Tag Archives: Resolutions

Friday Ride Damned By Diabetes

By 12 commentsDiabetes, Rides, , ,

The Best Laid Plans…

Yesterday someone told me off a bit for not using my bike more.  It got me thinking about how I could use my bike more.  “How can I use my bike more?“, I thought.  On four days a week, I wear a suit for work.  I’m also fortunate enough to have funding towards my car from my wonderful employers, so if I was to ride to work questions would rightly be asked.  However there’s nothing to stop me going out for a quick ride in my lunch break on Fridays, the one day each week when we dress down.

So, I resolved that today would be the first day of the rest of my life.  I’d put the bike in my car this morning, along with a change of clothes.  At lunchtime I would simply get changed into my bike gear, get on my trusty Fat Boy, head away from work for 15 minutes, then head back, get changed back into my casual work gear and get back to my desk.

But of course it never happened.  Kids’ homework, getting ready, sorting out breakfast and other things conspired to make it impossible to get the bike plus change of clothes packed in time.  So here I am at my desk.

Ruddy Diabetes

On top of that, my blood sugars dropped to coincide with lunchtime today.  This hypo meant that I’ve been sat through my lunch break, staring through pinholes in a cold sweat and avoiding talking gibberish to anyone whilst my unusual lunch (below) took effect and put me right again.

My Hypo Lunch

Tip To Cure Hypo: Eat Everything Here, Right Now. I Said Now.

So maybe it was a good thing that I didn’t get the bike in the car.  I would have checked my sugars before setting off, but if I hadn’t been careful, the hypo whilst I was out riding would have been bad news.  Maybe the Gods of Cycling were smiling down on me, really.

Every cloud, and all that.

So…. Next Week…

… I plan to put my bike and change of clothes into the car on Thursday night.

On Friday, I’ll ride out for 15 minutes, turn around and head back to work.  Then each week I’ll see how much further I can get.  It’s only once a week so I’ve got no excuse.  Maybe with enough time, I’ll work out a loop I can TT each week, but for the time being a simple there-and-back ride with no route will meet my needs.

And now I’ve published it here, you might ask me how far I got.  No pressure then.

Blog Name Changed

By 13 commentsTat,

Thank You for the Help

Thank You For My New Blog Name!

Thanks, everyone!

Yesterday I asked you for some ideas for new names for my blog.  You didn’t let me down.  Suggestions flooded in, both good and bad.  Some of the best are listed here:

  • Phill Yer Boots– This is great. Apt, random enough and a pun.  However, it wouldn’t fire up the right AdNoSense links and I didn’t fancy presenting you with a load of Ugg ripoff merchants.  It’s also the name of someone else’s blog. Some bloke who supports Pompey, may God help him.
  • Pi-Phill – Yes, I write a load of piffle. Thanks for that!
  • IrresponsiPhillity– Good pun right there.  Unfortunately made up words are kind of unlikely to result in any SEO or AdNoSense benefits.  When somebody fixes the internet to account for sarcasm and made up words, I’ll change my mind.  Maybe.

So, I’ve plumped for Phills Irregular Cycles.  A quick Google threw up a number of queries about ladies’ issues plus an advert for a bike shop , so I can live with that.  Please don’t pick me up on the missing apostrophe, I know: it’s been dropped purely for url linking purposes.

So, Thank You.  You’ve been a great audience. 🙂

Big Blog Decision Time

By 38 commentsTat,

Please Help Me With My Decision

Help Me

Can you help me with this please?

I’m in a quandary.  The name of this blog needs to change, in my opinion.  Let me tell you why, then please answer my question to help me move on.

Reasons To Change The Blog Name

  1. Relevance.  All the best advice says that my blog’s name should reflect what I write about.  “The Blind Leading The Blinds” is a sort-of catch-all title, but doesn’t have any relevance any more.  Originally this blog was going to incorporate our Roman Blind service, but that venture has its very own website and I don’t write about it much here.
  2. SEO.  Ths isn’t such a big deal for my personal blog, but it would be better if I stood a least a chance of being found based on what’s actually going on on this blog.  The current name is less than useful in that respect.  I get search hits based on post titles, but a bit of search synergy (I’m copyrighting that phrase right here and now) would be nice.
  3. Adsense.  I have an Adsense account linked to the site.  If you know Adsense, you’ll know that it serves up adverts based on what’s on the site… so primarily it serves up ads for rival companies to our aforementioned Roman Blinds site!  No matter how you look at it, this is a bit rubbish, isn’t it?  Also, irrelevant ads are a total waste of page space, so I want relevant ads.  A relevant name would help.  If I get his bit right, some of you will click on the ads occasionally, and the objective of having AdNoSense in the first place can be met: earning a few pennies to pay for hosting.

This Is The Bit Where I Hope You Will Help

Will you answer me two questions please?

  1. Should I change the name of my personal blog?
  2. Do you have any (repeatable) suggestions, based on the objectives I’ve rambled about above?

I can’t promise to use your ideas, but rest assured that I will consider every idea you share.  Some of them won’t be considered for very long though 😉

I’d really appreciate your input.

The Habits Kill You Not The Treats

By 29 commentsDiabetes, Tat, , ,

Diabetes On The Wrong Side Of 40

I’ve got diabetes, but I don’t like to talk about it.  I don’t avoid it because I feel guilty: I feel fine.  I don’t avoid it because I’d prefer to pretend it doesn’t exist: it’s as much a part of my life as my shaving; my showering; my worrying about my children and my getting up for work.

I don’t talk about it much because, for the vast majority of people, it would be boring.  There are some excellent blogs about diabetes out there and I’m not going to print a list of them here.  Maybe I will one day, but not today.

Today, I’m not going to talk about what it’s like to live with diabetes. Nor am I going to share with you how it affects my day-to-day life (not right muchly).  Instead, I’m going to share with you my mantra for living, which has served me well through almost 20 years of insulin-dependant diabetes:

It’s The Habits That Kill You, Not The Treats

Over 20 years or so, I’ve used this phrase with every friend who’s ever told me about their diets, their lifestyle choice du jour or their inability to improve themselves in some small but frustrating way.  Life is about choices, but the most important choice as far as I see it is the one you make about your day-to-day existence.

I love cake.  You love cake too.  You know you do, you love it, you do.  Love it!  But we don’t eat it every day.  Well, I can’t speak for you but I don’t.  Last night I had a massive plateful of cottage pie, then at bedtime I had some cheesecake.  A cake made of cheese which was delicious.  This sort of thing doesn’t happen every day.  If it did, I’d be a right fatty.  As it is, I’m a skinny bloke with a little pot belly.  I can live with the little pot belly.

It is not the superfoods you occasionally eat; not the meal you skip once a day for a fortnight; not the meal replacement shakes you persist with until they run out and you can’t face re-filling your cupboards; not the frenetic jog aound the park on a sunny afternoon when the kids are being looked after.

It is your day-to-day routine; your habits that you live your life by.  These are the things that are more likely to make you what you are.  For “what you are“, you might be thinking… healthy; happy; quick on a bike; capable of that 10k run.  I hope you are.

If you’re thinking… overweight; unsatisfied; too slow; unfit… then have a think about your day-to-day routine.

Most of the people who read this blog are a lot fitter than me.  You ride faster and further; you run faster and further.  I like that.  I read your blogs because they help inspire me to become fitter myself, quite aside from making me laugh and keeping my feet firmly on the ground.

As far as the diabetes goes, it’s helped me to give a big reason for trying to live my life right.  I don’t want to go blind and have my kidneys fail; or to have my feet amputated.  But the same goes for us all: if you look after yourselves, the chances are much higher that you will live long and prosper.  To you, that might be earning loads; it might be doing that marathon or that massive ride.

To me, it’s watching my children grow into what I’ve started to make them, and what they’ll decide to be.

Just look after yourselves. 🙂

Personal Goal Setting

By 19 commentsRides, Tat,

Goals, Not Resolutions

As a marketing manager at Utility Masters, I’m quite used to setting business goals.  I don’t subscribe to the notion of New Year’s Resolutions because they seem to be used most commonly to rationalise failure later in the year.  They are also so woolly as to be useless – how exactly do you define sucess against your “be a better person” or “get fitter” resolutions?

Instead, I decided to set myself some personal goals instead this morning, using good old-fashioned business cliches.  Objectives have to be SMART:

  • Specific – stating exactly what you intend to achieve
  • Measurable – so you know what defines achieving it
  • Achieveable – so you actually have a chance
  • Realistic – make sure you can do it – it can be hard, but you’ve got to get there
  • Timed – when will you aim to do it by?

So, the box that’s been published in my sidebar this lunchtime is my own measurement of how I’m doing this year.  My main goals are two events I intend to complete this year, plus a fundraising target for the Hospice where my Mum was so wonderfully cared for.

I’ll also be tracking my cycling and running this year, for you all to poke fun at by way of encouragement.

Please let me know what you think, and offer any additions that you think will help me in 2010. Thanks! 🙂

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