I’ve been trying to eat less meat, and to exercise some more.

Not eating meat

Not eating meat has been easier than I had thought, and I’ve now reached four weeks without meat, not feeling at any point like I am going without.

As well as being meat-free, I’m also being careful with calories and portion size, as part of trying to eat a healthier diet. So when I walked through the local market and some delicious vegetarian samosas, I passed them by, even though they smelled amazing…

I’ve particularly enjoyed a paneer (cheese) korma, a lentil and pesto dish, and - for a bit of a treat - BBQ tofu wraps.

I never thought I’d say these words, but I want to experiment some more with tofu. I’m going to try some curried tofu mince this week.

The food has been tasty, simple to prepare, and easy enough to cook in small batches to give multiple meals through the week.

This week, as well as the tofu mince curry, I’m looking forward to falafel with roasted vegetables (air fryer, probably), and a chickpea and pistachio dish.

One of the things on my list is to try homemade “soylent green”. I’m curious, but I’m not sure when I’ll get round to it.

Increasing my exercise

I’ve also carried out with increasing my exercise, using a cross trainer and a boxing bag-on-a-stick thing.

“Couch to 5K” was a bit of a waste of time, in the sense that, at the end of the first week, I was comfortably doing 5K on the cross trainer. I suspect that doing it on the cross trainer, rather than outside, makes it easier, even with increased difficulty settings, although it is still more than I was doing before.

Now, I’m focussing on going faster (i.e. decreasing my time) and I’m close to - but not quite at - 5K in 20 minutes.

I’ll probably try to do an extra 10 minutes at weekends, or when I’ve got some more time available, to focus less on 5K and more on doing as much as I can in 30 minutes.

I’m doing boxing as cardio, and a bit more upper body exercise, rather than because I want to become good at boxing. I can already see a difference, which is a nice motivator.

I should get back to my using-my-own-body-weight resistance exercises at some point, but first I need to clear some more space in the garage…