The Confidential Challenge: for him (part 7)

Stag do ahoy
I had planned to be drinking on this stag do when I started this challenge. Giving up drinking for 16 weeks is one feat, but going on one of your best friends stag dos with 12 lads and not drinking is just plain suicide.

This was making me very nervous in light of what happened to my challenge partner and good friend Helen Ramsbottom in week eight.

I love my larger and drinking games, but with my new healthy outlook instilled in me by Darren, I was going to try and take it easy and not go over the top on both eating crap food and binge drinking. Darren reminded me that a large weekend on the piss with crappy food could put me back two whole weeks. Oh dear.

The one saving grace about this stag was that we would be doing some exercise in the form of gorge scrambling, raft building and jumping of 30ft waterfalls. In the past this would have filled me with dread but being fit with all the training I had done, I was very confident and looking forward to it.

No hangover shocker
Needless to say like the first night of all stag do holidays everyone goes over the top and this one was no exception. The drinks flowed and the drinking games commenced, but I had a cunning plan. I had played all the drinking games that many times before ‘drink while you think’, ‘Hi Harry’ and the dreaded ‘ring of fire’ that I was better than everyone else so therefore got away with not drinking too many shots and downing pints. The same could not be said for two of my friends who lost rather badly at ‘hi harry’ and ending up in bed at 8pm.

I fully expected to have a serious hangover and feel like death, but to my complete surprise I didn’t have a hangover at all. DING DONG!

Everyone else felt like death at 9am and the concept of climbing a gorge and raft building was not high on their list let me tell you. Most of the lads, being quite hardcore, found that a few bacon butties and mugs of tea had them raring to go again.

Reflective mood
At times, I still don’t realise how fit I have actually become in the last 10 weeks. I can now:

• Run 10k in 52mins even with a dodgy knee.
• Complete two hours of cycling at around 50-60km and not even ache the next morning
• Train twice a day
• Do sprint intervals on the running machine 1min (sprint) 1min (rest) for 20 minutes at 19mph. I could barley do 10kph when I started.
• Weights levels have moved up by 100 per cent in some cases. I started using 8kg kettlebells and I’m now on 16-20kg for same exercises.

I’m sure before the end of this challenge these figures will improve even further. This challenge has taught me a lot, but one huge thing I have realised is that I need to set more goals and challenge myself further.

As a sales manager I do this without thinking and I’m always setting myself new challenges in my mind but I had stopped writing short and long term goals down. As I said earlier in the challenge, I truly believe if you put your mind to something, make the sacrifices needed and have clear vision of what you want, you can achieve anything.

So I have now set myself goals which I might share with you at the end of this challenge both short and long term ones. I will share one with you now as I want all readers to get involved giving me ideas. Each year I want to do a charity challenge to keep challenging my body and mind so which one should we do next? We want readers to get involved with us. My options are:

• Climb Kilimanjaro
• Everest Base Camp
• House Building in South Africa / India

Smoking
It’s all in the mind. I gave up smoking on New Years Eve and haven’t touched one since. I didn’t give up because I wanted to as believe me I really enjoyed smoking. I loved the social aspect on a night out and especially loved a pint and a smoke. I enjoyed the fag breaks at work too.

I gave up because of my wife, son and my health and the fact I hated stinking everyday. I didn’t like the fact that it had a control over my life which made me weak.

I am glad I gave up but I still miss it. I suppose that will never go away but I feel a 100 per cent better for not smoking and don’t think I would have achieved my fitness goals without giving up.

Giving up smoking is the best health benefit I can ever get, Darren says. Imagine trying to get fit while your lungs are full of tar. Ewww.

Remember I’m doing this for a great charity called Forever Manchester.

Donate here: www.justgiving.com.

Darren Casey is Master Personal Trainer and Director at Elite Fitness Training. If you’d like to know more about following a plan similar to ours or be kept up to date with other health and fitness advice register on his website elitefitness-online or email him at fit@eft-gb.com

Launching soon, with the man himself, The Confidential Get Lean Diet & Boot Camp, places will be limited so to be first in the queue click here to add your details to this list.

Archive

Confidential Challenge for her(Part 7)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 6)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 6)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 5)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 5)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 4)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 4)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 3)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 3)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 2)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 2)

Confidential Challenge for her (Part 1)

Confidential Challenge for him (Part 1)