Credenciales, weight, and other stuff.

Hello,
Been a bit busy with work, but now I have a few days off, so time to write here and hopefully get into a routine of posting regularly.
This week my Credencial del Peregrino arrived from Santiago, courtesy of Ivar at the Camino de Santiago forum, a really useful resource if you are thinking of doing the Camino by the way. The Credencial (aka the Pilgrim's Passport) is a little booklet which a pilgrim gets stamped each day at hostals, churches, bars etc along the way as proof that they have completed the pilgrimage.

The more I start to prepare for my Camino, the more I think about weight. Both in terms of the kit I shall be carrying along the way and what I actually weigh myself. At the moment I'm thinking of a From Skin Out weight target - ie including the clothes I'm walking in and any water/food I'm carrying - of around 10kg. If I was to start tomorrow I would be at 7kg, including water. But I wouldn't have any clothes to wear except socks and walking boots, so I probably wouldn't get too far! The clothes I'll be taking with me I shall buy just for the trip (and any future Caminos of course), so will be quite a significant investment in "technical" clothing which wicks moisture and dries very quickly. Which brings me to my personal contribution to the gravitational pull of this planet as the clothes I buy need to fit me when I leave!

Today I weighed myself. It's something I've been putting off as I know I'm overweight. I'm 6 feet 2 inches tall, so I still appear to carry the weight OK but far too much of me wobbles! Today I weigh 105.9 kg. 20 years ago I weighed nearer 80 kg. A sedentary lifestyle and an appreciation of decent food means that I'm dragging the equivalent of an extra 25 bags of sugar around with me compared with when I was in my 20s, and my waistband has increased by a full 10cm! So today I'm starting a "lifestyle" change to help me lose 25kg by mid June. As I'm going on a "pilgrimage" (more of why I'm actually doing this as soon as I've worked it out for myself!), I suppose a little deprivation of what I enjoy - beer, wine, rum, curry, bread, chips, chocolate, cake, anything with a rich sauce, anything fried or roasted in fat, etc - is in keeping with the spirit of being a pilgrim.

Tomorrow we are going to a "Practical Pilgrim Day " organised by the Confraternity of Saint James in London. Not sure what to expect - hopefully not too much "God bothering" as neither of us do that. Instead we're hoping to pick up a few tips and maybe meet some people doing the Camino at the same time as us.