Myvember 2013

Hat tip to everyone raising money for male cancer issues this month. Movember is a terrific concept and every year new generations of young men will come awkwardly stumbling through puberty with the same concerns that ever other generation of men have faced. It's for those young fellas that we need to continually push the need for education, awareness and the importance of visiting your doctor to discuss honestly and without fear of embarrassment matters pertaining to our physical well-being.

I have only one concern and that is that sometimes we might just be missing the elephant in the room; that in our typical male zeal for competition where we challenge one another to grow the finest tache, or to raise the most money are we putting the cart before the horse. Shouldn't we simply make our own efforts to raise awareness. Highlight to one another that we need to ask our doctors for prostate tests and to have abnormalities examined; acknowledge that there are other benign conditions which could have similar symptoms to those of a cancer, but it's a whole lot smarter to get a benign condition checked out than to allow a cancer to develop unchecked - never mind the mental relief when that dark shadow at the back of your mind has been addressed. No point growing a big gunslinger for money and not getting your own issues addressed.

For My November this year, I'm going to sport a tache in support of the bro's who do so, but I don't want your money. I want you to look after yourself and go and get those things that checked out, checked out. Go and see your Doctor about that creaky knee - get some physio organised and get active again. Go talk about your digestive issues. Drink less this month - have a few extra AFDs (Alcohol Free Days)! Do something for yourself and your health every day whether it's a cardio session or as simple as a health check - that's what I'm going to do, even if it is just getting my teeth checked, it counts!

Starting at 86.3kg, this is MYvember:

Day	Activity	Effort	A.F.D.
1	Treadmill 5km	26 mins Hard	Y - 1
2	Boxing circuits (Sweeneys)	30 mins Easy	N - 1
3	Road Running 6km	Easy	N - 1
4	Dental Checkup	n/a	N - 1
5	Spin Class	300 kCal - Hard	Y - 2
6	Swimming	Moderate	Y - 3
7	KickBox Circuits	v. Hard	Y - 4
8	Gym stretch & Swim	v. Easy	Y - 5
9	Watch the rugby with a bottle of wine	n/a	N - 5
10	Swimming training	Moderate	Y - 6
11	Body Pump Class	Hard	Y - 7
12	Spin Class	Hard	Y - 8
13	Swimming	Easy	Y - 9
14	KickBox Circuits	v. Hard	Y -10
15	Walk	Easy	N -10
16	Watch Rugby	n/a	N -10
17	Swimming & watch Rugby, Travel to Paris	v. Hard	N -10
18	Jogging Champs Elysee, Arc de Triomphe	Easy	N -10
19	Conference & Travelling home	n/a	N -10
20	Walking	v. Easy	Y -11
21	KickBox Circuits	v. Hard	Y -12
22	Gym & swim	Moderate	N -13
23	Swim & Squash	Moderate	N -13
24	Daughter's birthday party ;-)	n/a	N -13
25	Pump Class (30 mins)	Hard	Y -14
26	Spin class (30 mins)	Hard	N -14
27	Swim & stretch	Moderate	Y -15
28	KickBox Circuits	v. Hard	N -15
29	Squash League match	v. Hard	N -15
30	Kids Swimming	v. Easy	N -15

Summary: I started the month @ 86.3 Kg and finished at 85.9 kg - that's just measurement noise unfortunately, so we can't claim any great weight loss. Just by looking at the alcohol consumption in a very specific way it seems that I've had at least a glass of wine, if not more, on exactly 50% of the days this month. If you'd asked me to predict what days I might drink during the month I'd have said probably about 6-8 days, so that's a bit disappointing - but quite telling in it's own way. I had 12 fitness sessions lasting 30 minutes or more that I would class as working hard with 5 sessions of moderate effort and 8 easy sessions. Interesting, as I feel pretty good generally, but I do think I need to lose weight!