I have a better idea. Write an interesting post. Leave the SEO wanging and other ‘tricks’ aside. I suppose if you are writing just to make some money (which is a wee bit sad) or for popularity (ditto) then you should be following those sorts of tips and tricks. Otherwise, just write some cool shit.

I am back to using my Fitbit (yay, the cleaner found it!) and tracking all my movements, food and sleep. I’ve also started using the notes and journal functions of the Fitbit website, to try to understand more where I am slipping and where I am winning. Because I’m beginning to see that when you are struggling, it is just as important to celebrate the little wins as it is the big ones.

I’ve also gone back to weighing myself. I find that I have a “just don’t look” policy when it comes to things I don’t want to deal with… when I know I haven’t been eating right and exercising, I stop weighing myself, and when I know it is near the end of the month and I shouldn’t spend any more money… I stop looking at my bank balance. What a brat.

Things aren’t as bad as I had thought (with the scale, the bank account is an entirely different issue!) but I do feel the need to lament a little how much further along I would have been had I not given up for a couple of months there.

Ages ago, Fitbit (bless it’s little wee electrical heart) told me that I would be my “ideal weight” mid-October. Then it got all excited and said it would be late September. NOT SO OPTIMISTIC NOW, ARE YOU? Poor Fitbit.

When I weighed in on Monday, it told me that I could be my ideal weight in mid-January. Yesterday it was like “holy shit, lookit you all on track” and pulled it back to the beginning of January. Today it is telling me I could still hit my goal weight in 2012. So I am completely in love with it again.

I would like to try to hit my goal weight this year. I think that would be cool. I just have to figure out how to stay consistent with what I am doing….

Although there is velcro in my life… that’s how I think of it. Little “v” velcro, not capital “V” Velcro as in “a brand”. I thought it had gone the way of Thermos, Teflon and all the other once-brand-names that ended up becoming just another product name to be pilfered by a bunch of other brands.

When I think of velcro, I think of shoes. Or this:

she looks like she’s having a great time

But it isn’t the rebranding (6 months for that logo? Really?) or the new website that caught my attention. It was two lines from the article over at Co. Create from  Velcro Group vice president of global marketing Jurjen Jacobs:

 “Instead of us trying to invent all kinds of new things you can do with Velcro, there are millions of people using our products every day, and most of them will be very proud to share their results with other people. I think that’s a huge strength of our brand and where our future marketing strategy will come from.”

Jacobs is doing marketing right. Instead of telling your brand advocates what they should be doing with your stuff, let your brand advocates tell you. Let THEM do the work! Let them shill your goods to other people… and hopefully turn those people into brand advocates in the meantime.

Although it is kinda ridiculous that it took 6 months (and probs oodles of money) to get a new logo, props to the velcro kids for doing their marketing strategy right.

I am curious now how Velcro is listening to their customers, evaluating what is being discussed and how they are going to act on that. At least there is going to be one clear measure of success on this one… when people start thinking about velcro as Velcro again.

Week 13: Success. On track for 12/52 weeks so far.
Week 14: FAIL! On track for 12/52 weeks so far.
Week 15: FAIL! On track for 12/52 weeks so far.

I wasn’t really surprised about weeks 14 and 15, to be honest. I’ve been on holidays for the last couple of weeks and have been eating (and drinking) a LOT. And although I’ve been walking a lot on my holidays, it hasn’t been enough to make up for the amount of pub grub and ales I’ve inhaled.

Like I said before: You can’t outrun your fork. Back to better eating then!

Started out as a fairly regular Monday. You know. Pretty shit. Had to get up early. Had to get on a stinky, crowded train. Decided that rather than walk to work (Waterloo to London Bridge) I would take more of a stinky train to get in early.

Got in early. No bananas. Work work work worky work. Gym at lunch – ran 5km. Fairly standard.

Work work work worky work. (There may have been a meeting or two in that worky work there somewhere).

Commute home, stinky train. Pick up groceries. Eat some dinner, eff about online. Talk to my moms (which is always a highlight) but then RAGE RAGE RAGE (my poor, patient moms) about a particularly INFURIATING work thing that is going on.

I was very ragey again today. There is a thing (the same “thing” as always) at work and a thing in my personal life that is filling me full of rageohol.

Now, if you know me, you know how I deal with rageohol: Usually I dilute it with alcohol. Seems like the right thing to do.

But today… today I got changed into my running shit after my call with my moms. I fired up my Runkeeper and Zombies, Run! apps. And I went for a motherfucking run.

Now… here’s the strange thing that happened (I mean – over and above the fact that I went for a run instead of a pint): I liked it.

There was a point where I was actually enjoying the exercise. Double-you Tee Eff, man? ENJOYING THE RUNNING.

I’m sat here now in minor amounts of pain. My feet are a wee bit torn apart (I did run nearly 15km today in total – and this after running 10km yesterday… WHO EVEN AM I?) and I’m pretty sure my thighs are going to be non-functioning tomorrow (there is already a pretty deep ache)… but I feel good.

And not just self-righteous good (a by-product of any exercise if you are me), but good-good. My rage has subsided. I am feeling fairly at piece with the universe.

I hope this is a feeling I can remember (not the feet/thighs part – the other part) because I would like to feel this way more often.

This was my run, by the way. Check out those changes in elevation. That first hill is where the zoms nearly got me. I thought I was going to vomit (zom vom) when I got to the top… I’m not nearly in shape enough to fucking sprint up a hill that far into a run.

http://runkeeper.com/user/jodiwankenobi/activity/77826178

Who knew that trying to escape a murderous pack of zombies would motivate me enough to run and run and run. Bless you, zombies.

HOWEVER. I am not on track for keeping up with the goal tracking. How am I already a week behind? SAD TIMES.

I’m not sure what has been happening in my brain for the last few weeks, but I’ve been highly resistant to getting shit done. It’s like weaponised procrastination.

Not just the blog – I haven’t been tracking my exercise or food properly. I haven’t been doing my laundry (just caught up this week). The list could go on and on.

I’m not sure if it is still a push-back from the uber-restraint that was February, or if it turns out that I’m just that fucking lazy. I’d like to blame the former, but I’m fairly sure that it is the latter.

Anyway: Tomorrow’s goal tracking is NOT going to be pretty. At all. But I’m okay with that. Hopefully it will motivate me to get back on track.

This is a mini-success, for although I have dropped from last week’s weigh-in, I am still up over what I was two weeks ago. I’m okay with that though, because there have been other wins.

Like last night. Last night I ran 8.27km in an hour. Which is pretty super. I’m feeling good about that.

And on the weekend I bought trousers a size smaller than usual. More win.

I thought I would be more uptight about my weight being up this week… but I’m totes not. Couple of reasons:

1. I KNEW it was going to be up this week. It was nearly deliberate.
2. It is good for me to fail so I don’t set myself up to think that I have to be perfect this entire year (because I don’t).

After the detox ended on 29 February, I went on a “vacation” from all this uptightness around my body. I stop recording every movement and every morsel. I didn’t exercise on purpose. I drank beer. I ate pizza.

Yesterday was the last day of absolute indulgence – I’m back to trying to eat in a healthy yet balanced way.

As for this week’s “fail”… now I’m free to be imperfect. I don’t have to beat myself up later when I’ve had 25 “perfect” weeks and then my weight bumps up. It helps me focus on what is really important:  Things are trending in the right way.

And although my weight went up from last week, so did my lean mass. Meanwhile, my body fat percentage was down from last Tuesday. So… not that big a fail, all things considered!

I have been doing a detox for the month of February. And now, on the last day… I’m so glad this month is over. Because although I have been eating well, the extremely strict rules I’ve subjected myself to means that I haven’t been enjoying much of a social life these days.

Have I mentioned the rules? My rules? The rules I’ve put on myself like a bully? No? Well, here they are:

1. No booze.
2. No wheat.
3. No gluten.
4. No coffee.
5. No sugar.
6. No preservatives.
7. No dairy.
8. No fruit.
9. No artificial sweeteners.
10. No legumes.

So what have I been ingesting? Mostly meat and vegetables. And it has been wonderful. I’ve had fresh scallops pan fried in purified butter with farmer’s bacon, roasted oak-smoked garlic and freshly cut cilantro. I’ve had bunless burgers with home-made guacamole and salsa served with sweet potato fries dipped in chipotle mayonnaise. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

But that was here, in my house. Where I can control each and every ingredient. You know where you can’t do that? Everywhere else. So I haven’t been eating in restaurants. The lack of alcohol (or really, any alternative drinks one would normally have in a pub, like Diet Coke or juice) means that I’m not really into going out for drinks. So I haven’t been out much.

The upside is that I’ve saved enough money doing this that I was able to buy two pairs of new shoes. Mmmm…. new shoes.

So what’s the issue? I’m obsessive about details.

This means I haven’t slipped. Not once. For the entire month. I couldn’t relax about it. Even the fact that I wouldn’t go out and risk accidentally eating something on my “No no, bad Jodi” list is sort of wrong. Don’t you think?

Not weird enough? How about the fact that I’ve been dreaming about breaking the rules? Obsessive.

Now that I’m  the end of the month, I’m not going to go back to my old way of eating. Because that would also be stupid… it’s how I got to be a chubbo in the first place. But I do need to relax a bit or I’m going to drive myself insane.

When I wasn’t eating well at all (helllOOOOooo pizza and beer), it didn’t matter if once (or even twice) a week I ate a good, healthy meal. I still packed on the weight.  What I need to remember  now is that the opposite also holds true:  If I am eating well most of the time, it won’t matter if I eat something unhealthy once (or even twice) a week… I’m not going to suddenly get fat(ter) again.

So what was the result of this bloody experiment? I dropped some weight and some inches… but I think that would have happened anyway. And I don’t have any additional energy – less in fact as I’ve been too restrictive on the calorie intake. A positive take-away is that I don’t seem to have any sensitivities to any of the foods I restricted. YAY COFFEE!

I’m glad it is over and that I can go back to eating in a less restricted but healthy way. I certainly won’t do it again. My personality just doesn’t allow for it.