Personal Bests & Reflections
Training Milestones
- The Potato Heist (Weighted Vest Run): Who knew you could carry what felt like 4 bags of 2.5 kg potatoes (actually a 10 lb weighted vest) from the supermarket, run 8.5 miles with it, and follow it up the very next day with another 7.5 miles?
- The Consistency Streak: I have now completed 56 consecutive days of workouts. Having started running with the 10 lb weighted vest back on July 26 (8.5 weeks ago), I am now approaching 82 days of total consistent training.
- Cross-Training: Sunday involved a spin session, and today pushed through 1 hour on the stairmaster.
The OMAD Journey
- The Fasting Milestone: Transitioning from a background of 4 meals a day to migrating through 4 meals in 4 days and a 24-hour fast, I’ve fully embraced the OMAD (One Meal A Day) diet. On Thursday, I was so hesitant I didn’t even write it down—and tomorrow I approach my 6th day, marking another major personal best.
- Sacred Meals: Meal times are now genuinely looked forward to and treated as sacred.
- The “Mental High”: On two occasions, breaking my fast with cranberry cheese, full-cream milk, nuts, and raisins has provided nothing short of a mental high. The downside? It induces sleep almost as quickly as an anesthetic injection in an operating theatre.
What I Learned From OMAD
- Mental Clarity: Brain fog has completely vanished. I’ve been stringent and adapted to it, though the first couple of days were definitely the hardest. Now, I simply look forward to my single morning drink of mushroom coffee, ghee, and coconut oil.
- Body Cues: Out of the 5 days so far, today was the first time I experienced mild stomach rumbles, purely due to waking up early at 5:00 AM.
- Normalization: I’ve looked into the reasons behind the physiological responses, and should you be on OMAD yourself, these experiences are entirely normal.
What Tipped the Scale
Without a doubt, a video I watched played a massive part in my decision. It featured a creator we follow who underwent surgery for excess skin removal after successfully losing weight.
As someone who endured repeated surgeries on a leg injury when I was younger, my immediate reaction wasn’t just a collective sense of achievement—it was an empathetic remembrance of the physical pain. But I could also see that after falling from over 30 stone, many people face a long road of ongoing challenges. Years down the line, others may face frustration over rapid weight loss, the inability to afford corrective surgery, or continued physical discomfort.
From that video, two realizations hit me:
- The Food Industry: The food industry has a lot to answer for. I recently downloaded the Yuka app (it’s free—give it a try), and it highlights foods that are carcinogenic. Seeing the low scores on everyday foods I’ve been buying under the assumption that they were “all right” is frankly surreal. (If you’re on your own journey, comment “Change” for a list of 5 things that I consider great.)
- Caloric Reality: I realized that training is fundamentally illogical without aligning caloric intake with energy expenditure. If I wanted to look healthier, it didn’t require inventing some brand-new effort I hadn’t used in 35 years; it simply required a far more stringent, disciplined approach to consumption.
Self-discipline is entirely possible.
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