Twelve Months of Healthy Living — The Triumphs and The Disasters
A round-up of the highs and lows in a year of living healthily
At the start of 2019 I decided that it was going to be the year in which I finally took a consistent approach to diet and exercise. Over much of my adult life my efforts towards these had varied radically. At the dawning of 2019 I felt it was time to take myself in hand for the long term.
I was largely driven by a growing sense of mortality and a realisation that I could no longer rely on youth or genetics to keep my weight and fitness in check. A health scare within my close family also offered a poignant reminder of the responsibility for my own health if I intended to be there for my nearest and dearest for the long term.
I wasn’t starting from absolute scratch — over many of the preceding years I’d usually managed to live healthily for about half the year. What I’d noted though were a few tendencies which tended to de-rail any consistency, including:
- A tendency to either be ‘all-in’ (going to the gym 5 times per week, meticulously following my dietary regime and largely avoiding alcohol) or to allow complete abandon (ditching the gym and eating and drinking what I wanted).
- Seasonal fluctuations in my ability to commit to…
