When I began my Strength & Health Log a few weeks ago, I imagined it would become a record of exercise.

It has become something much more.

Looking back over the past week, there are pages filled with workouts, step counts and meals. There are also days where the only sensible entry is:

“No exercise today – heatwave – not sensible.”

That matters too.

Living with HIV and receiving haemodialysis three times a week means that health is rarely just about ticking off another workout. Weather matters. Sleep matters. Hospital appointments matter. Family events matter.

During the hottest days of the recent heatwave, even writing in the notebook felt like an effort. My appetite changed. Meals became simpler. Exercise sessions became shorter or disappeared altogether. The goal changed from improving fitness to looking after myself.

That isn’t losing progress.

It’s recognising that rest and adaptation are part of training.

When the temperature dropped again, I returned to my routine. A couple of sets of incline push-ups. Doorway-assisted pulls. Bodyweight squats. Nothing extraordinary, just picking up where I had left off.

The notebook reminds me that consistency isn’t about doing the same thing every day. It’s about returning when you can.

It also reminds me that health is bigger than exercise.

One page records travelling to Belfast for my father’s Month’s Mind Mass. Another records the first hammer curls I have ever completed. Another simply notes that it was too hot to cook.

All of those belong in the same story.

As someone living with HIV and on dialysis, I have spent years thinking of health in terms of blood tests, medications and clinic appointments. Those things remain important. But this notebook is teaching me that health also includes walking, resting, praying, remembering, eating, adapting and beginning again.

Some days the win of the day is a new exercise.

Some days the win is recognising that today is a day to rest.

Both are progress.