Pete

I’ve been going to the gym on and off for 3 years now, but really just maintaining my weight and fitness rather than improving. I don’t like the gym and its generally a chore, especially when you are not getting the results you want.

Even having programs set up by personal trainers in the past, never really worked in the long run without the push and fine tuning of having a personal trainer. At $50-$80 a session (on top of gym fees), having a personal trainer for every workout wasn’t that feasible.

Then along came Crazy Paul (he had to be distinguished from Thai Paul). An old acquaintence, having thrown in his white collar job for a sea change became a personal trainer with an idea that I haven’t really seen much before at the gym.

This idea is to have 3 people sharing a single session with the personal trainer, and circuit training for an hour at a third of the cost ($20 per session). Realistically, I don’t think many people need one-on-one time with their personal trainer every session, so I feel like I’m getting a great workout with enough guidance and push from Paul even when I share.

Now I have 3 sessions a week with a personal trainer. I work out with my mates which makes it something of a social activity and less of a boring workout. We pay $60 in advance for the week’s program. Each session we skip will cost us $20, so it keeps us motivated to go.

Paul keeps track of our fitness and adjusts the program regularly to push us till we vomit (almost), and inject some variety.

I’ve only been doing this for two months, and already I have seen great results. I’ve been eating a lot of junkfood lately due to the nature of my job, instead of the healthier diet I used to adopt, but still I’m seeing a reduction in my waist, growing bigger muscles and improving core fitness generally. I’ve never been so healthy in my adult life before.

I’m beginning to enjoy going to the gym now that I see the results I want, and bonding more with my friends who are feeling the same. At worst, I’m only reluctant to go, but rarely enough to skip a session.

Sure, I’m still spending $60 a week extra, but at least now I’m feeling like I’m getting value for my gym fees.

My personal trainer put me through a strength test last night. I’m now benchpressing triple what I could have done when I started (85kg), I can almost do my chin-ups unassisted (thats 92kg), and I never reached the limit of my ability when it came to doing squats. Even the trainer was blown away by the results. I was the last member to join the team (and at the time a good deal less fit than the others), and already the strongest.

Cant wait to see what the next two months brings. A new high score I hope.

I used to have the goal of losing weight, but my recent training success has made this seem a little inaccurate. Back when I was 110kg it was a wholly appropriate term, but after losing and keeping off 25kg I have had trouble cutting through the 85kg barrier.

I still have a bit of a gut etc to lose, but recent heavy training has shown that I’m not going to get much further without building more muscle. Larger muscles burn more calories and so its a good way to reduce that last layer of blubber and keep it off.

Muscle weighs more than fat though, so in two months of heavy training I have actually put on 6kg, even though I can see my waistline decreasing and my musculature increasing.

So I have a new goal.

I just enrolled me and my partner in a 1 session real estate for dummies course. Neither of us know anything about buying a place, so I at least want to be informed about what I’m doing. Im amazed at the number of people who know nothing about getting a mortgage or property investment before investing 100s of 1000s of dollars in a place.

Its on the 31st of January.

I confess that this is something that hasn’t been high on my list of priorities. Getting a mortgage, owning a place, etc. Realistically these days, homeowners don’t own their home, the bank does. Rent money might be dead money, but so is interest on a home loan.

But my partner wants to own a home and wants me to want to. I ‘m not one to bow to pressure much, but I suppose I’m 36 years old and not getting any younger. If I do it right then it is probably of benefit.

I can get by in 43 Things, maintain a list, do a blog entry etc. I really want to understand it, and its potential though. Really just a matter reading the documentation I suppose :)

In a recent visit to Shanghai, I just bought box sets of the first 4 seasons to Lost. Now I just have to find the time to sit down and watch them. I have to compete with my partner who can’t get enough of watching Korean soap operas dubbed in Thai every night.

Finally, after getting my financial act together this year, I bought myself a basic espresso machine. No automatic push-of-a-button coffees, since that would defeat the purpose of it.

Slowly getting the hang of making a basic latte. When I get some time (I just moved house and I’m settling in) I would like to get into a course to learn more. I didnt want to before, because I wanted something to practise on outside of class times.

http://www.lang-8.com

This site is devoted to people getting in touch with others to teach each other the language of their choice.

How it works? You write journal entries in the language of your choice and have others who speak the language natively correct you, including explaining nuances of ‘real’ language. In turn, as a native speaker of your language, you help others out.

I’m using it now to help me with my Indonesian. I write a paragraph or two in Indonesian at a time, and numerous Indonesians will correct my entries.

Check it out!

I’ve taken a personal trainer onboard three times a week. I know this sounds unimaginably expensive, but I’m sharing each session with two friends. We circuit train together under the direction and push of the personal trainer at a third of the cost. I don’t find the gym fun generally, but it becomes a social activity with my friends as much as a workout. Not much more expensive than going out to dinner with them three times a week.

We also pay up front for 3 sessions a week. This way, if I decide not to go, I’ve still paid for it. It keeps me motivated a little more. Sometimes if the others in the team cancel, I have a personal training session to myself at their expense.

There’s some flexibility in times also. There’s technically 6 of us over over two sessions, so we can swap times with each other to suit.

Maybe the equivalent of a session a week in price, every week, sounds a lot, but I’m getting so much better value from the gym. Instead of just maintaining my current level of fitness as I was before, I’m actually seeing definate improvements, all within a couple of months. More than I have accomplished in a year on my own, and I hardly ever skip a session.

Technically I haven’t lost weight. I’ve actually put on 5 kilos. I have definately lost fat though, and the extra weight is because I have put on more muscle.

I’m going to split this out into smaller goals. Becoming fluent in another language is a BIG task, and if I’m going to get any sense of achievement on here, I’m going to have to split it out into milestones. I’ll keep this one open, but there will be other Indo items ont he list.

I’ve watched all 23 episodes of Season 1 just in time. Season 2 is airing this week. It’s been quite a marathon. Having watched this series in such a concentrated manner, I’m really growing to love this series. I will probably buy Season 2 now also.

I’ve bought season 1 2 days after it was released in Australia. Now I’m churning though the episodes. I’ve gotten though 12 (started from the beginning). I have until Oct 4 before season 2 begins, so if I keep it up at a steady pace, I should be OK.

Season 1 is coming out in Australia on Sept 19. Gonna get my copy. I think Heroes season 2 starts on 27th.

I’ve finally got my credit balance down to zero. So considering this task done. Sure I have a personal loan to still pay off, but the interest is so much less, and as simple to pay as a direct debit each month. There’s no value to keeping this task open. I just received my annual bonus which I’m going to throw into the loan to pay it off faster.

I wouldnt be in this space if it weren’t for ‘43 Things’, and the support and advice of its members.

I’ve taken my credit card debt and turned it into a personal loan. My debt is down to $1,517.76 on my card now, with no interest owing on it. There is only even this much (as opposed to a zero balance) because I’ve recently moved house and have had things like bonds and buying new furniture to contend with. I should be able to clear it within the next fortnight or so.

Still got a debt to pay, but its going to be at an easier rate, and at an interest rate I can manage. And I feel so much less stressed! Without 43 Things its probably something I never would have thought of.

Next thing to do is axe my credit card down limit to something I can’t get myself in trouble with.

I just did the sums, and thanks to student loans I’m going to be having to pay a few thousand more in taxes again. So much for using it to help pay off the bill. On the bright side, I won’t need to pay the taxes until about October/November. I’ll just have to rely on my annual bonus for that chunk reduction (hopefully coming sooner than later).

Its not until you really need to save that you start being careful with it, well I guess thats the case for me at least. Moving into a new apartment I went to do a bit of research into contents insurance rates. Soon enough found a policy more wide reaching than my current one, for less than half the cost. Think twice before going with NRMA.

It’s worked out to be an expensive fortnight. My balance today is back to 17,647.81. That’s pretty much where I was 4 weeks ago. On top of that my interest for this is up 7% compared to last month. But still down 10% from the month before.

It’s a bit of a problem also that I can’t pay off my card much this month because I have to use $1000 of it to put towards the bond of my new place. I’ll be doing the same next fortnight also.

Putting $647.81 on it to get me down to an even $17000 (down 3.2%). Where I was on May 23. A lean fortnight ahead.

I just have to tell myself that I’m going to be saving money by moving to the new place, in the long term.

Please God Please give me a generous tax return! I can’t afford another blow like last year.

Finally, signed the lease this morning. Even decided to take a look at the apartment again before heading off to work. The more I see it, the more I like it. I can’t wait to get it all set up :D

I’ve just finalised moving to a new apartment, and moving in with my partner. It means I’m going to miss my targets for a bit, since I need to pay a couple of weeks rent overlap, and have to have 2 months of rent upfront payment to sign the lease (which is being paid by my other half, who is more financially liquid, but i want to pay him back ASAP).

But when is all said and done, im going to pay 50 bucks less a week in rent, and utilities etc will be reduced. I’m finally going to get a land line and VOIP as well which will save on the mobile bills.