Not the first day I had imagined...

Tuesday the 3rd January. My first day back at work after the festive period, and the first day of the attempt to lose the holiday pounds.

Of which there were quite a few.

We'll get back to me later, I'm sure, but in the manner of a Tarantino storyboard, let's just start off here:

Out of bed, 6.40 am; bathroom; empty bladder, first weigh in.

Weight₀ if you will.

12 stone, 2 pounds, 8 ounces.

Compared to where I was in the middle of August (I was distracted so my memory is a bit hazy: can't be more specific), about 8 pounds up; and not quite with the laterals on which one could grate a mature applewood-smoked cheddar on as was the case last summer either.

Game on.

Here's one quick thing though - let's establish a bit of a context -  I have two kids I need to get to school and nursery in the morning, I'm mostly desk-bound, not a member of a gym, don't really get a chance for a lunch break, and usually get home between 7, quarter past or so, ready for a couple of loads of dishes, put the kids to bed, and possibly squeeze in an episode of Star Trek Voyager if my eyes haven't started stinging yet.

Oh, and I begrudge spending a lot of money on food that is fundamentally empty bags of sugar that I don't enjoy; i.e.: fruit.

However, I was an assistant professor of biology (it wasn't my major, but I can still remember a bit of my nutritional biochemistry), I can still read a scientific paper, I'm reasonably confident in the human body's ability to operate relatively happily within a wide range of parameters (it seems to do well enough, right?), I'm fed up of lots of people on the internet calling themselves 'nutritionists' and talking a lot of nonsense, and I'm a firm believer in the first law of thermodynamics.

On these fundamentals, the pragmatic diet was born.

Day 1

Breakfast 6.45 am - 8.00 am
Four mugs instant coffee with milk (ca. 100 kcal.)
One multivitamin

Lunch 11.15 am
Five jam doughnuts (1150 kcal.)

Snack 2.45 pm
Chicken and bacon sandwich (ca. 400 kcal,)

And that's where it started to go wrong, as a last -minute work meeting was scheduled that was due to last into the evening. The best laid plans an' all...

Dinner 7.30 pm
Bacon and blue cheese burger and 2 pints of dark lager (lots kcal.)
Oh, and some onion rings.

Exercise summary
Three x sets 25 press ups in the morning (one set elevated feet, one set wide arm, one set regular)
Approx 25m brisk walking

Summary
Not sure really, maybe a bit over 3000 calories? Still, there's always tomorrow...