A rude awakening and a new plan

A few weeks ago I was given a rude awakening by my Personal Trainer, he decided without warning to do a new body MOT. Time to get the measurements he said. *Crap* i thought. I knew i wouldn't see anything good. Not only were my results not 'good', I left mortified. 

The readings; my Body fat had remained much the same (to my surprise), my weight has finally crept up to 70kg (the heaviest i have ever been) and whilst this makes my BMI 25. A single point higher and I will be classed as overweight (and frankly I already feel overweight). So the news was not great and i felt awful and miserable and disappointed with myself and hey depressed, because, let us be honest here, i have done this to myself. But the big shock was my blood pressure. The first reading 152/96....the second not much better at 145/92. Wow, now that is HIGH! Alarmingly so. Crunch time. THINGS NEED TO CHANGE!

I have since had a few days holiday and had my blood pressure rechecked by a nurse and it was 130/82. Now this is medically acceptable, but for me this is actually still high. A lot of factors contribute to high blood pressure:

• age
• salt intake
• lack of exercise
• overweight

These are just a few, for more details please click on the following link: What causes high blood pressure? 

Now realistically, none of the above are considerable factors for me on the face of it. I've only just turned 30. I don't add salt much to my diet, i exercise fairly frequently, and currently i am not overweight.On the other hand, I am in a stressful position and their is a family history of high blood pressure. So what are my options here? 

1) Age - not a factor. Being 30 is not a reason to have high blood pressure and i cannot change my age anyway

2) Salt intake - i do not add a lot of salt to my diet, but it is hidden in so many foods now, including 'healthy' pre-packaged stuff, so i am possibly eating more that I should from my food sources. So I aim to make over 90% of my diet come from non-prepackaged sources

3) Lack of exercise - I am great at going nuts for a week or two and then nothing for a week to ten days, so i really need to work on pacing myself and being more consistent

4) Overweight - not yet, but it is a darn close thing

5) Stress - i need to learn to manage this better, and also improve my sleep pattern. A lack of sleep 'stresses' the body, even if you do not feel it in the mind

6) Family history of high blood pressure - I cannot change this, but i CAN do everything in my power to try and avoid developing it. 

How did i get to this, when i have been blogging my goals? I know that is what you are thinking. The same thing that happens to people all the time. I looked at where I was a few years ago, happy healthy and fighting fit and realised i am so far removed from that, that is seems impossible to get back to that place. So instead of fighting, I sought comfort. And i lied to myself. 

I has got to the point where i spend as little time as possible looking the in the mirror. But their is one mirror you cannot avoid. Your parents. I've popped home for a weekend visit and I am met with the vision of my mother, the person perpetually on a diet and failing. I see how large she is, how slow she has became, she is a shadow of her formed self in so many respects. The truth is staring at me from the sofa. If I do not change, i am destined to become my mother. 

I need to avoid the cake and people who encourage me to eat it. I need to block out the negativity from people who say 'you don't have time', or 'you can't do it' - this actually speaks volumes about their own limitations, they are attempting to off load on to you, to make themselves feel better. I need to develop a plan and have a goal. I have an overall goal of how much i would like to loose, i also looked for pictures for motivation and came across this beauty on the web:

Wow!! And Who said size deosn't matter!

And then i found this! I'd like to loose more than 20lbs, but i was genuinely surprised at how much fat 20lbs is!! 

Fatty fatty, fat fat

So i have started with these few goals:

• 3 gym workouts a week minimum, but no more than five
• 2 spin classes a week minimum, but no more than 3
• 6 days a week for running - i neither care about distance or time, it is all about moving
• 1 day a week of pure rest - read a book, do some gardening, walking some beauty spots, but nothing that really tires me out!

Their will be judo on top and i want to fit in either some yoga or meditation time to try and deal with the stress levels. In addition to this i have signed up to a 10 day programme where you are given a new green smoothie to try every day either with or as a meal replacement to try and top up my nutrients and energy levels. Oh and cut the *crap*. It is time to invest in whole foods.  

Now i am being brutally honest here, my motivation is at an all time low. But I am determined to make it through a week of doing these things!!! If I can make it through one week and see a positive change, then i hope this will build my motivation to continue along the path of self improvement.  It is my hope that by the next time my PT does a body MOT at the end of April, i will have lost 5lbs (just over a pound a week, a healthy amount to loose) and that my fat levels will have decreased and most importantly that my blood pressure will have came down. 

So everything is in place. I have a massive food delivery coming to my house Sunday night, so I am going to use my two remaining days visiting the parents are a reminder of how i don't want to eat (my body is a temple right?) and where i DO NOT want to end up in 20 years time (or earlier!). 

So check back in four weeks for an update!!!

Turning 30 in Paris........and what comes next.

Easter weekend I celebrated a landmark birthday - turning the big 30. 

I, quite notoriously amongst my friends, do not have typically good birthday's. Breaking bones, family members passing. So this year i was determined to do things a little differently. Instead of waiting for the day to pass, I wanted to go away. Mercifully a good friend of mine came to the rescue. Being a student means money is tight and trying to go away over Easter is not the cheapest time of year. But my dear friend suggested her home city of Paris. All I needed was to pay for flights and have some spending money.

PARIS!! 

What a beautiful and vibrant city it is, with so much culture and history! 

Day 1 was marked by a trip to Versailles. Pictures do not do that palace justice, it is HUGE. We spent a glorious 7 hours wandering around the palace and the exquisite gardens. In mostly glorious sunshine, the water features were mesmerising to watch. 

Day 2: we ventured into Paris. Wandering all over the city, we started at the Trocadero, taking pictures of the famous landmark of France, the Eiffel Tower. From there we walked down the Seine, taking in the sights. Walking past the Grand Palace, seeing the Champs Elysee and Arc De Triomphe, then wandering down to the place de la Concorde, passing through a peaceful garden to the Carrousel de Lourve and the Pyramide de louvre. We then wandered some of the back streets and found a quaint restaurant for lunch before moving on the the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Justice Palace and the flower market. As beautiful as you could imagine. We meandered to the Centre Pompidou before walking back across the city to see the Opera house! Absolutely marvellous, but exhausting day!

Day 3: We were less adventurous and visited the Sacre Coeur and the surrounding areas. Such a bustling part of Paris, a very beautiful area, with talented street artists, and the obligatory tourist shops, all selling art work, mass produced oil paintings. Whilst they are nothing of value a few caught my eye and I have purchased them as reminders of the lovely weekend. Sacre ceour itself is a beautiful whist stoned church with some of the most intricate art work inside. The colours are so vibrant and alive. The view from the top of the hill of Paris is breath taking, with the sun appearing at the most perfect moment. 

Day 4: It rained at lot. Until we got on the Plane that was. 

A truly remarkable way to spend a birthday in lovely company, and my friend arranged a surprise at the airport with a mutual friend joining us for the brief vacation! 

Sadly as always, the return home is met with a return to reality!! And a huge pile of laundry that i didn't bother to do before i went!! 

 

And home to a few facts. Several family members haven't bothered to remember my birthday (you know, the type that will create a massive fuss if you forget theirs - we all know someone like that). And a wake up call from my Personal Trainer. We did a full body MOT just before Easter. My body fat has remained the same as previous measurements, but my weight has gone up a lot and more worryingly my blood pressure is rather high (though i got this tested after my short break and it is ok - but it could be better). This is evidence that the approach i was taking to life and training isn't working for me. So i will be drawing up a new battle plan. 

Watch this space! 

How hard is it to be healthy?

In a society that lives on media, surrounded by a wealth of information, you would think that being healthy is the easiest thing ever right? Fancy eating something different? google it. Fancy a new work out? google it. Want inspiration? Google it or buy a fitness magazine. Heck their is Instagram, facebook, twitter and numerous other sites you can visit for information.

But what happens when you scratch beneath the surface? When instead of inspiration or something new, you want facts and solid, reliable information? Well, so far my answer is. Confusion.

Since the beginning of the year i have been trying to get healthy, to be in the best shape possible. So far I have learnt this means eating the same boring food over and over again. Getting so bored you fall off the wagon and eat your way through a large bag of crisps, several cakes and innumerable chocolate bars. Not exactly conducive to the task of becoming the best possible version of me.

So I started reading around 'macros', how much protein, carbs and fat i need to consume on a daily basis. How to calculate this. When to eat. You name it. And frankly, every single website I go to tells me something different. Some say you have to be completely organic, others say the answer relies on taking supplements with every meal. The problem here is the overwhelming amount of information. But not only is there 'too much' but we the readers, actually don't know how reliable the websites are.

So I went back to meal hunting, and realised basically i need to live off salads all year round to lose weight. Anything that sounds nice and different has ingredients that are either impossible to get hold of, or cost a blinking fortune (on a student budget here, my favourite shops are lidl and wilko).

So i want to be healthy, but what is healthy? Surely eating right is only one part of it (though i realise a big part of it) i exercise a lot and am not seeing many changes. So what makes us healthy? A BMI of 18.5-25? A waist to hip ratio of 0.8 or less? These things are taken as gosiple. But the latest research tells us this may not be so. And perhaps rightly. I'm sure we all know a person that is pretty muscluar, but by conventional measurments would be classes over weight. I have a friend who is a personal trainer, he is quite the specimen of fitness. With a BMI very close to 25 he is techinically 'healthy' yet the doctor (without really noting how he looks or his job) has told him to lose 11kg. Erm yeah, do-able if we chop of a leg...

All this information overload has left me questioning what it actually is to be healthy. How easy it is in a modern day to be the healthy individual? I'm finding it very hard. The information is conflicting and overwhelming. All this superfood non-sense. Just tell me, healthy or not? Sadly until I figure this all out, I think my goal of losing weight and being the healty, toned individaul i want will stay off piste.

Martial Arts Mania!

It has been a fantastic week at the University of Nottingham!! Not only has my lab work gone well (makes a change for sure!) but it has also been Martial Arts Week!!

Held annaully in February, it is a week where anyone in the university can come and try any of the martial arts the university has to offer for FREE. No memberships are required. Just rock up and give it a go!

The University of Nottingham has a good choice of martial arts:

• JKD
• Wing Chun kung Fu
• Judo
• Jiu jitsu
• Taekwondo
• Thai Boxing
• Boxing
• Karate
• Aikido
• Capoeiro 
• BJJ 
• MMA

I have been studying Judo for 5 years now and I think it is a good sport for learning discipline, focus and is is a great way to blow off steam. More info about Clubs in the UK can be found here British Judo.

I have in the past also tried BJJ.  But ever eager to try new things, I went along to a few sessions to find out what they were about.

Wing Chun, Karate and Thai Boxing were my top three to try. Wing Chun Kung Fu was great!! Lots of movement, it is a martial art that really gets your movements flowing. Punching and blocking punches were the tastes of the session. I felt as a 1 hour introduction it was really great and the atmosphere was buzzing.

Karate was a full taster session. Lots of form drills and learning to punch in a manner similar to Wing Chun. A bit of basic sparing was taught. I also learnt that karate does do some ground work, which got me quite excited. Wasn't aware of that!! Again a really fun bunch of people.

Thai boxing turned out to the most popular of the taster sesssions! The room was so packed that accidently knocking people was inevitable! Three or four people to one set of pads. The atmosphere was serisouly electric. Rumour has it they have mental fitness sessions!

All the session were fun, welcoming and interesting. I firmly believe their is a martial art for everyone.

To end the week, all martial arts were invited to go and play laser tag!! Brilliant!! What better way to spend the weekend and shows what a fabulous social atmosphere our clubs all have.

On a judo note, this weekend was also the paris grandslam in Judo, which i got to watch plenty of. Nice to see team GB bring home two bronze medals!! Nice one guys!

Training all out

Meh, last week was far from great. I ate too much cake (very tasty though) and only trained four times, but three days on from a PT session led leg day and i still can't walk normally. 

For a change I have not stood on the scales nor took any measurements. I did something worse. I tried on every item of clothing in my wardrobe. Yeah. Not much fits. It was a very depressing experience. 

That being said, it has made be determined to up the ante this week and train like a beast. Whilst the PT is away I have no-one to hold me back from over-training. (Worry not, I still plan to have at least one rest day. Got to love Sundays)

So to up the beast mode, I have designed a meal plan, with much reduced gluten, dairy and processed sugar. And before you think I'm doing this ALL for weight loss, i suffer badly with IBS and I don't know the cause, so I'm trying to see if reducing gluten and dairy intake helps me a bit. Obviously processed sugar is pretty bad, so yeah, that is a fat loss thing ;) 

Below is a copy of everything i plan to eat and train, oh and at uni, this week is Martial Arts Week, so I plan on trying lots of new martial arts, but still make time for at least one Judo session.

Nb. my week starts on a Saturday because that is when i food shop, but clearly the fun begins tomorrow...MONDAY is ALWAYS the day to take on a challenge. 

See what you guys think, any suggestions are welcome as are requests for any recipes for above.

What do you think? Over-training or manageable??

Beast mode is enabled!!!

Bipolar depression. Beyond the sufferer.

What do you think of when you hear the words bi-polar depression? Crazy person? A person so miserable they can't get out of bed? Someone who doesn't care about how they dress or look. 

Bipolar depression is a medical disorder where the sufferer has periods of extreme depression followed by periods of mania. 

You think the person's mood goes in waves of 'highs' and 'lows'. This is an over simplification of the issue. 

My mother is bipolar, has been since my teenage years. I've seen her during her 'highs'. Frankly it is worryingly impressive. Her energy is incredible, she can have the house cleans in a trice. She zooms around like she runs on energizer batteries. So why do I worry? Well, i cannot tell you the number of times i've stopped her walking out in front of cars. In her mind, she can stop them, in her mind, she is going to cross the road and NOTHING will stop her. 

But this isn't a wave we ride with frequency. More often than not we see her stuck at the bottom of a very black hole. She spends 14 hours a day in bed, she lives by routine, household chores are too much energy, even eating a meal is too difficult. She'd rather go out and have it made for her. 

Now I have the greatest sympathy with anyone suffering with mental health. I've seen it and their is a lot of help out there. So before i go further, i want to say if you, or anyone you know is suffering depression. You are not alone and their really are people/places you can turn to for help. I write from the UK as such i can say they best people to talk too are your GP, use the NHS, use the charity MIND. 

However, i write this post, not as someone who suffers, not as someone you knows what this illness is like. But as someone who has seen it in a loved one, as someone who has been a carer. And let me tell you, Bipolar is bad enough the person afflicted, but it is truly awful for the family as well. Children become carers, partners suffer. Your partner is put up on, until they are drained and exhausted and suffering themselves. Your children may end up suffering from depression to an extent. They may experience friends turning their backs on them, because they can't understand, they can't deal. 

Depression is still a poorly understood illness. The toll is paid not only by the person that suffers, but by the family as well. Your life will never be normal is you are waiting, on tender hooks, constantly for the phone to ring to say they have put themselves in hospital again from self-harming.

Here is my message. If YOU are dealing with someone that suffers a mental health problem. You are not ALONE. And as hard as it is, be a little selfish and look after yourself, make sure you get help if you need it, make sure you have people that you can trust and talk to. Make sure that you are never so affected that you risk developing mental health problems yourself. That is a deep black hole that is hard to get out of. BELIEVE ME. Take up running, go to the gym, do something, do whatever it takes, to make sure you remain the person you are. 

Stay strong. 

Stay Healthy.

The misconceptions of PhD students

In the two years I have been studying for my doctorate, I have came across numerous misconceptions. It could just be a UK thing for all I know. But recently It has been thoroughly irritating me.

So here they are:

1. I will be a doctor at the end of the process (correct) - therefore i can be asked in passing about medical issues. This is  HUGE bugbear of mine. All doctors are not created equal. I will not be a medical doctor as I have not done a medical degree. I will be a doctor of science (rather generic no?). It seems that beyond academia people do not understand the difference. I am tired of explaining the difference and it is putting me off using my hard earned title (assuming I pass my viva)
2. I get 16+ weeks holiday a year - basically people think everyone at university, gets stupid long holidays. NOT true (though lord above, I wish it was). A PhD is a job. You get 25 days holiday a year. No more, no less. 
3. I have exams all the time - whilst this is true for some universities, it is not the case for me, I have one massive oral exam at the end. Please don't ask me about this, it is a source of much stress. 
4. I only do a few hours a day - again, this might be true for a few students. But most of use treat this like a job, a 40hr + a week job. Yes sure, I may leave work at 4pm. But I am at work for 7am. Some days i do stupid hours, for example, last Friday i did an 11 hour day. And I often work  extra hours at the weekend. 
5. Your supervisors know what you are doing - definitely not true, sometimes you get one that is completely clueless, so clueless it leaves you bemused as to why he is your supervisor. They often have no idea what it takes, experimentally, to get the work done. 
6. You can have no life - sadly this is a fight, most students will loose. I fight very hard for gym time (it keeps me sane) and a bit of judo time (well some social interactions is required) but general outings with friends do go by the by a bit. It is sad and takes a person far better than myself, with more energy to be perfectly social.
7. Experiments will always work the second time  - PAH! This is science. Sometimes it doesn't work, because for reasons beyond explanation, it bloody well doesn't want to
8. You supervisor is 'shit' on you occasssionally - it happens.  Sadly you just have to deal. Not really any different to having a boss. 
9. You are paid well - Utter rubbish. Whilst those of us on Stipends do get this tax free, it is well below the national average. In 2014 the National average wage was £26,500. Most PhD students get paid around £13-14, 000. Yeah. That's right. Peanuts. Most of us live hand to mouth, savings are a thing of dreams. And no, before you ask, it doesn't increase in line with a rise in minimum wage. For the whole of your PhD you will see ZERO change in your income. Oh and as soon as you submit, your stipend stops. So have that job ready, but remember, re-writes and corrections will then been done, unpaid, in your own time. 

So their we have it. 9 Points. All of which I have had to answer/deal with this week. Despite this. I do like my PhD and as hard, difficult, depressing as it can be. I will be grateful on the day i wear my cap and gown, that i have done this.