My Path to Atheism

Let's get the not-so-obvious out of the way first.  The title is intentionally misleading.  This is not about my path or journey to Atheism but more of an explanation of how I have come to explain it.

I have been conversing with a friend about theology.  I find this a deeply interesting topic.  Here, in the UK, we have a pleasant if slightly mundane secular society.  We have a stereotypical bell-curve when it comes to belief and disbelief with the majority of Theists and Atheists sitting roughly in the middle and not really caring about what other people believe or disbelieve.  We coexist with many Atheists just assuming that the person sitting next to them is Atheist and the Theists just assuming that the person sitting next to them is Theist.  When the conversation comes up and you find that the person holds a different belief or disbelief, the response is "Oh, really?  That's surprising." and people generally get back to what they were doing.

I think that I should also point out that I do not go hunting Theists, attacking their beliefs.  Like most of my interactions with my fellow man, I let others come to me and they have come to me in droves to the point where, although not expert, I am experienced in holding my own in a rational debate or discourse.  Some things I have noticed in common when discussing Theology is the use of logical fallacies by Theists.  Now, it also has to be said that it is possible to come to the right answer but through the wrong way when a logical fallacy is employed but I think I will do a completely different post on these fallacies.

This is a selection of my books.  There is so much more I would like to read but these have given me a good foundation to the beliefs of others and I have also got some e-books such as three translations of the Quran and the Old Testament.  This generally gives me an unfair advantage when discussing Theology with those that have not studied different positions.  Whilst science is constantly discovering new things about the universe in which we live, religion has been putting out the same arguments for the last 2000 years and there are those, far more eloquent than me, that have answered and debunked these arguments to the Nth degree and it is upon the backs of those giants that I further my understanding.

Now, if you got this far, well done, I will now explain my Atheism.  I was born an Atheist.  I came into the world feet first causing much unnecessary stress to everyone involved.  My mother had always identified as Christian/Church of England but she was kind enough to not force her beliefs on me or my siblings.  I don't remember a whole lot until I was around 6 or 7 years old.  A few tattered and frayed memories, favourite toys, favourite friends but nothing really significant.  I was taught at school about evolution but it was not titled such, it was just an understanding that we, as a species, had come from other species before us and it really was no more interesting than that.

It was at one time, when I was playing with friends that lived just a few doors down the road from my home that they informed me that we had come from Adam and Eve and I was first introduced to the creation story from the Bible.  This was in direct conflict with what I had been taught about the origin of species and when I questioned this I was faced with "Oh, so you believe in Evilution" (Yes, that was how they pronounced it) and when I asked what "Evilution" was they explained it and my response was "Well, yes, I suppose I do."

I have to express my gratitude to my mother for her most important gift to me, critical thinking skills.  I was told to question everything.  With this skill, she effectively inoculated me against religion.  My BS meter became finely tuned.  At an early age I read the Bible OT and NT cover to cover and this solidified my Atheism (This was the 80's and I didn't know there were other Gods or religions)  My only exposure to religion was my friends who were Christian, my mother's friends who were Jehovah's Witnesses and the News which showed graphically what religion can do.  My mother had taught me to ask questions but those around me would eventually resort to answering my questions with "Shut up Cy."

In summary, I was born an Atheist and I never became religious.  I have never had a belief in a God.  I have yet to hear a convincing reason to believe that there is a God.  I am not angry at God because I do not believe that it exists.  I do not "Just want to sin" because I do not believe in sin either.  I do not need faith to not be convinced that there is a God because my Atheism has taken zero effort.

I think I will do further posts explaining how I have developed and putting into my own words why the challenges against Atheism are so poor and in many cases pointless.

Ye Gods, it's been over a year gone past since my last post.

So much has changed and not necessarily for the better.  Let's quickly address my last post.  My weight has crept back up so whilst I am not a fan of "New Years Resolutions", I will need to try to implement some life-style changes.  I managed to get myself a little shed.  Saw one reduced to £199 and found that if I ordered it online, I could get a further 15% off so I managed to get it for about £160.

I looked at the cost of the timber, fixtures and fittings and found it was cheaper to get a kit.  Had fun growing my chillies last year so hopefully will get a decent crop this year too.  I started a little raspberry pi project


I found myself away from home, doing my photography and usually I would use our laptop to copy files from my camera card to hard-drive for safe-keeping and freeing up space on the card.  However, I did not have the laptop available and I asked myself, how I could do it otherwise.  This cast my memory back to the Raspberry Pi which I've found is now in it's third generation (not including the B and + models)  So, out of my pocket money I got the Raspberry Pi 3 and started playing with it.  It is effectively a computer with the processing power of about a 5 year old PC.  Let's face it, it's not a gaming powerhouse but it runs linux nicely.  I then added the cannibalised playstation eye from my PS3 to add video and sound recording and attached the Pi to the Amazon Alexa service. A £5 amplifier and speakers later and I had effectively made an extremely cheap Amazon Echo (albeit with limited capabilities)  I then marauded a USB connector and 3.5mm sound jack from the back of an old PC motherboard and added an £6 LCD screen to the top and I have a working Linux computer with USB ports on the back for adding keyboard and mouse and copying from flashdrives/card-readers.  I can also VNC into the desktop or SSH into the command line from phone or PC.

Weight Loss and the Mancave

The weight continues to fall slowly and steadily weighing in today at 15st 3lbs. I have been sorting out The Mancave too so that I can exercise there without any inconvenience to others. Could really do with getting a shed so that I can move the gardening tools out of The Mancave however, they currently cost between £250 and £300 which is just out of our price range at the moment. I'm tempted to get a smaller storage box but even they are between £100 and £150, so I think it would be best to wait until we can afford the shed, do it once and do it properly, I suppose. I have plenty of skip runs to do but can't get the motivation at the moment. I might look at doing them at the weekend before work.

Garden Photos

This is how our garden looked prior to us moving in.  Five or six huge conifers encroaching on the garden and making it look a lot smaller than it actually is.

This is how our garden looks now.  I pruned the holly near the barbeque (bottom right) and the holly in the corner (top right) about mid-December.  There is a spiky plant in the middle at the back which was also cut back to within an inch of it's life.

So the spiky plant has budded these green things.

Which ripened to become blue.

S

The holly in the corner has budded and is now flowering.

The holly by the barbeque is shooting new life.

 

We built a raised flower bed from old floor-boards that were left in the loft.  The Fuscia is flowering nicely.

The flower-bed by the barbeque is now cleared out with new plants put in.

The Lilly planted right in Dora's flight path is not looking like it will survive.

With the conifers taken out, we have planted two honeysuckles to climb the trellis and a small apple tree and a small cherry tree.  

Where we have removed all the rubble from the back of the garden, we have removed the hiding places for the frogs so we have built what we call "The Frog Garden" for them to hide in.

The Hollies that are now sprouting new life

The remnants of the old connifers now being turned into firewood for the fire-pit.

Chillis in The Frog Garden starting to flower.

Jo planted a Salvia in The Frog Garden

Slow but Sure

My current weight is 15st and 5lbs.  My starting weight at the beginning of the month was 16st and my target is 12st 7lbs.  The weight is coming off nicely and apart from slight hunger occasionally, I'm not suffering for it.  I'm having the occasional sugar-free Polo and Tic-Tacs which are extremely low in calories especially when compared to chocolate, cakes and biscuits.  I'm also eating bananas and apples as a snack when I'm feeling peckish.  I've been doing a lot of work in the garden.  I will probably get some photos done and put them up here.  I've got a fitness test on the 10th of June so hopefully losing this weight will help me pass that.

Determination and willpower come in steps.

Intermittent fasting:
It has to be said that this is one of the best ways of losing weight but also one of the most trickiest to keep as a life-style change.  It does impact adversely on just about everyone's social life, especially if you have a social life that revolves around food.  Likewise, working a rotating shift pattern does make it more difficult too.  If you can use this method together with your life-style then great.  The second hurdle is riding past the natural hunger you get 1 hour after eating.  If you can ride through that, then the hunger subsides as your insulin levels then balance out.  If I was single and didn't have such impactive shifts to work, this would be my chosen method and showed great results.

Fitbit Flex and a Diabetic Diet:
So, I got the Fitbit Flex a while back now and have been wearing it almost non-stop and apart from nights/days where I have had to put it onto charge, I have been tracking my sleep as well.  This has given me insight into my sleep patterns (or lack of) together with how much exercise I do (or not enough as the case may be).  It should be pointed out that this is clearly designed for the US market as the UK food database pales in comparison to MyFitnessPal.com.  It is possible to link your MyFitnessPal.com account to your Fitbit account however, food entered on MyFitnessPal will show on Fitbit as a summary and not a detailed list.  e.g. Toast entered on MyFitnessPal shows on Fitbit as Breakfast Summary(MyFitness... and then the stats.  It would be really nice if the two fully communicated with each other but hey, they both have their own business models in place.  Well, I have diabetes waiting for me just around the corner and it is without doubt that unless I get my weight down soon, the choice will be taken out of my hands and my options severely limited.  The organisation that I work for will invariably throw me to the wolves if I get diabetes.  I have absolutely no faith in them to look after my best interests or welfare and with that in mind, I am adopting a near diabetic diet now.  This means not eating chocolate, sweets, cakes or biscuits.  This has inevitably resulted in a huge drop in my calories that I am consuming on a daily basis.  I am routinely eating less that 1700 calories each day and the weight loss is slow but steady.  When I get to my ideal weight, I may have the occasional chocolate or sweet treat but I will have to integrate this into my diet.  So far, I have got my weight down to 15stone 7 lbs (217lbs 98.4Kg) thus I still have a way to go.

Determination and Willpower:
This is where just about everyone falls down.  We all know, deep down, why we are overweight.  I have enough intellectual honesty to not fool myself into thinking it is because I have a slow metabolism or that I have a glandular problem.  The issue is really simple, I eat more than I exercise.  The answer is just as simple for everyone, eat less and exercise more.  I'll acknowledge that slow metabolisms and glandular problems are contributing factors and likewise, I know that some medication has the side effect of causing weight-gain but the simple fact is that if you burn more calories than you consume, your body has to attack your fat reserves for the extra energy requirements.  A slow metabolism simply means that you need to eat even less.  People who say that you need to eat more to speed up your metabolism will not be able to point you towards any study that shows this and you only have to look at the starving children in other countries to see that lack of food not increased food causes weight-loss.  Lets all accept that we know how to lose weight and that the actual issue here is putting into practice the theory that we know.  This is where I have been quite fortunate.  I have a very obstinate personality.  Tell me that my goals are unrealistic or impossible and I'll prove you wrong.  Give me a big enough lever and a hard place to stand, and I will move the world.  With this in mind, I was talking about my goals and that my Fitbit had told me that my goal is achievable by the end of October and I was told "That's not possibe."  I am willing to accept that it would be difficult.  I am willing to accept that it would be tight.  However, like F will I accept that it is impossible.  Never give up, never surrender!  So I have a determination in my heart now that motivates my diet and exercise with a solid conviction.  I will do it.  It is achievable and is not impossible.

Folic Acid Deficiency

So, I've got my blood test results and the diagnosis was a deficiency of Folic Acid and slight Anaemia.  Whilst a nutritional deficiency does not come as a surprise to someone who does not enjoy eating vegetables, how it affects my feet does.  It seems that it causes problems with the nervous system and my little toes are right at the end I suppose and thus the first to be affected.  I've been prescribed folic acid tablets.  I asked Jo if it would be cheaper to get them over the counter however it worked out that I've been prescribed 24 times the dose they give to pregnant women.  The thing I probably should not have done next was to look up the effects of taking such a dose and it would appear that long term use leads to increase risk of cancer.  And thus I am now trying to eat more foods rich in folic acid/folate e.g. Spinach.  and rich in iron e.g. Liver.  Now, I hate liver but I quite like liver pate, so this is doable.

I've also been looking at the symptoms of low folate and low iron and strangely enough, it includes poor sleep quality.  As part of my journey of weight-loss and fitness, a change in my diet may also contribute to better sleep.  The fitbit flex has been a real eye-opener in this regard.  

Two of the dashboard elements on the Fitbit.Com site shows the amount of sleep and steps taken.

It also gives a more detailed analysis of my sleep.  I had always thought that it took ages for me to fall asleep but it would appear that I average between 7 and 10 minutes to fall asleep.  I then get between 45 minutes to an hours sleep followed by very broken sleep.  The chart above shows a set of 4 night-shifts and me getting into bed about 8am and waking about midday.  You can also see where I have my afternoon nap.  You can also see the broken sleep even though I am in bed alone, indicating that it is not Jo waking me up.  There are some excellent resources online but very few appear to accommodate shift workers - One of the last things a shift worker wants to hear is "Try to get into a routine, going to bed at the same time each night."

As you can see above, I actually got 4hrs and 49min sleep which is really good for me.  I had been struggling to keep my eyes open for much of the evening and despite the following broken sleep, I do not recall waking up very often.  Obviously, exhaustion helps me sleep but so far I have not found anything else that really helps.  Whisky, rum, cider, ear-plugs, abstinence of caffeine and wearing socks in bed all had pretty much zero effect on my sleep pattern.  Also, regardless of the amount of time I spend in bed (11 hrs yesterday) I still average between 2.5 and 3 hrs sleep.  I think I may well try the intermittent fasting again to see if that helps.  However, this time I could try to not eat during the 16 hours following me going to bed instead of the 16 hours prior to waking up.  I know that this will annoy a lot of people who still subscribe to the "six small meals a day" and "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day".  

Whilst I really detest YOLO, it is important to differentiate between doing something stupid because you only have one life and doing something drastic to prolong said life.  You won't get me jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane but making dramatic changes to my diet and life-style in an attempt to live longer makes sense to me.  With that in mind, it is now 02:15hrs and I will try not to eat until 18:15hrs.  Might try this for a week and see if there are any noticeable results.

Watch this space as as usual, feel free to leave positive/constructive comment (nobody has yet)

Fitbit Flex Journey

First, a little recap or "Previously, on Book of Cy":
So, I met my wife some 21 years ago and we married 16 years ago.  When I met her, I was 20, slim and fit.  I was working at a solicitors office as an Office Junior which is an affectionate way of referring to the office dogs-body.  I did anything and everything asked of me which involved a lot of rushing around the office and running documents to other offices.  I would cycle 4 miles to work each day and 4 miles home in the evening.  I could eat anything I liked and not put on weight.

I started work at a small publishing company and went from a very active life-style to a very sedentary life-style.  Working behind a computer all day, slowed metabolism and egg & bacon rolls for breakfast, I soon got up to 13st 7lbs and there I stayed for several years.

I started a new career and thus improved my fitness although my weight stayed the same however my new career imposed even more time spent sitting with short periods of activity.  Add to this the rigours of shift-work, not being able to get proper meals at reasonable times.  Here in the UK, and probably the world over, good, nutritional food is expensive and not convenient whilst junk-food is quick and easy and thus my weight had crept up to over 15 stone.

I looked at different methods of weight-loss.  The issues here is that I do not like exercise and do not play sports.  I have looked at PS3 software like EA Sports Active which are good in their own right but I have always had a very small lounge area which inhibits the amount of exercise that can reasonably be done at home.

We have since moved home and have a much larger lounge making the Just Dance a breeze.  We also got a dog a little while back and thus I resolved to walk her each day a decent distance, thereby improving my health.  By this time I was hovering around the 15st 7lb mark.

This is when "disaster" struck.  Whilst out walking Dora,

 I suffered what felt like a fractured toe.  I had broken that toe twice in the past and the feeling is quite distinctive.  I limped home, each step getting progressively worse.  I buddy-strapped the toe up and got on with things, trying to take it easy.  However, after two weeks of limping around at work, my foot had swollen and become extremely tender and I could not wear my work-boots without excruciating pain.  My foot could not take any weight and I had to phone in sick.  Believing that my toe was fractured, I had to rest it.  I won't go into the details of my struggle with the doctors and their demonic receptionists but the X-ray report did not discover any fracture.  I've had blood tests which I am now awaiting the results.  

The end result of not being able to walk properly for a month is that my weight had shot up to 16st 4 lbs.  This is the heaviest I have ever been.  I needed to do something to get my weight down.  There is a definite motivation to lose weight when health issues such as diabetes, heart-disease, arthritis and now potentially gout are sitting in the background.  And thus I started looking at the influx of wearable tech and fitness trackers that are on the market.

My eye was immediately court by the Garmin Vivofit.  It looks smart with exceptional battery life and logs all the data I could possibly want.  Yep, that was the one I wanted and was for sale in Asda for £69.  All I had to do was check the reviews on Youtube and I would be ready to purchase.  Youtube reviews showed it as a very competent fitness tracker and thus back up to Asda to find that the price had jumped to £99.  Well, that required a little more thought and research to which I discovered that the Vivofit does not sync with my phone (Galaxy S3 Mini).  I now discovered that the Vivofit comes with a USB wireless adapter for syncing with a PC but I do prefer the additional ability of syncing to my phone for when I am away from home.

So, back to the drawing board and researching the most suitable fitness tracker for me.  The Jawbone UP appears to sync by plugging into the earphone socket which, after being the proud owner of a palm device with a screwed earphone socket from being over-used, was a complete no-no.  I found that the majority of new wearable tech is only compatible with the newest phones.

This is when I found the Fitbit Flex reduced to £69 in Halfords.  Steps, Calories and sleep all tracked and compatible with the S3 mini?  This was what I was looking for.  I also looked at the Fitbit One however did not like the sweat-band type of strap for wearing it.  The information logged is quite comprehensive and the sleep tracking is a real eye-opener.

It is early days but the wristband is like the proverbial bit of string tied to your finger.  It is a visual reminder of my goals.  The Fitbit dashboard reminds me that I should be drinking more and the food logging reminds me that I need to eat less.  The pedometer reminds me that I need to be moving more.  By setting up my goal of reaching the 12st 7lbs that I had when I was 20, the Fitbit site sets up my calorie limits to achieve this and has an almost holistic approach to reaching this goal.  Is it as good as having a personal trainer setting out meal and exercise plans?  No, probably not.  Is it far cheaper and more accessible?  You bet.

And here is the real eye-opener, no pun intended.  I have tracked my sleep for the last three nights.  I know that I snore, I know that my weight is a contributory factor.  I now know that I am averaging about 3 hours sleep each night.  This is a real motivation to sort my weight out.

It's the start of a journey.  I feel positive and optimistic with regard to the potential results. Comments etc are welcome.

Health and Fitness

I currently have a cold and I'm feeling under the weather.  I've not stuck to my fasting routine but have generally stuck to my maintenance level of calories so my weight is about the same albeit with a few ups and downs.  I've started the EASA2 90 day program on hard level so it will be interesting to see if I get any results from that.  I have not had the time or felt up to doing the UFC training, it is really demoralising when it tells you that you are not completing reps that you are doing more than double on.  Likewise, it really does focus on speed over form but at the same time, if you go too fast, it fails you.  It really is frustrating.  I'm glad I only paid £7 instead of £39.99 as paying full price would have really annoyed me.  It may be that this is better on the Xbox using the Kinect but from what I have read, it is not much better.  I think the next step will be from using bands to using weights.  I remember that the EASA2 issue was that you set the weight that you would use in the menu however I can use heavier weights for some exercises but not for others e.g. I can Hammer Curl far heavier than I can fly or kickback.  The options open to me are that I can either just say "blow it" and leave the weight in the menu at the lowest denominator and chop and change my weights depending on the exercise;  use the lowest common denominator for all exercises and accept that things like curls will be far easier and less effective; or use the highest denominator and have mid set rests for the exercises I'll struggle with at that weight e.g. 2 sets of 5 reps instead of 1 set of 10 reps.  I have set the new programme to have days off on Saturday and Sunday, so not to interfere with Jo's days off and to have Tuesday off so that I'm not working out on Christmas day.  I need to keep an eye out for a second set of sensors so that I can exercise with Ellie.

The Ubisoft's My Fitness Coach Club will get more use when I have got over this cold.  Likewise, the Just Dance 4 will get a hammering too.  We have downloaded Gangnam Style which Ellie is itching to get me doing and should be a lot of fun.  It would be nice to get adept at it in time for Christmas.  Doing the Duets with Ellie is a great laugh for all concerned.

My Fitness Coach:  So, I've had a change to look at this properly now and the one thing that I notice as lacking and it is a biggy, there is no long-term program to follow.  It has a calendar that allows you to see what workouts you have done on a specific day but no way to plan ahead.  The workouts themselves are fun, shifting from one exercise to the next quickly and seamlessly but after each workout there is a good 5 minutes of cool-downs, which if you are looking to do more than one workout in succession, you don't really want a five minute cool-down in between.  It uses the Playstation Move Controller which, as previously discussed adds an extra £40-£50 to the cost of the game however it is possible to use the game without the controller.  Also missing is the ability to work out with a friend which is available on both EASA2 and UFCPT albeit EASA2 would require an extra set of sensors.  This lack of an extra player does not affect me in any way because our lounge is tiny and two people doing kick-boxing in it could possibly end with casualties.  The sensor on MFC seems pretty accurate but then the trainer doesn't appear to care less if you are doing it wrong, just as long as you are making an effort.  MFC is ideal for those that want something that they can pick up or put down as and when their life-style dictates, there are no commitments here.  I think, with a separate calendar, you could plan your workouts and stay motivated.  I think I can use this to top up my workouts when I have the time which will mostly be when I am off work.  There are no built in on-line features with this so it is on par with EASA2 and UFC however there does appear to be DLC available.  Whilst not as motivating as EASA2 and not quite as much fun as JD3 or JD4, it is entertaining and quick to get into.  The only other gripe is that the weight is in metric only which is no big deal but I had to google my weight to work out what it is in Kilos and I'll have to do this each time I lose more weight.

Diet and Exercise

It's 04:37hrs GMT and I currently can't sleep so I thought it might be about time for an update.  I'm now 187lbs so I have done well since my September update.  I plateaued at 191lbs and thought I needed to do something a little more extreme to get my weight-loss started again.  I was in Smythes toy store with Jo and Ellie and I stumbled upon UFC Personal Trainer for the PS3 reduced from £39.99 to just £7 and I thought "Why not?"  This has also motivated me to get back on the EA Sports Active 2 and hammer the Just Dance 4.  I've done about a week on them and my weight loss has started again.  With just 12lbs to get to my ideal weight, I'm now considering the possibility of getting as low as I can without being "under-weight".  I also thought that this would be a good time to review the different products:  Just Dance 3 & 4; EA Sports Active 2 and UFC Personal Trainer.  To follow shortly will be the My Fitness Coach comparison.  I think it is important to note that these are all on PS3.  Our Wii is in need of repair so I can't give any accurate comparison of the Wii fit products at this time but may follow this up when we get it fixed.

EA Sports active:  It should come with three sensors, one for each arm and one for your right leg.  The left arm sensor has a built in heart-rate monitor.  I noticed on Ebay the software being sold without the sensors.  Unless you already have the sensors, avoid buying the software only because you cannot use it without the sensors and it would appear that the product is just as cheap if not cheaper with the sensors than without.  The other thing that I need to add at this point is that the EA servers for this product have now been shut down permanently.  This means that currently (and probably for ever) there is no DLC available for this product on the PS3 and the on-line features of groups are gone forever.  If you need an on-line community to motivate you, there are other web-sites but there is no-longer automatic updates of your work-out data.  Being generally unsociable, this does not affect me but may be important to some people.  Now, the activities are a mixture of fun sport related activities such as goal-keeping, mountain-biking, basketball etc and standard exercises such as weight lifting, skipping and Oh Ye Gods Mountain Climbers!  So, the activities like goal-keeping gets you doing lunges and squat jumps as part of the game with a fair rest in between each one so your heart-rate doesn't go through the roof.  However, activities like the skipping, split-jumps and foot-fires allow you to absolutely hammer your heart-rate if you want.  Now is a good time to point out that the heart-rate monitor sends the info to the PS3 which displays the data on the screen and logs your HR throughout the work-out so that you can evaluate your workout and see where you work the hardest.  There are preset workouts of different intensities and programs that take you through these workouts over several weeks.  There is also the ability to create your own work-outs so that you can tailor the exercises to your exact needs.  What appears to be added as an after thought is the built-in surveys with regard to extra activities which allows me to add my cycling and time spent on the Just Dance and nutrition survey to help raise your awareness as to how well you eat and drink (or don't in my case).  When it asks you how many fruit or veg you have eaten today and the answer is a big fat zero, I think you are supposed to be guilted into eating more the next day (but not in my case;)  The sensors are accurate which is good in respect that it does not tend to miss reps however, there are some exercises which if you start at one extreme of the movement it will struggle to recognise that you have returned to that position.  I'll try to explain - there is an exercise, tricep extensions where you start with your elbows up and your arms near the centre of your back as if trying to scratch in between your shoulder-blades.  You then raise your arms so that you are pointing at the ceiling.  Now, when you return to start, you need to force your arms as far down your back to get it to register that you have returned to start.  What I really like about these sensors is that they leave the hands free for either weights or resistance bands.  On resistance bands, one is included in the pack but you may want to upgrade this one because it is a bit weak, making it a bit too easy.  On weights, you set the weight in the options menu but this does not take into account that I would use different weights for different exercises e.g. hammer curls are far easier for me that tricep extensions  thus I would use different weights.  This would be a good point to talk about loading times.  The time in between exercises is not long, you can get a quick drink from a glass or feeder bottle but you won't have time to undo a bottle lid, drink and replace the lid.  In summary, this is a fun game, a good workout and is more motivating if you use one of the programmes rather than just using a set routine each time.

UFC Personal Trainer:  This uses the Playstation Eye and one or two Move Controllers.  I have the two controllers which I would see as essential for the kick-boxing routines but this has to be seen as a potentially added cost to the game and not a cheap one at that.  A Move starter kit will set you back about £40-£50 and an extra Move controller another £30-£40 so if you don't already have them, you are looking at an extra £70-£90 on top of the game.  However, considering how much use we get out of the Move Controllers and the Playstation Eye with games like Just Dance 3 and 4 together with other games like Ellie's Ipet and LBP2 and My Fitness Coach which I will go into later, it is a good investment.  One thing I do need to add at this point is that because you have the controllers in your hands, this makes using weights or resistance bands extremely difficult verging on impossible leaving you with the option of doing bicep curls using wind-resistance and imagination or very cack-handedly trying to hold the handles of your resistance bands and the controller in each hand without inadvertently pressing any of the buttons on the controller.  The game comes with a leg holster for the controller for when you are doing ground exercises such as leg-lifts and push-ups, which I will come back to in a moment.  So, like EASA2, it is a combination of workouts and exercise programs geared mainly around the kick-boxing style of fitness and I must say that this side of it is great.  I've started on the programme which the condescending software decided after a fitness test that I should start on as a beginner.  So be it.  The warm ups are the same each time and are not really as impressive or varied as EASA2 or even P90X leaving you thinking that it was too easy.  The exception to this is the mountain climbers which I hate with a passion.  So far, the routines seem to focus mainly on floor exercises such as leg-lifts, V-ups, Leg-wipers, bicycle crunches and crunches with punches, and this is where the software falls down.  It does not recognise the reps all the time which means that you can be working like a trojan and still fail the set despite having done twice the required reps which is very demotivating and demoralising, and there is no feedback as to where it is going wrong.  When compared to EASA2 which will coach you through things that you are getting wrong and allow you to keep going until you either get it right or skip the exercise, UFCPT will simply register it as a fail and move on to the next exercise.  The game seems to focus on the celebrity fitness coaches which, if you are into UFC, you probably recognise and are motivated by.  However, to me, they are simply athletes that are reading the same script as each other which become monotonous and lacklustre.  It has to be said that the kick-boxing is what is likely to keep me coming back to this product but apart from that it is too shallow to drive me and lacks the fun element.  When I reach my ideal weight, I can imagine this collecting dust.

Just Dance 3 & 4:  These are fun.  This cannot be stressed enough.  Whether you decide to play on your own or with up to three other players, it is enjoyable and you can expect to break a sweat.  So, the original play mode icludes about 40 songs from varying genres and dates from modern to about 60's swing.  Some are simply set dances where everyone has the same moves, some are duets where two will have different but complementing moves and some are groups where all four will have different moves.  Doing the time-warp with Ellie was outstanding fun with much merriment and mirth for those fortunate enough to witness it and to date, there has been no casualties.  Now, with JD3 you could set up a weekly challenge which on the highest level would see you doing about an hour of dancing each day for 7 days which can be a bit tricky to fit into your day if, like me, you have to go to work and can't always guarantee an hours play with other commitments and if you miss a day, whilst you can make your 7 day target, you fail that day.  This is what I like about JD4.  You can choose your category which features a random set of dances from that catergory and you then decide if you can do 10, 25 or 45 minutes, adding to this 5 minutes of cool-down time.  This is a really basic concept so I can't really add much more to this but as a motivation to get up and get dancing, these games hit the mark.  And unlike EASA2 and UFCPT, these titles will come out and keep coming out when you have friends over.  I think it is worthy of addition that I suppose some people may be self-conscious about dancing in front of their TV and whilst I get some ridicule from Jo, you very quickly get absorbed into the game and the music that you do just crack on with it and have fun.  On a final note however, I do need to add that I am coming to the conclusion that I hate Justin Bieber's music.  I'm not saying I can do better, just that it appears virtually the entire music industry can.  I may be doing him a grave injustice and will have to look into this further.

Today, Jo wants to be picked up from work at 13:00 so I had to go to the gym early.  I struggled a bit on my workout but I'm not sure if that is because I was rushing, because I used extra weights or because I have reached a point of overtraining on those muscles.  No work tomorrow, so I may drop the weights to those I did on Monday and see what results I have.  I'm not suffering from any delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) which is quite strange considering that I am doing weights which are heavy for me and generally doing 6 sets of between 9-11 reps with very little breaks inbetween sets.  I pretty much just take the time to write down my results before going straight onto the next set.

I seem to be waking a couple of times during the night but I'm falling back to sleep without issue and I'm waking in the morning feeling refreshed.  My muscles do not feel painful at all so I will go to the gym today and see how my performance is compared to yesterday.  I need to map out my nutritional values for today because I need to be strict with my diet to try to shift myself under 200lbs.

If I'm currently not overtraining, I wonder how hard I can actually push myself before I am overtraining.  I shall try to keep it up for a week and see what the effects are and then adapt accordingly.

I've found two schools of thought with regard to exercising the same muscle group daily.  Some have said that without proper rest between workouts, you will over-exercise that musclegroup which will be detrimental.  Others have pointed out that Olympic athletes will exercise for long hours daily without negative effects.  The general retort is that Olympic athletes have been doing it for longer.  So, I'm thinking that the only real way to tell is to try it and see what the results are.  There are of course some important variables.  Mainly, sleep.  My sleep appears to be generally better quality than it has been in a long time with my body waking fully after 7 hours indicating that either I only need 7 hours or that my body only allows me to have 7 hours.  It will be interesting to see if working a muscle group excessively causes my sleep to increase to cope with the strain.  The next important variable is nutrients.  I need to keep my protein up but I also fully understand that there is no point in overloading on protein because I know that my body simply will not be able to metabolise it and will use it as fuel instead.  With this in mind, I'm going to keep my diet pretty much the same and ensure my sleep is kept in order but I'm looking to work on my upper body strength.  I'm using moderate weights for now but I'll be looking to increase my weights as and when I can.  I am looking to work the muscles without overloading them and keeping my weights within safe limits as I see little point in risking injury.

So, on the 9th I did an upperbody workout focusing on chinups, pullups, dips and bench-presses.  On the 10th I did pretty much the same but my phone did not record my previous workout and so I cannot see how I performed in comparison.  On the 10th, I recorded it on paper and in the morning I will transfer my results onto the computer and do the same workout again and see how they compare.  If I'm overworking my muscles, I should see a decrease in my capabilities whereas is I see an improvement, I know that I'm not overworking.  And of course, by recording my progress here, I will get to see who is right and who is wrong with regard to overworking muscle groups.

So, I've seemed to plateaued at around 201-202lbs but I have increased my exercise with gym work.  I'm satisfied that the IF has helped regulate my sleep patterns.  My next goal, which should help getting down to a healthy weight, is to improve my upper-body strength.  With this in mind, I'm focussing on my upper-body in the gym and not worrying about my cardio.  I cycle pretty much every day anyway.  I've still got far too much belly but it is starting to trim down.  I've started looking up how daily exercise will effect me and it's a bit of a mixed bag with some saying that it will be acceptable if you get enough rest with others saying that you realistically need 48hrs to have enough rest.  So I will try to do daily workouts and see how this affects me and try to record my findings.

My body woke up at mid-day as per expectations but I managed to sleep on and off for the following three hours.  My breakfast is at 16:00 so I'm considering going to the gym before breakfast.  I'm having a quick coffee whilst I decide.  So, again, I'm feeling awake, more so than I would normally on nights.  I'm feeling a little stiff which is probably from the gym workouts so far but now that I'm getting back into it, that should lesson each day.  I'm not feeling excessively hungry really in fact I wouldn't say I was hungry at all which is a really weird feeling.  Yes, I think I will get my arse into gear and get down the gym.

Today will be the big test for IF setting body-clock.  I have just finished a night-shift.  I haven't eaten since midnight and I'm hoping to go to bed in a minute and hopefully wake about 4pm.  I am slightly peckish but not extremely hungry.  I am tired and feel ready to sleep.

I have to take time to record the single most surreal moment since starting IF.  I had recorded a packet of Jaffa-cakes that were going to be eaten today, and I almost forgot to eat them.  WTF!  Cy forgetting to eat something?  Two weeks ago, I was constantly hungry.  Now, I'm forgetting to eat.  I'm having to set myself meals to ensure I get my calories for the day.

Woke up at 07:25.  Sore from yesterday's gym session but awake, alert and energized.  Feeling peckish but got myself to the gym before breakfast.  It is strange because I feel that I am eating better now than before IF.  I am having a hearty breakfast each morning and a decent lunch yet I'm still pretty much hitting my target calories.  It's 10:30 now, so I'll wash up my breakfast things and I'm off out.  I've got my ingredients ready for making some Chilli con Carne so I think I need to be back in by about 14:00.  Today's fasting starts at 16:00.  I weighed in at 203 this morning.  I could do with losing a couple of pounds in the next three days to achieve my goal of 4lbs a week.  Not sure if that will even be possible but we will see.

Had my walk this evening which (according to my pedometer) burned 458 calories and covered 6.5Km (4.03miles).  Just about to go to bed, but sorting out my workout for the morning first.  I think that during work days, I will have to try to fit my walk into my schedule before I go to bed and gym when I awake.  This may not work too well when I'm looking after Ellie during the school summer holidays and Jo has to go to work and may need tweaking a bit.  If I can fit the walk in every day, that will be an extra pound of fat burned every 10 days.  Likewise, if I do a gym session each day, I should burn an extra pound every 10 days.  The more effort I put in, the quicker I should reach my goal.  Right, off to bed now.