Halloween, Inspiration and Oats, Oats, Oats...

Hey Folks!! - Hello and Welcome!!

Once again I find myself apologising for the lack of blogs of late.  Booooo!!  I'd love to be able to blog more but "time, unfortunately, is against me" - as Julius Caesar once said.....'probably'.  Without getting into too much detail, as I feel it wouldn't take a blind man to notice, my boy is now 5 and 1/2 months old and terrorising his poor parents! :-)  Generally he is a typical little man...loves a carry on, demands food of any kind the very instant his hunger pangs and wakes twice a night for a bottle.  Ok, ok, so maybe the last part isn't true but u get the idea....I only wake for the one bottle every night haha! :-)

That aspect of my life coupled with a new second job delivering pizzas and an everlasting flexi deficit has left my free time as a very precious commodity!  However fear not, as British Summer Time has now ended and we now have an extra hour in our lives wayhay!!  Hence the reasoning behind the time for this update.  

Today is of course Halloween and no doubt there will be many strange and wonderful outfits on display tonight, as well as fireworks going off until 2am Grrrr!! lol  When I was working on Friday night every bar I passed had its fair amount of great characters outside each establishment 'smoking'...in the lashing rain!  Now I'm not what I would call a clever fellow by any means, but I did just not envisage Storm Troopers, The Queen of Hearts and Mr Blobby down as having a nicotine addiction! haha!

The little man of our house shall not be without costume either and has a little orange baby-grow to adorn...his punishment...the infamous pumpkin outfit! haha!  Such loving parents I hear you cry. lol

As regards my exercise and diet routines they have been fairly non-existent of late.  I trained hard during July and lost around 12lb and from August >October have not done a stitch in the gym and my diet has been patchy at best.  However, more down to luck than judgement my weight has remained the same, albeit I have lost some strength and a little fitness.  However, its nothing that cannot be recovered and todays starts my next big training push from Nov>Dec.  If I can achieve another loss of around 12lb while continuing to gain fitness and strength it will be an amazing way to start the new year!  Thats my thinking behind it anyway....the Christmas merriment and 60 odd litres or so of Mulled Wine I seen to drink every year may have other ideas however lol......and don't even get me started on the Belfast City Christmas Market!! - Oh dear....I had almost forgot about that one!

The most important thing I think though is to approach this next stint with the right frame of mind and not the gung-ho attitude I portrayed in July.  What happened there was I pushed too hard and sacrificed too much of my tasks and responsibilities to get to the gym at least 4 days a week.  A good training and eating plan - like most others - has to have the right foundation and be managed correctly.  From Nov-Dec I'm not looking to see huge differences super quick but to rather seem them achieved slowly and steadily as well as keeping myself in the right frame of mind to keep it a consistent part of my life for the long term, as it once was many years ago.  Rome wasn't built in a day and lets not forget exercise should be a part of your life just like going to work or going out at weekends, not a chore which you should only do from time to time and find yourself avoiding more times than anything else!

Another thing which is sometimes easy to forget that any changes you make are coming from 80% diet and only 20% workouts...it certainly reminds us of the phrase "You are what you eat".  Another thing to remember is that the most important meal of your day is breakfast.  Mine is more or less always the same.  75g Oats, 200ml skimmed milk, 25g protein and a black coffee.  Taken at around 6.45am, this easily keeps my filled until my mid morning snack and sets me up for the day ahead.  Oats are £1 for a 1kg in Tesco and are one of the most nutritious, versatile and tasty foods you can get!  Try em out!

Now finally getting onto the main reason for my latest blog post.  Starting back to the gym or even beginning a workout plan for the first time can be a very intimidating thing.  Lots of thoughts go through your mind; 'Will I be able to stick at it'; 'Will everyone look at me'; 'I don't know how to work any of the equipment' etc etc...the list goes on and on.  In most circumstances when people decide to make a change in their lives it is provoked by the kind of thought that (as Baz Luhrman would say) 'blindsides you on an idle Tuesday'.  Unashamedly stolen from another website I though I would post the following extract which is just so full of inspiration you could nearly reach out and touch it.  Read on and hopefully you will echo my thoughts...and perhaps it'll maybe even inspire you to do one thing today that you had been putting off for too long.

Before I go I just wanna give a big shout out to my good friends Mick and Evelyn who get their baby son, Dylan, home today for the first time!  His twin brother Lucas will be home in a little while longer but good things come to all those who wait! :-)  I feel it just, in fact, to dedicate this latest blog to them all so, Mick, Evelyn, Conor, Callum, baby Dylan & baby Lucas...this one's for you! :-)

“I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an Institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want To do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore For two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a Single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you Think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' One doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''

Thanks again for reading folks once again and putting up with my drivvle :-) Hope you are all well and until next time, look after yourselves....and each other! :-)

Take Care

Paul.