Old habits... New habits.

As stated I have real problems with food, in the past I would over eat all the time, bingeing on chocolate, biscuits, cheese and crusty bread. Not forgetting Pepsi max where I could knock off 2-3 ltrs a day.

I no longer binge but I still have to battle to not place these items in my basket when shopping, I can take or leave chocolate now although I do occasionally treat myself with dark chocolate. I eat brown bread now as much as possible but I rarely have it at home. I've given up Pepsi max since 1/1/10, so far so good, thankfully the supermarkets keep the soft drinks at the end of the store so I don't need to pass when shopping.

Cheese is the thing I'm struggling with at the moment, I luv cheese to the point that I will brake off chunks and munch it just in passing. You can't beat a strong bit of cheddar or a nice bit of smoked cheese. I'm sure it jumps into my trolley without me realising :-S. My goal now is to move on from cheese, if I can do it with Pepsi then cheese should be easy.

On a positive note I've got some good habits going as well. I now have porridge every morning and really enjoy it. It definitely makes it easier to eat better during the day because I don't start hungry. I've also reduced the portion size of the meal I take to work, I only have a handful of pasta and I use a smaller container to put it in. I'm working on eating healthy when I get home in the evening and I'm going to continue to prepare a pan of home made soup every weekend.

I feel more secure when I have some sort of bar in the house and although I now buy healthier bars and they do sit in the cupboard for days on end. I'm going to try and stop buying them now.

This week has been frustrating with my back which is still not entirely better. I'm not going to rush it though but get better already. I've noticed that I'm starting to feel better internally, I think this is because it's starting to get lighter. I know it's only a few minutes but it's nice to finish work in daylight. I'm so looking forward to Spring.

This week is going to be exciting ( back permitting) I bought a new bike this week and it arrives next week( see pic). This is a serious bit of kit for a triathlete and means I've got to step up my attitude and training. Lots of stretching ahead, I wasn't designed to be flexible but I'm going to have to try and change this.

I'm also going to go to a swim session with Crystal Palace Tri Club and although I've been planning to do this for 2 weeks and not made it I'm not going except any excuses from myself this week. My swim needs more work than any of 3 legs of a tri and that needs to start now.

My knew bike; Quintana Roo Seduza.

Been a while.....

since I've posted. over 2 years in fact. It's been eventful I've completed the London triathlon twice, the UK 70.3 the Reading half marathon, around 10 10Km and a couple of 6 km races, a few cyclo sportives including The London to Brighton. These are all good things and I'm proud of myself for doing them.

I'm still trying to find away to defeat my food demons and all the exercise has stopped me from getting to big again. I think I'm losing weight but it's a slow process. I struggle this time of year the long nights really bring me down and it's hard to get motivated to do anything. I could readily sleep 12 hours a day and quite often sleep 10 and still wake up tired. How different it is in the summer when I'm wide awake at 04:30 and more often than not I'll be out cycling or trying to run before work.

Over the winter I've kept up going to the gym, usually 4-5 times a week, basically trying to build up my strenght and to keep my basic fitness up. The weather hasn't allowed me to do much cycling but hopefully now I'll be able to start cycling to work again and indeed running also. These are my short term goals along with going along to a Crystal palace tri swim session. I've got 3 more sessions with my PT to go which will be 2 next week and 1 the week after. I also intend to get back to spin class next Thursday. I'm planning to continue a heavy emphasis on strenght training till the middle of February.

This week I'm also going to completed an outdoor run of around 5 km, as I haven't done one since November last year. By the end of the month I'm going to run to work at least once, a distance of 9km. I know I've got a lot of work to do before Reading.

So here it is all published for the world to see, my races for the year as it stands plus a few short term goals. My goal is to complete all the races and do myself justice and also acomplish the shorter term goals which because of the time of year will be harder for me than the later races.