extraordinaryblog

live, love, leave a legacy

Getting back in the saddle

Nov 4

Posted by alastair in Cycling, Health, growth

Sometimes one action or habit that you take can act as a catalyst for a whole lifestyle change.  At least that is what I am hoping.

For me, that habit is cycling.  Or to be more precise, getting back in the saddle and restarting an activity that I used in the past to lose weight and slim down.

One of my goals is to lose weight and be a little lot slimmer.  OK, so who doesn’t have that goal nowadays?  But for me, it is a little different.  I have done exactly this a good few years ago and managed to lose 2 stone (sorry for those of you metrics and our cousins across the pond who prefer pounds) and achieve a waist size of 32 inches.

I was able to keep that weight off and remain trim for about 5 years and the effects on my self-esteem as well as health were massive.  But slowly, the result of a more sedentary job, as well as eating and drinking a bit more than I used to, has caught up with me.

I hate the gym.  I just find it boring, expensive and it just doesn’t do it for me.  Running?, well I have short legs and a big body, so I’m not exactly designed for that either.  But cycling, now we’re talking!!

I love the effort and the calorie burn.  I enjoy the fact that it is a non-impact sport, and hope that my knees will thank me for it in the future.  As a means of toning a body I think it is great – have a look at pro-cyclists and their shape, it’s pretty impressive!

I also love the brain activity.  I don’t get bored on the bike, there is always a lot of thinking.  It may be working out the best line to take, thinking about the hill approaching and how to get ready for it’s ascent.  I have to motivate myself sometimes to get up a hill, telling myself that “yes I can do it”, despite the tearing feeling of under-worked lungs gasping for more oxygen and the slow ache building in tired leg muscles.  I love the feeling of achievement and mental strength when I make the top of the hill, gasping for breath, but still going.  (OK, I have done a small raised fist, just to myself in celebration when no one was looking – I am British you know)

And I love the sensation of speed, of moving fast with a well engineered machine, not having to think, just being in the flow.

So for me, cycling is it.

As a result of this I have recently bought a new road bike.  Yep, it cost a fair few quid.  But that also helped me to remember how important it was to resume this, to build fitness but also inner strength of character.  I have invested in myself and now feel I must make the best of that investment.

I have started to take her out and begin to build up the miles.  It’s been a slow start, but I am already getting to the stage where if I don’t go out regularly I begin to feel an itch, to go out, move and breath on the bike.

I’ll be sharing a few thought’s about the bike soon, as when I bought it there were not many reviews about, but for now I just wanted to say do one small thing to start changing your life, one thing that will at least make you think that you have started a new path.  Just one small step.  Today. And good luck!!

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Getting out of ruts

Nov 1

Posted by alastair in Daily Life

The blog has not yet managed to jump out of it’s launch and I feel that some of the reasons for this is that it hasn’t quite found it’s voice, which is my voice.

There is just so much that I want to write here, but also tied to this is that there is so much I want to do in life and then write about.  There may be some changes coming along as I try to get things fitting more and I hope that you bear with me.

It’s a rainy Sunday morning here in the UK and I’m thinking those thoughts.  Where do I want to be, what do I want to do and have.  There’s a lot that I really want to move forward on, to finally have a life that kind of fits me.

It’s very easy to delay and to say “I’ll do that later.”  Well I want to stop this.  Hitting 40 made me thing that one day, later will be over.  I need to get on with things sooner.

Sorry if this is a bit of an incomprehensible ramble, dear reader, hope you know what I’m talking about.

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Zack Arias: Transform

Sep 15

Posted by alastair in Inspiration

This is a wonderful and thoughtful short film, that although talking about photography, can be applied to life itself.

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Revisiting the 1980’s at Rewind Festival, Henley-on-Thames

Aug 23

Posted by alastair in Fun, Music

Note: Photo’s were from my iPhone so not the best quality…

My ears are still ringing and my feet and legs ache, but I have a huge grin on my face as I recollect the fun that I had yesterday.

Again, in my quest to get more juice out of life I said “Yes” when offered the chance to go to the Rewind Festival, a mini-Glastonbury music festival celebrating some of the classic bands from the ’80’s.  Normally I would have thought “great” and done nothing about it, but as I am trying to have more adventures, I decided to just do it.  And it was wonderful.

Crowds at Rewind Festival

This was my first music festival.  I’ve been to see live acts before, but never at a festival.  And I would thoroughly recommend it.

The event takes place at Temple Island Meadow’s – Henley on Thames (Map Link) which is a beautiful stretch of the river with wonderful views.  It’s easy to walk from the railway station at Henley and also to drive to.  It’s possible to camp over as the Festival takes place over the weekend.

We arrived at just after 12, when the gates opened, but had to queue with our tickets to get our wristbands.  The fun started there as many of the fellow festival goers were dressed in 80’s gear, as well as others in legwarmers, dayglo colours, and even a man in a great Wonder Woman outfit.  As we neared the entrance we saw the dreaded signs saying no food or drink to be taken in to the site – even water.  Now this is something I really despise, so luckily I had brought along some packs of chilled wine, that can easily be kept in pockets without showing.  Another quick tip – Tesco’s in Henley sell them at Festival time!!

When we finally made it into the site, the first act was already on.  Toyah was belting out “I Wanna Be Free” and then did a great cover of The Cult’s “She Sell’s Sanctuary”.

Rewind Festival Stage

We headed to the stage and managed to get in the first 3 rows.  Brilliant position.  And then the music continued through the afternoon and into the night.  Many people had brought blankets and chairs to sit on, but I wanted the full music experience and so stayed up front.  The tactic here was to be in a group of more than one, so that if toilet breaks or food or drink was needed, someone could stay and keep the premiere position.

I never thought I’d see all of the following in one night.  As a kid, back in the 80’s I loved these bands and hoped to see some of them at some time, but a whole night of this lineup was well worth it.

  • Toyah
  • The Real Thing
  • Dr & The Medics
  • Kid Creole
  • China Crisis
  • Billy Ocean
  • Bananarama
  • Heaven 17
  • Belinda Carlisle
  • Rick Astley
  • Kim Wilde

The Real Thing at Rewind Festival

Kid Creole at Rewind Festival

Billy Ocean at Rewind Festival

Belinda Carlisle at Rewind Festival

All of the crowd near me were having a great, and well natured time.  There was a lot of singing along to the classics.  The memories I will keep with me include Dr & The Medics admitting that they only had one hit, but would have fun anyway, Kid Creole looking fantastic in his Zoot Suit “I still wear the pants high!”, Heaven 17 getting the 10,000 strong crowd singing along with “Temptation” and Kim Wilde’s final set with “Kid’s in America”.

Kim Wilde at Rewind Festival

Walking back after the event, along a dark Thames Path, ears ringing and feet hurting, I thought that it’s amazing the fun one can have when you just say “Yes” to what life offers, a bit more often.

Next year I’ll be back and I’ll be staying for the whole weekend!

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Work Update

Aug 9

Posted by alastair in Daily Life, charity, growth, work

It’s amazing what you can do when you just get stuck in and stop worrying about the “what if’s”

This last week I have been busy running workshops and presentations to hundred’s of young adults at a week long event.  I’m lucky enough that my current main job is as a charity fundraiser and volunteer manager – something that I really enjoy and know that I am good at.

I had been asked to provide workshops for participants as a balance to the large sum of money they would be expecting the same participants to donate to my charity.

(OK – disclosure – I don’t menion the charity I work for, purely to keep that side seperate from this blog, I’m very proud of them, but on this blog I say what I want to say, not necessarily the party line OK?)

I’d been worrying about it for weeks before.  Planning, procrastinating and worrying.  What would I do? Would it be good enough? What if I failed?

And then d-day hit and I had to just get on with it.

4 back to back sessions in the morning, the same in the afternoon each day.  Hundred’s of kids, some interested, some bored, some speaking NO English.  It was challenging, tiring, hard work – but FUN.

When the first day arrived I had no choice but to deliver.  I had no choice but to trust in my abilities and the fact that I AM good at this job.

So the lesson learned is that, often fear of the thing is miles worse than the thing itself.  We hold off and dally at decisions, but most of the time actually jumping and trusting seems to be the better, easier (and more thrilling) way to live.

Food for thought!

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It’s been a while

Jul 14

Posted by alastair in Daily Life

But I’m back blogging again.

Inertia is a tricky thing.  I started this blog with great expectations and then life got in the way.  Days grew into weeks and suddenly my plan for what I wanted to do came to a halt.  How often does this happen?

Well I’m back.  I cannot allow my previous ways of acting, that have resulted in the way things are now, to continue.  I have to build up discipline to do the things that I said I wanted to do.  To create experiences and a life that I spoke about when I wrote the first posts on this blog.

So I’m not going to beat myself up about the failure, just keep slowly plodding on and making sure that even if they are tiny steps, I just keep on keeping on.

Lots of new posts and challenges to come. Some big changes are afoot!

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Find the exercise that works for you

May 7

Posted by alastair in Cycling, Health

One of the items on my growing list of “things I want to do” is to get fit again.  Note it’s a list of things I want not need to do.

Health is important and if I am to enjoy life and extraordinary experiences then my health needs to be good.

I used to be healthy and slim, but I’ve realised that over the last few years the combined effects of a fairly sedentary job, large appetite, glass of wine or two… well lets say that they’ve all added up.  I know that my ideal size and weight for me is about 12.5 stone with a waist of 34 inches.  To American readers this equals about 175lbs (I think!)  Currently I need to lose a couple of inches off my waist and about a stone.  I know this doesn’t sound much, but it’s important to me.

Anyway, I’ve tried the gym and found that the cost was just too much.  I tried running, but it didn’t really do much for me.  But then I came back to cycling.  I used to cycle a long time ago and thought I’d give it a go again.  And then the resistance came up.

My bike was in the shed, and it wasn’t working properly.  I didn’t know where to cycle and how could I work out how well I was doing.  Luckily for me I took one small step.

This is the lesson I have revisited and learned.  Do something to start on your goal, even if it’s quite small.  For me, the something was actually taking my bike to the bike shop and having it serviced. That was enough to get things in motion and to begin to establish a much bigger health habit.

A few days later, the bike was back, clean, oiled, serviced and running like a dream.  I took it for a spin round the block and began to smile, I realised what fun it used to be.  And that evening I took it out for my first fitness run.

Then I found an excellent little app for my iPhone R K Free, which allowed me to map and monitor my workouts using the GPS capabilities of the little gem.  I’ve included a screen shot from another day (but a walk) so you can see what I mean.  The thing is, until I started to really put things in motion and take some action, I probably would not have noticed this app and therefore not installed it and found another support to my new habit.

Run Keeper

Two days later I did it again, gradually increasing the distance in order to see improvement.

I have a new healthy habit, an exercise that works for me and one that I already want to do every couple of days.  And on top of that I feel good about myself, for taking action and working towards things that are important to me.

So my message here is simple.  Find what works for you, not what others say is best for you, and then take just one small step to start on your path.  And before you know it, you’ll probably be smiling about it and wondering why you didn’t start earlier too!

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Forty years pass and then what?

May 6

Posted by alastair in Introductions

I have spent 40 years of my life on this earth being unremarkeably average, interspersed with brief detours where I thought about crazy stuff, paused and then actually did something out of my comfort zone.

Not any more…

You see, hitting the big four zero made me start to think.  To start considering just how much, or how little time I have left in this life.  And it made me come to the realisation that many people get at this time, they need to do something about it.

Call it a mid-life crisis if you will, but I don’t believe it is that.  I have arrived at a place where the need to really live life to the full, to achieve many things I have been putting off has met with a lot more of the potential to do something about things, combined with my developing confidence that I don’t care so much what other people think.

I have decided that I will not apologise any more for who I am or what I want to achieve.  I want to be extraordinary.  To try new things, to challenge myself and other people.  I want to make sure that at the end of my next 40 years I can look back and go “wow”.

Lest you think that this is just about money, buying a flash car and jetting off around the world with an 18 year old beach volley player, let me put you straight.  It’s not.  Money is not the ultimate aim of my life or aquiring stuff.  I’ve learn’t that lesson a long time ago.  Sure I want to have enough, enough money, enough fun, but I also want to love and to put back, to change lives of others.

In short, this is where the byline of my new blog comes it, to sum up what I want to achieve here.  It’s something that fans of Stephen Covey may be familiar with, but in my thoughts and notes about my new life and blog, it kept coming back to me – THIS is what I want to achieve:-

To live, love and leave a legacy.

This blog is my vehicle to plan, achieve and share my journey along this new path I have committed to.  I sincerely hope that you enjoy and find value in it.  If you don’t, or even if you do, please feel free to join me, comment, bookmark and share anything you find here.  Journeys are always more fun with friends.

Till next time

Alastair

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