Day 1 down, 364 to go

My New Year's Resolution for healthy living has survived the first day - although I stuck to my healthy eating plan (no snacking on left-over Christmas "goodies"), my exercise for Day 1 was limited to cleaning out the swimming pool. At the moment it's cool and raining in Sydney - most unusual for Jan 1 as it's often 40 deg C and clear blue skies at this time of year. Especially unusual considering that we're been in a drought for the past two or three years and the main dam supplying Sydney's water is down to around 30%. Luckily some of the rain today fell in the dam's catchment area.

As soon as the weather fines up I'll start doing half an hour of laps in our backyard pool each day while I'm still on vacation. Until then I'm making do reading the health and fitness blog written by a fitness women which has some interesting posts. The most immediately useful one is the ten tips for starting a training program. Although some of the tips (such as "Live in an area that provides opportunities for physical activity") seem a bit extreme - I'm about to move house just to be closer to a gym!

This blog also has some useful tips on how to handle the constant challenge of eating out without ruining your diet. Although I tend to "brown bag" my lunch (a tin of no added salt baked beans (for fibre), a tin of salmon in springwater, and some "high fibre" bread) for both health and budget reasons, there is sometimes no alternative to eating out - especially if it's a business lunch with the boss.

Another interesting post was the tip to stay hydrated by drinking a couple of glasses of water after drinking a cup of coffee (as it is a diuretic). I don't drink coffee, but I drink LOTS of diet coke - I'm trying to cut back from a couple of 2L bottles a DAY, to just one 2L bottle lasting all day at work and at home with dinner. I'll make an extra effort to take a bottle of filtered water along to work, so I can alternate between the caffeinated drink and plain water throughout the day. Hopefully the reduction in caffeine plus the weight loss will get my blood pressure back down below the "borderline" readings I got last time I visited my doctor. Avoiding having to start taking blood pressure medication by losing weight and execising would also save a lot of money in the long run.

Anyhow, my weight is currently 99.1 kg (goal <78 kg) - I'll see how well I've done by the time I go back to work next Monday. I actually find it easier to stick to my diet at work, as I can eat the same things for breakfast and lunch each day - the main challenge is to resist having an afternoon "sugar fix" of junk food. Although the first week of a diet tends to be largely loss of fluids, I should be able to lose around 0.5 - 1.0 kg per week just by eating "healthy" foods without any junk or snack foods, and doing half an hour of aerobic exercise each day.

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