Brief notes again
I’ve been a bit lax lately with keeping this blog updated. I know there are at least one or two of you out there who are keeping an eye out for new stuff, so I hope these few brief notes will keep you going until I get round to writing a proper entry.
1. I wasn’t going to make any comment on the current postal strike (even though it’s wreaking havoc for the company I work for), but with these wildcat, unofficial strikes going on at the moment I think enough is enough. Apparently, part of the dispute is over potential loss of pension benefits, which could see a 20 year veteran losing something like £60,000 in pension benefits. This is not good, but points to a larger problem with the Royal Mail’s pension scheme; as another commentator said, has someone being doing a Maxwell with the funds? On this one, I’m on the side of the postal workers.
Another part of the dispute is that Royal Mail appear to want their workers to actually work the hours they are paid for. This seems a radical, untried policy that is doomed to failure. Employees being required to work the hours that they get paid for? It’ll never catch on. Of course, the CWU will tell you that postal workers do more work than they are contracted to do, so this policy is draconian and shouldn’t be allowed. But then you hear stories like the one where a postal worker finished his workload well before the end of shift; as he was about to leave for home, he was asked if he could stay on and help shift the rest of the work. He agreed, but only if he was going to be paid overtime - even though he hadn’t finished his normal shift hours yet!
I’m sure that there are points on both sides that are valid and that both sides feel they have the moral high ground. At the end of the day, I don’t really care. The striking workers should realise that they don’t have the support of the majority of the public (certainly they don’t have the support of the hundreds - if not thousands - of small businesses that rely on the postal service to stay afloat) in the same way that the fireman did a couple of years ago, they’re well paid for what they do already and that if Royal Mail doesn’t modernise then they’ll ALL be out of a job.
2. You’ll know, if you’ve been following the Wolf’s Howl for any length of time, that my company is sponsoring Eastbourne Borough FC this year. Just to update you, we’re second in the table (tied on points, slightly behind on goal difference) and still unbeaten, we’re playing Welling United in the next round of the FA Cup this weekend and our manager, Garry Wilson, was named Manager of the Month for September. Keep it up, Borough!
3. Lewis Hamilton is now only one race away from winning the F1 championship in his rookie season. Four points ahead of nearest rival Alonso, and seven ahead of Raikkonen, all Lewis has to do is make sure he keeps his head, keeps the car on the track (didn’t quite manage that in China) and finish either in front of both his rivals, or make sure he gets third if they finish in front of him. It’s been a brilliant season from the rookie, marred by a couple of mistakes (in Germany in the rain when he went onto dry tyres too soon and in China when the team left him out too long on worn out tyres).
4. Lewis came through the spying row untouched, but even though that is supposedly over, McLaren are still in the FIA’s cross-hair. Despite making a statement earlier this week that both drivers would be treated equally, the FIA are apparently appointing a special scrutineer for the last race in Brazil to make sure that equality is given to both drivers. What is it about McLaren that has pissed the FIA off so much? Why not just hand both titles to Ferrari like you really want to Mr Moseley and shut down the championship, if it’s going to just lurch from one pantomime to another like this.
5. I hate shopping for shoes. Well, actually I hate shopping, period. But shoes are one of my pet hates; something about shoe shops and the atmosphere that pervades them just really puts me off. So the need to replace all of my worn out shoes is now rather pressing and filling me with dread. So I was overjoyed to find Alternative Soles - online shoe shopping with all vegan products. And at knock-down prices too. The shoes haven’t arrived yet, so I can’t report on the quality for a little while, but so far it’s all good.
6. You’ll have noticed that there haven’t been any updates on the whole healthy living, weight loss, non-alcoholic lifestyle for a while. There’s a good reason for that, namely my complete and utter lack of willpower. September contained several events (including my birthday) that were accompanied by much drinking of alcohol and eating of unhealthy food, and I’ve sort of carried on in that vein since (last Saturday was particularly bad). I’m trying to get back on track with it, but now that we’re heading into autumn I must admit that my enthusiasm for the endeavour has lessened. This may be one to pick up again sometime in the New Year.
7. I’ve just read a news item where Halle Berry is complaining that Hollywood, even in these enlightened times, is racially prejudiced and it makes it hard for her to win roles. All I can hear is Ali G: “Is it ‘cos I is black?”. No, it’s because you can’t act.
Back to work
Well it was nice while it lasted - two weeks off work, to laze around the house not doing all those jobs I’d promised myself I was going to do when I had some time off. Weather could have been better, but it wasn’t too bad.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, the non-drinking, healthy-eating, Konjac-taking regime took a bit of a hit while I was off work. Actually, it didn’t just take a bit of a hit - it was completely knocked on the head. Plenty of unhealthy food, and way too much to drink have probably completely wrecked all the good work that I’d previously done. But hey, I was on holiday. I still don’t own a set of scales so I have no idea how bad the damage might have been - which is probably a good thing, as it would probably be a bit depressing.
So, back to work also means back to doing things right. I’ve re-started on the Konjac today (I did keep taking my other supplements while I was off - just didn’t take the Konjac) and yesterday’s beginning of the month shopping chore stocked me up on plenty of bottled water and fresh fruit and veg. Hoping that it will be quite easy to get back into the normal pattern.
The other thing that I need to back into normal patterns is going to bed at a reasonable time; while I was off I found myself staying up as late as 3am just looking at crap on the Net. This has been a slow one to recover from as my body got used to being up late but sleeping late in the day. Last night I finished an online chat about 10.45pm and thought “Time for bed”. Around 1am I was still awake, thinking “If this goes on much longer I may as well just get up!” Of course, once your body realises that you’re having trouble sleeping, your brain starts to wonder why. Which makes it even more impossible to sleep. You start to think about all sorts of things - some good (plans for the weekend), some bad (how crap you’re going to feel come 6am), some impossible to answer (which is better - ouzo shots or kumquat shots) - and that takes you even further from the realm of sleep.
Wolfie’s July Project 4
I must confess that the Project is suffering somewhat this month. You see, I’m on holiday (vacation if you’re from t’other side of the Atlantic) and so I’ve decided that all bets are off.
Having said that, though, I’m still being quite good; whilst I have been indulging in a few ciders they’ve not been too excessive. Food-wise I’m doing OK-ish, but there has been more chocolate and crisps than there otherwise normally would be. I work on the basis, though, that I’ve earned it.
What I thought I’d do would be to skip it for the rest of this month, and then get back on track in September (with a break for my birthday half-way through).
I must say that though I still haven’t invested in those scales to see if I actually have lost any weight, when I look in the mirror there is definitely less to see. So I’m going in the right direction.
Wolfie’s July Project 3
Avid followers of The Wolf’s Howl (I know there are some, I see the stats) will know of my drive to cut down on the booze and to lose a bit of weight. However, its been a while since I posted on the subject so you might be wondering what’s going on. Well, I haven’t really got anything to report.
The Project continues and it seems to be going pretty well. Had a day off from not drinking last Saturday, to celebrate the third birthday of the daughter of some friends (you know the sort of thing; sunshine, barbecue, kids playing while the adults gradually get more and more “merry”) and had one hell of a hangover the next day. It really is amazing how quickly you lose your tolerance for the stuff. Having a couple of beers this evening, as a friend of mine had some that he was getting rid of so it seemed churlish to refuse.
The Konjac Fibre regime remains. I must admit I don’t take this as diligently as I should - I generally miss the morning one as I don’t get up in time to take it - but I am still taking it. From a healthy digestion point of view, it is definitely working well!
As far as losing weight is concerned, I don’t know if this is happening as I don’t own a set of scales. What I do know is that I feel better, my clothes feel looser even if they really aren’t and I feel good about myself. At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.
(Oh, by the way, could the person who stole my last July Project entry please not steal this one? Have an original thought, eh? I don’t mind you linking to the post, I don’t mind you ripping the piss out of it, but I do object to you stealing the whole thing and passing it off as your own work)
Wolfie’s July Project
I’ve written about my June Project (staying off the alcohol) in three posts so far; check out Taking Those Big Decisions, TTBD2 and TTBD3 for the full story. On the whole, I think it was a success. I had one planned day-off on 16 June, and I slipped slightly last Saturday, when I had two beers with dinner at Pizza Hut. The rest of the month, nothing. So, the June Project continues but is now joined by the July Project.
The June Project had two aims; the first was really financial - I needed to stop spending so much money in pubs at the weekends. Thankfully, that’s worked. I say thankfully, because the bike’s just gone in for some work and a new rear tyre. The June Project has helped me save some more money towards the bill.
The second aim, though, was to try and lose some of the extra weight that I’m currently carrying around (that might be working, too, as my jeans are definitely a bit looser) and it’s this aim that the July Project seeks to continue.
I wrote in Taking Those Big Decisions about a dietary supplement called Konjac Fibre; this is derived from the Japanese Konjac plant and it’s primary constituent - glucomannan - has been recognised for many years as a slimming aid. The way it works is two-fold; firstly, and most immediately, when taken with plenty of water (the correct way to take it) it swells to many times its original size and helps to give you a feeling of fullness. Secondly, it can help to keep your blood-sugar level at normal, thus meaning you don’t get the hunger pangs you normally would. In addition to this, by being a good source of dietary fibre, it helps to keep your digestive system functioning properly. Keeps you regular, as they say.
So this is the what I am now using. As from yesterday, I am taking two capsules before breakfast (at the ungodly hour of 6am), three before lunch and five before dinner. It’s only been two days, but I have already noticed a difference in my hunger responses - I still get hungry around the same times as before (breakfast 6.30am, lunch noon-ish and dinner around 7pm) but I am not needing to eat as much to feel full. All I need to do now is get in the habit of preparing smaller portions. And yes, it does keep you regular.
Studies have shown that taking Konjac Fibre in this way for three months can result in an average weight loss of six pounds (just under 3kg) with no other changes in lifestyle. So far, I’ve made one change - giving up drinking - and another has been foisted on me by my local supermarket; they didn’t have the cereal I normally buy when I did my monthly shop on Monday, so I’m using a different one. Looking at the product labels, I see that by using this cereal for a month my sugar intake will reduce by nearly 1.5kg. With that in mind, I see no reason why I shouldn’t have lost two stone (nearly 13kg) by the end of the year. I’ll keep you posted.
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Konjac Fibre is recommended by leading nutritionist Patrick Holford in his series of FatBurner Diet books. Check out this link for some more information from him about losing weight.
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