Readers who have been following this blog over the past 18 months will have become accustomed to my impromptu silent patches. Over the past few weeks, I've neglected the site and my recent online inactivity has rather reflected the general air of apathy that has surrounded me. Dieting has not been on the agenda, exercise has barely featured and at times I've made for pretty miserable company. But rather than focus on the negativity, here is a summary of the good stuff that has been happening of late.
I spent a couple of days in Leeds for an industry conference. I jest on my Twitter profile that I am a 'placement celeb' but just as with
the awards I went to in March, the PlaceNet conference is a place where I feel respected and validated. I kept to my promise to investigate the hotel gym, and managed two short sessions on the treadmill. Both were a bit struggle if I'm honest, primarily through being my first runs in two months, but my knee and back held up without niggle which means as soon as I can rediscover my mojo, the serious exercise can recommence.
The Bank Holiday weekend was a proper family affair with my clan heading off to Norfolk for a few days in a caravan. My eldest loves family time and in particular the 2p machines that a seaside resort has to offer. It was good to get away, though the sleeping arrangements with the nocturnal child meant it was quite a tiring trip. I camped out with him in the lounge on a pull out bed, which wasn't particularly comfortable. The curtains were next to useless in blacking out the daylight and I was rather rudely awakened by little man every morning, far earlier than I would have liked.
Last weekend I had the rare opportunity to catch up with the Australian branch of my family. My Uncle is a few years younger than my dad if he were alive, and from my perspective is always nice to see him, to give me an idea of what my father would be like had he not passed away all those years ago. It was pleasure to see my cousin for the first time in ages, meet her husband and little girl, and watch our kids play in the garden together.
All sounds good doesn't it? And while that stuff was all great, I've generally felt gloomy. Doing the conference and caravan back to back and heading to work the next morning left me pretty jaded. Tiredness leads to bad behaviour on the food front. Throw in some post-conference blues and I found myself in a pretty miserable place. I spent the weekend with my head all over the place, contemplating my immediate future and could quite easily have made some hasty decisions about my career. Probably just as well I got a reasonable night sleep before heading to work Monday morning.
Things are starting to become a little more positive as the week goes on. Some of my worries from recent days have subsided. My wife has started a diet and I'm theoretically being supportive. I say theoretically as tonight I've had a beer watching the football while she has been swimming. I had a meeting yesterday with someone who I had not met before. We both said that we were dieting and he just looked at me as if I was some wafer thin girl complaining about the size of her non-existent bum. Even though I've gained weight since the half marathon in March, I guess outside my own mind, I'm still looking pretty good.
Although today is a Wednesday and therefore by tradition weigh in day, I only took a cursory look at the scales this morning and didn't take the phone with me to record the evidence. For the sake of transparency, they told me I'm 14st 10lbs which isn't quite as bad as I had feared. Given I was hoping to be 14st dead by the time my birthday comes around in July, I've got some work to do. That target seems pretty unrealistic now but with my wife watching what she is eating, I'm more likely to do the same. My running shoes were glaring at me accusingly earlier on, and I think I'm getting the itch to pull them on again. Once I get started I know I'll get right back into it. Just a question of taking that first step and pushing myself to get going.
All being well the weigh-in will return next week.
