0 Days Without Crisps

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It's Monday and time to continue a trend of promised new and positive habits only for them to fall apart midweek. Often that involves maintaining a regular (and high) attendance at the gym - there is really no positive benefit to going only once or twice in the week, well that's what I've found anyway. Another positive habit that keeps getting restarted is a better diet which brings me to the title of this post - the countdown ( or up) has started -- today is 0 days without crisps.

I seem to keep bringing work up and I promise it won't make an mention for a while after but I've always found work to sap at my motivation. usually around Sunday afternoon or evening I find motivation to try doing things a little different, try harder and generally be more productive. I don't know whether this is down to me reflecting on the weekend and realising I could have done more, a build up of motivation due to the prolonged time not at work or a mix of the two but promises are made, oaths are sworn that come Monday, come tomorrow I will be a better person.

It's scary to think that on weekdays I am out of the house for near enough 12 hours means I'm not aligned on improving myself - it sounds like an excuse and it probably is but it's the only explanation I have to why it took me 3 months to join the local gym and over a year to start driving lessons (man that looks terrible when put down in black and White). Following some root canal work I had to undergo did mean I had to change my diet to cut out most of the unecessary sugar and I succeeded to a certain extent.
Just like championing the gym visits, there are lapses of routine and discipline. In terms of diet, there are 3 which I hope to eradicate completely - those being chocolate, cheese and crisps. my problem is I can go fairly long times without needing them in the house but every now and again I cave in and stick them onto the tesco order and proceed to binge on them without restraint. Combine this with poor gym attendance and I think to myself "hmm, think I've put on some weight" or "my belly looks bigger than I remember" the self-esteem takes a nose dive and motivation follows it down too and there is no more will to change for the better arg!

Coming back to the present and after consuming a high number of crisps from the multipack I purchased over the weekend I decided to finish them off and announce "no more crisps!" It's difficult to explain why I do relapse in instances like this. Crisps are good to have around as they are super quick, zero preparation and can cure a shot of hunger but just like consuming a huge bar of chocolate I feel terrible after. Also how ridiculous is it that I am moaning by my inability to resist crisps!?

I believe the secret is some kind of sponsor, I see it as the only reason why other habits like preparing my lunch for work, hell even getting out of bed for work, driving lessons etc is that there is someone else there to make me accountable, someone that will be disappointed, pissed off if I don't do it.
So this is day 1 without crisps and the first day of a habit that I intend to keep - please keep me honest!

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Some gym motivation tips

Been a bit lazy on the blog recently, I blame my recent birthday and the rather cool celebrations that went down last weekend. Yes, for those that are interested I have now reached the ripe old age of 23 - pretty scary stuff, I'll be hitting 30 before I knows it.
Anyways, moving on and I thought I'd throw out some gym motivation tips, especially if like me your wardrobe is in serious need of a cold reset.

The first method of motivation I will detail here is the power of wearing old clothes that don't fit anymore due to all the weight you've lost on the treadmill/rower/bike machine etc. I was wearing some old jeans the other day and I because I was staying in and catching up on some hardcore tidying (soaking ftw!) I didn't feel the need to accessorise with a belt. But thanks to the inches lost on the belly, the jeans kept falling down, leading me first to walk around a bit like a cowboy in an effort to keep them up, finally resulting in conceding and applying a belt.

So that was looking back at the progress made, I remember a pair of shorts I got a few years back I purchased cos they were very cool (Saltrock shorts I believe...) but even back then they were a little tight. I wore them the other week for the first time since last Summer and was shocked at how much looser they appear now. Whilst that's great looking at past achievements, the contrary to the above is to look ahead to the future, what work still needs to be done? This is done by wearing a tee-shirt/sweater etc that is perhaps just a little too small. That way if you catch yourself in a mirror, you're immediately shocked by the less-than-perfect bump you've got going on for a belly (in my case at least). Whilst this can be potentially damaging.

...leading me first to walk around a bit like a cowboy in an effort to keep them up...

"After all this work I still look terrible" are examples of the thoughts, you really do have to think of it as a journey. I for one were thinking the same thoughts when I started, and sometimes, yeah, those same thoughts trickle back in, and I find that good motivation - it doesn't work for everyone. Basically I'll reach a point that I am happy with - I won't turn into some body builder type, I simply don't have enough time (or the desire for that particular look) for all that.

The thing with the gym is that is really is a battle of discipline and then attrition. Discipline is required to make yourself go on a regular basis and then attrition where if you go long enough, you will see the positives of your efforts. That being said I did set a goal of getting into shape that I'm very comfortable and happy with by the time I turned 23. I have missed that goal in my mind, although again the progress made is very encouraging, friends and family alike are commenting on how much better I look now - those shallow bastards! :P

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Part of your X a day...

Following on from positive rant about my progress made at the gym this is a quick look at my diet and my ongoing quest to reach a body shape/weight that I'm comfortable with.

Everyone is familiar with the recommended 5-a-day servings of fruit and veg. Now, it doesn't take a pro mathematician to tell you that one way to achieve this would be to have a portion at every meal, breakfast, dinner and tea, and pick up the other two portions via a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon/supper break.
Compound that with the recommendation that along with that we all should also aim for 3 servings of wholegrain wheat/fibre or at least that's what the animated cereal boxes before the weather tell me.
Now if you take those two recommendations, the only method of achieving this is to have either fruit and fibre or fruit-themed weetabix for every single meal of the day. Factor in all the other foodstuffs we should be eating, I read somewhere that you should try and eat fish once (it may have been twice) a week on top of that.

I am of course being a little silly but there is a quickly knocked up, rough round the edges solution to the problem. I am complaining as it seems pretty hardcore to actually succeed in hitting the target number of portions but I feel I am getting part way there, plus the other changes I've made to my diet which seemed to have had a positive effect (that is implied from the lack of negative effect)

When trying to start any positive habit, I've learnt some methods to hack out the result I want. The crucial lesson is to make small steps. Like with my gym attendance, at first I set myself a target of regular attendance, rather than actual targets in terms of distance run, weight bench-pressed etc and the same can be said with improving your diet. Now, I am the first to admit that my diet is less than perfect, but to increase my fruit intake I said to myself, hey buy a bunch of bananas and see how I get along. I evolved that into swapping a chocolate treat after my tea with a banana instead. I've now reached the point where if I choose to skip the post-tea banana or the house is out of bananas, I actually miss it. Now, that's taken a fair few weeks to build up the habit but it's now pretty much hard-coded into my daily routine.

As I alluded to above, I've also cut out pretty much all chocolate from my diet, the only chocolate I have now are the treats my Nan gives me whenever I go back home now. I still find myself every now and then thinking, "mmm, I could really go for a Mars bar," but not having them in the house makes the temptation only very slight.

I probably mentioned in passing the "fun" I had when I got some hardcore toothache towards the end of last year, I had to go in for root canal treatment. The cause of the problem was surprise, surprise too much sugar in my diet, particularly concentrate fruit juice. As a result of this, I've reduced the sugar in my diet which as there has been no noticeable negative effect, must be judged as positive. So pretty much every drink I have is sugar-free; I only drink Coke Zero now (if I have it in) which actually isn't too bad, it maintains the syrupy goodness I love, it's not for everybody, but it's something I think is pretty awesome. I've also dropped from 2 sugars to 1 sugar in my coffee at work. And speaking of Coffee, I've swapped over to Decaff which has not made me any more tired - it's all in your head that coffee keeps you awake.

There's quite a few more things I've done to achieve a diet that is a bit more healthy. I used to be an advocate for full-fat (blue) milk. They could have got me to go round people's houses and try to sell it, I was that much of a fan. I've managed to move from blue to green, and then from green to red, the semi-skimmed option which is the lowest in fat. I've also taken up drinking Cranberry juice (low in sugar variety of course) which is supposed to be very good for you what with all the antioxidants contained within (plus it apparently has more vitamin C in than concentrate Orange juice wtf!). I used to always snack around 10-11pm, so I'm slowly moving my teatime back in the evening to prevent munchies occurring before bed - I cannot sleep on an empty-ish stomach.

One part of my diet which still needs much improving is the fact that I still eat a fair amount of cheese. I intend to reach a point where, thanks to me finally learning how to knock out a cheese sauce, I will only consume cheese as part of the aforementioned cheese sauce to go with pasta. My Nan still likes to make cheese and onion quiche (and I still like to eat it :D) so that will eventually be the only other time.

I think I've been pretty successful in all these changes due to the fact that I've never set myself a target - "I will cut this food out of my diet by next Friday", and that way I've been taking those small steps towards my goal. It's not important how long it takes to get there, only that I get there eventually. Of course it may be better for some to set dates as part of targets, it's different for everyone. To quote scrubs

"A day spent wishing is a day wasted. If you want to be different, then be different" - Janitor

That being taken from the episode where Elliot has a makeover into the hot rocker chick with the messed-up hairdo.

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Time to tighten my belt...

No, this is not a topical rant brought on by the credit crunch, and/or my failed efforts to produce a proper budget, but rather more of a literal statement concerning my jeans etc. Yes, I mentioned a fair way back (about January) that I signed up for the local gym, and whilst I haven't managed to go as often as I would like, my efforts have gradually taken their toll (in a good way) on my body. I've been caught out without belt twice now, the most recent being today when I was carting my prescription home - it effectively doubled my trip, having to stop to pull up my jeans to stop them falling down altogether in public, oh dear how embarrassing that would be.


It first became apparent when I went home for Easter, and whilst round Eric and Karlie's, I spotted the scales and decided to check my weight. Now, I had weighed myself on the first time I went to the gym, and upon weighing myself at Easter, I had come down from 12 and 1/2 stone to around 11 and 3/4 stone. I was pretty chuffed at that. To add to the ego boost was my good buddy Carl's comments on how slimmer I was now looking. It's rather cool, and as it has been such a gradual thing it's been much less obvious for myself. It's quite terrible looking back at some older photos and see how how much fatter I was in the face especially. I think around about the time of my graduation I probably hit my peak weight, captured forever in my graduation snaps. And to make matters worse, my Nan insisted that I take one of graduation photos with me to hang up in my place here. First off, the photos were for my family not for myself, you have to be very vain to have pictures of yourself hanging up in your own home. Second, as I just said, I was quite a lot fatter in the face, so it's not fun to be reminded of that. And the bonus third reason being, that I generally don't photograph well (must be the subject matter /emo) - the photographer wasn't happy until I showed some teeth whilst smiling, although he never said as much, so I actually look a little uncomfortable having to hold a smile for so long.

"Smile! Come on, really smile!"
(under my breath) I am smiling you jackass.
[inadvertedly shows teeth] "There you go!"

Anyways, I'm going all OT. Yeah, so personally I've noticed it on the ol' face, mainly the cheeks and the chin, a lot more defined than they used to be. I've also noticed it in some of the clothes I wear. Some of my older shirts I have a 17" collar, but that is a lot looser now, the recent shirts I've bought now have 16.5" collar, and I could easily now take 16" collar to be honest. Also, how cool do black shirts look? Hell yeah. It's also noticeable in the belt I wear to work. A few months back I asked to get some new holes pierced into it, as the tightest hole was still quite loose. Now, those two holes are getting a bit loose now hehe.

Getting back to the gym and the other week I got back in from work, changed into my gym clothes as is my habit, this time putting on my Oakley shorts which I clearly had not worn for some time. Fast forward to myself on the treadmill and I'm noticing them starting to fall, oh dear I thought. Had to bring the jog to a close to avoid making an ass of myself, literally.


So overall, I very pleased with my progress, it's been quite gradual but consistent so I'm really starting to reap the rewards. As it was pointed out to myself quite some time ago. It's always better to be fit and healthy, you don't get sick as often, the long climb up the stairs is nowhere near as taxing, and clothes fit better - all this combines to an improved self esteem. I'm not quite sure I'm a completely changed person, but I'm getting there and I really do feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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Gym me up Scotty!

Yes another blog from work, just keeping it brief, heralding the imminent return of the Gym Impressions posts which had a short-lived history last year. Obviously, since moving I have not been able to keep up my regular attendance at Wem's excuse for a gym, but rejoice! I have joined my local JJB fitness club and pretty swish is it too.

Obviously the amount of people is a lot higher, i.e. more than 1 but with that there are more machines and apparatus for me to look very cool struggling away, sweating like a bastard, I belive is the term...
I am of course taking my mini mp3 player along with me, as I am not partial to the dance rave-a-thon themed music they have booming out. So this would mean a chance to stick on some choons and jog the night away. Speaking of which, Reuben's "We're all going home in an ambulance" is an absolute must for upping the pace. It starts playing and I reach for the speed up button = winnar! Other possible gym reviews coming up would be Motion City Soundtrack's latest venture "Even if it kills me", (mmm, no emo vibe going on there, lol) and Tellison's "Contact! Contact!" which have been recommended to me by Adam, has a lot of promise.

In other news, the look of the blog needs a bit of work, I changed the header image as I was annoyed that the image wasn't stretching at higher resolutions, and even post-change it's actually no better. Do not view this at 1680x1050 like I did with my shiny new monitor, it's scary! So I will put aside a bit of time to sort that.
I also want to spruce up the site with a few more pics. Blogger have produced a Flickr slideshow widget so I need to populate my Flickr account, and get that happening. Unfortunately, as I discovered just before I went to the NFL london game last year, my digital camera has stopped working, so I was left to cope with my mobile phone camera, which is frankly a bit rubbish. Anyways, I have some pics on there, some fun, some a little random from my travels on the train.

A lot of my stuff has been broken, or in need of replacing when it came to the move, and I'm slowly working through all my material goods. The first thing that needed replacing was the weak 14" TV - I now have a lurvely 37" HD TV monster! (again pics have been promised for some time...). I have just replaced my 15" monitor which my Mother broke but refuses to admit to it. So the next thing I need to replace is the digital Camera, and I'm also hell bent on finally getting myself an iPod classic, it will happen, maybe after next payday.

That's enough of my lunch hour spent blogging, time to go eat. So yeah, look forward to Gym Impressions blogs coming soon, and I also want to have a positive rant about the xbox 360's latest dashboard update so check that out.
Take it easy.

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Gym update 17th July

Hey peeps, thought I'd give a short update to the masses on my progress a la gym.  It's not been so bad so far, I was initially planning on going every weekday when I first started but as I've quickly learned my body needs time to recover, plus it causes a detrimental effect to the next session, so there.

So yeah, been able to go 3 times a week since starting.  Treadmill-wise I believe I have made great progress on the long term goal I set myself when I started, that being to be able to run/jog a mile and a half in 12mins or less.  The first time I went I ran just a mile in 15mins just to see where I was at.  The next session I moved the distance up to a mile and a half, I believe, I ran that the first time in about 18mins, and since then I've been slashing my PB since then.  As of the 17th, my PB stands at 12:21, which I'm pretty chuffed at considering the short time period in which I've been going.  I'm thinking at the next session, which is booked for Thursday, I should make an attempt at my first time under 12mins.  I actually find the treadmill easier to run faster than, say round a field.  The treadmill carries you to a certain extent, and being able to explicitly control your pace, is something I don't have the discipline to do outdoors.

As I may have mentioned I also jog to and from the gym.  This is usually the distance from one end of the school field, where I start, to the point where I reach the point on the playground which is close to the sports centre entrance.  I timed this the day before I went to the gym just to see what time I would have to leave the house in order to reach the start of the session in time.  Anyways, it's about a min and a half at a temperate jog.  The weird thing is, no doubt down to adrenalin, is the fact that I actually the return leg a lot faster than the initial one.  I even found myself singing along to Sparta, but more about that later.

Weights wise, I have definitely improved upon the initial weights I was using a few weeks back.  The leg press I've improved substantially, no doubt from this extra running I've been doing :D.  Anyways, I think I started on about 10 (they measure only these weights in numbers), and now I'm on about 16-17, which works out at about 150-60kg when consulting their conversion chart thingy.  The max weight is about 220kg on the stack I believe.  As Mike asked, the real only judge of weight training is how much can I bench LOL.  When I started, I worked quickly up to 35kg, finding that challenging enough to form a good basis from.  After a couple of sessions I moved up probs more comfortably than  was expected to 40kg.  As of yesterday's session, I have moved up to 45kg, which only starts to get really really tough towards the end of the hour workout, when I've lifted/ran/rowed/pushed god knows how much.  But yeah I'm really chuffed with the progress I've been making.  There's this one hardcore guy who I've shared one session with who is all about the weight training - particularly the benching.  He is on 80kg so fair play to him - maybe I should feel embarassed when I moved his peg to 40kg, but everyone has to start somewhere.

 

After yesterday's session, I went, as per usual, to book myself in for the next session.  The guy behind the desk let me do it myself, and he noticed my Warwick Uni hoodie I was wearing.  He asked me how long I'd been there, to which I replied that I had finished, graduated last June.  He then asked me what did I study, offering media, and then sport before I could answer.  I'm not too sure what his thinking was behind those suggestions, perhaps that I was more likely to do the subjects cos I was going to the gym, or what my initial reckoning was that he thought I was a bit stupid and not very academically minded.  Well I finally replied "Computer Science" and that shut him up. By this time I had finished booking myself so I promptly left, feeling a slight sense of victory, and then preceded to do some singing while I ran home LOL.

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Watching other people exercise = 12cals/min...

Hey, another gym-related post as it is something I am very pleased, excited and generally happy with.  The second time I went (Thursday) I unfortunately was not alone like the first time.  It did mean having to potentially worry what other people thought of me, but it was ok, as these two older women come in, and they were larger than me, one in particular was very much so, the mechanics of it don't bear thinking about (except the initial thought which determined that the mechanics would not be appreciated if thought was applied to calculating their values).

 

Anyways, I can appreciate the social aspect of going to the gym. Many people go with friends/work colleagues.  Some people pick up dates at the gym. Hell, there's a lot of people that express going to the gym as a hobby, which seems bizarre. Bizarre enough to warrant my current facebook profile (see facebook).  That being said, these girls were coming to the gym, you know good for them, it's the one of the steps towards improving yourself, but it seemed they spent most of the time chatting to each other, either one of them walking on a treadmill and the other on a bike machine, or one of them on the rowing machine and the other with the crayzee sit-up aid thing, and vice versa.

 

It wasn't that much of a problem to me, I was pretty much able to use the equipment when I wanted, all the weight equipment was available, and I got in my mile and a half jog so I was ok.  Now, the gym itself is just off to the side of the sports hall which as you imagine is used for extra curricular activities - that evening's was five a side football.  Anyhoo, the last 10-15mins of their "workout", which turned out to be about 40-45mins of the allotted hour, was those two watching the football. Now I don't think for a second that these women were fans of the game, even at this, one of the lowest levels you can technically have, it was just those two checking out the guys on display in the hall.  That made me shudder to myself, but then again, fat girls need lovin' too...

 

Here's waiting for the Girl's five-a-side tourney at the school...

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"Is it Jim?" / "No, it's Hughes, I'm here for the gym.... crap" *holds head*

Hey all, Just thought I'd blog about my recent ventures to the gym, something I intend to do heavily on a regular basis.  I've been putting it off for ages, but the start of July came, and I thought hell, why not, I'm not getting any fitter/losing any weight, sitting on my ass trying to force myself to go.

Now, the gym is in fact the small one they have at the Secondary School, and although it's not much, I am happy to use it as leaving the house, jogging to the school actually puts me in the correct frame of mind for some mean gymming.  One goal I have set myself apart from the general ones, those being to improve my general fitness, lose weight, get some proper upper body strength.  Yeah, it's a little worrying that I'm a little out of breath after climbing  a reasonably large flight of stairs - that's when I started to think to myself, I need to do something about this.   The losing weight is pretty obvious, although I'm not really fat, I do have a bit of a belly which my Nan attributes to "beer", but yeah I'm about 12 and a half stone now, although haven't weighed myself for a while, but that weight I am happy with, just want to work on the process of making that weight more productive, i.e. turning some fat into badass muscle, grrr. The general fitness is my main aim, there are times at work, when I'm moving boxes etc and I find myself for want of a bit more strength lifting things, particularily over my head, so there are the straightforward, logical reasons, oh and finally to pick up chicks lol. Nah, as I said, it's a small gym so it doesn't get that many attendees, and even less that are in fact hot...

 

At the turn of this year, Eric had this plan of joining the Navy, of which the only fitness requirement is to be able to run a mile and a half in under 12mins.  Along with the general fitness, the aim of achieving the 12min target seems a sensible long-term target to work towards. I say, long-term because despite my questionable fitness, my second time on  the treadmill, and my first attempt at the full mile and a half distance, I ran it in just over 15mins.  Still a bit off, but I reckon I can get that down by some next time (Friday), it's just a case of getting used to the distance, and then working at getting the time down.

 

Speaking of the gym more generally, I am concentrating on the treadmill as mentioned above, the rowing machine, which is good for arms and actually quite a lot of fun, and the varying methods of lifting weights.  Mike asked what am I benching (obviously gym/work out slang), to which I can confirm that after feeling out where I was the first time, I have settled on 35kg as a basis to work from, although the last time I went (Thursday) I tried out 40 and obviously a bit tougher going, but manageable. 

 

It was particularly cool the first time I went the first time as I had the equipment to myself, so I didn't have to worry about looking flustered, or straining to pump the iron (that's the correct terminology right?).  I also had a go at a few chin-ups, man they are tough, and I conclude that after doing a fair few reps of varying weights I cannot hang from the chinup bar with one hand - perhaps I needed chalk?...

 

Also the great thing about going to the gym and the jogs there and back is what it is doing to my self-esteem. It is very premature to expect my build to be changing, but it may be down to an inflated ego, but already I feel better in myself. It does honestly feel good to do a workout, once resting pulse is reached again, to actually be making a difference to myself. Contrary to what Fight Club says, self improvement rocks!

 

It does seem really weird when in the gym, myself personally I'm making it a habit of jogging at least a mile and a half and rowing 1km but it's very weird that all that effort doesn't actually get me mile and a half down the road (or river)

 

Also something I am also quite pumped in doing is taking my music into the gym, block out everyone else and have something actually decent to listen to. I've also decided that it may be worth using the time to listen to some new albums (or old ones :D) which I've been meaning to give a proper listen, so more of that later.

Here's feeling fitter already, and you can too!...

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