Spanner in the works

Hmm I seem to have acquired a job! I start on Monday. Hopefully it wont get in the way of my weightloss and fitness plan. Although people all over the world manage to hold down a job, get/stay in shape, have a happy and fulfilling home life and hang out with their friends. That's what I aim to do. Except now I'll have 40 hour or so less per week to fit it all in!

I didn't get to the gym yesterday, so that has to be my aim today. I'm aching a bit in my right shoulder from football on Monday night. I shouldn't throw the ball as hard as I do maybe, but my throw-outs are a key weapon in the armoury of our attacking play, which shows how limited the armoury is I suppose!

I've said before that I wanted to make September alcohol-free. It hasn't worked out like that. Mostly because when I'm in a social situation and people are drinking beer I just like to fit into the social norm. People around me were having 6 and 7 beers, but I nursed the 1. I was pretty pleased with myself really for showing such restraint.

It's about time I made breakfast anyway I think, so I'd best do that. My stomach is rumbling which is never that nice really...

I might as well start a new blog!

It's been so long since I posted on here that I was thinking about starting a new blog, but I've decided to persevere with this one. It seems that I want a way of keeping track of my weightloss, and it might be good to do it on here.

This year I have lost 12kg. That is more than I've lost over a sustained period of time before. It works out as 12.5lbs or 1st 12.5lbs. I think that's pretty amazing really. i now weigh around 112kg. i want to weigh 108kg by Christmas Eve. So that's another 9lbs. I also want to be able to run 10km in an hour. I can run 6.5km in 45 mins atm.

These targets will be challenging, but they are achievable. And that's the whole point. I'm so determined to carry on improving my fitness. I feel pretty good at the moment, and I want to feel even better. I don't feel anywhere near as self conscious as I did when I weighed 124kg. Those were dark times, and I never want to go back to that.

Tomorrow I am going to the gym to lift weights, then I'm walking the 6.5km to G's house to watch the England game, and running home afterwards. He thinks I'm insane for doing it, but it's one of the few ways that I can think of that might actually work. Last time I ran back from his I made it, but I was pretty pooped afterwards. I'm hoping I can build my fitness up so that I end up having to take the scenic route home because the straight way isn't challenging enough for me. Nice

WEIGHT - 112kg

DISTANCE - 6.5km

TIME - 45min

Listed Buildings and Crooked Bathrooms

i just discovered that there is such a thing as a "round the corner pooper". the bathroom in what i hope will be our future home has a toilet that is round the corner from the rest of the bathroom. i loved it! oh, and the place itself was really really cool, and i reckon we will be really happy there as long as it all goes to plan. i just cant wait to move out of this neighbourhood and this apartment.

this apartment, in stockton green dragon yard (which is a really cool place imo), its part of a listed building, and it has nice windows, and the layout is just a little bit kooky. for the price as well, its almost seeming too good to be true. oh and added to that, the 7th month of rent is free. i dont know whether to refuse to accept that all this is true and actually happening.

there is an actual dining room(!) and two bedrooms. one of those bedrooms will undoubtedly be used as a study or a walk-in wardrobe if K has her way :D

i was starting to get a bit worried that we werent going to find somewhere that we both liked a lot, and that we would have to take one of those new-build places with no character and an identikit layout. but now it seems like we will get to live in an individually styled place with plenty of its own personality. i really cant explain how much potential this place has for us. all it would really need is the sports channels and a nice big flat screen tv... :)

we have some vodka and some nie food for tonight and it should be a fun night! im looking forward to a nice chilled out weekend and fun times, and relaxing in the knowledge that we have at last found somewhere that we will want to call "home" for as long as we need to live around here. i cant wait for it all to become a reality. oh, and K is doing the impossible and getting hotter! she has lost around a stone in weight and im so proud of her that i could burst <3

long time no see

... Thats what we say when we havent seen someone for some time. its not what i can say to my imagined reflection when my eyes roll as the peace is broken by the inane and non-stop bag of shite music that comes from one of our neighbours. tonight's big fascination is with happy hardcore apparently. ive said it before and i'll say it again - there is no place in my heart for happy hardcore. and the people who live next door can fuck off and die for all i care. i hope someone peels them from their skin and drops them in a bag of salt :)

all rantings about neighbours aside, i suppose there has been little to write about over the last couple of weeks - thats why its been... long time no see. i reached my first weight-loss target of the year last week, or the week before...i dont know cos theyve been blurring into one recently. it's stuck at the same level, but if im honest i havent been exactly busting a gut to shift more weight. even though i should. i think im still 3kgs down for the year, which is only just below target, and with new eating habit developments, i should be back on target before long.

I'm really proud of K for her decision to start with a online weight management thingy. it shows her determination to get herself back to how she wants to be, and if she is happy then i am happy. it works the other way too haha, as we find out sometimes. not too often tho

this weekend my mate is off to australia so we are heading out in town to say our goodbyes (or "fuck off's" :) - im not a huge fan of going out from 8 and staying out til whenever, but we are going to see a band of sorts so it should be ok. and i suppose its good to be sociable every now and then. a part of me will just want to be sat at my other mates house playing football manager and pro evo while watching football and drinking beer (yeah i know that im a typical lad in some ways)

lastly - uni is restarting for me on monday and i have mixed feelings about going back - i will give you a treat and describe why in my next blog, but i have to go and pour a kettle full of boiling water into K's bath for her, ha :)

The first real day of the new year

i think that im considering this to be the first day of the new year because its the first time that we've woken up and had breakfast early enough to have a proper day. now i dont want this to become a report on what food im eating, but i feel it is vital that i mention that boiled eggs and soldiers were had. its been years and years since i last had this, and it went down a treat. its nice to have breakfast made for me, especially when its so good!

i really really wanted to walk to and from graeme's house today, but i don't think its going to be possible because of the snow that fell last night. im gutted really, cos im not enjoying the snow at all anymore. i dont recall ever enjoying the snow tbh, but it's getting beyond a joke now, after two weeks...

im looking forward to seeing the flat we are looking at tomorrow. it will signal the start of looking to move out of this place, and i cant wait to leave. it's not that i hate it that much, its just not feeling like a home, and the neighbours completely suck. one side is a hostel for people awaiting rehousing after leaving prison, and the other is far too noisy for my liking. ironically the former prison "guests" have seemed fine every time i have talked to them, but the one's on the other side seem like social reprobates.

we've almost run out of food, thanks to the snow and the cold weather. i know that if the weather was nicer i would have been out and bought food, but im sick of slipping over and landing on my arse. im making lunch, and enough for K's dinner too cos im going to my mates house to watch football, and i wont be home in time for dinner.

in other news, i checked my weight on the scales this morning (yeah i know, its been 3 days since i started) and i've nearly lost 2kg, which is nice!

t'ra f'now

Realisations and Revelations

Hi, so yeah. Happy New Year n stuff. i have a good feeling about this year. Things are as settled as they have ever been for me i think. Well since the days of my early teens when i had other people to run around after me. Since those days I havent been able to settle down, for one reason or another. Although somewhere new to live when our tenancy runs out is a priority, cos this is a bit of a shithole area and a boring apartment full of not-to-pleasent aspects.

I suppose the thing to do today is take the positives from last year and think of ways to build on them. A major positive for me was cutting down on alochol in a big way. I used to get very drunk 3 times a week, and now that is down to once a week, and i dont really get that drunk anymore anyway. I think that is a reasonable level but i want to aim for 3 weeks out of 4, getting drunk once, and then having a week off completely.

That will assist me in reaching another one of my aims this year which was to lose 26kg, but after my performance this christmas i've decided to make that 30kg. I'm sick of walking down the street and feeling self-conscious about the way i look. I remember this summer when i was in sweden and i began to feel ok about it for the first time in ages cos i got down to 113kg, but ive got some serious work to do to get back to that. it will be 33% of the weight i need to lose, and if i can lose all 30kg then i will be extremely happy with that.

The only other thing i want to change this year is my work ethic at uni. I'm sick of doing the bare minimum now. I feel that I can start to get better grades if i just put a bit of effort in. I remain philosophical about the relatively low grade i just got for my last uni assignment, and I'll put that down to lack of general preparation for questions, although the presentation itself was good enough.

Time for one of my favourite things - a bulletpoint list! (summarising the changes to my lifestyle that are to come over the next 12 months

• cut 1 week of 4 out of the drinking schedule (pretty easy)
  
• lose 30kg in weight - increased exercise (not difficult) & better diet (more difficult)
  
• work harder at uni (really really difficult!)

So then, there are several things that i feel would help me in my goals. Things i need to buy. I need, for example, a pair of running shoes. Thats the priority. I alllllllmost like to run. There are two parks which are kinda close where i can go running. One more suitable than the other, but still. And i need a bike so i can use it to go to uni and to my mates house. This will mean that i dont have to pay for buses, trains or taxis.

I'm looking forward to when i can post a "fun" update!

t'ra f'now

The Eve of New Years Eve, 2009

I suppose this is my first attempt at a blog, so I'll just make it up as I go along and see where it takes me. I only know of one person who'll really be interested in reading this, but I'll try not to let that affect what i write about.

THIS WILL BE A BLOG FOR THE PEOPLE

Ok, so it won't, but I'm starting with a certain level of conviction. To commit to writing about stuff that's going on in my head, and in the "real" world, in a natural and unforced way. I don't want it to be too heavy or too shallow. I don't want people to know everything about me straight off. Although I suppose I'm pretty comfortable with the idea of giving little bits of me away at a time.

What do people write in these things anyway? Is there like an opening post where you would say just a bit about yourself, and the circumstances that led to you wanting to share details of your life with anyone who cared to look? I guess over time I've had a bit of practice at sharing stuff when I've used various social networking sites, and maybe this is different or maybe it isn't. We'll just have to see what happens.

It might end up being quite a cosy affair, with marshmallows and hot dogs. I kinda like the idea of making people smile a bit when they read about me. I don't see myself as some kind of witty comedic blogger who's going to have people rolling around the floor on their computer chairs, but some people seem to think I have my own unique charms i suppose. Maybe that will come out, maybe it won't.

I don't want to write loads and loads for my first entry. Nothing much has happened today anyway. Me and K have been sitting and having mostly a day of "play" with our chosen games. I'm not complaining at all of course, because I am boy, and therefore enjoy doing nothing but messing about all day doing nothing. Anyway, we have also cleaned the bathroom, most of the kitchen, and had fun with a sponge and soapy water in one of the bedrooms...

As tomorrow is new years eve, i guess i will share my new years resolutions on here. last year i made a big promise to myself to cut down on getting so drunk so often and i managed that, and some other stuff too. i reckon i drink like 33% of what i did this time last year (festive period apart ofc!).

so i'll write more then
t'ra f'now