Tuesday

Scales

Unsurprisingly given the low volume of food I’d eaten yesterday I was considerably lighter today, almost two kilos in fact. I was also very thirsty and this told me that a lot of the weight loss was down to being dehydrated. This didn’t stop me being pleased with myself and deciding that I’d do it again later in the week. Next time though I will drink a lot more water and not quite so much tea.

Breakfast

I spiked into the kitchen and prepared my poached eggs on toast washed down with a cup of tea. I’ve been reading up on high protein diets recently and I’m starting to think that the on-toast part of my breakfast should be consigned to history. However, I’m not too fond of throwing food away so the “on toast” will stay until the end of the loaf. At that point I’ll re-evaluate the situation.

Journey

The journey in was neither good nor bad this morning. I feel that not being in any rush helps make the journey easier so I toyed with the idea of inserting a dialy meeting between 9:00and 9:30 into my work calendar to make sure that I never had a nine o’clock meeting. I decided against it in the end as it would be a little too obvious. I need something much more subtle.

Work

The morning flew by in a series of meetings, none of which I had much interest in. I hope the facade of interested held up as behind it I was planning all the things that I needed to do in the near future.

Comment

Comments about doing things early in the morning always rub me up the wrong way. I am yet to be convinced that getting up any earlier is better despite many people claiming that getting up obscenely early is. Someone I follow made a comment about a five o’clock run, I felt compelled to comment. I just hope they take it in the spirt is was intended. I have no issues with anyone doing anything early in the morning, it’s just that attitude that it is somehow better that doing the same thing later in the day that I rebel against. We all have approximately the same number of waking hours, starting earlier only means finishing earlier but for some reason the early morning is seen to be more “pure” than late at night. Being a creature of the late mid-morning I don’t really understand either extreme.

Brownie

I met a friend for a tea and a chat in the café this afternoon. We normally share a slice of cake as well but she was on a “sugar detox” so I had to manfully struggle through the very rich and very tasty chocolate brownie that was recommended to me by the lady behind the counter. She was absolutely correct, it tasted divine. After essentially inhaling this little slice of heaven I felt just a little queasy but I managed to keep the feeling at bay. I made a mental note that no matter what I must sit on the bike trainer tonight and use the calories I’d consumed this afternoon.

Bike

I had my usual session on the bike trainer this evening. It may have been wishful thinking but it did feel a little easier this time. I still ended up with wobbly legs at the end of the session but that is normal.

Dinner

After getting washed and changed I prepared a very simple salad and doused it in balsamic vinegar, I wanted to use the thick balsamic but the bottle was empty. I’ve no idea why I put the empty bottle back in the cupboard last time, that was just silly.

Evening

I spent the rest of the evening dealing with little bits of trivia before falling into bed tired and contented.

Monday

Guilt

I woke up feeling full and decided there and then that breakfast was not going to be on the agenda this morning. The feeling was reinforced by standing on the scales and finding that I was even heavier. The thought of having lunch started to fade as well. I may be involuntarily starting my own version of the five two diet.

Ill

Loved one is ill, I don’t like that as I’m so far away and unable to offer comfort, support or tea. This makes me sad, we plan to be together this year but I want it to be now.

Motorway

The traffic was heavy on the way to work this morning, It always seems to be heaviest on a Monday. I wasn’t in any particular hurry so I wasn’t that bothered by the constant stop start. Quite a few around me were and spent time swapping lanes and trying to gain an advantage. They were still close when I left the throng so I’m not convinced that all the extra effort they put into it paid off

Rain

I’d brought my swimming stuff to work and I had the time to go swimming but it was raining at lunch time and I find walking from the pool in the rain uncomfortable, miserable and mainly damp. I don’t relish being damp for the afternoon. The weather forecast is showing sun for the next few days so I’ll continue bringing my stuff in.

Event

I’ve just realised that an event I’ve entered is on a Saturday and not a Sunday as I thought. The problem is that I’m already doing something on that Saturday. I’m not happy about that.

Return

I got home in the fastest time this evening, it was just over an hour. I celebrated with a cup of tea before starting on the myriad of things that have to be done on a Monday evening.

List

I’d made a list of all the things that I needed to do this evening and I slowly worked through it. I should have written “eat something” on the list as I got to nine o’clock and realised that I’d not. I’d half thought about doing the 5:2 diet and today it seems as if I have inadvertently started.

Sunday

Weight

Although I’d not set the alarm I still woke at six. I resolutely stayed in bed for another hour until the natural urges forced me to the bathroom. On the way out I stepped onto the scales and found that I had lost absolutely no weigh what so ever since last week. This discovery didn’t fill me full of joy, I was hoping for a few hundred grams at least.

Breakfast

As I didn’t have poached eggs yesterday I had them today. I may have to think of something else to do with eggs for next week just for a bit of variety.

Soup

I decided that I needed to make some soup, I had a couple of chicken carcasses that needed using so I started by making some chicken stock. I always feel that it is a waste to throw away a chicken carcass so I nearly always end up making stock. It also gave me a good excuse to be very sloppy with the carving as I know any meat left on the carcass will be put to good use. Once I was satisfied with the stock I strained it to remove the bones, but made sure that I kept the meat. It had a slight citrus taste as I’d left the lemon in. Then I threw in some onions, carrots and broccoli and boiled the whole thing for a while. Finally, I blended to whole lot together for a very thick chicken and vegetable soup. I had to have a few spoonful’s just to check that it tasted good enough, it did.

Swimming

After lunch I went to the lido with Cate for a bracing swim in cold water. I have been spoilt over the last few weeks by swimming in warm water so lowering into eleven-degree water was a bit of a shock to the system. I sprinted the first fifty meters in an attempt to warm up, after that I settled into my normal rhythm until the water started to feel like treacle. That was the sign to get out and get changed. I managed to get all my clothes on in the ten minutes before the shivers hit. Once they started there was no stopping them. We wandered home via a coffee shop for a warming hot chocolate and blueberry muffin.

Dinner

I went to Mum and Dad’s for dinner tonight, Mum had prepared roast pork (with crackling) accompanied by roast potatoes, roast parsnip, roast beetroot, broccoli, peas and Brussel sprouts. We followed that with cheese and biscuits. The swimming earlier had worked up an appetite so I had no problems in devouring all of that and more.

Sleep

Later in the evening whilst attempting to watch television the tiredness crept over me. I may never know how he program ended.

Saturday

Coaching

I was down for coaching the early session today, I made it to pool side with seconds to spare. I was glad that I’d organised everything I needed last night rather than having to run round this morning, that would have made me very late. I gave my usual performance at poolside to an appreciative crowd. I like the sets this time of year as there is much more to share with the swimmers. Later in the year it just becomes a case of setting people off and then sitting down and watching.

Swimming

I swam the second session as there were enough coaches to cover. It may be because the coach we had seemed a little haphazard but I wasn’t overly happy with the standard of coaching we got. I resisted taking over the coaching from the pool as that would have undermined him totally. It didn’t get much better but it may be that I just don’t respond to his style of coaching.

Hot cross buns

After swimming I went to the supermarket to by the essentials. I was tempted by the store bakeries hot cross buns. The first one was gone before I left the store, two more went on the journey home and by the time all the shopping had been put away they had all gone. This was not good for the diet and I was quite glad that I’d not stood on the scales this morning.

Domestics

I had very little planned for the rest of the day and that was exactly what I planned to do. The house, though, was looking a bit messy so I set about cleaning things, tidying things and putting things in their correct place. An hour later the house looked a lot tidier so I had a cup of tea to celebrate. Now I could start doing very little.

Files

Sometimes I find working with computers to be utterly frustrating This evening was one of those times. All I wanted to do was add an animated title to a video I’d made whilst I was on holiday. First, I had to get it out of the animation program. That required finding and installing an add on to my existing program. Then I had to move the file from my tablet to my computer as the video editing program is on the laptop. Then I find that the video editing program doesn’t like the format. There then followed nearly an hour of trying to find resources to covert the file to other formats and trying the results to find they wouldn’t work either, whilst running the gauntlet of not quite free software. I’m quite willing to spend a small amount of software if I know it works, but software companies go out of their way to make testing difficult. I can see why but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Eventually I hit on a combination of things that actually worked. Eventually I managed to make my little video of dusk over Hay Flat complete with an opening animation. I was quite pleased with the end result but not pleased enough to tackle putting it onto the internet.

Sleep

The desire to sleep hit me at about nine thirty. I was in bed by ten. I think the jet lag is still with me and that my body clock currently somewhere over central Europe.

Friday

Scales

I looked out of the window on the way down stairs to see that no more snow had fallen, I wouldn’t be able to get away with a snow day at home. The scales had more bad news, the losses of the previous few days had been reversed. I was now heavier than I was at the beginning of the week. Normal by Easter had taken its first blow after appearing to start so well. I had poached eggs again hoping that in some small way they would help the situation.

Ice

The car was covered in frozen snow that required a fair bit of effort to remove. Eventually with the help of an idling engine I got the car into a state where it was possible to see out of. Then started the task of moving it out onto the road that had turned overnight into a skating rink. It took a while but I managed to get it onto the high street without damaging anything. Once there life became easier as the roads had been gritted and sensible people were working from home.

Swim

I finally managed to get a lunchtime swim today. I was expecting the pool to be full but I had a whole lane to myself for most of the session. I decided beforehand that I was only going to do a steady swim to see if everything still worked. It started to feel hard work after about fifteen minutes, I feel that it had something to do with consuming a few of the toffees that had been left on the desk next to me. I still managed to swim one kilometre at a reasonable pace and follow that with four hundred meters at a very slightly slower pace. In the end I was happy with my effort and vowed to get to the pool more next week. Whether that actually happens is another story.

German

My German teacher texted me near the end of the afternoon to say that her plane was late but she still hoped to be home in time for the German lesson. Then she texted me that the plane was running a bit late. When I got home I found a text that told me the German lesson wasn’t going to happen. I was quite relieved at this as I’d done very little preparation and really wasn’t in the mood to apply some serious brain power this evening.

Television

I spent the evening lamenting that I’d eaten far too much for my dinner and watching catch up TV. It was a pleasant way to spend an evening and not at all taxing

Thursday

Morning

Getting out of bed this morning was a struggle, I’m taking his as a good sign, it means that my body clock is nearly in tune with the actual clock. I’m sure that this optimism will come back and bite me but until then I’ll take it as a good sign.

Breakfast

After the morning visit to the scales that showed that despite last night’s chocolate binge there were no significant changes since yesterday, I wandered into the kitchen to prepare poached eggs on toast. This is the third day in a row that I have prepared my morning eggs this way and I’m still enjoying it. Today I prepared then in a saucepan with a transparent lid, I could now see if they were ready without lifting the lid. This is a significant improvement in the cooking method. I might have the bacon omelettes next week.

Motorway

The traffic was noticeably heavier today. I put this down to the fact that I had a nine 0’clock appointment and that the world was conspiring against me to make me late. This is always the danger of nine o’clock appointments and travelling by road. Even though in theory I had enough time there is always something that will attempt to make life just one degree harder than it needs to be.

Physio

I was at the physio in time for my appointment and was ushered into the treatment room. I went through the sorry tale of my weak and feeble feet and then he poked around to find where the pain was. He dismissed Achilles tendonitis relatively quickly and then was fairly sceptical about inflammation of the bursa. He though it may be a bone fragment in the heel but this needed an x-ray to help with the diagnosis. He recommended that I should have cushioned shoes with plenty of support, which was completely the opposite to the shoes that I currently have. He also said that I should continue with the stretching and icing. Once the chat was done I was hooked up to a machine for some “electrotherapy”. I’ve no idea what it was but it was quite pleasant to lie back on the couch and do nothing for twenty minutes. He left saying that he would write a letter to my doctor to organise the X-Ray. Whilst walking back to work I felt very unsatisfied with the result, I didn’t think that I was any further forward towards the goal of pain free running.

Work

I walked in, sat down and started work, acting like it was a perfectly normal thing to arrive an hour late with no explanations. No one batted an eyelid. The approach worked and I will continue to adopt it until it doesn’t.

Rain

The rain started before lunch and got heavier, by lunch time it was heavy enough to stop me walking to the swimming pool. Much as swimming makes you wet I would rather not get wet, then shower, then dry myself off only to walk in the rain to get the dry clothes I’d just changed into. Basically I don’t like getting wet unless I’m swimming or wearing a swimming costume. A swimming costume is not suitable office attire.

Chips

I was tempted by chips in the café for lunch. I didn’t go for the full canteen meal, just a handful of chips with some mayonnaise. I doubt it will do my campaign to lose weight any good but they tasted absolutely wonderful. I may have to reduce my evening meal this evening.

Snow

The rain turned to sleet which slowly turned to snow and make the journey home a little more adventurous than usual. The motorway was made a touch worse by the appearance of a large puddle in the outside lane. The lane had been closed by as usual the people who use the lane were in a hurry so caused no end of congestion by changing lanes far too late. As I go closer to home the roads became worse and the power of my headlights seemed to fade. It took a while to realise that they had been partially obscured by snow. There was a space to park in on the side street but the thick layer of slushy snow made the manoeuvre a little more tricky than usual. I had three attempts to get it “just right” before accepting “that’ll do”. The walk to the house emphasised just how slippery everything had become. I got home exhausted.

The door game

The cat and I played a variation on the door game this evening. The normal game is for the cat to meow to go out and then almost immediately she is outside and the door is closed meow to be let in. The new variation is to meow to be let out, wait until the door is open and then realise that centrally heated comfort is much more preferable and run for the warm spot on the sofa. After three rounds I applied a little executive authority and made her go out.

The Hungers

I had a tuna salad for dinner but it didn’t really fill me up or leave me feeling in anyway satisfied. This is how the hungers start. Thankfully there was no chocolate in the house but they the hungers became so intense that I ended up opene a tin of fish and a tin of bean salad. This was not a good thing and I’m sure that the retribution for this rash action would be swift.

Tired

My evening was short, after doing dinner related things I sat on the sofa and tried to find something entertaining to watch on the telly, I failed. The effort of driving home combined with the residual jet lag to force me into bed much earlier than I intended.

Wednesday

Light

I woke early in the morning due to bladder related reasons and the bedside light being on. I must have been out like a light last night, but not the bedside light. I dealt with the pressing reason not to be asleep and went straight back to sleep.

Alarm

The alarm woke me up this morning. This was a sign that my body clock was getting closer to the actual time zone I’m in. I suspect that it is somewhere over Eastern Europe at the moment.

Breakfast

The scales also told a good story this morning, it may have been skewed by the cycling last night but they told me that another half a kilo had been flung into the ether. I have no idea how this works but as long as it keeps going on this downward trajectory I’ll be happy. Maybe, just maybe I can be “normal by Easter”.

Motorway

I decided that I’d try taking the motorway to work. The journey was relatively easy with only a couple of patches of slow moving traffic. I got to work about half an hour earlier. It might, of course, be that today was just an anomaly but if I keep tracking it I’ll find out soon which is on average the best way.

Phone

My desk phone has decided that it needs to do odd phone related set up things this morning, this has rendered it unusable. This is a pain as I have a number of phone calls that I need to make today some of which are related to work.

Cake

I’d forgotten about the birthday tradition of bringing in cake, there were two birthdays today. I managed to avoid the first but the diet took a battering by the second. Getting back to normal is going to be more of a struggle than I first thought.

Swim

I had intended to go for a swim at lunch time but a meeting overrun and the scheduling of a meeting in the middle of the lunchtime period put pay to that. My swim kit stayed unused in my bag. I will bring it in tomorrow, I will go swimming, I will lose many kilos, I will hit normal by Easter.

Bike

Owing to the lack of swimming I decided that a session on the rollers would be a good thing. I’ve not been on the rollers for a very long time so it took a bit getting used to. At least I didn’t fall off whilst I was peddling like fury.  My legs felt like jelly at the end of the session, I felt this was a good thing.

Chicken

I followed my training session with a shower and a chicken salad, but not at the same time. I tried desperately not to eat the remaining chocolate in the fridge, I failed. Hopefully the calories burned cycling would compensate for the chocolate calories, but somehow, I doubt it.

Tuesday

Waking

The problem with going to bed early is that I tend to wake during the night. I woke at two to see a bright moon filling the house with light and a contented cat curled up on the duvet. I woke at four when a not so contented cat decided she needed some attention. I woke at five when the water heater started and finally I got up at six when the alarm went off. I still felt tired but it was jet lag tired rather than lack of sleep tired.

Weight

I wasn’t expecting any change in my weight today due to the chocolate nemesis of yesterday evening but the scales told a different story. I’d waylaid half a kilo somewhere. This was a good thing and hopefully a sign of a quick return to equilibrium to come.

Drive

The drive to work was only slightly less hideous than yesterday’s effort. It was all plain sailing until I hit the edge of town. It wasn’t as crowded as yesterday but that only saved a few minutes.

Data

I’ve decided to keep a log of my journey times. I’m going to use the moment I step out of the door to the moment I enter work as the metric. That should give me a fairly accurate measue of the total journey time. I’m sure this sort of information will be useful for something, if only for passing idle moments analysing it.

Meeting

We had a staff communication meeting today, it was lots of people stuffed into a room watching people talk at PowerPoint presentations. I felt this was an ideal scenario for spreading coughs, I tried not breathing but that was no viable for an hour.

Waiting

I had intended to swim at lunch time but due to a delayed meeting I had to abandon the idea. I hate waiting for people to turn up to meetings and ruining my plans.

Bike

In an attempt to defeat the jetlag and to do something about my enhanced middle I got on the bike trainer for a half hour peddle. It was uncomfortable, there was a lump where a lump shouldn’t be and it was banging against my legs as I slowly built up the cadence. I completed the session but didn’t feel happy about it. There was a long way to go before I’ll be back to where I want to be.

Chicken

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to eat or not, in the end I decided that I should even though the urge to have something wasn’t really there. I settled on a chicken salad with no dressing, mainly because that was all I had or didn’t have depending on how you look at it.

Jetlag

I was determined to go to be at something approaching a normal time, which for me is somewhere around ten o’clock. I made it to nine thirty before wandering into the bathroom but the overwhelming feeling of tiredness made cleaning my teeth a herculean task.

Sleep

I vaguely remember getting into bed, I was probably asleep.

Monday

Morning

I was awake before the alarm and it was still dark. The recent rapid transition from Summer to Winter was quite a shock. I had no desire to get out of bed but the fact that it was the first day in a new role forced me to be a little energetic.

Breakfast

After finding that I was the same weight as yesterday I prepared some poached eggs on toast to keep me going till lunchtime. I was also hoping that this counted as a high protein meal, the bread may have negated that.

Commute

I had forgotten the pain of the commute to the head office. I’d taken the back way as I felt that a Monday morning on the motorway would be more painful. It was all fine until I reached the edge of town. Then the combination of schools and work conspired to make the last few miles take a very long time. I arrived just in time and then found that my pass wouldn’t let me in. I felt that the dead fox I saw at the side of the road may have been an omen.

Meeting

I set about the first day activities of making sure that everything worked and trying to find out what I was expected to do. On the whole, this was reasonably successful and culminated in a meeting with someone who wasn’t quite my boss to play the credibility game. It starts with the phrase “tell me about your experience”. My cause was helped no end by a stream of people saying hello.

Lunchtime

I ran out of things to do by lunchtime. I tried hanging around the cafeteria for as long as possible before going back to my desk to put on the charade of being busy. This wasn’t helping the lurking tiredness.

Updates

I tried to slip out early as I had very little to do and it seemed pointless me being there however my laptop had different ideas and decided that it was the ideal time to apply updates. I think a managed to put a curse on nearly everyone who had something to do with creating an operating system that stops me from going home.

Ironing

I knew I was truly back as I had to do the ironing. I decided that I should do it the moment I got in or else it would never be done. I don’t enjoy the ironing but I’m happy when it’s finished

Chicken

I couldn’t be bothered to prepare anything so I just ate the chicken leg that was sitting in the fridge. I could have had it with a salad but that would have been far too much effort.

Chocolate

An hour later the need for chocolate overwhelmed me, it was triggered by the opened packet of Haig’s chocolate hiding in the back of the cupboard. I noticed it when I was making a cup of tea an then it started talking to me. I didn’t need it but after an hour I wanted it. It was devoured in minutes.

Sleep

The tiredness came over me a little later tonight, this was a good thing, but it did mean that I went to be ridiculously early. Again, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Sunday

Sleep

I woke after 14 hours’ sleep, some of it was deep sleep, some of it was fitful but mostly it was all encompassing. I woke up feeling tired and not really quite sure where I was. The cat on the other hand was very much at home curled up on the bed. She was glad I was home.

Scales

I’d given up on keeping track for the past week or two and I knew it was going to be bad. Even with that knowledge the naked truth was rather harsh. I was now heavier than at any point in the last year. This was depressing, I decided to not have any breakfast

Tea

I spent this morning drinking a lot of tea whilst doing all the trivia that needs doing. The consiqunce of this was many visits to the loo, but at least it kept me awake.

Lunch

I found a focaccia in the freezer and defrosted it, it was the only food in the house but I wasn’t about to go to the supermarket hungry, that would be the path to ruination. I noticed that there was a cake lurking in the freezer too but resisted the urge to defrost it too. I’d though vaguely about increasing the protein in my diet as an attempt to reduce my weight, I didn’t think eating a cake would help that.

Battery

I tried to start the car but there was no life there, the battery was flat after 3 weeks of neglect. I tried to bump start it by rolling it down the slight hill but without luck. I had to throw myself at the mercy of my jump lead owning neighbour. It didn’t take long for the two of us to get my car going but he advised that I take it on a bit of a run, just to make sure. I took the very long way to the supermarket

Food shopping

I rarely go to the supermarket on a Sunday but when I do I’m always surprised at how many other people are there. I still fondly remember when shops were closed on a Sunday and always think that people would avoid shops on a Sunday if they could. I am obviously wrong. At least I was able to get a few bits to keep myself fed.

Chicken

The high protein diet started with a roast chicken. I slightly spoilt it by having it with one large baked potato and nothing else but I didn’t feel like cooking anything else.

Sleep

The jet lag hit me at about eight in the evening. Suddenly I was unable to function as a human being and all I wanted to do was sleep. I felt like I hit the bed snoring.