Month: March 2022

Updating on Day 51. I’ll put photos of yesterday’s and today’s meals on here in a bit.

Today’s long walk was a mission to reunite PJ with his thermos flask, which he had left on my desk in the front room when he left for work. I’m doing a bit of internet work now to see how many miles I walked to his office – it’s not a huge amount, it’s only one post code away. OK – 3.6 miles total! PJ does that every single day though, so I can do more. His office were nice, they let me use the loo, although I had to sing because the lock didn’t work.

I suspect I’m still at a plateau because even though I haven’t got back on the scales, I don’t feel like I’ve lost any or look like I’ve lost any. If I’m going to shift some more weight then I’d rather do it by moving more than by eating less. Also, I feel like, looking at my meals, there isn’t enough protein! As I understand it, protein isn’t an energy source but it can help you feel less hungry, admittedly not as important as its good work helping with growth and repair, but a bonus.
Not sure if I’ve said this on here yet but one obstacle I face with the protein is: I don’t like meat. I was vegetarian for the longest time (over 25 years) and never had the taste for it before, or got the taste for it since.
It’s too chewy! …Possible research into things that have a load of protein but aren’t meat to follow.

Clocks forward today – and I spent most of it doing housework and chatting to PJ, while listening to Genesis albums in chronological order (1969 onwards) on Spotify. Did an extended Pilates session before that though, also squeezed in a walk before the sun went down.

Had a reminder today to take better care of my health, in the form of noticing feeling asthmatic. Someone I know (and respect!) once said something to me like “You worry a lot about your health, don’t you?”… and it’s not quite that, but if you have long-term medical conditions then you have to keep an eye out for things that will make them worse and proactively do things that will keep you healthy. That’s where I failed the past few days – I’ve been not taking my steroid inhaler because I had used one up and I couldn’t be bothered (times about 4 doses) to get the new inhaler out of the box and to peel all the annoying plastic covering off it in order to be able to use it. Today there was inhaler use, much Spring cleaning, and a resolve to take the exercising more seriously, not just today, not just for Gloji, but for my lungs! It’s been a great day, and being a tiny bit tight-chested for a while is not the worst thing in the world.

Day 47: a busy Friday, devoid of much exercise but with a few more carbs and housework.

Day 48: and a giant bee came into the kitchen while I was making meal 2 out of 3. It seemed to be in some distress, not flying around normally but buzzing about on the floor. I got a Tupperware container over it then a book under it, and PJ took it outside… somewhat astonished at just how huge it was when he lifted the container for it to fly away… maybe it was a Queen? Sorry, your majesty, if we were meant to give you some honey or something. I’m not that keen on bees – I mean I’m fine with them existing, I just don’t want them too near me. Bee lovers will be pleased to know that said bee flew up into the sky just fine upon release.

Edit: I checked pictures on the internet – Queen Bumble Bee: very unlikely to have done either of us a damage.

Day off! 3 mile walk this morning and a 2.8 mile walk this afternoon. A load of people in the park wondering why they were wearing coats and jackets because it’s so warm but keeping them on because it’s still March – including me. That amount of walking kind of took me most of my day off, and resulted in my right leg cramping up again, but it was worth it – I feel brilliant now, having had all that fresh air and endorphins. And it confirms the I idea I had that it’s perhaps that I don’t make enough time to exercise, rather than that I don’t like doing it. No beating self up though for not having made time every day yet – I walked 5 and a bit miles today; I’m a work in progress.

Today was a weigh day – 74.1kg which is just over half a kilo more than last week – I was warned, though, that it might start going up and down a bit. If my Gloji weight loss progress chart is going to start looking like a rollercoaster, then strap me in for the ride! 😄 
Can’t tell you what my waist measurement is because I don’t know where I put the tape measure. It is no longer in the sewing tin. Your suggestions as to what I might have done with it are welcome.

The day of food made in an enormous hurry. At least I ate it all slowly! None of it was all that nice. I am not a huge fan of the chicken dipper – or indeed chicken in general; chicken is something that can be made bearable but the dipper doesn’t do that.

Day off tomorrow. Plan to do some nice things.
I also made PJ eat the last remaining lentil chips and… well, if you see my posting photos of them again, or mentioning them again, you are allowed to give me a stern look. I like them well enough, but they don’t seem to like me.

I’ve had a nice day 😊 – at least it started being nice after I identified the reason I was being a bit random and not concentrating when on the phone to Wilma was that I hadn’t eaten breakfast. I had a breakfasty lunch (I’m working class, I’m not going to call it that other word), then something small a bit later on so I wouldn’t spoil my appetite for dinner. Result!

Did a different chairobics video today – noticed that some of the videos use weights and I own weights, so that might start happening further down the line. Also squeezed a walk in before it got dark, not too far this time. I went down the road to the shops that are a bit further away to source a bottle of Ginger Beer for PJ, and to pick up some veg for me. The shop I like to go to has a carousel of veg in the middle, it always looks so gorgeous and healthy. I think it’s a Nisa Local – they’re one of those independent shops that usually can be found near a Co-op, and which somehow manage to sell quite a lot of Co-op branded food.
*One quick read of the internet later* – Co-op bought out Nisa in 2018.

At dinner, PJ pointed out (again) that I eat a lot faster than he does. I’ll say “That was nice!” and he’ll say “It still is…” and he’ll show me that he’s eaten about a third of it in the time it took mine to completely disappear. Therefore, here is a message from our sponsors:

An hour of walking today, to the park, around the park, back from the park. Not a good foot pain day. Going to do either the Chairobics or the Pilates tomorrow, and a shorter walk.

Edited this post because it seemed a bit short and grumpy! I’ve actually had a really nice day. My walk around the park was lovely, if a bit limpy. I very much enjoyed globe artichoke for lunch – it took so long to make that I ended up practically throwing it at the plate to be able to eat it in time before I had a work call to make. Important lesson: eat some carbs at lunch then you might not buy lentil chips on the way back from the park.

Didn’t sleep too well last night – if there’s one thing I need to change it is definitely getting that regular exercise in… because it will help me to sleep better. Then, a thing I want to do at the same time is to drink more water!
I’m not really winning as much as I could be winning here. I knew that with being a bit busier, I’d need to work on taking breaks to move more, but I just don’t think I’ve achieved it this week.

The one win thus far is that I think eating more healthily is coming a lot more naturally now. I expect there is room for improvement, though. I’m looking forward to getting my cholesterol tested at the end of all the 12 weeks of this course, also my HbA1c levels and whatever else they do in a Health Check. If I still need to make improvements to my diet after that then I’m at least one person who doesn’t need to pause to think if I get asked ‘What are your eating habits like at the moment?’.

Ah, the drama of finding out ones supermarket delivery got cancelled by mistake. It is pretty amazing to live with such great technology that I can type things onto my screen and have that result in a human turning up at the front door with a couple of crates of food – so I shouldn’t be surprised if, occasionally, that system fails. We got our food in the end, and even if the list of food we were given was for Mrs So-and-So for her cancelled order (they also didn’t have her meatballs this week!), the actual food was what we’d asked for. We also got a tenner in vouchers for the hold up and an apology every 3 seconds from the person on the phone.

I haven’t exercised at all today, but I did have a very nice chat with someone I’ve met through work (not my Gloji mentor) about exercising. They recommended finding a specific time of the day to exercise and being consistent with that time, also starting with it being one thing at a time. 😊

Very busy day – thank goodness for it being the weekend tomorrow. I ate breakfast at lunchtime, lunch at dinnertime, some of PJ’s popchips during Family Zoom Quiz and then… what am I meant to do now? Do I eat or not? I’m still a bit hungry but it seems ridiculously late to eat proper dinner. Must get up a bit earlier if I have an early start (like I did today) and make sure that breakfast happens when it’s supposed to.

Evening update: I got tense towards the end of the day possibly because I hadn’t had time for much of a break… and then going for a quick walk wasn’t quite enough to get me feeling calmer. Possibly eating 4 squares of that 100% chocolate earlier (not pictured) was a few squares too many – I’m reading up that dark chocolate contains a caffeine-like stimulant, not so good for prone-to-anxiety people. Although this could be me being in a bit of a Princess & The Pea situation with it… I ate a bit of chocolate, it’s not like I did speed!

Calmness resumed after a bit once all work/social things were done for the night. Funny that!