I’m not sure how much I weigh today, somewhere between 220 and 230lb. I still care, but now’s the time to focus on things other than the scale. Fingers crossed I never have to re-open the blog .

Annoying. It really didn’t feel like a gain week. Food was not too bad. Hmn, scratch that. I’ve just looked at my food diary and whilst there weren’t any blow-out events, every day did have bad food on it:-

Monday: choc-chip shortbread
Tuesday: cookies, chocolate bar
Wednesday: cookie
Thursday: chips, left-over pizza
Friday: biscuits in the office
Saturday: cider, ice-cream, brownie
Sunday: shortbread, huge latte, chocolate bar

This is cool: the week didn’t feel bad, but having a 100% honest and accurate food diary shows that it probably was. I wonder whether my mind is adapting its definition of normal and ok. Any one of those days would normally be ok and I wouldn’t worry about it, but having 7 of them is a problem.

Exercise was better. My running feels back on track and I’m knuckling down into marathon training now. I’ve just seen a friend complete a marathon in a time much lower than he or I expected, which is a bit of wake-up call: you need to put the training in. It’s ridiculous really, every time I go running I always feel amazing afterwards, yet it’s often a struggle to get out the door. Why does my brain have a hard time making the connection between the two things? You hear that brain, running makes me feel good!

The bike riding was non-existent again, which is a real problem. It’s so hard to get motivated enough to overcome my fear and anxiety of cycling on the road. I need a new strategy; I think I’ll try early morning rides this week and see if that works.

Another thing to note, which might be related to the gain, is that I was really stressed last week. The whole week felt heavy, and I still feel it now. The countdown to my trip has reached 2 weeks which is super exciting, but it’s cranked up the pressure at work. Ahhhhhh, only one more monday-morning before I leave .

Maybe there’s a link there?

Again everything was great until the weekend(ish) when I partied hard. Thursday’s food log is heinous and the “recovery food” that followed didn’t help matters. Oh well! I feel good about my diet and weight at the moment. I’s not dropping off like before, but I’m definitely still losing and I feel like I’m eating well. There are a few areas to work on, I still struggle when I’m going somewhere for a day-trip, but generally it’s all good.

Training was better but not great. I did a couple of runs, the usual swims and finally got the bike out again for a quick ride around the local countryside. I’m not sure if it counts as exercise. At least that’s moving in the right direction.

Everything was fine until the weekend, then I sunk a couple of bottles of wine and enjoyed some naughty food. It was a fun weekend, though, I’m now a PADI qualified Open Water Diver .

The jury’s still out on how much I enjoy diving. I found it a little scary, uncomfortable and frustrating; however, coming face-to-face with “boring trout” underwater was amazing; there were some fair-sized fish and seeing them like that was something else – I can just imagine what that feeling is like out in the sea. I’ve had a taste, now let’s see what the real thing is all about.

Exercise was meh again. Another 4 pool sessions and my swimming is coming along nicely. Running was just 2 runs, neither of them long; and I didn’t get out on the bike once. Part of the problem this week was managing my routine after work. If I stay an extra hour, I get home ravenous and have to eat, which means not running for 2-3hrs, by which time I’ve settled in for the evening. This week I’m going to make sure I eat something during the afternoon, so at least I don’t have that particular excuse for next week .

A new low .

A good week for food, which including a boozey night out and some other indulgences along the way. Exercise was on plan during the week (2 runs, 1 bike, 3 practice swims, 1 swim lesson); but broke down at the weekend when I was due to have another bike ride and my long run. At the last moment I booked onto a PADI scuba-diving course, which pretty much took up both days. I’ve got another 2 days of diving this coming weekend, so I probably need to move my bike session to the friday, then take my running gear with me on the dive trip.

Scuba is fun! I’m doing the PADI Open Water course here in the cold, murky UK, so that I can enjoy the clear, tropical water abroad . So far so good. We’ve done the theory part of the coure, and the confined-water dives (swimming pool). Next week we do 5 open-water dives and I’ll get the entry-level qualification. Good times!

Happy it’s a loss. I think it’s been a good week for food. The biggest problem was managing my diet when I traveled away. Long car journeys normally mean stopping for petrol, which is a trigger to buy crap from the service station. Eating a proper meal on the road is also difficult; I either try and be healthy at a chain restaurant or with take-away sandwiches. That should be my last choice, rather than what usually happens.

At the moment I travel away every Friday for my swimming lesson, and then perhaps Saturday for snowboarding; both are to fixed locations so I should be able to plan better. I could also do with coming up with strategies for the times I can’t predict my movements – what is the best worst-option. It’s a micro optimisation I suppose, but when my traveling starts proper I will need to take this a bit more seriously.

Exercise was meh again, a couple of 6-milers and some swimming. This weekend I spec’ed up a new plan: I’m simplifying things and reducing the number of sessions. This is about reducing the barriers and making it easier for me to do. There’s no strength training at the moment, but if this goes ok for the next 2 weeks then I’ll start adding AM bodyweight workouts. This will be the first week on my new bike, cycling outdoors, so I’ve put no restrictions on what I’m doing – I just need to get out and get comfortable.

Mon – off
Tue – Run (intervals / hill)
Wed – Bike
Thu – Run (steady)
Fri – off (swim lesson)
Sat – Bike
Sun – Long run

It’s thursday evening. I’m posting my weekly weight now because I bottled it on monday.

Last week, Monday to Thursday were fine, good even, but then I totally went AWOL over the weekend. You name it, I ate it. I’m not sure what happened, but I lost all control. For a moment, I relived the lifestyle I thought I’d left behind. Scary.

Monday came around though, and I’m back on track.

A new low .

Food was ok but there were some blips. For the first few days I logged everything using Evernote but then I just forgot to. I’m going to try again this week and see how it goes. Exercise was tepid again. A couple of runs, a cycle, and… 7 hours in the pool! Crikey – I guess I’m starting to enjoy swimming (or rather, practicing drills). My bike is supposed to arrive “this week, honest” according to the shop. We’ll see.

Only 8lb to go until probably my favourite milestone. Unbelievable.

A bit of a boozey weekend, with some hangover-recovery food going on, hopefully it won’t stick.