Day 365...

Tomorrow will be twelve months since I first started Lite'n'Easy and embarked anew on changing my lifestyle to the healthier. I've lost 14k so far, which isn't a bad thing but I've definitely lost ground from an initially strong start, and had several falls from grace with corresponding restarts. I lost ten kilos in the first four months, and by mid-April got under 100k for the first time in over a decade. Unfortunately this seems to have been a strong emotional trigger, because I rapidly returned to the safety of triple figures, virtually stopped blogging, abandoned CalorieKing and, three months later, even stopped my monthly measurements.
I haven't been sleeping enough, I've had enormous difficulty getting in enough water (and though I know eight glasses a day is a myth, when I don't drink enough, especially if I haven't slept, my feet swell), I've done no real exercise in entirely too long (the odd walk here and there may be good but it's hardly aerobic), and my diet's veered way off track.
On less-relevant but allied topics, I'm well behind on the thesis front (not entirely my fault but that makes it no less problematic), I've got three years worth of tax returns to finalise and submit, the financial records I've maintained for the past four years have been neglected for months, and my house deposit has been badly eroded.
I've just returned to Melbourne after three weeks in Europe, and I'm ready to get my life back on track on the multiple fronts of academic, financial and lifestyle.
I bought a new diet book a couple of months ago, The 17 Day Diet by Dr Mike Moreno, and am thinking I might give it a go, though I haven't finished (or even done much more than start) it. From what I've gleaned so far, it's composed of four sections - the first three are 17 days each, followed by a maintenance phase. Why 17 days? I have no idea - thus far there's been no indication why two and a half weeks is magically better than two or three, but the first three phases take fifty one days, and that brings us almost to summer.
I'm going to start, though, with a kick start. The Kick Start soup diet, to be precise. Yes, in the long-term this is ridiculous, and come December I'll be switching to a diet high in complex carbs, minimal animal protein, and lots of fruit and vegies. But a week of high-fibre, ultra-low carb, low fat eating won't hurt me, a concept I'm much more comfortable with after reading this article - I'm not 450 pounds, but I also have no intention of fasting for over a year!
So my plan is to start the Kick Start program tomorrow (October 1st, my dieting anniversary), stage 1 of the Moreno program the following week (October 8), stage 2 a magical 17 days later (October 25), stage 3 17 days after that (November 11), and look at the maintenance program 17 days after that, which brings us to the beginning of December.
There is a titchy hiccup to be negotiated - day 1 of stage 3 is also day 1 of a three-weeks-and-change trip back to the UK. However, though this may put a little crimp in the exercise component, I can pick diet-appropriate meals (I'll be flying business with an option to upgrade, and thus many menu options) for the meals en route, and just need to apply a bit more discipline than usual, and can weigh in on December 1st at my sister's - though not first thing in the morning and naked it'll still give me an idea of how I'm going.
It's not been all sedentary since I last wrote - in June I hiked in Olympic National Park, Washington with my US-based sister and brother-in-law, managing to scale a 5,000 foot mountain without expiring, and actual enjoyed both the exertion and the view, as well as the three other hikes over the short time I was there. In fact, I plan to join her in Colorado next year for a few hikes at altitude, God help me!
And my recent trip included a couple of exertional activities - on the day arrived my other sister, brother-in-law and 'niblings' took me for an hour on a paddle boat, and I managed to paddle for most of the time; much to my surprise I was able to walk afterward, and would have enjoyed it even more if I'd had a shower first! On my last day in London, four days ago, my sister and I hired Boris's Bikes for an hour or so and rode through Hyde Park - I was quite apprehensive, as I haven't been on a bike that actually moves (as opposed to the odd short spin on an exercise bike) in easily twenty-five years, but the adage is true and, with the exception of the occasional wobble, I was fine, albeit a little puffed. So perhaps, despite the sedentary nature of my past few months, I may not have lost all my fitness achievements.
I know that my backsliding went hand in hand with my abandonment of blogging, so I'm also going to post something every day, even if all I'm documenting is that I'm maintaining my momentum. - Alex