Week 6 – I have really lost my focus!

31 January 2021

25th – 31st Jan 2021

Where did the time go. We are already at the end of January. I have already been back a work for 4 weeks and completed 6 weeks of my two year journey. Only 96 weeks to go!

I must admit that this is harder than I thought it would be. The running is okay and I am starting to enjoy this again. To be honest, with the lock-down it’s the only time I get to leave the house and collect my thoughts. A quick pop out to supermarket just doesn’t cut it, and actually more stressful as you have to be on guard.

Oh, and why is it when something goes wrong with any piece of technology in our house, I am the one who gets shouted at. Dad the internet isn’t working. Husband, the computer has eaten my files again. Or, my tablet isn’t working!

If you have landed on this blog and wondering what this is all about, check out my ‘Journey to 40: I don’t want to get old’ post.

In short, the thought of reaching 40 scares the hell out of me. This is all about my two year journey to 40 years old, and making some pretty big changes in my life along the way. I have put these changes into 4 big journey goals with the aim of reporting progress each week. These are:

healthy eating

Something I have struggled with for over a decade. A pretty big goal that I will break down into manageable chunks.

improve my Fitness

I'm not looking for perfection but really want to be fitter than my children. I wouldn't say no to a more defined body.

Drive my Professional development

I feel a little lost and need something to strive for in my work life.

Build an online presence

I have started this and would really like to dedicate some time to growing an online brand. Documenting my journey will help keep me on track as I reach that scary age milestone.

Come with me on my journey and I hope to inspire yours.

What has been going on this week?

Feels like another week has passed and same old some old.

It’s strange. The week’s actually seem to be going by very quickly but at the end of it, it’s difficult to articulate exactly what I have achieved.

Oh, I did restart a DIY project this weekend. I started it a good few months ago, but have been putting it off because I just wasn’t sure what next steps I needed to take. The wife is getting on at me to just get on with it. I managed to get some advice from a friend. So, I have a route forward. Guess what I am going to be doing over the next few weekends!!

It’s also getting difficult to try and entertain the children when you can’t actually go anywhere. We are trying to be good citizens and not go anywhere we don’t have to. I think this is also getting a little hard on them.

Anyway, on with the goal progress.

Healthy eating and wellbeing

Week 6 Calorie In-take Screenshot — This shows my latest calorie intake each day during Week 6 of my journey

I think you can tell from the intro that things feel a little difficult at the moment. I am beginning to really struggle with my work. It’s not that I have too much. Or it’s too difficult. The work should be bread and butter for me. It’s just I lose focus. I can be very good at hiding it. It’s certainly the cause for my mood and stress. Just got to push through!

Sitting here writing this week’s post I can feel it. I feel low and I can’t put my finger on it. I have largely been good with the eating this week. Again still under the calorie intake, but as I write this I have had one too many cookies, which took me to the limit.

Not bad. Still on the right track. Although I need to cut out any excess snacks.

Lets look at my stats

Stats	Last Week	This week
Weight	16st 11 lb / 106.4kg	105.5kg / 16st 8lbs (232lb)
Waist	46in / 117cm	45.7in / 116cm
Chest	46in / 117cm	46.3in / 117.5cm
Leg (thigh)	25.5in / 65cm	24.8in / 63cm (thighs) 18.3in/46.5cm (left calf) 18.5in/47cm (left calf)
Arm (upper)	Left bicep – 15in / 38cm Right bicep – 15.4in / 39cm	15.55in / 39.5cm (left) 15.47in / 39.3cm (right)

Another steady drop in the weight so really pleased. Assuming I am measuring my waist correctly each time, it looks like I am going in the right direction there too. The chest measurement has gone up but I am not so fussed about that at the moment.

Now I know I won’t be able to keep up the almost 1kg weight loss for a long time. It has to plateau at some point. But I am going to take that. I am now only 1lb of 16 ½ stone. Half way to my bigger target I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Looks like my arm muscles are also going in the right direction with some of the toning workouts I am doing.

This certainly does lift up my mood when I can see the results written down and going in the right direction.

For now, it’s going to be more of the same calorie tracking, but this week I need to focus on NOT having more than I need after dinner. I have had a yogurt and then a small ice-cream in the evening. It might be under the tracker amount, but needs to stop. I don’t need both.

improve my fitness

I think I can call this a really good week this week for fitness. This is the first week I have got through every workout each day as planned. Also for each run I improved and really improved on 2 of the 3 runs.

Day	Planned	Results/Comments
Mon	Toning Exercises	Back to the toning workouts While the workout was still hard work it did actually feel like things were getting a little easier. I have increased the reps on a couple of exercises and managed to complete all exercises (reps and sets). My left upper arm is still playing up but again, I feel there is progress there.
Tue	Run 1	2.00 miles \| 21:23 \| Av Pace 10:41 \| Calories burned: 384 \| Conditions: Dark, Drizzle Today’s run felt really good. I don’t tend to look at my time/pace during my run so I didn’t know how I was doing. My pace really did feel consistent round the whole run. To my surprise this was almost spot on. The app shows a 2 second mile pace difference between the first and second mile. Sometimes these have been 20+ seconds different. I also felt I could have pushed a little harder, so will be doing that on Thursday’s run.
Wed	Toning Exercises	A little late in the evening but I am doing them Things are starting to feel a little easier. Still sweating at the end but getting there. I hope it’s helping.
Thu	Run 2	2.01 miles \| 20:28 \| Av Pace 10:09 \| 379 Calories burned \| Conditions: Dark, Dry, Cold, After dinner WOW! What an amazing run. I felt good on Tuesday but I knew I was pushing harder today. I would have been disappointed had I not been under 10:30 mile/pace. But I smashed it. Now the hard part. Trying to keep this up.
Fri	Toning Exercises	I did really want to do it at the end of the working week. But glad I did It was a little hard. But I had to push on and put a tick in the box.
Sat	Run 3	2.00 \| 20:08 \| Av Pace 10:03 \| 375 Calories burned \| Conditions: Afternoon, Dry, Cold WOW WOW WOW! I thought this run was going to be slower. I started the first quarter mile wanting to stop. On the slight incline I was running into the wind. Amazingly I was so close to 10 min/mile.
Sun	Run or Toning Exercises	My rest day Yep. Had a rest from exercise today. My upper left arm is still not quite right. I’m a little worried doing the toning work out with press ups and other arm exercises is not giving it time to heel.

I don’t think there are any new goals I need to be setting this coming week. Although If I can hit around the same time for my 2 mile run on Tuesday, I might increase the distance just a little. But try to keep the min/mile average the same.

On the toning workout side, I am debating if I need to reduce or cut the arm workouts. I need to make sure I don’t make my left arm any worse. It hasn’t, but likewise it isn’t getting better.

driving my Professional development

One word.

FAIL!!

What more can I say. The min-goal this week was ‘book in 1 hour each day and do something towards my development’. I did set some time in the diary but put bluntly, I did fuck all.

I am really disappointed with myself. I know I am struggling with work in general but these tasks/mini-goals are not directly related to my every day work. If anything, these tasks could be the distraction I need. Then I can re-focus on the day job.

I think I need a little schedule of daily tasks like I have set for my fitness. This is going to be my tasks for next week. Set a schedule and see if I can actually do a couple in that schedule.

Simples!

Building an online presence

Two words.

HALF FAIL!

So I had three tasks this week.

Plan a DIY blog post – NO
Research YouTube videos – Partly
Meta data for the J240 posts I have created – Partly

Let’s take each one in reverse.

I have managed to ensure I have referenced all open source/open license images. However there is more to do here. I need to pull out keywords, meta descriptions and other SEO elements to improve on the post. So this is my continued task next week.

I did do a bit of light research here. I tried looking at creating an avatar that I could voice over. I really should get on with this or the videos will be less relevant. I might need to change tact on this, but will continue the research in the best way to do this.

Finally, the fail. I didn’t spend any time planning the next DIY post. So I am going to have to roll this over to the next week.

And next week brings...

Continue with my calorie tracking and stay away from comfort snacking
Complete another full week of fitness session
Re block my 1 hour per day of professional development and actually do something in those hours
Draft a DIY blog post
Research some ideas of how I could create a semi interesting vlog
Go back through my journey blogs and update some of the meta data and other SEO improvements.

A shorter post this week.

See you on the next one.

Copyright
Title image credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Headache_touching_forehead.jpg/1620px-Headache_touching_forehead.jpg
My progress. App include MapMyRun / Weight Loss from NHS