It has been a while since I have sat down to write a blog post for this site and, to be fair, I am looking forward to being back in a routine of writing this and getting back to my journey. I had taken a break (I don't know if you'd noticed?) and had completely fallen from the wagon, to use an expression often linked with other addictions. I have put a stone back on, but the idea now is not to look back at what is in the past, but to look forward to a future in which I become fitter and get back on track.
I am back at school, in the new normal of education where marking will take five days of me not touching work for 2 days, having a day to mark it and then giving it back after two days of me not touching it. It's a surreal reality to be faced with. We are also on an emergency timetable, which helps us to cope with potential outbreaks of covid - something else which is a little disconcerting. But this is reality and so is my life and my journey. I did really well, fell off and am now picking myself up and have to face my new reality of having gained back a lot of the weight I had originally lost. Therefore I am now metaphorically dusting myself off and starting again.
My target is October half term - a date which will hopefully bring me to Turkey and a well earned rest. I am hoping that Turney will not be in the isolation area, so that we can still go without having to quarantine after returning. And my aim is to be under 12 stone (or as near as I can get) by then. In order to do this, the wife and I have created a competition between ourselves: the one who loses the most weight this week will be pampered by the other for the whole of Saturday.
To get off on the right track today I got up at 5.30am and ran 1.6km (1 mile) and also signed up for '60 miles in September' Cancer Research challenge, which means that I will have to run 60 miles in September (or more), so it does exactly what it says on the tin. I will have to run two miles a day, so this week I am running 1 mile a day to get myself back into it and also doing my exercise videos as well to make sure that I am giving my body the maximum workout to get back to where I was...and beat the wife in the process.
Obviously I know that my motivation will wane at times, but I have been at those points before and have an arsenal of weapons on hand to get rid of them and continue. I must admit that I have felt hungry today, but I have put this down to mostly not drinking much (I feel less hungry now I am home and have had two cups of tea) and that I had very little sleep, as always happens the day before I go back to work after the summer holidays. We are also going to start walking after dinner again this evening, so hopefully this will increase the number of steps I am doing also and give me a kick of endorphins at a time when I will feel least energetic...although this is normally about 3.
There are more reasons why I am looking forward to really getting back on it. Since gaining some of the weight I had lost, my knees are hurting again, my back is hurting again and it is much harder to put my socks on. So even if I were doing this for nothing else, I would be doing it so that my body ached less. So this is me, starting again. I haven't gone back to day one, I think that that would be disingenuous, so I am calling it for what it is...a fan and a rise up again to meet the challenge. And with the help of friends and the healthunlocked forum, I will hopefully be back on it for keeps.
Fingers crossed.
Until tomorrow, stay strong and stay safe.
Thanks for reading.
Sean.
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