#101.21 - The Drop Zone

I have been looking forward to April. Here is the shakedown to my health levels.

I have been off the booze now for 7 weeks. The last time I was off this so long was 8 years ago. 

I have gone down at least a dress size and a half. I don't do weighing, but certainly this is how it works. I have noticed that if you are exercising and eating properly - and by properly I mean 3/4 of your daily nutritional needs - which is what you should eat in any case, you drop by half each week. So you lose less and less but in the same proportions weekly. I don't know about it weight wise, but certainly in terms of profile, etc, you just half it until there is nothing left to halve. Then you just keep to this regime and the body stabilises. This is the point though - you should never EVER go back to whatever it was in the beginning. This is why people end up putting on weight after they have left it. You do not do things to lose weight - you do things to arrive at the weight you should have always been. 

Just like exercising there is a law of diminishing returns. After that you end up just making yourself miserable. The journey to your correct weight should be seen not as the journey to your correct weight, but your journey to good health and well being. 

Fitness wise, I am now in the golden zone. As in from here on in, my fitness levels will increase until I am happy with where they are. Again I do not want to overdo things because I really do not want to end up with trashed kneecaps and useless hips. I want to make sure that I am stretchy and at the mobility of myself in the last 20s, which is essentially the same mobility as a regular person. I am definitely half way there.

I can now run 45 minutes at a sensible pace with no bother. I am very happy going up gradual hills. My core fitness is now 40 sit ups - it has always been 40 sit ups, only ever getting to 70 when I was in Singapore, and my flexibility improves daily. I'm halfway there too. The best part of this has been the lunges. I have been able to do 20 lunges. To top it all off, I noticed that my thigh musculature is now coming through the lycra when I do the sit ups. This is what exactly 31 days of exercise has brought me. On some days I move twice - walks to top off the running in the morning. I did try having a rest day yesterday and ended up running anyway. I figure that this kind of running is harmless for the body. There is enough time to recover. It also strengthens the bones and muscles.

Part of my writing all this is to gee myself up. Encourage myself and let me know that I know this is progress. It has been such a long time since I have been able to take some degree of control of my life. The other thing which has been important is the understanding that being fit, mobility early life is so important. To have an underlying fitness level, to have the habit of having exercised in the teens and late teens - there is no substitute to have developed that habit life when you are young. It is then so much easier to build on it. So much easier.

Having that basal level means being able to go back to it when you need it. 

Also shocking is the way in which alcohol is so bad for me. It was fun but now I am ready to lay it down. I have now moved into a new phase of my life. With the supplements and the exercise, it feels like within the duration of Lent I have turned back the clock by ten years at least. Added to that the positive vibes it has given me, I kinda now feel unstoppable. And that has got to be good.

Finally, last but not least, the sense of accomplishment of having dragged myself into the opposite direction, defying gravity... this has indeed been an Easter Rising. The next two months will bed all this in. 

That it has taken me 7 weeks is also good. It has happened gradually and yet at the same time taken practically no time at all. Three months compared to the last three years - that is nothing. The goal is that by June 21 I will be able to fit all the clothes I have - it may take a little longer, possibly till July. But you know what, it is going to be awesome. 

I am on the right path - I am totally obsessing about it and I DON'T CARE!!! I haven't felt this incredible in YEARS!!!!