Wait and weight

When I started writing this blog I always knew it would be difficult to keep up the cadence to which I promised myself, to write approximately every 3 days – twice a week essentially. I find myself already falling behind in that promise, hence the wait for a post. This caused me to check back on one of my early ramblings (Only Connect) about wanting to walk more, eat well and watch less TV.

As my iPhone tells it’s own story this month I’m averaging over 10,000 steps. I’m delighted to report that was pretty much my goal and helped not in small part by Karen doing likewise and walking with me daily. In addition rounds of golf & a longer distance walk with friends have contributed to the total and my ambition to take time to enjoy what’s there on my doorstep.

Food-wise I’m eating fewer takeaways and finding new recipes. The highlight has been a vegetable coconut curry, but I am also finding more and more healthy vegetarian snacks from a vegan cookbook. Home-made hummus and red pepper salsa have become particular favourites, replacing what is my own personal downfall, crisps. And no I have not become a vegetarian.

You will also notice that my TV watching didn’t take a downturn as I attempt to watch each and every episode of Game of Thrones. I am less successful here at watching, therefore successful in watching less TV (does that make sense?). I’m only 5 episodes in to Game of Thrones so a long way to go!

And finally the outcome. I can tell many stories about my weight and fantastical diets over the years but for now let me focus on a small positive. At the beginning of the month I weighed a miserable 16 stone 7 pounds. The above goals coupled with a recognition of the amount of calories I am eating through another app on the phone has led me to reduce this to 15 stone 12 pounds today. Another big contributing factor – as the calorie counter proves – is replacing sandwiches with a (meal replacement) milkshake for lunch. A long way to go before I can stop my inclusion in the obese category but it is a step in the right direction.