2025-09-07
• weeknotes • 1050 words
My weeknotes for the week 2025-09-01 to 2025-09-07.
I went for a swim in the evening after work, and that was about it.
I met up with my friend in the evening. He was feeling a bit depressed, and I don't really know how to handle people who are in a bad mood. In a way I think it was unfair of him to burden me with it (he didn't seem to want advice or even just to vent) ... anyways.
I don't have much in the way of notes for what I did in the evening. It makes me feel like I didn't do much, when I am sure I must have done something...
Well, this is probably where my high screentime (see below) is coming into play.
Work, and washing etc. I felt miserable and lacked any energy. I went to the gym in the evening but had to give up fairly early in, as I went through my water very quickly and didn't have much energy to me.
I went swimming, my violin lesson, read and studied. In the evening, I tried a bit of Teach Yourself Finnish. I managed a good deal of steps this day!
I went for a swim and then picked up eggs in the morning, relaxed, and then family was round for the day.
My screentime has again been way too high. Monday it was 9h 10m. That is just absurd - almost 40% of my day spent on a screen. In reality, since I don't also count the screen for work, it is likely higher than that.
Tuesday 3h 17m. Wednesday 2h 18m. Thursday 4h 55m. Friday 7h 33m. Saturday 4h 5m. As I write (18:42) on the Sunday, 3h 41m. In total, that is around 35h, or 20% of my week.
That is just too much. I've been saying this every week for a while now, but from next week I'm going to practise a form of digital minimalism. The main culprit is Brave, and it is largely Youtube. I don't think it works to ban Youtube outright (after all, it does have its benefits!) so instead, I will just have to exercise self-control. No blogs, either. If I need entertainment, I have a book to read.
I only installed an app to count this on the Friday, and I didn't walk much on Sunday (though I did do some exercise). So, I only have the measurements for Saturday, really, which were 14,035 steps.
I'll have a full weeks measurements for weeknote 37!
Currently, I am reading Nabokov's The Gift. I am 126 pages in; I will in the following weeks be able to see how many pages I've read but not this one.
I don't really understand the book and feel I am not getting much out of it, but Nabokov's writing is still extraordinary.
I am studying the M05 (Insurance Law) for work. It's dreadfully dull. I studied it once on the Saturday for a bit shy of an hour.
In terms of Italian, I am going to try track this by my progress on the book La voce delle onde. I am currently 53 pages in, of 176 total.
Did nothing for it at all.
For sheer fun I decided to do Lesson One of the Teach Yourself Finnish book I have had for a while, and which was handed down from my mother's father. I do like the look of Finnish... haluan puhuu suomeksi!
I didn't do a great deal of mandolin practise, but I did print out the things I will need to practise for the mandolin meetup in a few months. It's all written in musical notation that I find difficult to read. I will have to just learn!
I only practised once for the lesson, and really the biggest issue I think at the moment is getting comfortable with reading the musical notation, as well as actually practising.
Currently we are at Exercise 22 ~ 24 in the Abracadabra Violin book.
I went to the gym on the Monday morning and the Friday evening - I had no energy to go Friday evening but didn't want to skip out on it altogether.
I did around half an hour at the gym each time using my full body.
I swam on the Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday for around 35 minutes each time. I think I need to focus on breathing more often - normally I breathe every four turns (??? in front crawl) but I find it's easier to keep going if I breathe every second turn.
I've moved it from a 45 second allowance per lap (which was ~30s swimming and then rest) to a 40 second allowance without difficulty this week. Maybe next week 35?
My current weight is around 11 st 7 lb. My approximate maintenance calories would be 2282 kcal per day.
My total calories for the week were 13,160 kcal (1880 kcal daily average). This is a deficit of 408 kcal per day, resulting in likely weight loss of 0.82 lbs based on maintenance calories.
My average daily protein intake was 96 g, amount to 20.5% of my calories and making up 0.59 g per lb of protein (I would prefer 0.7g per lb).
My diet has been rather poor this week - I had a roast with the family on Sunday as well as frying my eggs not boiling them, and a fair bit of leftover bread with oil on the Saturday as garlic bread. I also had a curry for dinner on Wednesday when I met my friend, which was some 900 kcal with very little protein I imagine. That said, all this is just a part of life, and I've still met my calorie goal, even if I am a bit low on the protein goal. I have no reason to beat myself up about anything.
I can also tell now that I have lost a few pounds on the scales, even with the fluctuations from water weight, etc. -- and that is really nice to see! That said, I haven't noticed it on my body yet of course.
Next week, all I really need to do is be a little bit better on the diet.