At the moment I feel writing my blog is quite futile. 

 The world is becoming more polarised and scary every day. I tend not to discuss politics and world events on this platform because I think we all need something to be a break from what is happening around us, but equally we cannot and should not ignore it. I wanted to say something because I am angry. I held the naive belief that we would see racism and fascism completely eradicated in my lifetime.

We won’t. The language being used by the governments of the both the UK and USA remind me of the language I studied very closely for both my History and English Language A Levels. The language of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party from the 1930s – and no they weren’t socialists, they weren’t left wing, they were dictatorial, puritanical, fascists. And I am genuinely scared for the future of humanity. Call me a liberal lefty all you want. I want to see a world where a man can walk down the street and not be murdered because his skin pigment is darker by the very people who has sworn to uphold the law. 

Black lives matter. ‘If you cut us, do we not bleed?’ Yes and we all bleed red. I see you, and I walk with you because you are my fellow human being and you matter. 

And that’s all I have to say on that. If you’re still reading, thank you. I just needed to get that off my chest. 

So, back to the purpose of this blog.

My progress this week has been exactly as I expected. An increase at the start, that evened out as the week has gone on. Bank holiday Monday was a bust due to the epic hangover and that has led me to consider if me and booze have reached the end of our journey together. 

Now, I like the taste of red wine and cider but they are no longer liking me. So I have discovered a website that stocks all the low and zero alcohol beverages you could possibly dream of and I have ordered a red wine, 6 beers and 6 ciders to test, including Thatcher’s Zero which I am really looking forward to trying. 

So people might think there is no point in having alcohol free but I’m one of those people that does enjoy the taste of the beverages I chose, and the added bonus of these lower to zero alcohol drinks is that many aren’t laced with sugar (unless it’s the liqueurs, of which I’ve found an Amaretto substitute I am going to try next), unlike drinks like Shloer which is just syrup in a bottle. 
So I’ll likely report on these in future blogs.

In addition to my 100+ kettlebell swings per day, I have also gone back to an old childhood joy – rollerskating. In my old blog, I wrote about rediscovering my joy of playing and just doing things for the fun aspect, without any other responsibilities except that of my own safety and that included the purchase of a pair of quad roller skates. Well…. I got them out again, as mentioned in last week’s blog and I have been practicing every day. I’ve enjoyed it that much, and realised how cheap my old skates are, that I’ve purchased a pair of Rio Rose roller skates which arrived today. They are amazing. They glide so well and have really enforced correct posture. I’m really enjoying being on 8 wheels again. It will take me quite some time to get back up to where I was as a child, with turns etc, but I’m enjoying mastering those skills again. 

Today also came with the added bonus of a social distanced visit from my sister, who I haven’t seen in 12 weeks. It wasn’t a long visit but it was lovely to see her all the same. 

Weight wise, I am still at 197lbs as I was last week but that’s OK. The fat/weight loss journey is never linear and it will have ups and downs. It mimics life more than people realise. The important thing is to not get too bogged down in the number and remember that it is just where you are today at the moment you stood on that scale. The important thing here is I’m sleeping better, moving better and generally feeling better all round – the small wins amass to a big win over time. 

And I didn’t realise my hair had gotten this long already….

While the world is falling apart around us, it’s important to enjoy those things that genuinely make us smile. Skating is one of those things. DnD on a Friday night is another and I know, at some point in the future, I will back in a field with my closest friends pretending to be big goddamn heroes, only I’ll be on the alcohol free stuff for the most part, while enjoying one or two Crabbies when the mood strikes. I just hope the world will have calmed a little by then, the wannabe despots will have been voted out of office and we have moved to a more equal state of being. 

Naive? Maybe… 

As always, be kind to yourselves, you rock,
Krissie xx