Reflecting - A Healthy Living Environment Does Wonders

Big changes

Now that the end of the year is near, I start to think about the changes we've made in 2023 and also compare the year to the previous year, 2022. As you may know, 2022 was the year of a very big change, one that I desired for the full 4,5 years in Budapest, namely to move back to Spain. Of course, we had fun times and we made memories there, but overall we weren't happy there. You could say that it often felt like an ongoing depressed feeling while not being depressed. It was everything around us that made us feel less happy. It took a bit longer than we hoped (thanks to the pandemic and uncertainties around it) to get back to Spain, but the most important thing is that we did it and I'm super happy about that.

Stuck!

Now even though our life truly upgraded moving back to Spain, this surely didn't mean our home was an upgrade. We went from a 2 bedroom (big) apartment in Budapest to a 1 bedroom apartment (granted, a big bedroom with 3 beds as an office setting inside) directly next to a public stairs where the youth was loud and smoking in front of our windows often 7 days a week. On top of that, there was close to zero airflow, meaning it stayed hot inside constantly. The lack of proper fresh oxygen inside made me crazy, I often thought I'd settle for a small bedroom if only I could open the windows properly and feel some fresh air.

Thankfully, our overall happiness was much better because as soon as work finished, we'd go out for a walk or tapas (or both) because that's the Spanish lifestyle we love so much. The hustle and bustle of people chatting everywhere, having a drink and some food, surrounded by good company is mood lifting. Therefore I was not worried we'd end up being stuck in that apartment for many years, at least we made progress in the overall happiness department.

The universe has her ways

Even though things seemed impossible at some points in our lives, and even though goals may have looked unrealistic for others, if I feel it's going to be ok, it always ends up being ok. These are the moments that I'm so confident and feel in my whole body that what I want, will be and therefore I focus on that goal and make it happen. Sometimes the universe delivers things in a different form that I envisioned but it's really cool and sometimes funny to see how that unfolds when I look back some time later.

A funny example of this is when I was looking for apartments in this area (still in Budapest) I found 1 huge apartment with a killer view (for way too much money) and I really envisioned finding something like that because I loved the view. Looking back some months ago, I discovered that this apartment was located almost next to my daughters school (just minutes from our old home). We had no option in picking our living area last year so I had nothing to do with that distance, lol.

Life and lemons

When life throws you lemons, you get creative. At least, I do. When October just started, we were left without water supply at home and you may have read my posts about it (the drought chronicles). While being angry, annoyed and stressed about it, we quickly managed to adapt to the situation where we needed to fill up 20+ 5 litre bottles every day (sometimes every other day, depending on what we did) and shower every other day in the owners other apartment. Laundry was done at the laundry service and this way we managed to get through the weeks. It was not fun, but it made me determined to use this situation to get out of the shitty apartment.

I found a clause in the contract stating that if one of the parties doesn't live up to their duties, the contract can be nullified, meaning that we'd also get back our deposit. If we were to move without the owner at fault, we would have lost the 2 months deposit because of us leaving early. In the end this meant the whole situation turned out a blessing in disguise as I set my mind to it, and I made it happen.

Killer view and fresh air!

We didn't have an outside space at all in the old home, now we have a balcony with a killer view. All rooms have big windows we can open and I sit here enjoying a nice sea breeze blowing through the room. I truly believe it was the universe providing exactly what we needed. This home ticks all the boxes and had more than I wished for in the first place. Waking up can still be grumpy if we're tired but then we open the blinds and see this amazing view. It puts a smile on everyone's face every single morning. How lucky are we?
I can go on about this home, but I want to focus on health improvements as well so let's get to that.

Bad for the (mental) health

Last year, I discovered that I had quite a high blood pressure and after two incidents, the doctor gave me medication for my blood pressure. I didn't really fancy needing medication but I also saw how tricky it would be without them, so I accepted it. It surely didn't help that the first nine months living in the other home, we were stuck uphill without a car. Walking down and up that hill every day for basic needs messed up my knee so badly that I was in much pain for several months until it finally healed. Then my back started to act up and I was not getting much movement during some of these weeks. I have a smartwatch so I could see how many (or lack of many) steps I had overall.

This all changed the day we moved. It's not weird that during moving days you have a lot of steps because it's often a lot of going back and forward until all items are moved to the new place, but I was happy to notice an increase of daily steps even after we moved out fully. I really notice the difference mentally as well as physically.

Clearer mind and even losing weight!

You can imagine having a huge lack of daily steps will make you gain some weight, this is really the case. I felt as if that house made me rusty and heavier. Both mentally and physically I felt heavy and that all changed by moving houses. The oxygen coming in from the open windows alone is making me feel so much better, I feel much lighter in my head and do so much more since we moved. I feel as if I gained a few hours a day because I can handle more than I could in the previous home.

A few days ago my boyfriend said you lost a bit of weight I can see it. I personally didn't notice it and wasn't checking it either but I did after he mentioned it and he was right, in total I lost 4.1 kg since the last time I checked. When I discovered my back issue could be less of an issue by losing some weight, I bought a good scale to check the weight and get moving, but then the whole no water thing happened and I was exhausted every day by getting through the day without putting in an effort. Now that things are settled and the more moving seems to working out well already, I'm very determined to give this a better push and set some goals to lose more weight because I've noticed that my blood pressure is holding up much better even if I forget the meds a day (this was not the case last month) and my back is also doing much better.

A healthy living environment

Experiencing this and seeing the huge improvement in the things mentioned above made me realize how important having a healthy living environment is exactly. Sure I knew that it would be better to have a home where you can open your windows to find some fresh air and that getting more steps is better for you, but I never realized that moving to a bigger home (it's almost double the square meters) would mean I easily get double the steps I normally had in the other home. My average from this month has doubled! I first had the goal of 6k steps because higher was not reasonable at all, but already moved it up to 7k last week as I easily reach that too. Next goal is 8k every day. I won't be hard on myself if I have a lazy day (such as yesterday) but in this case it still means I get to the steps I had on average in the old home, so that's not too bad.

That sums it up more or less, lol. Life seems to be getting better lately, I love it!