Some bumps in the road

Whilst I have pretty much eliminated soft drink from my diet, I have been succumbing to moments of weakness with eating habits recently. I also haven’t been exercising as much (although I have been doing some self-taught sessions of yoga). I will get things straight and back on track – I have to.

February Week 3 – A notch on my belt!

So this past Friday, I hit one of my first significant goals – I now use a tighter notch on my belt for my jeans! To say I was over the moon was an understatement.

I also gave yoga a go this week – it wasn’t for long, but it felt good and I’m keen to attempt it more seriously.

Finally, does anyone know whether black rice is OK to have in a salad, or should I avoid it altogether? A nearby lunch place has a mixture of salad, meat and black rice, and I just want to make sure it is OK to eat for those losing weight, or should I just go pure salad and protein?

Thanks for reading.

February Week 2 – Apparently my face looks thinner

So I was having lunch with my parents earlier last week and Mum mentioned that my face looked a little thinner – I’d like to think that is a small milestone in a very long journey.

I mean, I’m never going to notice physical changes myself for a long while – I see myself everyday – it’s hard to notice that sort of thing! However, if others are noticing, I am well on track to achieve my goals!

Pete

February Week 1 – So very hot

So we ended the week with a lovely 40 degree Celsius day here in Perth, so much of the day was spent avoiding sunlight.

Throughout the week, it was the norm of salads and water, water and salads. I must say I am starting to feel “better”. I am not sure if this is directly correlated to the overall changes I’ve made or whether I just had a good week at work or whatever, but I like it.

This week I aim to dust off the dumbbell set that I have so I have something to do on these stupidly hot days that’s productive and aimed at my long term goals.

Stay tuned!

Days 28, 29, 30 and 31 – No news is good news?

Not a lot to report – maintaining the healthier eating and drinking water when possible.

For anyone wondering, I’ve not included weight measurements in my updates purely for the fact that I am currently heavier than the maximum number permitted by my digital scales, which by all accounts is somewhere around the 155-160kg mark.

As soon as I get to a point where I am registering numbers on there (hopefully not far away), I’ll include them in my updates.

Pete

Days 26 and 27 – If you can’t stand the heat…

So first things first, what a terrible Royal Rumble match! They were on the money with the WWE title match, but my goodness that Rumble was woeful.

Now that is out of the system, lets get down to it. More water, more salad; more of the same really.

That being said, I’ve made a change to the lunchtime salad:

  • No more cheese; and
  • No more Coke Zero

I wonder how this will go. It was inevitable to action this if I ever wanted to cut things out completely, but this will be a challenge. At the end of the day, I need to know how strong my willpower is, so it’s time to test it out.

Outdoor exercise was off today – stupidly hot day in Perth again today, and I don’t want to overly dehydrate myself unnecessarily.

Days 22 through 25 – Cleaning house

The usual – more salads, more water, more positive reinforcement of eating habits.

Yesterday was a bit of a hit to the system – I did have takeaway food and some alcohol at a party, but I was straight back on the wagon with the healthier options today.

Here’s a bit of a look at my fridge and pantry and the efforts I’ve gone to try and make sure that the only choice is a healthy choice:

IMG_3844 IMG_3843

So in that first image, taken before doing a week’s shopping, I have a container of salad dressing (unfortunately probably one of the more fattier ones out there – Thousand Island), tomato sauce, butter, a couple of packets of Margaret River sweet chilli cheese, some rissoles and a couple of bottles of juice. Of those items, the sauce, butter and cheese have remained untouched for months, and the rissoles were a gift from a butcher friend of mine.

The second image is the pantry. Before you point it out, yes that is 4 packets of M&M’s on the bottom shelf. However, since I don’t eat chocolate that often, they are only there to serve one purpose – so I have something to bring to a friend’s house when invited (several of my friends are M&M fiends!). Apart from that, top shelf has cooking oils, seasonings and dressings/sauces, whilst the next shelf has noodles, some chilli con carne and spreads.

A further side note – my bank balance is certainly appreciating the cut-down on convenience food, which is a great thing since I’m trying to save as much as possible for some spending money for my next holiday which is in three months time.

Lastly, and I don’t know whether it is because I have been eating healthier, doing more exercise or if it’s just the elastic band failing, but my boxer shorts feel looser and slide off a bit when I walk. I feel this is a small victory, so I am going to assume it is the former until proven otherwise!

Tomorrow is the anniversary of Federation and the day Australia became a nation in 1901 (widely known as Australia Day). To celebrate, we get a public holiday (or bank holiday as the rest of the word seemingly refer to it as) and I plan on watching the WWE Royal Rumble (yes, I love that stuff and I know it’s scripted – don’t ask why!), followed by some cricket and Australian Open tennis; my eating won’t suffer, but I may not post until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Pete

Days 16, 17 and 18 – Situation Normal

Not much to report – did the walking to and from basketball – probably not as short of breath as I would usually be after those walks, but I am not sure if that attributable to anything I’ve done so far.

Apart from that, I’ve been doing a lot of housework, so that in itself is exercise (particularly since it is a one-man job in my household).

I’ve packed my gym bag tonight – if I am up to it, I will be at the work ‘gym’ tomorrow evening. Photos will be taken, but I only put the word gym in inverted commas as it is a room with one treadmill, one exercise bike, one cross-trainer and one multi-purpose machine (and some of the time the different pieces of equipment do not operate as intended), so it’s not really a full-on gym, but it’s better than nothing, right?

Until next time!