Three days into Lent

I launched into Lent on Ash Wednesday by getting back to exercise. Starting off with 25 sit-ups and 18 press-ups on Wednesday morning and evening, repeated on Thursday morning and evening - big mistake. On Friday I could not do a single press-up or sit-up; my pectoral and stomach muscles ached. Coughing was painful as was raising myself from bed!

Having carried on last year from the end of Lent until well into the autumn (by which time I could do over 50 press-ups in one go) I thought 20 would be a doddle. It was not; the message here is that giving up exercise (even if only over an extended Christmas/New Year period) is bad. Exercise is something one has to stick to rigorously and consistently.

Better to do less of them but daily than to reach a high level and then stop for a few months. Though should I fail to adhere to this precept, I must remember for next Lent to start with no more than 10 press-ups and 15 sit-ups and gently work upwards from that.

The start-point is way off from last year's; my circumference is 39 and half inches (100.5cm). This is awful. A whole three inches (7.5 cm) more than at the end of last Lent, two and a quarter more than at the start of last Lent. And a whole stone (7kg) heavier than at the end of last Lent.

Trzeba się za siebie wziąć.

Better news on the dieting front; the caffeine-withdrawal headaches have ceased after two and half days; I'm eating tons of fruit, no meat, no salt (I put away the salt-cellar months ago), no salt snacks (ditto), and surprisingly, I'm not missing alcohol at all. My kebabs have been replaced by falafel - I can recommend the Sahara on ul. Krucza - three falafel, houmus , pitta bread and salad for 13 złotys (less than three quid), and fish has replaced beef in my pho soup from the Bar Saigon on ul. Bracka. Seedless grapes have come into season just as citrus fruit is getting dry and tough, apples are still plentiful and the banana is a nutritious staple. Nescore chicory coffee gives some of that coffee taste without any caffeine and Poland is a leader in the production of fruit and herbal teas.

Spiritually, I must meditate more upon the Eternal, on the profound mysteries of existence and do so within the day-to-day framework of rising, going to work and earning money, essential activity though activity that needs to be placed within a greater context - an individual consciousness that has evolved to feel its way around a planet in the solar system within a galaxy at least 200 billion stars, one of 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe.

This time two years ago:
Two weeks into Lent