Yesterday was Halloween. Halloween is new to me, I never celebrated it growing up. The thing about Halloween is that's sorta not that serious in the UK as it has always been in the US but recently it's kinda creeping in(see what I did there?) and becoming serious, which is super fine by me, I kinda like the change in the same way Valentines day against the norm. With Halloween, you just got to prepare 'just in case' - one year I forgot and when I got in back home from work, a few minutes later I got a ring at my door for 'trick or treat' and I had nothing to give the poor little devil. The little dude and his mom was kinda disappointed. I was very disappointed. Then the next time, I bought some(read: lots!) sweets and no one came - word spread in that town! I ended up eating all the sweets and distributing it my house members at the time. Wasn't that bad then, I suppose as far as treating yourself goes but I'm not eating a whole bucket of sweets this time. So I'm going to grab a few packets of sweets and give a sweet or two to every devil that rings my door bell and if I run out I'll start giving out stationary and books! Now I could have dressed up a little today for work as they said we could but I didn't and I'm kinda wondering if that makes me boring and unfun. I guess it might, but I'm going to give myself a break this time. I did however bring in a skull plasma lamp in the who spirit of things - it's sitting on my desk at work. It also doubles up as a handy headphone stand - looks like the skull is listening to music! Pretty cool, worked out real well.

The day before, I went for a run last night, pretty usual. Loved the run, loved the rain and love knowing that I did it again. 6.6km this time which is about right, you know average. It's been getting awfully cold recently both in the mornings and evenings. I like the cold. I like getting warm. Recently I've been concentrating on my body and health more and more. This initially was more as a consequence of my running as I wanted/still want to run more easily and effectively. Now, it's more a concerted effort.

Instead of the day rest I usually have between runs, I've decided to spend those days being active too but in less strenuous ways - swimming or upper body weight training however I've yet to do much weight training this way-I've tended to opt for the lesser impact swimming which I quite like but in theory, I guess, targeted weight training should be ok provided I don't over do it so that the next day I can't run. That'd be pretty lame. It's pretty important to cut down on fat, so I've done that in in a big way and to pick my food types/content pretty religiously.

The idea is that I should be able to feed myself pretty full on low/not fat foods provided you eat enough and get enough carbs, fruit and veg and protein to sustain and maintain me. Also I'm pretty much on a low/no sugar/salt routine which is pretty much second nature to me now. The no salt thing was easy, the no sugar thing I had to work at.

Swimming is my new thing. It's tougher than running but might be better than it! I'm swimming today and I'm pretty psyched about it. I find that while running is tough at times, it's something you can push through by calibrating your pace, breathing and technique. Swimming, well half the time I start sinking or swallowing water when I get tired. Also I've noticed that one length in the pool can shoot my heart rate right up. So much so, I think damn, I can actually feel it drumming away inside me. The other pretty cool thing about swimming is that it's cool and I don't overheat, duh, but I do get tired. It's probably the best thing I can do between runs really. My Suunto Ambit is a real godsend, it's with me in every run, every swim and keeps me motivated that every move I do is tracked, logged and accounted for and all counts towards my conscious effort to contribute to my body's performance. Currently my goal is 0.5km of swimming each time. That's hard, while running I can do that near 12 times in 30 minutes. Swimming I can just get by with 0.5km every 40 mins! Outrageous right?? Anyway, I'm getting there and know my technique will get better and do will my time and performance so I just gotta, like Dory said in Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming..."

My running is improving though also with every run which makes me actually want to run more as I know it contributes so much. I've been eating a ship load of fish, sweet potatoes and grilled beef patties at home. At work, it's either a salad or whole grain rice with something non fatty. No sodas, no sweets and no cakes. I say that, but yesterday I had some sweets...it's an endless battle of self restraint. Honestly. I've had to bring in my left over treats from Halloween to the office so I don't eat more tomorrow when I get home...watching everyone else get fat is fun...

I went to the dentist on the weekend and he gave me a 9/10 for my teeth and general state of my teeth which is good because I've been working on this. He did say though that I have a forming cavity on one of my top teeth due to my dental enamel being a but weak. He gave me a fluoride toothpaste and recommended a mouth wash to 'remineralise' the enamel. Plus, it tastes real nice! Cool.

Work recently has been good, sleeping is now,at a couple of weeks in, a nice 70-80 and sometimes 90% quality sleep ratio - according to my sleep monitor and regular sleeping habits I'm newly forming. Just thinking...though sometimes I still wake up a little tired but get over it much faster than before.

It's Friday, it's a run day so that's pretty good. Didn't do any weights yesterday because my abs are burning, and have been burning since so I'm gonna let my body just chill until its gone - gonna run though, just need to calibrate this weight-training business carefully.