"Asphalt Wave Saga" CHAPTER 1: The longest jump, the furthest fall.

Good evening / afternoon / morning depending on when you're reading this.

As you will know, I've a few projects going on in the background, including a novel that I'm twenty two chapters deep.
One of these projects is a product and while I still plan to be vauge about it on this blog, close friends are aware and have been aware of it's conception for over two years.  

I guess where I'm going with this post is simple.






I am going to release this project.

And it will be a success.






However...

My other half, who works in large corporations managing even larger projects was drafted in for her expertise, something I'm normally adverse towards (mixing business with relationships).
She spent a hour pawing at a keyboard before giving me an Excel file and explaining how it worked.

After our conversation it became apparent that my self-doubt and fears of failure stemmed from a large mass of data that's sat inside my skull, this data that flew about causing chaos desperately needed to be tamed.

This Excel spreadsheet worked out the steps needed to get the product ready to launch set into daily tasks with plenty of fat (fat means excess time to complete a goal to compensate for unseen complications).
Once I saw the timeline stretch out (until nearly may) it did dawn on me that this was a tremendous amount of work but after a moment of that, I felt calm, focused and precise.

I now KNOW what to do each day and this was the key aspect holding me back. Previously I had all these other stresses and thoughts racing around my head as I bumbled through the work but now i had clarity.

Lot's of clarity.

I've decided (since my job is fairly quiet until february) that I'd make the right decision. To be focused, tuned in and precise I needed to remove negative influences from my life, make time and knuckle down for one hell of a ride.
After a long discussion with my other half, who is very logical based, we came to the conclusion that the only real way I could give this a shot at 100% of my ability is to give 100% of my time.

And that means leaving my job.

"you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette"

Now before people think this is a good path, I'd like to stress I have saved up a good buffer of money to last me through and I'd never suggest anyone just leave their work and follow their dreams if they couldn't commit 100% to it.

This is the longest jump.
 Leaving the safety of work and grinding each day in my bedroom / office / design studio isn't going to be easy, but it is however necessary if I want to make this product a reality and begin the birth of my own business.

The longest fall is if I don't give this my all or the project is a flop, on the one hand my position in life will be worsened but I will be able to say I gave it my best shot before looking at other ventures.

It's only failure if you take nothing from it.

.

Recently I've been reading this, it's a GREAT book on understanding the psychology of habits and how we both form and CAN change them, I will be utilizing some of the techniques in my marketing campaign as well as my health and fitness.

I've never had a problem exercising, I have the right cues, habits and rewards systems in place that keep me encouraged and active.
When it comes to eating however, more so this time of the year, I let myself go a bit. I did this originally to give me a break from strict food and exercise routines but now it's become a habit, and one I plan to end. As of today I'm going to slowly try and reprogram my brain into better food habits, avoiding boredom eating etc.

I can highly recommend the book, it's a decent read and not too big.

Now to end this post, I WILL BE (to the best of my ability) blogging each day starting Sunday, throughout the experience. These will not be long posts, but just summaries of the experience so that it's fairly well documented.


Thanks for Reading viewers, I love you all.

Spiraling out of control.

MOTIVATION, AND HOW IT CAN SPIRAL OUT OF CONTROL:
Today I've witnessed what happens to all of us eventually, the spiral out of control that breaks us from dedication, consistency and determination.

Since December I've not been to the gym, now this might seem a little odd for someone that visits on an almost daily basis but this was the construct of a set of actions which have led me to today.
Today I weighed myself and I've gained the better half of a stone (8lbs). I've consciously eaten really well over December but critically, and more importantly, been eating the calorie amounts that I would consume if I was still hitting the gym hard and forgetting about my deficit. A small yet critical error.

I was brought back to my thought process that led me here, the me now and the differences between today's me versus the me of late September.

Late September's me:
"I'm going to drop the gym for a month, give my body a long rest and focus on other things and come back strong in January"

This was great in practice, I had a good December (minus a miserable Christmas) and I think my body got the rest it needed. However I've unconsciously partaken in a clean bulking phase as a result of not managing my nutrition and calorific intake.

A series of events have rolled out and caused today's me.
Today's me is half a stone heavier, a little lethargic and sitting on the second of February without still having gone to the gym. Today's me looks out of the window, thinking "I should go for a run" and then looking at the rain, finding an excuse not to.

Now that you have a perspective on today's me I'm going to go over the point's that put me here where I am. Identifying a problem and it's causes will help aid in a solution!

DECEMBER:
I decided to focus my time onto some of my big projects that I hope to generate income from, one of these is a novel I'm currently 20 chapters through writing.
This takes up all my free time in the days, writing, reading and editing.
Before I' aware, Christmas and the perpetration for it take place.

A few days later, New years eve happens and me and my partner travel to Paris to see in the new year, one of my goals from last year that I was soo happy to write off!!
During the trip to Paris I had an epiphany about my life. It was ok, but not the life I grew up wanting, I realized that with a lot of work, I could live the life I wanted. I have to buckle down, work hard and get my two big projects off the floor.

Upon returning to the UK, my time, efforts and perspective changed direction towards creating a life for myself that I want, there really are less limits when you take off the ones you place on yourself!

JANUARY:
I worked hard making more content for the book and started seriously developing another big project that aims to deliver a card game. I drink a lot of coffee and spend long stints indoors designing, writing and editing.

The payoff? My fitness goals fell to the side, life brushed them aside and I've become very aware that I now have the painful re-introduction to daily exercise, the kind that anyone wanting to change their life has to endure.

THE WORST PART of exercising is the breaking in, forming a routine and sticking to it for a few weeks to turn that effort into instinct.
Septembers me of yesterday had good intentions, but it started a chain of events off that caused me to neglect my efforts. Today's me is apprehensive and looking onto the re-starting with a grimace.

However... I need to tell you something.

Yesterdays me was foolish, today's me is lazy but we haven't covered tomorrow's me.
Tomorrow's me is going to look for a way to integrate both, work hard and work out harder, nail the nutrition and get back on track. Because success and exercise are tied in as one, they synergize and help the other.


Daily Exercise Grants Me:

• General Health Improvement.
• Serotonin to make you feel happier.
• The Ability to wake up fresh.
• Focus and clarity.
• Something other than my work to focus on.
• Lets me make meeting my health and fitness goals easier.
• Self confidence.

All these aspects will aid me in my work, I won't be sat in the rain clutching a coffee cup to keep awake because my sleep has been bad. I won't need that same coffee to kickstart me into work in the mornings. I won't be miserable and laying in bed thinking of nothing more than the projects, rolling around my head.

So here is an idea.

Why do people as a whole, those that do not actively exercise, look upon it with distress?

It's because the hardest part of changing your nutrition, attending classes or just finding the motivation to exercise is the first few weeks.
That's the time you have to make the effort with no rewards and all the punishment.

You drag yourself off your sofa, go to the gym, have a workout that may or may not have had all your effort in and then return home, tired and maybe even a little sore, to top it off a new found post gym hunger is sabotaged because you've decided to (un-wisely) follow some fad diet.

It's the people that push on, keep up consistency and keep going that start to notice something change, the feeling of exercise becomes enjoyable (Trust me on that one), you'll notice that you feel lighter, clearer and in-tune.

The problem is when you break that consistency and revert back to low levels of activity, you get comfortable, less active and lazy.

The trick is to...

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Not at the weekend, not tomorrow... right now. Do something, and keep doing it for a few weeks and you'll kickstart yourself back in!

"Oh Kiko I'm afraid I've not exercised in a while / ever, there is no hope for me"

Wrong. If my own mother in her 60's can just start going for walks and look at her diet, so can you.

It's only too late when you're dead, make the changes. Make an effort and do it now!
(Just keep it simple to start with)

With that, I'm off for a run, time to get myself back together.

Thanks for reading!!

IMMOVABLE WARRIOR

Hello Readers!
I hope you all had a great Christmas and new year!!

I'm working hard to a new Training program, it's been great, making amazing progress and getting stronger every single day. I showed the fitness plan to the level 3 instructor (Something I'm thinking of working for) at the gym to see what his opinions where.

He took the paper with a reserved look about him, he probably gets to see all, kinds of crap.
After looking it over, then re-looking it over he said the words "It's pretty good... Very good actually...A really good plan!"

This made me very happy, I'd targeted each day to a different muscle group, leg day on Thursday and Sunday is a much needed rest day. It hits you very hard on Wednesday and Saturday with a bit from all the muscle groups, I had declining reps, usually 10/10/8/5, using high weight. Each part of the training uses a complementing muscle so as to not burn you out after only a few different exercises. I even considered equipment rotation so that you don't end up walking all around the gym and then losing a piece of gear you needed to someone else.

FEELING NEXT-LEVEL PUMPED for today's session.



Taking something to retain focus, drive and clarity. Korean Ginseng. I know some people don't think Vitamins and herbal supplements can do much but I'm amazed at how combining it with Omega 3 1000mg really is for the brain! It's like that film limitless, minus the surge in intellect. I take these and 20 mins later I feel like my eyes are opened, everything becomes more clear.


Here is the plan, It's followed until April then gets a V.2.

So this is how my afternoons are spent, job searching in the morning until around 4pm then hitting it hard.

I'm not employed at the moment, I've got various little bits keeping me occupied but I'm doing all i can do to fix that problem, and as for the things I have direct influence over; my health, my diet, how I am to other people and my own motivation, I'm giving it more than my all and I'm succeeding.

I'm pushing forwards, and focusing on what needs to be done and I think that is a key mentality for success in any of life's aspects, focus on the main goal, give it all your attention, don't go to the gym and think about how shit your life is, or about the shopping, go and focus on getting your form perfect, focus on making weight increase deadlines, just keep your mind on the task.


We all have the ability to get most of what we want from this life, but it's not going to fall into your lap so go and tear it all apart, toss aside all the packaging and ignore the voices because this is YOUR life and YOUR story!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this, you beautiful, beautiful people.

The CHALLENGE!!

It's been too long... but onto that later!


THE CHALLENGE!!!

I'm still struggling to find work in London in the job field that I wanted (Digital Art / Graphic Design / Image re-touching) so I've got to make a decision.

The weather is starting to get good, and I'll have only a few months oppertunity to get the models on location for a shoot. This will also take massive planing, so I've got to stop and make a stand.

To get this all rolling, I'd need a minimum of £1,600 but to ensure everything is PERFECT which is what I always strive for, Ideally would like £3,000 - £3,500.

SO my challenge is to go, all or nothing!!

Doubt killed more ideas then failure ever could.

GOAL: 

- Gather £3,000 

Why?
To finally launch business at full speed, with a wide range of products, website, model shoot, promotional video.

TO BE ACHIEVED BY:

- July16th

Why?
So that there is still time and good weather to have the shoot and promo video on location.


HOW?:
- Phase 1 
Sell various personal affects that have either less use to me or just for the monetary gain. 

- Phase 2
Get some work, part time, full time not in the profession I wanted. Once the business is stable hopefully that can become my full time job.

- Phase 3
Freelance work, granted it will be in dribs and drabs but this will grant some finance.

-Phase 4
Any small scale business ideas that have a small capital start up cost that I might invent during this process.

I've had some great progress lately in my endeavor to get a better body and become more healthy.

I go to the gym five days a week, weekends are used to rest and sunday is the day that I'll eat a little worse than I should, mostly because I don't want to feel like I'm denying myself bad food as a punishment, its more of a case of clever moderation.

The biggest change is my massive reduction in bread, I now hardly eat it. Don't get me wrong, I love bread, LOVE IT. But it was just something I ate on a daily basis which I didn't need to.

I've found that its just being consistent and working hard (you know in yourself if you've not tried your hardest) sometimes you have to put in the miles to make it all worth it.

As I've become more healthy, and exercised regularly I'm starting to really enjoy my time at the gym, I'm getting more self confidence and can see from my documented progress that Ive improved in leaps and bounds. I will say this for definite; you really do need to put the work in to get the results you want, no point relying on supplements, drugs or surgery, if you've not made the mental changes in your approach you will never achieve what you want.

Eat well, exercise regularly and more importantly, make sure you learn a good variety of exercises, for each area of the body there are tons of exercises for each part and with the right ordering of the exercises you can spend a hour and a half on one body part without it becoming too tired after 2-3 exercises!!


I've got to go now, but I'm going to be updating more frequently now I have things to say, peace you beautiful, beautiful readers!

SPRING IN MY STEP

Spring is here, the sun in out and the very gloomy and record breaking cold winter the UK has just had is but a mere frosty fog on the lens of our memories. I'm sure, like myself you've noticed a drop in posts and to make this up to you and myself I'm currently taking a train back from London to my home-town  It only just occurred to me that I could write my posts in advance to save me work in the evenings which is my normal posting time. The main issue is simple; I've gone from a slow pace of life to what is now a constant stream of things creating disturbance and distraction in my normal posts. I’ll talk about a few of the things I've been up to anyway.

Things I have to fit into a day on average:

• Eating well (breakfast, lunch, dinner).
• 1.5 Hours in the Gym.
• Work on my Business (Which includes):

- Finances

- Product Design

- Marketing

- Business Model and strategy

- Streamlining workflow

- Social media presence

- Designing new products

- Maintaining strong supplier relations

- Email Sifting

- Arrange photo shoots

- Work on Shoots

- Arrange, and edit images after finding right shots

- Branding and Company Identity

- Promotion

- Setting and meeting milestones

- Organising all documentation and filing

- Conceptualising new directions

• Work on various Freelance design work.
• Work a job (at the moment I've got some intern work).
• Host game nights (most nights).
• Attend a hobby club on Wednesdays.
• Work on miscellaneous personal projects.
• Visit parents once a week
• Skype my girlfriend in the night when not in London
• Skype friends and family when in London
• Update Blog
• Update Various Facebook pages and groups

Things I have coming up that I need to find space for:

• Birthday of a good friend
• My own birthday
• 2 weeks intern work
• 2 weeks in a clinical trail testing Flu vaccines (It’s really helpful for other people and I also get paid to do it)
• Dental Surgery
• A event at London I may be attending to set up a stall
• Freelance work creating designs, manufacturing and printing T-Shirts for another event
• Creating a cheap range designs and prints to sell off old out-dated stock

So as you can see, I'm pretty busy and updating the Blog isn't a speedy system, I normally write it up, and upload the various images you see on here like the headers etc, this all takes time! My average Blog post takes just under 2 hours, which in the grand scheme of things is a huge amount of time!

However, I do not view it as work or even a service. I view this blog as a way of relaxing and noting down things that (most of the time) will help other people save money and time or just provide what I consider invaluable information I've discovered or learnt the hard way.

Anyway as you can see I've got a pretty tight schedule, so from now on I'm going to have to put to good use any waste time(like the long train journey to London) to get things lower on my list completed.

I hope everyone is well, oh and on the fitness and health front, I'm doing ok!

Coffee post... makes no sense.

Today in between working I've been working more on my game!
For those of you unaware I've been slowly working on my own retro RPG game for the last...7 odd years 0_0.
I only just realised how long this has been going on for... wow...
Not sever years solid, on and off, flowing with the tides of life, if I'm too busy then it sits on the back burner.

It's been a long time, and its not really even fully ready for its initial demo. But once all the initial problems have been ironed out its just a case of adding content, and that is my strong point!

I'm not sure why I've filed this under adventure... but it is.

You might note that this post is around the 1:20am mark, and might be thinking that I forgot to post today, well I didn't I just posted late and I'll explain why.
The last week or so I've been finding sleep hard, not the act of sleeping, I fall asleep easily. But what I'm really struggling with is waking up!!

This morning was the last straw, I went to sleep at 2am  (a normal time for me) and I normally expect to wake at around 9-10.
I've been waking at 2. That's a 12 hour sleep! the last few days have been about 11 hours sleep and this is massively unhealthy for the brain and body.
I've decided to actually pull and all nighter and not sleep tonight. Instead I'll work on my game, watch a few films and drink coffee.
Come tomorrow night (or tonight technically) at around 11 I'll go to sleep and set an alarm for 8-9.

I'm also booking an appointment with my GP to see what the sleep problem might be, as well as finally sort my tooth ache out that I've had since September...

So tomorrow is a general body repairs day.

looked through and tweaked my original marketing strategy, looking at improved ways of making this business work, it can be done but I'm not expecting miracles, I'm expecting millions! (got to stay positive)

Another thing I've be looking at is my costings, since I started this project in early august the financial climate has changed drastically and learning where I stand in it today is going to provide vital information in correctly assessing and delegating funds. 

WHOOO (sorry that coffee was good)

I can't function to write anymore... its 2am!? where did 30 minuites go!?

Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye :D

A Vacant Mess.

Got a sub project under way, I want to pour out the details, but much like my buisness, I hope to get the concept solid enough to market and as a result cannot mention much here.

I can mention that this is a boardgame, and I can mention that nothing like this has been made before, why? well I think it's because making something like this is very complex but after a long day of brainstorming with people we have a system that will simplify everything while giving depth, fun and most importantly, unlike most boardgames, will reward the player.

This will be known as "Project Burst" from here onwards.

Parts of Project "Asphalt Wave" are on hold still, and the same for the business, I'm not happy about it but I cannot do anything about this just yet, but might have to make serious backup measures. 

I'll talk about more of Burst when I get more to reveal.

Was cooked Won ton soup today, stuffed chicken and spring onion won tons in a mix of my chicken stock and my new mushroom stock, complete with noodles, it was a delicious soup and reminded me why Chinese soups are amazing!  

They contain a lot of water, this hydrates you and fills you up all at once, the stocks taste amazing and its a cost effective way to use a old chicken carcass, just put what is left into boiling water (bones and everything) into a pan and boil away for a few hours, drain through a sieve and store the fluid, easy.

Also a great bonus of this is that you can make a soup base, freeze it in a big batch and then defrost and add ingredients (meat, veg, noodles) to the dish and you have a cost effective , healthy meal that's quick to make.

Friends come and go in life, some longer than others, but at some point in life we have all be faced with a common dilemma.

You have a friend, and other people tell you things about this person that you never see, things that might be out of character.

Well as a friend you should initially dismiss these things as hearsay or at least look for evidence, but there is nothing worse than discovering what people have been telling you is true, you lose face and in turn have not believed the people that warned you.

I believe in life we have to just make judgements for ourselves, if somebody is worth sharing your time with then you should do just that, I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes, our friends are not always the people we want them to be, or think they should be.

To be a true friend you have to learn to accept their flaws as much as they accept your own, if not then it's best parting ways.

Do I speak from experience?

Not really, I've build a good rapport with my friends and believe that I know their strengths and weaknesses., sometimes it's hard to accept elements, sometimes it's not.

Yesterday I took a visit onto Wii Fit, not my idea of a gym but it can be a fun way to preform some menial exercises.

Firstly it was rude to me about my weight, but I had anticipated this from the Christmas binge.

So it got me thinking, what time of day do people prefer to exercise?

For me, back when I had a Gym membership I used to love hitting the gym for around midday.

It seems mid day wast the quietest time of the gym, I had free roam of equipment and didn't have to wait to use any equipment.

If I run I prefer to run at night, around 10pm, because the town is empty and again I have a free roam, maybe it's just me being unsociable, but when I exercise I want to do just that, for me its not a time for socialising.

My Weight bench is in my room / office, and it gives me the chance to drop some reps whenever I get free time, also have a standing punch tower for when I feel that's needed also.

Since I've got plenty of weight to convert into muscle I've started a process called Cutting, its when you have the bulk to convert into muscle you then beginning to cut, by cutting you eat less calories and eat less in general but maintaining a high protein diet, this way you protect your muscle development, you will however lose a little muscle mass, nothing you can do about it but the gains will far outweigh it.

So for me this means more fluidly foods, and better hydration.

Soups, lean steak, chicken, eggs, spinich, broccoli etc.

I found a really nice recipie for people looking for high protein that looked tasty, low calories and above all good for you:

It is basically a baked, stuffed chicken, and it looks tasty, I'm going to try this recipe in a few days but I'm going to upgrade it with some egg white and broccoli!!

Tettix is a Chiptune artist that I'm currently enjoying, coming with a similar sound of anamanaguchi who recently got famous for doing the OST of scott pilgrim.

Anyway that is all for today!

Good luck with your own personal health goals and see you tomorrow beautiful readers!!

This post has girth.

Good day to you!
I'm here, yup I'm not going anywhere are you?
I'll be serious for a moment, that last sentence is relevant to some of today's tropic, where are we going?

I'll level the playing field for a moment, my personal ambition in this life, amongst the obvious (marrage kids etc) is to travel the world, and more specifically I'd like to sail certain parts.
Another object of desire I have is to live out of the UK, somewhere warmer with dynamic climates so I can go on different types of adventures.
Most of all I enjoy culture and learning about different cultures, I've found myself at a position where to achieve these things I have to put into account other aspects, in other words its not as simple as getting money, and in all honesty it never is!

It's never money that people want, money is not real, paper has little value, it's the concept of using it to trade.
We don't want money, we want a greater pool of things available to us.

Money + desired trade + available trade = Trade + desired item / service.

Money is always a means not something really worth anything, remember money has a economic trade value, and this can grow or shrink by government and large scale corporations movements, now one could argue what's the point in this argument? without money in today's society you cannot get any items / services; and you'd be mostly right, but you'd be surprised how many people say they want to be Rich, or famous, but fame is only good for increasing your ability to trade, and rich could mean many things (we all know they mostly mean money).
Anyway, just remember money is not what most people actually want, it's the options to get other items / services.

Now I mentioned where are we going, well I'm interested in how many people think about their dreams? I mean if dreams were instantly achievable then most of us would have acquired them, and they would not be dreams! Dreams are mostly peoples extremes believing that achieving them to be difficult or impossible.

Well depending on the dream this is true, however I thoroughly encourage all people to try and chase their dreams, to not try at all is in my eyes worse than trying and failing.
I don't really know quite where I'm going with this, I guess I feel like times wasting away and I've yet to get into a position to make these dreams a reality.

Something I saw on my facebook feed I thought I'd share with you, not exactly healthy, but for its size I think its a nice treat for breakfast!

Link with a Video on a similar recipe.
http://wins.failblog.org/2012/01/01/epic-win-photos-breakfast-cakes-win/?fb_ref=newpromocopy

Something I thought I'd also mention, as a part of my new years resolution, I've given up ever eating (and its not that often) at a fast food place, and only eat at one Chinese takeaway once a month.

My weakness was Burger king, when ever I'm at Norwich picking up my girlfriend from the train or going for a shop / see friends, I'd always pop in and have something, and as I did this more frequently I realised that all this trips where building up. Now I'm not addicted to fast food, but I can see how somebody might be! so I thought I'd nip this in the bud, no matter what, no fast food (and I know technically Chinese takeaway is) but I love it so much and sometimes don't want to cook at home, this way once a month is a treat.

So I guess I'll cover my resolutions next!!

Resolutions of 2012:

• No Fast food for the year.
• I will have the body I want by an event I attend in summer.
• I will make my business work, while working on another business.
• I need to lose my ability to automatically trust people and make it something earned.
• Go abroad, it's been too long since I was last away from the UK.
• Get in contact with other friend groups.
• Finally Evolve.

Seems a lot huh? Well I think if I can achieve half of these I'll be a happy man!

Got some reassuring news from someone working on this buisness with me, and with it a new hope that the website might finally be on its way to completion, I've been looking into various couriers etc, it's getting pretty exciting, Tomorrow I need to gut this office and get everything back to a smooth workflow.

Also have a pretty solid marketing strategy, so lets hope all go's to plan!

Since Christmas I'd been a bit down about all this buisness junk, but recently I realised, I am going to make this work and thinking about it anything that was my responsibility I've cleared with ease sorted out the initial Equipment mistake, sorted and  built great rapport with the supplier, attended multiple buisness meetings with banks, attended buisness link free seminars just so I might learn 1 or two new things!

Anyway I've realised I have the drive, the commitment and determination (as well as stubbornness) to not only see this through but make something of it, and I assure you once the position comes back to me and I'm  free to make my place, I will.

Anyway it kinda for some reason reminded me of this song, and after listening I got re-energized and seriously up for making my name, re-gaining my pride and honouring my family who have helped support me financially. I can't wait!

Recently I've been having fun by playing boardgames, this is a new past time for me but I've already amassed quite a few boardgames in my collection, Risk was my first game, it was the orignal risk from some age long lost, its a simple and enjoyable game but a bit too broken on dice rolls.

Anyway my current two favourites are "Munchkin" series (Card game where characters fight monsters and collect items to race for the first player to become level 10)

And Runebound Second edition (out of print and hard to find, as well as costly)
Runebound says on it's back average 240 mins gameplay, we always seem to take 7 hours!!
It's a fantasy RPG boardgames, where players work against the game, racing to have adventures and beat the end boss.
Its a fun game, lengthy and should be played with alcohol and snacks etc.
The next game I REALLY want to get my paws on is "Super Dungeon Explorer".

Another thing I've taken a lot of solace in is Extending my photoshop ability, making new pieces daily, sharpening and learning new skills and improving workflow, since my buisness is very reliant in it I want to be at a high standard to provide great products consistently, I've used photoshop since my first year of college (2001) So I've been at that program for 11 years, much longer than anyone I know, of course this doesn't equal better, just more experience.

Anyway this post has become massive, and I apologize for taking too much time out of your day and hope this has somehow got at least one useful thing inside its plump contents.

Thanks for reading, and please comment, I know lots of people view this page, but without feedback it's hard to know what people appreciate and what people hate from my posts!

Have a great day you beautiful, beautiful readers.

Stage 4 - Episode 1: GEAR SECOND!

I'm BACK!!! It's been a long time, as a matter of fact, too long. Since the shift to Stage 3.1 there has been little activity online for multiple reasons, but what you should know is I'm back! Not just back, but better, I have started better time management so I can get back to daily posting, but something I noticed from my other (some what less serious blog) http://winds-of-fate.blogspot.com/ that it has a total of 30 something posts, and yet has double the views. It occurred to me that this blog, as highly informative as it is, was also too heavy, too much content with little entertainment, so During this Stage 4.0 I will be mixing information with general entertainment. If it fails I'll revert back to pure information in Version 4.5 or 5.0 depending what I reach first.

So the two new sections are:

Training will cover actual exercises, since I've only loosely covered it, I started with covering the mentality and the foundations to getting a successful routine for healthy living, but I'd like to talk about the actual training people might do, I'm not suggesting I'm going to have all the answers here as daily I'm learning new things myself, so this section will be just analysing and discussing what I'm doing and how helpful I'm finding it.

So, Christmas is over, and people are starting resolutions, if you've not made one or are interested I personally think the generic "losing weight" resolution should be avoided.

Being healthy, fitter and stronger should always be something we strive toward, I think personally resolutions should focus on your weakness in other fields and try to strengthen yourself as a person.

For example, someone might suggest to give up chocolate or alcohol, but without addressing the reasons why you do these things in the first place you will find it very difficult to stop them.

How can you do this?
Well firstly look at what resolution you wanted to make, think, WHY are you making this resolution, what effect do you get from this.
Secondly look at the cause of you already doing this action that you want to resolve.

For example, Jo wants to stop lose weight and be fitter.
He is over weight, and when he thinks about it the reason he wants to diet is to attract a partner. (easy to understand when you look at how the media bombards us with how it thinks people should look)
So what causes his unhealthy lifestyle?
After thinking about it he eats too much, and not good food at that. also his job means he is expending little energy.

==========================================
CAUSE: Bad diet - Lack of exercise.
EFFECT: less attractive / low confidence.
==========================================
FIX: Good diet - Exercise.
EFFECT: more attractive / confident.

==========================================

Now this example might seem straight forward, but without looking into the cause and effect, he could have come to the conclusion that he needed to quit say, chocolate, or go running once a week, which frankly would have little effect.

This can be applied to any aspect in life, I suppose I should have said from the start that all you needed to do was critically analyse your life's aspects, and you will find out the source of the problem, and also the solution.

Another quick example, somebody wants to stop drinking alcohol, but just stops without looking into their problem, in this case the persons looks to alcohol as a de-stressing therapy, as soon as that person gets stressed they will find the temptation of drinking hard to bare.

Had they addressed the issues that cause them to be stressed and how to better deal with stress, they would find quitting a lot easier.

When you are training, if you have any 1 song that will kick you into shape and make you work harder what is it? For me it's this!

It's not much of a post for today, more of a recap and introduction to the 2 new sections.

Until tomorrow, good luck you beautiful, beautiful readers!!

Day 210: Preparing for change.

I'm going to post this under the "Adventure" section even if it is a health and fitness theme.
Today I bought some new products (Will be reviewed later in this post) these play into the start of my new adventure.
Getting fit! Stage 3: acceptance.


I have got to the stage of accepting that I will only achieve my desired results thought a lot more work, and more dedication, and while I have greatly upgraded my life style and general health, I realise now that it's only once it clicks that you can truly accept progression.

Originally I had great ambitions ans was making the easy mistake of taking on too much too soon, and after a while the hectic lifestyle started to grind down slower due to fatigue amongst some other factors. This made it very easy to not progress and in fact slow me down.
I blogged before about people not making it a big enough deal, and because it was not made into a big deal by them to their peers, it was not a big deal to them either, but on the flip side, make too much of it to your friends and the pressure to succeed can become immense.

So first steps to making any changes and making them lasting are:

1. Make it a big deal to you.
You need to be in a place to really want the changes you desire, and not just for selfish needs like appearance but also consider the beneficial health effects that tie in with it.

2. Let your peers know you want to do the changes, and make it important that they know.
When telling people you respect, you will get two kinds of reactions. The first type will be encouragement, offering advise or just wishing you luck, the second is dismissal. Dismissal is a reason a lot of people keep their changes to themselves, fearing that peoples negative attitudes might effect their own moral or hamper the progress. Personally I think dismissal is a good thing, this offers you the chance to prove them wrong, while at the same time benefiting your own life.
Remember, do not fear failure, because its a concept that can not exist if you learn from mistakes. True failure would be to just not try, to hope for the best, or to just flat out give up without learning anything.
If you fall at a hurdle, analyse it, why did you fall? was the goal or milestone over ambitions? was it thought a lack of knowledge? if so, learn the weakness and get back into the fight! as long as you are willing to win, you will do just that!

3. Knowledge is power!
Before you do anything, read up online, or in a library and magazines just what it is you are trying to achieve, be aware that magazines mostly have agendas to push products, take information from multiple sources and determine for yourself what is useful information.
You will discover that their are easy ways to achieve some things while others are a lot more difficult.

4. Do it NOW!
Nothing says I'm ready like taking immediate action! So go outside do your stretches and a light run, or plan you're diet, or even if you just want to quit a habit, look online and start gathering information.
A huge amount of people fail just because they don't take actions enough.
Knowledge - Action, and repeat, the only time you should not take action is if you are already reading up or physically can not take the desired action, in which case make that action as soon as you possibly can, use this to build momentum.

5. Keep a routine.
There are no key rules, but without this rule in place you will have a very hard time making results, and more importantly be able to keep track of them. Always keepo a record of your results, this way you can effectively track progress.

Ok now these basic steps to making lasting changes are complete, lets move onto some products I'm giving a go!

I'll start off with something not so much healthy, but more tasty.

I recently purchased some of this beautiful tea, I don't know about you readers but a cup of tea can put me in good form for the rest of the day!
if you're like me, and love citrus, lemons and oranges, you will love this tea, its supple and has a zesty crunch to it making it refreshing as well as delicious, I highly recommend a try!

Keeping on the tea trend...

I had a spate ofg difficult sleep, and while my normal remedy was a hot bath and some horlicks, I also found a less heavy drink.

Extrasensory explosion, it has a deep smell of herbs and tea, its taste is no fantastic to me, but I'm not a hardcore tea drinker, I did find restful sleep with this on every occasion that I tried it.

You can find out more about it here:
< HERE >

Now onto health and fitness related pills.

Ginseng has a multitude of benefits, and if I can get something from a natural source i'd rather do so.

Since I'll be running a lot more often, and since I've had a break from it for a while I figured I'd buy some Manchurian ginseng, it is great for maintaining high stamina levels, and since I've had a break from running I figure that if I take these 50 tablets by the time I've done so I'll be back to decent fitness levels and stamina will be a lot higher, this will make the transition of not running to running often a bit more manageable.

Remember me banging on about the Neuro bliss drink?
Well it was pretty tasty, and had 2500% RDA of Vitamin  B12, the happiness Vitamin, this drink was amazing, it drastically improved mine and my flatmates mood when we used to drink it, but at a pricey £1.80 per drink it was often more of a luxury. Well I discovered these tiny pills in holland and barett, they contain the same 2500% B12 content, but for a mere £3.99 (on offer from £5.29) Anyway that means for the equivalent of 100 bottles of neuro bliss, I can buy 100 tablets for just over £5, a obvious choice really.

If you think you could use a little mood "pick me up" then get yourself some of these!

Wellman, the Rolls Royce of vitamins contains a whole world of vitamins designed and for men, there is a female alternative surprisingly called Wellwoman. I've not yet taken this, so I'll write a better review later, it costs around £8.50 and as I open the box I'll write what you get for your money.its a cool design, time went into the packaging design, Two sheets of pills, with again nice packaging design. Inside is a leaflet  witha bunch of other products on it with a lot of detail as to what they do. Basically its just a massive advert, and oh my they have some products indeed!! From hair support to skin, prostate to over 50... a massive array of potions and supplements.

I'm still working on the graph for foods, I'm going to break it into elements, like protein, dairy etc instead of the original plan, anyway i hope there was some useful information in this entry, good luck readers and remember I love you all!!

Day 200: War as it should be.

Been a day or so since the last post, but lets forget about that, today is the 200th day that this blog has existed for!

I'm not as excited as I was at day 100, because up until that hundredth day my posts had been truly daily, with a few exceptions.
This second hundred days have been more random in posting, I assure you this is due to my busyness and not due to laziness, admittedly there have been a few occasions when at the end of the day I've been to tired to post.

Anyway, two hundred days! That is the good part of a year, so what have I achieved and learnt?
Since the last hundred days I've not achieved much in life lessons, but I have worked hard and noticed a few things holding me back.

One thing I'd say was the most memorable change was the effect of working long hours has on the moral for outside exercise (in my case running) and as a result I've done very little at that.
I'm thinking of making *opens photoshop* a chart that will show where my time is invested, and hope that having a visual aid can help me make some adjustments and note the effects. The categories will have things like work, social, relaxing, exercise; you get the picture.
*just made one*

So today has been a mix of tidying the office, and doing little odd jobs (Other) and in between I've been relaxing with the other half.

VX Project is the game I've been working on for around 5 years...
Anyway I'll be adding one of these in posts and analysing, after a while I'll see trends of days that went well etc and be able to adjust my pattern to suit needs!

So what can we expect in the next 100 days?
I said I'd be stepping up my game, and that is exactly what I'm doing! Working out will increase, diet / nutrition will get tighter and I'll try harder to learn more from various sources!


So before I post this I'm going to introduce you all to a new section, a section called:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/541124

Coma, a very clever and atmospheric game that in my opinion is a visual and audio masterpiece.

Remember the wall of text that used to be at the end of each post? saying what I ate and what exercise I'd done?
Well that is also being overhauled and replaced with a more visual graph, so that its less of a brain melt of information.

See you tomorrow readers!!