Day 8 : Diet Half a Day Late

By yesterday evening, I was decidedly grumpy. A friend had delivered some serious personal news in the afternoon (not about me but worrying nevertheless), an important meeting was cancelled due to a typhoon in HK (the guy I was supposed to meet had to dash to the airport because Cathay Pacific is cancelling the flights to HK today); I was caught out in a thunderstorm and got back to my office to find I'd been locked out (my keys were in my bag inside the office - if you are reading, thank you Mariko and Grace for coming back) and the sports equipment shop I tried first didn't even know what a door anchor is so I was dodging the rain at 8pm trying to find one. And the trouble with using the gel was that when it wore off, my back complained and was feeling quite sore by the time I got home.

Of course, the other factor was I was hungry!! So it was me AND my stomach grumbling.

I guess the evening got better from there - I finally got the anchor and the push-up stands, and an electric kitchen scale, a small blender (that I maybe didn't need) and some new bathroom scales (that I almost certainly didn't need but the old ones have a crack it them).

So all set. But unlike Amy, I don't plan ahead so I didn't try to anticipate what the diet would be - so I'm only starting this evening once I get home and have time to think.

I had already decided that I wouldn't have time to get the new exercises organised either so I thought I'd be sneaky and do the week one set before turning on my computer so I would be able to say that I didn't know. Patrick thought of that, of course, by waiting until tomorrow with the new instructions.

So up at 6.30 (sounding suspiciously like a routine) and out into the garden. Nate, thanks for organising the weather. After saying how much I envied your temperature, here it was, low seventies fahrenheit, blue skies and fluffy clouds (although I guess that last night's thunderstorm might have had something to do with it too). I decided that masking the pain was not actually in my best interest so the deep heat stayed in the cupboard. But I had a really good skipping session anyway - one burst of 137 skips, the best yet, and a total of 1,016 (I continued after 1,000 until I missed one - there is method to my madness, it means that tomorrow I can do LESS than today and still be on track!). My left calf is still stiff and that bothers me.



5x20 squats as before and then 4x5 push-ups (from the knees as before and starting from the "up" position) - I only got the pain in the fourth set once I stopped being able to hold my back straight. Then the crunches. 4x15. The same limited movement and today I felt more of what I began to feel yesterday, some strains in my neck as I tried to roll forward. Hmm, new aches!!

So, for the diet, sorry guys, it only starts when I get home tonight. Breakfast was pretty light (a couple of kiwis topped with some plain yogurt) and the same lunch box (it is actually quite healthy from an organic restaurant with brown rice and lots of vegetables, a small piece of fish but some Thai green curry that probably has too much oil in it).

I will be interested to see the volume that the diet translates into.