Burn calories and save some lives!

Oh have a drawn you in with the prospect of slimming down and getting to play super hero at the same time?

Well good, that was the plan.

I went and gave blood for the first time this week, I had gone to donate before now but I wild girl appeared and bit me the night before so I wasn't able to that time.

But what's all this about burning calories bit about? I hear you plead.

Well blood doesn't just appear from the void, your body has to use calories to make the stuff and if you donate a pint then you are buring 650kcal a time!

This is about the same as just over an hour of cardio, but this will differ from person to person with bigger people burning more when they exercise as it takes more energy to move a bigger body.

A typical recommendation for healthy weight lose is to reduce your calories by 500kcal a day to drop a pound in a week and you have just done that sat on your rump, reading this blog and, most importantly,  saving someone's life.

There are other benefits to giving blood as well, such as improving your overall cardio vascular health, you heart is going to have to work harder with a pint less blood available to carry oxygen.

Reduces your cancer risk by potentially removing excess iron from your system.

You get your blood tested for all manager of diseases such HIV and Hepatitis and let you know what your blood type is, which I have always been curious about my own but never pressed as I have a twin to harvest spare blood and organs from if the need arose.

You are saving a persons life, this could be anyone from a stranger, family, friend or even yourself if the worst happens!

There stipulations on if you can give blood, from travelling abroad, medications or drug use, your sexual preferences and those of your partner unless you are happy to abstain from certain activities for several months, if you sell sex or being bitten by a feral girl like I was.

There are more and you can find the full list by clicking here 

Men can give blood up 4 times a year and woman 3 so you are looking at a fair few calories and lives saved if you keep up with it. 

You can also just donate platelets, which you can do up to 24 times a year, I imagine this would burn fewer calories as the rest of the blood is returned to you but with the increased visits this would probably win out in the end.

There are some possibly side effects from giving blood such as nausea, weakness, feeling light headed/ dizzy and fainting however the staff will make sure you are alright and even feed you!

I actually felt sick for two days afterwards but I still managed to get to my first ever Yoga class the day after donating!

Please please please consider becoming a donor, you can call up on 0300 123 23 23 to book yourself in or check the website by clicking here

My first time doing Yoga at Pure Gym

I have been meaning to try out Yoga for years, I have never really felt following a youtube video without some first hand experience but that all changed this week.

The main reasons I haven't dipped my toe in until now is accessibility and price, regular yoga classes are more expensive than quite a few of the gyms in my area.

But why do you even want to do yoga? I hear you cry!

Well there a couple of reasons, my flexibility, balance and core workouts are all terrible, I just can't believe that anyone that says their favourite workout is core.

Luckily I happened upon a yoga class at my gym and even that had an additional charge of £4 but a lot more reasonable than what I have seen out and about .

 The money side of things isn't even the bit that tuned me off, I don't want to spend a chunk of money that I am not sure if I am going to enjoy, regardless of the potential benefits.

So I slipped on my Kapow Meggings, which were perfect for yoga, and my own branded vest and off I went, got to self promote where I can!

Now I thought of  ah some yoga that will be gentle, relaxing and will be perfect to recover from muscle soreness, oh how wrong I was.

The session was pretty fast paced, a brief instruction given for each pose, a demonstration ,  lots about breathing and variations to meet each person's ability and I as I rightly assumed it was just me as the only man among the women folk.

With my abysmal flexibility and muscle soreness I pretty much invented my own school of yoga there and then!

I began to feel the poses become easier as the session went on but still tough, I was necking water as if I was running a marathon and my wrists took some punishment from holding the poses.

The poses I found easiest were the ones that resemble my normal workouts, I never thought I would plead to do some more planks instead of going into the downward facing dog pose again!

The only real negative I would say is that due to gym set up you get all the noise from the gym which made it a struggle to hear Kerry, the instructor and to get into the zone however I am not sure what could be done about.

As much I felt like I was being punished for something i had done in a past life I will be going back next week as did really enjoy myself and left with a smile on my face, Kerry was great and understanding.

If you fancy coming down and are a member at Pure gym Kirkstall sessions take place at 7:30pm on Thursday, remember to bring your £4!

I will be writing a separate post going into detail about the benefits of yoga so be show to follow my twitter to keep an eye out for it.

My year of gym excuses

I went back to the gym, not necessarily shocking since this is supposed to be mainly a health and fitness blog but hey ho I clever blog name should really tell you that my fitness game isn't as strong as I would like it to be.

How have since I last went I hear you demand!

Well I am going to tell you, keep your Fitletics on!

The last time I went to the gym November and I had not been for awhile since before that and there a couple of reasons to why I fell out of fitspiration lifestyle which I believe can effect anyone so are worth me talking about on here, I have managed to throw on my amazing "Do you even leviosa" vest from  Chargrilled over my 13st bulk.

Work/ Life Balance 

If you believe that I am happily blogging full time, despite my infrequent posts, and making any sort of money from my blog then let you me tell you my humble reader I am yet to make a penny although I am looking to change that I move to a self hosted site but more about at the time.

I was and have been doing shift work and not a simple mix of shifts but going 4am starts to a 3pm start the next day then a day off and back onto a 6am start then back onto an evening shift.

Due to this upheaval and the physical nature of my work the last thing on my mind was strapping on my trainers and hitting the gym, going for a run or a even a home workout, especially  with the prospect of dealing muscle soreness while all ready being exhausted from the lack of quality sleep.

Toxic Relationships

Urgh, I am not going into too much detail here as I wouldn't say it was particularly fair but I will say I invested a lot of time and energy at the expense of my wants and needs. 

This is not wholly the other parties fault but they were pretty demanding and all consuming in regards to emotional support and time.

Living Situation 

The last place I was living turned into an absolute nightmare, one housemate would run up and down the stairs clapping, singing and even went and bought an air horn preventing me sleeping, remember the crazy shifts I was doing?

This housemate and one of the others would stand outside my room bad mouthing me and generally being unpleasant, stealing or throwing my things away, telling lies to the neighbours. 

This came to a head when one of the housemates decided to throw a party and they decided it would be hilarious to try and break down my door while threatening violence against me and coming into my work place to verbally abuse me as well.

My landlady took no action but things did improve once I phoned the police enough and I moved out.

Mental Health

I have touched upon  this in briefly in the past and I am going to keep it short and sweet hear as well, I suffer in the winter moods with low mood and in all fairness it has not been a massive issue for me for years, certainly there but manageable.

However this last winter fit like a truck, I believe that everything above contributed to how far I fell but I dragged myself out, moved house, cut ties with toxic influences and made changes in my work life all while I wasn't particularly keen on being here anymore, not suicidal but very non nonchalant about the prospect of dying.

The irony is exercise can be just as effective as anti depressants but when you can barely change your clothes the gym is a step too far.

The other aspect of my mental  that has made me more coy about going to the gym is my potential to take things to excess. 

My mind can go become very fixated on different things where I will do something to the point of it effecting my health and well being.

 An example when I decided I was ready to get exercising again I opted to start walking, which I did to the point I walked and walked and walked to the point my feet where my feet were blistered but I carried on regardless.

Self Image 

In regards to my self imagine a couple of years back I was very much into the gym and health eating and I became fixated on having fewer and fewer calories to the point my weight dropped to 9.5st which is under weight for a man of my size but the real issue for me was that I knew this but I still thought I looked fat!

I am not going as far to as I was suffering from Body Dismorphia as I never went to the doctors about it and have never received a diagnosis.

I know this post is much more personal than anything I have done before but I do feel that there is some validity in the post, people have genuine reasons where they can not get themselves up and active, we just have to help and support them until they are ready.

There are  excuses for why I have been absent from the gym and blogging to be honest,  onward and upwards so I  shall see what I can make of the rest of the year.

Foods to beat heat

Summer is here, hip hip hoary! You cry with glee

Well stop right there thank you every much.

If like me your landlord thought it was appropriate to put leatherette sofas in your flat you will of undoubtedly peel your hot and sticky self off them and certainly not been delighted at leaving a sweat print of your rum for all to see.

Also like me every food choice becomes an instant regret , why on earth I decided it was appropriate to have a Thai red curry and a chilli con carne on the same day is beyond me, I calling sun induced insanity.

Here is a little selection of foods to hopefully help you stay cool and hydrated! 

Snacking

Speaking of cool, you can't get much cooler than a cucumber and let's throw in a some carrots while we are at it

Cucumber has a water content of 96% and while carrots are lower at 87% both are great with hummus as light and refreshing nibble  on instead of your back of air provided by Walkers.

If you are feeling fruity give Water Melon ago, if you haven't guessed by the name it has the highest water content of all fruit and apparently can act as natural Viagra if you need a little perking up in the bedroom you cheeky thing you.

If you are simply not about the water melon life other high water fruits you could try are raspberries, blueberries and the Wimbledon favourite strawberries.

Drinking

 If you want something a little different try shlomping some fruit into a jug with water  to make your own fruit infused water, which is always  very instgramable and sure to impress all your friends and instafam.

Good  options to take the plunge are cucumber, water melon, orange, lemon, lime etc to be honest work with your personal tastes if it doesn't work out it's a lesson learnt.

If you are missing tea you can always slam some tea bags, I have had good experiences with fruit infused teas as well as standard green tea.

I found it best to to leave my batch overnight in the fridge.

 Cold brew coffees trendy right now so maybe give them a try, they tend to be sweeter and have more caffeine than hot coffee which might appeal to a non coffee drinker.

I did a little digging into the benefits of hot drinks on hot days and from what I can tell is that yes a hot drink will cool you down as long as the sweat your body produces can evaporate, this is the same principle behind eating hot and spicy foods.

 For me it's a no to all of that, I only really drink tea when I am cold or ill so the prospects of me opting for a hot drink makes me wince. 

Treat Yo Self

This part part might be a little heart breaking for some but here i go anyway.

Ice cream will make you warmer in the long run due to it's fat content, instead opt for ice pops, sorbet or if you are still screaming for ice cream give frozen yogurt or vegan alternatives a go for less calories and in my opinion tastes just as food as the full fat alternatives.

Freezing mousses is another cheap and low calorie option you could go for.

Alcohol wise avoid beers and change to gin, about half the calories less and you can make use of your fruit infused water.

When you drink blood comes closer to your skin making you feel much warmer but something like that is not going to stop me getting trashed.

Getting Salty

With you been as hydrated as merperson we can't leave this post without talking about salt, when you pee you lose salt and this is not good.

Your body does need a certain amount of salt to function properly, ever done the potato, water and salt experiment in school, well it's pretty much the same.

Your cells take in water by using salt to go where it is needed, most people do not have to worry about this as most food has salt added to it, how ever if you are exercising it might be worth packing an isotonic or hypertonic sports drink to replenish the salts you have sweat out.

If your diet is completely  virtuous  it might be worth looking at adding some soup or adding some sea salt to your daily chicken!

I hope this post has been helpful and I will try and get posting more frequent and may even get back on track to becoming a youtube star again, 3 subscribers and counting!