Last year, some sports scientists found that it was possible to do just seven minutes of high intensity exercise, on a regular basis, and still achieve fitness levels normally requiring lengthy runs or cycles. By doing 12 activities, for 30 seconds at a time with just 10 seconds in between, you can get your daily exercise requirements out of the way in a short space of time. Plus, no special equipment is required – you just need a chair and some clear floor space.
Whilst I’m trying to go to the gym two or three times each week, I thought I’d try the so-called ‘seven minute workout’ to see if it would be worth doing on the days when I don’t have time to go to the gym. I downloaded an app to my iPhone, which I’ll review tomorrow, and made a start.
Firstly, the ‘seven minute workout’ takes longer than seven minutes. It’s actually nearly eight minutes, if you allow ten seconds between each activity. Secondly, you need to be aware that this is a ‘high intensity’ workout. On the discomfort scale, from 1 to 10 where 1 is easy and 10 is ‘why am I doing this to myself?’, it’s about an 8.
In other words, you should already be reasonably fit before trying this workout. And as you will know from yesterday’s blog post, I’m not particularly fit right now. I got part way through exercise number 11, which is push-ups with rotations, and basically collapsed in a heap on the floor. I barely attempted the last one, which is side planking. It took me a long time to get my breath back afterwards and some assistance from my asthma inhaler was necessary.
I’m sure the seven minute workout is great if you’re a busy person wanting to maintain fitness, rather than someone like me who needs to get fitter in the first place. Maybe in a few weeks’ time I’ll be able to do it without nearly giving myself an asthma attack. But right now it’s a bit too extreme for me.
As well as re-starting driving lessons, I’ve also started going back to the gym regularly. It’s been a long time since I last did regular exercise – certainly longer than I’m willing to admit – and it was showing. My fitness levels had dropped significantly, so on the odd occasion when I’ve been late and had to run for my morning train I’ve ended up seriously out of breath. And I’d been getting podgier around my waist.
One change I made with the staff at the gym was that I would have two different workouts available for me. One is a shorter 45 minute workout, to be done once or twice a week, with around 30 minutes of cardio. Then there’s a longer 75 minute workout for when I have more time, like the weekends, with 30 minutes of cardio and more resistance training, to be done weekly. The shorter workout means that I can be in and out of the gym more quickly on weekdays when I get back from work, and so I should be able to go more frequently.
Going back to the gym after so long away has been difficult. I’m fine on some machines, such as the cross-trainer, as I still walk for at least half an hour a day, but others have been a challenge. I’m supposed to be able to run at 8 km/h (5mph) on the treadmill for 10 minutes, but lately this has been running for 6-7 minutes with a walking break in the middle. My upper body strength is nothing like what it was when I last went regularly so some of the resistance machines are really hard work, even with light weights.
That being said, I’d forgotten how good it feels when you’re able to relax after an intensive workout. And I’m sure the exercises will get easier as my fitness improves again. But I’m mostly looking forward to my clothes fitting better.
It’s been about a year since I discovered I was lactose intolerant (or at least, worked out why I was frequently bloated and having to go to the toilet more often than most people). Since then we’ve switched most of the dairy-based food we eat home with lactose or dairy-free alternatives. This has meant that we now buy a lot of our groceries online from Ocado, as their selection of such products is much better than the other supermarkets in our area. Ocado is a little expensive, but unlike our local Tesco, they sell a variety of flavours of Swedish Glace, a soya alternative to ice cream.
That’s all great when I’m at home, but not so good when I’m out and about. Whilst most coffee shops will make a drink with soya milk instead of cow’s milk (and Starbucks now do it at no extra cost, yay), good luck trying to order a dessert at most restaurants that doesn’t come with cream or ice cream. I’m particularly looking at you, TGI Friday’s.
For instances like this, I have a couple of bottle of lactase enzyme capsules – one for each bag that I take out with me. Lactase is the enzyme that breaks down lactose in your digestive system, and sufferers of lactose intolerance cannot naturally produce enough of it. These capsules therefore top up your lactase, so that you can digest foods containing lactose. One taken just before a meal should mean you can eat normally.
I say ‘should’. I’ve been using the pictured capsules for a couple of months now, and they work most of the time. However, despite having one just before a big ice cream in Dublin, I still felt awful the following day.Whilst the label suggests taking one at a time, maybe I should have taken two on that occasion.
Lately I’ve been taking these lactase capsules before any meal that hasn’t been prepared at home – in restaurants, or with takeaway food – regardless of whether it looks like it contains milk, cream, yoghurt or cheese, as you sometimes can’t be sure.
The lactase capsules are not cheap though, with a bottle of 60 capsules costing a little over £10 from Holland and Barrett. Thankfully they do have regular sales and at the moment they’re buy one, get a second for half price. Holland and Barrett sell a number of products of questionable effectiveness, but these capsules do seem to work in my case. And no, I’m not being paid to make this recommendation.
It is nice to be able to have a bit more freedom when eating out, without having to worry about how you’ll feel the following day.
Today’s the day that I leave my twenties and become a thirty-something. One of a few ‘big’ birthdays that I’ll have in my lifetime.
Christine’s present to me was the trip to Dublin, and my parents bought me an iPad Mini to replace my ailing iPad. Plus a few little somethings from other friends and family.
I’ve had a couple of meals out to celebrate already but today will be mostly spent at home with Christine. Partly so that I can play with my new iPad (my precious…) but also because we need a bit of a rest. And the weather’s pretty awful, but then it is a bank holiday weekend so this is to be expected I suppose.
Thank you to everyone who has sent me a card or wished me happy birthday on Facebook.
It’s been five years to the day since Hari and I ended our relationship. Though mostly a mutual agreement that things weren’t working, it was still a very difficult time for me, exacerbated by being unemployed and having recently lost my grandmother. It was pretty much the lowest point of my life so far.
The end of any relationship is hard, but particularly so when the relationship was with someone that you had been with for several years and were living with. The following few weeks were a struggle, not at least because I had to organise moving back home with my parents, cancelling utilities and so on.
Thankfully, things started to turn around soon afterwards, and around 6 weeks later I was back in a job. My friends were brilliantly supportive during that time and helped me greatly. And, later on, I met Christine, to whom I’ve now been married for almost a year now.
Hari has also moved on, and started a relationship with someone around the same time as I met Christine. We’re still in contact over Facebook but have only met in person once since the split, mainly because she now lives in Scotland. I’m sure we’re both happier now, and though it hurt at the time, breaking up was the right thing to do. And, with hindsight, I’m glad we called it quits when we did, rather than trying in vain to revive our relationship.
Today is Valentines Day. It’s the ninth consecutive one that I’ve had someone to ‘celebrate’ it with, but the first time that I’ve been able to celebrate it with someone that I’m married to.
By the time you read this, I will be whisking my dear wife Christine away on an impromptu trip away. It was literally planned last night, about an hour before I wrote this blog post. It’s not a particularly romantic trip – we’re going on the Megabus – and it’s only for one night. Oh, and we’d have got up at 6:15am to catch it as well.
So, Happy Valentines Day Christine. Hope you enjoyed the surprise!
Even though our wedding is all paid off, I expect 2014 to be another expensive year for us – namely because we’re intending to buy a house. So far we’ve been renting, which is fine when you’re still getting established as a couple. But in the long term, it’s expensive (our mortgage repayments are likely to be less than we’re paying in rent), and it’s restrictive – we can’t really decorate, for example. We’d also like to move out of a flat and into a proper house with a garden.
My parents gave us quite a bit of money towards a mortgage deposit as a wedding present, but we’ll probably need a bit more. Also, something else has to happen before we can buy: we both need to learn to drive.
Learning to drive
Right now we’re restricted to living close to Sowerby Bridge railway station, and on a main bus route, as neither of us can drive a car. So we are both going to learn to drive this year, allowing us to choose a home a little further off the beaten track. Those of you who have read this blog for many years will know that I had driving lessons in 2006-7, however, after failing my practical test twice I gave up, and haven’t tried since. Though I won’t be starting from scratch, there’s a lot that I’ve forgotten in six years and so I’m not expecting to be qualified until the summer. I also need to re-take my theory test; though I passed it last time, it was only valid for two years and so has now expired, and it has got more difficult since.
So learning to drive will be one of my New Year’s Resolutions. Another will be going to the gym more, as that has fallen by the wayside somewhat since the wedding (not helped by a series of colds since September). Whilst giving up lactose has helped me feel less bloated (and so clothes fit better), I could still do with losing a bit of weight and improving my fitness.
May, as well as being our first wedding anniversary, will also play host to my 30th birthday. Which is a somewhat daunting prospect.
Weddings
We have been invited to two weddings this year – one in March, in Nottinghamshire, and another in the summer, in the Lake District. Hopefully one of us will be driving in time for the latter but we need to sort out transport for the former very soon. As many of our friends are at the same stage in life as us, I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up being invited to more weddings this year. I’m just pleased that I won’t have to organise one again.
We haven’t yet booked a holiday for this year but we’ve talked passively about a trip to Ireland. I’ve never been but Christine had family living there for a while so she has spent quite a bit of time there as a child. We also have tickets for a concert in Manchester in March. And we’ll be spending New Year’s Eve (i.e. this Tuesday) with friends, probably drinking the leftover champagne from our wedding.
So, to all of you reading this, I would like to wish you a very happy, prosperous and loving new year, and my best wishes.
This time every year I do a blog post looking back at the year that has just about finished, and all of the things I did. So this year it is the turn of 2013 to be analysed. You can read my previous posts from 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009.
January
We started 2013 with friends near Blackpool, playing the tabletop game Last Night on Earth (the zombies won). We had a trip to Manchester, to visit the Peoples’ History Museum, and again later in the month to set up our wedding list at John Lewis in the Trafford Centre.
With two months to go until the wedding, we sorted out the flowers and received the remaining RSVPs from guests. We belatedly discovered The IT Crowd, and have since watched every episode (including the new, final episode broadcast this year). We later moved on to Black Books, and I got the complete box set of Father Ted for Christmas, to complete the Graham Linehan set.
At the beginning of April we went to a friends’ wedding in Greater Manchester – literally four weeks before our own. And at two weeks before Christine and I went on our respective hen and stag weekends, which we had been kept in the dark about right up until the day. We both had a good time and weren’t too embarrassed by our friends.
My soon-to-be mother in law gave me her first generation iPad that she was no longer using, which has proved very useful in the time since. However, with it only capable of running iOS 5, and an increasing number of apps no longer working, I may be looking for a newer model in the future.
At the end of the month we came over to York to make the final arrangements for the wedding.
May
Finally we made it to May, and our wedding on Saturday 4th. We both had a lovely day surrounded by friends and family, and the weather was nice enough for us to get plenty of good photos. That being said, we still haven’t ordered any prints, or our album as yet, so that’s a job for 2014. As is sending out the rest of the thank-you cards which we’re still working on.
Following the wedding, we went on honeymoon – five nights in Paris. I’ve been to Paris a number of times but it was Christine’s first visit. It was a relatively modest holiday – we stayed in a Holiday Inn, travelled in standard class on Eurostar and had to budget for meals – but we had a good time.
In July, my post at the university was re-graded upwards, resulting in a small pay rise. Having still got quite a lot of debt on my credit card from the wedding at this point, this was quite welcome. It was also during July that I discovered that I was lactose-intolerant, and so we started ordering our groceries online from Ocado because of their bigger selection of dairy-free products.
Christine turned 30, so we had a small party in our flat. Towards the end of the had a weekend in London, to visit friends and a couple of museums, and this included a stay in a lastminute.com ‘secret hotel’ which sadly wasn’t a great experience. The rest of the trip was good, though.
In October we went to yet another industrial museum, this time in Armley, near Leeds, for a Steampunk market. There was also a visit to a beer festival in Huddersfield, and another trip on the Transpennine Real Ale Trail, calling at some different pubs this time. And I went on the third of three stag weekends (the second being my own), this time in Birmingham.
I decided not to do Movember again this year, partly because in early November we went to another wedding, this time in Hertfordshire. I unfortunately had to miss the broadcast of the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who due to a birthday (everybody seems to be turning 30 at the moment) but thankfully caught up the following morning on BBC iPlayer. Which meant going into complete social media hibernation in the intervening period to avoid any spoilers.
Following my grandfather moving into a nursing home earlier in the year (he’s in his nineties now), we sold his house and therefore inherited a few things. We now have a much bigger dining table and some nicer chairs, amongst other bits.
And finally to this month, which has featured three separate trips to York – one of which was a pub crawl, and another was for Christmas. I donated my fifth pint of blood, and somewhat surprisingly managed to get our Christmas shopping sorted quite early this year, in comparison. We also went to see The Hobbit Part 2 at the cinema, which I enjoyed despite some of the mixed reviews it got.
On Sunday I’ll post about what 2014 is likely to have in store.
I’m lucky that I can give regularly; I work near to a donor centre and am able to get time off work for donations. There are only 24 centres in England and some cities like York don’t have them. And I’m also lucky to be relatively healthy and don’t have any medical conditions that prevent me from giving blood.
I have had one failed donation; when the needle was inserted it somehow missed a vein. That meant having to re-arrange for a new appointment a couple of weeks later, which thankfully went fine. I now give blood from my right arm, even though I’m right-handed, as I seem to have better veins there. This does mean that I can’t really use my right arm for a couple of hours afterwards, so my appointments are in afternoons, after work. The failed donation also shows on my record, so I’ve had my ’5-9 donations’ card for a while even though at the time I had only donated four pints of blood.
Despite donating regularly, I still don’t like needles. I have learned how to cope with this and whilst it’s never a pleasant experience, once the needle is in and the blood starts flowing it doesn’t hurt. I have a similar coping mechanism for my annual ‘flu jabs. Sometimes I get a bruise on my arm as well.
I’ve also opted in to the Bone Marrow Registry, as this can be done at the same time as a donation.
At some point in future I may decide to donate platelets, which fewer people do. It’s a longer procedure, taking around 90 minutes, but can be done more frequently – as often as every two weeks in some cases. However, platelet donors can’t also give blood the regular way, so I wouldn’t be able to take part in the Interval study.
My next appointment is at the end of February, for pint number six.
