14 : May Update

2 May 2022

Since this time last month I’ve lost a further 3 Kg (6.6lb). I’m behind my targets, but those targets were based on a straight-line projection of my rate of weight loss in January and that hasn’t been sustained. Nonetheless, I’m now merely overweight rather than obese and feeling a lot better in my body. Also, of my usual 5km walking route, I’m comfortable jogging 2km of it – I hope to increase that through May. Although I’m nominally following a ‘couch to 5k’ approach, in fact I’m taking it easy to avoid injury and build up strength. I’m in no hurry. I’m happy that my time coming up the hill to our house has dropped from just under 7 minutes in October (walking) to a best of 4 minutes 44 last week (partially jogging).

April was not without it’s frustrations. Although I kept to daily calorie targets that ought to have brought my weight down steadily, in fact there was a lot of volatility that didn’t appear to correlate to much that I was doing. That is an indicator of why my straight-line projection of weight loss was naïve. I’m still on track to get back to my 20-something weight, but it will take a little longer than I over-optimistically anticipated. I could speed it along, but that is a lot of pain for the gain.

The trick now, of course, is to keep the weight off. Building up running will take care of some of that, but not all of it. Standing my need to minimise carbs and sugar to keep my blood glucose levels under control, all the current evidence points towards adopting the so-called Mediterranean diet (to some extent I already have). I took a look at Amazon for suitable recipe books but it was distinctly unhelpful because of all the breathless blurbs and dodgy reviews, so I got down with the cool kids and, er, asked for recommendations on Facebook. For reasons unknown to me, I can’t get the thread to embed here, so there’s a screenshot to the right. I think you should find the post and replies here.

These are early days, but I expect that you’ll be hearing more about this. Naturally, a Mediterranean diet involves consideration of regional wines. Many of these aren’t available in the UK, either because they don’t travel well or because they’re not exported – and importers tend to stick to tried and tested products. A subsidiary project is therefore to find decent regional Mediterranean wines in the UK at prices that I can afford. I know that there is an awful lot of very good wine available all across Europe and beyond for €6 – €10 (max) per bottle, but getting it here is a problem. Anyway, come for the diabetes updates, stay for food and wine news as it comes in.