My original intention for today's email was going to be the story of my weekends event in Tenby where I completed a Long Distance Triathlon.
However, some news today has changed the topic to more of a rant but one that I think needs to be
read.
A friend of mine has had a heart attack and has had to have a stent fitted. Nothing shocking about that, lots of people have heart attacks.
The shocking part is that his 40th birthday is in a few weeks.
He's young.
I don't see him very often but when I do he always tell me that he's going to start being healthy and get fit. He always adds "I don't want to do any of that crazy sh!t that you do" or words along those lines dependent on how many beers we've had.
That's one of the reasons I don't write very often about the exercise I do. It can be intimidating.
I have friends who "compete" in long distance events; that is, they take their training seriously. They post details of their sessions, I look at them and think I could never match that, I jest that I'm a casual ironman.
My aim is to inspire people to lead healthier lifestyles not to do "stupid f**king man" events as one of my friends
put it.
To lead a healthier lifestyle you can make simple changes that I write about often.
The excuses my friends used are common and my replies to those that I'm now going to use may upset some of you, if that leads you to take note and change I'm happy. If it leads you to unsubscribe, we were never going to be a good fit to work
together.
Excuse No.1
I don't have time to exercise.
You don't have time to be dead. Exercise doesn't have to take a long time. A minute more than you did yesterday is still progress. The cheesy tips like parking the car a couple of spaces further away from the shops all add up.
We're in an age of too much information, 'experts' have complicated exercise to sell products and books.
It doesn't matter what you do, just get slightly out of breath as many times as possible throughout the week.
Excuse No.2
Eating healthy is too
expensive.
So is long term illness.
And eating healthy is not expensive. Again the media and experts have complicated it.
Eat less food with bar codes on and more foods close to their natural state.
Make small changes
every day.
We're not perfect, in fact we're far from it. We do try to eat good nutritious food every day and at a majority of meals.
We'll still eat a take away and you know I love the cakes but most of the time we do the best we can and make time to prepare fresh food.
Feeling alive is important to us and when our diet slips we notice that we feel a little less so.
What will it take for you to make positive changes in your life?
Darren 'get started'
Checkley