Diet & Exercise update - Week 26

I managed to cut back on snack/junk food last week, but not eliminate it entirely. When I went to the Sydney Uni Open Day with DS1 on Saturday I took along a couple of ham sandwiches I made using Buergen Gluten Free bread with Sunflower Seeds and Chia (I got a free sample loaf from Coles), which was actually quite nice but quite high calorie. On Sunday I took DS2 to Camden aerodrome for his Cubs excursion to the Scout Flying Activity centre where they had a 25-minute joy flight in a Cesna-172, learned a bit of aviation theory and built a balsa rubber-band powered model plane. I was doing quite well diet-wise until we stopped on the way home for some McDonalds fries and some snack food.

At least I've stopped gaining weight, and so far this week I've been doing a bit better at sticking to my diet plan (more or less). I'm due to recommence my postgraduate MSc(Research) enrolment at Sydney Uni from 1 Oct, so I've started spending time in the evenings getting my computer system setup for my astrophysics research rather than watching TV. It's a lot easier to avoid eating junk food when I'm not sitting in front of the TV and playing games on my tablet... I still haven't resumed doing my regular '5BX' sessions.

.             Fibre      Carbs    Fat     Protein    kCals     Avg Wt   Steps
              g/dy       %        %       g/dy       /dy       kg       /dy
Week 21       36.5       62.0     24.0    113.2      3,408     90.3     11,695
Week 22       34.8       66.0     19.7    112.0      3,425     90.1     11,545
Week 23       43.2       62.8     21.9    139.7      3,835     90.6     14,421
Week 24       42.4       63.7     21.5    118.0      3,376     91.5     17,417
Week 25       41.2       64.8     21.7    120.2      3,555     91.9     12,955
Week 26       33.1       65.9     19.3    115.1      3,388     91.3     12,424

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Diet & Exercise update - Week 25

I didn't have much success eliminating junk food and snacks from my diet last week, although I've made some slight progress so far this week (I'm still not completely back on track, but my weight has stopped increasing). Next weekend I'll be busy on Saturday taking DS1 to a university open day, and then on Sunday taking DS2 on a Cub Scouts excursion to an airport to have a 'joy flight', take a tour of the maintenance facility, and build a model glider for his 'flight' badge. Hopefully I'll be too busy to buy any junk food while I'm out and about. Instead I'll prepare some apples and carrot sticks to take along as my 'snack food'. One of the downsides of Coeliac disease is that I can't pack traditional ham sandwiches for lunch (I've tried the gluten-free versions of 'bread', and I find them very dry and unappetizing). Instead I'll make 'sandwiches' using rice/corn thins, which taste quite nice but tend to fall to bits as you eat them.

.             Fibre      Carbs    Fat     Protein    kCals     Avg Wt   Steps
              g/dy       %        %       g/dy       /dy       kg       /dy
Week 21       36.5       62.0     24.0    113.2      3,408     90.3     11,695
Week 22       34.8       66.0     19.7    112.0      3,425     90.1     11,545
Week 23       43.2       62.8     21.9    139.7      3,835     90.6     14,421
Week 24       42.4       63.7     21.5    118.0      3,376     91.5     17,417
Week 25       41.2       64.8     21.7    120.2      3,555     91.9     12,955

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Diet & Exercise update - Week 24

The boys and I completed the 14km 'City2Surf' event last Sunday without any problems, and we even went for our usual one hour squash session that same afternoon. We walked the course in 2 hrs 34 min ~48 sec. The winner ran the course in about 42 minutes! I "placed" 56,214th out of the 67,634 people who finished the race (there were 80,023 entrants, so about 15% of entrants didn't turn up or complete the race). And in the male 50-55 age group I placed 3,251st out of 3,754. So there is considerable room for improvement ;) If we enter again next year we'll try to improve our time by jogging on the downhill portions of the course.

Aside from successfully completing the City2Surf, last week was a bit of a diet disaster. I still didn't stop buying and eating junk food, so my average daily kcals were still way to high, resulting in a not-so-slow weight gain. I'm still meeting my daily goal of walking at least 12,000 steps/day, but haven't started to do 5BX sessions again as yet.

.             Fibre      Carbs    Fat     Protein    kCals     Avg Wt   Steps
              g/dy       %        %       g/dy       /dy       kg       /dy
Week 17       42.5       60.3     26.5     78.0      2,418     90.3     15,421
Week 18       44.4       59.6     21.7    114.2      2,721     89.6     13,569
Week 19       36.2       70.0     16.7     99.0      3,075     88.7     14,720
Week 20       35.3       66.9     18.8    104.5      3,181     89.4     16,644
Week 21       36.5       62.0     24.0    113.2      3,408     90.3     11,695
Week 22       34.8       66.0     19.7    112.0      3,425     90.1     11,545
Week 23       43.2       62.8     21.9    139.7      3,835     90.6     14,421
Week 24       42.4       63.7     21.5    118.0      3,376     91.5     17,417

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Diet & Exercise update - Week 23

Yet another week has passed and I still haven't got 'back on track'. Although I exceeded my daily walking target on all but two days last week, I continued to buy junk food while shopping (and then eating it). I also haven't resumed doing '5BX' exercise sessions as yet, so the only aerobic exercise I did during the past week was a bit of squash with the kids on Sunday afternoon. Next Sunday is the City2Surf 14km walk, so I really need to resume doing my 5BX sessions asap, and also continue my daily walking routine (I'll take it easy the day before the race). My weight has been creeping back up during the past month, so I guess the answer is to completely eliminate the junk food once and for all...

.             Fibre      Carbs    Fat     Protein    kCals     Avg Wt   Steps
              g/dy       %        %       g/dy       /dy       kg       /dy
Week 17       42.5       60.3     26.5     78.0      2,418     90.3     15,421
Week 18       44.4       59.6     21.7    114.2      2,721     89.6     13,569
Week 19       36.2       70.0     16.7     99.0      3,075     88.7     14,720
Week 20       35.3       66.9     18.8    104.5      3,181     89.4     16,644
Week 21       36.5       62.0     24.0    113.2      3,408     90.3     11,695
Week 22       34.8       66.0     19.7    112.0      3,425     90.1     11,545
Week 23       43.2       62.8     21.9    139.7      3,835     90.6     14,421

I had an appointment with my dermatologist last Friday, and he reviewed the upper GI biopsy results that had confirmed his Coeliac disease diagnosis. The latest blood test results (taken the previous week) were already showing some improvement since I eliminated wheat from my diet about six weeks ago. He expects I should see some significant improvement after being 'wheat free' for four months or so. One 'side effect' might be an increase in cholesterol levels as my upper GI absorption improves - my triglyceride levels are already higher than they should be, so that is another reason to ensure I get down to my 'ideal weight' range asap.

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Net Worth: July 2016

July turned out to be a good month, despite some pundits fearing the brexit vote was going to decimate global sharemarkets. By the end of the month my geared share portfolio was up $40,712 (30.45%), and the strength of the share market had also boosted my retirement savings by $31,901 (4.30%). The estimated value of our home continued to rise (up $10,365 or 1.44% in July) despite many pundits calling the end of the Sydney property boom (some recent estimates had projected that sort of rise for the whole of 2016).

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Diet & Exercise update - Week 22

Another week of over-eating and under-exercising ;(.

I couldn't seem to get back into the 'routine' of healthy eating, instead I continued to buy snack/junk food when I went shopping. I also only managed to reach my daily 12,000 step target on two days last week, and haven't done a 5BX session since coming back from our ski trip. Basically I need to do all the good things this week that I resolved to start doing last week...

.             Fibre      Carbs    Fat     Protein    kCals     Avg Wt   Steps
              g/dy       %        %       g/dy       /dy       kg       /dy
Week 17       42.5       60.3     26.5     78.0      2,418     90.3     15,421
Week 18       44.4       59.6     21.7    114.2      2,721     89.6     13,569
Week 19       36.2       70.0     16.7     99.0      3,075     88.7     14,720
Week 20       35.3       66.9     18.8    104.5      3,181     89.4     16,644
Week 21       36.5       62.0     24.0    113.2      3,408     90.3     11,695
Week 22       34.8       66.0     19.7    112.0      3,425     90.1     11,545

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