Fit in my 50s

According to Professor Steven Peters, motivation is over rated and that commitment is what counts if you want to achieve your goal. In his book, The Chimp Paradox , he explains that the psychological brain is made up of three parts; the human, the chimp and the computer. Our Chimp, our emotional machine, lives in the limbic system, our human, our self, lives in our frontal lobe and the computer is basically the storage system for our thoughts and behaviours. The problem with motivation, Peters says, is that it appeals to our Chimp and our Chimp is emotionally driven. Learning to live with your Chimp is the key to success and happiness. According to Professor Peters; ‘ Having a Chimp is like owning a dog. You are not responsible for the nature of the dog but you are responsible for managing it and keeping it well behaved. This is a very important point and you should stop and think   about this because it is crucial to yourhappiness and success in life.’ My...

So, one week since restarting the ketogenic diet and I've stuck to the plan. The first weigh-in was yesterday  morning. It's been a good week, I haven't been hungry, I've avoided snacking between meals and I've eaten very tasty, filling food. I even avoided tucking into the chocolates and biscuits and sweets in the staff room! And without throwing a tantrum! In fact, abstinence wasn't that difficult, this keto thing keeps hunger pangs at bay fairly effectively. There was a lot of fat though; butter, ghee, coconut oil, lard, full fat yogurt and olive oil. And cheese. Oh, and double cream. And mayonnaise ( home made!) And there's the fat in meat and eggs to consider on top of all that. Every morning I've had scrambled eggs in butter, apart from the weekend when I had eggs, bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms fried in lard. Lunch was the previous night's leftovers and dinner was something from the plan, Italian meatballs, Asian stir-fry, rib-eye steak, chicke...

La Velodysee 2019. Revisited, Complete and properly blogged this time. (promise!) So we’re heading back to France, and a little bit of Spain, to cycle the length of La Velodysee , the bit of the Eurovelo 1 route that’s in France. We completed a lot of it last summer, from Roscoff to Royan before turning South East and following the Canal des 2 Mers cycle route to Narbonne and eventually Torreilles Plage on the Mediterranean. This summer we’ll be crossing from Plymouth to Santander before catching a train to Hendaye where we’ll pick up the start of the route. Unlike last year, there’ll be no hotels so we’ll be carrying everything we need; tent, mattress, sleeping bags, stoves, etc, etc.   We’ll be taking the same bikes that performed so well last year, but the extra weight we’ll be carrying will have ramifications for one of the riders; me.   In order to meet the manufacturers suggested weight limit for my bike, I have to shed fifty pounds before the sta...