My Review of 2023

2023 was by far the biggest change of my life so far. We had our first child, I lost a lot of weight, and made some big changes to my lifestyle.

Weight Loss

I started 2023 weighing at least 120kg, I don't know how heavy I actually was. I stopped weighing myself because I didn't want to see the number.

After finding out we were expecting our first child this gave me a huge kick to get my butt into action and be more active. I knew my weight would get in the way of looking after our child, and I didn't want that to happen.

I started by walking more, after a couple of weeks I'd built up to 10km a few times a week. At the start of February I decided to go along to my first Parkrun, and have been going almost every week since. I'd also started running 5k at least twice a week, including Parkrun, sometimes this would be up to 4 times. I'd also get up at 6am to complete my 10km walk before work. Some weekends I'd cycle 40km or more, other times cycling to work which was a bit under 10km each way.

One of the biggest points here was that I avoid a gym. I knew that joining a gym, I'd give up the second I stopped going, as had happened several times over the years. I wanted to make positive changes to my lifestyle that I could stick to and involve my family.

I hit a lifetime low weight of 87kg in September, and have since been hovering around 90kg. Having our first child I moved my focus to my activity levels, worrying less about losing weight, and just maintaining it. In 2024 I want to get back to losing with a goal of 80kg.

Parkrun

I completed my first Parkrun on the 4th of February, as of today, 30th Dec, I just completed my 40th.

For those that don't know Parkrun is a free timed run that takes place every Saturday at 9am. It's a 5k run, jog, walk, or whatever you want it to be. It's very inclusive and there's always a wide range of abilities taking part, fast or slow, young and old, buggies and pets.

I've made consistent improvements to my time over the year, and I'm now able to consistently run 5k in under 30 minutes. My current PB is 27:26, and I hope to get this under 25 minutes in 2024.

Our first child

We found out in late 2022 we were expecting our first child. This was a huge change to our lives, and we were both very excited.

We set about planning how we'd arrange the house, which room we'd use for the nursery, etc. One afternoon we were at the baby shop getting gifts for our pregnancy reveal, and while there we were looking at nursery furniture. We found the set we were happy with, and decided to measure up the room, that same day we ended up ordering all the furniture, pushchair, car seat, crib, the whole works. We might have gotten a little carried away.

I would highly recommend NCT Antenatal Courses. The classes were great for meeting a group of people in the same circumstance. We still keep in touch with them, and we've heard from others that even 10, 20, 30 years on they're still in touch with friends they made via their NCT group.

There were two main points we took away from NCT and put into practice.

Firstly, this is the most stressful thing most people will go through, so seeing the baby isn't free, they must support you in being the best parents you can. Visitors need to help around the house before baby time, be that (un)load the dishwasher, do the washing up, hang the laundry up, hoover, or cook dinner.

Secondly, write a list of hobbies and interests about yourself and your partner. Take it in turns once a week, or month to pick something from that list and spend time doing that thing while the other parent spends the day with little one. Spend deliberate time focusing on who and what you are, what you enjoy.

Becoming a single car household

I'd like to say the decision behind this one was a conscious environmental decision, but that's just a happy side effect. The reality is that post-covid both of us work from home so we just don't need a second car. We'd kept our second car for 2 years after last needing it, and my wife had grown tired of having to keep driving it to maintain the battery and service of the car.

Adjusting to this took a little while, during the summer I started cycling to the office if my wife needed the car for the day. Sometimes we'd double book which left us in a bit of a pickle, others my wife would have to drop me at the office before heading off to do what she needed to.

We now have a whiteboard on the fridge where we plan our meals for the week. We also write who will need the car when.

Learning German 🇩🇪

Both sides of our family have German relations, but I'd never learned any German, bumbling my way through every visit and relying on family to translate.

This year I set about learning German using Duolingo, getting to a 100 day streak. Since our little one arrived this has been put on the back burner, so in 2024 I want to pick this up again. Particularly as we want our kid to be bilingual.

TL;DR

Looking into 2024

Going forward in to 2024 I want to set myself a few goals to focus on