Looking Ahead

Well as usual i have not been completely focused on this blogging thing. I think because I don't get paid for my 2 cents I don't really take it very seriously. What has happened since my last couple of posts about successful weight loss, strong running and culinary advancement? In a nut shell the following happened:

1) Failure and a lesson in humility. I did not realize I needed some self reflection but this makes you feel as if there is some higher being who understands and knows what you require more than yourself. I plan on writing a post about this so I do not want to give to much away.

2) Physical exploitation envisaged, some of my running goals have been set. I do feel that they are a little ambitious but I shall also highlight them in a future post.

3) advancement of this blog, I've been seriously thinking about adjusting this blog to include all the knowledge, training, farming (yes farming), pictures and possibly making money of this avenue.

4) Recording and taking pictures of all my paleo, natualist, banting, mumbo jumbo eating and cooking exploits. These shall be highlighted weekly and I hope to introduce a video of my cooking.

The third point is what prompted this post on December 1st 2014. I want to hit the ground running in my blogging going into 2015.

Below are the physical markers that I have used so far. They are a little rudimentary but I plan on setting new markers to monitor going into the fifteens.

	Jan	Feb	May	June	July	Sept	Nov
Weight (kg)	82,8	79,2	77,1	77,4	76,6	77,2	73,2
% fat	23,5	20,5	18,6	19,7	20,9	18,9	16,8
Mass fat (kg)	19,5	16,2	14,3	15,2	16,0	14,6	12,3

The numbers are looking very good. I have a adopted a more natural life style and ramped up my training. This is evidenced in the change between Sept and Nov. 

My old man does not approve of this new form. Maybe I'm now half the son I is used to be (start of a song). He is just worried I might be sick with something. You never know this could also be a reason. 

My running club, ACE, are giving me really awesome encouragement and are very inspired (I hope) by my results. The true results are the Comrades marathon and we shall see how my progress is effected. 

I qualified for the 2 demons of south African running, ok ok, 1 demon the other is just a stroll past 2 pretty hills ;). My marathon time was not great but I did qualify. The holes in my game where exposed and I have set about correcting them. I qualified at the beautiful Kaapsehoop marathon but I shall also write a post about that. 

This is my training program for this week. I am looking to possibly entering my first Ironman in 2016. To my loyal readers I hope to service you with more quality posts. Enjoy. Oh! I got a new Vibram five fingers, the Bikila LS, doesn't feel as great yet but I suppose I need to get into it. I got it from rather good website http://thesavage.biz/, enjoy

	Monday	Tuesday	Wed	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Morning	Rest	weights, 1km swim	1km swim, spinning	Rest	Rest	20km	Abs, Swimming Intervals
Evening	10km jog	speed training	Rest	10km Timetrial	Rest	Rest	Rest

bitter sweet

Its the start of week 5 of training, and I took my measurements. The stats reads as follows
weight:80.9kg
body fat:23.6%
waist:99cm
Its good that I lost some mass, however I feel like I lost to much and some simple arithmetic proved this, off the 3 kgs lost in 4 weeks, 2 kgs is fat (YEAH!) and 1kg is a combination of muscle and water (NOOOooooo!), i'm happy but not over the moon.
on monday, I let down my training partner, yes the dude who is meant to set an example completely stuffed up........what did I do?.........I did not get to the gym at the prescribed and agreed time. That is being a poor training partner and I should have known better!

I on my way to site on thursday and while on the flight I got to read ELLE magazine, apparently ELLE is French for girl. why would I want to read ELLE, simple that was the only reading material for me to read, I don't ever intend batting for the opposite team!
So I read a familiar "mens health" type headline, "what is he thinking in bed" and curious to see what women think men think during nookie time, and at the end of this huge article, I have absolutely no idea what we think or should think or ever thought. therefore magazines on human behaviour are B/S. I have a better chance reading ramblings from those star gazers!

Anyway with soccer and everything special in South Africa, I decided and my wife and I will attempt and check out everything "South African", So in that spirit we went to the knysna Oyster festival.

Knysna as a place is awesome. We checked out the knysna heads, view are spectacular, would recommend the featherbed tour. We ate at various restaurants in Knysna, things are cheap during festival time. Oysters taste very nice.

There is quite a number of things to do in and around knysna, infact too much for just a week, i need more time, we checked out bloukrans (Bungee), monkeyland, birds of eden, outshoon, kango caves, oteniqua tjoo choo(george-mossel bay). All of these activities are just awesome and you really earn your rest time.

2 items that stood out for us, was this place that we stayed in and just next door the eating place.
We stayed in the "Peace of Eden" the people are friendly, view is awesomeness, very peaceful, no one eyed bandit (TV) and 2 very cool horses and race horses at that. You can find their details on the net. It was the perfect place to come back to after a hard day of exploring and some wonderful peaceful sleep.

That brings us to "the red barn", next door to our accommodation is a macadamia nut orchard and in the orchard is the restaurant, 1st words that come to mind "peaceful". Then you sit for your meal, the chef comes out greets you and explains the menu (just like the F(expletive)ing movies), it was so surreal I felt like my desicision carried life altering consequences.
we ate oysters cooked in butter with macadamia nuts (so so good) as starters
I ate a chicken tikka(halaal) and my wife ate a vegetable meal (there are no words to describe how good it was, I fact my english is soo poor I cannot describe how good is was)
desserts(never never gonna eat that mass produced shyte ever again) apple pie and chocolate swiss roll, in the chefs words "fine confectionery!" and sir it was!
Now I am the type of dude who will not go out to eat a salad, but man even the salad was done with a personal touch.

As a result of my trip to knysna, I have found an appreciation of the finer things in life and now I take things easy and do things that are of benefit and have given up fast food(as a meal) only in dire circumstances. this helps with eating well as well.

the location of these places are in Rheenandal, which is about 2 kays(and I didn't make a typo 2km) outside khyna in the hills, very peaceful and worth the trip.

verdict unless you drink alcohol or doing some endurance race, the festival was lost on me abit, except there were loads of cheap oysters. Knysna in its own right does not need a festival to draw attention to itself, its an awesome awesome place, people are helpful and friendly, peaceful and safe.........next time I will visit in my summer holiday break(need to save leave).