It was bright and sunny first thing this morning, but even then there were a lot of clouds to be seen. There are still some patches of blue sky to be seen, but none where the sun is - at the moment ! The forecast says it will continue dull until this afternoon when it will be extremely dull, and then maybe the sun will burst through as afternoon becomes evening. Sadly sunset will not be far behind that last bit of sunshine. It should stay dry, but the temperature could be a couple of degrees less than yesterday. Today may see 21° C for a few short hours. The current prediction for tomorrow shows a very sunny days, but it will, once again, possibly be a degree or two cooler than today.

   I was a bit concerned about my weight yesterday morning. It initially seemed I hadn't lost a single gram in the previous 24 hours. Well I suppose that was better than actually gaining weight. What I didn't realise while I was writing yesterday morning was that I had more visits to the toilet in store. I can't say that my stomach felt uncomfortable, and nor was it making any ominous gurgling noises, but ever so often I felt a mild desire to go to the toilet. I duly went, and my weight dropped a small amount.

  After at least 6 visits to the toilet the cumulative effect, even after eating and drinking a small amount, was that my weight had dropped a fair bit. "Fair bit" in this context is several hundred grams, but even that is easily shown on my digital scales. There was just one time when I was nearly caught short. I was hand washing 3 t-shirts, and some underwear in my big builders buckets in the bath. That meant a lot of bending over the bath, and after a while I could feel "stirrings" from my gizzards (or something like that !). That was probably deposit 5. I think I may have gone once more after that.

  It was possibly lucky for me that the dark grey sky yesterday morning sapped any desire to go for a walk. One problem today is that away from home there are absolutely no toilets available. On some walks there may be some dense woodland/bushes that could be used in dire emergencies, but if I have any doubts I prefer to stay at home. Going for a walk is the best way for me to lose weight/stay healthy because it is usually enjoyable, but there are other things that help.

  Gardening seems to burn off a few calories, and usually raises a sweat. It never seems like it should for some reason, but the evidence usually shows itself the next morning. Yesterday I did need to do some gardening, and although there is less joy in it now it usually just maintenance, it still feels good to see all my hard work in the past coming together.  Without the ever lasting battle with weeds it would be mostly, but not entirely, easy.

  I don't know how long I spent in the garden yesterday, but I think it was probably around an hour - probably not much less, and possibly even more. I started out with some weeding. There are a lot of weeds in my garden, and now things are getting tricky because many of the weeds are growing amongst the wanted plants. It makes the job harder when you can just rip out handfuls without a care in the world.

  After pulling out a couple of bucketfuls of weeds I turned to other things. Almost other things. I decided that the plant pot that was supposed to have chilli plants in it, did not have chilli plants but a form of weed. The clue was that I could see the same weed growing where I had not planted chilli seeds. I pulled the dense cluster of weed out, binned it, and then tipped out the soil it had been growing in. I refilled the pot with potting compost, and put in the dead heads from my Companulas - the best growing flowers in my garden this year. I don't know if it is too late in the year for them to do anything, or even if the seed pods are mature enough, but I shall watch that pot with interest.

  The hardest job was cutting the grass. I sort of wish I had bought a proper mower instead of the strimmer now. The strimmer is nice and compact, but it is hard work using it. If held too low it digs chunks out of the ground. It is tricky holding it at the best height to cut the grass, and after a while it feels rather heavy. After about 5 minutes I feel I have to rest before my arms drop off. Oh well, it is better than bending over to use shears to cut the grass - even if shears would do a better job.

  One problem with my lawn is that I have three different kinds of grass growing in it. Much of it is very coarse grass, but some is very fine. The coarse grass is probably harder wearing, but my lawn is not a football pitch ! The fine grass would look nicer if it could be mowed properly. The final thing I did was to water the grass, plus the tomatoes, and basically anything that I wanted to grow. In other words almost the whole garden except for the area of lawn that needs some hard work to prepare it as lawn.

  I did all that work before lunchtime, and I came in feeling quite hot and sweaty. What I probably didn't want then was what I had earlier decided I would have - soup. I wanted something that would not stir up any trouble if my guts were still in a state of turmoil, and I wanted something that had few calories, and little sugar in it. Soup was the answer. What was wrong, or stupid, was spicing it up with hot chilli sauce. I had two cans of soup. One of mushroom, and the other of chicken. They were both delicious when spiced up, but they turned a light sweat into a heavy sweat !

  During the afternoon I mainly rested. I spent quite a bit of time with my face in a book. I can't seem to recall if I had a snooze or not. One thing that did impinge upon me was that the afternoon was often quite bright and cheerful. I did wonder if I should clean myself up and get out for a walk, but the final answer was that I was in the wrong mood for a walk - although if I had forced myself to start walking I would most probably enjoy it.

  As dinner time approached I began to think about what I could eat. I wanted something that I knew to both reduce my weight, and my blood glucose. The only answer was a shish kebab. That meant ordering another takeaway. I had had a notification from "Just Eat" that some places were doing a 20% discount, and I also had a discount code that I could use in conjunction with that 20% discount. I doubted I could, but it accepted it, and I was able to order some quite cheap food. The only problem was that the salad that came with one kebab had a strange taste. It wasn't an unclean taste. It was quite the opposite. It was if the salad had been washed with a bit of soap, and the rinsing was only 95% effective. There was just a very, very slight hint of soap that spoiled it. I have tasted this before, and I think it might have been from the same place. I shall put them on my blacklist.

  I didn't drink any beer yesterday, but as bed time approached I did have a couple of large whiskies. They would usually help me sleep, but not last night. Yesterday, by comparison to recently, was a hot day, and I was back in the eternal struggle of the duvet being too hot, and without it being ever so slightly a bit cool. I think I eventually slept completely uncovered from about 10pm (later than intended) until about 1am. The rest of my sleep seemed a bit fitful. I seemed to wake up quite a lot - maybe every hour, but it is very vague now. Sometime I may have even dreamed I had woken up.

  This morning I feel perfectly normal - the new normal - the normal that says various bits creak and groan (or maybe it is me who does the groaning). The good news is that by being careful about what I ate, plus the gardening exercise, my weight is down to what it was the day before yesterday (and I haven't even gone to the toilet for a poo yet). Best of all is a good drop in my blood glucose - down to 8.1mmol/l from 9.8mmol/l the day before.

  We are having another unscheduled sunny period at the moment, and I am feel some pull to go out for a walk. I may do so, but there is another factor in play at the moment. I note that a parcel that was originally die for tomorrow reached the Dartford depot at 3am this morning. Unless it is sent to the other end of the country, to waste time so it can't be delivered until tomorrow, it could be out for delivery today. Depending on the delivery driver, some seems to clock in late, and some early, it could be delivered any time this afternoon. Unless I can be sure of completing any walk by, say 1pm, I dare not go out. That seems like an excellent excuse to be lazy - or to do some useful stuff around my house. If I were honest with myself I would say it is about time I cleaned my bedroom up, but I may settle with dusting the TV as a starter !