Habits

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 need to start exercising, but I’m planning ahead a little here. Mainly because I’ve still got a cough, and I can feel my tonsils starting to get sore.

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)

Habits

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

Tomorrow is my turn to do early morning support. I shouldn’t still be awake at 23:42, as I need to get up at 05:00 !!! So the usual routine tomorrow would be get up late, rush out of the house and grab very very unhealthy breakfast at the station in London to ‘make up’ for the fact I’m on support (didums – poor davey wavey!).

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.

Habits

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

Habits

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

Habits

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

Habits

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

Habits

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

Habits

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