…the Bible and the Koran both contain mountains of life-destroying gibberish…
Sam Harris, “The End of Faith” p. 23
featured image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Harris#/media/File:Sam_Harris_2016_(cropped).jpg
INTRO
I had some specific resolutions for the year, but so far I have only updated you regarding one specific goal: fitness and health. So in these posts I’ll quickly go through the others. But first of all, here were my five main objectives for the year as spelled out here.
I talk about goal 1 in most posts, so I’ll skip that here.
GOAL 2
The poetry editing is coming along well. I really only have three poems left to edit before I go through the final process of deciding which poems make the cut, the order of the poems, and so on.
GOAL 3
This isn’t going well. I looked up some competitions, but foolishly didn’t enter. Let’s see if I can set that right before the year is out.
GOAL 4
My Basque language learning journey goes up and down, but in general it is going well. I am regularly watching stuff in Basque, if only for a few minutes a day. The last three months were also probably the most productive I’ve ever had.
GOAL 5
Errr, ¿qué? This could be going better.
SUMMARY
Routine is key. Routine is king.
Fitness: I go running (more-or-less) at the same time every day, when everyone else is in bed. I do exercises — push-ups, crunches, and so on — at the end of that run.
Poetry: my routine is to have a look at one poem just before / after completing admin tasks at home (at home! I don’t slack off work, I’m a teacher so much of my work is done off-the-clock).
Basque: I do part of my programme whilst I am working out. I do another part of the programme at bed time.
Spanish: Whoopsie. No routine means no real gains. My idea was to do it after dinner, but for various reasons that routine is not sticking. Back to the drawing board? Maybe. but this routine worked before, so let’s see.
I should also say that I work full-time, work at home (as mentioned), and am a father and husband, so yeah, time management is tricky but key to the routine.
P.S. Check out my other posts in this series: update one here, update two here, update three here, update four here, update five here, update six here, update seven here.
© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry
Talk about abs being made in the kitchen not the gym(!)
On Thursday I had got my weight down to 15st 4lb (214lb, 97kg). The weekend was the neighbourhood’s party. So after a few snacks, a barbecue and a few beers, I woke up on Monday weighing 16 stone (224lb, 102kg)!! How can you put on ten pounds in three days!?!? And I still ran every day!!
Talk about abs being made in the kitchen not the gym(!)
Let’s see how long it takes to get back down to 15st 4lb. This will serve as a good guide on the equation of how much party = how much time to recover.
P.S. Check out my other posts in this series: update one here, update two here, update three here, update four here, update five here, update six here.
© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry
I saw a thing on Joe Rogan recently where Mike Tyson said, more-or-less word-for-word, the following:
I love waking up and running at 5.30am. When I’m out running at 5.30am it gives me a lot of energy because I know my opponent is probably still in bed.
I have to say I really feel that quote. When I get out at 5am or so and go running, and I finish I see people staggering out of their front doors for work, it gives me huge motivation. I’ve been back six days, been running three days, twice early, and once before five in the morning; I got home at 7am after having done ten miles in the dark. I hope I can do this more often. It feels amazing.
Check out my other posts in this series: update one here, update two here, update three here, update four here, update five here.
© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry
Background
On the 4th of January, I posted my New Year’s Resolutions for 2023. Here is my fifth short update (check out update one here, update two here, update three here and update four here).
I need to lose 50lbs. Simple as that. During Covid, I became the fattest I’ve ever been. Not acceptable. Current weight: 17st 12lb (250lb). Goal weight by Summer: 14st 5lb (201lb).ME (04/01/2023)
Well, a consistent regimes of (1) jogging every day, and (2) junk food portion control, mean my current weight is now 15st 9lb (219lb). That is solid progress. Let’s keep it up!
Holiday break (April)
I’ve always had a problem with routines. I’m all or nothing. If I take a break from a project for a few days, for whatever reason, I find it very hard to get back into the rhythm. I don’t know why. It’s a real weakness.
I went on holiday on the 1st of April and got back after two weeks. So I was really scared that I was going to go off the rails. As it happens, though, I only put on 1-2 lbs and got right back into the swing of exercise.
Progress is not linear
I got my weight down to 15st 2lb (212lb) in the period April – May. Then over June – July I put a bit of weight back on, going up to 15st 12lb (222lb). I then knuckled back down and got down to 15st 7lb (217lb) by 13th August.
Change of gears required?
I think I have more-or-less reached the maximum gains that only running can bring. I even ran five half-marathons in a ten day period, and still I struggle to get below this weight of 15st to 15st 7lb. I have decided I need to add weight training back into it. Or, at the very least, start adding push ups, crunches, lunges, dips, and so on, back into it. Muscles are fat-burning engines. I need a new engine! I need some more muscles!
Muscles are fat-burning engines. I need a new engine! I need some more muscles!
Holiday break (August)
I’m not a playboy, honestly! Trying to make up for two years of COVID and a severe medical issue, I decided to go on holiday for two weeks again. I deserve it, bluntly. This time I thought I would just enjoy myself, not worry about the weight, and just smash it when I got home. I went from 15st 7lb to 16st 0.75lb during my trip, breaking back into the, for me, psychologically fraught area of sixteen plus stone. Since getting back I have run every day and have already got back under sixteen stone.
Half way there
I am about half way on my weight-loss journey. At least, until I meet my target goal weight. But I am only at the beginning of my life-long health journey. I may not have hit my target weight by my target time, but it’s okay. I have a new-found focus, drive and, most crucial of all, self-belief at the moment.
I am confident that over the next few weeks or months, I will get back down to my May 2023 heights of 15st 2lb, and then smash through into the 14 stones. I just need to tighten up my diet again, re-regularise my running regime (=waking up early) and add weights and / or bodyweight exercises into it.
Other stuff
I had other new year’s resolutions, too. Perhaps I will begin to talk about them in a future post.
© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry
Background
On the 4th of January, I posted my New Year’s Resolutions for 2023. Here is my fourth short update, three months later (check out update one here, update two here and update three here).
I need to lose 50lbs. Simple as that. During Covid, I became the fattest I’ve ever been. Not acceptable. Current weight: 17st 12lb (250lb). Goal weight by Summer: 14st 5lb (201lb).
Me (04/01/2023)
Well, a consistent regimes of (1) jogging every day, and (2) junk comida portion control, mean my current weight is now 15st 9lb (219lb). That is solid progress. Let’s keep it up!
Holiday break
I’ve always had a problem with routines. I’m all or nothing. If I take a break from a project for a few days, for whatever reason, I find it very hard to get back into the rhythm. I don’t know why. It’s a real weakness.
I went on holiday on the 1st of April and got back this week. So I was really scared that I was go off the rails. As it happens, though, I only put on 1-2 lbs and have got right back into the swing of exercise.
Half way there
I am about half way on my weight-loss journey. At least, until I meet my target goal weight. But I am only at the beginning of my life-long health journey.
© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry
Background
On the 4th of January, I posted my New Year’s Resolutions for 2023. Here is my third short update, two months later (check out update one here and update two here).
I need to lose 50lbs. Simple as that. During Covid, I became the fattest I’ve ever been. Not acceptable. Current weight: 17st 12lb (250lb). Goal weight by Summer: 14st 5lb (201lb).
Me (04/01/2023)
Well, a consistent regimes of (1) jogging every day, and (2) junk food portion control, mean my current weight is now 16st 1lb (225lb). That is solid progress. Let’s keep it up!
Wake up calls
I have now reached and gone beyond a highly significant milestone for me, namely, 16st 2lb. Here’s the story of why that weight is so psychologically important for me.
When I was about 27 years old, I had let myself slip into a weight-based funk; too many beers, too many pies, and I’d stopped running. I remember it clearly: I was in Malta on holiday, and I went past a chemist’s; it was closed, but it had a coin-operated height-weight machine outside it. Being a former colony, Malta uses/used our British system of weights and measures. So I stepped on the machine. It rang up 16st 2lb. I had never weighed so much in my life. I turned to see my face in the reflection in the window; I looked truly bloated and grotesque. And memories of being a small boy and asking my then rather overweight Dad how much he weighed rang around my head. “Just over sixteen stone”, he said. I had never seen my Dad so fat, now nor me. It was a wake up call, and when I got back from holiday I got real. I got back into exercise and got back into shape.
Years of good habits followed, but eventually I would sink into a funk again, partly due to mental health problems caused or exacerbated by rather trying life circumstances. And here we are today. But I’m back on track, and I mean it.
© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry
On the 4th of January, I posted my New Year’s Resolutions for 2023. Here is my second short update, two months later (check out update one here).
I need to lose 50lbs. Simple as that. During Covid, I became the fattest I’ve ever been. Not acceptable. Current weight: 17st 12lb (250lb). Goal weight by Summer: 14st 5lb (201lb).
Me (04/01/2023)
Well, a consistent regimes of (1) jogging every day, and (2) junk food portion control, mean my current weight is now 16st 6lb (230lb). That is solid progress. Let’s keep it up!
It also counts as another milestone achieved. To those who don’t know the British system of weights, we measure things in stone and pounds. There are fourteen pounds to a stone. Therefore, each seven-pound interval represents a milestone, namely, half a stone. Having now dipped below 16st 7lb, I have arrived at and gone beyond that milestone. Next stop? 16st 2lb. Why is this odd weight highly significant for me? Well, let’s find out in the next post — where I will have reached that target.
© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry
On the 4th of January, I posted my New Year’s Resolutions for 2023. Here is a short update, a month-and-a-half later.
I need to lose 50lbs. Simple as that. During Covid, I became the fattest I’ve ever been. Not acceptable. Current weight: 17st 12lb (250lb). Goal weight by Summer: 14st 5lb (201lb).
Me (04/01/2023)
Well, a consistent regimes of (1) jogging every day, and (2) junk food portion control, mean my current weight is now 16st 10lb (234lb). That is a great start. Let’s keep it up!
My other four goals on the list are in progress, but the achievements so far aren’t as solid as my weight loss. Therefore, I’ll update on those later.
© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry
Let’s get right to the point.
That’s it.
These things are important to me. I want to achieve them. These are SMART goals (some details left out to keep the post short) but with in-built flexibility.
Let’s see how I get on.
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