SomeGuyFromScotland

Baby, baby, bayyyyy-beh. *cough* Following.

Also here for the bod manly encouragement.

I am a person who is following.

You're a good man, Charlie Brown DFG.

Reasonably happy with progress on this challenge. Managed to get my cross trainer run up to 20 minutes at level 13 without stopping, despite gym attendance being slightly less consistent than I'd hoped - time constraints are still a factor for me, unfortunately. Mood has been holding steady, despite a few knocks and stresses here and there. Food and drink goals remain pretty much on target, with a slight wobble around the double birthday. Need to get better at finding time to check in here, though. Work is constantly busy, and I'm not spending a lot of time on my PC at home, so the only other alternative is updating via my phone, which I'm not a fan of. Meh. No excuses! New challenge coming soon.

I played nice with the cake, mainly because there was no cake. There was however a gigantic double cookie sandwich with icing, and I had a very small piece of that. There were also a couple of dinners out (Harvester and the cheekiest of Nando's), but those were dessert free affairs. Other than that, things are ticking along nicely. I'm getting to the gym when I can, and staying on track with the food.

Popping in with a quick update for now. Weighed in yesterday at 244. That's 4 down for September and, 13 total since the start of August. Not spectacular for September, but since the car drama waylaid my gym attendance somewhat, it would suggest the continuing loss is down to the cutting of the crap, which is pleasing. 9 weeks, 2 days and counting, although this is a double birthday week in the FromScotland household. Darling daughter is 16 on Tuesday, and the Wolverine hits double digits on Wednesday. Must play nicely around cake...

Picked up my new old car tonight. I'm happy with it. Cheque came in from the insurer as well, so I'll be waiting outside my bank tomorrow morning. Seriously, we're still using cheques in 2017? You can take money from me instantly, but I need to wait 5 days? That's some stone age bullsheeeeeet right there. No gym tonight, for obvious (lack of time) reasons, but I'll go hard tomorrow and Friday.

Had an absolute sweatbox of a workout tonight, followed by a plate of SWFS's outstanding Mac and cheese. Good times!

That map is clearly utter bollocks. A bridie isn't even a bread product, it's a cousin of the Cornish pasty.

That sounds like something we should be shouting at Queen Def, and then immediately regretting it.

Bravo. Post of the day.

Something something muffin tops.

In other food news, while I remember, I rustled up some beautiful burgers yesterday. I had some leftover steak mince, tossed in some South African red salt mix, birds eye chili flakes and black pepper, shaped into patties (of sorts) and grilled. Melted over some Danish blue cheese and served on oven bottom muffins. Oh, Lordy, t'was fine.

I don't think Buff has ever cleansed anything. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Don't panic, I've not gone AWOL again, just continuing to deal with matters of import. My car was officially written off by my insurer, so I've been organising alternative transport, dealing with finances and new car shopping. They're settling on a very reasonable amount, so I've been able to get a pretty decent little replacement - a very low mileage Kia Picanto, which I'll hopefully be picking up on Wednesday. Pleasing. I'll be weighing in next Saturday morning, most likely, so this week will be focused on working as hard as I can and eating as sensibly as possible. I've now passed the 8 week mark for the decrappening.

Yep, all is well. Still no word from my insurers about whether my car is being written off, but I'm not stressing about it. It's nothing I can change. One thing I have learned from driving about in a nice courtesy car for a week, though: a huge percentage of presenters on DAB radio stations are Partridgesque in the extreme. I keep catching myself saying "AH HAAAAH!" I also realise that last sentence will probably mean nothing to anyone but Def. This is Day 53 of the purge. Gym sessions are scheduled for the next four days. Good times.

Popcorning along, since I need to stick to my own routine until I'm back in the groove.

Made it back to work today. Spoke to my insurance company, and I'm getting the vibe that my car is going to be written off. I'm hoping and praying that's not the case. I love my car, it's the most reliable one I've ever had. Lots of family ferrying around, so no gym tonight. Definitely tomorrow. Something odd. I've never really been a cereal fan, but I'm developing a real taste for muesli. SWFS was attempting to follow the Daniel Plan (or some variety of it), but couldn't quite take to it. She bought a box of the blue Alpen and managed half a bowl. I finished the rest of the box. Trying the Jordan's one next.

Just have to say this, Ens, I LOVE reading your posts. They're always very deep, reflective, honest and interesting. You inspire the hell out of me.

Getting psyched up for the challenge watching Rocky III and IV back to back with the Wolverine (who recently took up boxing himself.) Slurred speech, musical montages, and homoeroticism in short shorts. And we're watching movies, too.

I'll be round in five minutes to dip my vegetables in it.

Official Perkele!

A Little History, Baby. (taken from my Respawn thread) A select few of you may remember me. I came, I did some challenges, I dropped some weight, and then life started life-ing me and I disappeared. In early 2015, I weighed 255 lbs. I joined a gym, started eating better, found NF, and in around 18 months, I'd just about scraped under 200 lbs, got myself a nice suit, and life was going... better. But interest started to flag, and a combination of work-related stress, family dramas, injuries, illness and dark depression took hold, and I went under the ice for a while. It started with some niggling aches and pains, which, after an extended period of doctor and hospital visits, were diagnosed as calcific tendonitis in the rotator cuff, and bone spurs in the neck. As I attempted to get those under control, my wife lost her mother, and my own mother's dementia gradually progressed. She suffered a series of falls and spent a large chunk of the early part of this year in and out of hospital for weeks at a time. We're getting some support with her care now, which is helping greatly, but the dementia is only going to worsen as time passes. With all of this in the background, I completely neglected my own well-being, quit exercising, ate like crap, didn't look after myself mentally, and spiraled into a dark place. I could feel my health worsening as my weight increased, to the point where everything was becoming uncomfortable, and I felt constantly sick, tired, and sore. At the end of July, I made the decision to rejoin the gym and go completely cold turkey from my arch nemeses, chocolate, cakes and fizzy/energy drinks. On my first visit back to the gym on August 1st, I weighed myself. 257 lbs. Back to square one, literally. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $100. I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) So, since then? I weighed in for the first time at the end of August - the plan is to weigh in at the start of each month and go from there - and I'd dropped the first 9 lbs. Tomorrow (Friday 15/9) will be 7 weeks since I started the vice purge. In that time, I've had no chocolate whatsoever, and one custard/fruit tart and a mouthful of cloudy lemonade a couple of days ago, when, in my defence, I was high as a kite on painkillers after being rear-ended on Monday. I haven't been to the gym this week yet (see previous sentence), but I'm on the road to recovery and planning to go back for a gentle session either tomorrow or Saturday. Where Do We Go Now, But Nowhere? Here's where. Weight - Right now, the primary target is getting back to One-derland (that's sub-200 for the uninitiated.) I'm only going to step on the scales on the 1st of each month, or thereabouts. The initial weigh-in I did was on the electronic scales at the gym, so I'll stick with that too. Food and Drink - Stick to the plan of no cakes, chocolate or fizzy drinks of any kind, possibly allowing for a slight relaxation of the rule between Christmas and New Year. Other than that, I'm not ruling any foods out. Drinks will be limited to water, coffee (no more than 1 a day, 2 at the weekend), and red wine or single malt whisky (which I'm growing increasingly fond of) at the weekend. No more eating late (i.e. anything after 8pm) as it triggers horrendous trapped wind episodes for me. I've had three in the past month, and the pain is like nothing I've ever experienced. Working out - the goal remains 3 a week for now, just building it up gradually. The current workout is as follows: Cross Trainer: I'm incrementally building it up by going up 1 level and 1 minute each progression. Started at one run of 5 minutes at level 5, and last visit had me doing one run of 11 at 11. Once I start getting comfortable at a level, I'll step it up. The end goal will probably be 15x15 twice in one workout, to start and finish. Treadmill: Fast walk, 6km/hr for 15 minutes. I might change this up as I go. Rowing: When time permits for now, do 1000 metres. I'm currently between 5-6 minutes. I'm going to aim to get closer to 4 minutes, just to see if I can. Physio: Always finish off with the exercises the physio has given me for my neck and shoulder. I've been discharged from physio now, I just need to keep on top of the mobility and make sure it doesn't recur. I Had a Dream, Joe Things in the works - besides the fact I want to get my ass back into reasonable shape by at least Christmas, I've got a couple of events in the calendar as motivation. At the end of January, I'm taking SWFS (SomeWifeFromScotland to any new followers) to see Miss Saigon for her birthday. It would be nice if I could get back into my suit by then. If not, I would at least like to not look like a complete schlub. Two weeks after that, I'll be going to hear Henry Rollins, one of my absolute heroes, speak in Glasgow. If it's at all possible, I'd like to get a chance to shake his hand and tell him what an inspiration he's been to me for the best part of 30 years. Finally, we'd made it our mission to go on a family holiday next summer, having not been abroad since 2012, and next June will be our 20th wedding anniversary, so we're off to Kusadasi in Turkey at the end of June. Need to be rocking that bikini bod. Papa Won't Leave You, Henry, So There Ain't No Need to Cry Finally, I've been in a better place of late. I need to make sure that continues. So, some non-food and fitness type goals to help me keep my head above the water as winter approaches. Don't Isolate! Stay connected to my NF family (Doodlies Assemble! Perkele!) Stick with my daily Bible recommended reading plan (read the entire Bible in 365 days, still on target) Make more time to paint and create That'll do, Donkey. Shall we?

We're very different people, Deffy. Wait, that was a euphemism, right? Following.