I was offered the chance to try a habit changing program by the folks at Habit Changer. They asked if I’d take one of their 42-day programs and then blog about it–whether my “experience was positive or not.”  I decided I could live with that so accepted.  This is my review: Read the rest of this entry »

I was asked by a few people to do another “what do you eat” post so I thought I would do a short photo essay of my daily food.

This is what I normally eat Monday to Friday and weekends I reserve for a bit of variety.  Some might find it a bit boring but it works for me as I enjoy every single meal.  Lots of photos so I’ve put them beyond the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The lovely Erin from Erin takes control tagged me to list out ten things that make me happy. I don’t normally bother with these things but I think happiness is important so I thought I would have a go. It’s things not people so I won’t list my lovely wife and daughter although they are #1!

1.  My iPod Touch.

I love this device.  I carry it almost everywhere I go.  It carries my books, my music, my podcasts, my twitter and all sorts of other apps. Love it, love it, love it.

2.  My Garmin Forerunner 305

I love knowing how far, how fast, how high, and how hard I’ve worked out.  This GPS watch gives me all that and more.

3.  My Sennheiser MX75 running headphones

These headphones are brilliant.  Water resistant, fit great and sound brilliant while letting in ambient sound so that mack truck doesn’t run me over!

4.  My iPod Shuffle

My brother got this for me for Christmas and I love it for those days that it is a bit wet and I don’t want to risk getting my iPod Touch wet.

5.  My internet connection

I love being connected and having access to so many great things/people/ideas. I especially love that my internet connection gives me access to you folks. The ever supportive blogging community. I’ve received so much support, advice and encouragement – it’s truely a blessing.

6.  My city

I love living in Auckland, New Zealand.  Consistently ranked in the top 5 places to live in the world and I can testify that it is great.

7.  Peanuts

I love peanuts and they love me. Enough said.

8.  Mowing the lawn.

I really like mowing the lawn for some reason.  It’s almost like therapy.

9.  Reading books

I read a lot.  Way too much according to some.  I normally go through at least 2-3 books a week and I can’t imagine not having access to a book.  My first paying job was in a bookshop but it didn’t pay enough for me to make a career of it.

10.  Running

Last but not least.  I love running which I think you’ve guessed by now.

Speaking of which I did a beautiful 10K this morning.  Conditions were great:

Auckland is definitely lovely.

About a year ago I went to my brother’s wedding and compared a photo of myself with a photo from a wedding that I’d been to a year before.  Well, coincidentally I went to a wedding this last weekend.   The me on the left is 2007, middle 2008 and right this year.

I need to start organising a wedding for 2010!

P.S. My Traineo buttons on the right have gone wonky.  Just ignore for now.

My treadmill arrived this morning at about 8am. The guy who delivered it was 60 years old and he had a heart condition. The treadmill weighs 125 kg and could I give him a hand getting it off his truck? Why certainly.

He didn’t mention that it was buried under about 20 other packages and once we got to it that I had to do the heavy lifting. I recall wondering why I had paid $100 for delivery if I had to do the lifting myself?

It was quite funny in a sad sort of a way that we had to have a rest after moving the treadmill about a metre as it looked like the poor old guy was going to have a coranary.

We eventually got it into my basement/rumpus room and then he diffidently asked if I would mind giving him a hand loading all the parcels back into his truck! Needless to say I did but there was some quiet muttering under my breath!

Click more to see my installation fun (warning! lots of photos). Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a while since my last butter shot so while in the supermarket on the weekend I snapped a quick photo:

There are 100 half kg blocks of butter (50kgs/110 pounds worth) in that pile under my hand. I can’t imagine carrying that much weight around with me every day now. It boggles the mind really.

Dietgirl (who likes to get hammered and build furniture!) was recently interviewed on The Early Show on CBS TV:

All very nice you might say but why am I mentioning this? Well look who got mentioned at the bottom of the article under Favourite Diet Blogs!

I’m rather flattered. It’s always nice to be mentioned by someone famous.  It’s even nicer that it’s Dietgirl.  She comments every once in a while and I must admit that every time I see her comment I am amazed.  She has 500 000 + readers and still posts encouraging remarks here.  She was one of the first bloggers that I started to follow and I’d encourage you all to visit her site.

BTW her book is fantastic!  If you are feeling discouraged read this book as it is incredibly inspiring.  It chronicles her journey and the ups and downs.  I think we all experience the ups and downs and it’s really great to see that you can have success if you just stick with it.

I had a great long run today. It was long and slow and gave me plenty of time to think about a question Andrew asked me:

“Do you ever forget what the old you was like?”

Truth be told I sometimes do. I went looking through my old photos the other day and this one was taken just two years ago.  It always takes me by surprise when I see a photo of how I used to be.  I don’t have that many as I used to avoid having my photo taken for some reason.

This version of me couldn’t run more than a minute and avoided cardio workouts like the plague.  I was 80 odd pounds heavier than I am now at the time and looking back now it’s hard to remember being that heavy and unfit.

My wife took this photo about a week ago and I am literally a changed man. I love exercise now and I’m just happier in all aspects of my life. It’s really amazing to me how quickly I’ve managed to transform myself.

Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t happen overnight and it wasn’t/isn’t always easy. I still struggle everyday with eating right. Although I have found that the exercise is addictive. I’m running more and more and loving it more and more.

My run today was an absolute joy.  I left the house about 6am-ish and conditions were perfect. Overcast with a gentle breeze blowing. About 3km later a gentle drizzle started to fall and after a while I was absolutely drenched. Yet I found myself incredibly happy.

I’m still doing the low heart rate training (resting heart rate was 42 the last 2 mornings!) so my pace was relatively slow at about 6:30 min per km for most of the run. However, I felt like I could run forever at that pace.

It was just a sublime feeling especially when I was recalling the days that I didn’t even like to walk 100m nevermind run! I incorporated a few long hills in my run and had to slow down to almost walking pace to keep my heart rate down at times but it didn’t matter. I was out there running and it was great.

Jason wrote this in a comment:

And I have to give an answer to AJH’s quesiton about forgetting. I do sometimes. Especially when I am in a long run or marathon and I think it is hard, then bam. I realize I am 130 lbs lighter and laugh because riding a bike for 15 minutes felt harder than running a marathon.

It made me laugh to remember how hard running 90 seconds used to be as well, especially as I did my longest run ever at 25.59 km (about 16 miles) today.  Life is good indeed.

I also did my highest ever milage week at 73.6 km (about 45 miles).

A few people have asked how I get the satellite maps. I use a Garmin 305 to track my runs and I then download the GPS data to a program called Sporttracks.

One thing I would like to say is that if you are thinking about getting fit then stop thinking about it and get out there and do it.  I started running about a year ago now with Couch to 5K and I’ve never looked back.  I honestly believe that if this former couch potato can do it then anyone can.

My wife managed to twist her neck and hurt it rather badly while looking after our little girl in the middle of the night so I spent a good part of the day taking her to doctors, massage and acupuncture.

When we got home I decided that I had better get my run in before it got dark so I headed out in the late afternoon.  I wanted to do a nice and easy 10K run so I headed out towards Tamaki Drive.  I did a 10K run but it wasn’t particularly easy.  I think I was a bit dehydrated as I hadn’t drunk anything since about 10am and there was quite a strong wind blowing so the running was rather hard.  Having said that I still managed to run the whole way and didn’t stop at the ice cream shop that I passed twice!

One of my friends, Stephen, had his birthday yesterday and held a party in the evening.  My wife and I went along and had a great time.  I can’t remember any other evening events that we have actually gone to during the week since our daughter was born.  Considering she is 15 months old tomorrow – it’s been a while!

I had a single slice of pizza, some fries with aoli and an espressotini and a small piece of birthday cake.  They were all good and, to top it off, I had a record low (scale weight) on my weigh in this morning so it looks like you can have your cake (in moderation) and eat it!

Here’s a photo that he took of me last night:

A bit different from this one:

I had lunch with a friend yesterday and he said something I found quite funny:

“When I look for you in a crowd my mental image is still the big fat white guy. You’re harder to find now.”

Apparently I don’t stand out in a crowd any more. What a shame.

I only had time for a 5K run today. I’m going to get in a 10K session tomorrow. 1 month to go until my half marathon!