Callenge 7: Eat Healthily and Take Exercise

07 April 2018 - Alex's spelling needs work
Obviously enough, I'm not doing these in order.  While I've started all but one of my long-term challenges (I have yet to begin pull-up practise), I'm going to blog about them one at a time in whatever order happens to make sense to me.  I'll also be trying to knock off some one-off challenges while I'm working through my first ten, long-term challenge posts.  That way, I'l have a buffer of blog content in case of illness, business or just plain laziness.
08 April - This is why I'm doing this challenge!

So, what's this challenge all about?

My dad is very fit.  Not in the modern sense of fit, mind you.  (Well, I suppose he might be.  I'll leave that to others to judge.)  He's active.  Energetic.  You might even call him spry, if you were willing to risk the Last Of The Summer Wine connotations of that phrase.  He's got the get-up-and-go of a much younger man and he uses it to enjoy the hell out of his retirement.  He gardens, he holidays, he does more activities with the babies than I do, for god's sake!  But it's not without effort.  He's always been active and he's always been slim.  In his retirement, he's taken deliberate steps to ensure he's healthy and active, going as far as getting a personal trainer at the gym.  That's maybe more than I'm planning on doing, but when I look at this lifestyle, I think to myself, "I want that when I retire".  The only way I'm going to get that, though, is by taking action now.

Sigh...
09 April - On the bus back home from work.

 How's it going to work?

Let's be clear, this is not a diet.  Diets are a bastard and, for most people, eventually ineffective.  This is minor changes in how and when I eat to improve my overall diet.  In part, this is because Renae and I actually eat fairly well.  There are basically three areas which need addressing:
  1. Giant puddings
  2. Unhealthy snacks
  3. Fried shit
10 April - Dude, where's my village?

1: Giant puddings

As you can see from the picture above - and as you'll know if you've ever been to our house for dinner - we looooooooooooove us a pudding in Edgehead.  It's not for nothing that Xavi was 10lbs 9 1/2oz and built solely from toffee pecan roulade and cream three ways (whipped, pouring and ice).  Puddings are my Achilles' heel.

So I'm not cutting them out.  That's not realistic and I'd end up failing.  What I am doing is cutting out giant puddings.  That might seem minor (and I guess it is), but it's achievable and will make a difference.  One pudding a day of normal size is allowed.

2: Unhealthy snacks

I also looooooooooove snacks.  Snacks are great.  They're also bad for me, particularly when they are half a pack of cookies just before bed.  So unhealthy snacks are getting a serious pruning.  One unhealthly snack a day (a chocolate bar, a brownie, that sort of thing), any additional snacks need to be healthy.  I can snarf down as much fruit as I like.

3: Fried shit

This is going to be the hard one.  When we're tired and beaten down  by the stresses and strains of raising four kids, nothing quite hits the food spot like a giant pile of deep fried junk.  I don't have a rule for this one - some fried stuff will still be allowed as an occasional accompaniment - but most of it needs to be cut out.  At the very least, we need to find a new, go-to meal for times when we're utterly past it.  (Said meal needs to be freezable and easily prepared with the absolute minimum of fuss.)
11 April - Spring has sprung

Take exercise

I work in an office and generally hate physical exertion.  It's just not my thing.  I've spent a long time getting to a point where I don't have to labour manually to earn a crust and the idea of voluntarily doing hard work is horrifying.  It has to be done, though, or I'm going to really suffer in later years.  So I'm aiming to do 30 minutes exercise a day at a minimum.  This doesn't have to be any specific sort of exercise - I'm not going jogging every day - anything that gets me out of puff counts.  So far, I've pushed the babies up the village from nursery, hit Andy Leask with a sword and pulled a washing machine apart.  I've not managed on a couple of days, though, so I'm on the look out for an aerobic, exercise for beginners type programme that I can follow on the days when exercise doesn't come by naturally.
12 April - Xavi and Sephie join in on the healthy eating

Long-term updates

French words "learned" (according to the memrise app):  61

Daily photos taken as of 13 April: 13

Swordfighting learned: A swirly, slashing cut with a sabre (and the appropriate parry)

Thank yous written: 3

I am currently reading: The Red Tent.

Game design stage: high concept

Drawing skills learned: spheres, cubes.
13 April - It's surprising where your 30 minutes' exercise can come from


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