Month: August 2019

This was a good month for sporting, on my journey to get my weight down below seventy kilograms. In total, ten times working out at the gym which on average is once every three days.

The trick is quite simple, actually.

Eat smaller portions, never take seconds, do not munch between meals, skip all desserts and go to bed early even if you are hungry.

If you are too hungry that you cannot fall asleep, then you may treat yourself to one piece of fruit, preferably an apple but if you are feeling desperate, a banana every once in awhile is acceptable.

In the beginning it is the most difficult to acclimate to your new eating regimen, and good old-fashioned mental discipline is a must.

After your meals you will still feel very hungry and have an irresistible urge for some dessert, but resist. One tip is to be patient, have a cup of coffee and wait thirty minutes. That is the usual time it takes for your hunger urges to settle down and eventually disappear.

This regiment has worked quite well for me, so far so good. I've lost around five kilograms in two months with only one and a half kilograms to go.

After qualifying for the Rijnmond Open nine years in a row, for the first time I failed to make the cut. The last couple of weeks I spent much time training myself and practicing endlessly, but to no avail.

I played terribly and for the life of me I just could not get my act together. My body was stiff and refused to obey the commands from my brain. That combined with an unusual streak of bad luck brought me to my knees.

The cut for the final weekend was 89 which I missed by two lousy strokes shooting a 49 + 42 = 91. When I normally easily shoot in the high seventies to low eighties.

This has really bummed me out, and it is difficult for me to accept. Golf is a brutal and unforgiving sport, and it doesn't improve one's chances as you grow older and wiser.

Oh well, my day will come another time in the not so distant future, or so I keep trying to convince myself.

I would say that the hardest part of my job is bridging the gap between what the requirements actually mean and what is technically feasible. As if this is not enough of a challenge in itself, let's make it even more volatile by throwing in political discussions and human emotions to ante up the challenge with even more interesting constraints. On the one hand we have the facts and figures, and on the other hand we have human nature creating bumps in an otherwise smooth road to success. Finding the right balance between creating the perfect platform and meeting the expectations of the outside world is fun yet challenging.

What the heck, I might as well give it a try. I will replace my rescue and see how it goes. Besides, rescues are for senior hackers anyway. For now I'm still good enough, so it'll be a fun challenge making new changes and tweaking my golf style before it's too late.

I figure that from off of the tee there are some challenging holes with narrow fairways where this driving iron can come in very handy. Using a full-fledged driver is a bit risky, and although with an iron the distance is reduced somewhat, splitting the fairway more consistently is what it is all about.

Took a long and leisurely Sunday walk this afternoon, and this is what I saw along the way.