Week 19 (33 to go)

There is not much to write about this week. I slightly adjusted my exercise to now have a workout 6 out of 7 days (instead of 3 big workouts in the week). I am alternating cross trainer with weight workouts daily and have upped my time on the cross trainer from 24 minutes to 32 minutes. This means I am now doing at least 30 minutes everyday for those workout days.

My first run at 32 minutes was a challenge, but i got through it completing 10.71kms in that time. The second one i attempted to hit 10.8, but overshot and hit 10.88.

This approach has allowed me to push more in the weight workouts, maintaining higher weights for more reps.

It is safe to say, i seem to struggle more with the cross trainer, but i will keep pushing.

I lost 1.2 kg, which offsets the minor loss last week somewhat. As usual, i have one night where i have a couple of drinks and a meal that is probably not the best. I could become more focussed and drop faster, however the intent of this challenge is to lose weight, get healthier and maintain a lifestyle. I think i have that balance now.

Week 18 (34 to go)

As predicted, re-adding in weights this week after last resulted in a minor loss overall for the week. I dropped 0.3kg however was able to get back to my workout routines, even increasing the resistance on the cross trainer (more on that later).

Looking at my food, i had 3 dinners that were over / higher than normal this week. I think is a symptom of having the whole family at home (definitely not something i am complaining about). We have more time to cook meals, which opens the door to more variability in meals. The best i can do is track and make better choices.

Friday night we had virtual drinks, with each of us having a couple/few beverages while video chatting. I then compounded that with ordering pizza for dinner - so Friday went well over my calorie goal. It was a good night, and a necessary break from the isolation of working from home, but one that i should have probably thought better on.

The other two meals that were high (above 800 calories for a meal) were on Sunday night where i made a Welsh Lamb Pie and then on Wednesday where we had slow cooker Hungarian Goulash. In both these instances, i used the recipe function of My Fitness Pal to input the recipe, ingredients and servings to calculate the overall impact. It worked well, and gives a good insight into what the actuals are for a recipe (and doesn't miss little things like oil etc in the count that may be overlooked.)

That being said, besides these three meals, i was bang on and not struggling. Of note, after the pizza night i did not have any cravings for more 'naughty' food the following day. This is different to previous times i ate poorly where i had to consciously get back on track. I think this is more than sustainable and i wont drop back into previous bad habits.

On workouts, i bumped up the cross trainer resistance on my Tuesday workout and then continued on the Thursday one. For history - in a 24 minute session on the cross trainer, i was reaching 8.2 - 8.3 kms on the previous setting. Instead of trying to keep extending that distance, i thought i would increase the resistance and aim to hit 8km again.

Well Tuesday morning kicked my proverbial. The bump up of 2 bars felt like running in treacle the first 'peak' and it didn't get better all the way through. I was happy to hit 8.09kms on Tuesday and then increased it to 8.11km's on the Thursday. Once I get it up to the 8.3km mark again i will increase the resistance once again.

I did track my time on the cross trainer (as i do all workouts) through my fitness tracker and noticed that i was in 'intense' and 'peak' bpm for most of these workouts - an increase over previous. I have added a combined image of the cross trainer (top) and heart rate (bottom) for interest. This was replicated on Thursday. I think keeping at the higher resistance is making me work harder both from a cardio and muscular perspective. I will track this the coming weeks and see how i trend.

Week 17 (35 to go) - End of Month 4

So, second week of working from home. Unfortunately i did succumb to the virus that my wife and kids brought home, not COVID-19, but still enough to set me back from doing exercise for the week.

Diet, other than Pizza on Friday night, has been good. I have had a bit of a disturbed sleep pattern due to coughing through the night, but for the most part am well rested.

Work has been frantic with changes in instruction at a corporate, customer and government level. I have spent a lot of time seated at my workstation for long hours, which i thought would be detrimental, however no rel impact yet.

I am honestly surprised at the number i weighed in at today, losing another 1.8kg for the week. I am wondering if there is an element of loss due to lack of exercise / being unwell that is triggering a lower number that will be re-balanced next week?

From the weekend on, i will be back in the swing as far as exercise goes, will be very interested to see how my weigh in is affected next week, if at all.

As usual, end of month summary is below:

So 1/3 of the way through the challenge. I should probably say something deep and meaningful about how i am feeling or the 'journey'. But i am not that person. I have found this challenge, for the most part, very easy. I have still enjoyed things that i probably shouldn't. I have learnt things about how my body reacts to different things, and i know that i wont be on a holier than thou loss trajectory. I know that i need to stay on this course, and so far i have proven that when you fall off the wagon, you just jump back on and everything continues tickity boo.

My tracker has ups, flat points and downs. Over all i am ahead of the curve and the trend is definitely the way i want it to be.

The main thing, through all of this. Is that i am feeling intangibly better. That's all i can ask.