Ralph's Health

I was just looking through some old posts and spotted one from 2011 about a 5000m metre challenge and how hard it was. I just looked at my Strava data to see how I have been doing recently and was surprised at how much climb I am logging each month: Oct 15 4558m Nov 15 4281m Jan 16 6696m Feb 16 4317m Mar 16 5609m Apr 16 2827m May 16 6461m So with a few days to go until the end of May I can get my new record for climb in one month!

Last time I actively tracked my press-up ability I eventually got to 45 press-ups to exhaustion, back in December 2011. I just thought I'd have a go to see what I could do, and achieved 32 straight off, then a 5 minute break and another 32 which was to exhaustion. Then took a 10 min break and did another 30. 94 total straight off not too bad. See how many I can do to exhaustion tomorrow.

I have recently run a few races and got some PBs. I ran the Rainow 5 in 42:24 which was a few minutes off my PB set in 2012. Here are some charts to show for other races:

In no particular order here are some objectives for the next few months: 1. Get some PBs in my local races, Rainow 5, Bollington 3 Peaks and the Bollington Nostalgia; 2. Run another marathon - perhaps Liverpool, maybe Coniston? 3. Look at dietary changes. I need to reduce my chocolate and suger intake and increase my greens intake 4. Get to the bottom of the issues with my skin 5. Go through the rational recovery book again - Louis Theroux programme worried me

What a long time since I last posted. Lots has been going on, lots of healthy behaviours developed and perhaps now time to take a view on what is happening. Here are a few highlights: Alcohol The Rational Recovery Programme - 'Never drink again' works. I have not had any alcohol of any form since October 2015. That is nearly 7 months. I don't think about it any more (until last night). I am still 100% bought into never drinking again. Last night I watched the Louis Theroux programme about drinking to oblivion: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-04-24/louis-theroux-drinking-to-oblivion-is-an-astonishing-look-at-alcohol-addiction I had to stop it a few times to take a breath, it was difficult to watch and it reminded me just how fragile being sober is, even after a longer period of abstinence. For me this time I am not ever looking for that 'period of abstinence' to end. It ended last time after 1 year when I thought I could drink again. This time I know...

In the past I have had these feelings after getting hammered the night before and then feeling the ill effects the following day. This time round I'm saying Never again... to attending an AA meeting. There are so many reasons why, after only 3 meetings, I can honestly say this. It does not fit with anything I hold dear. Here are just two things I think are important to behaviour change... Personal Insights into the problem . It feels like insights into behaviour are frowned upon, although nobody has come right out and said this to me. If I understand the AA approach correctly one has to hand control over to a higher power rather than think for oneself. To me, getting insights is so important to making changes. Feedback . So is getting feedback from people that are directly affected by my behaviour. I don't need feedback from other people with the problems, I need feedback from the people whose behaviour I affect. I need the positive feedback for the new behaviours I am ...

This is a good article worth reading a couple of times: https://rational.org/index.php?id=253 I particularly like this bit: 'Any moron can decide to never again commit just one, vile act — the act of self-intoxication — and find within himself the ability to stubbornly stick to that decision no matter what.' This is an interesting summary, I wonder why the language seems offensive to me though. WTF is The Beast and the Addicts Voice? http://rational.org/pdf_files/AVntshl.pdf  I like the idea that 'I get drunk and then get stupid' is backwards and that the stupidity starts well before getting drunk :-) edit: it makes more sense on the second read. This made me LOL when I was reading the introduction to the book called Rational Recovery: 'I wondered if I would finally become so desperate that I would "snap" and accept the religious conversion they proposed and devote my life to the spiritual Fellowship. Alcoholism seemed preferable.' ...