I’m back, and it’s Week 4 of my 6-week health reset.

Last week was an unexpected one. An insect bite turned into cellulitis, which meant a course of strong antibiotics that, to be honest, made me feel pretty nauseous for most of the week. Thankfully, it’s all cleared up now.

The lesson was pretty simple: things don’t always go to plan. You can’t control everything that happens, but you can focus on what you can control. Exercise was off the table, but nutrition wasn’t, and I managed to stay completely in line with the principles I’d set myself.

I’ll do a full write-up at the end of the six weeks because there’s quite a lot I’m learning from this experiment, but for now, it’s Week 4.

One thing I’ve realised is that I need quicker feedback.

My original motivation came from my NHS Health Check. The results weren’t terrible by any means, but there were things that weren’t where I’d ideally like them to be. By the end of the six weeks, I’d like to see improvements in my blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, BMI and overall cardiovascular risk/heart age.

Those results were probably the tipping point that moved me from thinking about making a change to actually doing something about it. In behaviour-change terms, from contemplation into preparation and action.

But six weeks is quite a long time to wait to find out whether something is working, and I know my own psychology. I’m much more focused when I can actually see progress.

So I’ve started creating shorter feedback loops. I’m doing a weekly body composition scan, mainly looking at body fat, visceral fat and muscle mass. My initial goal is to reduce fat while maintaining muscle. I’m also weighing myself most days, not because I care about individual daily fluctuations, but because it gives me another bit of feedback.

The numbers are useful, but ultimately the bigger goal is still becoming the person who consistently does the things that support their health. That’s the identity I’m trying to build.

I’ve also started planning my exercise sessions into my diary on a Sunday night and treating them like appointments. Rather than saying, “I’ll try and train three or four times this week”, I decide when I’m actually going to do it before the week starts.

There’s a behaviour-change concept called implementation intentions, which is basically deciding in advance when and where you’re going to do something. It sounds obvious, but it means there’s one less decision to make when the day actually comes around.

The other thing I’ve made is an incredibly basic visual tracker. Honestly, it looks like something you’d probably see in a child’s book, but that’s partly the point. I think we sometimes make behaviour change far more complicated than it needs to be.

Each day I simply tick off:

• Scheduled workout
• 8,000–10,000 steps
• Eating in line with my nutrition principles
• 2–3 litres of water

That’s it.

I could add protein, fibre, calories, macros, sleep, training volume and another ten things, but then I’ve basically created a spreadsheet for my entire existence. For now, I just want to make the fundamental behaviours visible.

And there’s something strangely satisfying about ticking those boxes. Instead of waiting six weeks for a health check result, I get a small bit of feedback at the end of every day that says, yes, I did the things I said I was going to do today. Seeing the ticks build up also creates a little streak that I don’t particularly want to break.

I am debating whether to track calories, protein and fibre for a short period. I’m already consciously prioritising protein and fibre more at meals, but I’m not measuring them. Part of me doesn’t want to complicate something that’s currently working, but I also know that when I measure something, I tend to focus on it more.

Maybe that’s another experiment for later. Tracking something for a while doesn’t mean you have to track it forever. Sometimes it’s just a useful way of increasing awareness.

So Week 4 is pretty simple: workouts planned in advance, keep following my nutrition principles, prioritise protein and fibre, get my daily steps and water in, and tick the boxes.

Nothing revolutionary, but I think that’s becoming one of the biggest lessons from this whole thing. Most of us already know roughly what we need to do. The interesting part is creating the systems, environment and feedback that help us actually keep doing it.

Let’s see what Week 4 brings.

Catch up in a few days.

Dan