What Motivates Me?

I want to change the direction of iJim.co.uk.

For the most part my blog has been a personal blog of sorts, a place where I jotted down my thoughts and ideas.

Ok, maybe the words "change of direction" are the wrong words, let me put it s different way.

As you know I am a huge horror fan, I also love the outdoors, I have dabbled in prepping and have an interest in bushcraft.

For the past few month I have been working on my fitness, getting rid of the visceral fat and all the other fats which I have managed to build up after years of eating what I wanted while having the momentum of a slug with a bad foot.

So, here's what I want to do, here's my motivation.

I want to write more and do more things related to bushcraft and survival. I want to get into shape.

Why?

Here's why, let's go with the worst possible scenario, something which for the most part is unlikely to happen but, it's still there, in the back of your mind.

What if the world as we know it came to an end tomorrow? Alien invaders, zombie apocalypse, EMP, what ever you want.

Society as we know it has ended, world government's have collapsed, we have woken up to world without a rule of law.

You get where I'm going, I want to base my bushcraft skills, my urban and wilderness survival skills, my workouts and fitness on this idea.

Going back to when I was in the Army reserve's we would train for the worst possible scenario, anything less than that was thought of as easy or easier, because we had trained for much worse.

So if I were to base my fitness plans and my wilderness skill sets on the idea that I'm training or in the worst possible scenario..

The question is, "How is this going to be my motivation"?

It's pretty simple to be honest and something I have used a few times in the past when I honestly could not be arsed to do something or was so tired I did not have the energy to finish a task or do those last 25 push-ups.

If I was in the middle of a grid down situation or some sort of apocalypse, I couldn't just stop or not do this thing, I can't stay in my bed and think,

"Nah, I can't be bothered today"

I would have to do it

Problem is, we as a species have become lazy, for the most part we will naturally take the path if least resistance, we like our lives to be comfortable and we like to get things with a minimum of effort.

We shop on line, hell we can even have our tea cooked for us and delivered to our door, all we need to do is get up of the couch, go to the door, pay for it and take it from the delivery person.

I want to shake that up.

I want to be the hero in my own movie and the only way to do this is the hard way, I accept that it will not be comfortable,  at times I will ache, be so tired that I can hardly stand but still have half a day to get through. 

If I was in a grid down or post apocalyptic situation, I would not have the option to just sit for a while or leave that thing until later because I can't be bothered right now, so why not get used to "pushing through it" because it needs to be done now mentality today.

If I get used to it now, if I wake up to that worst case scenario tomorrow, it won't be a shine to my system because, well, it's what I am used to.

That is what I want..

Question is, What do you want?

2020 New Year Resolutions

Fixing My Life

Even before I start writing this I cant help wonder how many blog posts are going to hit the internet in the next 24 hours with the same title.

Truth be told I am once again not making any resolutions for the next year/decade. The plans I have for the forthcoming 12 month I started on December 1st this year (2019),

My only resolution was to get in shape and 31 days later I am still sticking by it, I am eating a more healthy diet, no junk food at all, not even a sniff. I dont take sugar in my coffee now and have even cut the amount of that down as well.

On December 5th I started the 100 press ups a day for 30 days challenge and so far I have stuck to it.
I walk to work instead of taking the bus.

Instead of making more resolutions I am planning on upping the amount of press ups I am doing from 100 to 125 on the 7th January, I have a set of workouts I plan to start next month as well.

If anything I am drawing a lot of inspiration from a YouTube video I watched a few day ago were  guy called Joe Rogan talks about becoming the hero in your own movie.

There`s a line near the end which says something like 

"Pretend that you are the hero in your own movie, right now it is the beginning of the movie and you are a looser, you need to decide to stop being a looser"

Or something along those lines, When I heard those words, something connected in my head and I knew what needed to be done and that is what my plans are fr 2020.

Getting Fit At 50(+)

I have always been one to buck tradition, when I got married, I took my wife's surname, my four children have five letters in their first name (except one, sorry)and so on.

Last month I decided that I didnt want to wait until January 1st to kick start the changes I wanted to make in my life. Note: I dont like calling them "New Year Resolutions", in my eye just calling them that dooms them to failure.

I mean, why wait until a certain date to make life changes? I started my changes on December 1st, possibly the worst time of year to do this but hey.

So, what are these changes? 

Bit of a story first, for the past six or so month I have been watching what I eat in an effort to loose weight. I havnt been weighing my self every week in the hope of the scales telling me that I have shed a few ounces, in stead I have been using a belt to tell me that. 

If I have to make another hole in the belt which holds up my trousers then I have lost weight, after cutting three holes in a UK medium size belt, a few weeks ago I made the decision to buy a smaller belt. But here`s the twist to the story.. 

I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which means that there are certain things which I eat or drink that bloat me out to the point I look like I am in my 3rd trimester. 

I also have Ulcerative Colitis, which means that some foods that I eat or drink can cripple me to the point where I cant leave the house for days or even weeks on end (luckily I have that under control at the moment).

Moving on, on December 1st 2019 as I have already said I made a start on changing a few things in my life, I want to loose my belly fat, middle aged spread, muffin top, what ever you want to call it, I want to loose it.

I want to have a more toned body, eat healthy and just feel better about me.

Of course the big question is "why?"

First of all, no, I have not been brain washed or motivated by the media, you and I both know that most of the images we see of the body beautiful have been photo shopped within an inch of their lives, they are not real, I`m too old to fall for that kind of shenanigans any way.

I want to do it for me, I hate it when I look in the mirror or catch a glimpse of myself in a shop window, with my belly say there, it just looks horrible.

Second, I am 52 years old, 53 next month.. at the age I am now I want to show that you dont have to be some young gym bunny to be toned and in shape, on that note, I wont be going to any gym to do this for a couple of reasons.

I dont have the surplus money which I can justify spending on gym memberships, I want to use my own body weight in my exercises and finally, I dont need to go to a gym, I am the Jim (insert canned laughter here).

I have started a new YouTube channel so I can keep a record of my progress and as a diary, where I can give myself random updates of how I am going, if I ate that mars bar which is calling my name.

My inspiration in making this channel came from two people, two YouTubers, one who goes by the name of Crazy R0cky and Gary Vaynerchuck and his video "Document, Don`t Create". I want to document the changes and my thoughts as these changes are made, or not made.

When it comes to making my videos Im not going to stress about perfect lighting or my camera shaking a bit. I just want to document my journey.

I would love it if you joined me.. 

What Would You Do?

Imagine that the world as we know it has ended, whether it be a zombie apocalypse, alien invasion, EMP, what ever it is, society as we know it has ended, gone..

You and a few of your people are out on a scavenge when you come across two people who ask you to help them, one of the people might be injured.

The question is, do you help them?
I will give you a moment to think, weigh up the pros and cons
Be honest, remember

Its the apocalypse baby.

Times up, those people are wondering what's going to happen, are you going to help them?
Your people are starting to look a bit anxious, they want to keep moving,
What are you going to do?

Now I did ask my family and almost everyone I know on social, I didn't say what I would do, or not do, the only info I gave was

They looked on their 20's one looks female, the other looks Male 
You cant see what the injuries are, you need more info.

That's it,  oh and you may or may not be the leader of your people.
You are part of a team that has gone out on a scavenge for more supplies.

You might already have enough but are looking for more,

OK, lets say you have plenty supplies but are looking for more to make things a but easier, you're future proofing yourself

So, here are some of the replies.

From Mama: I need more info, but other than that, I would kill them and take their shit

My 16 year old son: need more info on them, I need to think about my people first, they are priority.

My wife: I would help them,  anything to keep the human race going,

And Garnette from the YouTube channel Dragin ink says that for him it us all about his people first,
If he thinks the people asking for help could be of use to him then he might help, a big thing is if there are kids involved, if there are kids then yes he probably would help but his priority is his kids and his wife.

Garnette also raised a good point chat I was going to make and that is that when the shit hits the fan and people are in trouble a lot of them will  change and do what ever it takes to ensure their survival above all else.

What Would I do?

Me, what would I do?

To be honest it would all depend on the situation, I don't know

I would like to think that I will be mentally ready for such a situation , but if I'm honest, I would probably be more like Murphy from season 1 of Znation, a snivelling coward with an overactive sense of self preservation

I'm not going to say, "Yeah I would help them because I'm a good person, its the right thing to do".

What happens if it is a trap, what if they are the patsy there to get into your base and steal your supplies or worse

Kill you and steal your supplies.

I saw a tweet once which said something like

“Yeah your cute and all that but, come the apocalypse, what can you bring to the table”?

These people will be a drain on your supplies, food, water and medical.

I would be asking
Are they worth the drain?

What can they do to counter the dent that they will make in my stockpile?

Can they do anything at all?

Then there is the option of just giving  them some help, fix the wound and give them a bit of food and water, and help them.on their way.
 that would be the easy thing to do

But Then If you do that then you might as well just throw those supplies away, what if your scavenge turns up nothing and you and your people or even if it's just you.

You need to make what you have last.

I know that there will be some of you out there who will say that you will help them anyway, its human nature and I need to show some humanity.

Not everyone is out to get you and hey, they are people and we should help regardless of the risk.

Problem is, not everyone is like that

There are people who are out for themselves and will do whatever it takes to make sure that they survive, regardless of the cost.

So..

What would you do?

That Sound Hurts

I am in actual, physical pain right now. I havnt had an accident or anything like that, I am in pain because of the noise that is going on at the moment, not the amount of noise but its pitch.

I lost about 80% of the hearing in my left ear in spring of this year, no idea how or why but I have. The thing is, the pitch of some sounds can cause me actual physical pain, kids screaming is a good one, shouting is another.

When there is a lot of noise going on at the same time I get what I can only describe as an audio over load, as my good ear tries to pick out and prioritise what I need to hear over the background hustle and bustle, sometimes my right ear just overloads and throws everything at me which basically deafens me, I am hearing almost nothing except white noise in my left ear and I am hearing every sound available in my other.

Anyway, we have workmen round at the moment removing the cavity wall insulation so we can get new (better) put in, its part of some kind of government scheme which we have qualified for, replacement insulation and a new boiler..

As you can imagine, there is lots of noise, there is a pump going, lots of drilling and banging and then there is Gizmo, our little Jack Russel who is barking, constantly barking, for the last hour.

Thing is, little Gizmo`s bark is one of those sounds which has a pitch that hurts, especially when he rolls out half a dozen barks, one after the other... Ouch..

I`m hoping that the workmen manage to get all the insulation out and the new back in today, better still, this morning, otherwise they say that they will have to come back tomorrow to put the new stuff in, which means, chances are that they will be here with their noise when I finish work.

On top of that, deep down I know that I am stressing out a bit about the damage that they will do to the new lawn I planted earlier this year. I am rather proud of it, but it is still in its infancy so is easily damaged.

Hang on, they have turned their pump down, they might be finished.

That`s it for this one, I`m going to make coffee and get some pain killers into me.