#chickendippers

Dear Father, it's been two months since my last confession. No hail marys, no bloody marys and not a lot of weight loss either.

Reading through the last post and the first news is I weigh the exact same. 17 stone. Which comes with mixed news.

February had promised so much. 40 kilometres run, completed a charity swim with Catrin and joined a gym nearby. Running continued, racking up 31 kilometres before the end of the month, then on the very last day, trying to catch up from a lazy Easter weekend I went out for a longish run.

Everything was going well until I got to the 4.5k mark. Pain....knee pain...nah just in my head.

Nope, pain, yup, the same pain I got last year, the pain that kept me from running for 4 months. Shite. I stopped, walked...limped home. Fuck.

Back to the gym I went. The weights work has been going well. Two months in and I can see changes in my shape. Arms, shoulders and back have definition.  I would show you, but no one wants to see pictures of me in my pants. They do not belong on the internet.

I was working on the elliptical, the bike and then went back to the treadmill. Back to basics, 3 mins running, 2 mins walking. Doing 3km in 20 minutes, even 5km in 31:45 0- that's with 12 minutes walking. Really shifting myself in the running parts, testing my knee. It felt fine. Hopefully, with my body becoming stronger it would make a difference.

On a gym session with Matt Allen I managed to do 6 reps on the leg press at 176KG - that was after 36 reps from 100-130KG. Legs were hench haha.

Then, Paris. Visiting the city for the Coupe de la Ligue final. Arriving late Friday, game Saturday night, leaving Sunday. Short but sweet. In a way to see the city I decided to take my running gear and get out on Saturday morning. Plan was to do around 6km and finish under the Eiffel Tower from my hotel out near the Boulevard Peripherique to the north of the city. I took a wrong turn, didn't got past the Arc d'Triomphe, but did run along the Seine. Amazing way to see such a beautiful place.

About 7 kilometres in, and just about to cross the last bridge before finishing my knee began to throb. I made it, but it was definitely time to stop.

For the rest of the day I was in quite a lot of pain. Going downstairs was not fun. A trip to the Pharmacy got me much needed ibuprofen, then beer at the football took all the pain away.

Back in the UK, running was off the menu again. Paris was the 23rd of April, so on Thursday the 5th, I thought I'd try again. I may have tried to do too much though.

I worked out how fast I would have to run to finish a 5k under 30 minutes while still running for 3 minutes, walking for 2. Running would have to be at 13km/h - my normal walking pace is 6km/h.

I'm a bit of a geek, so I did the maths. 12 minutes at 6km/h equals 1.2km. So 3.8km to run.

13km/h / 60 minutes X 18 minutes = 3.9km. Bang. Sub 30 min 5k with walking.

Go hard or go home. 2 mins walking to start, then 3 minutes at 15km/h - let's get ahead of this thing. Next 2 mins, then 3 at 12km/h, average is still 13.5km/h. Then 3 minutes at 14km/h - hoping that the last part would easier. Then during the 4th running section...pain...fuck. Yeah...knee pain. 20 mins in and I'd done 3.4km - average pace 5:53 per/km. I hobbled down the hill afterwards. Knee didn't hurt the next day and it hasn't hurt since.

From reading/researching etc, I suffer from IT band issues on my left side. Pain on the outside of the knee. I've been doing stretches and stuff, trying to strengthen it...but  I am sadly coming to the realisation that I've never going to be a "runner" again. Prospect of 5ks, 10ks and further seem out of the questions.

I've been inspired by Dan and Jeremy, running marathons through adversity, getting it done. Something that I really want to do at some point, but if I can't run 7k without my knee giving in, 26.2 miles seems out of the question.

It pains me more than the knee itself. I love having something to push myself for. The self-satisfaction, the self-achievement the ability to push further, faster. I always loved team sports as a kid, but this solo stuff really suits me. You are only running against yourself and a clock.

I need to find something else. Swimming is good, but more cause I'm awful at it. Which is better from a fitness POV, but it's not the same, it's got that treadmill element to it as you are not going anywhere.

Right now I'm leading towards those assault courses tests - Tough Mudder and the like, but no idea where to start. You still have to run, but it's all broken up and not just running.

From a diet POV, I've been struggling. Not quite with our plan and what we've been eating, but just finding a balance.

Health wise, it's all going well. Latest diabetic blood tests all came back lower than what they were. Definite progress, which should be the main positive.

However, when it comes to losing weight, there is always something getting in the way, or just trying to live life, have fun. Need to step it up again- which started on Sunday.

I've been using MyFitnessPal, which is a great way to track calories and see what you are eating. Original plan was 2000 calories a day, and I think when it's going 100% to plan, that works. Then while lying in bed on Sunday I had a bit of a lightbulb moment.

We got to Greece on holiday in eight weeks. If I wanted to lose a stone before then, I'd need to lose around 2 pounds a week. I entered that into the app, then it asks how active you are. I had always put "Lightly Active" with the running etc, I thought it made sense. Then I looked at "Not Very Active" and it says "Spend most of the day sitting (e.g bank teller, desk job" yeah, shit...that's me. Lazy fuck.

When I picked that option it said to lose 2 pounds a week I need to keep to 1550 calories a day - which isn't a lot, yet it means if I want to eat more, I need to shift my moobs more. It totally makes sense.

- well done to Catrin btw. 20 pounds lost since we start. So so proud!

Today I've done 30 minutes cardio at the gym and burnt loads more calories. I've eaten 1966 calories of food, but still finished under for the day. That's the way it should be and my new mission this month.

Not expecting results straight away. Came down with a shitty cold Thursday-Saturday and had a some medicinal snacks that would not be found on any diet plan, plus 21 Birdseye Chicken Dippers for dinner on Thursday...no idea why the weight isn't dropping off.