Another wet day today - seems that’s par for the course for my Couch to 5k saga, and the first time we’ve experienced a week-on-week increase in the running. The last run of last week was relatively easy, actually - far better than the first run. Today, unsurprisingly, was significantly tougher, though it didn’t sound on paper as though it would be.

Today’s run was 20 minutes again (with a 5 minute walk for a warm-up, of course), split into 6 sections of 90 seconds running and 2 minutes walking (so technically 21 minutes total). The last 30 seconds of each run were taxing on the lungs and the legs, though playing an hour and a half of racketball yesterday probably didn’t help matters.

I felt better after the run today than I did after the first run of last week, which I suppose is a good thing. I don’t know if that bodes well for next week or not.

I usually play squash 3 times a week - tuesday and thursday mornings before work (too hot in the evenings and I like starting the day with a bit of a run now) and sunday mornings. Yesterday, my squash partner and I decided to try something a little different: racketball.

I’ve not played racketball since school, and all I remember from then was running for what felt like hours for a single rally. Good fun.

So, we started poorly - both of us only just able to hit the ball. And it took a while to get used to the bounce and the rackets. However, once we were comfortable, we had a great game. Our squash can be a little one-sided (my opponent hasn’t played much before and I played for years at school), but this was much more even and we both got a good run around.

My aching legs are telling me that it was well worth it. I think we’ll be doing this again.

Racketball is usually played on a squash court in the UK (I understand the American version is rather different), and lots of squash clubs allow racketball on their courts. Most decent ones will also have rackets for hire. It’s also a great way to improve your squash game.

A common question people ask when they decide to make a change in their lives and improve their health is whether or not they should drink beer or wine. In the UK, where beer and pubs are an integral part of the culture, this can be a tricky question, especially for people who only ever drink pint after pint after pint of beer on a night out.

So is there an alternative? Does getting in shape and living healthier mean no more pubbing and clubbing? Does it mean no more socialising, period?

Let’s get one thing straight before we go any further - balance is paramount. Whether or not you should be drinking beer is down to your goals - what lifestyle do you want? Do you want to lose every ounce of fat on your body? Then you might need to not drink anything but water. You might just want to live a healthier lifestyle, and that doesn’t necessarily mean cutting out beer (though for the majority of people it does usually involve cutting down).

Better to be slightly overweight and happy than slim and miserable. A good balance is essential (Michael Bane’s excellent post on this topic puts this better than I have: Beer necessity).

So no, getting in shape doesn’t mean never having another beer. It likely does mean moderation. And yes, for some people that means standing up for themselves and being assertive - if the people you are drinking with are trying to make you drink more than you want to, or faster than you want to, then drink with better people.

And with the preaching done, on to the tips …

First things first - never drink on an empty stomach. You’ll drink more and absorb the alcohol faster than if you’ve eaten.

Next, start the evening with a non-alcoholic drink. Most people are thirsty when they start an evening so their first drink usually vanishes quickly - not a good thing.

Water is the best drink for you, as far as your health goes - most people do not drink enough after all. Alternating beers with water while out socialising means less beer drunk and the water will rehydrate you through the evening (beer dehydrates you).

Low calorie beers are an alternative, and not all of them are as bad as people make out. One of my favourites is Coors Light, on draft at my local. Normal strength beer but low on calories - a smart choice if you’re going to drink beer at all.

If you’re going to drink beer, try and drink bottled beer instead of pints (of the equivalent in your local). If you’re doing rounds (always best avoided if you can - drink at your own pace), you’ll end up drinking anything up to a third less than those around you.

There are often more drinks than just beer behind a bar, and many of them are a viable alternative if you fancy something different on a night out.

Wines are relatively high calorie, but most people drink far less wine than beer on a night out.

Plenty of pubs in the UK (though I don’t know about elsewhere) offer tea and coffee now. Replacing one pint of beer with a single cup of black coffee will cut a couple of hundred calories out of your evening.

Spirits are very low calorie compared to beer, and they can also be a good choice of alternative. Almost all of the major spirits are fine (I’m quite partial to the odd drop of Jack Daniel’s and vodka is often highly recommended as the lowest calorie spirit of them all). Spirits are only really a problem when mixed with high calorie mixers like coke or lemonade. Drinks like vodka, lime and soda; gin and tonic; whisky and ginger beer or ale are all better than beer, especially over a significant period of time.

Finally, we come to fruit juices. Unfortunately, in the case of pubs (again in the UK), most fruit drinks are not straight fruit juice drinks, but have tonnes of additives etc. Best avoided. Pure fruit juice drinks are relatively high calorie, however they do contain much more in the way of vitamins.

So all together, this means:

• You don’t need to cut out beer entirely.
• Never drink on an empty stomach.
• Always start the evening with a non-alcoholic drink.
• Drink at your own pace.
• If you do drink beer, drink bottled beer.
• If you do drink beer, alternate it with water.
• If you do drink beer and can find one you like, drink low calorie beer.
• Don’t be afraid of alternatives:
  • Wine (the lighter the better as a rule)
  • Coffee and Tea
  • Spirits with low-calorie mixers (or no mixers in small quantities)
  • Fruit juices (without additives)

Today may have been the first real test for me and my running partner since we started the Couch to 5k Running Plan. Not in a physical way - the run today was much less demanding (I thought) than the previous two - but in a mental way.

I’ve sorted my bed out. Don’t worry, this is relevant. I snore. [”Stop! You’re off on a tangent” I hear you cry.] A cure for snoring (and this works - my wife is a big fan of this method) is to raise the head of the bed 4 to 6 inches. Unfortunately, doing so made our bed start squeaking far more than usual. As a result, I don’t think my wife or I have had a decent night’s sleep in months. A few days ago, we removed the books raising the head of the bed. I snore again but when we both get to sleep now we’re sleeping properly, and I can’t express how much of a difference it makes - it’s phenomenal.

Anyway, back to the story. On running days, my alarm is set for 5:30am. That gives me enough time to find clothes and stagger round the flat blindly to find enough change for a cup of tea at the end of the run. Today, I woke up (of my own volition) at 5am, feeling awake. That hasn’t happened for a while. So I got up and began my morning stagger.

When I noticed the weather. It was raining. Bordering on torrential. I just stood there for a few minutes, to really take in the weather, before going off to make myself a cup of tea. Several thoughts were running through my head. Would my running partner have seen the weather and just gone back to bed? Should I just go back to bed? Is it actually humanly possible to run in the rain? Is it sensible to run in the rain?

6am, as it usually does, turned up at the expected time and I decided to go out anyway. If I ran alone, so be it. This was the third run - the end of the first week, and no magic water falling from the sky was going to stop me finishing the first week! My thinking is that there are several key accomplishments in any plan like this, and achieving each just spurs you on to the next - and makes failure all the less acceptable. The first accomplishment was going out for the first run. The second is finishing the first week. And so on. The next will be finishing week 2.

I arrived at my running partner’s place and she was up and ready to go. So we ran in the rain. And hail. And high wind. We ran on the road, which hurt (I’ve still not sorted out my shoes, so my knees and shins really suffer if I run on road rather than grass). And we finished our first week on a high.

One week down, eight to go. It will get tricky in week three - I’m moving to the other side of Hove so will have to run alone in the mornings. It’s going to be harder to get up and go when someone isn’t expecting me at a certain time. I’m hoping that having done two weeks of the plan by then the move won’t be a problem, but we’ll see.

Rest days are critical (or so I hear) to a good exercise regimen. If you exercise every day, you run a higher risk of injury (as you give your body no significant time to recover) and I suspect you are also likely to end up missing out on real life - there is more to it than just exercise.

Of course, there are plenty of people who like to feel they are doing something constructive on those days, to counter feelings of laziness or missed opportunities. There might also be a nice hour or half-hour gap in your schedule to fill, occupied by exercise on other days (especially if regular exercise has helped you adopt a better daily routine). So to help you feel like you aren’t wasting this time, here are 5 suggestions for ways to fill it.

5. Nap

You might not see this as constructive, but your body does. This is, after all, a rest day. Sleep, by the way, is incredibly important for good health and recovery.

If you usually exercise in the mornings, get up later on rest days and enjoy a more leisurely breakfast. Make yourself something unusual for breakfast (oooh … waffles!) or just unwind for a few minutes. Maybe make and keep an appointment with yourself.

If your gap is in the evenings then the same applies. Take a bit more time cooking dinner. Go to bed early. Watch a movie.

Whatever you do, make sure it’s relaxing and rewarding. You’ve earned it.

4. Cook

I assume you have a job - many people do. And at that job, the chances are you need to eat food. Lunch, of some description. A huge number of people eat junk food for lunch, or buy rubbish overpriced sandwiches from nearby shops. If you have an hour, you can make yourself enough food to last you several days worth of lunches - decent, homemade food.

I’m not going to go into detail with recipes, but personally I try to make dishes that are easy to reheat and tasty. Bolognaise, Chilli con Carne, Tuna Pasta, Chicken and Rice, Fruit Salads, Pasta or Tomato Salads (check out WebMD’s 10 Tips and Tricks for Healthy Summer Salads), Potato Salads … the list is huge. It’s cheaper than buying when at work, it tastes better than anything I can buy near work, and I know exactly what I’m eating. What could be better?

3. Review

Most people’s needs change over time. In my case, I am starting to undo the effects of years of desk work and bacon. I have a plan than currently involves playing squash, improving what I eat, and jogging. That plan is unlikely to be ideal for me forever. If you have a short space of time to occupy, maybe spend it looking at what you eat, and when, and how you exercise, and when.

It might be that when you decided to start going to the gym you wanted to increase your strength - but maybe you’ve reached your goals there and need new ones. Maybe it’s your stamina you want to improve next. Maybe you have a specific event you are training for now, and your existing routine isn’t making the best use of your time. Maybe you’re not eating enough or eating too late in the day. Maybe you don’t have goals at all (I’d recommend setting yourself some, even if they seem trivial - helps to keep you motivated).

2. DIY

There are few things as satisfying as doing things yourself. And a bit of time in the evening (or maybe the morning) can be enough to get some shelves up, or fix a leaky tap, or give your car a quick checkup - all those small jobs you’ve been putting off.

Few of these things are stressful, and almost all home projects along these lines will give you a sense of accomplishment - helping you to feel you’ve not wasted time.

1. Read or Write

If you have an hour a couple of times a week, it might be that that is all the time you have to yourself, especially if you work long hours or commute, and even more so if you have a family.

You already have a nice slot of time to yourself on days you exercise though, so make sure you keep that slot of time for you on the days you don’t. Read a book (something most people claim to not have time to do), or write something (letters, diary, even a book - though I’m recommend staying away from a computer).

Mental strength is as important as, if not more important than, physical strength. Occupy and improve your mind on the days you give your body a break.

And finally …

There’s no reason you necessarily need do only one of these on all your rest days. Mix them up! Personally, I’m trying to get in the habit of reviewing things once a month and the rest of the time I cook or get up late and have a nice breakfast. Mostly I get up later. As a commuter I get to read on the train - otherwise I would certainly spend the time doing that.

Images courtesy of MorgueFile.

I recently found out about a site by the name of traineo, a modern effort at tracking exercise. I’ve tried a few of these sites before and none have really caught on, for a number of reasons. This one might just stick.

I have signed up (as of today … see my traineo profile), and so far it looks rather interesting. In simple terms, the idea is to track your calorie burning and weight loss, and work within the community and with your “motivators” until you reach your own goals.

You can log your exercise daily (and your calorie intake, if you like), with a decent list of exercise options. Calorie burning is calculated based on the type of exercise and how difficult you found it. You’re also given the option to have a “custom” log, which you can use to track anything from sleep to time spent watching TV.

If it works, it could be excellent. The only real problem I can see is with remembering and finding the time to actually update it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Like a chump I played squash again yesterday, and then went for another run this morning. 2nd run in week 1 of the Couch to 5k Running Plan. I have learned two things thus far:

1. Run With Another Person.
   Running is dull and you’re more likely to actually do it if you have arranged to meet someone else at a specific time.
2. Buy Decent Shoes.
   Mine are at least 11 years old and well worn. As a result, my knees are suffering today.

Actually, the shoes thing is really important. The difference it made when I picked up my squash shoes (right - Asics Gel Tactic Indoor Trainers) was phenomenal. I expect the same kind of improvement when I eventually sort out some decent running shoes.

This morning’s run was easier than Monday’s, for certain. I’ve not turned into Roger Bannister just yet - still wheezing my way along at a nice leisurely pace over a nice short distance - but any improvement is a good thing, and I’ve been more than once (which in my opinion takes this from “something a tried” to “fully fledged hobby”.

Tomorrow is a nice day of rest (was supposed to be squash but opponent is unable to make it), and then the third run of the week is Friday morning. I’m actually looking forward to it.

There is a new diet fad sweeping America - diet meals delivered, pre-prepared. Essentially, it is a service for those too lazy to put effort into food preparation who also want to lose weight. Apparently, the irony that they are trying to lose weight by expending less energy is lost on the customers of these new services.

Regardless of how sad it may be to rely on a 3rd party to prepare your meals - something most of us have managed to avoid since our teens - and the recent news that people who are thin because of diet rather than exercise may actually be quite unhealthy, there is no doubt that these services are popular. Their success is clearly down to convenience - both in terms of food preparation and calorie counting. As with anything else though, each company is going to be offering a different quality of service for a different price.

Thankfully, Epicurious have put together a comparison of the prices and quality of the top 5 services: The Good, the Bad, and the Unhealthy: Rating Prepared Diet Food.

It’s well worth a read, and it appears that the top two performers, eDiets and Zone, are streets ahead of the competition. Nothing similar seems to exist in the UK yes (as far as I could determine), though it would be surprising if nobody launched a scheme along these lines in the near future.

After a month of procrastinating, and almost entirely as a result of starting this blog, I put on some shorts and trainers and ventured outside to complete the first run of the Couch to 5k Running Plan.

So before anything else, I must apologise to anyone from Brighton & Hove who had the misfortune to see me out and running last night. My legs do not often see the light of day. As it happened, however, the light of day yesterday at around 9 to 9:30pm was more of a wet, very windy darkness. Perfect time to start - few witnesses.

I am something of a geek. I like coding. I like building websites. I like tshirts with coding and website jokes on. I get most of xkcd. I have a map of the internet. I wasn’t always this way, however. Back when I was younger I played a lot of sport. Fives and squash, every day. I was fit and healthy.

And then I left school and discovered beer and the art of sitting in front of a computer and working. My active lifestyle quickly gave way to hours in darkened rooms, nights on the tiles and a diet of … well, mostly bacon, pie and pizza, if I recall correctly. Not overly healthy. Surprisingly enough, I gained weight.

Soon, I shall post a photo here - a “before”, if you will, to be joined at some point by an “after”.

I gained the weight slowly. Very slowly. So slowly as to be virtually undetectable. I didn’t weigh myself, and rarely exercised, so didn’t really notice my fitness packing its bags and leaving. And then one day, not too long ago now, I realised that I was unhealthy. I had even picked up a smoking habit along the way somewhere.

In October last year, I stopped smoking. Phew. No more inhaling poison many times a day in the vain hope of satisfying an addiction that I grew to despise. Incidentally, if you are a smoker and say you enjoy it, I say “bollocks”. You’re full of crap and you know it. And the sooner you admit to yourself that you hate it, and that it’s killing you, the sooner you’ll be rid of the damn things and the easier you’ll find stopping.

Back to the subject at hand … after a few months of being smoke free, I decided to take the next step towards improving my health and start doing some exercise. It started with a few games of squash - 3 a week to be precise. While a step up from my previous exercise regime - which was primarily based on Red Alert and World of Warcraft - it’s not had the desired effect. I’m enjoying playing, and will continue to do so.

I decided to see if I could bring myself to do some running again. I ran for a few weeks in 2006, and that was fine, until knee pain forced me to stop for a couple of weeks and, well, that was that. One thing I had seriously missed in 2006 was a plan of some sort, and aims or goals. It’s all well and good saying “I’m going to run three times a week for half an hour”, but without a specific plan for how you’re going to run and what you want to achieve, you’re - sorry, I’m - just not likely to keep it up very long.

Which seems like a good time to outline my goals. I have several. Short term, I am to run 5k within the next two months and start a routine of doing so three times a week. Longer term, I am to run a half-marathon, and maybe cycle the London to Brighton bike ride next year. I am currently 220lbs (same as 2 Paris Hiltons. No, not the hotel, you sarcastic bastard), and I’m aiming for 196lbs to begin with (and we’ll see where I go from there). That’s all for now.

I’d like to do all of this doing things I enjoy, or can at least sustain. In a perfect world I could achieve all of this while eating waffles drenched in maple syrup and watching Blackadder. This is no perfect world, however. So the current plan involves eating better (and not eating late, which is a serious issue at the moment - my wife works late some evenings so we eat very late), playing squash and running, all of which I believe is sustainable.

Which pretty much brings us up to when I stumbled upon the Couch to 5K plan. It’s also about the same time I decided to start a blog dedicated to health and fitness for geeks.

The Couch to 5K plan is designed to help someone like me - lazy and unfit - to a level where they can run 5k (about 3 miles in real money) three times a week, in the space of about 2 months. 3 runs a week, of increasing “difficulty” (for want of a better word).

The first, which I have the pleasure of repeating twice this week, is a relatively simple one. Five minutes brisk walk to warm up, followed by a run for 60 seconds, then walking for 90 seconds. You repeat this 60 seconds on, 90 seconds off routine for 20 minutes. And that’s it! “Even I can do that”, thought I.

And this morning I managed to finish the first run - a fact I am actually quite proud of, despite it being of a level that should be considered very very easy. It was harder than I anticipated - I had thought that the squash would have had more of an impact. Or perhaps it did, and I was just starting from a worse position than I originally thought.

My initial thoughts are that 2 more runs will be fine this week. So far, so good. It’s a relatively small jump to next week’s runs as well, which is very encouraging - same warmup, but 90 seconds on, 120 seconds off, for 20 minutes.

I’m interested in tracking my progress, so for the next couple of weeks will be trying out some tracking programs and sites. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, please let me know.

Traditionally a gaming console would not be high on the list of fitness accessories. Let’s face it, the most energy you usually expend when gaming is when you’re screaming obscenities at the telly because yet another 12 year old hiding behind some distant boulder has chosen your head as a target on which to demonstrate his long range sniping talents.

That said, things are changing. The massively successful (and still, 5 months after launch, not easy to get hold of, at least in the UK) Nintendo Wii has somehow managed to get pasty, overweight gamers out of their chairs and moving around. I can tell you from personal experience - it really is quite a revelation the first time you play, when you suddenly realise that that strange sensation is in fact caused by blood going all the way around your body!

So is the Wii something to seriously consider when it comes to improving your fitness. Is a few minutes of playing computer games a few times a week really going to help you shift that mountain of flab that hundreds of pints of beer has strapped to the front of you? Well, yes, in a nutshell.

Medical professionals recommend … well actually they don’t really seem to agree, but the general rule of thumb appears to be that you should exercise somewhere between 3 times a week and every day, for around half an hour, and the exercise should be energetic enough to get your heart pumping and maybe break a sweat. Doesn’t sound like much, I know, but the trick is motivation.

And that is where the Wii really does win. Motivation - or lack of - to exercise is one of the biggest reasons people don’t bother to do it. It’s understandable - why would you want to go for a run when you have an Xbox 360, Gears of War and a few hours in which to destroy Locust scum?

The Wii, of course, provides great motivation for exercising - it’s just part of the gaming experience, though of course some games are more energetic than others. With the Wii you can exercise indoors (no excuse that you can’t do any exercise because the weather’s too poor), cheaply (once you’ve bought it, you don’t need to pay every time you want to use it), and at your own pace and at whatever time suits you best.

It’s not boring either - one of the oft-quoted problems with jogging is that it can be very dull by yourself, especially going several times a week. The Wii has no shortage of games for you to play, and most involve a degree of exertion.

If any more convincing is needed, check out the Wii Sports Experiment and J.R.’s WiiWeightLossPlan.com (he’s lost 21 pounds so far of 80). There are even companies riding the Wii wave (heh), like WestCoast Fitness, where personal trainer Zander Urquhart offers Wii fitness classes.

Finally, you may be wondering which games are likely to actually have a positive effect on your fitness, as not all will. Sonic, for example, only involves tipping the controller - no real movement (and it’s rubbish). I would highly recommend Wii Sports (boxing and tennis especially), WarioWare (variable but can be quite good) and Rayman. For maximum effect, try playing against yourself!