18th July 2009

Before : 82.2kg (181.2 lbs), 20.6% Body Fat (26th August 2008)

After : 65.9kg (145.3lbs), 8.7% Body Fat (18th July 2009)

Nobody can call me fat any more ! I had my doubts as to whether it was possible but it just goes to show that when you've got your calories under control and you've made weight training a regular part of your lifestyle, you certainly can reduce your body fat to the kind of levels as when you were a teenager (in fact, I don't remember looking like this even when I was a teenager.) Anyone can do it and age is not a factor. For anyone who's interested, I followed the kind of nutrition plans set out in this book, "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" by Tom Venuto, which can be found here. A lot of my friends think that I must spend all my time in the gym in order to get like this. Not true. I only work out 3 times a week for about an hour, cycle to work and the rest is down to nutrition. It feels great to be lean too. The people who have constantly poked, prodded me and told me I was fat over the years are now eating their words. Hah ! Best of all, I can now take off my shirt at the beach without feeling embarrassed and shop for 30-32" waist jeans and tight t-shirts.

So, anyone who thinks that their body fat, lack of energy or blood pressure issues are irreversible aspects of getting old can rest assured it just isn't true. Count your calories and get yourself down the gym and you'll be fine.

40 today ! Happy birthday to me !!! (And to my Mum as I was born on her birthday.) You know, it's weird... I've never had a problem with getting old and I'm absolutely fine with being 40. I still have hair and thanks to my last couple of years of eating healthily and turning myself into a bit of a gym rat I'm in the best shape I've been since I was 20 (after which I discovered drinking...) What a shame others don't have anything equally positive to say - unfortunately, a large number of people around me seem to have all kinds of problems with me getting old, lightning fast at pointing out wrinkles, grey hairs and the slightest fluctuation in body fat (which I've got down to 13% now, thank you very much, and for the first time in my entire life I'm starting to see my abs.) And then there are the employment issues... don't even get me started on those. Like I said though, I'm fine and as far as I'm concerned, having a great time with being middle-aged. As we all should. Now, who fancies a birthday drinkies ?

1st Jan. 2009

Happy New Year !!! A new year and a new website. Weeeell... I'd been meaning to do something about my tatty old Dr. Funkinstein site for a while and rather than create multiple sites for all the bands I play with it seemed a much nicer idea to have everything under one roof, so to speak. That, and as an ex-pat you never really know where you're going to end up living so having your own independent site means that family and friends can find you really easily just by doing a net search, without having to be a member of whatever social networking site happens to be in vogue that year.

ANYway, I'll be adding new content from time to time so do come back and have a look for the occasional "Oh yeah, I remember THAT !" moment. I've got a ton of videos of past local gigs and stuff to put on my You Tube channel for instance, and of course I'll be starting new projects too. So, now you know where to find me, keep in touch ! Think positive and I'm sure 2009 will work out well for all of us.