March, For Me

#ShefCodeFirst Community โค๏ธ
#ShefCodeFirst Community โค

The Month of March saw too much snow for my liking and at one point resulted in me walking 30 minutes in the freezing cold and in the deep snow back home from yoga. Of course, I was only wearing a sports bra, cropped leggings, a jacket and mesh trainers – not my fault, it’s supposed to be Spring ๐Ÿ˜†

(You’d think living in the UK for 17 years would teach me a lesson about the weather but I still get too excited when a tiny bit of the sun comes out!)

Besides the snow…


MAIN HIGHLIGHTS

COMMUNITY

  • ๐Ÿ’ซ On International Women’s Day, I featured on a video with The University of Sheffield where I had the opportunity to showcase the community work with Code First: Girls I’ve been doing for the last two years. It was great exposure of the coding courses at University and would have hopefully encouraged more female students to take part or at least be aware that it’s happening! The video showcased some other incredible women across the university encouraging everyone to continue to #PressForProgress.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

  • โ˜น๏ธ Unfortunately, because of the snow, I couldn’t give my WITNotts talk in Nottingham but this will be rescheduled!
  • ๐ŸŽค I did attend the Code First: Girls Northern Conference (despite the bad weather) in Manchester and spoke on my panel on Personal Development with Kirsty Styles and Dijonn Taylor. I was very honoured to speak at the conference (as you all know Code First: Girls has a special place in my heart ๐Ÿ’–) You can watch the panel here.

HEALTH

  • ๐Ÿง˜๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ Last month, I finished my 21 days of Hot Yoga and ended up buying a membership. I’m now dedicating some time every weekend to do it alongside some mobility practice during the week! Flexibility goal, I’ve not given up on you yet. ๐Ÿ‘€
  • ๐Ÿ’ช๐Ÿผ Kicking butt with Grace Fit Guide 3.
  • ๐Ÿ’ฆ Water is important. I’ve made it a goal to drink as much as I can this month!

UNIVERSITY

  • ๐Ÿ“š The first half of my final spring semester at University is now complete! It’s scary how quickly time has gone. Soon enough I’ll be done ๐Ÿ‘€ I’ve enjoyed most of my modules with my favourite being Forensic Anatomy ๐Ÿ”Ž
  • ๐Ÿฐ Easter started!

CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • ๐Ÿš€ I’ve had some positive progress with job applications.
  • ๐Ÿ“ฃ  I’ve made some changes on my website.

PERSONAL

  • ๐ŸŽ‚ My family and I celebrated my Mom’s birthday this month

MENTIONS


3 THINGS I AM HAPPY ABOUT

1๏ธโƒฃ My Health

I mention this every month because health and well-being have become the centre of everything for me.

This month especially, I’ve felt really content with where I’m at with my health. Whilst I was re-evaluating my goals this month (and starting #GFG3) I became mindful of how I have moved away from what I look like e.g. “I want abs” or “I want less belly fat” to the root of why I started in the first place:

  • to feel good
  • to become stronger
  • for stress release
  • for my mental health

I think it’s easy for people to fall into exercise wanting to look a certain way and focusing solely on that (completely fine if you do) but I find that, for me at least, it’s easy to fall out of love with fitness when progress starts to slow down compared to when you first started (which it will because #beginnergainz are a thing.)

I recall when I tried fitness in 2014, I was so focused on having a flat stomach and abs that when I didn’t see results, I quit. I felt frustrated that my one gym session didn’t seem to do anything.

My mindset has changed a lot since then.

Afterall, I’m working out because I love my body, my mind and health. Not because I hate it.

Self-care, y’all.

2๏ธโƒฃ The tough career journey

This month I’ve been working hard on looking at the next chapter of my life after University. The journey is difficult, I’ve learnt to wire into my brain that rejections are part of the process and to practice patience.

I’ve been very inspired by companies I’ve been looking at and have had wonderful opportunities to speak to some. Learning about what some organisations are doing right now excites me for the future! The process has made me realise how much meaningful, impactful and positive work means to me. For me, it’s not just about going to work to earn – but to contribute to bigger things.

Fingers crossed on the outcomes. ๐Ÿ˜Š

I’m feeling positive because each interview process has been a learning opportunity. I actually created a spreadsheet with all the jobs I’ve applied for, the process and outcome (if any yet) with a reflection column so I can always encourage myself to reflect on the situation for growth.

Paw's killer spreadsheet of moving forward
Paw’s killer spreadsheet of moving forward

3๏ธโƒฃ Starting to wrap things up

I can see the finish line of my university life. ๐Ÿค—

Code First: Girls SS18 Beginners cohort in Sheffield
Code First: Girls SS18 Beginners cohort in Sheffield

I started wrapping up activities that I’ve been doing on the side, like Code First: Girls and MedTech (both of which I will miss a lot.) The first half of Spring semester is also done! Only one half left ๐Ÿ‘€

I’m excited to see what’s next!


March IN PHOTOS

March in photos
March in Photos

#Pawsitivity๐ŸŒ 

This is a new section that I decided to add to my round-up posts to spread positive vibes! This can be tweets, messages, articles, videos – anything that have made my heart smile ๐Ÿ˜Š

For March, it is this message from a student I taught from the CFG course. Thank you ๐Ÿ’•

A student from the CFG course sent me this sweet message ๐Ÿค—
A student from the CFG course sent me this sweet message ๐Ÿค—

MONTHLY FAVOURITES

HEALTH & WELL-BEING

  • ๐Ÿ“ The Five Minute Journal: A Happier You in 5 Minutes a Day – I started writing in the physical book recently as opposed to the app and have enjoyed less screen time.
  • ๐Ÿฅœ Peanut butter – my recent obsession ๐Ÿ˜‚ My personal favourite right now is the Natural Roasted Peanut Butter Crunchy Tub (1 kg)
  • ๐Ÿ“ฑ The app, Moment. It’s helped me track how much time I spend on my phone a day to help stop me from picking up my phone every 5 minutes (because awareness is where improvements start.)
  • ๐Ÿ’™ The FitBit app. I love tracking my health and my health data. I started tracking my water consumption on my FitBit and love the ~completeness~! My Fitbit is the Fitbit Blaze and I pair it with the Slim Band.

BOOKS

PODCASTS

  • ๐ŸŽง Optimal Health Daily – I’ve found myself listening to this whilst I workout. It’s a highly informative podcast on everything health-related from diet, fitness and myths.

MUSIC

FILMS


NEXT MONTH

โšก I WILLโ€ฆ

  • ๐Ÿค“ Keep my head down with final bits of university revision and coursework. I can do this. ๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿผ
  • ๐Ÿ’ป Stay positive with my career search
  • ๐Ÿง˜๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ Workout because I love my body, mind and health

๐ŸŽซ EVENTS

  • ๐Ÿ’œ I will be speaking at InspireWIT this year on my journey into the tech/digital field! It’s an honour because this was the first conference that introduced me to the wonderful world of tech.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

 

 

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9 responses to “March, For Me”

  1. Good job on your accomplishments during March! Honestly, as much as itโ€™s great to have some aesthetics from fitness, having good health and strength matters more. Not like you gonna be walking around in a crop top in a professional work environment all the time unless you work in a gym environment! Good luck with your goals for April!

  2. Wow! You had an incredible month for sure. Motivated by my job search and career advance I decided to take a break from my beauty blog to focus on my software engineering career after moving from Mexico to the US. I must say that every post you make and even your instagram stories remind me of who I want to be and stand out for that.
    That’s why I find your content very real and inspiring. โ™ฅ
    Thank you so much for sharing and caring ๐Ÿ™‚
    Love from AZ.

  3. Sounds like you had a great month Pauline! I’m entering my final year of my undergrad studies as well, and hopefully moving on to my master’s studies afterwards. I have to admit, it’s exciting but also nerve wracking!
    Congrats on your health and fitness! I feel better this month having stayed close to my goals for the month. I really do feel much better overall despite still not seeing a different in my weight or waistline yet.
    Thanks for sharing your month ๐Ÿ˜€

  4. I love these monthly recaps! I’m definitely with you on the fitness train. It’s funny how we start out focused on aesthetics, and while they’re still nice, what it does for you mentally and emotionally becomes so much more. I definitely want to get back on the yoga train, especially now that it’s getting warm enough to run again cuz I get some TIGHT hips.

    And you’ve GOT this! The end of your university time is so close.

    Ben always calls April ‘camp month’ and that means we eat super clean and train dirty. He got the idea because this was always training month for one of his favorite boxers, so it just stuck throughout the years!

    So here’s to camp for all of us :). Super stoked for you! Let’s get it this month!

    Susie | http://milehighdreamers.com

  5. Hi Pauline, long time no see/blog/comment haha! I gave up blogging for Lent season, so I was on and off on the internet in general. I did spend most of it learning Javascript, though I feel that I’ve failed on that one too. Learning it is one thing, applying it to real life is another.

    But, congrats again on yet another successful month. The final months of university are always exciting, but at the same time, challenging. It’s more of a preparation for the real world rather than sighing in relief that university life is over and it looks like you’re on your way. ๐Ÿ˜Š

    I’ve also read Ready Player One back when it first came out (2011? 2012?) and it eventually led me to watching the first series of the anime Sword Art Online (since both have virtual reality games as the main themes). It was even the time before VR systems started coming out in real life too. The irony! Eventually, I learned that Sword Art Online is originally a light novel series and stopped watching anime, because I always preferred books. I started reading the light novels instead (much better than the anime). In turn, I probably wouldn’t watch the movie version of RPO, because I always had a love-hate relationship with movies based on books. ๐Ÿ˜…

  6. Wow, so much happened in March for you! Congrats on the nominations!

    I really like that you write about your changed mindset when it comes to exercise and health. It’s easy to get discouraged when you don’t see the physical changes you expect but feeling better is more important!

    I also think that’s a great idea that you have a spreadsheet to reflect on the jobs you applied for. I never thought to do that before, but I can see how that would help you find improvements for next time.

    Good luck on everything!

  7. I like your spreadsheet for jobs you’ve applied for. That is something I did when I was job hunting too. Well on paper, because that was like 10 years ago haha. But same concept. Good luck!

  8. Wow, time goes so quickly. It is hard to believe that you are in your final year of university already. I wish you all the best for April, I am sure you will have an excellent month. ๐Ÿ˜€

  9. I love that you dubbed it Mindful March! I totally understand about your worry about life after university. When I finished my nursing program, it took me a month until I found someone who was willing to give new grad nurse a chance. And yes there were several rejections but hey, they should motivate you to work harder and you just have to keep in mind that you weren’t meant to be there and better opportunities will definitely come along ๐Ÿ™‚ Wishing you all the best, Paw-lean!

    โ˜ผ cabin twenty-four

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