31days

Holy moly. I'd never have thought that it might pass so quickly, but 31 days are -- apart from just over five more hours to midnight -- up. Done and dusted. Goals (most of them, at least) achieved.

31 days with zero alcohol.

31 days without even one cup of instant coffee (and an average of only about one, decent fresh-brewed latte, per day)

31 days with daily exercise: 30 of those days seeing visits to the gym of between 45 minutes and 90 minutes each time, and the one day when I didn't go to the gym involving a 45-minute brisk walk with jogging interludes.

I feel great. Posture is much improved, as is fitness and overall strength. My weight is only down a measly 1kg in 31 days, but I am convinced that that is just a start; fitness first -- with some muscle put on to 'replace' the fat that has been shed (looser clothes and trouser belt 'prove' the loss of a fair bit of flab from around the middle) -- and with further weight to go soon, I hope.

Right now I'm in a serious grump because my other half is in a serious grump with me; the temptation to go out and blow a few beers down my neck is considerable, and I might have earned it even. We'll see.

31days -- aiming for another 29 until my birthday on April 29th; if I get through tonight, or even if I don't, without a few beers.

.......and things remain the same. Zero alcohol, much less coffee (zero instant coffee muck), and daily exercise for 28 days so far (29 this afternoon).

The concern about the apparent lack of weight loss has been explained by a good friend and athlete and obsessed trainer as exactly as I had hoped. Fat reduced has been replaced (on the scales, not in the same body places, of course) by new muscle. He gave me advice on doing two long aerobic sessions a week, and assures me that those will burn off the flab. And in fact, at the gym this week, I think I have noticed the start of weight loss: one whole kilogramme seems to be absent without leave, and not before time.

I have a big new work project back on the front boiler that will involve a long trip in America by motorcycle later in the year; and since it involves optimising fuel mileage, getting rid of my excess weight is a must. So that's decided then: the 31 days thing will continue after the end of the month, with a new target of 60 days -- 31 plus the first 29 days of April, until my 50th birthday on 29th April. Onward!

31 days

...missed three days of the blog, that is. Everything else continues just hunky dory.

Definitely getting stronger and fitter at the gym -- as I would hope, after twenty-five consecutive days of exercise (only one of which was a jog, and not a gym visit). But my weight is still about the same as it was 25 days ago, which is a bit infuriating -- though not such a big issue, as I can SEE the difference in overall shape, so I am surely replacing fat with muscle to a certain extent. I hope.

The notion of continuing after the end of the month is getting more and more appealing. Wait and see.

Onward.

31days (only SIX to go now!)

Day 21 -- have not been to the gym yet, but will get there later in the afternoon. Yesterday at the gym I was surprised and a little delighted to see that my weight might actually have dropped by one kilogramme, but that could have been an aberration that will be corrected when I get on the scales again today. Hope not, though. Any sign of the weight finally starting to recede would be very welcome.

As it is I have to take solace in perceived changes to the physique, notional signs of improvement. 100 sit-ups yesterday and between 45 minutes and one hour in the gym every day for twenty days must be having some effect, right? I definitely feel stronger and the sit-ups and other stomach exercises are certainly feeling a little easier. So all is well, so far.

I am already seriously considering extending beyond 31 days, beyond the end of March. I could perhaps go to April 29th -- my 50th birthday -- taking the project to a notional end point that is 60 days from its start. If my weight finally is starting to drop, then extending the work-out spell in that way could only help. We'll see. At the moment, I'm pleased with the progress in fitness and strength, and look forward to seeing it show up on the scales again. Fingers crossed and onwards and upwards.

31days

Yesterday, Day 18, was the first day so far that I didn't get to the gym, mainly because I was pre-occupied with other things in the afternoon, and had something I wanted to go to in the evening. But I had always said that I might make do with a strenuous walk once in a while, and that's exactly what I did. I did a 45-minute high-speed walk around this part of Bangkok, with a couple of shortish jogging interludes along the way.

I'll be honest, I didn't expect it to be such a good work-out, but it was hard work -- and I woke up this morning with sore muscles in parts of my legs that clearly don't get much work on the cross-trainer at the gym.

Today, Day 19, I made it back to the gym and completed a tough 35 minutes on the cross-trainer, plus some work on the chest and abdominals.

I think I might have turned a small corner. Posture is getting better by the day, the waistline that was previously overtaken by a large abdominal swelling (my gut) is beginning to re-appear for the first time in years, and the strength of the stomach muscles is coming on leaps and bounds. Today at the gym I did fifty sit-ups in one unbroken sequence -- then this evening I did the same again.

And still no alcohol, zero instant coffee, and only one nice cup of iced-coffee today.

Onward!

31days

And yes, all is well. Strength, fitness and posture are all improving (even if weight seems to be stubbornly unmoving; I can only use the excuse of fat being replaced by muscle for SO long....), and I continue to enjoy sound, dream-filled sleeps and to wake up feeling fresh every morning. Caffeine intake very low (not even one cup of instant muck since the exercise started 18 days ago), alcohol intake is precisely zero, and lots of water and soda water being consumed.

Now, if only the weight would start to drop, even a little!

31days

Evening of Day 16, the half-way mark is officially behind me, and all is well. Despite being at the pub during the last two nights again, no grog was consumed, and daily visits to the gym continue unabated.

Damn weight still hasn't dropped a gram though!

31days

Situation continues to be normal. At the gym every day -- today marking the two-week point in the 31-day experiment. I am mixing strenuous cardio work with upper body and abdominal exercises, and despite 14 straight days at the gym, there is no sign of strains or pains. Touch wood.

Was a bad boy today in the coffee department -- three lovely cups, but at least I went to the gym after the last of the three, and none of them were lousy instant muck.

The experiment continues to give me pleasure, and almost no pain whatsoever. Excellent. Onward!

31days

Day 11 of 31 means I am past the one-third mark already. My how time flies when you are doing something 'new'.

And I take comfort and pleasure from the notion that the training took me past a wee milestone of late; the concentration on abdomen/stomach exercises in the last couple of days has made a difference to the posture; all I have to do now is stick at that and enjoy the progress.

And not even one cup of coffee all day. Woo hoo.

Onwards.

31days

Early evening of Day 10 and the fact that there is nothing too much to report is, of course, good news indeed. Still on the wagon -- incidentally, I read in an autobiography of Louis Armstrong today the origins of that phrase; in the early 20th Century when Louis was a teenager, there were at least 100 jazz/blues bands in his home town of New Orleans, and in such a competitive atmosphere, the bands had to advertise. This they did on Sundays, when they hired furniture removal carts (pulled by horses) and rode them through the neighbourhood playing their instruments to promote their services. In those days in those neighbourhoods, the majority of the men would spend Sundays drinking or gambling, and the comparative temperance of the men riding around on horse and carts led to the phrase -- 'on the wagon'.

Here endeth the lesson in sociolinguistics.

No coffee, no alcohol -- on bar of Toblerone, naughty me -- but a good session at the gym, my tenth straight day at the gym, a minor milestone. All is relatively well.

31days

The morning of Day 10 out of 31, and that there was no report on Day 9 is only because I forgot, which might be partly due to how the present state of affairs -- free of alcohol, virtually free of caffeine, and well-exercised on a daily basis -- has slipped into the 'normal' state, never mind how abnormal it might have been just ten days or so ago.

Today will be the tenth straight day that I have been to the gym. Yesterday I laid off the cardio for the early part of the gym time, concentrating on upper body weights and several different abdomen and stomach exercises, but I finished up with nearly 30 minutes on the treadmill, which got the blood flowing nicely enough.

My weight sticks stubbornly at exactly 80kg, but it is how it is distributed that really matters at the moment. Posture is definitely improving, and what needs concentrated on now is the abdomen. Years of neglect mean my stomach muscles are stretched, and need to be worked very hard if I'm going to get anything like a 'flat' abdomen (face it, at my age it ain't gonna happen, but I'll settle for something less rounded).

And I continue to sleep well, my complexion is improved already, my face is losing some of the beery puffiness suffered of late, and all, my friends, is well with the world. Best March in living memory? I'd say so, so far at least. Onward!

31days

Four eights make thirty-two, which means that today I passed the quarter-way mark in my quest to achieve 31 days free of grog and punctuated by daily bouts of exercise. And today I managed to get by on one solitary latte at a coffee shop near the gym where I made it for my eighth daily session in a row, and subjected my tired frame to a solid 40 minutes on the cross-trainer before doing a few weights and stomach exercises.

Boring and predictable, but still good. Infuriatingly, my weight is precisely the same as it was last Saturday when I started out, but that is excused/mitigated by a distinct and noticeable improvement in both fitness and strength.

The notion for a cold beer is definitely there, but is not in the least pressing. Hell, I was in bars (playing music) three nights in a row this week without a hint of a relapse, and I might yet go to the local blues venue tonight for a lemon soda.

As I keep saying, so far so good. Now, if I can just get the waistline a bit more trim and the weight down by a perceptible amount. Still, one week into the challenge, and things are just dandy.

31days

It is the evening of Day Seven, and the conditions of the exercise continue to be met. Not even one cup of coffee today -- which might account for how knackered I felt in mid-afternoon. So knackered that I contemplated making do with a stiff walk for my daily exercise, but I managed to get self to gym, even if I did not do the cross-trainer thing. But I did use weights and do a variety of upper body working out for about 45 minutes. Job done.

That's almost a week gone already. The temptation to slide backwards and have a beer is certainly there, but it is easily overshadowed by the determination not to give up -- and also by the benefits of the abstention and the exercise. Weight is still the same, but I don't expect that to really change in only a week -- plus there is the easy excuse, and not an unreasonable one, that all the pumping of iron is quite probably putting on some muscle, albeit in small quantities, but enough to prevent weight from dropping.

This evening 'Management' looked across the dinner table and paid me a compliment. 'Your face looks much better than it did just a week ago,' she said. Praise indeed, and just what I needed to hear. Onward!

31days

Day Seven today, and never mind that I didn't show up to write a blog entry yesterday, because I did still make it to the gym on Day Six, even though I most certainly didn't feel like going -- and I battered away at the cross trainer for a solid 40 minutes.

onward!

This is getting predictable, in that it continues to be easy, and I continue to derive a real, and even growing sense of reward from staying away from alcohol and caffeine. Again today I had one delicious cup of latte -- and loved every drop. But the temptation to have another wasn't there; nor was there any real notion for a beer, never mind that I live in a hot Eastern city that's as dry as an arab's sandal most of the time.

And I made it to the gym once more, which makes it five days in a row, and like yesterday, the time flew in, and the work was perceptibly easier than in the earliest days in this experiment. My weight stays almost exactly the same as when I started out, but that is not unexpected. It takes time for fat to burn off, and in the meantime I can be content that fitness, strength and posture are all definitely improving.

More importantly, I feel great. Onward!

Getting self to gym today took a wee bit more willpower than it did the first three days of this quest, but once I got there, to my surprise I found I had turned a small corner. Before starting on Saturday, I had gone a couple of months with only an average of one, or at most two visits to the gym per week. But that must have meant I was in less than terrible shape, because today I really felt the benefit of the slog over the last three days, and worked out harder and longer on the cross-trainer, without negative effect.

And I did all that without a drop of alcohol since last Friday, with a much-improved diet over these few days, and with only one - delicious! - cup of coffee in the last 48 hours.

Feeling good, carrying myself a little better, strength rising on the weights machines -- everything is positive, so far.

Tonight I face a challenge -- attending my 'local' pub for a blues jam session that I love participating in, but which, up until tonight, always meant beer being consumed. But it's lime soda for me tonight. That'll make some jaws drop, and probably impress far more people than were ever impressed by my harmonica skills.

31days

No, I'm not bored with the new regime, but anyone reading this must be thinking that watching paint dry would be more intriguing.

Notch up day three without alcohol, without even one cup of coffee -- and with another solid work-out at the gym, including 35 minutes on the cross-trainer and a short session on the weights machines.

I feel good, the posture is improving a little every day, and whatsmore, at the moment I miss neither alcohol nor caffeine. That could change, of course, but hey, live for the moment.

A big nod of appreciation to Magnus, who helped inspire this sane experiment. He helped by getting me trashed on Guinness last Friday, and it was during drunken discussions that evening that I admitted I was thinking about having a 'dry' March -- and he encouraged me to go for it. The bastard!

31days

So far so just fine.

Dinner with wife and niece at a fine little Japanese-style Korean restaurant last evening was a treat, and not in the least a trial. I had a syrupy lemon juice drink that got better the longer the ice diluted it down and the more water was added.

The anticipated mini-test of the blues jam was taken away by the bar being closed, which only bothered me because I wanted to take part in the jam. Ah well....

More stomach exercises at home over the evening helped the posture a little more, and the overnight sleep was the stuff of dreams. That is, full of dreams and wonderfully refreshing. I only wonder why I can't do this more often. The answers to which are, I know, obvious.

Abstained from the instant coffee muck this morning, and haven't actually missed it.

Onward, onward!

As I keep thinking, 'so far so good'. Only one nice cup of latte today, no junk food whatsoever, plus an hour at the gym, where already (and I know this sounds ridiculous, but it's true) I feel the benefit of oh, about 40 hours without even a single drink. 35 hard minutes on the cross-trainer was, ahem, hard, but not such a grind as 30 minutes was yesterday, if youknowwha'ahmsayin'.

It is even more ridiculous to weigh myself only 24 hours since I last did so, but I was gratified to see that weight had definitely not increased, and could even have dropped by a third of a kg -- a possibility, considering the extra exercise and the absence of toxins and carbohydrates compared to recent weeks.

I also did some more upper body stuff -- taking that very easy, since I know from bitter experience how easy it is to over-do that work and find myself with two barely-functional arms for a few weeks. And I did some more stomach exercise work. The instant gratification factor of finally getting around to working on the stomach muscles is delusional in the most welcome way. The slightest improvement in tone of stomach muscles makes for a giant perceived improvement in posture. I love it.

Two days in (nearly), two days that follow the new regime conditions admirably. Tonight will be a bit of a test, but not one that daunts me. Dining out is always accompanied by a beer or three, but not tonight. And later, I go to my regular bar haunt to play in the blues jam -- and that should be a bigger test of willpower. Onward, onward.

March 2nd means it is Day 2. A quiet evening last night at home with the television for company made it relatively easy to stick to my no-alcohol pledge, and in fact the time went in pleasantly and comfortably, with some soda water and orange to beat the thirst.

As usual when there is no grog in the system, I slept like the proverbial log, except a log that dreams complex, technicolor productions that are endlessly entertaining. Another benefit of an alcohol-free existence is the quality of sleep achieved, and the fresh state in which I wake up in the morning -- even if I slept quite late (again; it is Sunday, however).

At the gym yesterday I did some stomach exercises, and during the evening I did two sets of thirty stomach crunches with relative ease. Got to keep that up!

So far so good. It is nearly five p.m.; by now I would usually have consumed at least three, and maybe five cups of coffee, but I had one mid-morning, and that's it.

Whatsmore, I made it to the gym for about an hour of exercise. First I did a fairly solid 30 minutes on the cross-trainer, working up a serious lather in the process; the cross-trainer is my favourite exerciser, as time passes fast, it gets the pulse racing, and works both the legs and the arms without imposing too much strain or impact damage on either.

I weighed myself on the changing room scales, which for the purpose of this exercise, will be the benchmark scales. I was a little surprised that I am 'only' 80kg. When I arrived out East about eight months ago I was a very portly 84kg. A few weeks at the gym brought that down to 80kg fairly quickly, but there it stayed. So, considering the shortage of exercise and the abundance of beer consumed in the last couple of months, I am surprised that it hadn't risen. Still, I would like to see that fall to somewhere around 75kg. If in the course of this 31-day exercise I can make a start and shed one or two kg, then all the better.

The mood is good. In practice I don't have trouble not drinking, but I do have trouble getting around to the state mind and the determination required to take that step; once the decision is made, though, there is no sense of withdrawal to endure. At least that has always been the case before now; I hope it stays that way. [This is sounding like the smokers who joke that quitting is so easy, they've done it lots of times.]

I just bought a few bottles of soda water. Soda with ice and a dash of lime or orange juice will be the drink of choice from now on.

Think about it. It is March 1st, and there are 31 days in March. This is an exercise by a middle-aged guy who is going to use the next 31 days to make a start on getting into shape.

To do that, the goal is simple. Live a model, healthy life for those 31 days. This means:

** Zero alcohol
** Not just regular exercise, but DAILY exercise. At the gym most days, too. Starting today.
** Greater care with my diet -- more fruit, more vegetables, more water
** Lower caffeine intake. Less coffee, no opting for diet drinks full of caffeine. Drink water.

And the goals? To get started in a lifestyle that I really ought to be pursuing in any case.

To improve fitness and posture, to get started on a regime that will fight back at the flab accumulated over the last ten years -- and to enjoy all the benefits that are out there from a period of complete abstinence from drinking.

And let's be honest. It's the last bit that is most important. I turn 50 in just under two months, and ever since I was about 18, I have been drinking far more than is good for a man. Hell, probably far more than would be enough for two men.

So it's detox, get fitter, feel better -- and get more focussed in every way. Watch this space.