Goals: 1. This year i would like to start running again and would love to train for and complete a marathon before years end. Very ambitious. 2. I would like to start a small business as a side project and nurture it along. It doesn't have to be big or fortune making, just something of my own. 3. And lastly but most importantly we are expecting child number 3 in a few months. Getting ready for and enjoying his or her arrival will be a huge part of next year.
01/Jan/2015 Health Goal: So I started back running last week, its been over 6 months since my last run and around 2 years since I did it regularly. I am following Hal Higdons 10k novice plan which assumes some level of fitness before you begin (able to run 2-3 miles comfortably enough), while I can manage that distance without too much trouble I am having a few niggling pains in knees and ankles. I will probably repeat week 1 of the plan again next week before moving to week 2 to give my poor legs time to toughen up. To help with all of this I started following a Keto diet earlier this week to help lose a little weight. So far it seems to involve wrapping everything in butter and bacon, I can't really believe its a diet. Project Goal: On the project front things are far less tangible, I have ideas for things but nothing that fits within the goal of a small business. Regardless I love tinkering and building things especially if it means learning something new. I bought a whole bunch of arduino components before Christmas, something I haven't really done anything with before. I want to try making a few simple projects involving thermometers, screens, buttons, clocks etc. If nothing else it will be fun and that pretty important in my book. I do have another idea which will involve some programming, its for a tool useful to developers working with HTTP. I'll sit on it for a while until I do some more research. Family Goal: Bought a new buggy and some other bits and pieces. Not a lot we can do yet apart from some prep work around the house. Going to build a lego tower with my son now :)
Other: I have made a lot of progress toward each goal because I have been on vacation from work. That all comes to an end in a few days and I think progress will slow down significantly which is a real shame. It's also one of the reasons for goal number 2. Work is something that needs to be done to pay the bills but when you get a break from it for a week or 2 you also see the cost it has on your life and the things you want to do. I do not expect following updates to be anywhere close to this length.
12/Jan/2015 Health Goal:
As I feared, work has severely hampered my available time for exercise. I have not been able to run since returning as it is dark when I leave in the morning and when I got home in the evening. That and the fact that its cold and windy, I love running in the cold but cold&windy is painful, cold&windy&dark is a tough sell. I made it out for a 2 hour walk in a forest yesterday just to do something. On the positive side the Keto diet is going really well, I have managed to drop a few pounds already which is great. I maintained a low carb, high fat diet very easily so far as it means lots of fish, cheese, eggs, chicken, bacon, salads, oil and butter. We even made a low carb pizza with a mozzarella base. No beer, just the odd glass of red wine. No bread, pasta, rice etc. I have not counted calories or really analyzed how much carb/protein/fat I have been eating that much. I don't feel hungry or tired, the food is great and its working. Not sure I'd stay on it at this level long term but it has changed how I view food quite a bit. Project Goal:
Nothing to report from a personal project POV. In work I have a massive, career making, high risk/reward task on my hands to complete this year which could have my name in lights if I pull it off. That will be my main focus for the next few weeks/months. Family Goal:
Need to sort out cots, bottles and a bunch of other stuff but apart from that eveything is going smoothly.
That's a shame about your running. I know my mum sometimes braves the dark with the aid of a head torch. I was about to say that I wish I had a forest near me to walk but then I remembered I'm about a 10 minute train ride away from the Peak District. I definitely need to go sometime soon. Good job in the diet also! I'm trying to put/keep on weight so it seems our diets are quite opposite. It sounds like your job has got your work cut out for you. Good luck in the task, it always simultaneously amazing and slightly terrifying to be working on such a project that you describe.
I think by the time the diet is finished in a few weeks it should be bright enough to go for a quick run after work. Its more postponed for a bit rather than cancelled. The work project is a doozy on many levels but it is exciting. You need that fear to keep your head in the game sometimes.
25/Jan/2015 Health Goal: The weight shedding continues unabated. All told I am down over 4kg since the start of the year which is great. I'm not quite into flat tummy territory yet but getting closer. I don't have a goal weight as such apart from a vague "middle of the green" BMI score. In my own head I have "six pack" as the real goal :) The diet itself has been pretty easy to follow, after almost 4 weeks I have no real cravings to speak of and have not cheated. Here's an album of some meals I have been enjoying. Preparation is the key, I eat 2 meals a day, lunch and dinner. Lunch is primarily salad with some dressing, eggs, meat or fish topped off with cheese or mayonnaise. The macros I am following is less than 25g carbs, 100g protein, 150g fat (or more) each day split across the 2 meals. Honestly I have not measured those at all apart from keeping an eye on the carbs to ensure i consumed less than 25g per day. The diet works like most diets, calorie deficit, which means I should probably be counting my calorie intake more closely but meh. I don't feel hungry, my energy levels are good and the weight is coming off. So far so good. edit: I forgot to mention that I do measure one thing every 2-3 days and thats my Ketone levels. Even though I am on very low carb amounts my ketone levels normally range in the 1-1.5 mmol level which means I am in Ketosis but not as high as some others are. There are a couple of potential reasons for this, one is that i am eating a little too much protein which i am converting to glucose or I am more efficient than the average person at converting the trace carbs i consume into glucose... Who knows. Anyway the levels appear to be fine so far. Its funny, my health goal and project goals have a similar trend. While my health goal is going really well in terms of weight loss, I have made no real progress with my running training apart from the odd short run once a week.
Project Goal: The project goal is also going well in one direction. My work project is moving along nicely and I am well placed to benefit from it should we pull it off. On top of that a new opportunity related to it has raised its head and I am considering going after it. There is some restructuring going on and gaps are opening for a prestigious role. I have a good wind behind me right now and it might be time to strike. I'm a poor chess player but I know enough that making a move at the right time can win the game.
Family Goal (goal is so not the right word here): Going great, we had a scan this week and everything is going great. My wife is managing her illness pretty well considering, we need to manage her condition closely but things seem to be fine so far. I spent all day in the attic rooting out baby clothes, bottles, sterilizers etc in order to figure out what we have and what we need to buy. Pretty good haul, a small bag of baby clothes goes a long way, you forget how tiny they are after a few years. Other than that I am doing a lot of house work (laundry, cleaning bathrooms, throwing out old junk we don't need), my wife normally does this when I work but the work is a bit too much for her now so I leave her rest while do the scrubbing.
I have friends who do keto -- if you're just starting the biggest thing to remember is that if you ever eat in public you basically have no choice but to consume carbs, which to my understanding wrecks the process and you have to start over. So there's that.
Yea I don't eat out all that much and to be honest if I go to a nice restaurant then I'm going to cheat and eat the damn carbs. Life is too short and all of that. On a normal week it shouldn't be too bad I hope. The biggest thing is lunches for work and preparing them in advance so that I don't cheat and hit the local deli. I think that can be covered with some planning. Lots of salads, eggs, fish, meat, cheese etc.