Introduction:
Wow, OK, so it’s nearly April 2024… looking back and realizing that my last post was at the start of July 2022 was quite a shock! It’s not that I haven’t thought about posting, it’s just been quite a crazy two years. Without dwelling in the past, it can be summarized as… I fell massively out of routine, put on weight and am now practically back at square one! Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of great things in my life, but there are a lot of areas that I really want to improve. So, next question, what am I going to do about it?
Fitness and Weight Loss:
The start of 2024 has been challenging as my wife’s grandma passed away, and we haven’t really had much to look forward to. I’m also on a waiting list for diagnosis of suspected ADHD, although with the backlog, I’m probably still a long way from an official diagnosis. Then, to make things even trickier, I’ve recently had a minor operation on my right foot and still can’t run for a few more weeks. So yeah, not quite going from couch to runner at the minute! I have, however, found the motivation to sign up for a gym membership and have already attended twice this week, so small steps in the right direction.
My home scales put me at around 163 pounds, whilst the gym FitQuest machine put me at 70kg (around 154 pounds). At this point, I’m not sure which one I believe more, but I certainly feel overweight and unfit; so long as they both start moving in a downwardly direction, I’ll be happy!
I’m using the MyFitnessPal app to log my food and have set my daily calorie intake to 1,500 per day. I do allow myself to eat some of my exercise calories back if I’ve done a lot of vigorous exercise. My priority is maintaining a calorie deficit and trying to increase my protein consumption.
Routine:
The main goal at the minute is to create a healthy routine. I definitely feel more focused when I have a set routine to follow. Without structure or routine, I sometimes suffer with choice paralysis where I have too much choice of what to do, and then I end up doing nothing instead.
Creating and keeping routines can be tricky, but I’ve been using an app called Habitica, which essentially gamifies my to-do list. I then get experience points for completing tasks and can level up my character. Managing routine does, however, get trickier when school holidays come around, and Easter is on the horizon.
I also have a lot of new ideas for content; the list is ever-growing but I haven’t been able to work through it. The aim moving forward is to set a time to sit down and write rather than keep adding to the ideas list… again, this is a simple theory until the school holidays arrive!
Habits:
Ultimately, I’m working on replacing bad habits with more positive and productive ones. I have recently taken up meditation to try and clear my mind. Staying hydrated and getting enough sleep are also things that I struggle with, so they are areas for improvement. Trying to be more productive and not falling into the mindless social media scrolling trap is tricky! Really, the goal is to keep on top of my mental and physical health.
Reading more, or at least, listening to motivational podcasts, audiobooks, TED talks, etc., is also on my self-improvement list. I can sometimes struggle to focus on reading, so I took up a recent Audible offer and got three months membership for 99p. At present, I’m a few chapters into James Clear’s, ‘Atomic Habits’, audiobook. So far, it seems to be helping me change my mentality towards taking little, daily steps towards building new and healthier habits.
Conclusion:
I won’t lie, the thought of having to essentially start over from scratch is daunting; even more so as I no longer have access to a home gym. It’s frustrating to feel like I have really let things slip and have un-done all of my previous hard work. Still, I want to show myself that it’s never too late to improve, and that late is better than never.
Hopefully, planning to write progress updates will help to keep me accountable and boost my motivation to keep moving forward. I guess we’ll see if the proof is in the pudding in a few weeks time!
