I have started dieting again. That broken record is hopefully not going to be played for a while as I’ll keep dieting instead of stopping and starting like an old car with bad oil and no fuel. I’ve signed up at a gym – 24 hour, literally across the road from me – and have set myself a target of going three times a week, preferably on mornings before work. The first week I managed it and lost 2lbs. Last week I only went twice, but with a good start to this week with a trip on Monday morning I’m feeling good about it.
The work Christmas party looms, as do other Christmas meals, and I think that getting a head start on doing something about that near-future revelry is a good idea. I’d also like to look good in my suit, rather just-about fit into it. I have a friend in the office berating me for not subsisting on rice cakes and idealism, but they are being generally supportive apart from that which means I stay on it at work. Out of work my girlfriend is being her normal supportive self – energetic congratulations and applause for good work, quiet judgement and little shakes of her head for bad work – so I’m kept on the diet train wherever I am.
Which is great, because I really miss takeaway and chips. I still snack, but much less, and I will still eat takeaway, but much less often. For example, rather than toast or junk food before bed last night when I was peckish I fried up some vegetables and snacked on them instead of crisps or pasta or toast. So that’s a triumph. I am frying up my own chips and frites but doing it myself means they aren’t deep fried and I can portion control much better. Which is definitely something I need to get better at.
My gym regime is fairly light, and will stay that way for probably anther week. I do a 3km run then about 20 minutes of weight and muscle work – which I’ve never done before but it does feel pretty satisfying afterwards. Whether or not that’s just relief, I couldn’t say. I’m getting to the stage where I should push myself more, or do weight work for longer, and this involves getting up earlier, which translates pretty directly as going to sleep earlier. I’ll work on this, as I want to get at least 7 hours sleep a night to try and make the most of all of this healthy living.
Saturday was a massive failure for eating healthily, starting with two greasy snacks from the Wild Bean Café which segway’d into a fish and chips lunch and climaxed with my first McDonalds dinner in about three months – which was all “successfully” mitigated my exercise for the day, which amounted to standing up for five hours or so.
Apart from this, my diet has been pretty on point. Mostly home cooked vegetable dishes with a little bit of meat and lots and lots of vegetables, next to no fast food and surprisingly little drinking. Combined with my exercise regime and a bit of walking at lunch I’ve lost about 3-3.5lbs in two weeks. If this keeps up I’ll have lost a total of 6-8lbs by the time the work Christmas party rolls around and should fit comfortably into at least one of my suits. Obviously if I fit into several I’ll still only wear one of them.
I currently have no headphones to listen to music or any of the various media apps offered by the high-tech running equipment, but they’re definitely on my Christmas list. My flatmate has also made a few comments that he’s interested in joining the gym too and, while we will probably not talk and instead interact minimally at the gym while pretending not to know each other, the company would make it less boring too. For now it’s kind of lonely but I’m still going and still enjoying it enough that I don’t foresee me giving it up, which is the point. I’m trying to build a habit, not just own a gym membership!
The Nomnomnicon 