New Years Resolution Gym Goers; Don’t Join!

I am writing to all the people who’s new years resolution is to “get fit” or “lose weight” and this usually means they think they should join a gym … don’t! Well not initially anyway. If you’re already a member of a gym then I’m sure you can relate to this.

Let me explain why I think you shouldn’t join a gym …

The way this usually works is people think they need to join a gym, so they join at £xx per month and get locked into a 12 month starter contract. They then start to go in January with the aim to go 3 to 4 times a week and do this class and that class. They do it for maybe two to three weeks but then work gets in the way, they remember they want to go to the pub and socialise instead of doing squats and crunches and before they know it they’re paying their membership fees so they can say to their friends “I’m a member of a gym”.

Don’t get me wrong there are people out there who start in January, get fit, get ripped, be happy etc. but a majority flounder and give up.

So people end up paying a lot of money for not going to the gym and for January the people who take it up and stop in February just annoy and get in the way of regular gym goers.

Let me be fully clear I am a member of a gym and have been for many years; although it wouldn’t show looking at me. I dip in for a few weeks/months at a time and then something comes up etc. and don’t go for a while so I look at the issue from both sides depending on where I am.

So what can people do to get fit and save money?

To get fit you don’t need to join a gym although joining eventually can help. You can start off by doing free activities such as running. You can get a number of apps now a days which will help you train from couch to xkm and apps which will track you such as RunKeeper. If you want to run with people there are many ParkRuns world wide which you can sign up for and go to for free.

If you want to be more serious about training then look to get a personal trainer who comes to your house and can train you in the garden or local park. This way you are paying purely for their time and not paying the gym *and* a personal trainer.

If once you get to the point where you want to join a gym and you’re already getting fit and have built in the time into your weekly schedule then please do. When you do try not to feel self conscious about going to the gym if you aren’t model thin or can only lift a couple of kgs people are there for themselves and don’t care what others are doing. So take some music and lose yourself in the exercise.

It doesn’t matter if you train at the gym or not but you do feel better for doing exercise so I encourage you to keep with your new years resolution.

Happy exercising and money saving in 2014!

British Heart Foundation Warwick Castle Half Marathon 2013

On Sunday 17th March 2013 I ran my first ever half marathon in aid of the British Heart Foundation. It started and finished in the grounds of Warwick Castle.

My training had been going ok in the couple of months leading up to the race but I’d been ill a couple of weeks before so the preparation could have been better.

Anyway, it went well, the weather was actually relatively ok. It was cold but dry to start and then started sleeting at about mile 7. This which was nice for a couple of miles but then it was just cold.

I successfully completed the race in 2 hrs 9 mins 56 secs which I was very happy with!

Roll on the training and next year; target …. under 2 hours!

February Update - “And the winner is … “

… beer this month!

Short update this month;

- Not much lost
- Big beer in take as it was a mates Stag do

Upside; Spring is on it’s way. It’s sunny, although cold, so can go and play disc golf after work. The summer is on it’s way! :-)

Current weight loss (since Aug ‘09) : 16 1/8lbs

Current Status : Bad! (-97.8)
Beers: 490 + 37 = 527
Miles: 183 (gym: 129.5; road: 33) + 7.5 = 190.5
DG Rounds: 75 + 8 = 83
Gym visits: 94 + 5 = 99
Lengths : 56.7 (total: 567) 

Key
Good => Exercise > Beers
Level => Exercise == Beers
Bad => Exercise < Beers

Health, Life and beer – Update

It’s has been a very long time since I last posted with regards to anything, so I hope you have read my latest “geek” post about Windows 7 on the eve of its full release to the public. From reading a couple of tweets from various people I can see that if it was pre ordered it has already arrived in some cases … so enjoy!

Well there has been a lot going on since my last post, so I’m going to give you a quick “run across the roof tops” to use a project management phrase :-)

July ‘09

First wedding anniversary, doesn’t time fly! Lau and I went to Barcelona for the weekend and did the tourist thing. Saw all the important sites. Walked around the outside of the Gran Familia (defo spelt wrongly) and the Gaudi style constructions. Went past the Nou Camp which is an impressive sized stadium!

August ‘09

Found out that I would be to take part in a consultation period at work to potentially be made redundant. This was a bit of a shock to the system to be honest. On initially being told I thought I’d be ok, but when we had a more detailed discussion it was made clear that, unless something big happened, that I’d probably be going at the end of the process.

Also, went to Beaminster to play disc golf and Lau and I went to Bulgaria for our proper summer holiday :-)

September ‘09

Played in the Croydon Cyclone disc golf event which was awesome. Avery Jenkins (Current Open World Champion), Val Jenkins (Current Open Women World Champion) and Nate Doss (2 x Open World Champion) came over from the Euros on the way back to the US, via London to play in the event. I had the pleasure of playing my first round in the same group as Avery. It was awesome to watch someone with that much talent for the sport play, it was also good fun with the banter between us all.

Unfortunately, I also found out I’d be leaving my employment in October as my role would be redundant. This was a bit of a kick in the teeth. Both due to the fact that I had put a lot of time and effort into my job for the past 2 years 9 months, but also as I wouldn’t get to see my all my friends which I had made every day. This was the biggest rubbish point!

October ‘09

Bit of an up and down month so far, obviously the down was the leaving my employment in Reading and nearly all contact with Reading. This is the first time in over 7 years which I haven’t had very regular visits. This in itself was a little sad. On the upside we had a pretty good send off, drank quite a bit, danced a lot … it was good!

On the upside, I have started my new job based in Warwick. Obviously this is a lot closer for me than Reading. It does however mean that I need to drive to work now, although toying with the idea of cycling in the summer (when I’m a bit fitter). Been here a week and so far so good, everyone is really nice. Yesterday I finished the first bit of development work to be used in the building and demo’d it. I’ve also started going to the gym for a run/workout a couple of mornings a week. This will help me loose weight, get fitter and recover from the shoulder damage ready for disc golf practice ready for next year.

As for beers and exercise I’ve kept a rough log of what has been going on, so this is now the updated “goings on” with the first thousand beer “challenge” (see below).

Also since August I have been kinda doing Weight Watchers with Lau (who is a member). As we both could do with loosing some weight and we are both very competitive, this has obviously turned into a competition which I was winning until we went on holiday and my redundancy etc. but now less than a pound behind, I will catch up!!

Current weight loss (since Aug) : 9 7/8lbs

Current Status : Bad!
Beers: 386
Miles: 97.3 (gym: 64.3; road: 33)
DG Rounds: 62
Gym visits: 70
Lengths : 51 (total: 512)
Key
Good => Exercise > Beers
Level => Exercise == Beers
Bad => Exercise < Beers

First 10km

Yesterday afternoon was my first 10km run. It was mainly just to see if I actually could do it. I set the speed at 8km/hr and just kept at it. It was the discipline which was required which was the most interesting part of it. Both the sticking at a steady speed and not changing it and potentially bringing the run to an end early, but also mind over body determination to carry on when your body is saying "why are you doing this?!".

So first 10km was done in 75mins ... this equates to 6.2miles (which is what I measure on below).

I've decided to take running at the gym into account, otherwise I'll never recover the deficit, also if I run 10km I'd only get 1 in the positive pot ... that sucks ... and I make the rules :-)


Current Status : Bad!
Beers: 268
Miles: 39.2 (gym: 6.2; road: 33)
DG Rounds: 43
Gym visits: 61
Lengths : 0 (month: 0; total: 486)

Key
Good => Exercise > Beers
Level => Exercise == Beers
Bad => Exercise < Beers

Long time no post ...

... because of many reasons. The lack of posting over the past few months is due to a few reasons mainly work related and not wanting to look at a computer screen after a day at work. This in addition to being shattered (due to work) and that's pretty much it.

We've had some pretty tight deadlines recently and due to this long hours and weekends have needed to be worked. This has prevented me from going to the gym and playing disc golf as much as I'd have liked. It makes going to the fridge and grabbing a beer very easy and this is very much the anti exercise :-)

What's been happening over the past few months?!

Well I've been working quite a lot. We've had some pretty big projects coming through dev recently and the deadlines have been incredibly tight. Some of the have involved working late, working weekends, working late weekends and the days I have left the office at a reasonable time I've got home and the last thing I wanted to do was open my laptop and do anything.

Unfortunatly my PDGA rating has gone down again in the latest update. This is bad! I thought I played ok in Feb at Frostbreaker, and I did, but I was a little out of practice and my fitness levels weren't as high as they should have been for an event there. To top it off it was made up of 2 rounds of 27 holes was over 5 hrs straight of golf with no breaks each day. It was a lot of fun though!

On top of that the Quarry Park Spring Fling was 4 rounds of 18; 2 per day. This was also tough, added in with the really crap weather we had it didn't help my rating. On the Saturday I shot my worse competative round there in about 3 years. On the Sunday thinking things couldn't get any worse I ended up shooting my worse competative round there ever! Something needs to be done!

I've been out recently and thrown pretty well although I have been injured twice, once hurt my right shoulder after slipping down the bank on hole 13 and putting out my arm to stop myself (stupid reflexes!) and it jarring my shoulder quite badly. And recently second to last hole threw a forehand approach on hole 17 and just pulled my arm. It hurt a lot! So hopefully will be fit again (arm wise) by the QP open in a couple of weeks time!

Health review - Feb, March, April and May

Well the health review for the past few months has been lacking a lot. I've got rough numbers for Feb but March, April and May will be educated guesses. But recently I have increased my running. I've been averaging between 5 and 10km a week. All on the treadmill as my knees and shins are trying to get use to running again. I've only counted this as a gym visit though so still being out weighed by beer :-)

The reason behind increased running is I want to loose some weight and hit my target I set myself back at the beginning of Feb. I managed to get down to 12 stone before I went to Frostbreaker, but recently that has creeped back up to a steady 12stone 4. I'm still aiming for 11 stone 7 before going down to dorset in August, so that gives me 2 months to loose the best part of a stone. Can this be done? Well thats the challenge. As part of this I'm going to give up beer in June and beyond if it helps :-)

Rough numbers / estimates of beer and exercise over the past few months :

Feb : 6 dg rounds, 6 gym visits, 16 lengths, 27 beers
Mar: 6 dg rounds, 10 gym visits, 0 lengths, 30 beers (including dev social)
Apr: 4 dg rounds, 12 gym visits, 0 lengths, 25 beers
May: 2 dg rounds, 10 gym visits, 0 lengths, 25 beers (including dev social)

So that estimately equates to :

18 rounds of disc golf (including hurt shoulder and elbow so should have been higher!)
38 gym visits
16 lengths
107 beers

June - no beer!

So no beer in June; it's going to be interesting. We've got some interesting deadlines coming up at work and for a dev beer is a good way to relax. I've decided that if I get home and want a beer I need to make myself go to the gym for a run. It will take my mind off it.

In additon to the weight loss and general fitness I've taken up running again as Lau and I are going to run in a 10km "fun run" in September and my initial target was to do it in 1 hr 10mins which seems reasonable. But if I push it and train well I think I could do it in an hour. 10km / h isn't back breaking but it's going to take a bit of dedication and effort to do it. That is the challenge!

The running is going ok generally. I've been running 3 to 5 km each time I go to the gym with my best so far of 5km is about 32/33 minutes. I need to start getting my body use to running for a longer period though. So I'm going to cut down the speed and try and increase the stamina and then work up the speed. I'm quite excited about training for the run and not drinking beer will help me loose some weight as well.


Current Status : Bad!
Beers: 268
Miles: 33
DG Rounds: 43
Gym visits: 61
Lengths : 16 (month(s): 0; total: 486)

Key
Good => Exercise > Beers
Level => Exercise == Beers
Bad => Exercise < Beers