The Next Turn Analogue

Quick little analogy for you today. Just been down the Trail and back on what I'm starting to think of as my "breakfast voucher" walk: it equates to more than enough calories to let me have a breakfast and get my metabolism started in the morning, without actively impacting on the net calories taken in, so it frees me from thinking of breakfast as a calorific weight to carry through the day.

The Taff Trail is reasonably straight...ish...from Rhydycar Leisure Centre to the Dynevor Arms and back. Straight by Welsh standards, anyway. But within the overall general straightishness, there are many wiggly bits and bendy bits and landmarks that are just around the next turn. And even someone as geographically incompetent as I am (and that's pretty bloody incompetent, let me tell you) starts to recognise these landmarks and to break the journey into sections. Front door to the archway, archway to the Aberanaid question-marker, question-marker to the start of the inhabited section. The inhabited section. End of the inhabited section to the Pentrebach flyover, to the view of the factories and the final double-squiggly bit to the Dynevor...

And then back, aiming at slightly different landmarks, because you can see the abandoned Hoover factory getting closer and closer.

This morning it occurred to me that after yesterday's weigh-in, and the loss of what by common assent we're thinking of as 12 lbs of water, I'm ridiculously close to my next "corner". I turned one just last week, hitting the 17 stone borderline. Now I'm just one little pound away from a second celebration, on hitting the 16st 7 mark. So what do you do? Do you slow your stride and amble for a week, and hope to put up the bunting for this suddenly-near marker? Or do you push on forward and try and reach deeply into the territory of the next next corner?

Depends, really, on whether you view the weightloss as an analogue of a nice sunny morning stroll or an analogue of a power walk. Whether, in fact, you feel you have the time to stop and smell the flowers, or whether - as I usually am on these mornings, you're trying to get something done and get back somewhere in time to move on with the rest of the day.

Clearly, at the moment, I'm in "power walking" mode, so my aim is to get at least one pound into the territory of the next next turn - down to 17st 6 by 7th May. Let's see what happens as we try to burn not water, but whale-oil from the body. Let's see if the next turn is even passable this week. I've been this way before - I know the route. 16st 7 to 16 stone, turn right, knuckle down, more gymming, 16 stone to 15st 7, push up the intensity, add swimming, 15st 7 to 15 stone, venture back into extemist territories and start spinning again...

See - it's all about the landmarks, and how you prepare for them. Now - on with the day...