Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Monday - Detox day 1

Well today I started my detox with one less tooth. :(

I was up all Sunday night with mega toothache because of my poor diet and lack of oral hygeine. The irony has not escaped me!

I got my tooth pulled out on Monday morning and didn't get anything to eat until about 12, which was an apple sliced up really small so I could eat it without damaging my raw socket. Then my pal Graham came across with a ham and egg roll which actually looked awesome! :(

Had a stir fry in the evening which contained beansprouts, courgettes, green and red peppers, carrots, leek, red onion, mushrooms and cabbage. I know it's not raw but it's a stir fry so it's not exactly cooked either! Plus, it was cooked in unrefined sesame oil, which adds points! haha!

Bought bananas, apples, strawberries and oragnes at the shop with Lynn on Monday afternoon after she had finished work. We missed the market stall on the high street that sells locally grown fruit and veg so we went to Lidl instead because they have a big sale on fruit and veg. I don't know how Lidl treat their suppliers, or if they have the same methods as tesco et al but that's not my main concern at this moment!

Veggie box should come today! Hav to get down the street and pick a birthday present for my dad too because I've forgotten it's his birthday on Wednesday and so has my brother! Also, Lynn and I have to buy things for the housewith with our engagement present money from my Aunt.

Kieran

Friday, September 28, 2007

Preparation

I ordered an organic vegetable box last night from bee-organic.co.uk and it will contain:

  • New Potatoes
  • Onions
  • Carrots
  • Beetroot
  • Pointed Cabbage
  • Courgettes
  • Leeks
  • Aubergine
  • Swede
  • Milan Turnip

Lynn bought apples and plums the other day and I'm going to have to buy some more fruit during next week like bananas and more apples, maybe some melon too...! I ordered a surprise for Lynn from the same website so I think I'll eat some of that also.

I don't really know why but I am feeling very happy. This is my last day working at the college but I don't think it is just that. Maybe it is simply just that I feel like I am ready to make major changes in my life for the better. My constant goal in life is to be as useful as I can be and I think in the past I have failed to do that consistently but now I feel like I am getting somewhere.

Also, since I got shouted at for not putting it up last time, Lynn and I are engaged! I proposed last Friday and thnakfully she said yes! We are hoping to be married in 18 months and it will be an Alice in Wonderland themed wedding. The reception will be the Mad Hatters Tea Party, hosted by me, The Mad Hatter!

Kieran

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Detox! Plus other Kieran related news!

After a few failed attempts to change over to a better diet, I am going to try a 4 day detox in the hopes that it will kick start a healthier period. I'm starting this on Monday and I'll be able to post up a blog each day to show how I'm getting. I will have a lot of spare time soon because...

I'm leaving the college on Friday(!) as it does not interest me any more. I need to be doing something which keeps me active, either physically or mentally and this does neither. I'm sitting on my bum all day wishing I was outside. I don't mind the phones and helping people but the work on top of that I have to do (logging application forms and sending out prospectuses and reference requests) is extremely boring and I feel like I'm going crazy working here. It's a frustrating situatioin because this is by far the best place I have ever worked and the people here are all fantastic! You get good banter with both staff and students and there is always something going on, whether it be internal drama that you can follow via e-mail or students having punch ups outside! Unfortunately though, I don't think the college can offer me what I need and So I'll be looking for something else soon.

There was the possiblility of working with my mum in her shop but new owners came in and got busted with loads of debt and had to liquidate, leaving my mum unemployed and the shop closed. She was in that job for 8 years and is a bit upset. So am I, cos there is no chance of me getting a job! hahaha! Seriously though, it's a horrible situation for her. We are now both unemployed, which is a bit weird!

I started working with Argos at the weekends and I'm gonna be getting a lot more hours from them when I leave, which will help a lot!

On Thursday I'm gonna be ordering a veggie box from a local farm and I'm also gonna have to decide which fruit to eat. This should be fun!

Next week will consist of:

  • Oblivion & Blue Dragon on xbox 360
  • Muay Thai
  • Parkour
  • Job hunting
  • Caffeine cravings!
  • Reading
  • Argos

Update no.1 coming Monday!

Cheers,

Kieran

Friday, July 20, 2007

Results and follow up

Yo,

The interclub went a bit rubbish.

I was a bit disappointed in myself. I ran out of gas after the first (of three) rounds and got pummeled in the subsequent rounds because I lost concentration and wasn't thinking about my techniques or actually, anything at all aside from "I'm knackered".

I know now for a fact that I need to work on my anaerobic stamina, as it appears to be extremely poor! I'm currently thinking of things which can help me with this. I might start rowing on my rowing machine again. I stopped doing thatbecause I live in a flat and it's pretty noisy, but i'm sure I can find some way about it.

:)

Kieran

Friday, June 29, 2007

I'm gonna be fighting soon!

Yo,

I've been training Muay Thai really hard recently and on 08 July (next Sunday) I will be fighting in Falkirk!

It's not a "real" fight, but rather an Interclub fight. This means we will have full protection on and the ref will interrupt if we are hitting too hard. It is so I can get experience in a ring and fight someone who is not in my club. You get accustomed to training and sparring with the same people so they all know my strengths and weaknesses and I know theirs. This way I will be learning how to fight against the unknown. It is good experience and if I do well and I am happy then I may be able to fight in October or November for real!

My bruised shins are nothing compare to what I can expect if I start sparring bare shin! I've been using shin guards recently you see and even though they provide a lot of protection, you still get bruises on your shin.

For fighting, I have to learn to compose myself. I often get carried away and if I done that against... well anyone that wasn't my usual training partner then I would get hammered for letting my guard down, moving wrong and generally being a mess!

I'm working on angular movement and cutting off the ring at the moment, which is difficult without a ring! This basically involves trying to be at 90 degrees of your opponent at all times. In doing this you are both maximising your chances of spotting (or creating) an opening in your opponent's guard or stance and also making it harder for him to hit you. Obviously, this is something I would imagine my opponent would have trained as well but I'll have to hope that when the time comes I can avoid his tactics!

With Muay Thai you want to be 3 steps ahead of your opponent. For example, when you throw a straight left, your left leg is a sitting target and if the straight left is followed by a right cross your opponents weight is on his left leg, which makes this a prime target for kicks! You have to make your opponent do what you want him to do to get him in position, but you also have to strike your opponent so that he covers up in a way which will leave him open for your real attack!

I'm really excited about fighting this interclub. Apparently in my weight class there are not a lot of inexperienced guys so I will probably be fighting someone who has fought a few times before, or fought many times before! Of course, this is great because I can learn a lot from someone who is an experienced fighter. If I get beat up I will have to learn fast how to retreat, block and counter and if I am able to strike often I may even be able to put my angular movement training into practice!

In other news:

Relating to my overall "lifetime" goal of being a more complete and useful person I have started (again) my Spartan health regime. More can be found out about this through a quick google search of "spartan health regime" or "anthony bova". The main focus point of this is that you eat and train as a spartan warrior would have done back in the day of ancient Greece (this came out way before the movie "3oo" by the way but Bova takes influence from the battle of Thermapolyte, the one featured in the movie). Of course I won't be living like a spartan! Mainly because they belong to a different time but also because they were all paedos!

Anyway... In physical training, the hardest thing to do is often left out by most people. I mean, how many women do you now that would rather roll about on an aerobics ball rather than do crunches? Almost no-one does burpees and a lot of people just plain ignore things like push ups and pull ups/chins or dips! The hardest thing to do will bear the most fruit. You always see things advertised like "the easy way to shed lbs!!" or "10 step guide to a beach fit body" but they are usually crap and do no good whatsoever. people always look for the eay way out. This goes for diet too.

Because of the collapse of the nuclear family and the need for both parents to work due to rising prices in taxes, morgage/rent, food and not to mention or growing obsession with "luxury" items and "celebrity" trends, we need more money to pay for everything. hence both mother and father spend more time working. Because of this, food standard has gone down hill. No-one has time to prepare a proper meal and fast foods have taken over. By fast food I don't just mean takeaway or microwave meals. half of what I ate growing up was fast food. Highly processed food designed to be cooked quickly. No thought put into the actual food or the nutritional value to the consumer at all. the otherr half of what I ate was home cooked by my mum. All credit to her by the way. I'm not trying to discredit parents who work extremely hard to bring in money so they can live comfortably with their family!

What I'm trying to say is that food and meals have gone downhill and it has become the norm for "cooking" to mean sticking something in the oven for 20 mins or putting chips in the deep fat fryer. No-one pays any attention to what they eat and those who do are all following fad diets which are just as unhealthy!

The spartan diet (as in what you eat, not a fad diet to lose weight!) cuts out all crap that we eat and puts focus on what is natural for humans to eat regardless of what the "experts" say.

For example: how often are you told that you are better cooking with vegetable oil or sunflower oil because it is healthier? That's actually wrong. The vegetable oils we use today are quite a new thing. We only recently created the technology to create these oils. The things which we used for thousands of years before (in the days when we didn't have high blood pressuse, high cholestorol levels and all manner of health problems) are being classed as "unhealthy". That doesn't make sense to me. The best rule of thumb is to follow this rule...

If a man made it, don't eat it"

I've stolen and paraphrased that quote but it is a fantastic rule! Every man made food is crap and below the standards of naturally avaliable foods. This is applied to everything you can eat. refined sugar and white flour are crap. White rice and pasta and bread are crap. tea, coffee, hot chocolate and all soft drinks are crap. Fish fingers are generally crap. potato waffles are crap. belive it or not but Shredded wheat is probably crappy too. It isn't just the ingredients you need to look at but also how these ingerdients were prepared. Rememeber that food isn't just to fill you up. Food is fuel for your body so you can be full of energy all day. You need to eat properly so your body can repair and grow and so your brain can concentrate.

The spartan diet's main principals are to eat as naturally as you can. By that we mean that you eat what man is intened to eat. The natural diet of man is to eat mainly raw fruit and veg. This is to be supplemented with properly processed grains (brown rice for example) and the occasional meat meal. Fish is to be eaten as regularly as you would eat your grains (2-3 times a week). It is preferable to eat all your food raw as in this state it is the most useful to out bodies. cooking kills a lot of good stuff in your food.

I am following this "diet" and exercising vigorously almost everyday so I can be in tip top condition and be able to be useful at any moment. I think this is the back bone to my overall goal.

Last night's meal, for example was fantastic and comnpletely natural to man.

We (my girlfriend and I) had grilled rainbow trout (I'm not eating my meat and fish raw just straight away!), potatoes (gotta cook to get rid of starch), green beans and boiled eggs. this was covered in vinagarette which Lynn made with sesame oil, white wine vinegar, garlic, dill and thyme. It was lovely, if a bit smelly (Garlic, fish and boiled eggs!).

This is something I will hopefully continue until I die and I really hope that the current trends of organic foods etc will carry on down the path to where I am now.

Thanks for reading all that (if you did). Comments are welcome.

Kieran

Friday, April 06, 2007

Hi,

Been a while!

I've been mostly conditioning and training muay thai rather than parkour for the past wee while, so that I am in tip top shape for the good weather which is hopefully just around the corner! This way I can enjoy parkour without having to be annoyed at myself for not being strong/fit enough to do the things I want to do, which was what happened last summer .

I have decided I would like to fight muay thai at least once to prove to myself that I can do it. If I can do this then the whole reason for taking up muay thai in the first place has been satisfied. Not that I will quit though. Taking up muay thai has changed me and I like the changes. As well as overall challenges and goals I have, within muay thai I have even more. My next grading (Yellow) and full contact sparring are two of the goals I have to achieve with the long term goal of winning my first fight. The people I train with are brilliant too, they make hard work fun and no matter your level, everyone knows when you are needing motivation or when to say "well done" when you have pushed yourself to the limit.

As far as parkour goes, I want to travel to Glasgow more. The people there are amazing and some of the locations they train in are perfect! Hopefully I will go down again soon and meet up with everyone again.

I am still finding things in my area as my training progresses. I am planning on getting some clips this weekend of things I have been playing on. Not a video mind you, just some clips of the parkour specific training I have been doing recently.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll update again after the weekend with those clips. I may be enjoying the sun to much to stop moving though ;)

Kieran

Monday, February 26, 2007

Results...

I failed. I done 280 of each.

But I have increased the number of pressups I can do and 140 in a day is a new personal best so that's a bonus.

Pics:

First Pressup and first Situp

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

I only managed 10 of each when I first started as I had to make some food. My G/f was going to work so we had to eat before she left. The rest of the night was punishment!

I'm glad I attempted this challenge even though I failed it. I have just bought a rowing machine so I can feel another challenge coming on... ;)

Friday, February 23, 2007

Another weekend challenge!

This weekend I am challenging myself to do 500 press ups and 500 sit ups.

It can take from the minute I finish work to the minute I start work on Monday.

Thats 1700 tonight 'till 0845 Monday morning.

This number may seem low to some people but it is a challenge to me!

I'll take pics of me starting and finishing (if I finish it!) and post them up here and in my blog on Monday.

Have a good weekend!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Good Start

I've started this every night (except Tuesday and Thursdays as they are muay thai days!):

Press ups = 10
Sit ups = 10
Press ups = 9
Sit ups = 9
Press ups = 8
Sit ups = 8
Press ups = 7
Sit ups = 7
Press ups = 6
Sit ups = 6
Press ups = 5
Sit ups = 5
Press ups = 4
Sit ups = 4
Press ups = 3
Sit ups = 3
Press ups = 2
Sit ups = 2
Press ups = 6
Sit ups = 6

rest get a drink of water then:

Pull ups = 5
Squats = 10
Pull ups = 5
Squats = 10

Split Squats = 20

And its punishing!

I'm gonna stick this out for a while and see what happens. It feels good so far. I've also started running in the morning again, just 20 mins on alternate days but I like it already. At 7 in the morning no-one is really about so it fels like I have the whole town to myself!

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Rubbish!

Right, I was ill and injured over christmas/new year with this stupid flu bug that is going around right now so I got 2 days of hardcore training done and no filming for my video.

I've actually decided to not do a whole video but to just put clips up now and again to get help/advice. I know people will be thinking "just put them all together and mak a video!" but I don't see the point in that. I am not willing to put the time in, to be perfectly honest. I woiuld rather be training Muay Thai or Parkour or Drums than wasting time on a video, worrying about angles, music etc etc. bugger that. My time is better spent on more productive things!

Saying that I need to get back into training after a lax new year :(

That is my plan for February (seeing as there isn't much of January left!); I want to get back into regular training, not just parkour but for everything. My fitness levels have sorta plateued and after I made such brilliant advances with regards to my climb ups and strength I neglected to keep working on them and they have now gotten worse!

COLD WEATHER IS NO EXCUSE! GET OUT AND GET TRAINING! IF IT'S RAINING TRAIN INDOORS!

That's what I will be shouting at myself when I feel lazy.

Leave me a comment on how your new year and christmas went, I'd love to hear if other people were as lazy and ill as me!

Peace