i know a place where i can go, where i can go now

Day 7 - Friday 27th January
Apologies for the delay in posting, I'm sure you were all sitting on the edge of your seats with baited breath and other such suspense-laden cliches. Anyhow, after Tall Ships at New Slang I wasn't feeling too tired (got home shortly before 1am, with a 9:30am start!) and the morning passed pretty quickly. Porridge for breakfast again then a strawberry shake before lunch.

At lunch, instead of frying the chicken I decided that doing it in the oven might be a healthier way to cook it. So i boiled the kettle, mixed in a chicken stock cube, poured that into a baking tray then chucked one breast into the middle. Put some rosemary, basil, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper onto it then left that on 200C for 20 minutes - just long enough to play fifa online. Had that with avocado, cherry tomatoes and spinach and it worked perfectly!

The last few hours of the day went by slowly, but eventually my girlfriend came home from work and we went out to a restaurant practically underneath our flat, the Olive in Raynes Park. After umming and ahing about a starter, we decided to share a cheesy garlic bread, good thing too (I'd wanted one each) as it was HUGE. For a main course I went for a pasta dish with chicken and a mushroom sauce, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Zoe went for an avocado-based pasta dish:



Passed on dessert not just because I shouldn't be eating it, but because I was so full! The pasta was excellent, will definitely be making a return to that restaurant. A quiet evening was well spent, tidying the flat and watching the end of Big Brother followed by a really decent night's sleep. A friend of mine got back from Paris at 5:30am and knocked on my door (it's ok, I'd said he was allowed to) to sleep on our sofa then I had a nice little lie-in til 10am.

Day 8 - Saturday 28th January
Got up at 10 and had a couple of games of Fifa with Ben, before preparing the first use of my new slow cooker! As well as the pork leg, I chucked in 2 bottles of Carlsberg, some cider vinegar, cumin, cayenne pepper, black peppercorns, salt, sugar, and a few bay leaves. I left this on from 11:30am and wouldn't touch it until I returned from hockey at about 7:30pm. The plan was to have it in fajitas, and boy did that plan work well! They looked incredible:



Earlier that day, I'd travelled to Surbiton Hockey Club to play a crunch game against Wimbledon - who lay second, while we were top of the table. After running out 5-2 winners, the table looked like this:



Ridiculously chuffed but there are still 5 games left, including two against Indian Gymkhana who are always VERY tough opposition (especially away from home). Finishing the season at Richmond with a win, and the title, would be fucking perfect though.

I later played for the 6s in a 2-1 win, always happy to help out other teams in the club and I felt I played well despite having a full game under my belt that day already. In fact, I'd noticed that even within a week of working on the 60-day-challenge, I'd felt a lot better in general, much more able to get up on time in the mornings and I had a bit more stamina on the hockey pitch. Clearly something is working!

Day 9 - Sunday 29th January
Pretty chilled out day today. Had a good lie-in, then drove down to Guildford to watch my good friend Paul Reeves get his debut in goal for Surbiton's 1st XI. Sadly the only thing I could grab quickly for breakfast was a chicken wrap, but at least it didn't have much fat (3 grams or something) so that was a mild consolation. Found out when I got there that GB/England's most capped player of all time was in central defence - no pressure on Paul or anything! He had a great game as Surbiton won 6-2, both goals weren't his fault, and it was good to watch some top level hockey - really inspiring seeing the pace and commitment of the players - some of whom I've played with at a lower level in club.

Later on that day I umpired a fairly stagnant game for Kingston University's mixed team, against Portsmouth Uni. They had a pretty lippy forward who I remember from my time at uni, nice to see some people just don't change... Kingston won 1-0. Have decided the remainder of my umpiring money is going towards my tour fund, which should be good! Resisted the temptation for beer and went for an orange juice but tempered it with a couple of packets of crisps. Got home and cooked a stir fry and had an early night as Zoe had a pretty big day the next day.

i think i saw a unicorn, or perhaps a horse in uniform?

Day 6 - Thursday 26th January
Another early start, almost late in again but I munched down my Bran Flakes like noone's business (gotta get that fibre down me) and popped in bang on time. Bosh. Mid morning snack consisted of an apple and another protein shake - went for Strawberry today.

One thing I should mention about this Maximuscle stuff is the taste of some of this stuff. I've used a few different products in the past and some of the 'chocolate' flavours really do differ wildly from each other. Chocolate Cyclone, for example, is quite sweet and was probably my favourite tasting of all their products. However I'm using Promax Diet on this particular 'programme'and the chocolate flavour is... well, it's difficult to describe. As I use milk to dilute the shakes with (they recommend water) this changes the flavour but I don't think I'd be able to stomach it if it was a water-shake!

That said, I'm really enjoying the banana flavour - it genuinely tastes like a real banana milkshake - and strawberry's not so bad either, not too sweet but it dilutes really easily. All of the powders take some shaking to dissolve fully but if you're using the right sort of flask, you're usually ok!

For those of you who know me, you'll know how big a part music plays in my life, and last night I went to see an awesome band from Falmouth called Tall Ships. That was at a local club night called New Slang, which is one of the biggest indie clubs in the country. I used to work for them and in the past, I had been known to hit the gym, cycle to work there, then cycle home at 2am - a pretty healthy way of doing things, especially when I wasn't drinking alcohol at the time.

Last night, it was nice to partially revert to that - I cooked dinner as soon as I got home - another lush tuna jacket potato with an avocado/tomato salad - then relaxed for a couple of hours while that digested. Watched a program about Anglo Saxon treasure, that was pretty interesting. Hit the weights I've got in my flat, was able to do sets of Flat Flys, Seated Rows, Seated Dumbbell Presses, Bench Presses and Bicep Curls - essentially working my biceps/triceps, shoulders and chest.

Am still trying to juggle around the workouts a bit. I'm finding it difficult, still, to motivate myself to do the 10 minute drive to the gym (I didn't even have that choice last night as my car is in for an MOT) so if I can do exercises in the flat, with the help of my bench, then that can only help beat my laziness. The real dilemma is cardio part of my workout. It's pretty easy to be rigid about it in a gym, because you have a visual representation of speed, distance and time - but trying to do that in a run around the block is totally different. Not to mention, it's fucking freezing at the moment.

Anyhow, I went to New Slang after my workout (and a quick beard trim. Gotta love a quick beard trim) and thoroughly enjoyed Tall Ships. A word of warning though. If you're drinking protein shakes, avoid fizzy drinks AT ALL COST. Had a few lemonades while I was there and jesus christ I could not stop breaking wind on the bus home. Sorry if you happened to be getting the 57 bus from Kingston to Raynes Park at 00:25 last night. It probably wasn't your night.

in the meantime, they moved all the factories...

Day 3 - Monday 23rd January
First day back at work since I started the challenge, I got up early to munch down my 3-egg breakfast then packed my bag (protein shake and apple in tow) before the 2 minute walk to my workplace. Timing the consumption of my 'snacks' wasn't too difficult and an hour for lunch was just enough time to cook a decent chicken / avocado salad and play an online game of Fifa. Dinner consisted of the biggest beef stir-fry ever, (probably 2 parts beef to 1 part any other ingredient) involving red onions, peppers, brown rice, spinach and all manner of healthy things.

My workout was meant to be a half hour run at "40% intensity", but I traded that in for an hour's hockey training (which ended up being a lot more intense than I'd predicted) followed by half an hour in the gym going through weights. One mistake I'd made in the past is to really push myself to the point of breaking, then be in super pain for the next 3 days, then end up losing my routine and not going back to the gym for ages. The sets of weights from the plan were small but enough to make me feel the burn, without damaging myself - definitely felt a lot better in the days following that workout too.

A decent night's sleep set me up for an early start the next day...

Day 4 - Tuesday 24th January
Let my standards slip a little bit today. Started off well, eating porridge for breakfast for the first time in maybe.... 5 years? Decent day at work, decent lunch (chicken and salad), decent game of Fifa (lost against a Gold team with my Bronze team, 3-2). After work, I was too shattered to do anything and decided to swap Wednesday (my rest day) for today, and then head down to the hockey club to discuss and have a look through our sample kit for hockey tour:


our captain, Paul Reeves, in potential Lastminute Crusaders kit.

Got slightly depressed that you could quite clearly see my belly through my Large sized shirt, this only motivated me further for the challenge! Got home and had a really nice tuna jacket potato for dinner with my girlfriend (she had cheese, got hugely jealous). I wasn't full after dinner though so ended up having a bagel with Philadelphia - trying hard to stick to the meal plan is very difficult but will get easier.

Day 5 - Wednesday 25th January
A late start at work meant that I got a pretty decent sleep so felt really good all day. Had the BEST beef and horseradish sandwich for lunch, then straight after work I did a nice lemon and herb chicken breast with brown rice and a spinach salad, before timing my visit to the gym with the second half of the Liverpool vs Man City game. A half hour at 8km/h worked nicely for my run at 40% intensity, then I went on the bike to do High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Basically, 30 seconds sprinting as fast as possible, then 1 min 30s rest, just spinning the wheels slowly. Did this for 15 minutes, just as Liverpool won the tie. Went home, watched Big Brother (I have become everything I hated), updated my CV and invoiced people. Like a boss.

The beginning

Hello. My name is Del, and for those of you who don't know me, I'm a 26-year-old lad living in Raynes Park south of London north of Kingston. I have just started the Maximuscle 60-day-challenge so I thought I'd blog about it.

There are several reasons for taking on this challenge. Partly for fitness, partly cosmetic, mostly because I'm tired of getting called fat, or being unable to run as quickly as I used to. I play hockey for Surbiton Men's 5th team, and I dread to think what sort of state I would be in if I hadn't played hockey twice a week for the last 15 years of my life.

Post-Christmas, lots of people make resolutions, take on fad diets and so on but I wanted to prove to myself (and to my girlfriend, I guess) that I could do the challenge. I've used Maximuscle products in the past to great effect and I have a great deal of willpower (when I can be bothered with the effort) so the 60-day-challenge seemed like something I could try and stick to, when routine is mostly what I need to get fitness back into my regime. In this blog I hope to chart my successes, my failures and ultimately - hopefully - the achievement of my goals: to lose weight, increase my fitness and stamina, and tone up a bit.

Day 1 - Saturday 21st January
Started the day well enough - up at 10am (which is unusual for a Saturday), so I decided a Fifa session and the first breakfast on my meal plan would be a good way to begin the day. First meal was 3 scrambled eggs on toast. No bread, and I burnt the saucepan. Skills.

Day got a lot better though. Surbiton 5s played Spencer Titans - whom we beat 5-0 in the away fixture earlier this season - and although I felt I had a bit of a shocker, we won 6-1 after a shaky start. My plans to go home and have a quiet night in with my girlfriend were scuppered slightly by sticking around in the hockey club for too long (with the inevitable couple of pints), so in conclusion - Day 1, hockey good, alcohol bad.

After a decent curry (an acceptable replacement for cottage pie on my meal plan, I felt - though the keema naan to myself was probably pushing it) I was a bit annoyed with myself for already lapsing, but I looked at the positives, I'd started the day well, and put 100% in the hockey even if I hadn't performed to the best of my ability. The beer blip could be put down to early days. Sortof my cold turkey, I guess.

Day 2 - Sunday 22nd January
Another early (for a weekend) morning, another quick Fifa sesh and some bran flakes. A phone call from my compadre Ben reminded me that I was to meet him in the pub to watch Man City vs Spurs so I hopped on a train to Victoria and we watched the first half - I had a pint of orange juice and lemonade, and a bacon and blue cheese salad, which was a) quite nice and b) the first salad I had ever ordered in any pub, ever.

I shot off at half time as I had to umpire Kingston University's mixed hockey match. A nice little runaround on a Sunday afternoon, considered it 'active' resting. Managed to fend off the desire for a pint of post-match Carlsberg and went for orange/lemon again instead. Dinner was at my parents' place, rice and chorizo. Definitely an acceptable replacement for whatever was on the meal plan. Managed to resist the temptation for chocolate Fingers when we got home and busied myself with a LOT of Fifa and COD. Good times.