Bell Tent Life - too many nic nacks and not enough time!

Following on from the first few nights and a few weeks before the tent's first official outing I decided to get some things for it. Nothing like a last minute shop to get the stress levels up. I took a lot of inspiration from the Bell Tent group on facebook, what a lovely group!!!

Firstly I had to keep it all secret as it was a big surprise for my girlfriend Cheryl, all she knew at this point was I had bought some things and a tent. So I spent my mornings on eBay and Facebook collecting bits and bobs for the tent. Unfortunately not everything came on time but as I write this I am about to pack-up to see Cheryl later this week and take the new things with me. We live a few hours apart so I travel down to see her when possible, hence the tent as my house has now sold (see pic) and I will stay in the tent for the interim period while we find a house together. Dogs aren't allowed where she lives so the tent seemed like a good idea.

The gathering of things was a massive success, people kept coming over and asking to have a look in the tent as I started to adorn it with bunting and fairy lights - as I explained about the surprise more and more people came over. It did make me smile when a few of the couples walked away and the ladies said to the men "you never do things like that for me" and I figured I owed the men of the camp a beer haha.

So here's the tent in all it's glory. I'll write a little on each thing as I did comment on the group's post that I would tell everyone how and where I got things from.

Flooring:

Coir Matting sounded a touch harsh on the ol' feet so bought some rag rugs and some sheepskins. I also went to Asda to pick-up a fire-pit and ended up buying a huge thin black throw and a rubber backed mat. 

I didn't like the idea of walking straight in the tent so I looked in our wood store (have wood burning stoves at home) and found some softwood planks in various sizes and some paracord, then tied them all together with one continuous thread. The idea being that I could transport them around as a load of planks and create it each time. Although I ended up using it as firewood in the end to save packing it up.

Links:

• Rag Rugs £26 & £7.50
• Black throw
• Door Mat
• Sheepskins £18.00 & £20.00
• Deer Skins £13.50 x 2

Seating:

It's a long story but I have three carved African chairs, all for less than £20 each. The really small one you see in the top picture is great for in the tent. I only had one delivered at the time but I have a matching one to take this week. The larger chair was so comfy and spent it's time by the fire pit. They are just two pieces of wood that slot together which means they fold away flat.

• Chair 1 - 99p
• Chair 2 - £25.00
• Chair 3 - £11.50

Cooking:

The firepit came from eBay and the cooking tripod was from eBay but I was too late so I called the guy and found out that he was 45 minutes from the camp site so I drove down to meet him in a car park. A bargain at £20! locally picked up.

Links: 

• Firepit - £25.00
• Cooking Tripod £25.00 (Call: 07906372003)

Storage:

A simple box found on eBay for £30, I did prefer some others but time was tight. Although it did it's job perfectly well.

Link: 

• Wooden Box £29.00

Lighting:

I have more than what is shown in the photos as you can see from the links. I wanted a chandelier but I also wanted to make something as Cheryl is VERY good at making things and I wanted to show that I could turn my hand to something creative. 

So the lights are suspended from the main pole ring using some jack chain (hanging baskets) which you can get for about £2 a length. Using pliers I bent the links in places and hung a round parasol candle holder from it. Then I put another two chains down and hung some tealight lamps from that. I also have another tealight holder which didn't come on time, I plan to do the same and have all three in there. I found that searching for 'parasol candle holder' gave some awesome results but mainly from USA.

The little LED lights around the tent pole and the bed are battery powered. However the external ones... I can't remember where it was, I went shopping with a friend on the first night camping, had a drink, bought a toy unicorn and the rest was a blur :-/

Links:

• Top holder £2.00
• Two Lamps - £14.00
• New one £2.20
• LED lights £3.95 ea
• Bulb lights (not in tent) £9.49

Bunting / Accessories:

I got the bunting because Cheryl loves Alice in Wonderland so I found these on eBay. The signs on the pole I tied to the pole using some string that I found on the labels of the mats and the outside bunting I tied on using the guy ropes. Although they ended up ruined because the morning dampness soon lifted the ink off, to be expected though.

Links:

• Signs £6.95
• Bunting £5.99
• Buddha £19.99

And now for all the piccies.

Bell Tent Life

This year has been manic to say the least, so manic that the house is now sold and I have no-where to live per-se. I have to wait for my partner to sell hers and we don't want to rush into a new one. I cannot move to where she is as it's no dogs allowed so I figure the next best thing was to buy a tent. Yes it's nearly October and yes it does sound mental but after months of research I found out that I'm not the only one!

I have slept in it in the garden for a bit and also been away at a game fair which went really well, they really are worlds apart from a nylon tent and I would never go back even after this short time.

After much hunting around I found what looked like a good company called Dusky Deer (https://duskydeer.co.uk/). They just seemed quite personable on the site and explained the benefits well. So I parted with £399 of my hard earned pennies and purchased a 4m Bell.

Before this and whilst I was waiting for it to be delivered I spent weeks buying little things for it but kept it as a secret from my partner Cheryl. I took lots of inspiration from a fantastic group on facebook where everybody was so helpful and lovely. More on the bits and bobs that are in and on the tent >>here<<.

The tent came within a few days and I decided to get it pitched up so it could at least have one night of rain on it to weather it before I went away. I was amazed at how quick and easy they are to put up! 20 minutes and I was done, including putting some wooden guy doobreyfirkins on to replace the plastic ones.

The first night it rained, oh boy did it rain! So much that it came in the tent a little. Not through the fabric but through the zip on the groundsheet which was directly attributable to my shocking pegging out of the guy ropes leading to water wicking up underneath the skirt. That said, after 8 hours of heavy rain there wasn't enough to wet a tea-towel. The following morning was nice and sunny but amazingly it wasn't like a Chinese sweat shop inside like the nylon tent was. I was sold!

After a few days the weather dried up and I managed to pack it away, quickly realising that even though it was in the garden I needed to put something under the groundsheet so I didn't have to brush it all down as I packed it away so much. So the first purchase was an £8 blue groundsheet from B&Q.

Fitting it in the car was another story altogether. I bought, and bought, and bought, to the point that I couldn't see out of the rear view mirror and I could just see my left wing mirror. So the drive down was spent in the slow lane of the motorway due to not being able to see my blind spot!

The drive down was eventful as I had to pick-up a wooden box on the way and some camping fire irons. When I picked the box up I realised that I couldn't fit in in the car and had to unpack it in the middle of a street in Nottingham so I could put some things into it and put it back in the car! It dawned on me at that point that the firepit I was supposed to be picking up in Telford later certainly would not fit!

Long story short, it just fit and the first outing was a massive success.... more to follow.

Nice large bag with plenty of room.
No more trying to squeeze a tent down.

Lots of really strong pegs and some nice touches with the wooden guy things.

Really simple to lay out, few pegs into the groundsheet and then it's in with the pole.

One pole in and just the A frame to go.

Not a bad first job I thought, Even frank was impressed.

A quick lie down to take in how large it really was and I was immediately covered in spaniel.

 

Freeletics - 1 year on, a new start.

Hi all,

Can't begin to thank everyone enough for all the lovely comments on you tube and the emails of support. It has been a year or so now since I started on the road to fitness and after a bump in the proverbial road of life, I am now about to get back on track - so I thought it a good idea to do a quick update.

My motivation for Freeletics became that of a charity photo-shoot to appear in a fieldsport's calendar,

and I am glad to say that although I didn't end up with the six pack I was hoping to display on the day - I did manage to at least look somewhat more toned that previous years! All done in the best possible taste and with some fantastic support from the other models, here is me as June.

Quite a few people have asked if I kept doing Freeletics or tried anything else. I'll be quite frank, I slipped back into finding every excuse not to. Everything always seems worse when you are in the thick of it. My relationship of 4 years hit the rocks last year which was a tough decision for us, after Christmas business became unbelievably busy and before I knew it I had slipped back into working late, waking up tired and battling through a day full of distractions at work. Meals would get missed, I'd take  endless calls, trying to do everything at once to satisfy everyone else and all the time neglecting the one thing in life that needed to be taken care of first, me.

December was the peak of my stress, I had virtually stopped doing any exercise and from late December up to present day I suffered bouts of cold, two chest infections and in May I began to black out for no apparent reason, the last time was at my best friend's stag party - just one hour into the night I felt cold and sweaty and then passed out with little warning. Even work started to suffer as I felt sleepy half way through the day.

After numerous tests at the doctors and an ambulance it was pointed out that I had suddenly stopped exercising, eating unhealthy foods and most importantly, not drinking enough water. So the following month has been a one of drinking plenty of water, attempting to watch what I eat and finishing the antibiotics for the last chest infection. The doctors say I have an issue with my liver but the readings aren't very high. I have tried a couple of exercises and felt better but with the wheezing of the chest infection it wasn't the easiest.

I've struggled getting back to Freeletics because I thought I had no motivation and every time I logged onto the coach I'd see that I was on hell days and I would switch the app off and do some work instead.

Life has changed massively just lately, the doctors have given me OK about the blackouts, I have become more organised at work, finished some large projects off and met the most wonderful girl. Life is good and I have just finished my first day of Freeletics. I decided to follow my first 15 weeks to ease me back in gently. Here's to a bright and healthy future!

A day's meals.

I have been asked a few times now what I have been eating whilst training. It was something I wondered about others doing Freeletics too but not many seem to divulge what they are eating.

I outlined some basic thoughts on food on this page: http://digitalunity.blogspot.com/2014/08/my-diet.html

I mainly aim for higher protein and as low as possible carbs, sometimes towards the target date lowering it under 100grams. So here is a typical day for me (yesterday).

Calories 2021.82

Carbs 183.516

Protein 199.986

Fat 66.284

Liquids:

espresso coffee x 1
Green tea x 3
Litre water x 4

7am Breakfast:

Two poached eggs, 4 mushrooms, half a tin of beans. I switched to this from porridge due to it's higher content of protein.

11am Snack:

Juice made of 4 carrots, 4 apples,  banana, 4 apples.

1pm Lunch:

Tuna (in spring water) salad.
lettuce, peppers, 1/2 avocado, cucumber, tomatoes and a sprinkle of Olive oil.

3pm Snack:

Protein shake (Whey Isolate)
Grapefruit

6pm Dinner:

Hot chicken salad.

salad same as lunch but no avocado and for the chicken  a couple of breasts cut unto good sized chunks or strips. Works just as well with thighs (I prefer thighs). Pop the oven on as if you were going to roast them and with a small dish put the following in: 

• half a bottle of soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic
• heaped teaspoon harissa paste
• 4 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce.

Pop it in the oven until cooked, I like to wait until I can see it starting to go nice and brown like it does on a BBQ and then serve hot!

I don't always eat salad but it is quite hot at the moment. One of my favorites is bolognaise, but without the spaghetti.

My Diet

Firstly I'd just like to state that this worked for me but I am no nutritionist nor do I think I have the most optimum diet I could get. So feel free to take what you will from it.

My usual diet pre-freeletics consisted of porridge for breakfast, some form of sandwich for lunch and for tea, anything goes. Usually something partly healthy though and a few pieces of fruit throughout the day. A Typical day is like this: http://digitalunity.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-days-meals.html

However, I am an absolute sod for finding good excuses to eat other things, such as on a Thursday when I go shooting in the evening with a friend. I'll justify buying a packet of three eccles cakes, convincing myself that i will only have one. Yet by the time I am home I have eaten all three. So partly a secret eater too!

During the 15 weeks training it has been, for me, all about gaining muscle whilst loosing fat. I decided the best way to formulate healthy eating was to get the basics right first.

If you want to see a typical day you can skip straight to it here.

The basics

Portion size

It's amazing how big crockery sets have become, my mum has said for years "change the size of your plates" and then I read somewhere that years ago plates used to be far smaller. So we threw the old set out and got a set of china plates, bowls etc new from ebay. Instantly I can see the difference, the old bowl used to hold nearly 5 times as much. Now the new breakfast bowls fill me up just as much but only a 5th of the amount. Same goes for the plates, Sunday is treat breakfast for me, 2 slices of wholemeal bread, 6 slices of bacon and 3 burford brown eggs (try them, they are beautiful). On the old plates they would take half the plate up. This time though, the plate is full to the edges.

So it just goes to show how easy it is to get misled simply by the size of your plates and bowls.

Snacks

Had to get rid of all the stuff which would usually be an instant diet killer, just until I got in the swing of things.
White Bread
Muffins
Nutella and Crumpets
Chocolate
Haribo sour mix

Water / Tea

Your body needs water, a lot more than you might think. I currently drink 3 liters as a minimum per day. Not only will it keep you hydrated but it helps to keep you alert and fends off hunger. The best way to consume water is constantly through the day, do not wait until you feel thirsty as that is a sign of dehydration. Try and keep having some, even if it's a good couple of mouthfuls every half hour or so.

If you are anything like I was then it also means more trips to the toilet at first, but that dies down, or at least did for me!

I also swapped normal tea (I love good strong Yorkshire tea, like you could stand your spoon in it) I swapped that for green tea during the day and chamomile tea in the evening as that seems to do the trick for me getting me to sleep easier.

Apart from the photo shoot weekend I haven't had a drop of alcohol either.

Eating times

There's the age old saying that you shouldn't skip breakfast and that is quite true, it kickstarts your day. I also spaced my meals out making sure that breakfast was first thing after getting ready and letting the dogs out (6:30am for me), lunch is now set in my calendar to remind me at 1pm every day and finally tea which is never later than 7pm. Ideally I would like it earlier but sometimes work does not permit.

Then there's the snacks too, but wait.... I just got rid of them! Not that type of snack, something far more healthy and for good reason. Eating more often boots your metabolism and provides a more constant and even source of nutrients to the body. So I have smaller meals and some snacks in-between  usually brunch at 10am and afternoon tea at 3pm.

So now we have all the basics down, what about what I have been shovelling down me during the 15 weeks training. For me it was all about piling the muscle on and reducing the fat, so I ended up going down the high protein route.

My Diet

Breakfast

Thanks to paul from paulfightscancer.co.uk I looked further into my usual breakfast which was porridge with a big spoon of sugar made with hot water. Which I soon swapped out for eggs, 1/2 tin beans and 4 good sized mushrooms. Packed with protein, less carbs and just as warming. Fair enough it takes me a few mins longer to make but I do love poached eggs!

If I am in a massive rush or really don't feel like eating in a morning then I generally have porridge with a good couple of pinches of nutmeg and a teaspoon of maple syrup and a teaspoon of sugar made really stodgy with water and then a tablespoon of milk to water it down. By which time it is lovely and creamy and tastes great.

Snacks

I could eat snacks all day long which is why I guess I drink so much water! I started to stock up on some nuts and berries for one type of snack and some houmous and celery for another. If I fancy something sweet I reach for an ol favourite of mums and as strange as this sounds it does taste great.
Ryvita with a thin layer of jam (just enough to go into the holes) and a good heaped tablespoon of cottage cheese. Again, it is packed with protein and with the sweetness of the jam it satisfies that sugary craving when I fancy something sweet.
Finally merangues made with sweetner, no surprise, packed with protein and very sweet to taste. This is the only really sugary thing I have during a day and I probably have a couple each week along with a low fat yoghurt.

Lunch / Dinner

Now this isn't an easy one for some as it comes in the middle of a work day. So I like to go simple and easy by either having a mackrel fillet or some tuna in spring water mixed into a salad. A good source of Omega 3 for the ol joints. Either that or if I have time to cook I will get one chicken breast, butterfly it, dry fry it and drizzle some soy sauce on just before it finishes and eat as is. Or if it's a particulary busy day exercise wise I will put it in a slice of seeded batch loaf and a little bit of grated cheese.

Another light dinner I love which is pretty quick is salmon and broccli. Sliced salmon from any good shop and some broccli, pref the long stemmed purple type but standard is good. Boil or steam so they are still a little crunchy and then whip them onto a dry cloth and into a bowl, drizzle with honey while hot and some balsamic glaze and then top with sesame seeds and finally mix in a good handful of sliced salmon straight from the packet.

Tea

Tea comes in a multitude of forms, my favorite at the moment has to be bolognaise but without the pasta. 500g of lean beef and a couple of ground cloves of garlic in one pan and another pan sweating down some peppers, onions and mushrooms. When both have cooked, slap them into the one pan, add in 1/4 pint of beef stock, 100g passata, 1 tin diced tomatoes and then do what you will with the sauce. Personally I season it with salt and pepper, tobasco sauce, worcester sauce, mushroom sauce and some thyme from the garden. Let it reduce down until it is like a thick stew and serve that up for a tasty tea.

So to sum up, eat often, eat little and eat healthy. It all adds up to a great way of living.

Nutrition is a vast subject which I mearly scrape at the surface, for those wanting to look further into the right amounts of nutrients and how each of my meals are made up, I use a protein/carb/fat macro of 50/45/5 at the moment and if pushed will settle on 100 grams of carbs per day. Yes I know you need carbs to build muscle but I only do this for a short period of time before going back to the usual macros when exercising.

My last point on the matter.... do I cheat? Hell yes! For me it has to be enjoyable so a cheat day here and there is a must, even if it is to shock my system. Next weekend will be beer and a madras with the neighbours.

Freeletics - the results.

15 weeks has passed and I'm really glad to be sharing the results. I am kinda hoping that someone somewhere might read this and it be a catalyst for change in them, if so i'd love to hear about it!

It seems like only yesterday when I stood in the front room and took the first set of pictures. At the time I remember noting down how I felt, lethargic, and fat with little motivation to do many things. Just pretty blurghhh.

Fast forward to now and I finally feel great about myself. I didn't manage to do such an awesome montage as most so here are some pics of me before and after. I also did a quick video on you tube of my journey too.

You can see them all on my Google Plus album here: Click Here

It hasn't been an easy ride at all. At the start I felt so unfit that I tried to justify not carrying the sessions all the way through, time after time. Things started to get easier around week 8, it finally seemed to click and I found myself doing the previously unthinkable. When I was really bored I would drop down onto the floor and do some push up Max sets or I would finish a session off and then just run around the house and garden. I started to believe and push.

I made a video which I will attempt to upload to show how much of struggle it was at the start. I only managed 20 of the burpees before I was trying to catch my breath in my first session and it took me nearly an hour to do the first Aphrodite but as you will be able to see towards the end, things do get easier. Aphrodite used to fill me with dread, now I think of it as one of the easier ones.

If you want to read more about each day of the freeletics journey I have made a page with a list of all the posts here : Freeletics Journey

Thankyou....
To everyone out there, reading my blog.
To all the people who said my beard made me look older, unknowingly you pushed me harder.
To mum for my birthday money which I spent on the freeletics coach!
To Zoe for telling me I look 20 years older!! ( I trained harder than ever the next day )
To Paul for the nutrition advice (http://paulfightscancer.co.uk)
To Colin for the kind words of advice and support (http://freeleticscommunity.com)

Finally for the guys and gals at Freeletics (http://freeletics.com) for developing such a simple yet massively effective and enjoyable way of getting fit.

Here's to the next 15 weeks!

Freeletics Week 15 HELL WEEK!

This week proved to be another false start, in a way though I am quite glad. Hell week started on a Friday for me and the following day was the photo shoot. I had intentions to do the sessions while I was away but had such a good and relaxing time that I ended up having a few days off which then rolled into a week and so have started again today (Mon 14th)

Session 1

Venus 29:45 PB
Nice start to the week thankfully as I had to go get the axle fixed on the mower today so by the time I had got in it was already 7pm. Venus is one of my favourites, I love burpees because I feel like I have had a good all over workout and pressups because my arms really burn. 

Session 2

Poseidon 

Squat Max 220 * PB

Situp Max 116 * PB

Metis 5:51 * PB
Looks like a week off has done me good, PB's across the board and feeling great to be back at it.

Session 3

Metis 05:48 * PB

Hades 27:39

Artemis 28:47
I'm not sure why it's not marked me as a PB as that's the fastest I have done so far! 8:37am and quite a hot sunny day today (23C) Fortunately apart from the pullup bar everything else I did in the shade of the garage.

It took some willpower to get up this morning early enough to have breakfast at 6am so I could do the first set before work, I did Artemis first, plan being to use the one that my arms fail on first then packing in plenty of protein. Then a small session for lunch and another large one before tea. It's worked so far.

Just done Metis in my lunch break and another PB, I wasn't aiming for a time this time around, just going as steady as I could and it has paid off. Quick snack, shower and back to work!

Session 4

Hades 21:50 PB
Happy with this one at over a minute faster. I really had to push myself as the day was slipping by, busy at work and didn't get started until 6pm. I could murder a big tea but it's too late now. 

Session 5

Hades 22:23

Session 6 

Pushup Max 56 * PB

Pushup Max 45 *

Leg Lever Max 120 * PB

Jacknife 31 * PB

Pushup Max 46 *

I managed to split this down through the day by doing a set of pushups and the Leg lever in the morning, then some pushups at lunch and the Jacknifes and pushups at tea time.Maintaining a PB across the entire day was pretty hard, my arms never seemed to recover after the first set.

Session 7

Hyperion 16:28 PB

Aphrodite 23:16 * PB

Split Lunge Max 120 * PB

Last day, and so glad to have got this far. I did the split lunge first thing in the morning, the thought being that I could get the easy one out of the way before breakfast. Lunchtime was Aphrodite which I managed to be over a minute faster for my PB, It took me 5 minutes or so to recover as I sat outside int he pouring rain cooling off.
Finally Hyperion which I am happy to say I managed to do all the handstand pressups as they should be done and the first 24 pullups as they should be done too.

Looking back at the first few sessions and the video I made of my first day I am so glad that I took the decision to start, it's not been easy and there are so many times when I have felt like giving up.