London lockdown week 6 and passing the peak

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recovers from illness following infection with the coronavirus, returns to work and welcomes the arrival of a baby boy – Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson with his fiancee, Carrie Symonds

Boris returned to work this week.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52513103. If anyone had told me that one day, I would pray for Boris Johnson to beat the virus and recover his health, I would have laughed in their face!  See my blog post of 18 August 2018 https://theyoyochronicles.com/lifestyle/meeting-dwain-chambers/

I am truly happy that Boris Johnson survived his ordeal.  He has since made an impassioned speech encouraging the British public not to break with the lockdown even though we are now past the peak and the number of deaths seem to be on the decline.  Having said that, the total figure of British people who have lost their lives in the pandemic is 28,131 with  621 having died today in the UK according to the BBC.  May their souls rest in perfect peace and their heartbroken families and loved ones be comforted.

When Boris Johnson was in intensive care with his life hanging in the balance, a friend of mine and I contemplated the terrible chaos that would ensue if he did not make it.  We now hope that having now experienced the horror of the virus first hand while contemplating an infant on the way, Boris Johnson will be able to address the crisis with compassion and insight.

Another week of lockdown lows

It has been an up and down week for me in terms of my mood.  Mainly down if I am honest.  I have felt overwhelmed with work and am still struggle with the need to be super productive, without success, I hasten to add.  Money and finances are a major worry.  I have found myself staying at home for days on end and not even taking the allotted hour to go out for a walk or empty the rubbish.  Going out is good for our mental health under lockdown but it is also good because of the sunshine and potential production of vitamin D.  We are now being told that part of the reason that black people have been so adversely affected is the low vitamin D levels that we can have when living in the Northern hemisphere away from the sunshine in Africa and other sunny climes for instance.

Career crossroads

I am definitely at a crossroads in terms of my career.  I have loved working as a legal aid solicitor but I do feel very disillusioned. Like our beleaguered NHS, I believe that legal aid in the UK has been underfunded for many years and I fear that the coronavirus might signal the death knell for many firms and possibly the entire remaining fragile structure of legal aid in the UK.  I feel overwhelmed with the amount of administrative work that the virus has unleashed at a time when we have a depleted team as a firm.  Having had a career in law for decades, will I be happy focusing on creative pursuits solely?  I go back and forth with these thoughts quite a bit.

Reasons to be cheerful and small wins during week 6 of the lockdown

My weight is going down in spite of recent fluctuations: I have been monitoring my weight very closely this week and noticed that my weight has been fluctuating quite a bit.  I celebrated losing 4 lbs in weight coming down to 143 lbs.  Since then, I have had more weight fluctuations with my weight shooting up to 150 lbs at some point.  I went a little crazy weighing myself every day and the last time I weighed my self on Friday morning, my weight has gone back down to 145 lbs.  I don’t know why my weight has fluctuated so wildly in the last few days but I have been sleeping very badly due to worries and anxieties about life in general. I am grateful that it is going down.

My eating seems to be back under control:  This time last year, working with Odell was when I began really seeing results in my weight loss journey.  I was practising intermittent fasting eating twice a day for the most part.  I would have a carbohydrate-rich meal such as porridge or bread for breakfast and then vegetables/salad and protein for dinner.  I cut out all the snacks which was not difficult as I am not into snacking anyway.   Recently, I have been eating keto style meals which means I am not having carbohydrate-rich breakfasts.

My workouts are back on track for the most part: I think that we are all moving around a lot less in the lockdown and in those circumstances putting on weight will be so easy for everybody.  Extra vigilance is required to avoid weight gain and protect oneself on the virus which seems to be deadly when victims are overweight or obese.  Against this background, I am happy that I have been able to stick to my exercise schedule.  I am still not working as hard as I was this time last year.  For instance, last year, I was working on my own doing cardio sessions.  I am working on this aspect of my regime and hope to be back to up to speed next week.

What I weigh this week

I weighed 145 lbs last week.  Even though it means that I still have 7 lbs of lockdown weight to lose and then another 8 lbs to go to reach my final goal of 130 lbs, I am happy with the progress I have made considering how up and down my mood and life has been of recent.