200 OK

So over the weekend just gone I did some LAN gaming with some mates. It was me and five other people playing games on PCs for over twelve hours solid. It was an exercise in reaching the brink of how much a human mind can take when exposed to that kinda stimuli and guess what we did the morning after? and when I got home on the same day? yep, more gaming! …crazy.

It got me thinking that since as long as I can remember and probably a lot longer than that, I have never gone much time without being exposed to some kind of digital entertainment. The longest I can think of is three days and that was because I was in fields at music festivals, which is a surreal experience so can’t really count as ‘real life’. In real life I can’t remember a day without using a TV or PC or both for some kind of entertainment even if it was briefly.

So I am going to turn it all off and go without it for a week to see what happens.

Why?

I want to see in my normal home environment what effect it’ll have on me to not have these things to keep me entertained/occupied. I want to see what emotions it produces and how i cope with them. I want to see how much of that ‘stuff’ you always put off to get done will actually get done. Plus, I am also an idiot.

The rules

• I will have to use a PC at work (I make websites!) but it will be used only for work, no YouTube/Facebook/RSS feeds/Iplayer etc on lunch and breaks.
• If I need to do something (e.g. pay a bill) and the only option is to use a website to do it then I will, but it will be done at work during lunch/break.
• I can use my phone but only to call people, no texts or internet or apps etc…
• I can use my Kindle to read books that are already on it, no internet or downloading new books. (Anyone who has used a Kindle knows its pretty much just like a normal book) Forget that, on second thoughts no Kindle, its still digital entertainment so normal books it is.
• I can use my camera to record the experience.

Other than that I am going to avoid all forms of digital entertainment, no PC, PS3, MP3′s, TV, Laptop etc…

When?

As soon as I press the Publish button on this blog post. I will write about the experience but I guess its gonna have to be on paper and i’ll transcribe it to a blog post or two later on… argh, not sure I’v thought this through.

So Goodbye, see you in seven days.

Keep seeing shows on TV where doctors are advising people on their ‘BMI’ and label them as ‘Obese’, dont get me wrong the people are generally covered in layers of fat but thats not the point. The BMI index is a flawed misleading representation of the health of human beings and whats worse in the UK its the way literally all NHS doctors work too and its used for all those government statistics you see.

Lets give an example as to why you should ignore it:

This is Cain Velasquez the current (June 2011) UFC Heavyweight Champion:

According to the Wikipedia article on him his current height and weight are:

• 244 lb (110.7 kg; 17.4 st)
• 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)

Lets put Cain’s details into the BBC’s BMI Calculator:

As you can see according to the BMI Cain has skipped the overweight section and is making his way into the obese range! Obese! look at him! there are millions of people right now, in a GYM, trying to get even close to his level of fitness, strength etc…

Is this an extreme example? Yes of course it is, but it illustrates that the formula is flawed. You could find your self slap bang in the middle of the ‘overweight’ range and does that mean you are unhealthy? maybe, maybe not and therein lies the problem. The BMI does not account for a whole host of factors that decide what physical weight a human might be and therefore cannot be trusted to measure your progress.

Wow i’v really not done much blog stuff in a while, It can be tricky finding the enthusiasm to write stuff about your self/your interests because its a pretty introverted topic, like I already know about myself etc so writing it down for the internet to see can be a bit dull at times. Anyway enough waffle.

Weight aint ‘Weight’

One thing I can mention is a little mission i’v been on to loose some weight, well it started out as weight loss but anyone who does it properly will soon discover ‘weight’ is a pretty misleading thing to base such an endeavour around. Its more about fat loss and muscle gain to look less like a cartman and more like a superman, actual ‘weight’ is irrelevant really but can be somewhat of a measure to keep you sailing straight especially if you start out knowing you are mainly fat with little mucle and very heavy compared to people you think are your desired size and shape.

This is where things like the BMI calculator fail since you put a body builder through the BMI calculator and he or she’ll come out ‘obese’ most of the time, which is retarded so raise ye middle finger to a ‘goal weight’ and aim to look better that’s my advice.

The problem is people ‘like’ scales because it provides order and shows ‘progress’ without which we as humans quickly loose interest if results are not tangible. If you jump on a scale and it’s 4lbs less than the last time you looked a feeling of euphoria floods your brain and a feeling of accomplishment but when it stops or shock horror goes up, its the end of the world you’re worthless and a fat scumbag again.

Benchmark your progress without scales buy clothes 2 sizes too small for you as you are now, and work to get into them. Once you reach that, do it again until you wear a size you are happy with. Lots of fitness websites bang on about fat measuring calipers and expensive underwater tests, who the fuck has the money or the time for all that? work towards clothes that don’t fit you is simple, it just requires dedication because the results are not as instantly tangible as a scale figure. No one gives a shit if you weight 100lbs or 120lbs they notice ‘how you look’ though.

Complete fanatical dedication

I’m talking islamic jihad all guns blazin say hello to my little friend victory or death! dedication. This is without a doubt the only thing that will get you where you need to be. If you give up then ye fucked, simple as that so don’t give up its really that simple. I’m not a motivational speaker and its not my job to keep you on the straight and narrow only you can do that if you want to achieve something badly enough.

Anyone who says ‘everything in moderation’ is 9 times out of 10 a preacher of something to someone who needs to make a change. For me moderation means the slippery slope to habits and choices that messed my body up in the first place. I’v taken on this challenge as a religion of sorts, i have a mantra of stuff i dont do, places i dont go etc etc… is it sustainable forever? heeeeellll no, is it working at the minute? yes, indeed.

If you approach anything with this level of deciation giving 100% then by human nature this’ll slip to about an 80% but if you take the ‘everything in moderation’ line and give it an 80% ye human nature is gonna screw you over to a 60% or even less! Thats fine if you already look like Usain Bolt and want to maintain your life, you wanna change it then you’v gotta get fanatical for a while.

This kinda dedication not only gets you where you need to be it s a corner stone of beating those feelings above of no progress, if you are not getting where you need to be then change something never ever ever ever give up, fanatical dedication is like a voice in the back of your head driving you on, never give up, ever got it?

How do you do get there

Aside from sticking at it (which is the hardest part) i’v formulated a regime that is based on what i’v learnt and what i used to do that were ‘bad’. This stuff fits for me some of it my not apply to anyone else.

• Read Read Read. Read books on healthy living and blogs, the more you read the more you will get common things between them, much the same as reading 3 news papers to get the real scoop on something. If you try and do hard things without knowledge its a sure fire way to getting absolutely nowhere.
• Don’t drink. I have a reputation, a well earned one for being a piss head. Most weekends before i started all this i’d be out on the town with my mates drinking lots and lots of lovely beer and whiskey. The problem with alcohol is it not only saps your will through hangovers to be good with food etc even worse ever sip are empty calories which stack up. So i gave up alcohol, i’v not had a single drink in over 5 months, i’v not even stepped inside a pub in that time. Again fuck moderation, alcohol is a no no.
• No cake, chocolate, chrisps, etc. Its a no brainer dont eat any of this crap, the same goes for junk food and processed crap. You are in complete control of what you put in your mouth, dont eat stuff you know full well is crap even before you’v read a book on nutrition.
• No grains or potatoes. This includes anything made from grain so bread, pasta, rice, special K will fuck you up! anything grain based just forget about it. This comes up time and time again with what i’v learnt and i wont go into the ins and outs of it because you need to discover it for your self. This leaves meat, fish, vegtables, fruit and nuts in the main boring huh? lifes a bitch get used to it .
• Exercise 3 days a week more like 5 if possible. Again read books on it but strength training is a must and long crappy cardio is a waste of time (Long distance marathon runners are not ‘fit’ put one in any other sport other than long distance running and they’ll buckle). Best cardio to do are sprints followed by rest followed by sprints, see ‘interval training’ techniques. On top of all this walk places a lot, at least 30mins walk a day.
• Don’t count calories to the extreme. Just eat when you are hungry, you try eating a tin of sardines and 2 eggs then an apple and tell me you are still hungry. If you are eating properly then you’ll struggle to overeat unless you eat a whole bag of nuts everyday of course, be aware of what you eat just don’t be clinical about it.

That’s roughly it! try the above with fanatical dedication and you’ll get there. The above is just a summary with no detail and its just what i have been doing, reading up on stuff is a must. Try the primal blueprint, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth those two are good at setting the scene.

I’m still getting there but after 4 months i’m making progress:

So you are doing your shopping and you grab some meat for the rest of the week. You get home and realise its out of date in two days and then curse your self for such a retarded purchase as you stuff your self with the same shit for 2 days in a meat binge to use it all up before it starts to smell like death.

Normally you walk up to the meats section and its something like this:

In most supermarkets those overhanging shelves go waaaay back, at least 3/4 packs deep at my local one. The trick when buying meat is to pull all of them out and nab your self a packet right at the back because what they do is move all the less fresh stuff to the front so it goes quicker and deliberately place any new stuff right at the back.

Its just a little tip but its very easy to overlook. Just dig in deep right at the back of the shelf and you’ll probably find stuff that’ll easily last a good 3+ more days than the stuff immediately in view.