4th Feb – Days to go on 100 days dry: 67. Days until the Dartmoor Way: 100

“It’s a fine line between standing behind a principle and hiding behind one.” President Thomas J. Whitmore, Independence Day.

I am not a massive fan of fad diets, I have lived through the Atkins craze, the intermittent fasting zeitgeist and the 5:2 memes. I am comfortable however that the information I am working with is based on measurement and I can have a look at ways to improve my lifestyle to help me on the way to my goal of being fitter and walking 108 miles around Dartmoor without causing permanent damage to myself.

Picking through the constant barrage of ads when typing anything related to health into Google, I have managed to get some good tips above and beyond ‘eat less and exercise more’.

Specifically, I know my blood sugar levels are likely to be an issue. I have lived as a hedonist for too long for it not to. My waistline is too big, my age is against me and, to put it succinctly, I have been cramming garbage into my face for most of my adult life. I am now cooking and eating with this in mind. It is a slog, but new patterns emerge as I cut out processed foods, sugar and refined grains and seed oils. Also, not drinking is a massive step in the right direction.

There are other things I can do however to combat not only my blood sugar, but the level of visceral fat that I am now aware of. One of these is my basal metabolic rate. The minimum level at which my body consumes energy whilst inactive. It is too low. In the low 1800’s. These are rookie numbers, I need to bump those numbers up.

Several things to do in this regard.

1. More protein intake
2. Drink cold water and lots of it
3. High intensity workouts
4. Strength training
5. Drink green tea or coffee
6. Eat spicy foods
7. Sleep well

Working on 1, improving 2 and 3, need to start 4, could do with increasing 5, love 6 and working on 7.

On top of this, I have realised that I am in a position to take things up a level. I have been slavishly observing the ‘rest day’ portion of the BHF program that I am following. But I have a sedentary job, sitting in front of a desk for a lot of the time. (I mean a lot of the time). Whilst I am not going to start running every day, I can increase my normal, day to day activity. So from tomorrow onwards I am going to walk for 30 minutes a day outside with a focus on getting to or over the advised 10,000 steps on a daily basis. This will also nudge me further towards the WHO advised 30 heart points on a daily basis.

I am also going to massively reduce my carb and fat intake, but I need to make sure that I don’t fall into a fad diet wormhole. I need to bring some thoughtfulness to my diet, rather than science-shakes three times a day. More protein, less carbs is the way.

And I need to up my water intake, this should also improve my basal metabolic rate. I am currently hovering around 2 – 2.5 liters a day. The aim is to get this to 4.5 liters on a daily basis.

Run 3, week 3 tonight and a six hour walk on Saturday. I am motivated to go tonight (at the moment, it’s 7:30 in the morning as I write this), but I am visualising getting back after the run, out of breath, happy and looking forward to a small glass of chocolate milk.

“You can tolerate a little compromise, if you’re actually managing to get something accomplished.” President Thomas J. Whitmore, Independence Day.