Day Six: Walking the walk - beyond the catwalk

I'm heading to North Wales to commune with nature, to walk on the hills, run along the beaches (long-standing ankle injury permitting) and to sit and ponder life while overlooking the sea. I can smell the sea air already. And can feel a new sense of perspective coming on. Nature always helps me to gain perspective, as does visiting my 99-year-old Grandad (or Granddad, but I've always spelt it that way) in Liverpool or playing with my young nephews, both of which I hope to do in the coming days.

I was pondering what to do with this blog during my short post-40th birthday retreat. It has become a daily affair, in a way I never quite imagined it would. However, if I'm going to walk the walk and not just talk to the talk, self-care must come first. Balance has never come easy for me. I seem to have two settings: stop or overdrive. I'm not very good at cruising in the middle, at meandering along. But since this blog is about challenging behaviours that haven't served me in the past - in a way that could potentially help others - I've decided to try and walk the walk, and not just talk the talk. So I'll be giving myself a few days off and will make up for it with a collection of musings from my days in Wales once I'm back online at the end of the week. Unless of course, I stumble across some gem or other that I can't resist writing it down and end up sending it from my iPhone! But the intention is there - the intention to let myself off the hook, to go gently and to accept that I don't have to achieve something every day. After all, I am abstaining about negative thoughts about my achievements also. Balance, balance, balance. If I say it often enough, it might go in.

I should clarify (note - I didn't go back and modify or correct yesterday's blog!) that the Bloggers Anonymous site I mentioned on Day Five isn't (unless I'm mistaken) a serious support group, as you might have guessed if you clicked on the link. And the latest posts are from 2006. However, there's definitely something in some of the comments left there from people who just couldn't stop blogging. But apologies if my flippant mention of it caused any offense.

Before I head off on my Welsh walks, I thought I'd leave behind some good reading material about body image and the whole Size Zero debate. So, here's another great movement that's challenging the stereotype of the skinny model. All Walks Beyond the Catwalk was founded by British fashion expert, stylist and TV presenter Caryn Franklin, creative consultant Debra Bourne and model Erin O’Connor and launched in September 2009 during London Fashion Week. For its first initiative, it showcased the work of eight top designers on eight professional models aged between 18-65 and size 8-16. Its aim was and is to promote more diversity of size, shape and race in the fashion industry. Take a look at their website to see All Walks' latest campaigns, including this short film about SNAPPED, a project combining the work of British portrait and fashion photographer John Rankin with top British fashion designers and a diversity of models. And if you want to know why this campaign is so valid, take a look at some of the skeletal models featured in this Daily Mail article from last month's London Fashion Week.

On that note, I'll be heading to Wales to take another look at this view: