Fitness regime (Week One)
Although it has been only six days since I began my new fitness campaign, I deliberately weighed in yesterday because it was a Monday and (for me, like most people) the first day of a new week.
Thirteen stone ten, which means I have lost just two pounds.
To remind you of the basics – food (and type) in …times exercise … that’s what you’ve got to watch.
The regime seems to be going well.
I gave up smoking my small cigars on Thursday morning and have suffered no ‘nicotine’ withdrawal symptoms at all, in fact I’ve already reached the point where I’m wondering why the hell I ever went back to smoking these cheroots in the first place.
Mind you, on the social habit front, I’ve had a bit of work to do. Previously I used to ‘reward’ myself when finished a blog, or an article or email of some kind, by going out on my back terrace and smoking a cheroot before deciding what to do next. It kind of signalled a punctuation between one activity and the next. I do sometimes still have vague ‘wouldn’t it be nice to have a puff …?’ longings [for the ‘punctuation’ aspect, not the nicotine one, you understand] that I have to rebuff.
Ironically I have also found that I have temporarily given up alcohol.
This was a quasi-accident.
It was at some point on Thursday evening that I realised that I hadn’t had an alcoholic drink since last Sunday. Subsequently I didn’t exactly deliberately avoid it, but didn’t deliberately go for it either.
I’ve now done eight days ‘dry’ (if that’s the right word). If truth be told, it’s no big deal for someone like me who has always (except e.g. on rugby tours) drunk alcohol in moderation.
Activity-wise I managed only a single visit to the gym (although I did go again last night so that makes twice in eight days).
I heard a piece on the radio yesterday in which finance consultant Martin Lewis told listeners that they’d be anything up to £2,000 better off per annum if they gave up gym memberships they never use and instead, whenever they felt like it, just went to a nearby park and had a jog.
I do have a gym membership but these days external forces – e.g. having to visit my aged father once or twice a week – tend to bugger up my fitness activity best intentions.
Mind you, only on Sunday did I fail to meet my daily target of 10,000 steps per day (I did just 6,038), largely due to watching The Andrew Marr Show and far too much TV sport.
On Wednesday I actually did 25,671 steps – two and a half times my target – and on Saturday some 24,391.
Eating-wise I did pretty well on the ‘healthy food’ front but probably necked far too much – at the weekend, with meals being prepared for me and ‘snacking’ stuff also on hand, I just couldn’t help myself. After getting back from any major activity, I’d load up with pints of Ribena cordial and water and some form of food in bulk – as it were, refuelling my muscles – but then found I’d actually put on more weight by doing this than I’d actually burned off in calories by e.g. going to the gym!
Still, they say that a steady weight loss in superior and long-lasting than a sudden one. I reckon I’ll be doing okay if I lose two pounds per week for the next 6 weeks …
Postscript – (One negative development):
Having been for a ‘flu jab about a fortnight ago (I’d reached 65 and so was eligible for one on the NHS), over the weekend I picked up a bit of a cold and a dry hacking cough. It became progressively worse yesterday despite my consumption of a tube of cough sweets and a half a bag of Fishermen’s Friends. Actually, they weren’t Fishermen’s Friends – my local newspaper shop didn’t have any left on his shelves, so I was recommended these Jakeman’s Original Throat and Chest Soothing Menthol Sweets (est. 1907).
We’ll see how that develops over the next few days.
