Insufficient Postage

Hello, if anyone is out there (okay, I know for sure that one person at least checks in periodically).

Yes, my personal blogscape has been barren for the last few days. There is a reason, however.

I have begun my journey by concentrating on my body. This involves a modification of my diet and activity level. Paying attention to one's food intake (I am writing down everything I eat in order to better understand my eating patterns, habits and choices) takes a fair amount of attention. Changing my activity level takes more. Between the two, I have not had a lot of time free for introspection. Hence, a dearth of postage here. However, I shall take a moment to describe my current efforts.

The main modification to my diet has been the simple elimination of my single biggest food vice - soda. I stopped drinking the stuff on the 2nd of April. I had a stumble after a particularly stressful day last week, but even then I realised that I was just stress/comfort eating and poured the last half out. Or, to be more accurate, I handed it to my wife, who wishes to be called Mrs. Cord (she objected to the name I wanted to give her, which is Fatima), to pour out. An act of will either way.
I was surprised to discover that, after eliminating cola and other pure junk foods (chips, chocolate bars etc), I don't actually eat all that much. And, when being mindful of what I am eating, I can usually control my impulse to consume mass quantities.
The rest is conscious selection of healthier foods. Not as hard as it sounds at first. Hey, I'll make that sandwich with roast beef instead of bacon. I don't need to slather that with mayo. I'll eat more vegetables. Fruit makes a great snack. All obvious, but all useful, and they all add up.
I average about 2200 calories a day now, which is pretty much on target for a healthy level of weight loss. Writing it all down is incredibly useful for looking back and noticing "wow, did I really eat nothing but meat and bread that day?".

The exercise part of my lifestyle change is easier and harder at the same time. Easier because it is a lot more fun than cutting out yummy-but-evil junk food. Easier because I get a real emotional and physical lift from working out. Harder because it is difficult to make time to work out when I have the rest of life intruding on me and making demands. For instance, over the past week (and well into this week), Mrs. Cord has been painting out daughter's room. Because of this, she is highly stressed and very tired all the time. Accordingly I have to take over all the various tasks that she once performed - her share of the cooking, cleaning, child-rearing and pet maintenance. This makes it hard to reserve time to exercise. Since I am the type that always puts the needs of my family above my own, I sacrifice my own time and needs to serve them. Unfortunately, this has been making me petulant and generally whiny. However, I do manage to get some form of activity every day, even if I have to wait until my family is asleep. The bad part of that is, of course, that I am sacrificing sleep to do it.

I suspect that in time I will work out a system where I get to do what I need to do while still meeting my family's needs. It's a learning process.

All this activity is bearing fruit. I did manage to lose 3 pounds in my first week of lifestyle change.