Unbelievable

A month of illness! The cough continued, and turned into a chest/sinus infection, for which I'm taking antibiotics. I've been coughing out-of-control most nights, and it's been pretty worrying. Finally on the mend, but I still feel a bit feverish, so I'll be starting Body-for-Life on Monday 30th November, after I'm free from this cruddy illness and have had a proper chance to recover.

One thing being ill has done is to fire up my enthusiasm for starting Body-for-Life. There's nothing like being told you can't do something to make you want to do it more.

And now I'm going to take advantage of a relaxing Sunday in-doors, finish getting better and I'll be back in a week with an update.

Here goes, again...

So I think I'm recovered enough to re-start Week 1 of Body-for-Life. My stress levels aren't good, and I'm hoping this will take the edge off.

Just planned my Week 1 workouts and nutrition again, and now I wait for tomorrow morning :-)

Ill.... ugh!

So, Week 1 of the Body-for-Life challenge hasn't gone as planned, on account of this hacking cough getting worse and worse as the week progresses. So I've managed about two workouts, 4 days of the correct nutrition, and the rest was a wash-out.

What I'm going to do is continue on Monday, but call it Week 1 again and give myself the chance to create the proper start. This is a minor hiccup, and I want to correct it. Illness isn't something I can just workout/jog/whatever through, particularly not when I'm coughing my lungs up for around 2 hours each night.

Fingers crossed I get over this for Monday, as I actually enjoyed the workouts I did... strangely!

Ok, committing to it...

Seeing as the swine flu hasn't descended, and there's no knowing whether it will, I'm committing to doing the Body for Life thing over the next 12 weeks.

If I go back on this, feel free to mock me senseless. I need this challenge, rather like my carved pumpkin needs orthodontal work - LOL

I'll kick if all off on Monday, after getting on top of all the food prep and exercise regime. The similarity of the training plan with one I follwed a few years ago should help me to become familiar with it. I've also gone through periods eating the kinds of meals he recommends, so thinking of combinations will be fairly easy.

The hard part will be getting up first-thing, sticking to planned meals, and continuing when the going gets tough (which it will, around Tuesday next week, I predict!)

Here's hoping it's the start of something positive :-) There will be updates.... oh yes.

Now if I can just shake this cold...

...I'll be all ready to start Body for Life on Monday.

We've got one work colleague with confirmed swine flu (who sits directly opposite me and who went ill on Wed), another (who sits to my left) with a daughter who's got it, and apparently our founder had it a few weeks ago. So I'm quite rightly being cautious about whether we'll see further cases in the company... or even closer to home.

I'm trying to clear a cough I've had all week. If that improves a little this weekend, I'm all set for Monday. And, I need that challenge to start. Work has consistently beaten me for the past month or so. It's insane. I just need a physical challenge to take the edge off the stress/anxiety that it's causing. Also, battling to renew buildings insurance, for a shared Freehold in which no-one else does any groundwork, is tough on me and has doubled the worry. Something physical would give me a different focus.

This will be more than a physical challenge. I've added a few other goals for the 12-week period; one related to completing things around the house, another concerning a personal project I've been postponing, and finally one on drink/socialising (decreasing one, increasing the other).

But until Monday, I'm going to relax. And tonight, I'm going to carve this pumpkin and chill out on Halloween :-)

In need of a challenge, and I think I've found one...

Yep, it's been a while. Bla, bla bla... I know that apologies about not having blogged are boring, so I'm not going to go there. Instead, let's just launch straight back into it as if I hadn't been off-line since, err... May, by the look of it. So here goes...

I'm considering taking up a challenge, and a serious one at that. It might be rather risky to be talking about it here, given the possibility for failure. But, I'd rather do it here than on Facebook, in which a world of over-critical commentary would probably guarantee failure. (Ever notice that about Facebook? It's very polar; you either get 100% support, or 100% abuse - wierd, that).

So, what I'm considering is taking up the "Body for Life" challenge (search Amazon.com for Bill Phillips and Michael D'Orso if you're interested in the book). It's a 12-week fitness regime, which (allegedly) about a million Americans have completed. I was skeptical, but it all looks pretty legit, and it matches a lot of the other fitness regimes I've used in the past. I won't be officially competing, as it's only open to US citizens, but I'll be attempting to complete the challenge as described in the book.

This next week will be one of preparation and, if I go for it, I'll start on Monday 2nd November (just over one week from today). Each week, it involves 3 x aerobic workouts (of only 20 mins each), and 3 x weight workouts (of up to 46 mins each), plus one complete day off (Sunday) during which you forget about the programme altogether. The idea behind the Sunday is that you let your body know that it won't starve, and you remind it that you still know what beer and ice cream are.

Given the proximity to Xmas, and the likelihood that I may spend that up North at my parents', I would probably take a week out in the middle, and continue to a delayed completion on Jan 31st (instead of Jan 24th). That way, Xmas isn't an obstacle. A break is also a good thing, I'm told, so long as you don't overdo it and get back in the saddle as scheduled at the end of it.

Like I said, putting this all out here might be insane, as even if I delete the post there will be a fair number of people that I know who will pull me up on the failure. I guess what I'm doing here is a "soft launch" in the week before I start. If the first few weeks go well (rather, if I'm still doing it in a few weeks), I may even make comment on Facebook... but that's unlikely.

Sh*t, I've done it now. LOL

Homophobic Plumber

At yesterday's dinner party, thrown by Colin as ever, my friend Jules told me something about my February bathroom re-fit that spooked me a little.

The main builder, Alison, is a lesbian and a good friend of Jules who recommended her. Apparently, on Day 2 she overheard the (male) plumber being homophobic. He must have spotted either a picture on my wall or, more likely, a book on my bookshelf, figured out I'm gay and decided to mouth off about it whilst working in my home.

The guy was attaching the bath supports to the underside of the bath, in the living room, so my best guess is that the clues he found were in there. There are many clues, from the picture on the wall of two skinheads embracing (decidedly non-sexual however), to the cookery books (bit vague but still a pointer) and a few books on homosexuality itself (though he would have to have been scouring the bookshelf to find those).

Anyway, Alison overheard him and promptly fired the guy, hence there was a replacement plumber and it was explained to me that the original plumber's "work wasn't up to scratch". All I was aware of was that there had been a change of plumber, until yesterday that is.

This made me feel both proud to have Alison managing the job for me, but it also reminded me how naive I probably am to think that everyone will have a positive reaction about me being gay. The worst thing is that random contractors are often involved in building jobs, and you've got no guarantee what their reaction will be... and they have to come right into your home.

So, I'm happy to know about this, but also perhaps slightly more guarded about future encounters with builders. I'm still in two minds about whether to hide stuff (less likely) or just go in with all guns blazing and make it clear that I'm proud to be what I am (more likely).