The Modern Day Caveman

After a long and frankly emotional weekend, normal service was resumed with me being back to work.

I’ve always struggled returning to work after any prolonged period of time, and this was true today, despite only taking one extra day off.

It really knocked me out of my rhythm and I felt very unproductive throughout the day. When I feel unproductive and procrastinate, it can really impact my mental health. Thankfully, today I managed to control this and stayed aware of a potential spiral.

Developing tools and techniques over the weeks and months to come is going to be important for maintaining a positive mindset.

My diet definitely took a bit of a nosedive over the weekend, and that ate (pardon the pun!) into today too. Granted there’s still cake and chocolates to be eaten from my birthday, but today was a particularly naughty day, eating a French baguette pizza in the evening, undoing the good work of a deliciously healthy poke bowl earlier!

But diet-wise, I’m not being overly critical in these early stages. I knew there would be a lot of temptation with my birthday and dining out. It’s definitely something I want to improve in the future, but for now, my main focus is on controlling my mental health and exercising daily.

Speaking of which, today’s walk to ‘The Mountain Ahead’ was actually a real struggle. The blisters from my active weekend, combined with some intense shin splints made my walk feel twice as hard as previously.

I was wishfully thinking I could do over 80,000 steps in the past three days and come away scot-free – but unfortunately that was not the case today!

Nevertheless, I made it there and back, in the pouring rain I may add, and it felt good to have done it despite what was, a challenging day.

Metrics

• Steps: 9,919
• Garmin Stress Score: 22
• Mental Health Rating: 6/10
• Remaining Debt: £39,781.83

Food Log

• Breakfast: Weetabix, milk
• Lunch: Pittas, hummus, mini cheddars
• Dinner: Mexican poke bowl (spicy rice, avocado, edamame, black beans, halloumi)
• Snacks: Strawberry jam on toast, birthday cake, French baguette pizza, apple

A tough day, but one that showed me how far I’ve come. Where I might have crumbled before, today I kept moving forward – and that’s progress in itself.