Off to a flying(?) start

It's been 10 days since I started back on the wagon.
It was off to a good start on Monday morning when I packed my lunchbox and jumped on my bike and headed off to work. However, after a few kilometres, I noticed my back tyre was too soft to be safe and I had to turn around and ride home again!
Over the next few days it was cold and wet, so I had plenty of excuses not to ride, but still took a good healthy lunch, and stayed off the booze too. Well, until Friday of course.
One massive change however has been my blood sugar readings. I had been waking up very high every morning, and was using a lot of insulin every day, but over the last 10 days, my use has been low and readings have been great!
The weekend was good food-wise, poor exercise-wise, and had a few wines in it too.
And then Monday rolled around again. Bad weather means more excuses not to ride, so after work I jumped on the static bike in the garage and did a 45 min ride. Then I did another 40 minutes yesterday. The bike is way too small and the seat is horrid, so today I decided to do a wee hill climb rather than a static ride, seeing as how it was sunny for once. A short ride, just 1.5km, but it's up a pretty steep hill (and then down again) and 7 minutes after I headed off, I was home again.
Man I am so unfit!
And now I'm in a panic as well - in 7(ish) weeks I have put my name down to ride in a radle. Sounds like fun, except it's 8 days of riding, and over 600km! Eek! I can't do 40km let alone several 100km days one after another!
So, more diet, more exercise, less weight and more fitness is on the cards. I'm not tempted to eat any crap in the near future, that's for sure!

A poor showing

Not a new years resolution, just a convenient time to test and compare to 2-3 years ago. Not looking great...

	Jan 2010	June 2010	Jan 2013
Weight (kg)	107.1	99.2	120.3
Guts (cm)	104	90	120
Pushups (1 min)	7	33	13
Squats (1 min)	31	53	41
Side to side (1 min)	67	143	120
Prone hold (to fail)	0:34	1:02	0:31
Wall sit (to fail)	0:33	0:53	0:26

So, the numbers are in and it's a mix of horror and surprise. My weight has blown way out. Over 13kg heavier now than when I started the 20 weeks challenge. Much more girth, which I was aware of as most of my pants don't fit any more. So, fat & heavy, no shocks there.

My strength stuff was where it gets weird, and horrific. I'm worse than I was at the end of the challenge, but I have done very little exercise in the last 30 months, although I have (on occasion) tried to re-engage. My muscles still seem to be hiding under the fat layers as my pushups, squats and side-to-side were better than before the challenge, but nowhere close to my best. The plank and wall sit however showed how that extra weight is counting against me big time!

But what made me the most worried was how exhausted I was after these few tests. Puffing, panting, sweating and aching after such a small effort.

Next step, an honest appraisal of my blood sugars. I have some blood tests lined up in the near future, so it would be good to get a before/after from them too - totally impartial.

Hitch your wagons

My last post was two and a half years ago, July 2010. Since then there have been a lot of things happening!

On September 4th we had a major earthquake which left plenty of damage, but no deaths, and changed lives of Christchurch residents dramatically. With closed businesses, aftershocks and other disruptions, life carried on.

Then 22nd Feb 2011 saw the life shattering earthquake which killed, destroyed buildings and altered the landscape permanently. Thankfully, myself and my family were safe. Our earthquake story is long and still not over, but not the point of this entry.

In the middle of 2011 I quit my good job with an awful company (or more specifically, management) and moved to Wellington, followed shortly after by my daughter, then the wife.

From that point on I have been hugely busy, and lazy. We have been looking for a house, fighting finances with a decrease in pay and renting in Wellington while owning in Christchurch, playing more employment games, school, accommodation and so on. My new job keeps my mind fully occupied and eats up all of my days, with the occasional road-trip north or south, and the occasional conference and presentation thrown in. Busy busy busy!

Now, 30ish months later, I have got fat again. Fatter than ever in fact. I have not been exercising, I have barely ridden my bike at all, I have eaten unwisely, drunk far too much and far too often and my health (and mood) is starting to be affected. I've been feeling depressed, uninvolved in life and over-involved in work, full of bah-humbug about Christmas and generally unsociable.

Time to kick-start this puppy! Get back on the wagon! Move my arse! Christmas is over, New Year is around the corner, and I'm not making a New Years Resolution because this is more than that. It's a need! I have to get back on track, back on the wagon (and bike) and get back to healthy again.

However, I am a creature of habit. I like routine. So I'm going to start when I go back to work. New year, new attitude. Or rather, back to the old attitude. I'm chilling out, working from home on a new edition of DineOut, being lazy, watching silly telly, but mindful of the changes to come. While the wife is away I shall do some measurements and publish them here. I'll also re-do my fitness tests from 3 years ago and see if I have regressed further than I hope I have, or maintained at least some fitness. Yep, a couple of days then the scales come out. Sigh.

Round two is about to begin!