Day 60 : A Milestone

Two thirds sound great but even better when you realise that the time left is only half the days we have already put in. Keep it up, team!!

And I had a 60 day revelation today. I commented yesterday about having trouble with the "to failure" instruction. I've worked out why - I've been pacing myself!! By that, I mean, holding something back to make sure I can get through the exercise. I guess the arthritis has made me cautious about overstraining myself so what I've been doing is the opposite of "to failure". When you hold back, you make sure you can continue but then the exercise never seems to end!!

I actually had a bad start to the day because after skipping I really did fell dizzy - the room span so I left the workout, and left it, and then found something else to do and then left it some more.

I thought about taking it as a rest day but as it is Sports Day and the rest may be good later in the week, I finally started about 10.30pm. So I tried to get through it quickly and "voila", I began to run out of steam and feeling I couldn't do any more : in other words "failure". By taking things rather more slowly, I was allowing my body to cope as it went along which is great for stamina but not for what we are doing. I'll see how I get on tomorrow.

I spent some time yesterday checking out Looney Tunes cartoons because I had run out of signs that Wile has actually held up (or made, in the case of "Free Bird Seed"). The only picture of me not holding up a sign so far is the one with the umbrella, and he certainly has held one up either trying to use it as a parachute or to keep off the rocks that are about to drop on him, and the other non-authentic one is me holding up menu chart made by Patrick. I'm pleased to say that I now have at least five more authentic signs that I can use so I should manage a unique sign in each weekly photo through to the end of the project.

Meep, meep (OK, I know that is the Roadrunner's line).

Day 59 : Carbon Copy

Almost a carbon copy of yesterday, a late start and a leisurely workout.

I'm having trouble with the "to failure" instruction. The bands, by definition, are flexible so the amount of tension they are put under dictates how hard the exercise is. I can make them so tight that the resistance is maximum and failure will come almost immediately. I didn't think that was the object of the exercise (pun intended) so what I have done is worked on the exercises I am supposed to do "to failure" until I'm feeling a bit light-headed/dizzy.

I had a fridge clear-out today. Completely out of eggs and all the meat and vegetables were cooked. So, a relatively expensive trip to the supermarket this evening to restock. I'm now OK for the next few days.

Tomorrow is a public holiday in Japan "Sports Day". I have Parent Teacher Conferences in the afternoon for my younger son, who turned seventeen yesterday.

Day 58 : The Meaning of It All

I read Adrian and Emiko's blog today saying their motivation and energy have been low and I felt a bit the same today. The post sickness "bounce" lasted one day!! Nevertheless, I had a good set of skipping (on the porch because it was raining). This week, I have to do three sets of six minutes. I'm still slow and trip up over the rope a lot but in the three sets did 375, 402 and 352 skips, so 1,129 skips in eighteen minutes, so much better than when we started. But I couldn't get myself "up" to do well with the workout and took a long time to get through it all. It was a good thing that I had nothing special to do today.

Getting back to Adrian and Emiko's blog, I put myself on a strict diet about eight years ago and got my weight down from 106 to 81kg (a medical examination had told me I was 25% overweight - I didn't believe it until I actually got the weight off). Recently it had edged up to 92kg.

Anyway, the point of my ramble is to comment on what Abel and everyone is saying. It isn't actually that Adrian is too skinny, it is that modern society accepts being overweight as the norm - so many people told me that I had become too thin, even though I was exactly where the doctor told me I should be. You know, "you are tall, you can carry it" and other similar comments. The fact is that being overweight is not good for us but we just accept it most of the time. And we then come to equate overeating with pleasure and the feeling of being too full as being the way we should feel after eating.

So Tim's answer to the question "when are we supposed to start caring about our diets?" is straight away!! A lot of our eating habits are just that, habits. I still retain a lot of good patterns from the previous diet. I'm not sure whether it was actually bad for me or not, but I decided to cut out gluten. This means no wheat, barley, rye or oats. That is no bread or cakes and therefore no hidden calories in the form of butter and sugar that gets put into those things. I was brought up on sandwiches. particularly as a bedtime snack, but once I had made the change, it was easy to say no. And I had already switched over to brown rice (I actually think it tastes better too).

I can only second what Adrian and Emiko said "moderation is actually the key to happiness". We can always imagine that we need to have "more". More food, more travel, more possessions. But they don't make us happier and the desire for more can never be fulfilled so it just makes us unhappier. The people who are content are that way because they accept that what they have is, by and large, "enough".

And of course, PCP is not about doing more (although that is not the way my workout seems this week), it is about doing enough, the right amount to get us into peak condition.

By the way, I get a bit introspective after I've been sick. Having too much time on my hands makes me question the human condition (and mine in particular). I watched a video on YouTube this afternoon called " Zeitgeist Addendum" suggesting that we should switch from a system driven by profit maximisation to the detriment of the planet and the human race as a whole (why do we permit so many people to go hungry?) to one that is committed to the intelligent management of the Earth's resources.

Day 57 : Back to "Normal"

Well, in some ways better than normal.

I woke up with familiar aches and pains. I still had a headache and back and neck pains. But I woke completely unaided (i.e. not the radio) at 6am with the clear sense that these are "normal" pains and that I was not sick any more. The headache isn't really normal but I often have to get moving to get my joints to accept that they can actually function without hurting.

So I got up and did my skipping and workout before breakfast, and did some business on the way to the office. Once in the the office, I felt tired but without the feeling I've had most of this week that I wasn't going to make it through the day. By the end of the day my head was hurting a bit but people in the office commented how much brighter I appeared today.

As we've said so many times, the mental state is just as important, if not more, than the physical.

Day 56 : Much the Same

I woke up after a solid sleep feeling a bit better but not great and my temperature was back to normal. If I could have got back to sleep, I would have done but there were things to do at the office and trying to do them remotely was no substitute for being there.

So I swallowed a couple of painkillers, something I usually try to avoid, and after breakfast, felt vaguely human. I decided to make the commute and because of that decision, felt that I was up to skipping. I did OK after getting through the back and neck pains in the first set.

I ate my lunch before heading out but already knew by the time I reached the station that all was not well. I made it to the office feeling the worse for wear but managed to get done what needed to be done.

And then home, feeling tired and achy, in no shape for the workout so I'll claim sickness privilege again. A long weekend is coming up so I can get back on track then.

I had a look at the back diagram Patrick recommended but it didn't mean much to me. I looked at the neck diagram too to try to see which bits have locked up but putting a name to them doesn't make it hurt any less!!

Day 55 : Off Sick

When I went to sleep last night, I was in pain, particularly my neck. This morning, it felt a bit better but a quick check with the thermometer quickly persuaded me not to make the same mistake as yesterday and I stayed put.

Staying put actually meant logging on to the computer, checking my emails and doing some work before heading back to bed.

In the afternoon, I acted on Emiko's suggestion and tried the skipping. I got through the sets OK but with a bit of back and neck pain. But it also pushed my temperature another point so I decided that the workout would have to be put on hold.

It occurred to me how easy it would be to drop out of PCP at this point. A couple of missed days and the pattern would be broken. Mustn't let that happen.

It is also much harder to stick to the diet if I am stuck at home. When I'm up, I tend to prowl around the house and nibbling is a real temptation.

Despite feeling ill, I actually had to go out this evening. I ran out of brown rice last night and as this is my carb of choice, had to make a run down to the supermarket for more supplies. I came back with 10kg which should keep me going for a while. Driving with a stiff neck is not a good thing.

Missing work highlights how our perceived commitments are actually a matter of priority. When faced with something more important, like not feeling well, work has to wait and skipping my school board meeting tonight was as easy as sending an email.

I've also been thinking about lots of things that I need to do that I have actually put off. I'll be making a list!!

Day 54 : A Tactical Error

Woken up by the radio this morning having slept about 24 out of 32 hours, I figured I was fit enough for work if I could get through the skipping and workout, especially as I had a few appointments booked.

I guess I miscalculated. I managed the skipping and workout OK but felt a bit shaky on the way down to the station and by the time I reached the office, was definitely feeling the worse for wear. I managed to get through the day but at the cost of a pretty severe headache and a few aches elsewhere. I'm sniffing a bit too, so maybe the flu. What does the PCP handbook say about genuine sickness?

I guess I'll see how I feel in the morning.