It’s a Bittersweet Symphony this Life

I think I have myself back on The Plan™  It’s been a difficult couple of weeks to keep on The Plan™, last week was very wet and cold, and the beginning of this week was not much better.  On the bright side I got to try out my waterproof hiking trousers, and even my thermals underneath.  It wasn’t quite cold enough for the thermals I still ended up sweating by the end of each walk, but better that than be cold.  Unfortunately walking in all that wet and cold gave me a cold.  A proper cold, not man-flu (it’s a real thing!).  So that stopped me on Thursday and Friday, I decided I needed to keep out of the cold and wind.  On Thursday I managed to keep my activity levels high and get my 10000 steps in for the day by getting up from my desk every hour and walking twice around the block.  I’m quite proud of that  I will have to do that more often.  It also made me go up and down the steps quite a bit too.

I’ve started taking my iPod with me (yes I still own an iPod classic) on my walks.  I had been resisting doing that because, I don’t know, I thought listening to music took away from the gravitas of the activity.  But actually it’s quite good, except I can’t not sing along as I walk, so the neighbourhood gets to hear my rendition of my “Top Rated” playlist.  I also find that when Bittersweet Symphony is playing I get quite a belligerent purposeful stride.  Go figure.  It’s a good walking song.

The diet has been going well.  I am getting used to the lack of food, and even enjoying the salads, which is pretty much all I am eating.  I’m generally keeping myself to less than 2000 calories a day, which is well below my target.  That leaves me with about a 3000 calories a day deficit, which is 3 times more than what I am trying for.  This week I am about 16000 calories under budget, that’s the equivalent of not eating anything for four days.  Oh yeah!

I had planned to not weigh myself until the end of July, to give myself time for there to be a noticeable change, and also because my scales at home can’t handle my weight as it was, so I didn’t want to stand on it and just get an “err” on the screen.  That’s just demoralising.  but I couldn’t resist this morning because I thought I was looking thinner, and lo and behold not only have I lost enough to actually be measured by the scale, but I have lost double digits – 11 kg in two weeks.  If I keep this up I will lose that 50 kg in eight more weeks!  Unlikely, the weight always comes off quick to start.  But it did put me in good spirits.

So an update for the end of Week 14: I have walked a total of 247.8 km over 61 hours 48 minutes.  That is pulling in at an efficacy of 94% to plan.

I haven’t done any mini-hikes or even longer walks since Mangatepopo, so I should probably do that.

I am also considering going for a few swims next week to up my activity level even more.