What I've done

Before going off to Byron Bay, I had a week of holidays in which I don't feel I achieved much. I read quite a bit, including the various management/leadership/productivity blogs I monitor. I did a little bit of exercise (although not as consistently or vigorously as I planned). I even did a little bit of programming work, and sent off interesting tidbits from my reading to my 2IC (who I had earlier promised would get a nice relaxing break from my constant attempts at reinventing how we work :). I also discovered I can eat yeast-free bread (which still contains gluten) with no ill effects, opening up a whole range of gluten-containing foods again, after 18 months without them. Maybe that's enough stuff to have done, and I'm just suffering from lack of focus on what is most important to me to do next?

Anyway, this morning I read 30 Days To Success which reminded me of the common sense approach to establishing better habits, flagging my sporadic 2-5 times a week exercise as being insufficient, and triggering me to set a goal of a walk/jog/ride for at least 30 minutes a day for the next 30 days. Well, I went for a 70 minute walk this morning, so that's taken care of. And when I've established the regular exercise as a habit, with my already pretty reasonable diet, I expect to achieve the weight loss I need as a side-effect. I love accumulating numbers so much that this is definitely the way for me to go. Anyone who's ever heard me recount how many days I've gone without caffeine knows I'm a fan of this kind of record breaking. Since I can't return to weights training till my right elbow recovers from its latest (football throwing) injury, this target helps me avoid slipping back into too sedentary a life, after a reasonably active Byron holiday.