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In a recent post I mentioned that I had started jogging on a morning and that I had surprised myself as I had never thought I would become “a jogger” so here is my “non-joggers” guide to jogging!

See a Doctor

If  you’re going to start jogging or running (call it what you will) first thing to do is see a Doctor and make sure that its a sensible idea for you. I had already seen my Doctor about doing more exercise etc due to high cholesterol so I was sorted.

Once you have done this you can safely ignore people who tell you “I had a mate who started jogging and he dropped dead from heart-attack so getting fit actually kills you”. Don’t let other people drag you down with their own excuses for not doing anything. That’s their problem, its no longer yours.

Shoes and sports gear

Decent shoes are important. They are more comfortable and will reduce the chances of you picking up strains, sprains and pulled muscles. Not to sugar coat it for you but early on you will be coping with enough to discomfort without making it worse for yourself ! Over here in Perth Jim Kidd and Rebel Sports are decent places to pick up reasonable priced trainers (especially the Rebel Sport “outlet” stores which sell off old stock). Buy good stuff but don’t pay a fortune.

Me and my wife are both pretty active and my son has got into football (soccer) too so we find that buying sportswear “in bulk” from www.sportsdirect.com is an economic way of  getting what we want. Even though the postage from the UK to Australia is considerable its still works out cheaper this way and they have a great selection of merchandise. It can get a bit addictive buying on line though so watch out (!) – make sure you don’t become one of those people whose real motivation for taking up a new activity is so they can by loads of  new equipment! “All the gear but no idea” as the saying goes.

Last word on this subject – my wife says she definitely feels better and gets a real “lift” from wearing good quality sports clothing but I am not so fussy and often just grab shorts and an old football top.

Prepare for the conditions

Related to the point above – make sure you dress and prepare  appropriately for the weather and use sunscreen etc. This is very relevant over here in Perth as  the UV rays can get pretty savage – we are into Autumn now though so its a lot more comfortable for running. Drinking water is important so have some before and after. We have had a couple of chilly mornings lately so I sometimes have a cup of tea before running (how “old school am I ?)

If you are running in the dark or on the roads wear something light coloured to avoid getting run over. In the photo I am modelling a near-luminous yellow Leeds United top which is visible from several miles away so if anyone runs me over its reasons other than they can’t see me.

Plan your run

What resources and landmarks are nearby? Are there any parks or open spaces or will you have to make do with running on the roads? Plan out a route that is safe and realistic. I am lucky that there is a small park nearby so I can run on grass and its easy to monitor my progress by counting how many times I can get round the park. Also, plan what time of day you are going to run and on which days.

Get music

An i-Pod Nano or similar is a great help in getting motivated and taking your mind off any boredom or discomfort you are feeling. I loaded a big selection of uplifting or high energy songs on mine and I set it to “shuffle” so I don’t know what’s coming next – again, this distracts you nicely.

I don’t know why but the earphones never stay inside my ears properly. One day they will be OK but the next they won’t stay in at all. Perhaps my ears radically change shape over night ? Hopefully you won’t have this problem!

Stretching  & Warmup

Stretching is boring, uncomfortable and a waste of time. Actually, only the first two are true! You have to do this as it will make your run easier and you will be far less likely to pick up injuries. Stretch before and after. Before you start running warmup by walking for 5 minutes and plan this into your route. The park I use is about 5-10 minutes walk from where I live so that makes it easy.

Technique

Apparently there is a right and a wrong way to run. Who’d have thought it? Anyway I looked this up on YouTube and this guy explains things pretty well

No heroics…

We are starting out here so be REALISTIC. Don’t set yourself over-optimistic goals and then get discouraged because you can’t get anywhere near them. When you start out you can just do what you can do. No shame in that. Then its about BUILDING fitness through a sensible combination of walking and jogging.

…but stick at it!

Its very easy to start jogging and find out that its harder than you thought it would be and then quit. Its also easy to make a bit of progress and then  plateau and think “I’m never going to get anywhere with this” – and then quit. In fact, quitting is always easy! You have to accept that there will be effort and discomfort involved but back yourself to persevere and get through it.

Running is as much about training your mind as it is your body and finding ways to either silence or ignore that insistent voice in your head that is telling you to give up. I find running outside rather than on a treadmill helps as it is more interesting and listening to music is another great way to distract yourself. Now that I have got past the “oh my god I’m going to die phase!” I find that I do some of my best thinking when I am running .

The benefits

I run on a morning. Once I have done it I feel great anyway AND I know that I have done my exercise for the day before the morning has even got going! This makes me feel a bit smug – ha ha! Since I have been running (six weeks now) I have lost weight – particularly around the belly – I’m more toned and I feel so much better. The benefits of running son’t kick in immediately so its important to stick at it through that difficult beginning period when you don’t seem to be getting much reward for your efforts. Trust me, the rewards WILL come and it all gets a lot easier!

So – that’s what I have found works. There is a wealth of information on this subject on the internet and I would encourage you to research it properly before giving it a go. Good luck!

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Lately I have been busy and balancing working full time with being a husband, Dad, photographer, blogger, exerciser, cook etc has been a bit of a strain. Having said that I have not been happy with the way I have been using my time either (particularly when I am not at work). Several times lately I have found myself not really doing anything in particular – I’m not really relaxing but at the same time I’m not doing anything constructive either. I call this “junk time” and examples of it include:

Channel hopping and watching 5-10 minutes of several programs without ever watching a full one.

Half-hearted web surfing to pass the time in a rather aimless way.

Starting a job and then drifting away leaving it half done. Then actively avoiding doing the second half.

So combining having a lot to do with not making good use of your time is not a good mix as not much gets done and you don’t have quality relaxation time either! But what to do about it?

So what do you do with your time? Really.

Here at goodselfhelpstuff.com we are committed to using only the very best of the available methodologies so the first thing I did was carry out an idea I got from the reality TV show “Wife Swap”! In this show each wife writes a “user manual” for her life and the functioning of her household so I borrowed this idea and carried it out for myself. This may seem pointless – after all “you” are “you” and you obviously know how you spend your time because you are there when it happens. However, this is worth doing as writing things down in a structured way can often reveal a picture that your intuition alone doesn’t. For instance when I wrote out an average day I noticed that I was spending way too much time on the internet and was checking my email and websites several times a day. This was actually disruptive and a poor use of my time so now I only logon twice a day (on weekdays – more on weekends). By writing out your average day and week you have a basis for managing your time better.

Understanding what works for you

Some people are naturally methodical, organized and comfortable making decisions. Others are more intuitive, adaptive and inclined to “go with the flow”. Other things being equal the people in the first group are a lot more comfortable with formal time-management systems but this doesn’t mean that we can’t all schedule our days a little better. There is little chance of success in you trying to become something you are not so it’s a question of finding what works for you and playing to your strengths.

For instance, by nature I wake up early on a morning and have no problems getting out of bed – this requires no effort on my part it’s just how I am. This means that if I am going to move things around in my day it makes sense to tackle them before I go to work. Other people are naturally “night owls” and can be getting stuff done long after I have turned in for the night. Because an early start works for me I moved my exercise before I go to work so now I jog on a morning rather than go to the gym after work (which I had trouble fitting in). I never, ever thought I would be “the type of person who jogs before work” but I’ve been doing it for around a month now.

The importance of relaxation and fun

My intention is absolutely NOT to reduce the amount of time I have for fun and relaxation. The idea that you should have every minute of the day accounted for and be “productive” at all times is totally alien to me and it should be for you too! There must be time for relaxation, spontaneity, hobbies and good old-fashioned slobbing around if that’s what you want to do. My point is that you should be doing one thing OR the other, you should be relaxing without a care in the world OR you should be doing productive stuff and getting results. I find it too easy to be hanging around not being productive but not really enjoying being idle either as I can’t rid myself from the feeling that I SHOULD be doing something. Now its one thing or the other and to keep myself honest with this I often ask myself the simple question “what are you doing right now?”

Making a change

Much of our lives are taken up by routines and sometimes it feels like you could go through an entire day without making a single decision and things would still pretty much take care of themselves. Therefore the key to better time management is to create new routines and habits which make best use of the time you do have. For instance:

Recently I started taking my son to football practise on Tuesdays at 5pm so I have agreed with my boss to come in one hour early on that day so I can get him there on time. This is now a new routine. I appreciate this kind of flexibility with work hours might not be there for everyone but it’s a good idea to keep looking for ways to make your day fit better. You might be surprised at what you migth find.

Conclusion

By looking at how I was spending my time and making some small (but significant) changes I have started getting more out of my life. I’m finding that I am more productive, I’m not rushing around all the time but I am not sacrificing my leisure time in order to do it. I have also been enjoying that good feeling you get when you start taking charge of your life, making changes and stop feeling like you are a “victim of circumstances” all the time. Why don’t you give this a try and see what you come up with?

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When they are not remotely involved in any game that affects my team I have a great deal of respect & sympathy for football referees. Having to deal with childish, thuggish or drama-queen type behaviour whilst the crowd boos your every decision can’t be much fun – especially when you all you can look forward to after the game is the Managers and commentators publicizing your every mistake. I’m sure its not easy doing a job where its impossible to be right a 100% of the time and half the people involved will hate you anyway. I can’t remember if I have ever been guilty of hurling abuse at Mark Halsey but having read what he has been through and how he has bounced back from it he definitely has my respect now. Having already had the bad news that his wife had a form of leukaemia, Halsey found out in August 2009 that he had throat cancer. He was given the news just before a Premier League football game and, amazingly,still refereed it. This must be the same kind of shock reaction that prompts people who have just been involved in serious motorcycle accidents to get up and “see if the bike is alright”. ..

Not long after that game he was taken into hospital for surgery and then chemo and radiotherapy. Having got through all of that he was determined to referee again and had to build his fitness back up to the high standards needed for the modern game – not easy at the best of times but he was back refereeing inside a year. In his “comeback game” one of the players ran over to him, shook him warmly by the hand and said “it’s great to have you back” – later on he had to book the same player!

Not surprisingly having cancer has changed his outlook on life – “people get very emotional about football, but my illness has put the game and life into different perspective. As referees, we all worry about getting the big decisions right – but perhaps we worry too much.”

Amen to that.

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Last Sunday me and my wife were on the road again to do some photography down in the Southwest of WA. Instead of going down to the coast and around Margaret River as we normally would we decided to check out the dams at Lake Navarino and also Wellington National Park, thinking this would give us a nice change in subject matter.

I’ve been down to Lake Navarino before and had a lot of fun messing around on the water but, in terms of landscape photography, it really doesn’t fit the bill. For a start it’s a man-made lake so it has straight edges and the water’s edge is made up of an orangey-brown dirt and gravel combination, so it’s not all that picturesque. After half-heartedly looking at it from different angles we decided to try our luck elsewhere and kept on driving down the South Western Highway. As you travel down this road you pass through several small country towns such as Waroona, Harvey and Brunswick Junction and the countryside becomes much more rural; sometimes in a very picturesque way and sometimes in a more hard-working and challenging kind of way. I particularly love the feeling of peace and simplicity you can get walking around these quiet towns on a Sunday and there is always something to look at and photograph. Anyway…

We drove along, noting a few quirky sights and beautiful views along the way and ended up at “Destination 2” – the dam at Wellington National Park. To be honest, we were underwhelmed by that too as the lake and surrounds just didn’t seem that scenic and we struggled to get any worthwhile photos out of it. It didn’t help that there is a lot of maintenance work going on at the dam so several areas were fenced off and there was a fair bit of scaffolding and work vehicles around. Feeling a bit deflated we decided to head back up the Highway and go back home the way we came.
We retraced our steps and stopped at Brunswick Junction to stretch our legs and grab something to eat (for some reason, the bakeries in these country towns are the absolute best and serve fantastic pies – this was no exception). Brunswick is a charming little place which is quite scenic but still has an authentic and slightly “rough-around-the-edges” feel to it – it hasn’t gotten too “touristy” like some towns on the way to Margaret River have. We had a stroll around the town, checking out the buildings and features these places always have – the small church, the memorial hall, the footy oval and so on. I love passing time in these places on a quiet Sunday and sometimes I convince myself that I would like to live in one full-time, although I know that I wouldn’t really.

Anyway, we had a leisurely drive back, stopping off at each own on the way and taking the time to really appreciate them. When we got back home we had got very little (in terms of both enjoyment and photographs) from either location we originally set off to see but what we got from the actual journey was great. This is so often the case, the process and not necessarily the end-result is where the value is. If we had just focussed on getting great photos from the dams we would have come home very disappointed but by making a decision to consciously enjoy the trip there and back we had a great day. I know it’s a cliché to say that “life’s a journey not a destination” but it is, it really is.

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Click here for a suitably uplifting song to pass the time whilst we are waiting for the site updates.

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Hi – just a quick note to let you know that we are carrying out quite a bit of site maintenance at the moment. This is mostly around adding more free images and getting them to display & download properly. This update will be finished soon so please bear with us!

Thanks

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“To be honest, a few months before I started training for the marathon, I could hardly walk across my bedroom without falling over.”

We have all heard comments like these, usually from people joking about how unfit they are, how they are unprepared for exercise or how daunting some upcoming challenge will be. In this case the words belong to former boxer Michael Watson who had endured almost unbelievable physical and emotional hardships after being seriously injured in a world-title boxing match in 1991. To put this into context, when he began to train for the London Marathon he had only recently stopped using the wheelchair that he had been in for six years. In 2003 Michael completed the marathon, it had taken him six days to painfully walk the course and, touchingly, he was accompanied on the last leg by the former appointment who had unwittingly injured him all those years ago (Chris Eubank). What an amazing achievement this was when you consider that four years earlier his neurosurgeon had remarked “to cross a room on foot is for him a marathon. He reaches the “wall” not at 20 miles but 20 feet”.

Back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the UK had three exceptionally talented middleweight boxers – Michael Watson, Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn. As this was the pre-cable TV era, their fights were shown on TV and I used to watch them all (I confess that I am part of that very small demographic that is into boxing AND self help). Although he never achieved the world titles and fame that the others two did, it turned out that, despite his quiet and respectful demeanour, Watson was the best of the three. Unlike the other two, he was a rather mild mannered athlete who seemed uncomfortable with the publicity and the play-acting needed to publicise a big fight. Despite being less “TV-friendly” there were clear signs that Michael was the genuine article when he knocked out the truly scary “Dark Destroyer” Nigel Benn and he followed that up with a controversial wafer-thin loss to Eubank for a world-title. It was in the rematch with Eubank that Watson was seriously injured and sustained brain damage.

After the fight he lay in a coma for 40 days, had six operations on his brain and then undertook a very lengthy period of gruelling rehabilitation. Despite at various times being told that he would not walk, talk or write properly he defied all the odds to physically recover to a remarkable extent (although he still requires care) but it is his emotional and spiritual journey that is perhaps all the more amazing.

For instance, the initial damage done to him was made much worse by the shameful lack of ringside medical care available and the length of time it took to get him to a hospital (the laws regulating this have now changed because of his experience). There is no doubt that proper care immediately after the fight would have minimized the damage done to him yet Watson harbours no bitterness towards them or against the fighter who injured him. Although he has endured almost biblical levels of hardship he has emerged from all of his ordeals as a model of forgiveness and resolution and with his Christian faith firmly intact. When asked what kept him going through all of this he replied:
“I love life, I just love people…everything happens for a purpose. Since I had this accident I’ve been changed for the better as a person. I meet wonderful people; my life is elevated each and every day. (After the accident) I had to move on. Let bygones be bygones, it’s done. There’s a lot more for me to live for, I can give people an injection of inspiration.”

His neurosurgeon (Peter Hamlyn) regards him as a “medical miracle” and has this to say about him;

“He was an inspiration to me throughout it, as he has been to all those who have met him. He is a noble man who, unbowed by a burden which even now would extinguish most of us, took his long walk not for himself but for others less fortunate.”

Not bad for the quiet man from Hackney.

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