Its now 6 months of working with the team from Activ8 fitness and they have transformed me.

Today I had an ad hoc session where I arrived but Trend was with another client so told me to do some interval cardio while waiting. Didn’t quite work as I had new shoes with no insert for the correction. One set of running on the machine showed that unless fully barefoot on the beach i need the inserts. So we adjusted to rowing.

Did the rowing for a while on a setting I found, then swtched back to high intensity walking and up the stairs at the 200m of walking. Did that 5 times, so five time up the stairs, and now just walking them, sets of 1 up 2 up.

Then we did the boxing session, perfect for me as had bad day and Trent pushed it further into making me do the boxing right.

Loved it all. 90 mins later walked out and just knew all the stress of the day and the cortisol it builds had been burnt off.

I have become additcted to it in a way. I have one of the best personal trainers in the industry. Every day I turn up and I do 3 times a week I have no idea what is going to happen. He keeps it fresh all the time and I am totally addicted to that. my personality does not do routine, i hate it. And Trent keeps it fresh all the time.

We at at the stage where I can almost do all the cardio myself as I’m back running, with that almost done we are now looking at muscle development as my upper body needs lots of work there. Legs done. And if you care to look now, damn well another look! Next is to keep the cardio going and build the upper body.

I have no concerns there either as this team have taken me from being a 5 flight of stairs walk up that to a 2 at a time running it. I am now fit. Not super fit, thats another level, but I am fit. I can run an 11km run with challenges along the way. Finish it and feel fine at the end.

The team at Acti8 got me this far. Can’t wait to see where I go next.

My ribs! Go figure that one. Seriously for the last 10 days I’ve now been able to feel my rib cage as bones vs something there covered in a layer of fat that hid them. Now I can fell each and every one of them.

Not sure what is happening at the moment, as diet wish I’ve been fairly good but not the best. No major blowouts, but way badder than i have been before, but I still seem to be losing fat.

Even my excercise has dropped a little in the last 3 weeks as I have been so involved in the house move that my running has dropped off. Been going to the guys at activ8 constantly which is a good thing and they have been really pushing me now!

After the move I got the whole wardrobe back and pulled out a new pair of business pants I hand never been worn and they now don’t just fit but need a whole new belt size! Over the last 6 months for work I have worn the same belt and its been slowly but surely going down in notches. A few months ago I could almost wear it at the final notch. Now I need a new one!!

Obviously we all see ourselves in the mirror and thing, hmm. Well the last few weeks I see myself in the mirror and think, not bad at all. Stomach almost gone. For a guy my age, well gone done! Last few weeks seen the real difference that its actually gone. What is left is something that anyone my age would be happy with. Going further thou. Love this improvement so why not take it all the way.

Found out my placing in the Urbanathlon. Bottom 20%, so little sad, but then again I did it and finished it and look forward to my next one. Why, because first off, I finished it. That is a huge result for me. Someone who was laid up with cancer for over 5 years that result it great. I did it, didn’t stop running either, just kept going at my pace.

The only compeditor in that race was me and I finished. Its been a good few days with that. I’m feeling thinner than i have ever done before and I just did something that was really fun!

Its been such a long wait to bring the boys home to their new home. I picked them up two weeks ago and while they definitely still know me they weren’t sure about what was going on. They had just spent 6 months away in place surrounded by other dogs and while I know they were in good hands they didn’t have regular one on one walks and lots of people around them.

The two weeks home were also unstructured and while we had small walks in the morning and the evening there hadn’t been any good long walks on leash to really set things in place. This weekend with everything all in place we have started good long walks and I also got a leash that allow me to tether them together.

Been a total success the dual leash as walking them on separate leashes is very cumbersome.

We hit Wanda beach on Saturday which is a leash free dog beach after 4pm and all the times I’ve been there before the dogs i have seen have been well mannered so I felt comfortable taking them there. As they are small dogs with no idea of aggression it only takes one badly trained dog to cause lots of damage.

Well they loved the beach, and Ranger is catching up on his socializing with people really fast. We did a great walk on Saturday (pre urbanathlon for me) and after some time on leash on beach passing the main crowd I let them run free and they did really well.

Did another walk on Sunday (post urbanatlon) from Sue’s place. Ranger freaked alittle as lots of people and noise and he seems to have some issue with large white concrete spaces, but after a while he adapted back into the walk. By the time we got to the beach he was totally fine and I could let them both off the leash the whole time. The basically stayed by us the whole time and both of them now have no issue with the water coming in onto there legs. Was great fun walking them and I can see us doing this all the time now.

When they come home they are totally exhausted and just fall asleep! Tonto is totally happy and loves it all. He was so fast asleep last night it took him about two hours to realise that I had gone to bed! They are adapting well to the new house and now I can start to get some routine workings with them. Just so happy that Tonto is relaxed again and knows he is finally at home. He has changed address and country so many times since he came into my life and its good that now I can give him his final home!

About the only thing is really does not like is that he is totally not allowed chicken and since I’ve been a little bit lazy and getting spit roasted chickens from the nearby place (which are very tasty) he is rather pissed off that he can smell it, see it but not allowed it!

Both of them are now fast falling into puppy dreams of a good day, they have had another long walk with loads of things to see and smell so it sensory overload in such a good way for them!

I entered into this as part of the team from my gym, wasn’t sure if I could do it, but what the hell. Nothing ventured nothing gained!

The guys at the gym held weekly training sessions for it, but unfortunately due to holidays and then the house settling I just didn’t have time to get to them, so the nervousness was going up. Got even higher as while i was still getting in three training sessions a week during the house move i had stopped running as just not enough time.

Had to be up by 5:30am to get in there in time to register, pick up my kit and be in the chute. Got really nervous on the train and almost bailed as my confidence dropped, then I started to think that I’ve been faced with some really big and serious challenges in the last 5 years and gotten through them all successfully so “what the feck” was I getting worried about with this. If I come in last, but finish then I’ve still won. That pushed all the doubt out the window.

After that it was just turn up and get processed, bib, timer, drop bag and wait my waves turn. I was in the third batch of my wave and just started at my own pace. Was at the back and fairly much stayed there in that batch, then had the next wave who left a minute behind us start passing. Just pushed on, and after everything warmed up the pace picked up to probably my normal beach pace of about 1Km in 6 mins.

The first obstacle challenge was the stairs. Now after months of doing the stairs outside the gym these were actually a doddle and I was really happy at the top when people were suffering abit already! Next was 10kg sandbag carry for 500 metres around the observatory. Again after doing the training bag which is 15kgs at the gym up the stairs, running around a relatively flat circuit with it was also good. Oh sorry the first challenge was actually the tire run, which was so simple (possible my photo might appear on this one as I was almost walzing it to get into the tyres!). The 4th challenge was tarzan swing and the one I was dreading.

Think most people has issues with this one as the bars were so slippery. They appeared to let you get as far as you could then move on. Jog on. The cargo next climb over a container was probably the only one they didn’t plan well. It was great, but I suspect next year they will have two of them to allow people to move over it quickly without have to stop and wait in batches. A nice thing at this point was that I had about 5 mins wait and recovered completely when it was my time to go up. Used the brain here and went for an edge position so had better tension!!

Jog on up via Darling harbour, then the up and under challenge. This was really interesting as all the guys were doing macho jump swings over (very impressive to watch), i was going for minimizing effort so was doing more of a sit and swing over. The interesting bit was being normal hight but with good flexibility i was able to do the unders in a smooth easy motion while the jump guys couldn’t so a the end of it we all ended up equal!!

Jog on, at it was 7km mark, knew then i could complete this as was feeling good. The crawl under netting was really fun and jog on. More stairs, but was still good. The 100 metre sprint i left to the really fit people, i had my pace going so no drama there.

Next it was all over barriers, again used my sit and swing technique. a guy who had great technique came from behind me, but oddly i passed him latter as he was buggered from it. I then thought that was the last challenge so i was set. The last one stumped me.

It was a like a skateboard curved ram that you had to run up and then grap the top and pull yourself over. I almost baulked as alot of people were having issues. (the guys at the top were helping the girls). but i gave it a go, just hit it high speed then grabbed. What surprised and thrilled me was that all the work the boys have been doing on my upper body strength just swung into action and I was easily able to pull myself up and over. No one really noticed my yelp of surprise that i had done it first time!!!

The steep ramp down was easy, then it was just jog on to the finish line, could possibly have picked up the pace, but just jogged on and crossed the finish line!!!

One very happy chappy for doing it! I not only started it but finished it and the only rest breaks were one stop for traffic and a wait for the rope climb, that personally to me is also a great result. After grabby some gaterade to re-hydrate it was wait for bag pickup. Another little surprise was that my recover was so quick! I had also noticed along the way that there were alot of people passing me, but were gasping for air, while my pace was just keep going. I felt like i could do it again if needed (with dry socks).

It was a awesome feeling to have done it. I’ve run 10km before on the beach, but not in shoes or mixed terrain so this was a great change and result.

I really thank my main personal trainer Trent for all the work he has done in getting me to this shape, (my other trainer is Greg who picks up sessions when Trent is away), both these guys are awesome and have really changed my life and body. They both said I would have no problem doing this challenge. As this is my first they definately had the inside edge on what is required to complete something like this and so glad the faith they had in me to do it has been well placed.

Feel on top of the world at the moment!

The waiting is almost over!!!  I can't believe its been almost a year since I signed the contracts for this apartment and now its going to happen.

So many delays and changes its been a heart breaking roller coaster.  Date on the exchange of contracts was 21st April 2011 and settlement is booked for 11am 30th March 2012.

Nothing left to do now.  Got the final settlement figure for the bank cheque this afternoon and promptly went and had it drawn up ready for Friday morning.   A nice aside is that I've still got funds left, but that will dwindle as movers have to be paid and other costs, but they have all been budgeted for!

Movers are booked for 4th April, so should be able to move in that day!  Thursday is go pick up the dogs day and bring them home.  The really hard part of all this has been that I've had to leave them with someone else for 6 months now.  I have visited a few times and know they are in great hands.  For Ranger he has spend more time at his birth home than with me, so for him its just same old.  Tonto on the other hand may have had some adjustments as he has had a hard life of being moved around alot the last few years. 

I take some solace that they are not actually in a kennel, but with the breeder that I got ranger from and have been spending all there time out playing with other cavalier dogs and had loads of space to run around in and others to play with.  If i they could send postcards they would probably read "just keep paying the bills, we like it here!"

The delays have however had some excellant effects thou.  I've spent the last 6 months living in the Shire and found I really do love it, so know I will be happy being just up the road from Cronulla beach, and will be back many times to walk the boys on the beach, or go running along it myself.  The best benefit is that I've gotten my health and fitness back on track.  15kgs of fat gone can't be a bad thing!!  Besides the weight loss the other huge indicator of health has been my blood pressure.

Over the first 3/4 of 2011 my BP was at very very high levels and consistently so, the only reason I wasn't immediately put on medication was previously while it had been high at time in Japan it had come back to normal many times.  It was checked very often with all the cancer stuff going on!

The team at Activ8 took it as well when i had my assessment.  Again not good and consistent with the doctors measurements.  But it started going down, and kept doing down.  A month after starting the life plan change it had dropped enough and significantly enough that we would just watch it.  3 weeks ago with new Doctor it was hmm normal/high, but white coat syndrome also applied.  I now have a cool device that plugs into my iphone and records it, today it was confirmed with the Docter – totally 100% frekking normal.  No need to do anything at all with it.  Thats a damn fine result in my book.

All my family have high blood pressure and I don't!  But it does mean i have to keep up this health plan.  But I'm ready for it!!

Says it all really.

I'm back now from one of the best weekends home ever.  I was going back for the wedding of my neighbors daughter whom I have known all her life and her parents known me all my life.  

I was wondering if I should go, then the last time I was home the brides mother hit me up and basically gave me the look which is equivilant to the hand behind the back and I caved.  Walked out of that so happy as it was a good choice!

Went back and spent the thursday catching up with old friends which was great, then the Thursday which should have been quiet I was pulled into the extended Hens night and had a great time.  Mine started at 11pm with Tequila shots and went on from there.

Probably kept my parents far to awake when we got back, but they didn't rush off to bed either.   Staked alot of demons that night and felt while it was not the best way to do it at least got alot of crap out of the way.  

Friday was catch up on sleep then some other old friends arrived and it was just so nice to see them.  Great food, good wine and just a very pleasant night.

The day of the wedding was also the unveiling of the grave of a very old family friend and it was just so right to be there for that.  Didn't know many of the people as so many years had passed but those I did see was brillant.  

Then we settled into the wedding.  The valley turned on the best day of summer yet.  Clear blue skies and mirror calm sea's.  With a slight wedding gown malfunction out of the way it all went off according to plan.  Well a plan that wasn't quite the plan.  but if you didn't know it was you didn't know.  

The liquid refreshments were all in force and the food was sensational.  

Now i want to be very careful about how I describe the wedding dinner as my words could be taken wrongly.

The best way to describe it was incredibly honest food.  How so?  Well the wedding was held in our remote valley miles from anywhere so catering is abit limited.  You could pull in a top chef etc from Auckland and it would cost a fortune.  

The food that the local catering company along with local contributions served was entirely honest to area.  Not 4 or 5 star but totally and utterly in keeping with the area.  Then and this is the important bit.  Honest and local included fresh oysters, crayfish (aka lobster), new hams, excellant beef.  (along with lamb kofters for starter, local smoked mussels) and full array of local salads.  Oh and also a locally made Ceviche of fish and another of mussels and kina (thats is sea urchin for those not in the know).

All of it was done just right and it was sensational.  Good fresh local food served well is all you want and I can't think of a better large number catered for dinner in a remote place that pulled it off as well as they did.  It was so good.

My oldest by family sister is now married to a wonderful man and it was just one of the most memorable days I will have.  Yes tears where shed by me and alot of people.  Whats really cool is well as my mum who is a married celebrate got to marry them.

More latter on this weekend maybe as alot more happened after the wedding, but maybe thats for me to know and maybe one day share, be assured I left on late sunday with a profound sense of things being right and thats always a good way to feel.

I am struggling to understand today why so many people around the world (okay America is a big starter, but Oz is close behind) are so interested in what I might be doing in my bedroom. Or following on from that most of my life.

Thinking very decisively on this the only time I spend any real time being involved with what other people are doing is at work, and that is because I charged to ensure we produce the right results.

So now I ask all of you, beyond that what interest do I have in other peoples life.  None.  Huge and clear.  

With that next question is why are so many people who should have lovely hetrosexual relationships and marriages going so all balistic on what is going on with there own bedroom and finding some reason to get involved in mine?

Whats going on.  Are there relationships and home life so lacking that for some reason they feel the need to go invading my home life.  Seriously what is lacking here.

If your interested my bedroom is done in a set of grey shades that match some of my own photo's taken from Tokyo.  Looks great  Oh and most time i spend my nights with my dogs sleeping the other side.  I guess that will now become fodder for the right wing on deviant behavour 

Seriously people.  Who each and every one of us spend time with and sleep with is really our own business.  Personally to me I have so little time to deal with all that is going on with my life that taking time out to protest against others makes me wonder, where do they find this time?

I am not going to say what is right or wrong, but ask everyone, let me live my life as I want to. I promise I won't tell you how to live yours.

Been a great few weeks overall.  Had a wonderful time down south even though the concert in the vineyard was cancelled.  Was supposed to see Hall an Oates with IceHouse as the starter.  Unfortunately the weather had other ideas.  It was still a great weekend ina country get away location with good friends and we had a great time of food and good wine.

Waist wise it wasn't to bad as had kept a track on Friday, but saturday was my off day.  Hey, a lifestyle eating plan is 80-90% good with a 10% space to be a little over.  Wasn't like i sucked down an unending supply of hamburgers.  Thou the gluten of Sunday from one did not go down well.

Back on topic.  Still going to Trent 3 times a week and he is really making me work now.  The "Welcome to the nice side of fitness" is well gone and he just pushes me all the time.  The cardio goes up and the weights go up, and I'm not complaining at all.

The topic of this is that i caught myself in the mirror today with no shirt and thought, hmm.  Not fat anymore, but not thin either.  The odd stage of maybe this is going to work, and there is now a huge difference, but not there yet. 

Maybe not next week, or even the week after, but the change so far, wow.  Its nice to take a little time and look hard in the old mirror and say, "you know what, not where i want to be, but bloody well done so far!.

I'm subscribing to the all the diets now (well ex gluten), but going to keep counting the cals.  Have a great app for doing that.

Using 'mynetdiary' which is semi free and very good.  Also thou I'm using 'myfitnesspal' for my friend and its also fantastic.  Will probably switch to it when my subscription runs out.

What I have found is that counting calories does work.  Its not hard, and what it really does is give you a damn good idea of what counts.  I no longer count most fruit and veg (which corresponds with most reasonable diets).  

What is do check is pasta (an non gluten can far worse than normal stuff).  The suggested serving on most pasta is horrific!  Also meats need quite some checking.  

Actually while protiens are worth checking as supermarkets often sell 4 portions but in reality its actually 6-7 standard ones its the CARBS that scare me. 

Not going to endorse carb free.  Thats silly but pure carb foods are really dangerous as you can eat far more than you should.

My other little odd one is oil's.

I will always endorse using olive oil, or other good vegetable oils, but say, watch it.  the cal count is huge x huge.  and it scares how much people use thinking its good for them.  It most certainly is good, but check how much you add.

Lets take a 50 gram dried pasta and 30 grams olive oil.  cooked that 200+cals for the pasta and 90+ for the olive oil.  Nothing else added.  Sure, throw in some low cal garlic, chillie and your good for a meal.  But I think if you saw what 50grams dried pasta is cooked you would be back in the bowl for more.  And suddenly your at 800+ for a meal. 

I'll stop now as i don't want to preach.  Just for me know what i eat and what gives the most value in falvour vs Cals has worked I'm down 6kg's and dropping fast.  Pants still 36, but a very very easy 36.  Shirts down to Large and fitting easy.

something along all the above is at least working for me.

lv

d

 Thanks so much for all the great inspiration.  It's really working.  Into month four now of the lifestyle update and it's becoming ingrained abit now.

Habits are improving all over the place.  I love going to the gym now as its just so enjoyable.  It does not hurt now that the results are becoming more and more obvious.

The news today on my blood pressure has made me really happy as its now down to the level where no medication is required.  When I first started it was at such a level that immediate medication would be normally called for.  Next test is my cholesterol, if that has come down it will be even better.

Overall it's just going so well.  Today we did a full cardio workout with heart monitor to work on keep my heart rate above 130.  First goal was to get it up to 155 on the treadmill.  Bloody Trent has gotten me fit enough that it was just sitting on 132 and not moving up.  The machine kept pushing the incline and speed up, but 132 it stayed.  Had to get to 12 on the incline before we even got near the target.

Next rowing machine again with heart monitor.  Row 250 meter hard, then rest until heartbeat is back to 130, or a minute.  Do five sets.  First set heartbeat won 1 sec before the minute!

It was great feedback to see just how fast my recovery time is now.  Trent is really happy with the progress I have made!

And did I mention I now fit and L size shirt.  My work clothes are now super baggy and really looking bad.  Will keep them for a while yet as its hiding the work in progress.  My old work shirts feel like tents now.  So stunning!