Cycling London to Paris

Today I signed up for a London to Paris cycle ride in September. The route covers 300 miles over 4 days and will be the most challenging ride I've ever done. It's exciting, but at the same time scary and I really have to commit to the training if I'm going to enjoy the ride as much as I enjoy riding around the area where I live in France.

Doing the time...

For much of this month it's felt like I'm just going through the motions. As far as my health goes, I've certainly done the crimes: the sedentary lifestyle combined with a junk food (veggie) diet. Reversing this isn't an overnight thing - many sessions await me at the gym and that's okay because I enjoy the gym - it's almost addictive. Breaking free of all the bad eating habits isn't as straight forward though, but I'm learning a lot of new things from reading a book by Dr. Doug Graham and I finally understand why I have a sweet tooth and enjoy sugary foods. The process of losing 50 lbs is a slow one though and not such an exciting one to report on in my daily journal. Work wise, it's a similar thing - my one last project that has dragged on and on and on is almost complete. It's just a case of 'turning the handle' as they say - it's really tiring though when all you want to do is get cracking on some new projects. The good news is I've finished the functional programming (save for bug fixes and minor amends) and it's a case of tidying it all up now and getting the damn thing live. I'm looking forward to February - which is when things should step up a gear. I guess I have to accept it will be a slow process at times and there will be delays - if it all went smoothly I guess it wouldn't be a challenge!

Oh my gosh :-O

I can't believe what I've been reading tonight. A new book I ordered has just arrived and what I've read so far has really blown my mind! Suddenly a hole bunch of things make perfect sense and I now understand why I'm always fatigued and why I've had issues with blood sugar all my life. In fact, so many things are starting to make sense I don't think things will ever be the same again. It's really connected the dots of so many separate ideas and now everything makes perfect sense. Fuck! It's 3:26am and all I want to do now is get out of bed and go shopping! There's no way I'm going to sleep tonight.

Think? Do people still do that?

When the Jehovah's Witnesses knock on my door, as they did a few weeks ago, I don't mock them - I smile and politely tell them I'm not interested in what they've got to say. When I'm eating out, I don't turn to the other diners and berate them for chowing down on a steak. The world is full of misguided and misinformed people and people make mistakes - myself included - and I have no time or inclination to right all the world's ills. But, for the people I know well and care about it's different - I feel an obligation to help them even when they refuse to listen. I don't do this because I think I'm better than them or to be mean, but because I know they have the ability to do better. My oldest and best friends understand this, but it sometimes gets lost in translation when it happens online with my internet friends.

Bicycles are bio-degradable?

Total weight loss: 4.6 kgs / 10.14 lbs

Watch as a bike slowly disappears before your eyes in this series of photographs captured over the course of a year.

Tired and irritated

I woke up with a headache today - no doubt part of the detoxing process. My blood sugar levels were fine and I was hydrated enough, so detoxing had to be the cause. I'm trying to avoid taking pain killers, so there's not much I can do except tough it out. Headaches are a pain in the butt and the kind I have - just behind the eyes - makes looking at a computer screen difficult. I think I'll take the rest of the afternoon to do a few none work related tasks and relax a little. It's times like these, when I'm tired and irritated by a headache, that I'm most likely to succumb to temptation and pig-out on comfort food - ie. junk food and sodas. So I'm writing this here to say I'm not going to do that today and I'll have to stick to this if I've said it (or edit this post later :-P).

It's like Christmas again

A colleague and I have been buying tons of stuff from ebay and every morning this week the postman has delivered lots of goodies for us - the biggest being my colleagues new bike. We've both recommitted to losing weight and getting in shape so much of what we've been ordering has been related to that. I've been buying up some cheap cycling gear and plan to start cycling to the office again from Monday. I'm sure some of my recent (past 2 years) weight gain is a result of purchasing a car and started driving to work - rather than cycling. I've also missed cycling on my Cannondale bike that I left behind in France. I haven't made any definite plans yet, but cycling from London to Paris is still on the cards and something I'd like to do this year.

The new journal design

I've spent the last couple of afternoons tinkering with the journal and redesigning the layout - as you can see. It's been nice to work on something interesting for a change - I'm still finishing off the last big project - it seems to be dragging on for ages, but will be complete by the end of the month (if I can resist the temptation to play about with this website). This new design isn't anything spectacular, but it does allow me to squeeze in some cool stuff along the right hand side - checkout the links down there for some really great information. The daily updates have slipped a little, but I'm going to try and get back on track and keep this journal up-to-date as I get back in to the swing of this challenge.

The girl from Aubervilliers

Posted on Tuesday 17th January, 2012 at 01:36 (GMT)

Starting Over

Total weight loss: 3.0 kgs / 6.61 lbs

After a very successful November, December was a disaster - in many ways. The festive period brought far too many temptations that have wrecked my weight loss progress and I'm behind with the last project I need to clear before I can make a proper start on my own projects. It's disappointing and has been a little disheartening. It's certainly not the start to the new year I was hoping for, but I need to get over that if I'm going to make the progress I'm aiming for. So, for me, today is a reboot day - I'm starting over and I'm kickstarting the challenge with a new set of mini-goals. The first of which is to lose the remaining weight by my birthday at the end of March - 74 days from now. This will give me the full six months I need to qualify for my Aston Martin in November. The last client project WILL be complete by the end of this month - with a scheduled launch date of January 27th.

Sometimes you need a little pep-talk to keep you on track and I found this little gem online. I've pinned it to my vision board so to remind me each morning that what I want to achieve is absolutely possible:

Your quest for radical self-love and self-knowledge continues in 2012. Never has the impetus to know yourself, own your core values (even if it means going against the grain) and possess your truth been more essential. No longer can you deny all that is rare and sensational about you. This is truly your breakout year in which your myriad talents will shine!

Setbacks are just a part of the process - people who never fail are just not trying hard enough.

The new year starts today...

More updates to follow as I get back in to the swing of things and get this challenge back on track after the holidays.

Posted on Monday 9th January, 2012 at 12:01 (GMT)

I'm done in

I'm so tired. I was at the office till 1am and my arms are still aching from Sunday's gym session - so much so it was difficult to fall asleep because it hurt to lie on my arms.

Posted on Wednesday 14th December, 2011 at 16:53 (GMT)