Early day at work for the support rota. An excellent day for the habits too.

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Again – this is getting easy now.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

All the way, every meal.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Porridge for breakfast again. No packed lunch (due to early shift), had Spicy Potato soup and a chicken salad instead.

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Walked 31:29 today (mostly locally around my house after 21:00 in the evening when I realised I’d only done 6 minutes during the day!).

No opportunity for the following:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Established Habits – don’t forget them!

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

Regular day working in London. Eyes feeling even better, cough almost gone. Not feeling ill is really good.

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Straight though the station morning & evening, without a second glance at shops or food.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Did it for Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner. I actually caught myself on the second mouthful of my dinner and realised that I was ’shoveling it in’. Stopped, relaxed, and savoured the rest of the meal. Felt nicely full and content by the end of the dish.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Porridge for breakfast rather than sausage roll or muffin (this in itself is becoming a habit).

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Walked 30:38 today (station->client).

No opportunity for the following:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Established Habits – don’t forget them!

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

Regular day working in London. Eyes feeling much better than yesterday, but still burning by the end of the day. Going to catch up on the last couple of day’s in the Habit feedback here, as well as today.

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Monday: Eyes burning so much that food was the last thing on my mind
Tuesday: No opportunity – day of work unable to look at a monitor for more than a minute at a go
Today: Not a problem. A little later than normal, so flew through the station to get a good spot on the platform ready for the train.

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Monday: No opportunity – burning eyes meant I wasn’t thinking about food.
Tuesday: Did indulge in blueberry, oranges, apple and bananans whilst feeling sorry for myself.
Wednesday: No opportunity – uncomfortable eyes, but not enough to need to find solice.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Monday: Yes, porridge for breakfast is real pleasure and I relish it. Lunch was ok. Dinner was hard work. Took my time, but wasn’t really able to enjoy.
Tuesday: Again, so much pain that enjoying it wasn’t on the cards, but took my time and chewed plenty.
Wednesday: Porridge for breakfast again – high point of the day. Pause, took my time and enjoyed all of my food today.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Monday: Couldn’t have my lowfat porridge, but didn’t feel guilty having the normal stuff as I knew I was having the healthiest option available (ie not muffins!).
Tuesday: Couldn’t decide between tuna or egg mayo for brought lunch sandwiches. Brought both, had half of each. Didn’t scoff all of both.
Wednesday: Porridge for breakfast rather than sausage roll or muffin.

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Monday: Walked just over 1 hour (station->client and client->station).
Tuesday: No opportunity – doctors, family, then sleept all afternoon to try to help my eyes rest
Wednesday: Walked just over 61:12 today (station->client and a some wondering around outside at lunchtime).

Established Habits – don’t forget them!

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This is my Day 30 post, which means (by my measure) I’ve “established” Habit 0 (Blog every day). However I’ve got an evil case of Conjunctivitis, aggravated by staring at a PC screen for 12 hours yesterday (including 4 hours from 23:00 through until 03:00). I really can’t use the computer much right now, so this is going to be a very brief blog.

My wife took my measurements and updated Body Stats page. There are some inconsistencies in the way she takes measurements, so some numbers are up on last week. What matters is that I know my clothes feel more comfortable each week. I know I’m in the right direction. Hopefully the measurement technique will be more consistent from now on and show that.

Doing well on the Habits, but haven’t updated Habits stats for 2 days. I can’t use the screen much more now so will have to wait. I haven’t let myself down yet, so still happy with progress.

Finally, had phone chat with my Doctor on Monday to discuss blood test results more. Tests raised some questions, and I need further tests! This was unexpected and knocked me back. I won’t go into details until I’ve had other tests. Either way though, I think it’s good that I’ve already started this journey toward health!

Habit updates and more info as soon as I’m able.

I only had chance to do the weight measurements this morning (will do the size one’s tomorrow morning).

Good steady progress, but to be honest I’m expecting this ‘easy’ early weight loss to slow down soon and I’m a little suprised that I lost 0.9kg this week. I’m guessing the walking habit as a lot to do with that, and I think more physical ‘activity’ habits need to be in the pipe-line.

The process of focusing on positive Habits rather than the fundamentally negative of ‘eating less’ is working fantastically for me. My wife starting to change her eating habits having seen “the effort your putting in and how well you’re doing” makes me proud of myself too. And it increases my accountability more by making me feel responsible for setting a great example for her.

Best of all I had a great weekend with the family at the seaside. I enjoyed the whole thing without feeling guilt-ridden for eating fish & chips (I left the least healthy bits to one side and left plenty of chips), and without feeling guilt-ridden for not wanting to spend long on my feet on the beach with the kid (I paced myself and enjoyed sharing a 2 hour long walk with them).

I guess the suprising thing is that the most enjoyable part isn’t seeing a number getting small on the scales, it’s feeling like I’m taking control of this facet of my life. That I’m gaining momentum with it, getting steadily better at being a healthy person.

The “Tone Up Wheel” arrived last week, and I think that needs to be the basis of my next habit.

Sunday on a ‘mini-break’ in Hasting with the family. OK, I’ll mention up front that this was a seaside mini-break, and the family decided fish & chips for lunch was non-negotiable.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Took my time and enjoyed my breakfast, lunch and dinner. No problems.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest options

Porridge and toast for breakfast rather than my normal holiday fare (Full English). Yes I did have fish and chips for lunch eaten from the paper with a wooden fork-thing whilst watching the crazy-golf. But I didn’t eat any batter, and only half of the chips. I couldn’t decide if the bitty crispy chips or the big potatoey chips would be least unhealthy, so had a mix of both. Copious chewing made up for the lack of chip quantity and I left the beach satisfied.

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

2 hours walking along the beach more than qualifies.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station
Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

A Saturday with beautiful weather. Walked this morning (see previous blog), did bits and bobs round the house. I’m pre-blogging this as we’re off to Hastings now to settle into a hotel, get dressed ready and go off to a wedding reception, then back to Hastings for the night. I anticipate my 30 minutes walk tomorrow to be walking off breakfast along the beach So here’s where I’ve got to so far today, I’ll post another update it if anything changes….

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

Walk through the woods, this (and updated Habits).

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Bananas and apples today to stave off the ‘feeling crappy’ blues.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Still going strong with this.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest options

Had cheese toasties for lunch, but ‘cut’ the cheese using a potato peeler. Thin enough that I’m quite happy it was a healthy option. I’m anticipating this being the challenge tonight at the reception, but it’s a carefully worded habit – I don’t have to eat like a rabbit all the time. I just have to choose one of the healthiest options available. This way I get to feel good rather than bad if I eat a bit of something ‘naughty but nice’. It’s about building habits and gaining momentum in the right direction, not living like monk!

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Previous post explains the hour long saunter through the woods that I had with my son this morning.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

A day working from home coughing a lot.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Blueberries, bananas, apples and oranges, fruit salads etc.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Half forgot twice today, but remembered mid way through both meals. I blame it on feeling ill, but at least I did remember each time.

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Just sat in front of the computer working all day. Realised after the children went to bed that I hadn’t done the 30 minutes walking, so thought I’d tackle the steps option instead. Wow, 500 steps is more than I thought! Did 260 earlier, another 130 just, going to do the last 117 before I ‘publish’ this blog… right, just did it. That’s 507 in total and I’m nobbled. Note to self: next time I’m doing the 500 steps, don’t do it just before bed!!!!

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station
Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Another day of coughing, another trip to the Doctor, a different set of antibiotics.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Blueberries, bananas, apples and oranges. Didn’t really make me feel better, but now I’m feeling good that I didn’t have any doughnuts.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Have to say that my appetite wasn’t particularly good today anyway, but what practiced this habit again today regardless.

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Walked total of 34.46 minutes today (doctors->pharmacy->home and a small round the block tonight to make up the necessary time).

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station
Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Regular day working in London, although I went to bed very late last night which reminds me that I’ve got to get something sorted for a time-keeping / sleep pattern habit!

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Not so easy today. My tummy was rumbling from about 17:30 onward, and I did have a ‘pang’ of food lust on entering the station. But I consciously slotted into the habit I’ve been establishing and managed to breeze straight through the station then without too much trouble.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Working so well, that I totally skipped having soup with my sandwiches at lunchtime. Just didn’t need it.

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Walked total of 30.16 minutes today (station->client and a small round the block when I got back to the home station to make up the time).

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want
Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Regular day working in London.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

This is getting easier now.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Did well with this again today. Both lunch and dinner were unusually filling, presumably because of this practice.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Leek & Potato soup rather than muffins or cake.

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Walked total of 35 minutes today (station->client and part of client->station).

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Some of the blood test results came back yesterday, and apparently my cholesterol level is 6.2. Some googling leads me to believe that is at the top end of ‘Slightly Elevated’. Not a major worry in it’s own right, but coupled with my weight, it’s something else I should be addressing, so it’s on the body feedback list too. I suspect most everything I’m doing will help this anyway, but putting in the body stats helps keep it as a focus.

It’s been interesting to read that in the UK the recommendation is that a level of 5 or lower is healthy, whereas most of the rest of europe think that 4 or lower is healthy. I prefer to err on the side of caution, so I’ll aim for the 4 I think.

Thanks everyone for reading, and stick with me, with your help it’s working well and I’m confident I can maintain the momentum.

A Sunday feeling quite ill. Sinus and Bronchial grief. In fact I spent most of the day feeling rough in bed. Despite that I uploaded this morning’s Body Statistic measurement. How’s that for commitment to the cause. See the next post for more info on body stats progress.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits & Body Stats).

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

To be honest, I didn’t fancy much. But I did have fruit in deference to anything else.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Breakfast, lunch & dinner. All filling meals due to the magic of eating steadily and chewing well.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station
Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest options
Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

A Saturday with the family relaxing. Everyone’s got coughs or colds! We did manage to make it out to Polesdon Lacey though, so we all got some fresh air and I managed my first day for Habit 5 (30 minutes walking every day).

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Oranges, Bananas and even crushed pinapple with custard for pudding at dinner time.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

I’ve been doing this for two weeks now. So why am I still surprised it works so well? (maybe it’s because I’ve got decades behind me of thinking a different way). I just so happy it does work though.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest options

Wanted to snack tonight. Not because of being hungry or anything, just because it was late and I wasn’t tired. Chose the Clementine path to happiness though (although this is combined with Habit 2).

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Done the first day. A walk through the grounds at Polesdon Lacey with Debs and the boys this afternoon.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

I’m happy with the progress I’m making so far on this journey. The emphasis on Habits is working well. Getting feedback from tracking my habits, and body statistics progress, is definitely helping too. As is the accountability of knowing that friends and family are reading this blog (along with some random visitors – hello).

However I realise that I’m in the honeymoon period right now. The time when it’s relatively easy to lose the last few kg’s I gained. I know that building up my fitness level is what’s going to keep this initial momentum going. I have been chatting with friends recently about their exercise patterns. I’m inspired by friends and family who play sports, and/or have a running machine or rowing machine at home and use it.

I think I need to build up some basic fitness before I’ll be comfortable in any kind of social sports environment. I used to love playing Table Tennis and loved it, and I discovered recently that there is a big league system operating all around where I live. That’ll have to be for later in the year, but I’m really looking forward to it.

Our house is just way to cramped with accumulated ’stuff’ that we need to get rid of, so there’s simply no room for exercise machines. So as a step 1 I’ve just ordered a “Tone Up Wheel” from BornForSports.com (less than £10 delivered). It won’t take up much room in the house, and I think at my stage it will give me much of the benefit of say a rowing machine, but with an emphasis on stomach and buttocks (which is where I really need help). Cheap, storable, and easy enough to start using that there’s very little excuse for not doing it. Well all sounds good to me – I’ll report more here once it’s arrived. You can bet there’ll be an exercise Habit close behind it.

Cycling is something I’ve enjoyed in the recent past too, despite feeling uncomfortable with how I must look perched on a bike. That’s something else I’m going to build up to…

For now I’m going to make do with walking. It’s worked for me in the past, and so I’ll do it again. As it’s the way we do things here at JustBigBoned.com, I’m going to do it in the form of a habit (designed to help me succeed) – so here goes…

I commit to doing Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather)

Support shift (early start) working day in London.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Focused walking, straight to the barrier-gates. Breathing through the mouth, never acknowledging the existence of retail outlets. Worked a treat again today.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Still going strong. Still feeling nice and full after every meal.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

The really early start (being on the support rota) leads to a lack of wifely constructed sandwiches for lunch. In the past this has lead to a tradition of Bacon rolls for breakfast, Asta Fried Chicken Curry or Pret Meatball wrap & lemon cheesecake for lunch, a burger for the trip home, and a takeaway chaser on the settee. But oh no, not today.

Porridge (with skimmed milk) and a skinny cappuccino for breakfast. Moroccan Chicken & Couscous Salad with fruit-a-plenty for lunch, no snacking on the way home, and Cod in Parsley Sauce with Mashed Pots and Broccoli for dinner. Have to say I’m pretty happy with my choices here (although Debs gets credit for dinner choice, purchase & preparation).

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

I’m beginning to realise that time keeping affects diet, health and habits. I should be doing more walking than I am. But because I’m often late, I don’t have time to walk to the station and end up driving (or catching a taxi from the office after I leave late). Also when I’m in control of time I can plan for eating healthy food, but when I’m in a rush it’s just the vague justification I need to eat something unnecessary. There’s something to this, and I need to boil it down to some positive habits – more on that as I figure it out.

Suffice to say that going to bed late has a serious knock on affect throughout the rest of the next day, and it’s probably something I need to address soon!

Either way, I’m feeling positive generally as I can honestly say I haven’t put a foot wrong in 18 days. Even I’m impressed with that. I know it’s not about being perfect, more about building habits. Having this blog and the record of the Habits feedback, and the supportive messages I’ve received have all really helped. It’s such a simple and effective system for me that I’m genuinely surprised it’s working so well.

Goodnight all, and if you’re reading this on Friday, think of me.

Regular day working in London.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Tough this evening. Pangs started before I even got to the station. Locked my eyes and my mind on the target of getting to the platform, and consciously focused on it for my entire journey through the station. Even to the point of only breathing through my mouth so that I didn’t get any wafts of food smells. Made it though, and got straight to work on the computer as soon as the train pulled up and forgot all about being hungry!

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Almost forgot at dinner time, but remembered at the last minute.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Major hunger pangs at 16:50 today, so into the office cafe and brought a plumb, banana and packet of grapes (rather than the traditional blueberry muffin).

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Day at home (in between contracts). Relaxed, caught up with some sleep and did some coding.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Still good.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest options

Was hungry this evening, wanted a snack. No bananas, but had a weetabix, some blueberries squished up and spread over the top and as tiny amount of milk as I could manage. This in preference to my ‘past life’ evening snack of choice of two rounds of toast with cheese slices on top microwaved for 1 min 30 secs (ie toast in a pool of molten cheese and grease).

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station
Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Regular day working in London.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

No problem (porridge for breakfast at home helped this morning).

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Every meal – still working well for me.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Porridge for breakfast with no sugar. Skinny cappuccino’s, and fruit from café. Total vending machine avoidance

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Started today with a “Fasting Blood Test” at my local surgery. This was arranged during my last trip to my Doctor regarding my cough. She asked me about my weight and whether I wanted to try an appetite suppressant. There’s no way I want to mess with stuff like that. I mentioned this blog and how I’m trying to approach it. She suggested that we check my cholesterol level, thyroid function, and some other general bits and bobs.

I’m not good with needles, so it was pretty stressful for me. Couple that with not having eaten for 14 hours and I was shaking like a leaf. Once out of the Doctors, I caught myself in the midst of a massive Doughnut desire again. Two for two on trips to the doctors, and looking back I suspect that I’ve virtually always complimented a trip to the Doctors with a Doughnut chaser! Crazy that I never even realised before. Not this time – went home and had cereal and toast and then off to work.

Apparently I should get the results by Monday, so I’ll blog anything pertinent that shows up.

I’m starting to realise that my sleep pattern is the next thing I need to work on. I need to figure out how that works, but I’ll be blogging more on that tomorrow.

Summary today though – I did well with all the habits I could.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Absolutely.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Did this well today.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Cereal for breakfast rather than Doughnut. Skinny Cappuccino with sweetener in the afternoon.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

A quiet Sunday. Didn’t get out of bed until about 10am, and then spent most of the day in front of the computer, programming. Debs brought me all my meals, so she made my choices for me today (hence habit 4 being a “didn’t get a chance” one).

Weigh-in this morning’s looking good – total loss of 2.6kg since the first measurement 2 weeks ago. Happy that there’s little error in the weight measurements, but the other statistics from those scales seem to be all over the place. For those, and the Blood Pressure measurements, I think I’ll take the first 2 weeks average as my starting point, but since the weight has shown very very steady progress throughout, I’ll stick with the measurements I’ve taken as being accurate enough.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits & Body Statistics).

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Every meal. I’m getting into this a little more now, in that it’s becoming a bit more automatic.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station
Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want
Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

A Saturday with the family in Worthing, Brighton & Crawley. Ate out at lunchtime and in the evening. At each stage I chose one of the healthiest options I could see. They didn’t always work out that way, but I’m deciding more and more that what matters is the fact I’m trying. If I can build that habit alone it would change my life. For instance, at Frankie & Bennys this evening I felt it was too cold for salad (freezing cold outside and we’d been walking on the beach earlier) so I went for the healthiest warm meal I could see – BBQ Chicken & Ribs. A quarter chicken and half a baby ribs portion, with Jacket pot. How on earth could I know from the description that the Chicken was fried??? But I tried. Further more (and very much in the vein of the burger ‘Bit But’) when it arrived and I realised it was fried, I took all the (lovely) greasy skin off, and I suspect much of the fried ‘badness’ went with it.

What I eat on any one occasion doesn’t matter, but having the Habit of trying to eat a healthy option will change my life. I realised today that I’ve been doing that since I started this blog, but now it’s time to make it explicit…

I commit to doing Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest options.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Wow this made a difference. Have to say that for the first time in years I really felt satisfied after eating just a main course in a restaurant. This is the BBQ Chicken & Ribs mentioned above. I virtually never feel this satisfaction. It’s usually either lingering hunger, or bloated sickness. It was a great experience. I really enjoyed feeling satisfied. I had no desire to have a desert. Really this wasn’t me just being good. I was happy and full (without feeling ill) and just felt nice. Very very weird for me but very very cool

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest options

This is the big one. And I’m sticking to it – I’ve been doing it for days, but the 30 day count starts here

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station
Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Habits

A work day on the clients site in London. Early start though (left home at 05:30). Had porridge at work which was lovely.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Avoided the Bacon Rolls this morning, and likewise with the Burgers this evening.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Finding this one difficult, but always remembering at least during the meal if not before, so counting this as practising the habit even if it isn’t as good as I’d like it to be – I’ll get there.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

A quite Sunday at home with the Family, could have been a big snacking day but it wasn’t.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

Just this today. Better than nothing though and it’s keeping the momentum.

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Yep, all the way, and it’s still working well for me. Actually I forgot to do it before lunch and was half way through a “Chicken & Vegetable Big Soup” when I realised. Did it then tough, and still benefited.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station
Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

I realised I didn’t do the feedback post yesterday, so here’s a catch up and today’s folded together.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

I blogged yesterday morning and today

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

I worked from home again yesterday, and it’s Saturday today so no opportunity.

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Still coughing, and I had plenty of Clementines, Apples, Bananas & grapes yesterday and today. Whenever I’ve had a hunger pang I’ve been satisfying it with fruit. I haven’t really had the “I feel poorly so I deserve a treat” feelings though, I think I’m past that phase. So I’m chalking this up as no opportunity from now on until the next time I feel poorly.

And the new one…

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Really established that today, and did it consciously both at Lunch and Dinner. Definitely improved the experience and so I’m sticking with it.

The program was good motivation for me, but the bit I want to blog about was a little thing they just mentioned in passing about how chewing your food more can make you feel fuller (more satiated). I’ve done a quick wonder around the internet trying to find the details of the actual study without luck, but will press on. There are many many references to this “fact” with various contradictory explanations for it, but I’d like to find some proper research material before I spout about it.

The lack of research information doesn’t stop me trying it for myself though. That’s exactly what I’ve done for the past few days, and I’m not sure of the results. It has however lead me to form the next Habit I’d like to establish and commit to…

Habit 3 – Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy.

As part of chewing my food more I’ve found myself being more aware about the process of eating. This has turned out to be a very positive thing. No longer am I in shovel mode. I’ve always said that I love the act of eating as much as the food. But in hindsight I have rarely taken the trouble to savour the act.

Since doing this I have found my hunger sated by smaller portions than I would have expected just a few days ago. Maybe this can be attributed to chewing more. Or maybe simply being more concious of eating. Or possibly just that I’m eating more slowly. To be honest I don’t really care why. The fact that it works (at least for me) is good enough for me to build it into my habit system.

I have to say I think it has a deeper affect than simply making me feel less hungry. I believe it might be able to change what eating means to me. Sounds heavy, but really 99% of the time eating for me has been about stopping feeling hungry (or sad or ill or some other bad feeling). That’s pretty sad really.

I’m beginning to realise that eating can be about savouring flavours, smells and textures. Enjoying the fruits of somebody’s labour. Sharing the experience with family and friends. Talking about the food and helping the children learn about it. That’s infinitely more ‘right minded’ than packing stuff in my gob^* so that my gut feels better!

^{* Gob is British ’slang’ for mouth.}

I’m the proud father of two young boys (aged 4 and 5). One of the things that being a father has really taught me is the importance of feedback when trying to achieve anything with young children. I think anyone in the situation of helping a child take their first steps would instinctively give positive feedback. There’s no way you’re going to sit there watching them with stern indifference as they haul themselves up against a chair and launch out into the fearful world of walking. You’re going to hold out your hands , let them know you’ll look after them, and then call them forward. And as they hesitate teetering on the brink you’ll call them softly and positively. “That’s it, That’s it”, “Good boy come on”, “Almost”, “good try” etc. Positive Feedback is clearly a great way to encourage children to try something new and keep trying it until they master it.

Likewise, you’re not going to sit watching with bland disinterest as a young child picks up a sharp knife and starts playing with it. If you walk over and ask them to hand it to you, surely you wouldn’t just quietly take it to the kitchen without explaining why. Well I assume you wouldn’t. I’ve found myself launching into a 30 minute conversation with my boys, explaining the dangers of the knife, whilst giving them the uneasy sense that I might demonstrate it to them directly. Maybe you wouldn’t, but I’m guessing that one way or the other you’d give a child some Negative Feedback about the potential dangers of playing with sharp knives.

These are clearly important things to do. How likely were we to be here today just as we are if our parents hadn’t done the same thing to us?

Well I believe that this remains important no matter how old we are. We’re likely to do the things that give us Positive Feedback. Positive Feedback makes us feel good. The mindless inner us that I talked about on Day2 lives for these good feelings. If we don’t create our own Positive Feedbacks, then we’re just left with the raw functional feedbacks built into our bodies, and the (sometimes bizarre) psychological associations we’ve made as we grow up. That’s nothing but the mindless subconcious running the show again isn’t it. That’s what I’m trying to stop for me. Mindless Dave’s been running the food & fitness show for far too long and hasn’t done a great job so far. I want to reclaim ‘me’ back, it’s my turn to try.

So I want to make my own decisions about what behaviours I do and don’t want in my life. I know how powerful these good and bad feelings are. I want to set things up so that I get good feelings (Positive Feedback) when I do the things I’ve consciously chosen to do. I want bad feelings (Negative Feedback) when I do the things I’ve consciously chosen not to do. Now I get to choose how this works, and I like that. I get to take some control back.

Put simply, Feedback allows us to decide to align our feelings with what we want to achieve. There is an art to this though. You get to design it. Choosing the right ways for the feedback to work is vitally important.

Here are some things that I think are essential in choosing and setting up your feedback systems:

1. Keep it simple in every way
2. Make it regular and often
3. Make it very measurable (time/length/count/weight/kCals etc. If it’s a touchy feely thing do max of 5 categories eg. Mood: Ecstatic,Happy,Neutral,Sad,F*#&€d)
4. Define it properly so you can’t change the rules later
5. Set a target that is only slightly unrealistic
6. Remove opportunities for excuses (don’t rely on others, get spares, have a box to keep everything in etc)
7. Record it immediately every time (write it down then and there, and type it up later if you have to)

So I’ve got 2 feedback systems now. I’m going give each one it’s own page (links at the top just under the big picture), and then summarise progress in a blog post every time there’s an update.

Feedback 1: Habits List. I started this on Day3. It’s a list of all of the Habits I’m committing to, and my progress on each.

Feedback 2: Body Statistics. This includes stuff like blood pressure & waist size. And will soon include weight, body fat, muscle mass and more (once I manage to dig out my fancy scales)

So keep coming back, keep me Accountable (and there’ll be more on Accountability soon). Next post (in a few minutes) will be a Habits list update.

Professional judgment is: I’m better working from home if I can, both from a spreading the contagion point of view, and apparently it’ll likely clear up quicker if I take it easy.

But this was an opportunity to break another bad habit. I realised as I left the pharmacy having picked up my antibiotics, that almost without fail, my normal course of action would be to buy a doughnut (well it’s 3 for a pound, so 3 doughnuts) on the way home. Yep, when I’m poorly I clearly deserve a sweet sticky ball of sugar and fat. So here’s my approach for breaking that habit…

Habit 2 : When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want.

I figure I am feeling rough, so I deserve to feel I’m getting a treat. But it might as well be one with a degree of in-built damage limitation. I find it hard to believe that I can gorge myself on oranges, apples and bananas enough to have anywhere near the impact that 3 doughnuts would have on my health.

I’ll chat about feedback in more detail soon, but I need to start it now. I need to see how I’m doing. I need to get feedback. So I’m going to start a score table for my Habits. I’m going to score my habits based on the number of time’s I’ve actioned them vs opportinities I’ve had vs target actions (target always being 30 for me). So here we go:

Habit 0 (3/3/30) : Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day
Habit 1 (0/0/30) : Take a different walk through the train station.
Habit 2 (1/1/30): When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want.

There we go – I’m doing ok so far I think (patting self on back). It’s not much – but it’s progress.

All very well, but why do I think this is so important? Well it brings together stuff I’ve heard from various sources in various guises. All the great motivational speakers seem to refer to it in one way or another. I feel it gets over complicated. At the end of the day, if you’re finding yourself doing something that’s contrary to what you think you desire long term, then I’ll bet there’s a Habit in there somewhere. Likewise, the things I did, the actual actions I took, that made the biggest difference to my finances, were the simple regular little things that became almost ritual.

Habits are like auto-pilot. For me I can find myself doing things out of habit that I don’t really want to do. Things that 10 seconds before I swore I wouldn’t do. I mean I really believed I wouldn’t, and yet suddenly there I am buying a burger at the train station on the way home! This particular example has happened to me more times than I can count. Similarly buying a pain aux chocolat from another shop at the train station on the way into London in the morning!

Can you see a pattern forming. So can I. I have bad bad bad habit’s associated with the train station. I thought about it tonight on the way home.

There are several factors involved. For instance when I’m about to get on a train, I won’t be able to get anything to eat for 30 minutes or more. What if I desperately need food before I get to the cooked meal waiting at home for me? Then there’s the smell. Strong, wafting, juicy smells that get my mouth watering instantly ( yes I bet Pavlov’s feeling smug). Then there’s the layout. In the normal course of events, I pass within 2 metres of the damned Burger ‘dealers’. Finally my tummy, which 10 seconds before was simply an inconvenient lump in front of me, suddenly becomes the centre of my universe. It’s growling, it’s aching, damn if it isn’t actually hurting it’s so hungry. I swear I feel the same as a malnourished child in Africa on one of those charity appeal films. Seriously in that moment it feels like that. But how can it feel so bad when 10 seconds earlier it didn’t feel like anything at all.

Basically in that moment I’m an eating machine being lead around by these pre-conditioned responses. I’m a mindless moronic thing that has to eat. This is what I mean by a bad habit. It’s not like I can have a rational set of thoughts right then. Some how I make up all of these really poor excuses to justify my need to remove these bad sensations and satisfy myself with what my body clearly craves. But again, if my body really craved it, then how can it begin so suddenly?

I have to draw the conclusion that it’s all made up. My head and my body is making all of this up. I’m feeling these things, and acting upon them out of habit, not because I, me, Dave, consciously chooses to, but because the Dave/Habit/subconscious has somehow taken control and is running the show. I think I’ve proven over the years, that facing these habits head on doesn’t work. This habit part of my brain can beat me hands down and 99% of the time gets what it wants. So what can I do?

I think the key for me is that this all comes on so quickly. There is a point as I’m walking toward the station when none of what I’ve discussed here is happening. I’m regular Dave, walking along, thinking what I’m thinking or listening to a Podcast or whatever. Then some moments later I’m the mindless eating machine. There’s no noticeable transition from what I can tell. But it does always happen in the same circumstance – the station concourse.

This gets me thinking along the lines of NLP ‘pattern interrupts’, but I can’t be bothered to get Tony Robbins to throw a glass of water at me every-time I enter the train station. Instead I think I’ll try a few little things and see how I get on.

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station.
I’m going to develop the habit of using a totally different entrance/exit, and take a totally different route to my platform. One that doesn’t pass the demon Burger ‘dealers’.

Coupling this with my 30 days makes a habit belief (more on this in a future post), I hereby commit to enacting Habit 1 for 30 consecutive days (that’s 30 consecutive working days – I’m not going into London on a weekend just to avoid Burger King!).

I’ll report here on my progress and whether it helps break the bad Habit.

Let me tell you a little about myself before I go any further. I’m a 37 years old married man, with two young children. I live in Surrey in the United Kingdom, and travel by train to work in the City of London most week days. I write software for a living which requires activity of the brain, eyeballs, wrists and fingers only. The rest of my body is free to vegetate and it does. And then there’s food. Oh how I love food. Sweet sticky fatty naughty food that makes me feel good. I know I comfort eat, and I do it because it comforts me (at least in the moment). Other than that vice I’m a pretty “good boy”. I don’t smoke and I drink very little. But health wise I’m a mess. I play no sports. I do virtually no exercise. I’m seriously overweight, unfit and unhealthy. I get ill more often than I should. My energy levels are generally low, and I don’t sleep particularly well.

That was cheery wasn’t it! So why am I doing this blog? Well I’ve been thinking a lot about sorting my health out, and that was the problem. Thinking was all I was doing. So I wanted to take some action. This blog is the start of that action. “well done, type away, that’ll help” I hear you say, and it’s a fair point. But I figure I’ll start with what I’m good at and work out from there.

You see I have changed myself for the better, financially, and I figure some of those same principals could apply to changing my health! The last two years (2006 & 2007) were pivotal for me. Prior to that I was wasting every penny I earned. I had massive interest payments on a mountain of debt. Now I’m debt free except the house, and I see my savings growing every month. I can’t tell you how confident I feel about the way I handle money now. It’s fundamentally different. I’ve changed, for the better, and if I can change that, then presumably I can change my health too.

During all that thinking I did I decided there were 3 key things that got me the changes I wanted: Habits; Feedback and Accountability, served on a platter of simplicity.

I’ll discus these 3 keys in more detail in future posts, but here’s a quick summary. I changed my Habits, dropping bad habits and forming good ones. I set things up so that it was easy for me to get feedback on how I was doing, to see my progress. And I made myself accountable to others for everything, from sitting down regularly with my wife to review our debt, to telling friends and family every time we met about what I was trying to do (so that they’d keep asking me about how I was getting on).

So why this Blog? I want to use this Blog to experiment with these 3 keys to changing my behaviour. To document my progress for my own sake, and hopefully find others who’ll share their thoughts, feelings and ideas with me so that we can help one another. I want a record of what works and what doesn’t, and a record of the hard facts of my progress. And I want a way to be more accountable. Friends and family aren’t enough, I want the world to hold me to account (well at least you, even if you just accidentally bump into the blog).

So that’s it, the beginning. I have a theory that if you do anything for 30 days in a row, then you’ve developed the habit, so let’s see if I can post here EVERY DAY for the next 29 days and begin to chart my way to being healthy.