Posting this week has been patchy as I've been rushed off my feet.
Obviously I've already mentioned that I came in last Sunday, and a big part of what I've been doing this week has been as a result of that. The thing I finished I've then proceeded to roll-out to the rest of the staff.
Now ideally I would have done that at a single session, but that was just not practical, so I've done two sessions already and I've probably got two more pending. It's all been quite tiring, particularly since I've also had the "day job" to do as well.
As a result, I'm shattered - thank God the clocks go back this weekend and I can get an extra hours kip!
It's the Indian Grand Prix this weekend.
It's only the second year, but I don't particularly remember it being a good race last year. There was overtaking, but I seem to recall it was basically all as a result of the DRS.
I'll also hopefully do a bit of general TV watching, as last weekend's "bonus work" didn't help clear it down any.
Friday, 26 October 2012
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
eating tweak
So I've tweaked how and what I eat in an attempt to get the diet going again.
The tweak, essentially, is that I have cereal for lunch. Now we're talking "proper" cereal here - not coco puffs or corn flakes or something, but high-fibre healthy jobs.
There were two real factors in the decision.
The first was that I noticed cereal contains very few calories. There's that old gag that the cardboard box has more calories in it that the contents, but generally speaking high-fibre cereals are pretty low in calories. Recommended portion sizes vary but they generally only come in at 200 calories. Now obviously what they say is a portion and what most people eat are a bit different, but even if you double the amount we're still only talking 400 calories.
If you team it with skimmed milk as well then that helps too (some portions on the box include the calories for semi-skimmed milk). So the bowl I have is generally a very big bowl, but I reckon even worse case we're talking 500 calories max (I tend to like to mix several cereals together).
That compares to around 1,000 calories for the sandwich-based meal I used to have (and still do some days, to be fair). Now the idea of the sandwich-based meal was that this was the single big meal of the day. That worked in the first diet phase, but just recently I've really struggled to limit my dinner to a small meal.
With the cereal lunch I can eat a reasonable dinner without it being a problem - and if I only have a small dinner then that helps even more.
The second factor is that I noticed I was doing okay in terms of hunger with just my bowl of cereal for breakfast. I therefore thought that maybe if I had cereal at lunch then I wouldn't get hungry, and it turns out it works.
I mean, I've had a few days where I was peckish, but I haven't ended up starving hungry. Of course I didn't with sandwiches ever, but then that's what makes the evening eating annoying - I'm not hungry, as such, but I eat anyway.
But then that's always been one of my main problems - always eating, even when I'm not hungry. Eating is just something I do - and if I'm not eating then I'm probably thinking about what I'm going to have for my next meal.
Anyway, initial results have been okay - 1 pound lost in the first week and 3 pounds this last week. I guess moment of truth will be this weekend as I think 3 weeks losing in a row is a good sign it's working.
The tweak, essentially, is that I have cereal for lunch. Now we're talking "proper" cereal here - not coco puffs or corn flakes or something, but high-fibre healthy jobs.
There were two real factors in the decision.
The first was that I noticed cereal contains very few calories. There's that old gag that the cardboard box has more calories in it that the contents, but generally speaking high-fibre cereals are pretty low in calories. Recommended portion sizes vary but they generally only come in at 200 calories. Now obviously what they say is a portion and what most people eat are a bit different, but even if you double the amount we're still only talking 400 calories.
If you team it with skimmed milk as well then that helps too (some portions on the box include the calories for semi-skimmed milk). So the bowl I have is generally a very big bowl, but I reckon even worse case we're talking 500 calories max (I tend to like to mix several cereals together).
That compares to around 1,000 calories for the sandwich-based meal I used to have (and still do some days, to be fair). Now the idea of the sandwich-based meal was that this was the single big meal of the day. That worked in the first diet phase, but just recently I've really struggled to limit my dinner to a small meal.
With the cereal lunch I can eat a reasonable dinner without it being a problem - and if I only have a small dinner then that helps even more.
The second factor is that I noticed I was doing okay in terms of hunger with just my bowl of cereal for breakfast. I therefore thought that maybe if I had cereal at lunch then I wouldn't get hungry, and it turns out it works.
I mean, I've had a few days where I was peckish, but I haven't ended up starving hungry. Of course I didn't with sandwiches ever, but then that's what makes the evening eating annoying - I'm not hungry, as such, but I eat anyway.
But then that's always been one of my main problems - always eating, even when I'm not hungry. Eating is just something I do - and if I'm not eating then I'm probably thinking about what I'm going to have for my next meal.
Anyway, initial results have been okay - 1 pound lost in the first week and 3 pounds this last week. I guess moment of truth will be this weekend as I think 3 weeks losing in a row is a good sign it's working.
Monday, 22 October 2012
a sunday of fun
So things haven't really been going quite as planned at work.
The main problem has been this issue that I was meant to be taking some time to develop a bunch of tools and processes for me/us to use. However, in order to do that I needed totally clear decks. And I never got totally clear decks.
Really I reckon if I had been able to clear the decks I could have gotten it done in about a week, but instead it's been months of me doing tiny bits and then having to work on something else. It also hasn't helped that I keep being hit by bombshells, which is to say people keep throwing things at me that change the whole point of what I'm doing.
A very good example is we're meant to be getting a new contact manager. That's fair enough - it's long overdue - but the idea, apparently, is to use it to do a lot of stuff automatically. And much of that overlaps with what I'm supposed to be developing.
However, even though I was told we were getting it, many weeks have gone by and they're only just starting work on it. And it'll be months before its' ready.
So what am I meat to do in the meantime?
And this keeps happening.
My decision each time is to re-do what I've already done so it's a bit more flexible and then basically just plough on - I need this stuff to get done, and as soon as possible. If it changes later, then it changes. For now it needs finishing.
And it was with that thought in mind that I came in this Sunday and finished off some really big chunks of it. Indeed it's almost ready to "launch", although I have just discovered I've deleted something I shouldn't have, but I can recreate that.
Of course it'll be a long way from properly finished in the way I want it to be, but the basics will be in place, and I can crack on with more normal stuff until some of these other changes pan out.
Sunday was actually hugely productive - without the distractions of the normal office (some elements of the office in particular) I got loads done. As I say, not finished, but a lot done.
Of course it doesn't help me address my stack of unwatched TV programmes, though I did come in late today to compensate a bit.
And nobody's paying me for Sundays... remind me again why I'm still working here?
The main problem has been this issue that I was meant to be taking some time to develop a bunch of tools and processes for me/us to use. However, in order to do that I needed totally clear decks. And I never got totally clear decks.
Really I reckon if I had been able to clear the decks I could have gotten it done in about a week, but instead it's been months of me doing tiny bits and then having to work on something else. It also hasn't helped that I keep being hit by bombshells, which is to say people keep throwing things at me that change the whole point of what I'm doing.
A very good example is we're meant to be getting a new contact manager. That's fair enough - it's long overdue - but the idea, apparently, is to use it to do a lot of stuff automatically. And much of that overlaps with what I'm supposed to be developing.
However, even though I was told we were getting it, many weeks have gone by and they're only just starting work on it. And it'll be months before its' ready.
So what am I meat to do in the meantime?
And this keeps happening.
My decision each time is to re-do what I've already done so it's a bit more flexible and then basically just plough on - I need this stuff to get done, and as soon as possible. If it changes later, then it changes. For now it needs finishing.
And it was with that thought in mind that I came in this Sunday and finished off some really big chunks of it. Indeed it's almost ready to "launch", although I have just discovered I've deleted something I shouldn't have, but I can recreate that.
Of course it'll be a long way from properly finished in the way I want it to be, but the basics will be in place, and I can crack on with more normal stuff until some of these other changes pan out.
Sunday was actually hugely productive - without the distractions of the normal office (some elements of the office in particular) I got loads done. As I say, not finished, but a lot done.
Of course it doesn't help me address my stack of unwatched TV programmes, though I did come in late today to compensate a bit.
And nobody's paying me for Sundays... remind me again why I'm still working here?
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