Nikina70's Journal, 13 Jan 23

Not great, but not too bad either. I could potentially still get back to 66kg by the end of the month, which would be grand. I am half way to my 50 000 step target for the week and should add 10 000 today and then 15 000 on Sunday on our second 8 mile walk for the year so that's all good. I have consciously been trying to drink more water and I recon I've had at least 3 glasses a day besides coffee so that is an improvement. DOMS from Sunday's workout were bad though and hung around until Wednesday.

Calories are still on the high end and I'm still working on that. Did a few more days of roughly 10:14 IF this week, which I think does help a bit. I've also gotten hubby to actively participate in my plan to eat at least 30 different plant foods per week. Yesterday he outdid me at lunch time with 4 in his sandwich alone and he had a lentil veggie soup packed with goodness as well. I've been having the soup as a base with baby spinach and lentil cottage pie - using sweet potato for the mash - for dinner. It was delicious although not very pretty to look at.:)

I think ideally I would function better on two meals a day plus a snack/dessert - so having my giant bowl of oats at noon, dinner is around 5pm (because I get to my evening job by 6) and then a snack or dessert when I get home around 9:30pm. That's a 10.5 hour window so I think that's ok and might just have some health benefits, but it mostly just helps me to reduce calories overall for the day. Some evenings if I can get away with just having rooibos tea or fruit that would be much better, but it doesn't always happen. If I stick to herbal tea it makes it a 5 hour eating window, which would be great, so I'll see if I can manage that a couple of days next week.

I managed to get 4 resistance bands at Lidl this week - two bands and two loops with medium to hard resistance for £5. Been looking out for them for ages. All I've done so far is tested the medium loop out for helping me to improve on push ups and it seems really great. Have saved a bunch of youtube workouts using resistance bands with some of my favourite trainers so will hopefully try some of them soon.

We also got a cute second-hand table on gumtree for just 20 quid and it extends to make a nice dining table size as well so I need to rearrange the lounge slightly to accommodate it near the window. I've been a bit uncomfortable working on my laptop on a very shallow depth dressing table in our bedroom so I'm looking forward to having another option and some more space to spread out. I think mentally it helps me to have somewhere to 'go to work' to as well. In our old house I had a separate studio with two doors between the house and there, so it helped mentally to separate the two. Here it's a bit difficult working in my bedroom so I think a new spot near the big window in the sitting room will make a huge difference.

So I'll hopefully try a resistance band workout tomorrow and get my lounge rearrange and sorted. The weather doesn't look great for the walk on Sunday, but unless it's pouring with rain I think we'll give it a go anyway. It's an area we are keen to explore just 10 minutes drive north of where we live and there are 30 people going although the number usually drops on the day. Last time we both had a couple of good chats with some interesting people so we're hoping for the same with some nice scenery.

I hope you've all had a great week and smashed some of your goals. A podcast I watched this week said something that really resonated with me and that was to the effect that your health is the foundation of everything else in your life so why not invest as much time and effort into it as you do so many other things. Makes total sense to me. Part of the reason why I like using this app to help me along the way. Still not a fan of the name though.;)

Hope y'all have a great weekend too! xxx

67 kg Lost so far: 19 kg.    Still to go: 2 kg.    Diet followed: Reasonably Well.

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2043 kcal

Fat: 62.58g | Prot: 60.04g | Carbs: 286.63g.   Breakfast: Acti Leaf Blueberry Soya Pot, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Bananas, Tap Water, Bran Flakes, Grape Tree Flaxseed Brown Linseed, Asda Apple & Blueberry Flavour Porridge Oats. Lunch: Aldi Sweetened Soya Milk. Dinner: Lidl Baby Spinach, Sainsbury's Lentil Dhal Soup, Old Mout Pineapple & Raspberry, Plant Menu Vegan Arrabiata Pizza. Snacks/Other: Ritz The Original Cracker, Marmite Marmite, Asda Free From Mature Cheddar Alternative, Dairyfine Mini Rolls, Cadbury Hot Chocolate Instant, Pink Lady Apples, Cappuccino, Seabrook Prawn Cocktail, Nescafe Instant Coffee. more...

1820 kcal

Exercise: Walking (slow) - 2/mph - 40 minutes, Vacuuming - 30 minutes, Cleaning - 30 minutes, Resting - 14 hours and 20 minutes, Sleeping - 8 hours. more...