Going into 2019 I didn’t have any particular goals, but very quickly it became the year of me getting into shape. Ten days ago I weighed in at 15st 4lbs, a whole 6st and 4lbs lighter than I was in March! I have put about 6lbs back on over Christmas, as I’ve given myself time off from the diet.
About 3 months ago I made a video review about a car vacuum. I’d taken my tripod up to the garages to be able to film myself using it. It was watching this video that I realised how big I’d gotten. On 10th March 2019 I weighed in at 21st 8.4lbs, which is 302lbs or 137kg.
I’ve been a Redskins fan since I was about 12, way back in 1987 I decided they would be my team and what do you know, they went all the way and won the Superbowl in a memorable 42-10 victory over the Denver Broncos.
I’ve been going to the Gym on and off for around 23 years now. The ‘on’ period I was having approaching Christmas was a pretty good one, starting back in June 2010 I’d been pretty consistent, Foursquare would tell me I was on a 40 week streak, going at least once a week, even through our Texas holiday.
For the sixth year, the NFL brought two teams over to Wembley to play a regular season game in London. For the sixth year, I was there to see it, along with 84,003 others!
Although we’ve always tried to get good tickets, this year we had the best seats yet. At the 50 yard line, around 20 rows back gave us a great view of every touchdown at either end of the field.
I’ve always said I’m not the type to diet. As I’ve blogged before, I can get myself down the gym, but I love my chocolate and biscuits too much. In the past I’ve managed to do things like cut out the chocolate from works vending machine, but that’s about as far as it would go. I really don’t like veg, not a big fan of fruit, so it’s always been difficult to ‘diet’ for me.
Around 3 weeks ago my weight got back up to 21 stone 5 lbs, pretty much where it was last summer just before I rejoined the gym. I got all the way down to about 20st 8lbs before it started to slip. Winter was hard, I found it almost impossible to get myself out of bed, when it was so cold, at 5 in the morning to get to the gym before work.
Continue reading Eating BetterIt must be two or three years since I’ve regularly been working out in the gym. I used to go quite often to Fitness First near Oxford Circus before work, but then things changed and we tended to start at 7am rather than 8am and there just wasn’t enough time to train any more.
Since then, my weight has gone up and up until recently I’ve peaked over 21st for the first time. Some of my belts are on their last whole! It hasn’t helped that I’ve been limited in physical activity by my knee and back problems. Recently a colleague at work started going to a new Fitness First that opened on Baker Street, literally 5 minutes walk from work. As well as being so close, they also open at 6am, which would mean I could get to work for 7:30am if I had an early morning training session.
So, I’ve been down and signed up! It’s £63 a month, even with corporate discount, but only for a 4 month contract, so I have time to see if it fits with my routine. This way, if I just can’t keep it up for one reason or another, I can finish it after 4 months. I paid £55 joining fee, but if I can go 20 times in the first 8 weeks then I get this refunded!
Continue reading Back In The GymSo it all began back in September and it seems like it’s flown past. At week 13 we still had two undefeated teams and these two top seeded teams made it all the way to the most watched Superbowl (in fact, most watched TV show) of all time.
Once again the Redskins massively under achieved, with one of the easier schedules they’ve had they still struggled in games they should have won and finished the season 4-12. The only good news is it meant Zorn was given the elbow and Mike Shanahan has been brought in to take over the ship with a nice high draft pick next year.
The Cardinals in the Superbowl for the first time, facing the amazing defence of the Steelers. We had a few people round to watch the big match, playing some Madden and Wii Sports before hand with plenty of junk food and ordering Pizza to keep us going into the night.
I was worried one team might blow the other out, but it turned into one of the most fantastic Superbowls ever. The Steelers built a lead on the back of a 100 yard TD return for a score at the end of the first half. Warner and Fitzgerald brought 
them back into the game and into the lead with less than 3 minutes to go, but Rothlesburger and Santonio Holmes struck back with an amazing score in the corner of the endzone to take their 6th title.
Meanwhile, snow was falling as people headed home close to 4am in the morning.
For around a year, we’d been looking forward to the next Waitrose 5-a-side football tournament. Last year, with 90 teams entered we made it to the last 8, to be knocked out cruelly on penalties after giving away a cheap goal to allow the eventual winners to knock us out. We joined a league and have been playing once a week since then.
This year, John Lewis were included too, meaning around 140 teams were entered. Our team had changed slightly, but the core was the same still. Armed with a better striker and goalie, we felt confident going in.
