Pockets And Jackets

KEY KEEPERS

I really don't like losing things but it happens to us all from time to time. To avoid this from occurring, the key is to limit the risk. I'm going to say this, in the hope I never have to back track...I have never lost a wallet or keys, or a phone for that matter. 

The reason why, I follow a routine and always keep the keys, wallet and phone in the same places. That way, I know where they are at all times. But, if I'm going to lose a wallet or keys, I want to limit the losses as much as possible. So, I rarely carry much cash in my wallet and pretty much keep the contents to a basic minimum. Bank cards, ID/licence, gym card and £20 cash. That's it.

I also keep my keys to a minimum. I never take a massive bunch of keys around with me. My keys are kept in groups. House keys, bike lock keys, car keys, garage keys. I add or subtract as necessary. If I travel, I take just the door keys. On the door keyring is a little engraved plaque with my phone number and email address. Worse case scenario, I misplace a set of door keys and someone will hopefully see the contact details or it's only £10 to replace them. 

I always put my keys in the same place on the dresser every night. Otherwise, they stay in the front right pocket of my trousers or shorts. I never carry them in a jacket pocket. Same goes for wallet. As I only ever carry the bare essentials, my wallet is small enough to fit in my front right or back right pocket, I never need to stick either of these valuables in a jacket. 

Lost Property

The amount of times I've lost or left a jacket somewhere - countless. Lost property is full of them. Hence why I never carry my stuff in a jacket pocket. It's a no brainer really, travel light and keep the important things close to hand. Simple. And yet I know quite a few friends who, on a seemingly regular basis, lose phones, wallets and keys - and of course their jackets too. 

First Privileges

EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM

Getting up that bit earlier, getting to the venue that bit before you need to and turning up at the place/occasion/event before everyone else, means picking the best seats, getting that spot on the beach, best spot in the gym class, advantageous position at the table and extra time for sussing out the lay of the land - to gain any other potential benefits that are there to be had. 

I used to be in the camp of turning up just in the nick of time (but often arriving late) and foolishly thought that I was making the best use of my time by running everything close to the wire. This I have now learned, has been way off the mark. Rushing around all the time means higher stress levels, poor overall experience, scattered/low quality memory of the events we're dashing from-to plus a reputation for being unreliable and for holding everybody else up. 

Take It With You

A lot of our tasks to be completed these days, involve being near a computer. With a smart phone or tablet, we have the ability to talk while we walk/drive and tools to communicate travelling on public transport, or do any of the tasks that require computer/comms equipment, that can either be actioned en route, or on location - completed during the quality free time remaining before the event has started. 

Get Ahead Of Your Head

It's so obvious, yet, I see people (myself included) rushing to do things at home/work - 'just 5 minutes more...' - things that can be done whilst travelling or after arriving where we're going to. But we can't see it at the time. Yet, just getting up that bit earlier gives us an advantage on our brains. Because we have extra time to assess the day, reason with priorities to be done at that moment and brain capacity to just stop for a moment and think 'can this be done on the way or later?'. It's so simple, I can't believe it's ever missed and yet this Eureka moment is such a flash of revelation once realised. Every time I recognise the option to just put off what can be done while on the go or later on, I feel a gift of time being regained, which in turn helps me to relax more and enjoy being in the moment. These revelations usually come to me when I've started the day earlier and less so when I'm on a back foot - ie. frantically trying to play catch up with all my tasks. Putting off the unimportant tasks to allow time to get ahead of myself, makes all the difference between having a stressful as opposed to a rewarding and enjoyable day. 

Dictation Freedom

VOICE RECOGNITION

My new favourite tool is the dictation feature on my MacBook Pro. It enables me to get my first draft down in blogger so much quicker. By double tapping the function key, speaking and hitting function again to pause, I can get the bones of what I'm going to say and go back and edit after.

After years of using computers for work, I'm now feeling the effects of over-using my fingers to type and arm to use a mouse. The very action of hunching over a computer has arguably given me a bit of a drooped posture which I'm correcting through yoga and stretching.

Hands Free
Coupled with my other favourite bit of kit - the Sony SB20 bluetooth receiver, I'm now able to walk around the room away from the chair and keyboard altogether! Although I still like to practice my touch typing - the freedom this new technology has now given me will make writing all the more easier on my posture and hands in the long run.

Ample Kit for a Traveller

WORKING ON THE GO - LITE

When you're on the go and need the right equipment to be able to work and play - carrying around a laptop can be a bit of an inconvenience, when quite often, the smart phone can do the job just as well.

So, an ample bit of kit for me at the moment, which allows me enough power to do what I have to do without breaking the bank is to use my iPhone 5s with a few choice apps installed like Blogger, Twitter, Spotify, Shutterstock, iBooks, Pingit and of course the browser and email apps. Trouble is, there's not enough battery power and the headphone wires can get in the way when listening to music or making calls while tapping away on the phone.

I could have bought an iPhone 6 - but this company provided me with a perfectly good iPhone5s 32gb for £300 in A1 condition. To get a full day's use out of it, I slip this little battery pack in my pocket wherever I go and to make sure I've got the right cable for charging everything, I have this handy 3-in-1 USB charger lead and carry this USB plug just in case. And in order to walk, talk, listen to music and read/blog/text - whatever...without the problem of messy wires getting in the way, I use this great little bluetooth device from Sony - which works with any headphones and will last all day long when plugged in to the battery pack!

Don't Rely On Others

DOING THE JOB PROPERLY

You may have heard the phrase: If you want a job done properly, do it yourself. I've been realising this increasingly more as I deal with large organisations who are so inefficient and therefore incapable of doing a job properly that I've had to take matters into my own hands. A few weeks back, I wrote about how my car had been crashed into. Since then, I've been dealing with insurance companies, the police and local government. None of them have proved very capable of sorting this out with a positive outcome for me - so my involvement has been paramount for success.

Do It Yourself
Without my intervention and investigations, the driver of the other vehicle would have gotten away scott free. The situation as it stands now, through knocking on doors and speaking with workmen - I have two witnesses, a signed statement for the police, CCTV footage and a brand new replacement hire car - an AMG 350 CDi Mercedes cabriolet to get me through while the repairs are being made - and all because I made the effort to investigate, put in the calls and argue my case.

Leaner, Stronger, Faster

HAPPY FOOD

So, it's nearly two weeks since I stopped drinking and I'm really starting to notice the difference in my energy levels and general positivity. The guy's who I regularly see at the reception to my office - one of the security team, asked what I've been doing, as I seemed different in some way - more vibrant and extra friendly (jeez, I must have been such a moody b*stard before!). I explained my diet and the early starts and he said he'd like to lose a bit of weight and was on a diet too - It is Jan after all...Thing is, I reckon his diet is wrong for him as it's essentially giving him a lot less food than a man of his size needs and especially as he stands outside in all weathers, he'll be feeling it in the cold at this time of year. I've passed on the Paleo info - and I'm going to send him a link to the blog today. I've also spread the word to my partner and a good friend to see if we can get our beach bodies back in a month!

I've been reading the Paleo book by Robb Fox and starting to get a better understanding of how our digestive system works to break down the food we eat and how we use it as fuel. This is why I can see the Paleo diet really works. I ate well yesterday, cutting out the carbs as much as possible and taking on my daily amount of protein. This seemed to give me enough energy to take two intense yoga classes. The first was a dynamic yoga class with Geraldine of The Radiant Hand - these are excellent teachers who really teach yoga through discipline - giving clear direction, watching, walking the room and correcting poses. I'm starting to get a real flow now, my flexibility is really coming on and I believe I actually got an 'excellent' yesterday, my first - and coming from this teacher, it has spurned me on even more! The second class was at Fierce Grace in the City. I tried Bikram yoga before and liked the intensity of the stretching in the hot environment - and Fierce Grace is a newer cooler version of Bikram - with music. The class I took was 1.5 hours long and equally as much of an endurance test in the 40+ heat!

We had food after - tricky eating out on a Paleo diet but Busaba Eatai have some grill options and I went for the cod stir fry with broccoli, garlic and shitaki mushrooms instead of rice. I had to take my lemongrass tea without honey in it but it was still sweet anyway. I confess, I ate the cashew cookies (it's my weakness). The greatest thing about the meal was the bill, as it is 50% for the whole of Jan - and you can go as many times as you want!

Restocking the cupboard
Day 3 on the Paleo diet - and it's time to get the right foods in. So, we've been down the supermarket at 7am buying meat and fish amongst other things...

Funny how giving up drinking gives you more time - but it can leave a bit of a void for what to spend your money on...I'm really trying to save money, but so used to getting the wallet out - so the motivation for going down to Aldi at 7am this morning as it opened, was to make the most of picking up this week's offers! Aldi now has an organic range and it's a good place for getting packaged meats like ham, turkey and chicken and great value for buying bags of nuts and fresh veg, fruit etc. We also need to stock up on quality fish & meat - we have Waitrose and Sainsbury's very near - but there's a great butchers called Chadwicks also nearby (who also do delivery) that's going to have the best grass fed beef and free range stuff in the store - plus we have a locally sourced fish mongers that comes to our farmers market every saturday which I'll be buying from. My parents befriended our local butcher to ensure always getting the choicest cuts...and we ate really well as a kid. It's going to be more expensive as a rule, but if there's a proper fish mongers or butchers nearby - it makes sense to make the most of it.

Improving digestion
The daily dose of Aloe Vera is really helping keep away any stomach issues and sticking to less acidic and non spicy foods is helping too. I've also been taking a supplement called Argi+ with anti-oxidants and vitamins - including L-arginine which is claiming to aid faster recovery after training. I've noticed that when taking before and after climbing or mountain biking, I've had less aching muscles the following day. I'll have to continue taking it to measure longer term benefits.

I'm not drinking tea or coffee during the day - but having an espresso in the mornings after eating. I've taken to regularly drinking freshly squeezed lemon in hot water (no honey or sugar added now though) and having a shot of Milk Thistle first thing in the morning - allegedly good for liver function.

Fit and Flexible 
First proper week back on the exercise routine. Here's how it's been in the week so far...

Tuesday was the first day back on the early boxing routine - really enjoyed pushing myself physically and mentally, it really helps to clear any angst or frustrations. I noticed a change in the core strength immediately after doing 100 situps at the end of the session. If you're in the London area and a member of Fitness First - we're having the sessions every Tuesday morning at 7.15-8am. If you'd like to know more and to join, email me at fitclubbox@gmail.com

Wednesday was a double helping of dynamic and hot yoga. I'm really starting to notice the difference in my flexibility and posture and my lower back aches and stiffness seem to have subsided considerably. I've got a great iPhone/iPad app for the days when you just want a quick 20 minute session at home or are on holiday - it's called Yoga Studio - available on the app store.

Thursday is my personal training day. So I'm going to really push myself and with all the good food I've been eating, should be on top of my game today. The guys at Ultimate City Fitness really know their stuff! Sign-up to get their daily newsletter giving advice on personal training, nutrition and achieving a leaner, stronger and fitter you. I'll be posting my routines up on a separate training page at some point in the near future.

Touch and Go
I realise I'm spending considerably more time on the keyboard typing these days. I should know where the keys are after 20 years using a computer but I just do two-finger typing. So I've decided to teach myself to touch type. I've been using this great free typing tool called Typing Club and after doing 20-30 minutes a day for 5 days - I'm up to about 20 words a minute! There's still a lot a of work to do before I'm speedy enough to be using this method full time - but it's a start.

A final note on speed
Saving seconds from my day to do the important things by being efficient, are part of my research on how to do things better. I wrote in a previous post about using a long-life, aluminium free deodorant and said I'd come back to it soon. So, I applied a very liberal amount of cream on Monday morning. I've washed 1-3 times every day with soap and water, but haven't had to re-apply any deodorant in 4 days. That's pretty good considering all the sweating I do. So this product is £8 but it's meant to last for over a month. That means I don't have to carry deodorants around with me in my gym bag, saves me time and could save money in the long run - plus it has to be better for me not using aluminium products. This will be great for festivals me thinks...

It's not that I ever get a chance to smell, because I wash a lot - 1-3 times a day typically. I'm usually having a shower after cycling in to work in the morning, one at lunch time if I'm hitting the gym and one in the evening after cycling home. Do I need to wash so much - probably not? I'm also getting through a lot of shower gel - so I only use soap now. I've got a small bar of aloe soap (which you can get from Holland & Barratt) and a Speedo sports towel - which is small, light, faster and more efficient for drying yourself off with - it can also be used as a flannel if, like me, you don't want to wash yourself away with constant showers. It's easy to carry around and you don't have to wait for it to dry like a conventional towel - just wring it out!