1 Million steps Challenge- Day 7

Published July 7, 2022 by shoutyourheadoff

This is the pond at Burnham Beeches. It was part of our walk through this parkland which has a rich history.

We started our walk from the Beeches cafe and went north as guided by our very informative and knowledgeable Chris. She explained the route we were going to take and where there would be interesting sites to see and learn about. For me personally, the walk was a little tough because I am not used to hilly climbs, but did manage to finish the whole course. I will post pictures rather than words, which are self-explanatory about the beauty of this historic place. I also managed to add just over 10 thousand steps on this 3.8-mile walk towards my diabetes.UK challenge of a million steps by the end of September 2022.

From next week, I will do weekly postings so as not make this journey boring and too lengthy. I’m hoping that all my followers will keep supporting and liking the blog so I can grow and write about more diverse topics as well.

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/woods/burnham-beeches/

Walking Back to Fitness..Part 1

Published June 30, 2022 by shoutyourheadoff

My journey to walk back to fitness started in September 2021. I am on a mission to get my life back, enjoy every moment along the way and never give up. When a person becomes so ill, he or she may give up thinking they can’t carry on anymore. I probably felt the same in the beginning but I’m not for quitting. I always make an attempt at completing any task I take on and walking back to fitness to regain my life after getting Covid 19 was number one on my list.

Here I will tell you about my challenges and walks since September 2021 and then I will write about the first major challenge I took on in March 2022. I will share some pictures of some of the wonderful trails and walks that I have already completed. And then in part 2, I will write about my new challenge for Diabetes.co.uk where I will attempt to reach a goal of half a million steps between 1st July 2022 and 30 September 2022. The challenge is for a million steps, but I have chosen a realistic half a million steps. Anything I achieve over my target will be a bonus.

My first walk to get fit took place inside my house! Yes, I was able to walk from the lounge through in dining room and back via the kitchen into the lounge. I went round in circles walking as fast as possible and started with a five-thousand steps goal. It was difficult but I managed it and slowly moved into the garden where I did the same thing, creating a trail of circles on the lawn! This had to change so I started visiting the local Pippins Park where there was already a track laid out for walking or running. There is an outside gym which I also started to use. It was not long before I was achieving over five thousand steps during my walks. Somedays, when it was cold during the winter months, I found it difficult but not impossible, and I always had the house to fall back on.

My walking challenge took me to various National Trust sites and Runneymead and the Magna Carta park were my favourites. The paths are well laid out and walking beside the River Thames is always a great bonus. I visited Claremont Gardens in Esher and Bookham Common in Maidenhead. The one I enjoyed immensely was Cliveden House. This place has great gardens but the house and Thames Path behind the big house is a beautiful place to visit. There are 45-minute boat trips taking in some spectacular scenery of the tower on top of Cliveden House, which has a golden glow when the sun shines on it. I visited many places of beauty and interest. And during the final week of March 2022, I visited FAro in Portugal where I completed my 31-day challenge. Phew!

I have already mentioned my first challenge for Marie Curie Cance Care. That started on 1st March 2022 with 10k steps a day.

This is in Laleham near Staines where I walked along the Thames path towards Ashford Middlesex, where some of the views are really beautiful as well as the Riverfront properties which have some spectacular views.

The above photos are a sample of some of the places I visited. Walking not only improved my health with a significant weight loss but my mental health improved as I had the time for a lot of self-reflection and it gave me the opportunity to assess my then state of mind and where my life was headed. I would recommend walking to anyone that has the physical ability to do so. Although I started my walks alone with a good Audible book or some music, I found that joining a group called the Windsor and District Ramblers, which are part of the Ramblers.org site, gave me the chance to interact with like-minded people and have discussions along the way on many a varied subject. This made my walks interesting, and enjoyable. They recently celebrated 27 years as a local Ramling group.

Some more photos from Faro in Portugal.

From Tomorrow 1st of July 2022, I am starting my million-step challenge for Diabetes UK. I hope that my followers and new ones will support and encourage me along the way. See you all in the next chapter.

New Beginnings- Week 5

Published February 8, 2022 by shoutyourheadoff

This week has been a big booster to my morale. I’ve lost 2kgs and come down to 89.1kg.

This feels good because I am still on target with all my measurements, ie, Blood pressure, sugar levels all below or within expectation. I have to admit that on Saturday 5th February, I thought I would be struggling to keep to my target and diet, as I had been invited to a dinner by my brother and sister-in-law, to celebrate 45 years of marriage!

So obviously, I did indulge a bit more than my normal daily intake. I was reading to get on the scales. But I gave my stomach rest on Sunday by just eating one main meal and a liquid breakfast of a superfood drink made from almond milk and blueberries. I am using, or rather trialing for myself a superfoods powder made by Nutriseed. This one drink in the morning gives me enough nutrients, protein and carbs until lunchtime.

I also have to bring back my state of mind because we all know how food affects mood swings. Well, mine does anyway, and I did have an episode for two days, where I was down in un dumps and couldn’t easily pick myself up. I couldn’t really work out what was weighing me down, and it came quite suddenly. However, I did some meditation, mind searching, and deep breathing exercises to overcome my problems. I still don’t know what had happened to make me feel like this. It was a debilitating type of feeling, constantly questioning myself. And did I find the answer? NO ! and that is a little frustrating because if it happens again, I want to be able to deal with it quickly.

On a positive note, I am receiving positive feedback from the readers of my journey, so thank you to all the comments and likes, which only encourages me to get that goal.

Until week 6 then……….!

The Moment When President Obama Realized He Needed Luther

Published April 27, 2015 by shoutyourheadoff

This is hilarious if you’re American and understand everything the guy in the back is on about.

Longreads

-From Zadie Smith’s New Yorker profile of Comedy Central stars Key and Peele. Keegan-Michael Key reprised his role as Luther for President Obama’s weekend speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

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Documentary Photography: Photos of the Week

Published April 11, 2015 by shoutyourheadoff

DOCIT

Check out what PJ students at the International Centre of Photography were up to this week.

Light and Shadow/Soumita Bhattacharya

Grand Central Terminal/Yolande Daeninck

Playing with Portrait – Camila Svenson/Griselda San Martin

Playing with Portrait – Shih-Chieh Wei/Griselda San Martin

Playing with Portrait – Fabiana Sala/Griselda San Martin

Montauk End of the World/Sara Frisby

Portrait – Esteban Kuriel/Shih-Chieh Wei

Portrait – Griselda San Martin/Shih-Chieh Wei

Arrival on Staten Island/Gareth Smit

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How To Be, In Silence

Published April 7, 2015 by shoutyourheadoff

I love to read what the Dalai Lama has to say. His wisdom is inspiring to say the least and if some if not all is followed ,it could lead to a more acceptable, and peaceful life

Longreads

The social world, for all of its fundamental gifts — love, empathy, the lessons arguing provides — obscures the whole self, allowing each of us to mute what is harder to absorb about ourselves in a din of habit and distraction. When an artist breaks through that din, which seems to grow ever louder, she reflects solitude’s crisis: the challenge of being, unmasked.
“I wanted to be quiet in a nonquiet situation,” the composer John Cage wrote in 1948, while he was still formulating a solution that would eventually lead to his famous innovation of writing music with no notes at all. In 1949, the most famous monk of the last century — Thomas Merton — lamented that even cloistered religious people had become too conscious of what their renunciations might do, keeping silence as a form of payback for all the clatter in the world, instead of accessing…

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What is ShoutYourHeadOff

Published March 20, 2015 by shoutyourheadoff

Shout Your Head Off? What’s it all about then?

In a few words, SYHO (as we like to call it) is about freedom of speech.

SYHO was founded due to frustrations with the systems that govern our lives and I wanted to basically ‘shout my head off’ at everything and to anyone that would listen. That’s how SYHO was born, so I immediately registered the domain name “Shoutyourheadoff.com”.

I’ve built a close SYHO Team and so far we have been working undercover; gathering opinions, creating our vision and I have been bombarding the SYHO Team with my shouts via e-mail, in meetings and over the phone!

Our Goal & Purpose

The SYHO Team are a disparate bunch. We cover a number of tick boxes just by our age ranges alone….and our backgrounds are very diverse, BUT the vision and message of SYHO unifies us.

The goal is to get everyone who wants to shout at or about something using our SYHO Platform to do so.

Maybe it’s a birthday, a party, a live music gig, a book launch, or you want to start a debate? SYHO is the place to get the ball rolling. You want to record a video and upload your views? Upload an inspiring song? A thought-provoking film clip? The options are going to be endless.

What’s the small print?

Naturally, no slanderous comments, racial abuse, sexual harassment, or libellous ‘stuff’ will be permitted. The SYHO Team is about respect and we want our partners, contributors and viewers to embrace this philosophy.

You can browse the site for free, but if you want to contribute, you gotta join and become a SYHO Member. It’s free!

We want to inspire you to use your voices so they impact our community / society / country in a positive way. Hey, why not even go global. At the end of the day, we are online and accessible 24×7, by anyone in the world.

Last but not least, the SYHO Enterprise is continually evolving and gathering momentum. We also want to hear your views and ideas. We like to think of this as the SYHO Community, so we hope you will join us on this adventure and contribute.

Remember, there is a ‘shout’ for everyone. You choose the topic and get your voice listened to, not just heard!
Spread the word and let’s get ‘SHOUTING’…