TLDR: I’ve been getting healthier this year. It’s gone well, and I’m pleased… so pleased that I feel the need to look back at what I’ve done.
Last year, we started a house extension project.
This was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done, by a long way. Moving house, getting married, having a baby… even combined, none of those came close to how hard this was.
It felt like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. There was surprise after surprise, and disaster after disaster. What we thought would be safe was damaged or destroyed. New problems kept emerging. The money we’d put aside to pay for it was all spent, and then what was left of our savings… and the increasing costs kept coming.
I didn’t handle it well.
I got depressed. Stressed. Comfort eating and junk food became my go-to coping mechanism. From June 2023 (when the builders first started removing the tiles from our roof) to February 2024 (when the builders left us), I put on about 25kg.
I couldn’t sleep. I became snappy and short-tempered. Angry all the time. I could often hear my blood flowing in my ears. I had a constant knot in my stomach.
With a lot of help from family and friends, the house is now almost done. But by March this year, it was obvious that I needed a reset to fix myself as well as the house!
I started working on myself more.
Losing weight is the most obvious outcome:
- start of April : 96kg
- today – end of November : under 72kg
I reduced my weight by 25% in eight months.
Apple Health – my weight displayed as weekly weight averages (kg)
Happy Scale – my weight displayed as a smoothed trend line (kg)
But it’s not just about losing weight. I’m more active every day. I’ve been steadily increasing how much I walk throughout the year.
- start of the year : average ~2000 steps a day
- last few months : average over 11,000 steps a day
Apple Health – my steps displayed as daily averages
And from walking more, I got back into running. For the first time in over a decade, I’m running a few times a week again.
- July : a mile or two – at 13 min/mile pace
- now : 6-mile runs, at close to 10 min/mile pace
The more important outcomes are harder to quantify or graph though.
I’m less stressed. I can relax again. I sleep better. My back doesn’t hurt. I’m not out of breath when I go up a couple of flights of stairs. I don’t hear my blood flow in my ears any more.
It’s been a difficult thing to stick to this year. Reversing what I did to myself last year was so much harder than doing it in the first place!
But this feels like an achievement – and I’m really pleased with where I’ve got back to.