20th January 2014 - Two weeks in

Why oh why does January take so long to sort itself out and bugger off?

I mean seriously, this month is bloody long.

It feels longer because I'm dieting too. Every day, watching my calories and (especially at work) watching other people eat what they want when they want is getting annoying.

However, it's not all bad. I'm no longer so tired on the walk to and from the office every morning. It's an inconvenience I'd rather not have, but it's largely a positive one because it's forcing me to walk a couple of miles every day. The inconvenience I still can't stomach is the distance from my desk to the tea room at the office I'm working from now, but I'm sure I'll learn to live with it (or crack up and melt down in a caffeine deficient moment).

The diet itself is going alright. I've cheated a couple of times but I'm still making more sensible choices. For instance, where if I was really being lazy and wanted a takeaway, I'd order a whacking great big pizza, now I'm ordering chicken kebabs, which are better for you. They're still not great for you, but it's better than all that bread and cheese. On the one occasion in the last fortnight where I did get a pizza, it made me so ill (from the grease, I'm assuming), that I have no desire to have another one any time soon.

The food I'm making on a nighttime is getting better too. A particular favourite that I'm enjoying is Gammon steaks, sweetcorn, new potatoes, pineapple and dry fried eggs. It's so very simple, but so delicious and filling. The main one I'm enjoying is my home made bhuna curry. Adapted from the recipe I used to make a fish curry for a party before new years, I've made it a couple of times now and with chicken it's just amazing. Very filling, very tasty and great for these cold nights.

This morning, I weighed myself for the second time. I didn't weigh myself on the first week of the diet for reasons that I can't quite remember, so last week was the starting weight for this bout of dieting.

This week has me dropping 5lbs which I'm over the moon at as I wasn't confident I'd lost any weight at all this week. More impressively as well, my wife, who has always struggled with diets, has lost too. So we're in it together and losing together. This has made me very happy indeed.

For this coming week, I'm going to be starting my exercise regime up again, starting with a run tonight. It's been about 6 weeks since i was running properly so if I'm honest, I'll be amazed if I can manage more than a mile and a half, but we all have to start somewhere. Hopefully I can be back up to 3 mile runs in a few weeks.

July 15th 2013

Climbing back on a speeding wagon

So, after a couple of weeks off the diet and generally eating and drinking whatever I like, I'm starting another 4 week stretch of the diet.

To recap, in the last month I managed to lose a stone in total through 2 weeks of extreme diet and exercise and then 2 weeks of just taking it easy. I like the idea of the shorter goals as they're much more satisfying to achieve.

So as of today I'm back on it. I managed to fast again from last night to lunchtime today and I'm currently sat outside enjoying the sun. It's far too warm for any walking right now, I'm just enjoying the sun without working up too much of a sweat.

I'm not visiting the gym tonight because I'm utterly exhausted and frankly, I have too much to do tonight, so I'll be going tomorrow and I'll weigh myself then. I know I've put some of that stone back on, I can feel it in myself and in my clothes, but I'm not worried overall.

My goal for this month (taking me to the middle of August) is to lose another stone. I'm wanting to have load about 4 and a half stone by Christmas so a stone a month between now and December, allowing for some slightly missed targets is something I feel is perfectly achievable.

But the focus is 14lbs in the next four weeks. I managed that much in two weeks last month, so I'm confident that I can manage it.

I'll update tomorrow when I've weighed myself