It's the first weekend in December, and holiday plans are really gearing up. Are you planning parties, school events, travel? Are you making your lists and checking them twice? How is your Filofax helping you during this very busy time?
And as always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything Filofax related.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Not really christmas related but after a long period of severe illness and having to take a cocktail of medication including steroids I now find myself having to lose alot of weight. I just wondered if anybody else uses their filo's as a weight loss tool and if so how they organize it? Many thanks xxx
ReplyDeleteI'm very pleased to announce that I have converted my son to Filofax. He found an old A5 amongst my things and appropriated it as he wanted to look more professional at work. he also bought an A4 agenda from the Swedish site for 90k. This from someone who swore by his smart phone for everything!
ReplyDelete@Kate, I trust you have shared the secret of Philofaxy with your son... lots of suitable templates for his A5 and A4 here....
ReplyDeleteXClaireX...
ReplyDeleteI have a cheery yellow pocket Piazza which I purchased from Pens and Leather that I use for my Weight Watchers Filo.I have a Notes section, which I use during WW meetings; an Info section, in which I recorded my WW passwords and other pertinent info; I printed a label from my Dymo label maker for my Points Tracker section. Here I use the Meals Tracker sheet from the Philofaxy files and edited it to include a 'points' column, since every food item has a points value. I can easily keep track of how much I consume during the day. I also made a label for my 'Points Values' section. I used the ABC address index tabs to list foods alphabetically once I know their points value. This way I won't need to calculate it each time I want to eat. For instance, I'm having Hummus for lunch today. I've already calculated the points for it, so I just flip to the 'ghi' tab behind the 'Points Values' section and find that 2 tablespoons is 1 point. I then go the 'Points Tracker' section and record it for today (I also keep my 'Today' page marker in this section). I keep my weight watchers record card in the front flap section and pull it out when I go to a weight in. I only wish I could keep my WW calculator in the book to have it handy. I tried using a coin purse with grommets to put it on the rings but it was too bulky. Otherwise my systems is great, and I love using my beautiful Filo instead the ugly 'pleather' book WW sells.
Lifeconsidered thanks for the response, I actually follow slimming world and at the moment keep my menu planner, shopping lists in my day to day A5. But I do have a finsbury not being used at the moment which I could use in a similar way. Thanks for the idea I know what I'll be doing this evening now!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to chatting with you all on Sunday, as long as your not too busy with Christmas shopping!
ReplyDelete@XClaireX. I have lost 5 and a half stone in weight,77lbs, and feel a lot better for it. It started when my dad bought me a gym membership for my birthday,which had a special offer of a personal trainer session once a week. Exercise did it for me, and once I started losing weight steadily, I cut down on my portions by about half, and tried to add more healthy things...... but healthy things I love, like peaches, strawberries and salad. I still have choccies, the odd bag of crisps, just in smaller sizes and never buy the 2 for 1 packs of anything!!!The difference was this time I lost the weight over five years, a stone a year and this time I did NOT go on a diet, weighed myself once a month or so,and just changed habits at my own pace. If you psychologically say I'm on a diet,constantly weigh and measure, the mind flashes deprivation,in HUGE neon lights and poor me signals. Not good. The scales seem to have stuck now and I've still got a couple of stone to lose. But I am not beating myself up any more over trying to have the ideal figure and to write down every morsel. That just induces guilt which is not psychologically uplifting.I use my Filo mini for shopping lists and meal plans.... and treats now are of the paperback book or bunch of flowers kind. The positive comments from friends are lovely, and to be honest, it hasn't seemed like hard work. Just a change of day to day automatic pilot habits, becoming new more thoughtful habits. It is great too to buy clothes in normal shops and not just Evans!!!
ReplyDeleteA book called Focusing, by Eugenie Gendlin, also helped me so much, that I would recommend it to anyone.It enabled me to get to the crux, root and branch of why I over ate, which was so important. It's a technique with which you need to persevere for a while, but I promise you it UTTERLY works. Good luck Claire. xxxx
PS@Claire. A tip from my personal trainer was, keep drinking water during the day,and keep a water chart, everyone needs 2 litres, 8 glasses minimum a day, as thirst-ie dehydration strangely can trigger your body's natural hunger signals. He was right too!! I still keep a water chart in my filo and tick off the glasses of water.
ReplyDeleteAs the New Year looms, I'm once again trying to decide between the A5 and personal size of filofax. When I start with one, I always end up switching to the other! And keeping both is too cumbersome. Any ideas?
ReplyDelete@Butanben - well done you! What am amazing achievement!
ReplyDelete@lifeconsidered some brilliant ideas here! I will be using some of them.
@XClaireX - I am doing Slimming World also. I really love it as you can eat absolutely loads! Bonus is that I really like most of the stuff you can eat without counting. I've just lost my first stone - it's taken me 6 weeks - but that has included some really challenging weeks with working away from home and being very stressed.
I think I am going to have another look at setting up a filofax to use for this. The longer I do it the more I want to keep handy so it's a good idea and I have binders doing nothing.
How am I using my filo over the season?
ReplyDeleteWell, I have my diary keeping track of all the things I am going to (sadly not parties, but mostly Rotary stuff!).
Then I have a list of Christmas presents (past and upcoming; past so don't give the same gift twice; upcoming so I can see where I am with it all) and a list of things to do before Christmas (make puddings - this weekend; make cakes etc).
I would be lost without it!
I have a question for anyone who has the cotton cream pages for their Filo. I have a Wo2P diary and the pages are lovely. Do the other pages (i.e. cotton cream "To Do") still have that nice thickness and feel to them?
ReplyDelete@ Terri knits. I have cotton cream to-do, WO2P, note paper, address pages and some thing else i cant remember and all are (in my opinion) very good quality. i have never noticed a difference between the cotton cream at all. They are so nice to write on in any pen without fear of bleeding, smudging etc. I often use a fountain pen and on the filo colored paper it seems to repel this type of ink and take 1+ minutes to dry.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: I am looking to make a filo that will only stay at home and will be something like a reference/storage etc etc. Basically I live abroad and try to keep my possessions down to make moving easier (i move internationally approx once a year). I currently only use a pocket (I find this size adequate for day-to-day use)...but...I feel there is info in it that I do not need 99% of the time and also that there are things that slip by me because there isnt space to put it in or store it etc. An example: I saw an interesting article in a magazine regarding interior deco and I wanted to keep it, it had a link to a website etc etc. But a pocket is too small to keep the article and i didnt make a note of this...result i lost it.
I am thinking of a filo with addresses section using A-Z (something i dont have in pocket for space reasons) - recipes - reference maybe or useful info for example a master xmas card list (i seem to write one every year and then throw it out)...
its only me so i dont feel i need separate Filos for each 'thing' but I feel my pocket needs slimming down.
my question is - does anyone have a filo like this and what size would you recommend? Personal or A5?
thanks in advance
@SSA - size will depend on what you plan to store - for example if you cut out articles & recipes to store an A5 may be a better size. It's easier store printed material which is often A4 in this size. It certainly has a larger footprint, but if it stays at home there shouldn't be a big problem. Perhaps you could buy a cheap one to try out and if it works well you may decide to buy a different model. There have been quite a few domino's on sale recently which are a good price with bigger rings which may be useful for storage.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alison! xx
ReplyDelete@SSA - thanks for the comment about cotton cream. Must go find more! You should have a look at Laurie's blog (plannerisms) as she moves internationally quite often and has lots of good tips on organizing your info in those situations.
ReplyDeleteWhen November started, I promised myself that I would keep the holiday craziness to a minimum. I have a few more things planned than I anticipated, but it's not overwhelming. The trick is to keep it from becoming so.
ReplyDeleteI do have lists for gifts and holiday projects, but they're more like scribbles rather than detailed lists.