Treat my body like a temple

This comes naturally when you like yourself.

I’ve been in denial for a long time, but over the last few days I have finally admitted to myself that I am not an 8-hour sleeper. I need more like 9. Since I’ve been going to bed earlier, I’ve been waking much happier, and finding my mornings at work a lot easier to deal with.

I had a blow out last friday… ended up rather poorly, and realised I really need to cut down my alcohol intake.

Last night was pub night, and I had a really great time despite having no alcohol before food, and then only having one pint of cider, one pint of water then one pint of cider all night.

I still felt a bit rough this morning, but that was probably more from the late bedtime.

My temple is doing very well. Sensible eating, some exercise, sufficient sleep, and ‘me’ time.

Having had tea last night, it was time for the ice cream party. This had two bad effects:

1) Staying up past bedtime.
2) Eating more than I needed to.

So I made the conscious decision to go to bed, and had my ice-cream for breakfast. So that’s one minor fault (strawberries and ice cream for breakfast instead of my usual cereal) instead of a catalogue of faults.

It’s not about total denial, it’s about managing naughty stuff, and not overdoing it.

I think I shall make myself a gold medal out of cardboard later on. :)

I was naughty yesterday – kebab meat and chips for lunch.

But instead of punishing myself, I had a normal tea (heavy on the salad) and then a small high-fibre breakfast this morning, and straight back to normality. Previously I would have had a major issue – tried to avoid tea, then made myself far too hungry, then gone for a chinese takeaway to mess things up further.

I think I did right, and I’m very happy about it!

A while back (the day I broke my bike), I bought some neopolitan choc ices while waiting for my lift. They weren’t gluten-free but I didn’t care at that point. The smallest quantity I could buy was 10 – because the shop was a supermarket – though they weren’t that expensive.

So… on to today… with about 5 left, I went to the freezer thinking, “it’s naughty in terms of gluten and weight-loss, but well, they’re there and it’d be a shame to waste them.”

So I took one out.

Before unwrapping it I thought again, “no… it really is naughty and I really shouldn’t be doing this. Think of my temple.”

So I unwrapped it.

Before taking a bite, I thought… “you know, you can still throw this away and not eat it”

But I bit a chunk off anyway.

Then I thought “OI! DON’T UNDO THE GOOD WORK” and without chewing or swallowing, spat it out into the bin, threw the rest of the one I was holding into the bin, then went to the freezer, took the rest out and threw them away.

I was elated! Really. It felt much better than it would have done to eat the thing. Then cooked a healthy meal (loads of veg… spinach, sprouts, peas, parsnips) and basked in the glory of having been good to myself.

I’m ready to rebuild my temple… it’s going to be something like Meteora (pictured)

I have the bike for exercise, I have the confidence and incentive for good cooking, I have no excuses… let’s get on with it…

Tonight I made myself a chicken madras which was easily as good as those I can buy from the indian takeaway/restaurant – but in this case I knew exactly what was in it. Feels great to be finally on top of cooking and not dependant on convenience or junk food.

Yeah! Third day in a row with daily exercise… Sunday – Gym, Monday I went for a brisk 45 minute walk around my neighbourhood, Today I went for a short but vigorous bike ride – I’ve been wanting to see the local floods, so I biked over there and then through them. Then back through them. They were pretty deep and I ended up soaked to above my waist… my feet were in the water at the bottom of the pedal stroke, so lots of splashing!

It was really funny overtaking a 4×4 because I wasn’t too pussy to go quickly :)