Half a year ago, I let you all know that I am suffering from liver disease and doing what I can to reverse it.
I’ve been trying out different habits, exercises, and eating patterns and posting on how I’m progressing every six weeks.
Goal update
Weight at start: 105kg / 47.5% fat
Eight weeks ago: 90kg / 32.4% fat
Current weight: 88kg / 27.8% fat
Goal weight: 74kg (according to BMI) or 20% body fat.
Habits report
| Habit | Measure | Kept to it? |
|---|---|---|
| I am a healthier living person | Aim to lose 3kg every six weeks | 2kg loss |
| I am a keen exerciser | I have 30 minutes of exercise every day | 6 weeks out of 6 |
| I’m an occasional drinker | Have at most one night a week with alcohol consumption | 5 weeks out of 6 |
Thoughts on the last six weeks
Six weeks of walking. Since the 3rd May I’ve walked at least 10,000 steps every day. It’s been a great excuse to discover all the nooks and crannies of the many local parks.
Glasgow West End. Taken from the top of Queens Park today pic.twitter.com/iKXN0ryemF
— Joe Wright (@joe_jag) May 12, 2020
However, after a month of keeping this up, I hadn’t lost a gram. It was at this point I fell back on calorie counting to give me momentum, and it has been paying off well. It’s so easy to fool yourself into thinking you aren’t eating that much, or one cheat night won’t make that much of a difference, but in truth, it all adds up.
If you look at the chart above you’ll notice when I start calorie counting around the 1st June, the trend line starts heading where I want right after.
The thing is, is that it has to be this way. If you try to start too many good habits at the same time, then you burn yourself out and end up munching through a whole load of sweets and crisps. You need to pace yourself and only change one habit at a time. I spent five weeks trying to gain the walking habit, and you can tell when you make things a habit because you are doing them without thinking. Like your morning coffee, you are programmed to acquire it without any conscious thought. This is where you want your good habits to be. Now my body starts a mini-panic if I don’t start having a walk at lunchtime or in the evening.
Another lovely fact about walking is that running 5k and walking 5k requires the same amount of calorie burn. You don’t have to don lycra to burn calories, it just takes a bit longer when you walk, but you’ve achieved the same amount. Cool eh?
Next six weeks
Steps are guaranteed now unless I injure myself. The next six weeks will be controlling my calorie intake and using the calorie deficit from exercise to see more significant weight loss. I’m quite excited about this now as it’s becoming easy again.
Lockdown and injuries have scuppered my progress in 2020, but I’m feeling on top on things for the first time since January.
Good things in this period
- 5k time down to 24:30s from 26m:53s. I was delighted to break the 25m barrier.
- Ewa and I recorded two podcast episodes on how tech groups are responding to the PPE shortage in Scotland. It was super inspiring to hear their stories. You can listen along on the CodeCraft website or your favourite PodCast app
- Given the events across in the USA, I’ve dedicated my time to learn more about racism and anti-racism. It’s amazing how ignorant I was six weeks ago, and how ignorant I still will be now. Even so, there’s loads of good material in print and online to help you learn more. I found this book to be superb for explaining that genetically it’s all bunk. Race is a social construct - and we’ve got so much to do:
In light of recent events I’m educating myself. This is excellent so far, good stories and eye-opening science about how humans have developed. pic.twitter.com/IrB67QFFdn
— Joe Wright (@joe_jag) June 1, 2020
- My biggest laugh of the month came from Google mailing me with my cultural highlights in May:
Best Tweets
It's nearly my birthday, so here's some unsolicited advice:
— Joe Wright (@joe_jag) May 18, 2020
* 30 min of daily exercise is the closest thing you'll find to a panacea
* Once you have enough to live, spend your money on experiences and others, rather than things
* Unsolicited advice on Twitter is probably wrong
A repeated failure in teams I see is not setting aside time for improving performance. They are running a 100%+ on feature delivery and not picking up the items that make delivery faster and less risky.
— Joe Wright (@joe_jag) May 22, 2020
The main culprit I've seen for causing this is the "agile" ways of working.
See you, looking slimmer, around 26th July 2020.