51 days

My son challenged me to do 21 days - Ha!

It is amazing how daunting these things seem at the start and how easy they seem when looking backwards.

My wife just made toast and as I had had a drink (tipple) and it was late I suddenly thought I could do with some toast. Then it made me think of the fact I really do not need toast and actually am not really craving it. I am even writing about it now, just after it happened and still thinking about it.

The project started on August 9th - this was the start of the 21 days which was to culminate with me going off to work August 31st bank holiday as I was working in London for the first 9 days of September.

Today is September 30th so that means I probably have done around 52 days however I did have 2 chicken kievs one evening as that is all I could find and I fancied a change.

The idea was not doing anything specific or cutting anything specific out of my life - it was to simply stop having days off. Historically I have always known how to lose weight however I have a difficulty sticking to this.

I am now 10 kilos lighter and have taken over a digit of the BMI which is now under 33.

And so I suppose the question relates to how is this possible in this short time? Well, the point about all these things is to do with consistency and understanding procrastination. I did not change my diet particularly and I did not eat particularly less. I was doing more exercise in August but not in September where I was doing more work.

The one thing I changed was that moment where someone offers you one biscuit or bit of cake and says - "go on, just this once!" In my past as some readers will relate to, I would have decided if a day off was appropriate and made that day my day off, getting more goodies on the way home for the evening.

Doing more work around ACT and actually focussing on ACT exercises for myself rather than my normal role assisting others has made a huge difference. Services on this I do around psychological flexibility @ pf4.uk.

And so the query is do I have a goal, not really, I have something approaching a goal however it is not written down and blasted from the rooftops as a normal goal setting guru would suggest.

Instead I am working on those moments where the Advisor in my head suggests "one won't hurt!" and noticing that all is connected to a slippery slope.

I am also reinforcing in my day to day routine that I am actually less hungry and have little need for the sugar hits of old. Indeed at my point in life I should perhaps consider the bigger play, to quote a politician - "Don't be fat in your 50's!" - well I say roll on 50 - I will be ready for you, no bother.