Being in Seoul, S. Korea, and the 12-13 hour time difference from my home, America, sometimes I have to stay up late to catch up with friends, or to handle some business.
Anyhoo, yesterday, I didn't go to be until 5:30AM...unless I'm going out, this is very unusual. I love sleep and would not miss it for anything...even a special someone.
However, the Michael Jackson memorial was live on CNN. I didn't plan on watching it, but while on Facebook, all my friends were basically updating me with their statuses.
And another friend in Korea messaged me and told me how I could watch it live.
And then I couldn't stop watching it...it was such a beautiful ceremony! Very heartfelt, yet sad! I also realized other friends in Korea were up late watching...
When it was over, around four, i even watched the high lights. and yes, i did cry in the end. Anyway, sleeping past 5:30pm put the whole next day out of whack.
I had little energy and started off on the bike very slow.
I didn't plan on running at all. I'd just do 40 min on the bike. I burned 530 kcal on the bike and decided to just run for just 10 min...
Lo and behold, I couldn't stop. i felt great. I eased my pace from the days before, so i was very comfortable!
I ran my 5k. I didn't think I could b/c lack of sleep and energy. But I did. And then I lifted weights. I'm incredibly happy about that.
I need to lose 2 kilos by Saturday...today is Thursday.
There's this mud festival on a beach this weekend. We'll see.

For the last few years i've pretty much let myself go. When i was in my 20's i was in great shape and i took pride in the way i looked. But, as soon as i hit my thirties and i started a family with my wife, my fitness and health pretty much took a back seat.
I started to put on weight in my eaarly 30's and my belly has got bigger and bigger each year. It's only now that i finally have the time to do anything about it, but it's been such an up hill struggle. I'm so out of shape that it almost feels like an impossible task. But,
I'm getting there. This site has been great and I thought i'd use these blog posts as a way of keeping track of my progress and a way to keep me motivated.
If you're in the same boat, them maybe i might be able to help you out a little too.

Hello. Firstly, I would just like to thank all the other would be bloggers that are here, and itching to get started. Come one, get your pens out and start blogging!

I have started my fitness regime, again, with renewed vigour. Last year I lost 10kg, and got my weight down to about 84kg. Just before Christmas, I stopped my healthy diet, stopped exercising, and between Christmas and May I put on 10 or 12kg - at my maximum I was 97kg. I had to make a change. Again.

I decided that I do not want to be the fat dad picking his son up from school, or to keel over and die of a heart attack when I am 45 years old, leaving my family without their rock. So I need to lose weight.

My home gym (garage) has turned into a storage room. The power rack and weights are all there still, but covered in paddling pools, bouncy castles, high chairs, old furniture plus many bags of miscellaneous items that my wife has instructed me to move to the garage. So essentially, my gym is out of order. So, I am running.

I now run around my village, with is about 2.5 miles. Maybe 3. Not really sure. It takes me about 30 minutes. It is hard. I start easy, speed up a little, slow down a little, then sprint as fast as I can up the final hill. I work bloody hard on the last hill climb, panting, sweating. Usain Bolt would be proud of me. Maybe.

Also doing some circuit training, although now that I am running more, I am focussing on press ups, crunches and dumbbell curls. Last night I did 40 press ups in one go, followed by another 30. A few weeks ago 20 was my maximum.

I feel fitter, and I am happy with progress. Although it is still slow. I am still about 94kg, so a long way to go. But I feel better, and I am running better, which means I will burn more fat and lose more weight. The fitter and stronger I get, the harder I can work, which means I lose more weight. Like a snowball effect, but in reverse. Reversing the Snowball. Now that makes a good title.

Well, now been for 3 runs. Feeling good. After each run I do some circuit training too, just crunches, push-ups and hyper extensions. Still curling the 10kg dumbbells that live under my bed. Lost a little bit of weight, but once again, still lots to lose. But I WILL DO IT THIS TIME!!!

Last night I went out for what can only be described
as an impromptu run. I have been exercising again recently, this time with
bodyweight circuit training. I have been doing my workout every other day,
each time aiming to increase reps for each exercise. This circuit I follow
is star jumps (jumping jacks), squats, lunges, press ups, crunches and squat
thrusts. I have been making progress. On the last session I managed over 600
exercises.

I have also been doing dumbbell curls on other days, sometimes both morning
and evening. I keep a pair of dumbbells under the bed so that they are
always easily to get hold of. I am currently using a 10kg dumbbell and
perform a few sets of 10 on each arm.

But, last night I fancied something different. I needed to get out of the
house fo a bit, so decided to go for a run. I planned it to be about 30
minutes jogging, following the route I used to do last year. However, half
way round, I decided to go a little further, so I ran up Vicerage Lane that
leads out of Great Baddow. I did not leave the house until about midnight
(computer problems kept me in) but this meant that the roads were very
quiet. In fact, I did not pass a single car all night on the back lanes.

Running along the country lane in the dark was a very strange experience. I
had been raining, but was still overcast, so very dark in some spots. At one
point I did stop and walk as I could not see anything. Then later, seconds
after thinking to myself "what would happen if I twisted my dodgy ankle out
here" I almost fell into a pot hole (more a river valley actually). But I
plodded on. I had no choice. My knowledge of the back roads is not too good
(although better after last night) so I was not entirely sure if I would be
able to circle around back home without running for miles and miles. I did

While dining in a seaside cafe over the weekend I could not help hearing a conversation the cafe owner was having with a friend that stopped by on the way home. The cafe owner was talking about her husbands battle with his weight. He had been diagnosed with diabetes and had entered a state of depression, which resulted in more comfort eating than previously.

She was also overweight, but making an effort to diet, and was managing to lose a few pounds each week, but her husband was in denial. He would say that he was dieting, and then have a full English breakfast with fries and toast. Some days he would not leave his bed for dinner.

As together they owned and ran the cafe, they were constantly surrounded by junk food and often had little time to prepare healthy food for themselves. They had thought about selling, in fact the cafe owner even said that she hated working at the cafe now, but they could not afford to live without the income and would not get a good price if they sold up. She did understand the real problem though, that the problem with psychological. She all said the she thought that hypnosis could be the answer, if she could get her husband to agree.

This reminded me of the Paul Mckenna approach. He made himself famous with his hypnosis stage acts, but developed this into a method of helping people to lose weight through positive thinking. Essentially weight loss is aboutpositive thinking. Stress leads to anxiety and despair, which drains a person of motivation and the desire to fight on. If people can stay positive and believe in themselves, then they can make the changes required to lose weight and get fit. However, sometimes they need a helping hand from a professional, sometimes even loving partners cannot help them dig their way out of a downward cycle of depression and despair.

Just done some exercise. Totally knackered. First exercise for a while. Off for a shower. Attached camera photo of workout log. This was my first major exercise session for a while. Once again I had let my exercise slip and put on weight. Today I decided to do a bodyweight 500 challenge, with a few extra exercises meaning that the initial aim was to do 560 exercises in total. I did not manage to stick to the plan. The sqaut thrusts almost killed me, so I stopped those after just two sets. Also the ski lateral jumps were too much with the star jumps, squats and lunges. What really killed in the end were the push ups, however I fought on with those. For the final set I went all out and did extra, and when I saw that I was still 20 short, did another 20 star jumps to cool down. I thought about doing some bicep curls later, but then never got around to it.

As a continued effort to both get fit and save money in these hard economic times, I walked home from the station again today. According to CardioTrainer, it was 2.86 miles, and took 48 minutes. Average speed was 3.7mph, with a max of 4.7mph.

I did slow down to send some text messages (Google chats in fact) so I could have done it quicker, but a good time.

My route:

On Saturday I cooked up a big lasagne as I had friends over for lunch, but I think all the pasta and garlic bread triggered an upset stomach. I spent Sunday feeling terrible, had no energy and spent a lot of the afternoon in bed.

I have had a two almost wheat free days. On Sunday I ate scrambled eggs on evil toast, then bananas, a few pots of yoghurt and more bananas. Today I ate beans, hash browns, a sausage, baked potato with cottage cheese and cheddar, 2 tins of mackerel in tomato sauce, a banana, and a few tablespoons of Body Fortress Muscle and Weight Gainer supplement with 300ml of milk.

Today I was better, although not 100%, but decided I had to get back in the garage. So I did my usual weight training routine, lots of reps, low weight.

Squats
Bodyweight 50

Shoulder Press
20kg - 15
30kg - 7
30kg - 8

Incline bench press
30kg - 10
40kg - 7
40kg - 8
40kg - 6

Ez-curls
20kg - 10
20kg - 12
20kg - 10

EZ-bar Tricep extensions
20kg - 8

Assisted pullups (jumping with focus on negative lowering)
6

Well, its been about 2 weeks since i began this "fitness regime", and im still going strong!, which im very happy about normaly when i start this (and have done many a time) ill end up giving up because of other comitments and the like, though i am beggining to find that its getting harder to run each day i go out, but that might just be because ive been quite tired this week, hopefully thats the only reason!

well fingers crossed i can keep it up for good! i already feel the difference in the way i feel, and people have even said that i look like i have lost weight! yay!! :D