I have been trying to watch what I eat most of the time over the past few months, and although have not stood on any weighing scales recently, am pretty sure that I have lost a bit of weight, and must be close to my terget of 70 kilogrammes (11st, or 154lb). I have also been trying to get plenty of exercise, as I need to keep my fitness levels up for two big treks coming up over the next few months, at Machu Picchu in Peru, and also perhaps the trek to Everest Base Camp later on.
So my time on Christmas Island came to an end after two fantastic weeks there, and I flew on Saturday to Kuala Lumpur. I stayed in KL for one night, enjoying plenty of my Malay favourites, roti and tea, returning to the airport on Sunday for the long haul back to London. I was flying with Air Sri Lanka, as it was way cheaper than any other option, saving me over $200, and would bring me in to Heathrow, which is pretty close to my brother’s house. The downside of the trip was that it was three flights, KL to Singapore, Singapore to Colombo in Sri Lanka, and finally, after about ten hours in the airport at Colombo, my final 12 hour flight to Heathrow.
On the long final flight it was pretty comfortable, as there were very few passengers, and I got a whole row of four seats to myself, sleeping fully stretched out for quite a bit of the flight. We were fed twice, and I have my suspicions about the omlette served with breakfast about nine hours into the flight. About an hour afterwards I began to feel a bit queasy, and this quickly got worse. Just before landing I was sick, and then I had to hurry through immigration to reach the toilets again in time! The omlette was definitely to blame from the evidence on display.
The irony is that over the past couple of months, in China, Thailand and Malaysia I have been eating anything and everything from street vendors and sidewalk cafes, and have had no issues at all with food-related illnesses. In fact throughout the past 17 months of travel I haven’t really been ill at all, other than the occasional self-inflicted hangover. I reckon my stomach is pretty hardy at the moment! So I was a bit surprised to get ill on a flight. However, omlette that has been kept warm for at least 9 hours is probably more risky than anything served from an old food cart on the streets of Bangkok!
On the journey to my brother’s place on the Underground I was incredibly cold and shivery, not just because of the chilly English weather, and when I got there I just crawled shivering into bed, and slept for the rest of the afternoon. When Martin and Rachel got home I dragged myself out of bed, feeling very achy and sorry for myself, and managed to eat a few vegetables, and a couple of hours later was off back to bed again.
I woke at 3am, unsure whether this was because of jetlag or because I had slept so much over the past 24 hours, but at around 4.30 I fell asleep again, waking up at just before 8am. I only had about two hours left to get myself organised for my trip to Iceland, including resolving accomodation issues for my first night there – all of which I had planned to do the afternoon before.
However, I already felt 100% better, and before a big healthy breakfast, I got on the weighing scales in the bathroom. The result, slightly skewed perhaps after a full day of vomiting and eating almost nothing – I’m not getting bulemic, I promise! – was that I am now at just under 70kg. Fantastic.
My goal as written is “To get back down to 70kg and maintain it”. So I have done the hardest part, and have achieved the target, and now just have to maintain it. I reckon I will aim for a period of three months, and so if I can keep at 70kg until the end of March, I will have achieved my goal. That should be long enough to ensure that healthy choices become habit, and I should be able to continue to maintain an ideal weight.
Just got to get to work on the six-pack stomach muscles now! Still a little work to do here though!