(This is the fourth in an ongoing series of monthly posts. Month 1. Month 2. Month 3.)
Hello everyone! Sorry I’m a little late this month, but 1) I’ve been actually cutting my posts a little less than a month apart, so it’s always been more month-ish than monthly, and 2) It’s been a busy few weeks. I work in an educational setting, and late August/early September is always our busy season; for a couple of weeks I’m yanked out from my comfy back-end desk to interact, directly, with people. It’s odd hours (including some 12 hours long shifts) at a site that’s harder to get, and all of it spent either so busy you barely have time to take a swig of water between one person and the next, or sat round with essentially nothing to do for extended periods.
It is tiring.
Between the weird hours, inconsistent breaks, and lack of access to a fridge, I just skipped the Huel for the main week of this. This is OK because, say it with me, Huel’s just food and it’s OK to act accordingly; for a while, it was easier to park it and eat canteen food, so I did. In theory, my time at main enrolment finished last week; in practice, we’re still mopping up and I sense many trips across sites mid-day in response to frantic calls about long queues. Such as happened today. Oh well, at least I’m in demand?
Because of that, today was my first day back on Huel, and… nothing much to report, really, it’s my routine now. I guess it’s noteworthy that it was easy to get back into, but then, why wouldn’t it be? Speaking of vaguely noteworth, I’m typing this after making my Huel for tomorrow, and have just used the last of the Berry. Y’know, honestly? Using half measures, it was actually pretty nice. It’s not enough for me to stick with it, but I don’t regret trying it.
Speaking of trying it… Actually, hang on, I’ve just noticed that’s my second “speaking of” this post. Let’s make this a thing: using the exact same “speaking of” segue between every topic for the rest of this post. Let’s see how that goes. Anyway, speaking of seeing how that goes (and also still speaking of trying it), one of my mates has decided to give Huel a go, so I guess I’m making a good impression? Sadly, I’m not sure it’s for them; they tried the Berry (which, yeah, it isn’t for me so I can’t be surprised that it’s not for them) and New & Improved. They’ve got taste buds which are highly tuned for picking out sweeteners, and apparently that’s all they got from the N&I… it’s not awful to them, but it’s definitely not their jam. Who knows, maybe it’ll work just well enough that they’ll stick with it and order some Original?
Speaking of ordering some Original, I may actually cut my order down for a while. I was starting to build up a surplus even before the skip week, but as it is I have 1 almost-full bag, 1 half-used, and 4 unopened, all to last me 2 weeks. I reckon I’ll probably not use all that up, so maybe I can dial back for a month or two and see where I’m at.
Speaking of seeing where I’m at (oh, you thought I wouldn’t keep going with that? I’m totally keeping going with that), do you want to see a graph? Here, let me show you a graph:
This starts off when I last had my pre-Huel weight checking back in mid April, past when I started on Huel in early June, and up to the present day. The data points are where I’ve checked my weight; there’s a big gap between that first check and when I bought scales (as mentioned last month), so obviously the later data is more accurate. The orange line at the top is showing my weight as a percentage of how much it was when I started. The green at the bottom is showing my progress towards my current target. I’m about a quarter of the way there, which is awesome!
That, that “this is awesome” thing right there? That’s why the graph was important. It’s still hard for me to see or feel it on myself, but right there, I can see that green line going up. And because it’s in context, it’s OK when it goes down slightly sometimes, like that last measurement today (which is totally down to my post-enrolment celebratory milkshake and burger which, to be clear, I 1) deserved and 2) enjoyed), because I can see that the trend is the right way; Maybe I put on a kilogram here, but I’ll lose it and more later. I actually suspect that, once I’m past my final Berry Huel tomorrow, I may speed up a little again; I mentioned before that the half-water portions I was having of that meant I was getting peckish more, and while I’ve mostly gotten past that, I do reckon that being back on the full-size shakes again will probably leaves me less hungry later in the day, and so less likely to eat bigger things than I really need. We shall see!
Right, that’s another month of the guide done. What have we learnt? Uhh, pretty much the same lessons as the last 3 months; 1) Huel works well for me, 2) don’t set yourself up for failure; be relaxed, and 3) enjoy stuff you want to enjoy. Oh, and 4) graphs make things look cooler. Maybe this should be a thing, one new lesson every month… That sounds like a much better “thing” than saying “speaking of” all the time. That’s lame, who’d do that?
Anyway, speaking of someone doing something, thank you for reading this! Next time: graph updates! An awards ceremony?! New, subtler segues!
