Monday night I upped my walking from 5.8km to 8km and I didn’t feel too bad afterwards – weight loess plus an improvement in my fitness resulting in more energy during the day. As noted in a video I was watching, “exercising gives you energy” and I’m stoked that I have a lot more energy these day – not just for work but being able to get up and enjoy my day off rather than moping around the house. I went to my doctor as a follow up on the blood tests – he could see that I was losing weight however I really need to focus on getting that weight off in a timely manner, more walking on my day off, making sure I stick to the diet plan.
"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"
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The weekend has finally arrived – on Monday I’ll be meeting my doctor to check my progress in terms of losing weight and getting myself healthy. I’ve already noticed that clothes that were fitting are loser, I’ve had to put extra holes in my belt, there were a pair of tracksuit pants that I couldn’t fit now are loose, I tend to avoid weight because I find clothing a good indicator of whether I’m getting closer to my goal. I’ve got a whole lot of clothes that I no longer fit and my big goal is getting to the point that I can wear them because once I get to that point I probably won’t need to buy any new clothes (other than undies and socks) for several years).
After visiting the doctor I’ll visit mum for dinner and then afterwards pick up some groceries. I think after being on this revamp for almost 2 months I think I’ve got my shopping list nailed down particularly in the area of planning meals. The good thing about planning meals is not only the fact that you end up saving money because you only buy what you need but it also means the temptation to order takeaway delivery is elimated – if I know that a good meal can be put together in a few minutes without too much hassle, it tastes great and is filling. I’m also having a look at more food to diversify my food options so that I don’t get bored with what I have, being able to liven it up so that having a meal doesn’t feel like a death march.
I’ve been following the politics in the United States, chaos is unfolding and ultimately this is what the American voter voted for including those who decided that it required too much effort to get off the couch and vote – happy to wait in line at the local Apple store for the latest iPhone or Supreme store for the latest overpriced t-shirt but turning up to a polling station with a bag containing a bottle of water and food incase it takes a while is all too much. Who I do feel sorry for are those who didn’t vote for this disaster, they tried to educate friends and family but ultimately it all fell on deaf ears. Is this the collapse of the United States, the last desperate attempt to revive the United States where if there is a collapse it’ll occur as a giant spectacle rather than a gradual decline of the United States exiting the world stage with it’s dignity intact.
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Just a short blog post tonight, I came back from my nightly power walk and sat down to watch ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’, I understand he isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but as my old man would say to me that it is important to listen to people that you don’t agree with – to hear the other side. This is the reason why I have books by Ayn Rand where I complete disagree with her whole Objectivist philosophy but given the number of people who subscribe to it from the right it is important to understand what sits under their world view, what shapes it and ultimately why they create the policies they do.
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Working through getting ACC sorted out – long story short, on my time off injured my work was still paying me and I assumed that what was happening was that ACC was paying my employer and then my employer was paying me (I have never been on ACC before so this was the first time I have ever encountered it). Well, I find out that wasn’t the case so I’ve been having to sort out why ACC hadn’t paid out and then getting things sorted out with my employer. It would be nice if there was some sort of explaination regarding the process because I assumed, as noted, that the claim would be processed, ACC would pay my employer then my employer would top it up then pay me.
Went for a walk tonight, it was great to get out of the house and have some fresh air. I’m going to make the most of it because winter will come in around June and that is when things will get a bit nasty in terms of the weather. I’ll still go for a walk each night but I’ll have to hear a rain coat but for me any calories burnt is an icing on the cake where as the main purpose is to at least move at some point during the day since my work is sitting at a desk all day.
I was reading on Reddit an interesting post about how to do outreach to guys who have been turned off by because not just the media but the way in which some people conduct themselves online. I’ll talk about it more in depth tomorrow or maybe Sunday since it is something I want to explore. The thing is, if we want to push back against the rise of the far right/reactionary right we need to do more than just making a lot of noise with little or no outreach. Are there people who are too far gone? sure there are and ultimately those people will need to have an ‘a-ah’ moment when they realise their position is no longer tenable but I’d argue there are many people out there who are reachable, who are looking for a positive vision of the future without the empty virtue signalling or performative politics that is so prevalent these days.
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End of a another day of work, went for for my daily 5.8km walk using the running shoes that I didn’t think I had and afterwards I felt so good. I was watching a video how exercising gives you more energy and that is what I’ve found with going for a walk every day – yeah, I know, I’d sooner relax at home but damn it feels so good after going for a walk where I’m pouring sweat but after I drink some water, sit down and relax I feel so much better afterwards. It’s one of those things when you’ve done something and you feel good that you did it – oh, and it allows me to have a much better sleep each night.
On Monday I’m looking at getting a few things – at the top of the list is some scales for the kitchen so it is easier to weigh things out and control portion sizes. I’m also going to pick up some groceries as well – going to add more variety rather than havint the same food as well as looking at low carb alternatives such as these low carb noodles with the benefit of being high in fibre. I’m also going to stock up my cupboard with spices and some stevia because as much as I like the idea of having spaghetti the problem is that the number of calories in a jar of pasta sauce is so much higher than if I bought canned tomatoes, spices and some stevia to add a little extra sweetness which will enable me to indulge in something tasty without the extra calories.
Dell appears to doing a rebrand and refreshing their product line up to simplify it rather than the sprawling array of products that overlap in many areas – much the same way that Steve Jobs when he returned went through their whole product portfolio and slimed it down to a few core areas so that the company can focus on those limit number of areas rather than spreading their attention too thinly resulting in the loss focus in the process. They’ve updated the CPUs to the new Intel second generation and a lot of noise has been made by the benching obsessed tech dude bros on YouTube but at the end of the day the whole furora has been nothing more than internet drama for clicks.
As I’ve said in the past, this is a new generation of CPU architecture and packaging, there are going to be firmware and operating system optimisations that will need to take place in much the same way that we saw Apple making optimisations. Apple migrated from one platform to another, when they moved completely to PowerPC from the 68K they removed the last of the 68K code and made it 100% PowerPC optimised. When they moved to MacOS X there were many optimisations made in terms of the compiler getting it to produce better quality code not to mention improving how executables were linked to dynamic libraries. It’ll be the same sort of thing with this new crop of Intel based CPUs, they’ll be released, BIOS updates will be released and then Intel and Microsoft will work together to improve Windows to get the most out of these new Intel CPUs.
One thing to keep in mind, the tech bro YouTubers don’t make up a significant portion of the buying public, the average person goes into a big box store or goes online to the computer manufacturers website, looks around, finds something they like, buy it then takes it home/wait for it’s delivery. I don’t hear the average person having long winded debates about whether Intel’s second generation is good or bad – they just buy what is available and move on with life.
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Back at work today and everything went well – I’m finding that the regular exercise of walking 5.8km each night has really improved not just my health but also my mental health as well. I’ve been having a look around for a healthy substitute for soft drink so I’ve ordered a 24 pack of Remedy Switchel ACV Blood Orange and a 24 pack of Remedy Sodaly Lemon Lime Bitters – both are sweetened with stevia and I can order them online with free delivery which works out cheaper than buying them at the store. The other thing I found was looking for iced coffee – most iced coffee is all milk which is a problem when you’re trying to cut calories and carbs however I have found the Boss iced coffee are mainly water with a splash of milk which cuts the calories down to something close to 50 calories. On a side note, the good thing about work is the coffee is good enough to drink without milk so I guess everything little thing helps in the end.
Tomorrow I’m back to work again and for dinner I’ll have the salad I’ve got although I’m tempted to have chicken with it – I’ve got some sliced up tandoori chicken which will go nice with the salad. On Friday/Saturday/Sunday are my calorie restricted days where I have two up and go meal replacement, work out and make those additional fat burning gains then back on Monday I’ll be all set for another week. On Monday I’ll be heading into see my doctor to talk about my blood work and hopefully with the work having been done over the last couple of weeks there will be progress shown towards making myself healthier by shedding the kilos built up when I was working in the hospitality industry. Also this Monday I’ll do some grocery shopping, I think I need to expand beyond just having salads although it is nice to eat during summer particularly on a hot day.
I did watch a video which sparked interest in comparing a can of tomatoes, seasoning and some stevia for some sweetness vs getting a jar of pasta sauce – I was surprised at just how much sugar is in jarred pasta sauce to the point that the calories are almost half if you simply used canned tomatoes with a few extras. Makes me surprised at just how much added sugar there is in products to make them more addictive.
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Had a very tasty dinner tonight, Mexican salad with some lamb rump baked in the oven and came out absolutely perfect. I don’t want to sound like I’m boasting but I think I got cooking lamb down to an art for – everything else? well, that’s a hit or miss but I am getting better, I can mark up a success when it comes to a lamb so I guess we need to celebrate those small victories.
On Tuesday I’m going to head down to the supermarket and buy some heel plasters, some assorted berries, cherry tomatoes and a few other odd bits and pieces – might even get some organic kombucha.
Yeah, it’s a short blog, hopefully I’ll have something more interesting to post tomorrow.
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I got up today and worked from 11:30am to 8:00pm and nos I’ve got two days off. Tonight I went for a power walk – I was going to ‘take it easy’ but I’m one of these people that if I do something I”m either all in or I won’t do it at all, there isn’t some sort of middle ground for me lol. What I’ve decided is three days fasting (well, not exactly fasting but calorie restricted) and 4 days where I have calorie controlled low carb meals. It is interesting that getting away from soft drinks has resulted in me feeling less hungry so the results are coming in. Looking forward to tomorrow – Mexican salad along with some lamb rump where I like to sear the lamb, cook it in the oven and then slide it up until strips then top it off with some Balsamic mint sauce with the total calories of the meal being around 700 calories.
I tend to have dinner at around 5:00-5:30pm and part of getting into a better routine is avoiding eating late which is also helped. Reminds me of a video I saw on about the importance of scheduling, of having a plan and then once you establish it to then stick to it. It is something that has let me down in the past but I’m hoping that with the focus on getting things sorted that it’ll make life a lot easier.
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I had work today from home where I’ve decided to set aside two days, Friday and Saturday, as my fasting days – not a complete absence of food but instead having a meal replacement for both breakfast and dinner. I thought I wouldn’t be able to get through it believing the hunger would become unbearable but I’ve found that drinking more water and abstaining from soft drinks has help curb the hunger pains which will make having a calorie and carb controlled diet easier to stick to over the long term.
I’ve lost weight in the past but it had been difficult to keep it off once I started working in the hospitality sector where it was difficult to eat healthy particularly when one is running a shift – having eat quickly then rush back to work to deal with whatever drama was unfolding at that time. I’m in a much better situation now, working in an office, a more regular routine not to mention not doing overnight shifts which means I can have a more ‘normal’ life.
It’s been around 1 1/2 months since I’ve decided to make a change, the impact of that change is noticeable so I am feeling that all this hard work isn’t for nothing but actually is having an effect – it serves as a motivator when you start seeing results from a lot of hard work. As a side note, I don’t go by wait by rather how my clothes are fitting, am I getting closer to fitting into clothes that I grew out of etc. weight can be rather misleading where as to me if I can fit into clothes I used to no longer fit but now they’re looser then I feel as though I’ve got some runs on the board. My eventual aim is to get down to a 36-38 inch waist which will allow me to wear all my old clothes – that is what is motivating me and getting me excited.
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I’ve got the lifestyle change in terms of what I eat sorted out now I am focusing on fine tuning what I consume – my vice being Pepsi Max (and soft drink in general (the sugar free variety)) and although there are arguments for and against sugar free soft drinks I have found that I consume too much and probably isn’t good in the long run – and it works out whole lot of nothing then I’ll feel better and save me money. What will I be drinking now? lots of fresh water, black coffee and tea – no soft drinks, sugar free or sugar, and a focus on getting away from bad habits and creating new good habits that will eventually become life long habits. On the internet there is a lot of conflicting information and even information from reputable sources tend to hedge their bets rather than giving definitive answers one way or another. The best caution of action therefore is to take the conservative approach and just remove that vice from my life.
Going to head off to sleep and hopefully work will be as smooth sailing as it was today.
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