Happy People: The Nature of Happiness and Its Origins in Childhood (read my review) and fairly soon afterwards came across these two posts Happiness formula and What is happiness? which both also consider the components of happiness. As I came across these close together, I took this to be a sign that I should consider my happiness. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m unhappy because I don’t feel that way, but I don’t see any harm in trying to identify ways to make myself happier.

I have reviewed the three sources and developed a list of some of the components they consider to contribute to happiness and I’ll work through each one in turn (but probably not in this order).

  • relationships with other people
  • engaging in meaningful activity
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Ratcheting down my weight

By Kate Davis | Published: March 15, 2007

Thin kateI did a really good job of losing weight and toning up for my wedding. However in the year and a half since I’ve put on over a stone and I hate to admit it, but I now weigh more than my husband.

Before the wedding I was doing at least five exercise classes a week and loving it. Unfortunately due to work commitments and injuries I didn’t get straight back into the routine after the honeymoon. For the last year I’ve half heartedly said I was going to regain the momentum and lose some of the weight, but I guess there just wasn’t the same motivation.

Mark Foster has suggested an approach to losing weight that works like a ratchet e.g. it only goes one way. It is very simple:

  • weigh yourself every day
  • if your weight is the same as the previous day, do nothing
  • if your weight is higher, introduce a new habit
  • if your weight is lower, remove one of the habits, but this new weight is now the measure for future days
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  • About

    My name is Kate Davis and I'm working towards a happier and successful life and this blog follows my journey. I work almost full time as an environmental consultant and project manager and I'm the mother to a beautiful two year daughter.

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