You Put The Load Right On Me

Still catching up from the blogging desert of recent weeks, and as you will notice, am doing so thematically rather than in any sort of temporal way.

So today it's about all things health and wellbeing.

Earlier this year I was investigating the 5:2 diet. It seemed OK to start with but played merry hell with my energy levels. I simply couldn't exercise on 600 calories - in fact it made sleep difficult. Plus I more than compensated on the other days. Now, the diet does proclaim some benefits other than pure weight loss, in terms of levels of certain enzymes in the body etc. But as I didn't have the kit to check any of those, I can't comment. I just got to the point that it got in the way of life and made me unhappy. And so it was never going to work for me*.

But I then did find that towards Easter, my weight was creeping up again. In fact by Easter or a little after it had crept up by half a stone compared to where it had been at Christmas. This is a sort of elephant-y creep - not overly subtle. I was still going to the gym, and the cause was simple. Eating too much. Both at meals and as snacks. Mid-afternoon chocolate bars were creeping in, and late night biscuits and cheese.

In other words - all the stuff that we know is bad. I wasn't overly happy and I ate. Better than self-medicating with booze or worse, but not great.

Well, I'm pleased to say I have managed to get on top of that again. The extra weight has come off (with a bit more as well). I feel much better, and feel I have found a "diet" - way of eating is a better phrase - which works for me on an ongoing basis. Let me tell you what I've done.

• Regular readers will know I was getting uneasy about eating meat. And so I cut down. Then I stopped meat altogether, but kept in the odd bit of fish. In the last month I have been completely veggie. And I have felt much better. Less bloated, and more energy to exercise. Which has meant more exercise.
• I usually don't eat breakfast. When I do, I then start to feel really hungry again about 11am. If I don't I feel OK until about 12:30. So that is simple.
• I am eating a lot of fruit. And veg but more of that later. Certainly five a day of fruit alone. If I am hungry, I will have fruit.
• Lunch is tending to be salads or similar. If I want something else it will be a wrap, not a sandwich. In part this is because the choice of veggie sandwiches is, basically, cheese.
• Evenings. I am avoiding pre-cooked or convenience stuff. Cooking fresh (perhaps a big pot of something for three days or the freezer). Having had a house for some time with kids who disliked 'bits' in their food meant I got out of the habit of eating what are basically vegetable stews. Loads of veg, plus kidney beans, lentils etc. Or a stir fry.
• Frozen veg is cheap and convenient - you don't have to worry about stuff going off. So I will eat more of this, and less of the big carbs providers - less pasta and rice. (These were I think the things that always did for me - because I ate too much of them.)
• If hungry in the evening, toast with some nice jam, or cereal does fine.
• Oh, and no booze - not that I do anyway, but just remind you of that.

And as the weight has come off, I have both pushed up the gym exercise. More weights (I did very little before) and more cardio. To the point where I am sometimes genuinely exhausted after the gym, rather than just slightly sweaty. And as the weight comes off, the cardio gets easier. So three times a week I'm doing an hour on a bike or bike and run. Next will be some interval training I think.

In addition to this, I am trying to walk a bit more - especially in the nice weather. Just wandering around last Saturday, shopping and enjoying the sun and I walked about four miles. Pretty good, but had I not thought about it, I wouldn't have realised it. Plus walking keeps one a distance from the kitchen...

Which leads me to - measurement. It won't surprise you to know I've got a bit obsessive about this. I'm using MyFitnessPal on PC and IPad to track everything I eat, and all the exercise I do. This is really easy - pretty much everything you do it already has the values for. Plus I use my phone to record walking distances etc for input. Lets me see what has gone well, and badly. And gives me something to be vaguely proud of when I have had a good day.

The next goal is to try and embed all of this - so that it becomes a weigh (geddit?) of life and not just a novelty. If I can get to that point then I feel that I can keep doing this forever. Of course, come the winter weather it always gets harder - suspect soup will be an answer there - and my forthcoming ten days off may test me.

So, it's all good. Except for cigarettes, which I still crave. If I am around smokers, I have to really fight not to give in. The good news in this is that even if I do give in, I then have no desire to have one the next day. Whilst it would be much better to not smoke at all ever, one or two once a month probably won't kill me. Well, it might well, but you know what I mean!


* I know lots of people it has worked for - and am not criticising the diet - just saying that at that time and in that place it wasn't for me.

Here's a tune for Anthony

I'm back. And with an unusually cryptic title. Did you miss me? Be honest. Oh, well, never mind.

But the blogging hiatus is officially over. And there is so much I want to talk to you about. Since the last blog I've been to some great gigs, from Chas n Dave to the Crouch End Festival Chorus. Plus I saw Rob Newman (Newman & Baddiel) last weekend - wonderful gig.

I've sung at the Albert Hall. I'm preparing to sing in a Prom (not plugging tickets because it's sold out, but Radio 3 Monday 18th August if you are interested). Oh, and I did a karaoke last week.

The "not eating meat" thing is turning out to be quite easy, with the exception of lunches - dear God, I never want to see a cheese sandwich again. Other stuff can take longer, though actually just requires a bit more consideration in advance. I feel hugely better for it. And I am persevering with going to the gym. Probably as a result of those two things, I've lost a bit of weight, which makes me feel better, and makes the gym easier - so a virtuous cycle is ensuing.

And as I write this, Michael Gove is off to be chief whip, which makes me feel wonderful. And someone I used to sit next to in lectures at university has joined the government, which makes me feel old.

I may delve a bit more into any and all of those  in the coming weeks, because normal service will now be resumed.

But, all this is that nervous chatter you have at the start of an appraisal or something isn't it? I'm skirting round the substantive and letting you gorge yourselves on small talk. So?

So, I've had a bit of a change in my home circumstances, necessitating a change of address etc. Unlike famous people, I'm not going to write volumes about it, or invent new phrases to explain things. Because that's, frankly, wrong. My blog has stuff in it about me*, which no-one else can legitimately take offence at, and about public figures, who are fair targets for what they get. I don't talk about real people.

So, I am fine. I have had the support of, help from, some very good friends over the last six weeks, and am now readjusting to some different, and somewhat straitened circumstances. I am still very definitely in Balham. I don't think that there was every an alternative. In fact, I live here. And it is very nice.

That's it. No biggie. Nobody died. It's just that in all this, there wasn't time, Dear Reader, for you. Don't worry, I'll make it up to you...


* and the 'me' of my blog is, you realise, only a view of me. Everything you get is true, but you don't get everything.

Somewhere in between

There is going to be a gap in my blog I'm afraid.

"Yes", you point out, "it started a week ago...". Well, so it did, Dear Reader. It's just that (as well as minor details like a gig at the Albert Hall tomorrow) I have something really major that has cropped up and I have to deal with it. And given that I need to work - well I need to keep getting paid, and intend to honour all my commitments to various choirs and causes if at all possible, something has to give.

And that something is the blog.

I very much hope that before the end of the month normal service can be resumed. And what is happening might give me a few new things to talk about - if I can - not sure. But for now I'm going to tie off a few posts from the year where I have left things hanging with some bullets below - and say auf wiedersehen.

1. I'm still not eating meat. Had a bit of fish, especially at the start, but that's reducing now. Don't feel much different physically (but feeling no worse is good) but feel happy that this is right for me now.
2. I blogged earlier on this year about dieting. That did not go well, until the last couple of weeks, which have seen a bit of a change, so I'l have to hold that one for now and see. 
3. Cigarettes. Clearly good to have stopped, but I still want one. If you're offering?
4. So glad to see the UKIP bandwagon has at least stopped speeding up following the by-election result. I do feel sorry for the Libdems, because I don't think they really had a choice about the coalition, but there you go. I'm sure Nick Clegg will relish his peerage in May 2015.
5. Not exactly a Green breakthrough - but not a collapse either. 3 MEPs (up from 2)
6. Three months until Kate Bush (in tribute to whom this post was named)!
7. Before that, Chas 'n' Dave on 21st June! 
8. I have lost count of the times and ways in which music has kept me sane, who I want to be etc. It matters.

Like a room without a roof

I returned from Edinburgh with a suitcase full of soaking clothes. And I have brought the weather with me, because it has pretty much rained since. Sorry Londoners.

I came back from the Voxcetera tour in a fabulous frame of mind. A combination I think of a concert of (in my mind anyway) quite astonishing quality, some time away from the daily grind of work life and London, and being with a group of people who all get on so well.

And so, I've been generally enthusiastic about life, and feeling in a dynamic mode, and that I mustn't just let things slide. Life is there to be lived etc.* And, according to something on the web today, an astonishing number of people in this country have been prescribed antidepressants - One in three in Blackpool (which is pretty much where I grew up). Which says a lot about this country, but also shows what I have to be thankful for (and I don't mean leaving Blackpool!).

Voxcetera will finish in early July for a couple of months. So I have applied to do a couple of musical things over the summer to keep my had in, and which broaden my experience. One is big choral/classical, the other big and pop-based, so both things I've not done for a while. And I might have a couple of others on the go, you never know...

Plus I'm doing a scratch Mozart Requiem with the Bach choir this weekend just to try and embed it in my head.

Elsewhere I have ordered the parts to fix the two PCs that have been sitting at home needing it since before Christmas. Just about worth it I think, and it makes me feel good not to throw them away. (We've had a re-kit of IT at work - we have loads of quite old kit - but it all works and would be fine for internet and basic stuff. But it needs wiping of data and new software buying and therefore no-one will take it on a costs basis. Very wasteful.) And I'm started sorting out some other stuff that has been really festering (not literally). And I am kicking back into the gym and exercise mode.

Oh, and I haven't had any meat for a week now (see post here). I am eating fish at the moment, because having been away I was in so many places whether the true veggie choice was a cheese sandwich or a mushroom risotto, and I couldn't face that. Back at home now, I may scale that back too.I don't feel physically different not eating meat. Maybe it's too early to tell. But it does feel right, so I will stick with it for a while.

It will probably all have fallen flat by the weekend and I'll be back to watching Formula 1 in my dressing gown, eating bacon, but carpe diem and all that.

* this is not a self-help blog by the way.

Meat probably isn't murder, but I have questions

I listen to a fairly large number of podcasts. I have a commute of about 40 minutes each way (walk and train) every day, at least two trips into town (1 hour min return) and gym visits (where I need something to drown out the awful music) which gives me about 11 hours of time to listen.

When preparing for a concert, this is largely spent with repeating the music over and over to try and drill it into my head. But the rest of the time it’s probably two-thirds or more of podcasts a week. And I listen on 1.5x speed – simply because I find regular speed a bit slow most of the time. If something is interesting and complex I will shift down to real-time. But I reckon that gives me 10 hours plus of podcast material to listen to most weeks.

And I listen to a wide range – from The Guardian on football, to quite a lot of economics stuff (Freakonomics is good, and More or Less can be), to law, to science and skepticism.

Usually (probably a factor of also having to be aware of surroundings and being on 1.5x speed) I skim across the stuff, and the most that happens is that something comes up in a conversation three weeks later, and I find that I know quite a bit about it*. But sometimes something really hits home.

And recently the thing that struck a chord was a discussion about vegetarianism. It was on a show called “Skeptics with a K” which is a (quite sweary) fortnightly podcast done by these guys.  It really got me thinking about my behaviour, and whether I should be changing it.

I like eating. Rather too much. And I like eating meat. I've never been squeamish or sentimental about it. I've eaten horse in France, and rabbit, and pigeon (not London pigeons – I'm not daft). I would baulk at a sheep’s eyeball I am sure, but Sainsbury's doesn't sell them yet. (Fill in your own joke about Wall's sausages here.)

But I have known for years that it is a quite a wasteful way of producing food. There are stats suggesting it takes 8 or 9 kg of plants to produce 1kg of beef (the argument presumably being that not having the cow allows three people to eat 3kg of plant stuff instead).

And there is an animal cruelty argument of course. I'm sure if we were being offered the choice, we wouldn't want to be strung up and have our throat slit, as halal and kosher practice requires. But, on being told that option b) was a much more humane death, but still a death, I’d be turning the paper over and looking for the third option – the one involving being alive.  Do animals suffer? Undoubtedly. In the way humans do? Probably not. So whilst this is a big issue for some and I respect that, it doesn't have me manning the barricades.

(On that subject, the halal discussion is another of those proxies – looking for a reason to be racist with a pretext – here animal cruelty. I didn’t see as much publicity criticising the French for the way fois gras is made, and that’s a lot more horrible. (No link folks – you might be reading this while eating your lunch.))

There are counter arguments: that it is harder to get protein from non-meat sources. And that without animals there is no milk, and no cheese, and no eggs (this latter isn't really an argument I suppose, it’s a fact). And that, try as you might, wheat isn't going to grow on the sheep fells of the Lake District. (Of course, much of this land wasn't sheep fell until we chopped the trees down – to allow for the sheep!)

In answer to that, I'm not suggesting we ban meat-eating, nor am I even advocating a non-meat or reduced meat diet for anyone else. I am just saying that this has made an impression on me, and I am seriously thinking about reducing my meat intake – perhaps all the way to nothing.

Of course, this produces all sorts of logistical problems – a lifetime of cheese sandwiches being one possibility – and I haven’t seen bacon patches available on the NHS yet. But for the first time in a long-time (and perhaps ever), I have started to think hard about what I am eating and the impact it has.

Being away this weekend in Scotland, I am guessing that a diet solely consisting of fruit and veg may be difficult to come by** so I will be tucking into the odd fried slice just as much as the next man will. But a seed has been sown, and who knows what is going to grow from it.

* Those of you who know me may be aware that I have a pretty good memory for fact and detail. Not quite eidetic (photographic) but pretty close.

** this is a joke. Edinburgh has plenty of fruit and veg. It may even have a Waitrose (it has two – Ed). Obviously, if it were Glasgow…***

***this is also a joke. Jesus people, do I have to put winky faces after everything now?