Walky talky.

Nerdy Girl finally replied to my message from last week. We swapped a few messages and we're going to meet on Thursday for a walk. It's been ages since we last met - maybe the start of June? So it'll be nice to catch up. The weather's gotten a bit cooler, so it'll be easier to do a walk of a few miles compared to last week.

Weather or not.

Despite feeling overwhelmed with adulting stuff, I was returning from some family stuff earlier and part of that was getting the bus home. I have a choice on the bus journey, I can get off close to where I think Chloe lives (where she told me she lived) or I can get off the bus close to my office.

If I took the latter option, I'd be roughly just under 2 miles from my house and there's a bus that would drop me pretty much outside my front door. If I got off near Chloe, it's roughly two and a half miles home.

However, due to the weather, I decided on the former. I had my earphone with me, I put on a Spotify playlist and walked home. The bright sunshine and scorching temperatures, even with the exercise, really put me in a better mood.

We have one more day of really great weather left (according to the current weather forecast) before it turns cooler and less sunny. It would have been great had it lasted into the weekend. If I hadn't been on a training course this week, I'd have definitely taken a last-minute day off.

It's raining, meh.

I'm toying with the idea of going to the local shopping centre. I don't have anything to buy. Actually, that's not strictly true. I don't need anything, but there are a few items that i could pick up, and I would pick up if I were out and about. Whether that justifies me going shopping is another matter.

But it's more a case of me going out to get outside and stretch my legs. I've not really gotten into the exercise plan for my back that I put together a few weeks ago. I have made a point about being a little more active in general, but I do need to target this back issue.

However, the weather's rubbish. If it were nice, I'd walk there. It's just over a mile away, maybe about 20 mins walk. But with the rain, it's a bus journey.

I need a shower anyway, so I'll decide after I get showered and changed. The shops don't open until 1 PM. The weather is sucking my enthusiasm though.

Good and bad.

I went out for a walk with Nerdy Girl last evening. It was a slightly extended walk - about 4.5 miles, instead of the usual 3-ish, partly due to the weather, partly due to me wanting to push the limits a little with building up the strength in my back and leg muscles (which is a contributing factor in my ongoing back pain). 

She was great company as usual, we adjourned to a juice bar afterward and talked for an hour or so. But I am feeling it this morning, and not in that good "exercise pain" way, but in a "my back is killing me" way.

Counting up.

Four people put their name forward for the steps challenge that I mentioned before. I decided that I'd bow out and leave the other three to it. I don't think that suddenly upping my steps from 3.8K to 11.1K per day is just something that I can do within a few days, and maintain that over a month.

So, I'll spend it trying to increase my step count instead. baby steps. No pun intended.

One step at a time.

One of the guys in the office has suggested we do a "1 million steps" challenge. Essentially it's a challenge where a team of three attempts to do 1 million steps in a month. That's 333,333 steps per person, or 11,111 steps a day, at least. 

Bear in mind that my current average for last year is 3837 steps, then that means I need to do 3 times the number of steps that I'm currently doing.

I've said that I'll take part if we can get a full team. The goal is tough enough with having to increase it by 50% if there's only two of us.

Back to basics.

I had thought that the favour I was doing for KfW2 this week would get me on my feet more, and it has! I had hoped that being on my feet more (I'm walking about two miles a day more than average) would do something positive for the ongoing back issue that I've been having for months now.

I had assumed that the back issues were due to my sedentary lifestyle and some actual movement and exercise would help it.

But it's been a week now and I don't think my back has shown any kind of improvement. 

Year in Review

I've had more than a few drinks, so I'll try and keep this brief because typing is a real problem at the moment. Teehee. 

But, a quick recap from last year's NYE post: I had said that I wanted/needed to lose some weight and get some house stuff done. And I've actually accomplished that to a certain extent. 

The weight loss has been mostly diet-based, so next year I want to increase my activity levels. 

I want to get more house stuff done and I want to be more social.

And while it wasn't called out specifically in last year's post, being more social was something I wanted to do, and I did that a bit by going to more gigs. I used to go to gigs quite regularly but Covid ruined that, like the rest of my social life and like my social life, it hasn't recovered since we came out of the second lockdown as evidenced by this holiday's lack of any quality communication with KfW2 or The Crowd.

Despite the recent loneliness, I think 2025 has been quite productive, so I'm low-key optimistic about 2026.

Happy New Year, dear reader. I hope 2026 is a great prosperous year for you and your families. 

Nail on the head.

One of the topics covered by Nerdy Girl and myself last night as we did a slightly-longer than usual walk was what we're currently watching on television. I mentioned Supergirl. I know that Nerdy Girl has watched those DC TV programmes in the past.

"It's rubbish but attractive women in short skirts and boots keeps me interested."

"I thought you'd be more into the sister character?"

I was surprised. She hit the nail on the head, though I don't ever recall having a chat with NG about my taste in women.

Let's do it.

I promised Nerdy Girl when we next did a walk that we'd try our old, longer route. It's been ages since we did it, so I'm looking forward to it. I'll be honest though, I liked doing the shorter route and sitting in CB Pub for an hour afterwards with a soft drink or non-alcoholic beer and chatting.

But I also want to see how well my foot has healed. It's two months since I got a clean bill of health and it's been pain-free for longer than that. So, yeah, let's do it.

Next time.

I cancelled my walk with Nerdy Girl on Tuesday as I was feeling unwell. I had been feeling really queasy all day long. But we rescheduled for today. The weather was fantastic, so we did our walk and ended up, predictably, at CB Pub for a bite to eat and a drink. The pub was rammed.

I think the next time, we can definitely make an attempt at our original long-distance route.

Tick.

I've been productive over the past few days, chalking off some tasks, hitting some personal goals and I'm feeling quite chuffed with myself.

My sleep continues to be awful.

But I'm due to meet with Nerdy Girl tonight for a walk. I'm looking forward to it because I've not seen her in weeks and the weather's great. While my foot injury is healed and I should make an attempt at our longer route, I'm more tempted by the shorter route and finishing at CB Pub for a drink and chat.

I can offset that by walking to and from CB Pub, just over a mile in each direction. 

Yeah. I'll do that. 

Hurray!

I've just been for my follow-up appointment about the long-term foot injury I have been complaining about and it appears that it's fully healed.

I think the consultant was surprised. I think I was surprised, even though I knew that I am pretty much pain-free, but I was still expecting some residual pain... you know, like being 90% of the way there, but not completely.

So, I'm pretty chuffed. I also got some exercise in, too. A 3 mile walk, no less. With the weather being great, I should get in touch with Nerdy Girl and attempt our 6-mile route next week and really test out the foot.

Zzzz.

This sleep thing is still an issue. As reported before, getting to sleep isn't an issue, but waking at 530 AM and struggling to get back to sleep is an issue.

However, the new mattress does appear to be paying dividends. My back is noticeably less sore than before. I still need to be more active, and that's proving more difficult to motivate myself into. I'd like to both get out of the house more and get back into the yoga. I don't know if that would help the sleep issue, but it's something I should be doing regardless.

Walky, talky.

With the weather being great, I've already arranged to meet Nerdy Girl for another walk. Just waiting on confirmation of when, but it'll probably be tomorrow evening.

And I really should call KfW2. We've not spoken in a few weeks.

Pondering out loud.

Actually... it's bright but cool here. Maybe we could do the coastal route for our walk tomorrow? If the weather stays like this, I think I'll suggest that to her. Otherwise, we'll probably do a lap and end up having a drink at CB pub.

Sun's out...

The weather over the next was supposed to be rubbish, but a quick glance at my phone weather app and it's now changed... and what a change! Great weather for the next week and a bit. That's going to make going for a lunchtime walk a lot easier to motivate myself into. And I'll also get some gardening done, which I've wanted to do for a few weeks plus it gets me off my arse and away from the telly/PC.

Let's gooooo!

I spent this morning walking around a retail park trying to find a new mattress. I was successful, but good mattress are expensive! I'm looking forward to hopefully better quality sleep. The only downside is waiting four weeks for it to be delivered.

Another positive to take away from this morning is that I walked over four miles with no foot issues. This means that, if it continues like this, I can think about doing a walk at lunchtime. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, but the foot was an issue. A couple of weeks of that, and I'll move on to something else: more walking, return to my yoga or something else.

And I should also ponder returning to our original route the next time I'm out with Nerdy Girl. It's six miles. Maybe that's for a few weeks' time though.

One step at a time.

I met with Nerdy Girl and we did our shorter route, starting and ending at CB Pub, and then we adjourned to a local pizza restaurant for food.

It was good because the advice that the consultant gave me last week seems to already be paying dividends. Usually by the end of the short walk (roughly 3 miles), I'd start to feel pain in the foot, but not last night. The pain is still there, but the stretching, insoles and splints do seem to be working. There's less pain in the mornings, for example, even though I'm not wearing the splint all night.

I did manage to fall asleep while wearing it last night, which is a first, but I woke a few hours later and couldn't get back to sleep.

And the chat with Nerdy Girl was as good as it usually is.

I've also spent the past week or so trying to manage my portion sizes with my food (reasonably successfully), so going for pizza was the first time I've had a "big" meal in probably two weeks. I've not weighed myself yet, but seeing as the injury treatment seems to be progressing, maybe I should progress my weight loss efforts, too?

Bloody hell.

The last time I weighted myself was, I dunno, maybe early in the pandemic. If memory serves, then I was roughly 2.5 stone heavier than I'd like to be. And that's heavier than I perhaps should be.

Today, for the first time in years, I stepped onto my new scales. i bought them in Black Friday sales, with the plan originally to step on them at the start of January and see what my goals were going to be for this year.

Various illnesses and other life stuff has meant that I didn't get around to doing that until today... just now. And I am officially the heaviest I've ever been. I'm about 3 stone heavier than I'd like, but I'm a little surprised I'm not heavier given that I've been eating crap and pretty sedentary for the past year.

Next week, I got to finally have my foot looked after. I have to go private because I cannot get through to my GP, and I am lucky enough to have health insurance with my employer.

All the things I've done before are my plans for weight loss - exercise in the form of walking, cycling and yoga. I'll have to start calorie counting again, too, which I dislike a lot but is a necessary evil.

Let's see what I can do in the next three and a half months, and what the numbers are like at the end of June.