Property Investments, Landlording, CrossFit, Nutrition & Safety

“Oi Colin, I’m trying your diet” – So started the conversation I had with one of my work colleagues yesterday.

“Oh really?” I replied. “And what diet are you trying exactly?”

Long story short, one of the guys I work with, who I’ve been sporadically talking to about Crossfit and weight lifting and the zone diet and paleo diet, has taken it upon himself to try out some of my dietary suggestions. Specifically he seems to have only made 2 changes to his diet:

1. Stop eating bread
2. Only eating pasta once a week

Ok that’s not a bad start, I approve of both those things. Interestingly he’s not done anything else, like increasing exercise for example (not that that’s of much use as we know that exercise doesn’t reduce weight much), nor has he changed the rest of his diet much. So I was quite interested to hear what effect these 2 changes had had, here’s what he said:

• He’s lost 1.5 stone (21 lbs or 10kg) in just 6 weeks
• Stomach cramping / bloatedness has gone

WOW!! I’m not surprised, but still super impressed. Well done that man. I’ve adopted a phrases from one of my other work colleagues: bread is the Devil’s Dough!

I think it was in the excellent book The Great Cholesterol Con where I first read that football and heart attacks were linked.

That claim is backed up by this piece of research done when France won the 1998 world cup. In which it says:

Instead of about 33 deaths a day in the five days before and after the match, 23 men died of a heart attack on match day.

So there was a 30% drop in heart attacks in men the day France won the World Cup. Which means there should be a similar reaction in Spain. 10 more Spanish men are alive (or at least escaped a life changing trip to the hospital) as a result of Spain’s win yesterday.

But, in true interweb science fashion, there’s another study which says it ain’t so. This study reports that:

In a study conducted during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, researchers reported that men are three times more likely to have heart attacks on days when their national football team is playing in a key match.

Although it should be noted that this study was done in Germany, and Germany didn’t win the 2006 World Cup (Italy did), so maybe football increases heart attacks throughout the group and knockout stages, but there’s a reduction on the final day, if you actually win.

So I guess the real question is, how many people did the World Cup competition kill?!?

Now I like internet videos. Some are funny, some are shocking, but this one is by far the best YouTube video ever. Why?

Well, remember those interactive adventure books you used to read as a kid, where you’d get to the bottom of the page and you’d have to make a plot decision? “If you attack the troll, turn to page 18. If you run away crying like a little girl, turn to page 37.” Well this is an hilarious interactive adventure video serious, featuring the one and only Lindsay Lohan (spoof obviously). It’s a corker:

An interesting British study following 202 kids for 3 years has announced that “fatness leads to inactivity, but inactivity does not lead to fatness”. Whilst there is no suggestion that exercise isn’t good for children, they have determined that activity levels are not a predictor of Body Mass Index (BMI). Rather the reverse is true, a higher BMI is a predictor of future reduced activity.

I’m reminded of this xkcd.com cartoon:

As if diet wasn’t important enough already, it seems you can’t feed your kid junk, then kick him/her out to play and hope they burn it off.

I completed the British Weight Lifting Association’s (BWLA) Assistant Club Coaches’ Course this weekend, and thought it would be nice to write up a few things about it.

It was a 2 day course, all day Saturday and Sunday, and teaches you how to coach the basic Olympic Weightlifting lifts, specifically the Snatch, Clean and Jerk. Whilst it is predominantly a practical course, it doffs a cap to health and safety obviously, a bit on stretching, warm-ups and downs and scheduling (or programming if you prefer that term). As I said though, it is mostly a practical course with some time watching demos of the lifts, plenty of time to personally practice the lifts in small groups of 3 or 4, and a lot of opportunity to coach others.

In terms of assessment, there was a practical test where we had to stand up in front of the group and go though the BWLA method for teaching the Power Clean, including a personal demonstration and also coaching a student. Additionally there’s a 90 minute written exam at the end, which has been sent off for marking, so I’ll have to wait to hear back on how I did on that. It didn’t escape my notice that I was the last to finish the exam! The point being, that this isn’t just a “Certificate of Attendance” course; t is assessed both practically and academically.

We were very lucky to have as our instructors, 2 very experienced lifters who have both lifted on the international stage and refereed at a world class level: Suzy Trebillock and Eddie Halstead. It was a privilege to benefit from their experience.

It was a useful course and I do recommend it. As a Level 1 course it gives the basics of how to breakdown and teach the Olympic lifts. There is a follow on Level 2 course, which is the full BWLA Club Coaches’ course which is over 2 weekends, but that is more theoretical, looking more a physiology and programming rather than practical hands on coaching.

I’m looking forward this weekend to attending the British Weight Lifting Association Assistant Club Coaches Olympic weightlifting course, which is being hosted by Crossfit Manchester.

Whilst I’m not sure I have any specific ambitions to become an Olympic weightlifting coach, it’s certainly a skill that’s worth having, and as the course is happening on my doorstep it’d be pretty stupid not to take advantage of it. It should be a good couple of days. I’m hoping that learning to teach the Snatch and Clean & Jerk, will also have a knock on affect on my own performance and ability to coach myself, as and when I find myself lifting on my own

It’s also possibly going to be an opportunity to use my new Pulse LiveScribe smart pen. I mentioned these marvellous devices a month or so ago and finally got round to buying one. It’s fair to say that everyone I’ve shown it to so far has been suitably impressed and can immediately see its appeal and a myriad of uses. I predict that in 10 years time, every student will have one, maybe even every salesman and every manager. I can honestly see a market that stretches to 100M+ in size. It truly is that revolutionary. I’ll let you know how I get on with it.

Thanks for wearing your lucky socks, but now it’s time to break out your lucky pants (that’s underpants for you Americans)! That is of course if you’re one of the estimated 5 million English who regularly participate in superstitious pre-match rituals before a game of football (soccer) in order to help your team win. Count them down, how many do you do?

1. Watch the game with the same group of friends every time
2. Watch the game in the same place every time (same pub, house etc)
3. Sing the same football chant
4. Kiss the badge on your football shirt
5. Wear the same item of clothing for every game
6. Wear the same lucky socks
7. Wear the same lucky pants – thankfully games are rarely back to back on consecutive days!
8. Have sex before the game – or more bizarrely, abstain from sex before the game
9. Watch from a lucky chair or seat
10. Wear a lucky hat

Superstition is an interesting thing, possibly the most interesting is that a third of superstitious participants in the 4000 strong survey, said that they felt personally guilty if they didn’t perform their rituals only to then see England lose! And 37 per cent said they would pray for England’s victory, even if they are not religiously inclined.

Despite all this, it’s the superstitious antics of the players that are the most perverse. E.g.:

– Gary Neville refusing to change his boots on field and belt and shoes off field, whilst he was on a winning streak.
– Gary Lineker who would keep the same shirt all game if he scored, but change it at half time if he hadn’t.
– Dean Ashton who score a hat trick (3 goals) after once eating bourbon chocolate biscuits the previous night, and so continued to eat several bourbons the night before every game.
– Shay Given keeping a container of Holy Water in the net of his goal.

It was 1966 World Cup Winner Alan Ball who summed this craziness up thus: “I don’t believe in luck, but I do believe you need it”

For many years, playing computer games was my #1 hobby. This is something I mostly resolved a few years ago, and I now rarely play games, and then only on my iPhone now.

However, Civilization has always had a soft spot in my heart, as it was one of the very first PC games I played, and yes I was known to play it for 24 hours straight whilst at university! In fact, I’m playing Civilisation Revolutions on my iPhone sporadically at the moment. So the news that Civilization 5 is due out this autumn, does pull on the old heart strings. And to be fair, it does look awesome:

I stopped posting funny videos on my blog a while back, but this one is just superb. Give it a few moments to get going, it’s a cracker, the Vitruvian Man cracked me up!