T-minus 37 minutes until my first (and probably only) session with a personal trainer at the gym. I was in there one lunchtime last week, trying to fight off a godawful hangover, when one of the trainers came over and started chatting about what kind of routines/programmes I do, and so on.
I tend to be relatively aimless when I’m at the gym, and am not working towards anything in particular, other than a vague goal to lose some weight around my middle and be a bit healthier. I like programmes such as 200 sit-ups, because they give me concrete targets and numbers to hit each week, which in turn motivates me to get my ass into the gym in the first place.
Without that motivation, it’s far too easy to not go, and then it becomes a cumulative effect, knowing that each time you don’t go, the first one back is harder. Miss a whole week and you really don’t feel like going any time soon.
The session I’m having today is free, which is a bit of a result, but I can’t see myself paying for any further sessions, to be honest. They’re just too expensive for me to really justify it.
I’m hoping to get some ideas, and to get some motivation back into my system. Maybe even some finite targets to achieve. It’s definitely a mental thing for me, because I thoroughly enjoy the act of working out. But getting to the gym seems to be the difficulty that I need to overcome…
A gym session is fucking hard work when you’ve not been for nearly a month.
But at least I went! I was going to go yesterday, but apathy and laziness took hold of me instead. And then four beers in the pub after work also took hold of me, dammit.
I’m determined to lose the gut which has developed in the last few months, and handily the girlfriend is going on some kind of gradual detox diet so I won’t be able to eat unhealthily at home either. I have no problem in giving up certain foods that I eat too much of (bread, cream, chocolate), but it’s going to be a wrench having to avoid cheese…
Now, all I’ve got to do is replace beer with G&Ts, and I’m sorted. I’m not going to kid myself and say that I won’t drink, but at least I can cut down on the calorie content of my alcohol.
That hot spa in Iceland has absolutely ruined normal baths for me.
I took one this evening as I’m feeling a bit under the weather, and it was just plain crappy. It wasn’t big enough, it didn’t stay hot long enough, it wasn’t an opaque sky-blue colour, there wasn’t an Arctic wind whistling over me, and there definitely wasn’t an Icelandic girl called Eva massaging me.
It was not altogether the relaxing, soothing experience that I was looking for.
Hmm, at some point over the last couple of nights, I have definitely chewed a big chunk out of the inside of one of my cheeks.
Owwwwwwwww.
Somehow, I managed to pull my calf muscle overnight. I’ve absolutely no idea how this has happened, but it’s given me a bit of a limp.
And put paid to any thoughts of going for a run tonight. So, you know, every cloud…
How Safe is the HPV vaccine? - Information Is Beautiful
Given the amount of media fuss about the cervical cancer vaccine recently, particularly in the UK, this is very timely. And quite beautifully presented.
The most striking point is the difference between the odds of dying after the vaccine (15,200,000:1) and dying in a road accident the year after the vaccine (a mere 10,000:1).
Striking because the newspaper inches given to each of these causes of death is pretty much the reverse…
Sabine posted a link to a great story on Wired about the placebo effect in medicine, and its effect on Big Pharma’s R&D in recent years.
It reminded me of how Ben Goldacre in Bad Science explained the placebo effect beautifully, and most importantly told how to test for it efficiently and correctly. This, evidently, is something that pharmaceutical companies have been loathe to do (or to admit to doing, at least) for many years.
The most troubling part for me of the article was the infographic on page 3, including the above snippet. Seriously, branding accentuates the placebo effect? Good God we’re a society/generation of consumers.
EDIT: I should title this post “If Carlsberg made placebos…”
Large thighs 'may protect heart' | BBC News
Apparently, if your thighs are below a certain circumference, you’re more likely to suffer from heart and cardiovascular health problems.
But equally, if you’re really overweight and have massive thighs, you’re more likely to suffer from a whole myriad of potentially fatal health problems.
So if you’re too thin, you’ll have health problems. But if you’re too fat, you’ll have health problems. The middle ground is the perfect place to be.
Excuse me whilst I go stop the fucking presses and hold the front page for this amazingly radical piece of news! Normal weight levels are the optimum for the human body? Who the hell would’ve expected that?!?!?
This isn’t news, it’s fucking common sense.
I’m on my second day off work in a row, although I feel a lot better this afternoon than I did this morning and yesterday, and probably could’ve just about handled a day in the office, if not the train journey each way.
I reckon I must’ve picked up a bug over the course of the weekend in Edinburgh, seeing as every venue was tiny, hot, sweaty and really badly ventilated. The train on the way home was equally stuffy, and the perfect incubation chamber for any cold or flu type virus.
It seems to have been a 48-hour thing, thankfully, and I’ll be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed come tomorrow morning. Which means going back to work, sigh.
Speaking of Edinburgh, I’m planning to write a series of reviews of the various shows I saw over the course of this weekend. I realise that this is going to be really self-indulgent and probably fairly meaningless to anyone who isn’t going or doesn’t like comedy/theatre, but so be it…
Oh, and I’ll probably be linking to these reviews on Twitter as well, so sorry for anyone who follows me on there too and will be getting it in stereo!
Despite it being my first day back in the office after a long weekend up in Edinburgh, I find myself at home on my sofa, feeling sick as a dog. I managed to get into work for a couple of hours, but felt like absolute shit and that I was going to throw up at any moment.
It’s not a hangover, as I didn’t drink anything yesterday (to be honest, I couldn’t, because of the sheer volume consumed on Sunday), so it might be something I ate. My stomach’s doing loop-the-loops, and I’m exhausted too.
Maybe it’s the flu, maybe it’s something less than that. We’ll see by tonight, I guess.
Incidentally, I think that this is my first ever day off sick since I became a proper working man after uni. I generally don’t get ill, and even if I do I still make it in and am able to function. Today, though, I just can’t face up to anything more than a big long sleep.
Which I’m going to do …….. now.
