Lat week I mentioned that I started doing the 100 press up program which should surely mean that this week is week two of said program. Well no, it isn’t. It’s week one all over again, why?well my own stupidity and over riding ability to lie to myself. Before entering into week one a test is performed to see how many press ups you can do. I lied to myself and said that I managed 6. What really happened was I did 5 and a bit really bad press upy type things and counted them as 6. I have noticed a marked improvement over the week of how many truly bad press ups I could do but for me this isn’t enough. Admitting defeat I have gone back to the beginning and started again. As a result my press ups this morning were a lot closer to the ground than last week and my form is a hell of a lot better to. Due to the extra effort put into the new press ups I’m doing I still found day 1 challenging enough to not be easy, that last one was a doozy. So it’ll take 7 weeks not 6, lesson here, be more humble and don’t think your better than you are. Actually that applies to life in general really.

I’ve said in the past that I find it difficult to diet without exercising at the same time. I think it must be that they compliment each other so much that to do one without the other seems wrong in some way. With this in mind I was planning on starting up my running program again alongside a diet. I had got quite far through the running program before I stopped due to essays and exams stress kicking in and it just becoming the last on a long list of things to think about. Jen has decided that she wants to lose a few pounds, I hasten to add that I don’t feel she needs to and have told her so but she says it would make her happier to lose a couple of pounds so I support her in this. She did however decide to start this diet on Saturday! I told her Monday was the day to start diets, everybody knows that but she was determined. I decided to not start till Monday anyway but found that because we spend so much time together (she is still on maternity and I have just finished Uni) that I too started dieting. We both have downloaded calorie counting apps for the iPhone and I think seeing what calories she has left alongside her obvious determination has helped her to stick with the diet. What’s really helped me is having her do it with me.

I will not be discussing Jens success other than to say she’s doing really well as it is not my place to talk about it. I however have lost six pounds since starting on Sunday. Week one losses are always bigger so I’m not expecting to maintain this rate of loss but am happy with my progress this far. I intended to start running on Monday but Sunday night I just couldn’t sleep at all. I always run early morning before the kids wake up (between five and 6 usually) so a 3am bedtime meant there was no chance of this happening at all. No worries says I, I will just start tomorrow. Yet again this was a no go, Ruby woke up early not very well. She’s got chicken pox. This irritated me greatly (me not running not Ruby being ill) as Wednesday is no day to start a 3 times a week with a rest day between running program. During Monday I discovered an app for the iPhone, and it’s related website that trains you to do 100 press ups in 6 weeks, I figured this would be perfect for my none running days to build back up some upper body strength. I started Monday and today my arms are aching like buggery, no pain no gain though so I will do day 2 today and keep you updated on my progress. I will start running next Tuesday, I will… Probably

Well it’s been nearly a year since I last went running, in fact according to this post the last time I ran was the 31st of May 2009! That post also partially explains why I haven’t been running since then and this one fills in the gaps. I now have some arch support inserts for my shoes and they have worked a treat I now get zero pain from my arches. So I decided it was time to go for my first run, thing is I decided this about 2 months ago and haven’t been able to pry my fat lazy ass into my running gear, until 6am Monday morning that is.

I made the reasonable assumption that almost a year of excessive eating + the extra weight + the lack of exercise would = me being unable to muster any energy together for a decent run so i reverted back to a running guide i have used before that was given to me many years ago by my friend, and here it is:

 Week 1 Run one min, walk 90 seconds. Repeat eight times. Do three times a week.
Week 2 Run two mins, walk one min. Repeat seven times. Do three times a week.
Week 3 Run three mins walk one mins. Repeat six times. Do three times a week.
Week 4 Run five mins, walk two mins. Repeat four times. Do three times a week.
Week 5 Run eight mins, walk two mins. Repeat three times. Do three times a week.
Week 6 Run 12 mins, walk one min. Repeat three times. Do three times a week.
Week 7 Run 15 mins, walk one min, Run fifteen mins. Do three times a week
Week 8 Run 30 mins continuously

It can literally take you from fat slob who can’t stand up to get the remote to being able to run for 30 minutes straight in less than 2 months and it works really really well. I figured I’d go for week one as i feel really out of shape. Turns out this was a genius stroke because i found it really easy so it has just given me an almighty boost of confidence and i can’t wait to go running again.

This is also good news as just before my injury type thing i bought a good pair of running shoes, size 14 decent running shoes as you can imagine are not the cheapest and i got to wear them once. They are glorious, i believe i tweeted at the time about what a comfortable run it was… until the next day of course when the pain started.

I ran again this morning, i bumped up to the week 2 runs which was not entirely challenging but far from easy. I reckon this is the right level as week 3 i probably would have failed. It took me a little while to get out of bed, i even considered putting the run off but talked myself out of it. The first few weeks it’s tricky getting my self out of bed or whatever to go running but once i’m running i love it, especially when i get to the point where I’m not stopping every few minutes and you can pretty much just run.

Anyway point is i’m running again and next on the agenda is diet, for the moment i’m cutting out the needless snacking i’ve been doing and trying to eat less carbs, when my student loan comes through i will put together a better diet. The gym is something i want to start up again but i want to fight the flab first., oh and commit fully to the final year of my degree of course as i feel it’s a little more important right now than my waist size.

Last night I was laid on the living room floor on my back. When I do this Ruby likes to climb on like I am a piece of playground equipment. We started playing a game which involved Ruby standing on my chest then diving superman style over my head at which point I catch her, lower her slowly to the ground over my head the pick her back up and stand her on my chest again. This was repeated over and over and over again, today my triceps are screaming.

This made me think about other games I could create that would be fun
for a toddler and beneficial for me as a workout. The idea then
continued as being a great DVD aimed at parents who have little time
to go to a gym but could do these exercises while playing with their
kids, of course I understand that just taking part in play activities
with your kids is exercise but the idea was to isolate muscle groups
to make it more effective.

Then my Brain went a step further and thought about possible
implications of the whole idea being inappropriate and potentially
having a backlash against it.

I tell you what, that was a busy 5 minutes on the train this morning I
was rich and famous for a brief period but hey ho.

Wow i really used to post a lot more than i do these days, you’d think not having a job would have given me more time, ah well.

Anyway

Remember way back when on the first of June i had to visit the Hospital because of my foot? Well on Thursday i visited the doctors to find out why i was still experiencing pain. Turns out that the arch of my right foot is collapsing. This would explain why the heel spur never bothered me before then suddenly did. It wasn’t so much the heel spur pushing into the soft tissue under my foot as it was the soft tissue pushing onto the spur as the arch collapses.

Currently i have pain in my foot fairly constantly but it is worse after periods of inactivity. The doctor has recommended that i use arch supports in footwear which will (as is suggested) support the arch of my foot and therefore also the pain.

While it is good news that a simple solution exists i can’t help but feel that this means my love of running (seriously when i see someone running now i get a bit het up and jealous) is most certainly gonna have to be put on the back burner if not shelved completely. I know as a result of not being able to exercise i haven’t been keeping to a diet (i find it hard to do one without the other) and the result is a pretty damn flabbier Neil.

A & E is not the place you want to find yourself before 9am on a Monday but if you do find yourself there it’s rarely through choice. I certainly didn’t want to wake up in pain and have to bother my housemate for a lift to the hospital but I did.

The bottom of my heel is really tender, I can’t put weight on it or twist it either. After an X-Ray very similar but not identical to the featured picture it’s apparent that I have a spur. Nothing wrong with it in normal day to day life but running has made the spur
push further into the tissue of my heal and that’s what is causing all the pain, and don’t I know about it.

It is possible to have it shaved down but basically it means I’m either never running again, or not for a very long time. It hurts and it’s keeping me fat, cheers bones.

My fitness and diet has gone down the toilet recently due to living between two addresses and it’s hard and blah blah blah but at the end of the day i am just making excuses. So I’ve started running again. I do actually love running, love the feeling you get after a run the issue is starting running. Getting the drive and motivation to actually set off on a run is hard, especially when you haven’t run in months. I always conveniently forget how good it makes me feel in order to stay in bed an extra hour for example.

I have however been bitten by the bug once more, looking forward to general better fitness all round and of course shedding a few pounds wouldn’t go a miss either.

Uni work is at its craziest point right now.

I have 2 presentations to give this week. They are both group presentations which i find harder because other people work in different ways and have different styles. I like to wing it when i do a presentation. Don’t get me wrong my power point or whatever is in place and sorted with key points ready to pop up at a mouse click and i know my shit but what i say, now that’s all ad lib. This of course does not work well when in a group as you have to take everybody else’s pieces into consideration. So that’s a touch on the stressful side plus there are exams coming up too adding to the stress. I have a few things going on in my personal life too that have added stress just due to the very nature of them. I won’t talk about them right now but i will in the future.

What a miserable arse blog post that is. Ah well, one thing i find makes me feel good is running and i haven’t been able to do that for some time due to various medical issues (gacky toes, I’ll say no more) but they are pretty much OK now so i bought myself a new pair of running shoes (as anybody who follows my twitter will have seen) so as of tomorrow I’m gonna start running again. It’s been a while so it will be hard at first but i know the rewards will come so i shall persevere. I have to, I’m sick of not doing any fitness at all so this will cure that hopefully.