Every human being is the author of his own health or disease. – Buddha

Taking Control

The first realization to develop good health is that you are in control. You can’t blame anyone else and doing so only weakens you. I know I’m probably not talking to most of you but this is for the few that need to hear this.

Grabbing the steering wheel is the first thing that needs to happen before you can drive your health forwards. So many people are in denial about this that I thought I’d better point it out first.

It’s hard to admit sometimes but you are doing all these things to yourself. Nobody lifts that hand to eat that burger except you. Only you have the power to change. Now when you’ve claimed your power, here are 9 excellent habits that I’d recommend to you.


1. Stop Eating At 80% Full – Your bodys signals aren’t available to your mind straight away, This is why when you eat to the point of being full, your body feels absolutely stuffed for long after you’ve finished, it was full long before then.

If you stop eating at 80% full then your body will be nourished but not stuffed and your energy wont be drained by an overly active digestive system. Digestion takes so much of your energy away. Just look at how people fall asleep after eating a Sunday Roast.


2. Eat For Nutrition First, Then Pleasure – This is a mindset which all healthy humans make at some point. You realize that health is more important than satisfying your tastebuds. Some people put importance on things like how food is prepared, the cost in disregard to the quality etc.

Eating for nutrition is simple. Just eat what your body needs. I’m not one for over complicating things and so I just eat what I know my body thrives on and makes me feel amazing and take a …


3. Daily Multi-Vitamin – When I first started a Raw Vegan Diet I had a lack of some vitamins because I started it without knowing what I was doing. I didn’t like eating some of the foods that had essential vitamins in. I now take a single multivitamin tablet each day to make up for it and make sure I covered all bases which leads me to my next point …


4. Continual Change/Improvement – You have to be prepared to pick out what you think may apply to you, what doesn’t and experiment with it including everything in this article. Most Raw Vegans don’t eat a supplement but its the right path for me right now.

Most 21 year olds don’t get up at 5am and exercise every day but that feels totally normal to me. Making small changes to your diet each day can lead to massive results a few months from now. Exercising a little self control over time allows you to conquer bigger and bigger challenges.


5. Eating The Diet That Nature Intended – Follow your intuition when it comes to deciding which foods to eat. I like to think that it will lead us all to a Raw Vegan Diet but that might not be the next step for you.

You can find more about my experiences with this diet here. I’m not trying to push it upon you. It’s just that the path for most people tends to be -

Meat/Dairy Eater > No Dairy Products > No Meat > No Processed Food > Raw Vegan (Nuts, Seeds, Fruit, Vegetables – All Uncooked) > Fruitarian (Just fruits – uncooked)


6. Heavy, Light, Veg - This idea came to me when I started a new job and needed to fit my diet around its awkward times. This is what I’d eat on an average day.

Morning – After my morning workout I’d need to get lots of calories. I would eat a fruit and nut breakfast. It would include foods like bananas, mangoes and especially avocados. This gave me energy to burn throughout the day.

Dinner – I would eat lots of fruit. I’d get a large lunch box and fill it with all the fruits that I enjoyed and more for variety. The idea is that the fruit will give you an energy boost at lunchtime just when you need it so that you can get through the rest of the day.

Tea – I’d buy a bag of fresh green leaf salad on the way home and mix it in a big bowl with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, maybe some grapes and definitely some red peppers! The idea is to eat a light meal at the end of the day so your digestive system is not working throughout the night, preventing you from getting good sleep.


7. No Eating For 2 Hours Before Sleep – Did you know that the digestive system is the most energy consuming process in the body? Eating in the 2 hours before sleep made me feel groggy because my digestive system took away all my energy so I stopped and instantly felt more refreshed in the mornings.


8. Regular Waking Time – I’d definitely recommend experimenting but here’s what worked for me. I get up at 5am every day and go to sleep whenever I feel tired. The idea is that you sleep when tired but always have a regular waking time.

It doesn’t have to be 5am. It’s one of the best things I’ve done for my health. The combination of good eating habits and good sleep does amazing things for your body.

Getting up at a regular time helps you stick to a set meal plan and opens so many other doors for you in your health. Getting up early gives you mental clarity, a sense of self control and allows you to exercise or do something you are passionate about before your normal routine starts.


9. Fasting – I didn’t know that they sold Raw Chocolate where I shop and after buying some one day, after eating no chocolate for over a week it was heavenly. Words can’t describe. It was like I hadn’t drank water for a week and the first drop was hitting my dry tongue.

I savoured it like it was the last piece of chocolate I’d ever eat. An occasional fast like this gives you a new level of appreciation for food. They say you never miss the water until its gone and you’ll appreciate it on a whole new level once its back.

You’re are an author writing the book of your health whether you like it or not. Some of the book has been written and some is still to come. It’s a work in progress and you just have to ask yourself – What am I going to write for the next few chapters?

I thought long and hard. I didn’t want to become a bodybuilder and get “huge” as I knew that comparing looks with others would frustrate me. I just wanted an acceptable level of fitness and most of all … I wanted to enjoy it.

A technique I’ve learned is to ask your mind the right questions. If you ask “Why can’t I find a way to get fit?” it will give you an answer to suit the question like “Because you’re an idiot” or “You will find a way”. Both pretty useless answers. I asked “What would allow me to achieve my goal of fitness and enjoy the process?”.



Non-Action

Have you ever had an experience where you are totally immersed in this moment? Hours fly by in what seems like minutes and you have no worries or stress because you are so focused? You feel like you don’t so much “do” an action, it all just flows through you and it’s a beautiful thing to experience. You are taken over by something larger and there is no thought.

People get this when being creative, doing something they love or even when they’re in a fight. I wanted to experience this through exercise and was willing to accept nothing less.

Can you imagine how it would feel to jump out of bed passionate about the exercise you are about to do because you genuinely enjoy doing it? It’s not even work to you, it’s just you being naturally fun and doing what you love – all the rest falls into place. I think that’s something we’d all enjoy.

The idea comes out of the principle of “non-doing” from the spiritual classic the Tao Te Ching. Going running for 2 hours becomes experiencing nature. We regularly go to play football for 3 or 4 hours straight. We have an amazing time … every time. It’s not exercise, it’s socializing.

This idea was inspired by the principle of Love from Steve Pavlinas excellent book – Personal Development for Smart People. It says you should connect with what you love and disconnect with what you don’t love. Obviously I love getting fit, who doesn’t? But I hated the mechanical unalive objects that I had to interact with on a daily basis to get fit.



Taking Up A Sport

Ask yourself the question “What could I do that is really fun that I can also get great exercise from?”. The first answer that pop up is usually the right one. I have always had a passion for freestyle football (soccer) which is a mixture of dance and football. It allows me to be creative and totally present in this moment. At no time during this am I thinking about getting exercise. I’m too immersed in the fun.



Do It With Friends

This takes your attention away from the idea of “exercise” and towards “fun”. Be with others having fun and you share a great experience together. People don’t want to get fit. There’s nothing amazing about having huge muscles and running far. They want the personal growth that will come as a result of it. Fitness is a vehicle for something bigger. Enjoying time with your friends is a great way to experience this.



Frame It

A frame, in this way is a way of looking at a set of events. Exercise can be framed as “gruelling”, “challenging”, “a growth experience” etc and it’s totally up to you which frame you use. At the start I wanted to get super fit for my own benefit so I could do more for me. Now I’ve re-framed it as being a huge never ending personal growth challenge and allowing me to serve others better. Imagine what that kind of mind shift could do for your exercise.

I used to listen to self development tapes whilst exercising too. I framed the exercise and the workout as 2 sides of the same coin. I was challenging my mind and body at the same time and this was a really motivating frame. These are two great mindsets to adopt.



For You And Me

Some of you might say that you need to go gym to get precise workouts but I’m targetting this at the average non-athlete who just wants to get and stay fit. People just like me. People who want to enjoy physical movement as much as they can and get fit as a side effect, not a main focus.

Make it as fun as possible. 10 years from now you won’t care about how big your muscles were or what number plate you lifted on the weights machine. You will remember the fun you had and how the experience felt, good or bad.



Running Is Beautiful

I run too and love it. This is hard for a lot of people to understand as they see running as a gruelling experience of plodding alone one foot in front of the other until you give up. You see, it’s all about your focus. If you are focused on the difficulty of it then you will experience the difficulty. I run at dawn as the sun is rising and the birds are singing in beautiful chorus. I’m totally in the moment and it’s beautiful and this is my focus.



Being Present

When you see people starting out aiming to get fit they usually start getting anal about it. They’re not in the moment feeling the way, they’re too much in their mind where there are constant questions like

“How many kilograms have I lifted compared to last week?”

“What circumference are my biceps?

I laugh now but it’s only because I’ve been there myself.

I actually have things around my house like a football placed in a certain room, a detatchable pullup bar in another, a set of weights rested on the side, a football outside my front door etc. When you decide to do something you don’t want to do, it is boring. When you are being natural then the action of “doing” something just happens. The actions happen through you but you are not there to consciously direct them. It’s a great experience.



Kaizen

This is the principle of “Continuous incremental improvement of an activity to eliminate waste”. There wont be a point that you will get too where you will think “This is too hard” because it progresses slowly and naturally at a pace to suit you. If you’ve got energy – burn it, if you haven’t just have a normal day – but move forwards over time.

Making tiny improvements each day won’t seem that noticeable at first. Just improving 1% in each workout by running a little further, lifting a little heavier will get you into the habit of softly pushing the boundaries of your limits. Your limits will gradually start to stretch. If you look back in a year you won’t see a certain point where you “got fit” but you’ll be able to see noticeable changes in your health. It’s progress without the hassle.

In the end of the day, your physical body is all about self expression. Be present, be yourself and what naturally follows is a beautiful outflow of creativeness. You are a natural creator, you just learned to become otherwise. Unlearn and be.

£45 – A weekly shop. Includes 20+ bananas

On April 1st 2010, the day after my 21st birthday, I turned around my diet and become a 100% Raw Vegan and after only slipping up twice since then I feel like I’ve got to tell someone about this.

For those of you unfamiliar with a Raw Vegan diet, it includes eating just the following, uncooked;

• Nuts
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Pure Fruit/Veg Juices
• 100% Pure Honey
• Anything else that has been created by the combination of Earth, Air and Sun and not tampered with.

I got the idea from Steve Pavlina and thought I’d try it for myself. All I knew at the start was the above. I hadn’t read any advice about what to eat, how much and when. I just went for it and this is what I found.

Drinking Water

I started drinking little water or juices because I get so much liquid on the diet indirectly through the fruits that are all full of water. Bananas are 75% water, mangoes 82%, avocadoes 74%. I used to eat so much cooked, dry food that I had to make it up by drinking lots of liquids. With giving up alcohol earlier this year it is a strange sensation to go from drinking so much liquid to so little in just a few months. I drink water the most now whilst exercising for a long period of time aka football.

Social Challenges

I once gave in and ate cooked food at a family get together because I didn’t feel comfortable telling everyone that I was on this diet. Even though it was light food (coleslaw, breaddsticks) it affected me so much that I decided the pain of my body was not worth doing it again. Once you go raw it’s really difficult to go back without huge pain and this should be considered before going raw.

This led me to totally cutting out ANY cooked food whatsoever. Whenever I get tempted I remind myself of the 2 times I gave in and the terrible feelings I got and then compared that to the mental alertness I get under this diet. It’s a no brainer by then. It’s all about focus. You focus on the wonderful tastes of fruit and you’ll be fine.

It’s hard socially being a Raw Foodist and this is something I’m still dealing with. At the moment I would say find people who are health conscious or at a minimum people who won’t judge you negatively. It’s hard enough adopting your body to a totally new way of eating without having people sniping at you at any chance they get.

People will see you eating a different diet and their curiosity may lead them to ask you why you eat this way. Some will react positively and be genuinely curious but some will react negatively and put you down, which means they are uncomfortable with it.

This isn’t your fault, it’s just the level they’re at. Imagine a man with women all over him in a club full of loser guys, it’s the same thing. Success makes people who aren’t successful uncomfortable.

Adapting to a 9 to 5 routine

For some stupid reason I decided to undergo a work trial at the JobCentre and ended up quitting after 2 weeks as I hated it. The point is, I was eating a Raw Diet at the time and had to adapt the diet to suit the working hours and boost my energy levels throughout the day.

What I’d usually do is have a basic three-meal plan. I would work the standard 9am – 5pm and had 45 minutes for lunch from 1:15-2pm.

In the morning, I workout and immediately need some energy and to put some more fat back onto my body I’d eat a high-calorie fruit breakfast with nuts. This included mangoes, avocados, bananas and pineapples because they are calorie dense. These calories slowly burn throughout the day.

For dinner, I’d pack a large plastic container with all the fruits that I might enjoy for dinner. I never knew what I’d like so packed a variety. I’d then pack a Spork and a small knife. This meal will give you an energy boost and mental clarity to get you through the remainder of the day.

For tea, I’d pick up a fresh bag of salad on the way home and mix in some red peppers, cucumber, grapes etc for one super salad about the size of a basketball. Some like to finish their day on a heavy meal but I find it leads to poor sleep.

Throughout the day, I’d nibble on food at my desk like nuts and grapes which are perfectly sized. I experimented with making part of my dinner into a smoothie that I could drink whilst at my desk, saving time but found them too filling.

The Cost

Yes, it does cost more than a processed food diet but the ultimate gain of eating a Raw Food Diet is vibrant health which is priceless. It’s all relative. You can get food prices which are updated daily (for Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Ocado – All UK) at MySuperMarket. I buy a weekly shop and go a few times throughout the week to get new things which I like fresh on the day.

If you could afford this and are still indecisive, how much is your health truly worth to you? I bet you pay insurance of some kind. Health insurance MIGHT pay out ONE day in the future. A Raw food diet pays out from day one. If you are thinking that this might be for you but are not 100% sure if you could stick with it then I’d say kick it off with a 7-day-trial, see how it goes and then consider adding another week etc.

Weight Loss & Pictures

I weighed about 136 pounds before I started this diet and had been that weight consistently for years. My scales are broke at the moment but I’ve had no noticeable strength loss since I started this diet, it’s gone up. For those trying to gain muscle and stay cut, I direct you to this picture of Tim Van Orden who eats a Raw Food Diet.

And this one which shows how fit you can be at 57 on a Raw Food Diet. Arnold Schwarzenegger vs Storm the Raw Vegan. I think there is a lack of people out there as great examples of this mainly because the Raw Food Diet is still mainly underground. Simply having a smaller population of people as examples doesn’t make something wrong though.

I have been logging my workouts throughout the Raw transition. Here are a picture of me a week before going raw and a week after going raw.

There isn’t much difference really. I’ve been able to lift more with the same (or smaller) sized body so I take this as a good sign

This is the ultimate weight loss diet because you can eat as much as you want and still lose weight. I’ve heard of people increasing their calories on this diet and STILL losing weight. This is great for people who have a strong psychological tendency to comfort eat or over-eat. You can continue doing that, lose the weight and then challenge the psychological side of it later.

At the start, I found myself looking at the amount of food I had in front of me and thinking “I can’t eat that much”. It’s because you’re used to eating dense food that has no water in it. Let’s say you ate a watermelon-sized steak. This would bloat you but the same sized salad wouldn’t even fill you. I got over this by simply starting to eat it and realising that I was still hungry and continuing.

The Detox

Your body goes through a huge detox process whilst on this diet. It’s the strongest at the start but I presume it will last many years. I can’t comment on the long term effects yet but know I’m still in the detox period. I’ve eaten processed food for 21 years and it’s been 2 weeks since I started. I think to myself, what would the level of health be after eating like this for 6 months? a year? 5 years?

Skin

My skin is so beautiful and smooth at the moment. The back of my hands and my torso feel as if they are finally breathing and the skin on them is baby smooth.

Counting Calories

I am not bothered about calories at the moment or how much I weigh. I can tell how strong I am by my lifts and my mental clarity tells me if I’m eating the right foods. If you wish to keep track of calorie amounts you can use Calorie King. You can even put in the exact amount in grams that the food weighs to get an accurate reading.

Because I am so light and have a low body fat if I miss out on a meal it is a major shock to my system and my energy suffers because of it. This is something I’m going to have to look into in the future.

Nuts/Seeds/Chocolate

I started eating lots of nuts and raw chocolate at the start but have noticed that they slow me down and engage my digestive system too strongly so I’m going to slowly phase those out.

Why You Shouldn’t Give In – An Example

Sometimes it is difficult to see how far you’ve come. You know you’re doing well NOW but you can’t remember how it felt before. Well one day I was in Sainsburys and the universe thought it would teach me this lesson on this.

I was in the healthy section and saw a pack of 4 chocolate brownies and after determining they were free of egg I ate two of them. They were quite tasty … a little too processed to taste natural though… I noticed there in big capitals “EGG” on the ingredients. OOPS!

For some stupid reason and I can’t tell you why now I decided I’d better eat the other two just so that they’re all gone. Rationalization is a crazy thing . Everything was fine for a few hours …

Then I started experiencing mental fogginess, lack of energy and kept on farting all the time! The next morning I was on the toilet for an hour and was sweating profusely and was too weak to stand. It taught me a valuable lesson though.

Sainsburys Range

Sainsburys does have a decent range of organic products by the way. If you go, ask for the “free-from” section. Be wary though, a lot of the food is free from some things but still contains lots of processed crap.

You can get Innocent Smoothies from your local Supermarkets too that are blends of 100% squeezed fruit juices and have great taste combinations like Kiwi, Apple & Lime. I was really into them but stopped drinking them as they were too filling and preferred eating the actual fruits.

Mental Clarity

When I started meditating earlier in the year I ate a cooked food diet. Now I’ve stopped meditating for the time being as this diet gives the same level of flow, ease and mental clarity that I got from my daily 30-minute meditation. Combining both together in the future will produce great results. You experience moments of ecstasy and mental euphoria on a daily basis and that’s no exaggeration.

Compassion For Animals

I have found that this will increase as you eat the diet. I tried the diet mostly for reasons like improved energy, personal growth but the compassion for animals will only come later. I often open the fridge to see a chicken carcass in there and I have such a huge compassion whenever I see it now compared to just 2 weeks ago. You will stop seeing cooked food and animal products as “food” and it just becomes “edible”.

Self Control

It’s definitely been a huge challenge for my self control. I basically gave up meat, stopped drinking 90% of the liquids I previous dranked, gave up cooked food, tea, biscuits, crisps and coffee all at once and replaced them with something else. I feel so strong in the fact that I’ve stuck at this that it bears any other benefits hands down.

I think its too tough to tackle this from a position of a normal meat eaters diet without smaller transitions (giving up coffee, then meat, then cooked food etc) if you haven’t already successfully installed habits in your life before. In 2010, I’d already started to meditate, get up at 5am and exercise every day. I knew I could handle this. If you don’t then I’d recommend you take smaller steps to guarantee the success. Who would turn down a guaranteed success?

Isn’t It Boring Eating The Same Foods Repeatedly?

When you’ve stuck at it for a week you get some amazing tastes. Your tastebuds are numbed by all the processed foods you’ve eaten and you come to realize how amazing a juicy watermelon can taste or how smooth an avocado feels on your tongue. It’s like you have a new set of tastebuds as they gradually come back to life.

If you feel like the foods are boring though there are always ways to spruce them up. There were times when I saw a huge salad and thought “That looks so boring”. Salads can be added to with honey, lemon juice, lime juice, fruits like strawberries etc. Experiment and find out what works well for you.

In a week I might eat the following foods – Nuts, Apples, Oranges, Clementines, Bananas, Pineapple, Passion Fruit, Plums, Romaine Lettuce, Chard, Spinach, Red Pepper, Cucumber, Carrots, Mangoes, Strawberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Sprouts (only once!), Kiwi Fruits, Melons, Watermelons, Lemons, Limes.

I know there are more but that list shows the variety that you can get. I love bananas and feel I could eat them non stop. I read a story about a guy who eat 40-50 of them a day, and that’s nearly all they eats except celery and tomatoes. This guy also runs over 100 miles each week and owns his own software business. Truly inspiring. It’s not for me though … yet .

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Ok the trial of writing to the blog is over! Today was my last day of the allotted 30 days and I did an arm workout. I was at my grandmas so I used the rock in the garden with the 5 second up, 5 second down protocol. I got

• Bicep Curls – 15
• Push-Ups – 4

I actually did the push-ups 5 seconds up, 5 seconds down with my face nearly touching the floor on the decline today and so they are a more accurate reflection of my push-up skill! I would not allow myself rest and was really pushing for that 4th push-up.

Don’t be afraid to switch up the workout – to be honest, you need to. You do not want your body to mould itself and become comfortable with particular exercise or it will stop growing.

I’ve really enjoyed this trial and the boost in energy that has come with it but it has been difficult at times. It’s hard getting up at 5am, but you get used to it. One thing I would have done looking back is to have the whole month planned out. All I had at the start was my body weight and a big rock to exercise with. If I maxxed out on the rock (which I did!) what would I do next?

Tabata Intervals or 5 seconds up/5 seconds down are a great way to get fit whilst spending little time. The aim of me doing this all along was so that I could get up early, exercise and then go to work. I’m in the routine now and comfortably feel like I could do this.

Another thing I would add is do not be afraid to experiment. When I got towards the end of the trial and started doing the 5 second up / 5 second down approach I did not know if it would work but had a strong feeling it would. It has been working fantastic so far. I read somewhere that Bruce Lee was an advocate of this type of training.

I also noticed how much of an affect my diet has on my body and even more my mental clarity. If I don’t eat fruit and have a heavy lunch I feel terrible and remaining present is a huge struggle. This trial has spurred me on more than ever to try a Raw Diet. As soon as I have settled into my new lodgings and got a consistent income it will be the first thing I will do.

The one day where I went 100% Raw during the trial, I felt so strong and after a nap in the middle of the day woke up feeling amazingly refreshed. The thing is with a Raw food diet is that it is usually low in fat, but, keeps you strong and your stomach full  so I will be able to lift heavier and have low body fat percentage.

The concept of  unfitness feels so foreign to me now. I can’t even remember what it is like to get up at 1pm after staying up until 1:30am getting drunk. I’ve noticed that setting little trials like this help you get clarity in other areas of your life as well.

If you become fit you might notice that your social group is unfit and reforcing those old habits or that you do not enjoy drinking with them any more. I have found that getting healthy and getting up early has shown that I need to find a new group of friends with people more like me. This is another plan to come after I have started getting a solid income form my job.

The last few days since I have started my 5 second up, 5 second down routine I have started to eat a lot more. I think it’s about double what I was eating previously and I can feel myself putting on weight. I could do with an extra stone or two of weight so that’s fine. It just seemed to come out of nowhere though and I’ve gained 6 pounds during the trial.

The future is looking bright in terms of health and strength too. I am going to turn to a Raw food diet, I’m getting my own set of weights (11 days and counting), a JML Iron Gym, a full time income and my own place shared with my brother. Things are looking up.

During this trial I have maintained an exact replica of the trial over at Richards Tabata Log and I plan to maintain it with a weekly picture and my daily workout routine.

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Today was a fantastic workout and I really felt the strain towards the end of both rounds. I did a little mix up today and did 15 sit ups with 5 seconds up then 5 seconds down with no weight and no break and just about completed them all.  I get a little back pain and need to improve my form whilst doing sit-ups.

After than I did planks. I aimed for 20 seconds of doing a plank and then 10 seconds rest, similar to Tabata. I aimed to do 15 of these without rest in total but got through 4 mins 30 secs which is 9 planks.

Difficulty was 9/10. I actually felt my current physical limit and it felt great.

5 second planks – 9/15

5 second Sit-ups – 15/15

I really enjoyed this workout. Tomorrow is Arms.

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Today was a good workout. I’d give it difficulty of about 7/10. I did squats and calf raises whilst holding a 25kg barbell across the back of my shoulders and continued with the 5-second incline and decline and it felt great.

My form was

• Squats – 15
• Calf Raises – 15

It feels like a good workout and I think I’ll maintain this weight for leg workouts for a while until I get settled and get my own weights. Feeling pretty good today and my legs feel really tight and strong. I had an avocado, kiwi fruit and a large orange for breakfast with some toast. Tomorrow is an Abs workout, I predict good things for the 5 second incline/decline on the abs days.

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Today is the first time I did an arm Barbell workout at my brothers house. I used the 25kg weights again (including the bar itself) and decided I’d do 15 lifts of 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down. The problem was, I kept on resting. In the future I will pick a weight like 25kg and earn arm workout day, try for 15 reps of 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down repetitions. When I have done this, add another 5kg weight.

Todays form was

Bicep Curls with 25kg Barbell – 15 all complete

Pushups – 7

Difficulty of about 6.5/10

My push-ups were 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down too. I think I’m going to enjoy the 5 seconds routine because it really works your limits and makes more sense than pushing out 100 reps at just 1 second.

Tomorrow is legs workout, I think I’ll need a bit more than 25kg. 2 weeks today until I get my own weights. My brother has a workout bench and some more weights now too. We will have a little gym going before long enough.

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Today was a strange workout. I didn’t have the weights as I stayed at my grandmas so the sit-ups I did were easier. My form was the same as last week so it proves that I’m limited only by the 20 second limit and not the amount that I can put out.

I ate Raw for one day (except for 3 pieces of toast in the morning) and noticed a huge energy shift upwards and then crashing back down yesterday when I had a gateau and a sirlion steak, the shame!

But in all honesty, I’m going back to eating Raw in the near future, the energy is amazing. I just needed a bit more money to carry it through, and a bit more stability in others areas of my life. One good thing about the Raw diet is that when I get used to actually eating that much physical food and get enough fat, I can lift heavier, run further and it gets rid of all the excess fat on my body giving the amazing ripped effect.

My form today was

• Sit-ups – 13
• Planks – All Complete

Difficulty 6.5/10

I somehow need to add weight during the planks and considered putting a dumbbell plate on my back but this is inconvenient during a workout. Maybe I’ll look up some alternative abdominal exercises.

I’ve successfully switched to exercising at someone else’s house too. This is great because it shows the routine is engrained for life. I can now exercise for every day for the rest of my life without it feeling too tough. Barring illness and extreme circumstances of course.

I’m going to look into getting an apprenticeship for income. Whilst the money you get is quite low, I could get by on it not having to pay rent and could actually do something I like for a few years whilst doing this writing on the side and building an income from it.

I stayed at my brothers house last night and did my first workout there. My legs were killing me from the last 2 days of football running and all that bike riding. Adding todays workout and my legs are so heavy and clumsy at the moment. I only had 4 hours sleep and it’s catching up with me now.
I did my standard Legs workout of Calf Raises and Squats with a barbell across my shoulders which in total weighted 25kg in total. I’m gonna start small and add 5kg each time so that I don’t go overboard at the start and hurt myself. I did 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down which definitely added to the intensity of the workout. I plan to continue this 5 up, 5 down set of reps. It’s shorter and more high intensity than the Tabatas and I’ll still do the running on a Sunday.

Yesterday I deciede on a whim to go Raw for a couple of days and felt pretty decent when I did my workout this morning but I’m gonna give it up for now. I have too much going on in my life already. Maybe in April/May. Difficulty 5/10. I’m staying at my brothers from now on so will hopefully be able to use the weights every day in the morning and progressively add weight to the barbell. It’s also 16 days until I get my own weights too!

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OK today was a TOUGH workout. I’d give it a 9.5/10 difficulty. I played football yesterday for about 3 hours with all the lads on Lostock Park and was so tired before I went to bed that I just knew the run would kill me. I made decent time though. I completed the run in 15 min30s which is good considered I walked a lot more of the distance than usual. Had I not played football for 3 hours yesterday I’m sure my result would have been much better.

I slept in the back room for the first time last night and was thinking that my alarm wouldn’t wake me up as its a new set of surroundings but everything went fine. I’m so sore all over, especially the legs. My back has been giving me trouble for 2-3 days now and I’m going to look up some Yoga stretches on-line to fix it. It’s leg workouts again tomorrow. That’s like 3 days in a row! It took me about 2 hours to write this post on my Grans home computer. Really need to sort my laptop out!