No strictly my own dog, and I don’t even live there any more, but my parents got a new dog the other month – Rex! Something I never thought they’d do, but it’s been great getting to spend time here over xmas. I don’t think I’ll really be able to have my own one for a good while, I work too much and then spend too much time away – and that’s not forgetting I don’t even have my own proper place yet!
Saw some quite amazing amateur art pieces someone was trying to sell in town the other day, but didn’t have any money so didn’t get to asking how much they were. If they’re there again though I’d love to get one, they were really very special.
Since I set this task I’ve made good friends with several people from my job at the council and also on my new degree. It kinda helped having those changes in my life which meant I met these new people, but it is great to have more people I feel I can randomly catch up with.
I’m not perfect – I still have times when I drink more than I intended. But the very heavy nights drinking are fewer and further between, and I don’t think there’s quite so much compulsion to drink so much. Fingers crossed this is a long-term change – I’m quietly confident that I’ll actually find this one easier to keep up too once I’ve moved away from living with parents – when I won’t have the readily available stash of alcohol available all the time.
As having started a new job working in a hospital, a training session in resuscitation was part of our essential induction courses. Really glad I now feel I know what to do should I find myself needing to carry out CPR, plus we were briefly shown how to use the defibrillator too.
Additionally I feel I’m competent enough to know what to do in the event of burns, various cuts and such-like. I found the site http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/first-aid-advice.aspx particularly worthwhile reading.
I’d say I’m pretty spontaneous these days. Last night at midnight I decided with my brother to drive out into the country to watch the meteors, and we headed out there and then.
So we spent a good hour late at night sitting back on the bonnet of his car watching them in a quiet lay-by on the top of a hill, well outside of town where it was away from the lights of my town. It was good fun actually!
I’ve finally settled on a career that I want to do – clinical technologist working in nuclear medicine, and have had a place offered so I’ll be starting next month!
OK, so the wages won’t be great to start with and it’ll take me a good four years to become qualified, but I know that at the end of that I’ll have a solid, reasonably-well paid career. And I’m looking forward to it, I think it’s something I’ll enjoy.
Hopefully soon I’ll have the money then to start doing the other things on my list!
..since I started! It’s taken over 2 months, so I’m hardly up for slimmer of the year, but that doesn’t matter – it’s supposed to be better to lose it steadily anyway. But what really matters is that I’m shedding the excess fat that I don’t want, and building up muscle. I really want to get rid of the belly!
So I’m now apparently just below 10st 9, my next target is 10st 7 so hopefully I should be able to reach that in a matter of days, then go from there.
Hmm.. rumour is that they have split for good :(
But they’ve said that before.. hopefully they’ll play together again, and when they do I will make sure I’m there!
I totally lost all motivation on this one for a good three weeks or so – it’s hard when all my parents seem to do is bring home a whole load of doughnuts, cakes etc most evenings a week, not to mention all the different puddings and crap they have to eat for after lunch. I don’t even like them half the time, I just feel obliged to eat them because they are there. I don’t get that problem when I live away, because I don’t bother to buy them.
Anyways, for the three weeks or whatever, I had given up on my exercise, and was just eating everything that came my way again.
However, there doesn’t seem to be any harm done – apparently I’m perhaps a pound or two lighter than I was before.. Not quite sure how that works, maybe the momentum carried on even after I’d stopped exercising, and I haven’t been drinking too much recently so that probably helps. But the main thing is that as of this weekend I have got back into exercising/cutting down on food again. Tomorrow I should have chance to check my weight/fat percentage on the more accurate scales.
I feel much better with my asthma now – I remember to take my inhaler most of the time these days, though I do still forget time to time.
I still obviously need to keep on an eye on this one – just because it’s ok at the moment that doesn’t meant it’s the be all or end all. Indeed, there’s still good chance this one could come back again if I don’t keep an eye on things.
For the first time in ages, probably. I’m just under when I weighed myself this morning – 10st 13.4lbs!
I don’t feel quite so big across my stomach – my beer belly is steadily going! And on top of that, my arms and legs are beginning to become more muscular, which is good.
So since I started this one, I have lost around 3/4 of a stone, which isn’t bad going, and I haven’t had to starve myself to get there either! Plus I’ve probably lost more than that amount in fat, given that my gain in muscle mass is counteracting the fat loss. I’m quite pleased with how this has been going.
Yet still, I have some way to go to get where I want to be, so my next target now I guess will be to shake off the next half a stone – Target = 10st7!
I’ve been doing quite well at this one, I’ve succeeded in cutting down on my food and alcohol intake as well as stepping up on my exercise.
I am now below 11st2, so I have lost half a stone now in total since I started this task, and it shouldn’t be long before I’m back down below the 11st mark for the first time in what must be years.
Perhaps even better than the weight loss, is that my overall body fat has decreased from 21.9% down to 21.0%, whilst I have increased my muscle percentage from 34.3% up to 34.7%.
However, I do still wish to lose even more, this task has only just begun.
Well this one wasn’t going great, and then I went and got tonsillitis so I had two or three sleepless nights in a row. However, since then I have been able to get some good nights in and feeling somewhat better now as a result
There’s no point me building up my arms and legs if my torso still remains as unfit as it is. So this goal will hopefully send me on my way a bit to that: at least 50 crunches a day for a month, to be made up on following days should a day be missed (with an exception to any days lost through illness)
March 13th – 80
March 14th – 30
OK, I’ve always been one to assume it’s actually not that hard to lose weight, so long as you really want to do it. And I don’t believe there’s a need for fad diets that don’t really work.
But I’ve never really felt like I really wanted to lose any real weight, until now that is…!
I’m not a huge guy – I wouldn’t say I was excessively overweight for my height and build (my BMI is literally just on the boundary), but I would rather like to get back into shape and lose the beer belly if at all possible!
I currently weigh approx 11st9, so my initial target will be 11st3, and then hopefully down to 11st if all goes well.
I plan to do this by:
a) Cutting out snacks (easy for me, not something I do a lot of)
b) No more kebabs/burgers etc! (commonplace on a night out!)
c) Exercising every day, when possible
d) Reducing alcohol intake (the toughest one for me, if I could do that then I’d be achieving two goals in one)
So yeah, I’ve never tried this before so no idea what a realistic target would be, but if I can reach 11st3 by this time next month I will be happy
Well, seeing as circumstances don’t really allow for me to achieve my other goal of getting a regular sleeping pattern, this will be my short term goal.
I’ve two main reasons for doing this – firstly, I do feel so much better when I’ve been getting enough sleep, so I would like to feel like that again if possible. And secondly, my eyes look such a mess through where I’ve been rubbing them because they’re so tired, so hopefully catching up on sleep will help with that too.
The target is to get approx 8 hours/night
9th March ~7 hours
10th March ~4 hours
11th March ~5 hours
12th March ~6 hours
13th March ~6 hours
14th March ~8 hours
Well, I had an interview for Air Traffic control, having got through the first phase of selection. So this goal’s been achieved now, though it doesn’t mean I won’t have to apply for more jobs, I’m still a little way off actually securing a job.
OK, this one isn’t really happening so I’m going to abandon it. I don’t think the answer lies in planning my time quite so specifically, at least not until I have some kind of routine job or something. As it is it just doesn’t work for me.
Was pretty spectacular, didn’t get much chance to see it for long as was out in town, but saw it when it was red! Wasn’t a cloud in sight, which for South-West UK is quite something! If only it had been like that for the solar eclipse eight years ago…!
