Making plans

Back in the office today but if you think that means recovered and no more whining about my back, sorry, I have to disappoint you... I came in primarily to pick up my new laptop which was delivered on Friday and to get my timesheet signed - as a contractor no signed timesheet = No pay. I'm still in a lot of pain and within half an hour wanted to hurl my office chair out of the window. Except I probably couldn't lift it that high. I know I should go to the doctor (thanks for your concern, Deniz) but I've been that route before and all that ever happens is a referral to a physiotherapist with at least a 13 month waiting list, possibly xrays that don't pick anything up (and also take months) and sometimes a prescription for pain killers. I want to try to do some back strengthening stretches (very carefully) as just resting it isn't helping very fast and I want to get back into more walking (without the heavy rucksack) just to keep my muscles moving and the blood pumping. With that in mind I walked 2.17 miles at lunchtime, without much discomfort (in fact it improved as I walked further away from my office chair....) This weekend was a mixed bag. No long walks and no visits to NT houses / gardens. On Saturday I had to drive M into town to pick up a bike, the appointment was at lunchtime and took a while so after all that I just felt too lazy. All I did with the day apart from that was take two 1 mile long walks into town and drive myself to get a hair cut. And eat chocolate in the morning before a late, light lunch of homemade soup then losing my appetite and skipping dinner. Yesterday was my birthday (this combined with backache is making me feel really old ;-)) and M and I went to a steakhouse for lunch where I ignored low carb / Paleo totally... I had bbq chicken wings for a starter, followed by fillet steak with fries, followed by mango Eton mess (yes, pure refined sugar) all accompanied by 1 old fashioned, 1 glass of (high carb) prosecco and 1 cosmopolitan. In the evening I had a beer but no more food as I was still full. So I kind of intermittently fasted on 2 days over the weekend, both days stopping eating around 2pm! I realised this weekend that I have been letting a lot of non-paleo / primal foods sneak back in while feeling sorry for myself over back pain and no exercise to speak of. The protein cookies contain grains - not even gf grains - and I've eaten peanut butter, drunk beer and eaten refined sugar occasionally too. In order to get back on track I'm doing a whole30 month (which should have started yesterday, but birthday blues made that seem a bad idea). So from today until Oct 2nd no grains, legumes, dairy, alcohol or refined sugars. And only healthy fats. It's only a month, I should be able to do that! Especially as M has agreed not to eat peanut butter for a month and finished a jar yesterday so that won't be leading me into temptation... Food today: Breakfast: Scrambled egg with spinach, mushrooms & 1 rasher of grilled bacon Lunch: vegetable soup with some added lean gammon. Dinner: tuna poached in olive oil with stir fried veggie noodles (they would have tasted better with Tamari or Braggs, but no soy on the whole30; I've ordered coconut aminos from Amazon today to fill that gap). As I did it today it was rubbish, so I hope they arrive very soon... No soy sauce could be the hardest change to make!!! Snack: 12 cashew nuts, vegetable crudites with baba ganoush, jar of pickled mussels