2010 Health Targets

Keep aiming for the target and you'll get there


I know, I've posted them a few days late but here they are.

My approach to adopting these targets won’t be to do them all at once. Instead I will introduce them one at a time. I want to make them lasting habits and I believe that changing habits is a difficult process. So that's why I'll do them one at a time until I feel that they are established habits. Also, I’ll record on an excel spreadsheet how I’m doing with the targets.

Physical Goals

• To do some form of strenuous exercise (more than walking (though walking two hours plus I'll include as strenuous) five times a week. Currently, I do this about 1-2 times per week. I plan to make this a focus in either March or April.
• To do some muscle work, not much, but some, to build up my chest. My girlfriend thinks that I’m like a dinosaur, because all my power is in my legs and my arms and chest are puny. I might make this a focus later in the year. I'll see how my body is after establishing a five times a week exercise regime.
• To do introduce a new sport into my regime, probably tennis. Currently, I go for a run and swim.
• To learn to scuba dive. I plan to do this in either February or March.
• To learn to dive down whilst snorkeling.


Dietary Goals

• Return to eating a lot of vegetables and doing more home cooking. In February, I’ll do a lot more of this.
• To cut out sugar from my diet. I see sugar as far more harmful than fat. I remember reading somewhere that sugar has no nutritional value. Also heard people talking about ‘Sugar Blues’, a book that sees sugar as an additive drug with many side effects. This will be the focus for January. I’ll cut out soft drinks, cakes and sweets, things that obviously have sugar. I’ll check some products for sugar, but I live in Taiwan and my Chinese isn’t that good. I won’t check at restaurants to see if sugar has been added to their cooking.


Drink Goals

• To become a moderate drinker. By this I mean I can drink two or three glasses for enjoyment and then stop. I also want to get into the habit of spacing my drinks with a glass of water. I’ll keep a track of this by recording the days I don’t drink, the days where I drink moderately and heavily (more than 3 pints). This will be a focus in May or June.
• I want to stop drinking all soft drinks that have ‘refined’ sugar in them. I stopped last month, except for drinks that replaced alcoholic ones. I want to stop all together and only drink water or 100% fruit juices as replacements for alcoholic drinks.
I want to increase the amount of water I drink.

Mental Health Goals

• Be more positive
• Be more focus on what makes me feel excited. I'll publish the things I want to achieve this year in a blog post (in January). Also, I'll make a poster of them for my computer table, so that I'll see them everyday and I'll keep them in mind.
• Follow a low information diet as recommended by Tim Ferriss 'The 4-Hour Working Week'. I currently don't read the news, except for headlines on Yahoo. I used to do the crossword as well but now, I'll only do it if someone else has started one. Not reading the news is a habit but a shaky one at the moment. Also, I want to sort out my computer usage, so that it focuses on my goals and not on wasting time. This will be a focus in February.

Personal Introduction

I’ve been denying it for a long time but next year I’ll definitely be middle aged. Next year I’ll be 40 and it’ll mark a watershed for me, as I don’t think I can deny my age any longer. I look younger than my age but I’m definitely feeling the changes. I feel tired sometimes for unexplained reasons, the hangovers are harder and I’m getting unexplained aches much more often than I used to.

My health history (some at least)

I had a hearing problem when I was young, with an abscess in one of my ears. It was pretty bad as I had to wear a hearing aid. I think my hearing is ok now but nothing spectacular.

Generally, I’ve been about the right weight or a little underweight for my height. Currently I’m 173cms and 68Kgs. My weight has been in a range of about 62Kg to 73Kg for the past 10 years.

Physically I’m ok. My big toes hurts sometimes (on and off for about 10 years) and I get unexplained aches and pains sometimes. Other than that I walk a lot and do either running or swimming once or twice a week. The exercising has been a relatively reason phenomena, maybe the last two years and it’s been on and off.


I had, what many people consider to be, a very healthy diet, consisting of lots of vegetables, moderate amount of meat, fish and seafood. This has changed in the last few years as I now live in Taiwan where eating out is much cheaper than London, where I used to live. My diet now, consists of lots of seafood, meat, still a reasonable amount of vegetables, some fruit and Chinese food (with whatever additives they add to it). Also, my tooth is much sweeter than it used to be.


I consider myself to be a heavy drinker, though I drink a lot less than I used to. When I was young, I drunk very often and most of the time I got drunk. It wasn’t very healthy and the frequency of my drinking has declined as well as the amount. I now drink about two times a week, getting drunk about once a week. Earlier this year I didn’t drink for a month and I felt much better after that – more lively and alert.

Also, I drink a lot of soft drinks periodically. I’ve cut down a lot recently on this and I want to keep it this way. Also drink a lot of coffee and tea, probably too much.


I generally consider myself to be positive but when reading my diary, I can see that I can be very negative towards myself often.

I’m currently in a three and half year relationship with Stephanie.

In the next post, I’ll outline my main goals with health. Feel free to introduce yourselves, especially if you are on a similar quest has me.