Ok 1st I must apologise for being a day late with this, I would like to lay the blame on a busy Saturday or the internet being down, however, I can only blame one thing... Being in a great mood! I was in such a good mood I cracked on with things yesterday and did not take the time to sit down and write the promised update.
It was the sort of good mood that I should not have been in, I hadn't achieved much nor had I got anything to look forward to other than a cookie that I had bough earlier in the week. I had been doing well with my reduction on calorie intake to loose some timber off the belly but I succumbed to the constant carrot dangling that stores do when it comes to unhealthy food. If they were actual carrots instead of metaphoric ones it wouldn't be so bad but I had done well apart from that one cookie.
My good mood had stemmed I suppose a little from taking a positive mindset on in order to achieve the things I want to achieve. This has worked out a little in my 1st week of trying it and last night I went out for a meal that I really enjoyed, the company, someone I wanted to spend time with who was less keen on spending time with me. I hadn't kidnapped her, she agreed in fact suggested it although I think it was more to be nosey into what I'm up more than anything but I took the night for what it was and had fun.
Having fun included having a few drinks, well, a few... a lot... quite a lot, alright it was a hangover that stopped me writing yesterday. I had still made progress during the week though. It is possible to make progress without putting yourself through a personal boot camp. Bitesize goals are more achievable and my goal for the week was to have written 3000 words of my comedy story, done 6 hours of French (sadly the language not the kissing.... do people still call it French kissing or is that a bit 80's?)
I left off last week with a 2 hour session speaking the language of love.... that being French, Yorkshire English is not quite the sexy dialect Sean Bean manages to make it look tha knos!!
I don't feel confident speaking any French just yet, my French accent is no good, it sounds like someone has taken an LP of Brian Glover talking and played it backwards. But words I knew nothing of before were starting to sink in and that date with Audrey Tautou is only a matter of time away!
Exercise wise I have been cycling, weight loss is something I was always so blase about, I mean why lose weight when I am so god damn sexy with my gut!! Of course I am not but when I look in the mirror it lies, or moreover my brain lies. Sadly photo's don't lie and neither do people who comment on Facebook as comments on a picture of me in a denim shirt included "hey Jim Elton John wants his shower curtain back" and "wow I didn't know Jacamo do denim shirts"
I won't be shamed into having a body image that society deems correct, however, I do want to live past 40 so my health is important and as a single guy I want to look good in case I meet a girl that wants to do stuff with me!!!
My progress had been good and the myfitnesspal App has really helped me as I record everything I eat now... I had no idea how bad a snacker I was, I would snack to the tune of 2000 calories a day on top of any meals.... no wonder I got all chunky, its not deliberate so I could do fat guy jokes on stage!!!
I have done well this week though, keeping my calorie intake down to a net consumption of less than 1700 per day until Friday night when I accidentally drank my body weight in wine!
My challenge to get up early and write has been good, the alarm goes off each morning at 6 but I am now awake before the alarm, I think my body clock thinks its a game, that waking me up before my alarm goes off so I can lie there for 15 mins with one eye open thinking about getting up but deciding the alarm should be the instigator has some kind of sadistic fun factor for a part of my brain.
That said it is painless and I have seemingly trained myself very quickly so it is fair to say I am doing well.
The comedy I have been writing has been dreadful though, I mean there have been funnier bouts of flu, but at least I am writing, yes I am writing crap but I am writing so its a start.
This week I hope to get another 6 hours French under my belt and work on some upper body exercises. I will also write each day in the hope that eventually I write something decent! I also will make some more social time too, just to prove I can make huge changes, achieve things and still live my life. So I will see you all next week and hopefully some of you are on your way with changes too.
Have a great week
Sunday, 24 August 2014
Saturday, 16 August 2014
Bees Can Fly, Momentum No7
I gave myself a morning off from waking up early today, oddly I still woke and rose earlier than I would have and yet because it was after 8am which by my normal standards is still a time I'm used to getting in not getting up, I felt this strange feeling in my stomach. I had rolled on to my hire phone in the night and it was now stuck to me, welded by a little sweaty natural adhesive however, it was not that.
I also felt it in my head, a sense of regret or shame..... I actually felt guilty for not getting up to make the most of this new day!!!!
Perhaps I have some momentum? I think you need momentum when suddenly deciding to make changes in your life but I would certainly say discipline is more important. I have never been one for discipline ever since visiting Amsterdam as a teenager and trying the hall of discipline, I had no idea I could feel such shame!
This has made me think that I should try and use both discipline and momentum, the momentum to keep going throughout the change process and discipline to get back into routine when there has been a break, which there will be.
Today is the last day of my daily introduction to this process before I go weekly, I hope you keep reading and if you are doing anything similar drop me a comment.
For me it has started to sink in just what I am doing to myself as I jump on the scales this morning and despite losing a lot of weight still tipping them at 14st 10, I'm 2 stn too heavy still!!! I saw a picture of myself taken last November, I had a handlebar tash for Movember yet that was not the most shocking thing about the picture. Well I say shocking, it's not that shocking much like one of those posts on Facebook that say how shocking the picture will be and it turns out to be a celeb eating a dohnut! But what happened next will blow you away!! (by that I mean it will create moderate interest for a few seconds)
What was shocking was how awful I looked, I remember looking in the mirror that weekend when the picture was taken and thinking... looooooking gooood Jimbo! my brain is an asshole! it makes me believe I look good when clearly a camera proves I do not. The football shirt I was wearing was stretched over a belly that rivaled a Buddha. But I can lose this weight, I will eat better and now I have bought a bike I will ride it rather than use it as an expensive clothes horse, I don't care how sore my arse was from riding it home.
My goal today though, spend 2 hours working on French, I know nothing about speaking French, I never could pick it up at School, I just didn't have that certain 'I don't know what'!! today I will lay the foundations.
Tomorrow out on the bike, Monday I will find a new day job so I can afford stuff!! Tuesday I will begin writing. Whatever it is you are doing, good luck, I'll see you in a week and let you know how I am getting on.
I also felt it in my head, a sense of regret or shame..... I actually felt guilty for not getting up to make the most of this new day!!!!
Perhaps I have some momentum? I think you need momentum when suddenly deciding to make changes in your life but I would certainly say discipline is more important. I have never been one for discipline ever since visiting Amsterdam as a teenager and trying the hall of discipline, I had no idea I could feel such shame!
This has made me think that I should try and use both discipline and momentum, the momentum to keep going throughout the change process and discipline to get back into routine when there has been a break, which there will be.
Today is the last day of my daily introduction to this process before I go weekly, I hope you keep reading and if you are doing anything similar drop me a comment.
For me it has started to sink in just what I am doing to myself as I jump on the scales this morning and despite losing a lot of weight still tipping them at 14st 10, I'm 2 stn too heavy still!!! I saw a picture of myself taken last November, I had a handlebar tash for Movember yet that was not the most shocking thing about the picture. Well I say shocking, it's not that shocking much like one of those posts on Facebook that say how shocking the picture will be and it turns out to be a celeb eating a dohnut! But what happened next will blow you away!! (by that I mean it will create moderate interest for a few seconds)
What was shocking was how awful I looked, I remember looking in the mirror that weekend when the picture was taken and thinking... looooooking gooood Jimbo! my brain is an asshole! it makes me believe I look good when clearly a camera proves I do not. The football shirt I was wearing was stretched over a belly that rivaled a Buddha. But I can lose this weight, I will eat better and now I have bought a bike I will ride it rather than use it as an expensive clothes horse, I don't care how sore my arse was from riding it home.
My goal today though, spend 2 hours working on French, I know nothing about speaking French, I never could pick it up at School, I just didn't have that certain 'I don't know what'!! today I will lay the foundations.
Tomorrow out on the bike, Monday I will find a new day job so I can afford stuff!! Tuesday I will begin writing. Whatever it is you are doing, good luck, I'll see you in a week and let you know how I am getting on.
Friday, 15 August 2014
Bees Can Fly, Inspiration No6
I spoke a little yesterday about wanting it when it comes to making changes, I mean really wanting it not wanting it but when you find out what you have to do to get it deciding you only sort of want it.
I like to have a good sit down, it's not laziness (it is) I just like to sit down before I do anything, I will get up in the morning... ok afternoon but lately it has been morning since I started this process, and I will have a sit down before doing anything else. Why I need this after a night laid down in bed I have no idea, sure if I sleep standing on my head or on a treadmill fine but I sleep like most people, laid down, mouth open, occasionally ruffling my hair (I can only assume I do that given the state of my hair when I get up)
I also like to have a sit down after I have been, well anywhere. I will just go to the bottom of the drive and when I come back in its time for a sit down, I blame the band James! This is inbuilt habitual and part of who I am and so I absolutely have to change this in order to achieve anything and that is down to how much I want it.
Another way of looking at how much you want something would be to say how much of the bad can you cope with to get the good, if I said I would give you £50 every day would you want it? probably yes but if I said that in order to get that £50 you have to let me slap you in the face with a wet and somewhat un-aromatic fish would you still want it, maybe yes, what if the catch was I get to kick you in the nuts every day (ladies would not worry too much about this) or I get to set fire to your face.
Of course I am being ridiculous there but the point being wanting it but then finding out there is something difficult to do to get there and not following through is what far too many people do. I need to see this off and deal with the hard stuff in order to get the victories in life. We all need to.
We also need to make sure that if we want it, then we want it for the duration of the process not just the 1st few weeks. I want to be a top comedian, nearly 3 years in I am not even close so should I give up now or keep going for another 6 or 7 years which is how long it will take, no wonder my girlfriend ran for the hills to find a guy with a proper job and less inclined to have a nice sit down.
You see when it comes to wanting it there is so much more than wanting the results, there is wanting it enough to know there needs to be sacrifices, I don't mean tie a virgin princess to a tree and wait for the giant 3 headed serpent to eat her or butcher a lamb at midnight on the sacrificial stone. I mean lose out on things in order to gain things. My ex used to say to me, which sacrifice do you want to make, a good body or good living. She meant do I want to sacrifice eating the things I love, pizza, choccy bars, Pizza, Curry, Pizza and of course Pizza, or do I want to eat those things and sacrifice being in decent shape... for years the easier option was to eat Pizza (I bloody love Pizza) now its on the sacrifice list. I am not instantly slim though, its all a journey.
Learning French, another of my goals requires sacrifice, I could spend today watching cricket with my dad, I love cricket I don't care what anyone else thinks of it! but instead I have ,my headset on, I am going through grammar in French and learning some basic words that are similar in French as they are in English with pronunciation changes, I can see India are 39-5 from my notifications.. damn it I am missing a brilliant bowling performance from England but needs must I can still check the score now and again much like I can still have the odd pizza.
I hope tomorrow to be able to string a sentence together in French..... soon.... soon I will be dating Audrey Tautou!!!
See you all tomorrow
I like to have a good sit down, it's not laziness (it is) I just like to sit down before I do anything, I will get up in the morning... ok afternoon but lately it has been morning since I started this process, and I will have a sit down before doing anything else. Why I need this after a night laid down in bed I have no idea, sure if I sleep standing on my head or on a treadmill fine but I sleep like most people, laid down, mouth open, occasionally ruffling my hair (I can only assume I do that given the state of my hair when I get up)
I also like to have a sit down after I have been, well anywhere. I will just go to the bottom of the drive and when I come back in its time for a sit down, I blame the band James! This is inbuilt habitual and part of who I am and so I absolutely have to change this in order to achieve anything and that is down to how much I want it.
Another way of looking at how much you want something would be to say how much of the bad can you cope with to get the good, if I said I would give you £50 every day would you want it? probably yes but if I said that in order to get that £50 you have to let me slap you in the face with a wet and somewhat un-aromatic fish would you still want it, maybe yes, what if the catch was I get to kick you in the nuts every day (ladies would not worry too much about this) or I get to set fire to your face.
Of course I am being ridiculous there but the point being wanting it but then finding out there is something difficult to do to get there and not following through is what far too many people do. I need to see this off and deal with the hard stuff in order to get the victories in life. We all need to.
We also need to make sure that if we want it, then we want it for the duration of the process not just the 1st few weeks. I want to be a top comedian, nearly 3 years in I am not even close so should I give up now or keep going for another 6 or 7 years which is how long it will take, no wonder my girlfriend ran for the hills to find a guy with a proper job and less inclined to have a nice sit down.
You see when it comes to wanting it there is so much more than wanting the results, there is wanting it enough to know there needs to be sacrifices, I don't mean tie a virgin princess to a tree and wait for the giant 3 headed serpent to eat her or butcher a lamb at midnight on the sacrificial stone. I mean lose out on things in order to gain things. My ex used to say to me, which sacrifice do you want to make, a good body or good living. She meant do I want to sacrifice eating the things I love, pizza, choccy bars, Pizza, Curry, Pizza and of course Pizza, or do I want to eat those things and sacrifice being in decent shape... for years the easier option was to eat Pizza (I bloody love Pizza) now its on the sacrifice list. I am not instantly slim though, its all a journey.
Learning French, another of my goals requires sacrifice, I could spend today watching cricket with my dad, I love cricket I don't care what anyone else thinks of it! but instead I have ,my headset on, I am going through grammar in French and learning some basic words that are similar in French as they are in English with pronunciation changes, I can see India are 39-5 from my notifications.. damn it I am missing a brilliant bowling performance from England but needs must I can still check the score now and again much like I can still have the odd pizza.
I hope tomorrow to be able to string a sentence together in French..... soon.... soon I will be dating Audrey Tautou!!!
See you all tomorrow
Thursday, 14 August 2014
Bees Can Fly, Focus voice No5
Another lovely Yorkshire morning, actually no sarcasm this time, my window is open there is sun beaming through the curtains already even at 6am and the air smells fresh.
The thing is, this morning I tried to snooze my alarm again, could I already be giving up on myself? I could hear the alarm, it's not my usual alarm from my I phone as that has a cracked screen and I can't afford to have it fixed ( I only took a selfie???) it was a quieter sounding alarm from my hire phone, a phone so old there was no clock it just had a sundial on the back to trigger the alarm!
I had no water at the foot of the bed this time to wake me up although evidence of last nights snacking was laid on the floor as I somehow missed the bin just inches away and as I fell from bed; lacking any grace I landed on a banana skin and laughed to myself about how this day could potentially be a bad one!
I was worried that I am giving up already though, as I mentioned yesterday, seeing things through is key to any kind of self improvement and yet here I am just a few days in thinking about snoozing the alarm; having cake for breakfast and just shouting English louder at any French people that don't understand me before surmising that they must be stupid if they don't know English.
What would my blog readers think if only 5 days in I just gave up and continued walking the same path getting the same results? Some would be disappointed where others would probably not care at all and find something to read that they could have more faith in like an email from a woman you never met proclaiming her love and friendship for you and promising pictures if you join her dating website, or a text from some ambulance chasers about that accident you had a few months ago, only upon inquiring with them would you find out they meant one that required hospital treatment not one that required a change of underwear!
Now I can't allow that, I have to get my mind right. There is a little voice in my head, we all have one, it's a sub personality in some ways. The voice sounds a little like your own voice, as you hear it not as it sounds when you hear a tape of yourself and cringe into the foetal position until you stop talking. This sub personality is you, a mini you inside your head judging you, laughing at you, sometimes telling you silly jokes so you laugh to yourself on the bus and look up to see all the other passengers shuffling away.
This voice can be annoying, for example whenever someone tells me their name when I 1st meet them just as they say the name my little inner voice yells "LA LA LA NOT LISTENING" and the name never goes in thus making the person 'mate' until I hear someone else call their name.
You can train this voice though, it can give you pep talks and tell you never to give up. The voice can tell you you're a big bad fatty if you even look at a cake while dieting or can tell you to keep running for the finish line in a marathon when your legs try and find a park bench to rest on.
Part of this goes back to yesterday's blog, looking at what steps along the way you need to hit, if you are running a marathon, its 26 miles so you know you have to run that distance to complete the marathon, if you were just running you may give up after only 5 miles because you have nothing set to run to and lets be honest running 5 miles is hard enough, hell I feel tired when I run a bath!
Your little voice can give you focus if you train it to, sure there needs to be discipline but I found writing these things on my white board today have given me that little bit of discipline, even the bits where my early morning handwriting make it look like a drunk spider has crawled through ink then across the board, its making sense and my little annoying voice is now a focus voice.
In fact I got a delivery this morning from Graze, the snack people. It was my free snack box.... goodies!!! but my focus voice said, oi.... fat lad, sit down do some more work then get out on your bike for an hour this afternoon and earn that snack or I'll keep reminding you of that time you called the head-teacher mum at school and everyone laughed at you! (seriously that memory makes me cringe so badly)
I am pleased with the way my inner voice can be trained like this, it shows that I really do want these changes in life to happen and I'm not just frivolously playing at it because my missus changed the locks on the door while I was putting the bins out and I haven't seen her since!
Wanting it means it will happen. Wanting it and sharing with friends, getting the support of other like minded people and having family on board with me, well that all makes it so much more attainable.
I will talk more about wanting it tomorrow... someone remind me! Ah, white board! see you all then.
The thing is, this morning I tried to snooze my alarm again, could I already be giving up on myself? I could hear the alarm, it's not my usual alarm from my I phone as that has a cracked screen and I can't afford to have it fixed ( I only took a selfie???) it was a quieter sounding alarm from my hire phone, a phone so old there was no clock it just had a sundial on the back to trigger the alarm!
I had no water at the foot of the bed this time to wake me up although evidence of last nights snacking was laid on the floor as I somehow missed the bin just inches away and as I fell from bed; lacking any grace I landed on a banana skin and laughed to myself about how this day could potentially be a bad one!
I was worried that I am giving up already though, as I mentioned yesterday, seeing things through is key to any kind of self improvement and yet here I am just a few days in thinking about snoozing the alarm; having cake for breakfast and just shouting English louder at any French people that don't understand me before surmising that they must be stupid if they don't know English.
What would my blog readers think if only 5 days in I just gave up and continued walking the same path getting the same results? Some would be disappointed where others would probably not care at all and find something to read that they could have more faith in like an email from a woman you never met proclaiming her love and friendship for you and promising pictures if you join her dating website, or a text from some ambulance chasers about that accident you had a few months ago, only upon inquiring with them would you find out they meant one that required hospital treatment not one that required a change of underwear!
Now I can't allow that, I have to get my mind right. There is a little voice in my head, we all have one, it's a sub personality in some ways. The voice sounds a little like your own voice, as you hear it not as it sounds when you hear a tape of yourself and cringe into the foetal position until you stop talking. This sub personality is you, a mini you inside your head judging you, laughing at you, sometimes telling you silly jokes so you laugh to yourself on the bus and look up to see all the other passengers shuffling away.
This voice can be annoying, for example whenever someone tells me their name when I 1st meet them just as they say the name my little inner voice yells "LA LA LA NOT LISTENING" and the name never goes in thus making the person 'mate' until I hear someone else call their name.
You can train this voice though, it can give you pep talks and tell you never to give up. The voice can tell you you're a big bad fatty if you even look at a cake while dieting or can tell you to keep running for the finish line in a marathon when your legs try and find a park bench to rest on.
Part of this goes back to yesterday's blog, looking at what steps along the way you need to hit, if you are running a marathon, its 26 miles so you know you have to run that distance to complete the marathon, if you were just running you may give up after only 5 miles because you have nothing set to run to and lets be honest running 5 miles is hard enough, hell I feel tired when I run a bath!
Your little voice can give you focus if you train it to, sure there needs to be discipline but I found writing these things on my white board today have given me that little bit of discipline, even the bits where my early morning handwriting make it look like a drunk spider has crawled through ink then across the board, its making sense and my little annoying voice is now a focus voice.
In fact I got a delivery this morning from Graze, the snack people. It was my free snack box.... goodies!!! but my focus voice said, oi.... fat lad, sit down do some more work then get out on your bike for an hour this afternoon and earn that snack or I'll keep reminding you of that time you called the head-teacher mum at school and everyone laughed at you! (seriously that memory makes me cringe so badly)
I am pleased with the way my inner voice can be trained like this, it shows that I really do want these changes in life to happen and I'm not just frivolously playing at it because my missus changed the locks on the door while I was putting the bins out and I haven't seen her since!
Wanting it means it will happen. Wanting it and sharing with friends, getting the support of other like minded people and having family on board with me, well that all makes it so much more attainable.
I will talk more about wanting it tomorrow... someone remind me! Ah, white board! see you all then.
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Bees Can Fly, Reasoning No4
If you are going to come up with an idea to do something, a harebrained scheme or a well thought out plan for the future, exercise, work or lifestyle decisions are all worth while making but how are you going to keep the momentum long after the initial motivation has died.
For some people the motivation is like a Mayfly, it bubbles up for a year threatening to be born, then, BAM its born and 24 hours later its dead in the water, less than 24 hours if it get hits by a car but your motivation is metaphorical so being hit by a car would mean you wandered into the road aimlessly while thinking about your future... don't do that because your future would be dramatically shortened!
The thing you should do is work out how to get from position A, where you are right now to position Z having hit the target you set. What are all the stages in between, the other 24 letters to complete your achievement if we are staying with the A to Z journey 23 if we don't want to think about Y.
This is why setting targets and having goals is necessary to achieve anything you have set yourself.
For me, setting targets is not where it ends, I will never write that funny book, loose any weight or learn French if I don't know where I need to be each day in order to get there. That date with Audrey Tautou where I tell her fluently in her native tongue all about how I had to buy a belt before the date because my trousers no longer fit and the guy in the shop was reading my book as well as fly fishing by J R Hartly, well that will all be fantasy!
I bought a white board and a marker pen to write my daily to do's and a wall chart to plot my weekly and monthly ones, I had to get this from £1 shop so those who read my 1st blog will know I now have £17 to my name, and I'm hungry!! Thankfully a gig tomorrow and some money coming in, also while I was out on my bike today I noticed a hedgehog and a squirrel who had clearly both been thinking about their future while aimlessly walking into the road, if the worse comes to the worse I'm sure I can season them and have a BBQ I won't go hungry is what I am saying here.
Each of my goals require steps,
not the band, although 5, 6, 7 ,8 is catchy on the mp3 while having a little jog!
The steps are what I need to think about, how will I loose the weight, what do I need to do differently so as to be slimmer for example. Now I know it's obvious, eat less exercise more and just because I'm northern does not mean I have to eat Greggs Pasties every time I go past one of their many outlets.
There has to be more though than that though, how many pasties I eat being reduced is no good if I decide to go have 10 pints of real ale and a kebab. I need to know things I was not paying attention to before, what is my Basal metabolic rate for example.
I had never heard of this before a friend told me to work it out, I was googling Basil metabolic rate and got information on the 81 year old former athlete Basil Heatley, while his 1964 Silver Olympic silver medal was nice to read about, the wrong tree that I was barking up showed how little I know about what I am actually doing.
It really shows if someone as daft as I am can do this, can achieve things, well you can. I mean learn French... I can barely speak English that well!
I figured out my Basal rate, I burn 1900 calories approx per day or would if I stayed in bed all day, I need to eat less than this to loose 2lbs a week unless I do any exercise in which case I need to eat more.
There is a little more to it than that, I will be speaking to my good good mate Robert Abbiss who is a personal trainer and nutritionist and if you are local to Leeds, or if you are not but are prepared to travel for excellent service, give him a shout, the boy is thorough and knows his stuff.
So I skimmed across the reasons for target setting, I am late getting this out today (sorry, been a hectic day but excuses are for losers!!) I will waffle on some more tomorrow about what I expect to happen and when I am going to check in on progress, please please please if you are considering trying to achieve something, join in, set some targets and lets go for this together.
See you tomorrow
For some people the motivation is like a Mayfly, it bubbles up for a year threatening to be born, then, BAM its born and 24 hours later its dead in the water, less than 24 hours if it get hits by a car but your motivation is metaphorical so being hit by a car would mean you wandered into the road aimlessly while thinking about your future... don't do that because your future would be dramatically shortened!
The thing you should do is work out how to get from position A, where you are right now to position Z having hit the target you set. What are all the stages in between, the other 24 letters to complete your achievement if we are staying with the A to Z journey 23 if we don't want to think about Y.
This is why setting targets and having goals is necessary to achieve anything you have set yourself.
For me, setting targets is not where it ends, I will never write that funny book, loose any weight or learn French if I don't know where I need to be each day in order to get there. That date with Audrey Tautou where I tell her fluently in her native tongue all about how I had to buy a belt before the date because my trousers no longer fit and the guy in the shop was reading my book as well as fly fishing by J R Hartly, well that will all be fantasy!
I bought a white board and a marker pen to write my daily to do's and a wall chart to plot my weekly and monthly ones, I had to get this from £1 shop so those who read my 1st blog will know I now have £17 to my name, and I'm hungry!! Thankfully a gig tomorrow and some money coming in, also while I was out on my bike today I noticed a hedgehog and a squirrel who had clearly both been thinking about their future while aimlessly walking into the road, if the worse comes to the worse I'm sure I can season them and have a BBQ I won't go hungry is what I am saying here.
Each of my goals require steps,
not the band, although 5, 6, 7 ,8 is catchy on the mp3 while having a little jog!
The steps are what I need to think about, how will I loose the weight, what do I need to do differently so as to be slimmer for example. Now I know it's obvious, eat less exercise more and just because I'm northern does not mean I have to eat Greggs Pasties every time I go past one of their many outlets.
There has to be more though than that though, how many pasties I eat being reduced is no good if I decide to go have 10 pints of real ale and a kebab. I need to know things I was not paying attention to before, what is my Basal metabolic rate for example.
I had never heard of this before a friend told me to work it out, I was googling Basil metabolic rate and got information on the 81 year old former athlete Basil Heatley, while his 1964 Silver Olympic silver medal was nice to read about, the wrong tree that I was barking up showed how little I know about what I am actually doing.
It really shows if someone as daft as I am can do this, can achieve things, well you can. I mean learn French... I can barely speak English that well!
I figured out my Basal rate, I burn 1900 calories approx per day or would if I stayed in bed all day, I need to eat less than this to loose 2lbs a week unless I do any exercise in which case I need to eat more.
There is a little more to it than that, I will be speaking to my good good mate Robert Abbiss who is a personal trainer and nutritionist and if you are local to Leeds, or if you are not but are prepared to travel for excellent service, give him a shout, the boy is thorough and knows his stuff.
So I skimmed across the reasons for target setting, I am late getting this out today (sorry, been a hectic day but excuses are for losers!!) I will waffle on some more tomorrow about what I expect to happen and when I am going to check in on progress, please please please if you are considering trying to achieve something, join in, set some targets and lets go for this together.
See you tomorrow
Tuesday, 12 August 2014
Bees Can Fly, Setting Goals No3
Good Morning, I am assuming you are reading this in the morning but you may not be, it may not be that good a morning either, by that I am being incredibly British and referring to the weather as here in West Yorkshire there is rain, wind and a little more rain, which is what we call a lovely summers morning!
Today I am talking about setting goals, I will talk from a personal perspective but you can think about what you want yourselves while reading if you are female and able to multi task, guys, one thing at a time please!
If you missed the 1st too blogs in the bees can't fly series they are here
http://beescantfly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/bees-can-fly-believe-no1.html
http://beescantfly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/bees-can-fly-start-now-no2.html
Setting goals is a new thing for me, I have drifted through life just expecting things to work out and assuming I would find a way to be successful in everything I do, I have no idea why? why would anyone assume anything?
Well, because we are human and so we are fallible, all of us, yes even you reading this thinking "I'm not, I'm perfect" you are capable of bad choices, failure and mistakes. This is perfectly fine, even Superman has his failings, and weaknesses, underpants on the outside, silly haircut, gross underestimation of how disguises work and of course kryptonite.
It's absolutely fine to admit you can get things wrong and still hold yourself in high regard, or consider yourself good at something but still make errors, I am good at brushing my teeth, seriously I can brush them accurately and some mornings while making toast or putting socks on (men can multi task, no gender discrimination required here), yet this morning I still managed to smear toothpaste across my face and swallow a little of it too as I for no apparent reason decided to try and sing along to the radio, friends in the US.... we do brush our teeth here in the UK.... we just don't have beautiful smiles like you all do.
Setting targets however, it is not about what I get wrong and more about what am I capable of? I always thought I was only capable of what I was actually achieving, like I would just find out what I'm good at and wind up doing it, but life is not like that.
I know some people, lets use Rory Mcilroy as an example, just know they are going to be good at something when they are like 3 or something, thats great but if I was to use what I was like as a 3 year old, falling over all the time, talking incoherently and rowing with my brother over nothing as a template for life then I would have become a drunk!
The reason I didn't become a drunk is because without even realising it I did set myself targets and goals, this does not mean I was lying earlier on in this blog post it just means rather like my occasional Tea breath I don't notice and just carry on regardless.
I was not aware at that time that I could achieve so much more than I believed possible if I had targets. As grand as that may sound setting the target of getting up early was as simple as I needed it to be, it can be as simple for you.
I will move on slightly though, look at the goals I have set myself as I kick start my life, or re start it.
I feel the need to make changes because I am going nowhere, I'm like a cow, being milked for what I'm worth daily (are they milked daily? ouch, that must smart a bit) and just standing in my field content until a bony fella in a black cloak carrying a scythe pops to see me.
I'm 34, trained as a cook, I'm not that good at cooking but no one has died yet so I class myself as successful. I became a stand up comic in 2012, I make people laugh and bookers pay me, but I am lazy and have progressed slowly. I have had achievements, a pilots license that I traveled to San Diego in 2006 to complete, I have a football coaching badge (Even though an Englishman coined the word I just can't call it Soccer, feels wrong) and I am qualified in activity management, although I still don't really know what that means!
I have recently split from my girlfriend too, I didn't want to but she had become more focused on her career and, well lets be honest, bored of me sitting around expecting to one day be successful without really knowing what I expected to be successful in. It was this break up that made me look at myself, 4 stone (48lbs) over weight, no day job, no car and living in a house that was, well girly apart from the corner of the room that had that 'man' smell (otherwise known as sweaty)
I had to do something, your own reasons for change may be different and whatever they are they are worthy reasons, but deciding to make self improvements needs to be targeted and so I looked at what I wanted.
Target 1, to be slimmer, well fitter really... I'm 34, parts of my body ache that I didn't even know I had and other parts, well I would like to be able to see them when looking down, i mean my toes of course and if you thought anything else shame on you.
I decided 4st in 6 months would be my 1st target, there is a timescale and a definite target there, one without the other is like a car without a steering wheel, it will go but not necessarily in the direction you want it to.
You may not have weight loss targets, they may be work related goals, Hal who I mentioned yesterday has a target in the number of copies of his book he wishes to sell, see the link here for a nosey at that.
www.MiracleMorningBook.com and www.MiracleMorning.com
My work related target, to write a comedy book, I like writing and it is the side of my comedy that needs the most work so why not write something that is not stand up, something different that requires me to work a little harder, especially when you consider that I procrastinate, I keep putting off sorting that out!
I set a target of 90 days to write this, so far I have the 1st chapter! I am 80 days in, ok thats a joke, I'm on day 2! I may not publish this, its more for me to have something to work towards and to make myself answerable to someone.... Me.
I set one further target, to learn a new skill, I have chosen to learn French, it could have been anything, to juggle, to eat 100 hot dogs in 5 minutes, which would have made thew weight loss tricky granted.
I chose French because, well the French are a lot nicer than we give them credit for and I kinda have a celeb crush on Audrey Tautou so y'know, in case I ever meet her. I have given myself 12 months to be able to hold a conversation in French.
So those are my targets, my goals, can an average nobody like me who makes people laugh for a living because well they laugh at me anyway and it seems easy actually achieve these things?
Yes, we human flavoured beings can do so much, we are a talented bunch, all of us. All I need to do now is work out how to make my targets a reality, what steps I need to take to get there and set little points along the way of where I should be so I don't stay in bed all day pretending that I need to guard the pillow in case a spider tries to take up residence behind it.
Thanks for joining me again today, see you tomorrow with the why's and hows and whatever other nonsense comes into my head, hopefully I will also be able to help a few of you feel you can achieve things, lets be honest, if a fat northern lad with no real talents for anything can, you can, I have to do it for all of you and you can do it for yourself.
much love
J
Today I am talking about setting goals, I will talk from a personal perspective but you can think about what you want yourselves while reading if you are female and able to multi task, guys, one thing at a time please!
If you missed the 1st too blogs in the bees can't fly series they are here
http://beescantfly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/bees-can-fly-believe-no1.html
http://beescantfly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/bees-can-fly-start-now-no2.html
Setting goals is a new thing for me, I have drifted through life just expecting things to work out and assuming I would find a way to be successful in everything I do, I have no idea why? why would anyone assume anything?
Well, because we are human and so we are fallible, all of us, yes even you reading this thinking "I'm not, I'm perfect" you are capable of bad choices, failure and mistakes. This is perfectly fine, even Superman has his failings, and weaknesses, underpants on the outside, silly haircut, gross underestimation of how disguises work and of course kryptonite.
It's absolutely fine to admit you can get things wrong and still hold yourself in high regard, or consider yourself good at something but still make errors, I am good at brushing my teeth, seriously I can brush them accurately and some mornings while making toast or putting socks on (men can multi task, no gender discrimination required here), yet this morning I still managed to smear toothpaste across my face and swallow a little of it too as I for no apparent reason decided to try and sing along to the radio, friends in the US.... we do brush our teeth here in the UK.... we just don't have beautiful smiles like you all do.
Setting targets however, it is not about what I get wrong and more about what am I capable of? I always thought I was only capable of what I was actually achieving, like I would just find out what I'm good at and wind up doing it, but life is not like that.
I know some people, lets use Rory Mcilroy as an example, just know they are going to be good at something when they are like 3 or something, thats great but if I was to use what I was like as a 3 year old, falling over all the time, talking incoherently and rowing with my brother over nothing as a template for life then I would have become a drunk!
The reason I didn't become a drunk is because without even realising it I did set myself targets and goals, this does not mean I was lying earlier on in this blog post it just means rather like my occasional Tea breath I don't notice and just carry on regardless.
I was not aware at that time that I could achieve so much more than I believed possible if I had targets. As grand as that may sound setting the target of getting up early was as simple as I needed it to be, it can be as simple for you.
I will move on slightly though, look at the goals I have set myself as I kick start my life, or re start it.
I feel the need to make changes because I am going nowhere, I'm like a cow, being milked for what I'm worth daily (are they milked daily? ouch, that must smart a bit) and just standing in my field content until a bony fella in a black cloak carrying a scythe pops to see me.
I'm 34, trained as a cook, I'm not that good at cooking but no one has died yet so I class myself as successful. I became a stand up comic in 2012, I make people laugh and bookers pay me, but I am lazy and have progressed slowly. I have had achievements, a pilots license that I traveled to San Diego in 2006 to complete, I have a football coaching badge (Even though an Englishman coined the word I just can't call it Soccer, feels wrong) and I am qualified in activity management, although I still don't really know what that means!
I have recently split from my girlfriend too, I didn't want to but she had become more focused on her career and, well lets be honest, bored of me sitting around expecting to one day be successful without really knowing what I expected to be successful in. It was this break up that made me look at myself, 4 stone (48lbs) over weight, no day job, no car and living in a house that was, well girly apart from the corner of the room that had that 'man' smell (otherwise known as sweaty)
I had to do something, your own reasons for change may be different and whatever they are they are worthy reasons, but deciding to make self improvements needs to be targeted and so I looked at what I wanted.
Target 1, to be slimmer, well fitter really... I'm 34, parts of my body ache that I didn't even know I had and other parts, well I would like to be able to see them when looking down, i mean my toes of course and if you thought anything else shame on you.
I decided 4st in 6 months would be my 1st target, there is a timescale and a definite target there, one without the other is like a car without a steering wheel, it will go but not necessarily in the direction you want it to.
You may not have weight loss targets, they may be work related goals, Hal who I mentioned yesterday has a target in the number of copies of his book he wishes to sell, see the link here for a nosey at that.
www.MiracleMorningBook.com and www.MiracleMorning.com
My work related target, to write a comedy book, I like writing and it is the side of my comedy that needs the most work so why not write something that is not stand up, something different that requires me to work a little harder, especially when you consider that I procrastinate, I keep putting off sorting that out!
I set a target of 90 days to write this, so far I have the 1st chapter! I am 80 days in, ok thats a joke, I'm on day 2! I may not publish this, its more for me to have something to work towards and to make myself answerable to someone.... Me.
I set one further target, to learn a new skill, I have chosen to learn French, it could have been anything, to juggle, to eat 100 hot dogs in 5 minutes, which would have made thew weight loss tricky granted.
I chose French because, well the French are a lot nicer than we give them credit for and I kinda have a celeb crush on Audrey Tautou so y'know, in case I ever meet her. I have given myself 12 months to be able to hold a conversation in French.
So those are my targets, my goals, can an average nobody like me who makes people laugh for a living because well they laugh at me anyway and it seems easy actually achieve these things?
Yes, we human flavoured beings can do so much, we are a talented bunch, all of us. All I need to do now is work out how to make my targets a reality, what steps I need to take to get there and set little points along the way of where I should be so I don't stay in bed all day pretending that I need to guard the pillow in case a spider tries to take up residence behind it.
Thanks for joining me again today, see you tomorrow with the why's and hows and whatever other nonsense comes into my head, hopefully I will also be able to help a few of you feel you can achieve things, lets be honest, if a fat northern lad with no real talents for anything can, you can, I have to do it for all of you and you can do it for yourself.
much love
J
Monday, 11 August 2014
Bees Can Fly, start now No2
I woke up early this morning.
I did so on purpose, well ok I didn't wake up, I was woken up by my alarm. It was 6.30am, now that may not seem early for some but as I have not to leave the house for work today, anything before midday is early!
I had decided to wake up early and make the most of my day after discovering Hal Elrod's Miracle Morning (podcast, book and Facebook community, please do check it out). The Miracle Morning is a supportive group that help you to start your day bright and achieve your goals, Just getting up was my goal so I need to be more ambitious to be honest.
In days gone by I would not get up if I didn't have to answer to anyone, I would snooze my alarm to the point of it being a waste of time having an alarm at all. I may as well have had a cuddly bear yelling WAKE UP at me, slapping me twice across the face, then cuddling me back to sleep as I try to make sense of what just happened. The drowsy brain I seem to operate each morning would not have been at all shocked by the presence of a bear let alone the fact it speaks English!
Changes need to be made though, I am far too average, Mr Normal, Mr Dull, Mr heldbackbythelimitationsIplaceonmyself. I think that last one is a Welsh name.
The Miracle Morning helped me to start thinking about changes, I was already looking for ways to keep a positive frame of mind and become a little better at just being alive but I did not set goals. Goals for me were things I watched on match of the day; targets, they were what salesmen try to reach or what the green Arrow could hit with 6 arrows while fending off ninja attacks drinking a cup of tea and reading war and peace.
Mr average, he just goes through the motions, does what he always does and remains an extra in the movie of life..... but who wants to be an extra? I mean if the movie of life was a zombie movie then I would be having my face chewed off within 15 minutes, in the grotesque way not in the 50 shades way.
I would like to avoid the undead, or the relative obscurity of being that guy who looks back on his life and thinks, Meh! so goals need to be set and there is no shame in asking for help or seeking others who are doing things with their lives too to support me along the way as I make my humble beginnings, this would also apply to you but you may not have the same pride I have so it may not feel as weak to ask, but that is just silly, everyone needs help.
1st thing though, back to that early rise, well in order to ensure the bear did not give my a big squeezy hug back to sleep I moved my alarm across the room just far enough out of reach so that I would have to get out of bed to turn it off.
I still tried to reach for it sliding as much of my body off the bed as I could to reach it without falling but my balance calculations were not great and there was that moment when I could hear my brain running for the exit sneering "you're on your own hear dickhead" as I went face 1st towards the ground.
You don't need to wake up this way, getting out of bed may not be your 1st challenge but it is mine and if we don't tackle that 1st challenge then we may as well ride a unicorn into the sunset because improvement would all be fairytale. To be honest I would remain asleep face planted on the floor arse (ass if you are from North America) in the air alarm still ringing if I could, but aware I may do this I put a large bowl of water at the foot of my bed and my face was now in it!
Risk of drowning aside this worked for me, again not something I would recommend to you but anything that helps you to start on day 1 getting up early to make those changes. Note I really don't want you to wake up by planting your face in water!
So I am now up, I'm facing a whole day, fresher and more determined than I have ever been. next is the goal setting.
Join me tomorrow and I will tell you more about me, my goals and how you can set your goals and then Wednesday we will look at why. There will be a new bog each day this week then I will go weekly with progress.
Please share this, it may just help inspire people to reach for something they didn't think they could, it may help someone out of a rut, it may just provide entertaining reading for someone wherever they are in the world or whatever they are experiencing we can all start making ourselves a little better.
I did so on purpose, well ok I didn't wake up, I was woken up by my alarm. It was 6.30am, now that may not seem early for some but as I have not to leave the house for work today, anything before midday is early!
I had decided to wake up early and make the most of my day after discovering Hal Elrod's Miracle Morning (podcast, book and Facebook community, please do check it out). The Miracle Morning is a supportive group that help you to start your day bright and achieve your goals, Just getting up was my goal so I need to be more ambitious to be honest.
In days gone by I would not get up if I didn't have to answer to anyone, I would snooze my alarm to the point of it being a waste of time having an alarm at all. I may as well have had a cuddly bear yelling WAKE UP at me, slapping me twice across the face, then cuddling me back to sleep as I try to make sense of what just happened. The drowsy brain I seem to operate each morning would not have been at all shocked by the presence of a bear let alone the fact it speaks English!
Changes need to be made though, I am far too average, Mr Normal, Mr Dull, Mr heldbackbythelimitationsIplaceonmyself. I think that last one is a Welsh name.
The Miracle Morning helped me to start thinking about changes, I was already looking for ways to keep a positive frame of mind and become a little better at just being alive but I did not set goals. Goals for me were things I watched on match of the day; targets, they were what salesmen try to reach or what the green Arrow could hit with 6 arrows while fending off ninja attacks drinking a cup of tea and reading war and peace.
Mr average, he just goes through the motions, does what he always does and remains an extra in the movie of life..... but who wants to be an extra? I mean if the movie of life was a zombie movie then I would be having my face chewed off within 15 minutes, in the grotesque way not in the 50 shades way.
I would like to avoid the undead, or the relative obscurity of being that guy who looks back on his life and thinks, Meh! so goals need to be set and there is no shame in asking for help or seeking others who are doing things with their lives too to support me along the way as I make my humble beginnings, this would also apply to you but you may not have the same pride I have so it may not feel as weak to ask, but that is just silly, everyone needs help.
1st thing though, back to that early rise, well in order to ensure the bear did not give my a big squeezy hug back to sleep I moved my alarm across the room just far enough out of reach so that I would have to get out of bed to turn it off.
I still tried to reach for it sliding as much of my body off the bed as I could to reach it without falling but my balance calculations were not great and there was that moment when I could hear my brain running for the exit sneering "you're on your own hear dickhead" as I went face 1st towards the ground.
You don't need to wake up this way, getting out of bed may not be your 1st challenge but it is mine and if we don't tackle that 1st challenge then we may as well ride a unicorn into the sunset because improvement would all be fairytale. To be honest I would remain asleep face planted on the floor arse (ass if you are from North America) in the air alarm still ringing if I could, but aware I may do this I put a large bowl of water at the foot of my bed and my face was now in it!
Risk of drowning aside this worked for me, again not something I would recommend to you but anything that helps you to start on day 1 getting up early to make those changes. Note I really don't want you to wake up by planting your face in water!
So I am now up, I'm facing a whole day, fresher and more determined than I have ever been. next is the goal setting.
Join me tomorrow and I will tell you more about me, my goals and how you can set your goals and then Wednesday we will look at why. There will be a new bog each day this week then I will go weekly with progress.
Please share this, it may just help inspire people to reach for something they didn't think they could, it may help someone out of a rut, it may just provide entertaining reading for someone wherever they are in the world or whatever they are experiencing we can all start making ourselves a little better.
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