Nick Vassilev's Place: Cleaning etc.

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One of the girls in the office had a birthday boy and a bit of white wine, cheese and 2 packs of hoola-hoops jumped the queue. It’s very important to keep your cool and not start blaming yourself for adding extra calories to your perfectly-going-so-far diet. On many previous occasions (let’s say 90%) I felt guilty and considered the whole diet effort so far has been in vain. In the next hour or so I was taking my pizza, chips and sweets containing fix. Afterwards I would feel worse than before the Big Eat. I bet you have been in my shoes too.

I have come to realise what I was doing was completely wrong. If you “make a mistake” and taste the “forbidden fruit” (why some things become so appealing when you start your diet thing – I don’t know. Maybe it has a relation to the mysterious sleepy condition I was going into when I had to prepare for an exam as a student in the university. Bear in mind that I have never slept during the day, except for when I was a baby, I suppose) don’t start blaming yourself but think “OK, I’ve had a few more calories than the usual at this time of day. No problem – I will eat less calories during my next meal (or even spread the calories over the next 2 or 3 meals). If I cannot do that, I can do some extra exercise – e.g. walk an extra couple of miles/spend 30 min more on the treadmill. Easy!” You can even your favourite junk food on a regular basis as long as you:

1. Chew the food over 30 times before it goes to your stomach
2. Eat it during the day

Day 4

Morning weight: 103 kg

Food: cheerios with soya milk, pineapple juice,  espresso, coke 500ml, pita bread with pate, choriso sausage, cheese spread, tomato, 20g mature cheddar cheese, 100 ml white wine, 2 packs of hoola-hoops snacks, banana, fried salmon with boiled potatoes and vegetables. Total calories – ??? I am still missing a few. Will update.

Exercise: None. Must start running on the treadmill from tomorrow. Again

It was a successful day 3 in terms of calorie counting, salad munching, working and tweeting.I find it quite easy to stick to my chosen diet (it is a diet for now but aim to make it a way of life) – no cravings for extra food and carbs, as long as you eat 6 times a day and drink plenty of water. I didn’t…drink enough water. Tomorrow will.

Day 3

Morning weight: 103.4 kg

Food: cheerios with soya milk, orange juice, raw almonds, espresso, glass of coke, prawn and pasta salad, moroccan couscous, dry roasted soya beans, grilled chicken fillet with caesar salad, 200g blueberries, melon and grapes, handful of cashew nuts, about a litre of water (amount of water needs to be increased).
Total calories – 1647. Wow! Have I not made a mistake. That is just over the recommended daily allowance for a small kid.

Exercise: None

Here I am analyzing day 2 of my mission to get back in shape.

Day 2

Morning weight: 103.6 kg

Food: muesli with soya milk, apple juice, protein shake, scrambled eggs on toast, espresso, glass of coke, dry roasted soya beans, roast chicken with vegetables, nuts, about a litre of water (amount of water needs to be increased).
Total calories – 1996. Not bad

Exercise: None

I am happy I did not have any cravings for sweet things or burger and pizza. Going to bed early will help fight the evening stuffing.

Well, enough is enough, me says – today is Day 1 from my Get Back In Shape experiment. I decided to get myself back in the body I used to have up to 2001. That is 90 kg, without a gram of unnecessary body fat.

I intend to document what I eat and drink, what exercises I do, what I feel and how do I progress – everything. Not that I haven’t started a similar thing at least 5 times (all unsuccessful) but this time I need it to be somehow public. I think I would be ashamed to fail in front of everyone who has read this post and read/watched my progress (yes, there will be videos). Well, put it this way – I hope I won’t have to post ” Well I Failed But Next Time I promise Myself I Will Be Stronger” .

Day 1

Morning weight: Did not weigh myself. I guess tomorrow’s figure will not be far from the true one. Weighing – tomorrow.

Food: Half bacon & egg sandwich ( I know ), grilled chicken skewer with boiled vehetables, coffee, 100 ml Coke, 1l mineral water, 1 banana, tuna sandwich on wholemeal bread, roast chicken breast fillet with rice, large cup of tea. Total calory intake: (to be confirmed)

Exercise: None

Notes: I felt pretty comfortable with the food and drink. I did not have any cravings nor hunger. Tomorrow must increase the number of food intake to 6 per day.

That’s it for Day 1. I will be analysing Day 2 tomorrow evening – you are welcome to post your comments. Maybe you can give me some tips to help speed things up or correct me if I’m doing something wrong.

Rispek!

I still have about 100 issues left to collect until the victorious and self-completing “I got them!” post

Total Guitar magazines are my personal favourite among all guitar issues. Guitar Techniques comes closely at second position but still cannot compare with TG.

Each issue offers full transcriptions of classic tracks from all genres, gear review, readers questions answered etc. If you have the full collection and learn the half of the tubbed songs you can easily say that you have become a good guitarist. Each song features different techniques which are very well explained by great guitarists contributing to the mag plus lots of theory and guides.

The only problem is – with my current busy life I will have to either start learning those songs when I turn 60 or become a caffeine junkie/divorced.

I desperately need a solution!

Rispek!

First row sitting from left to right in the order of appearance:

1. Marshall AVT250 Valvestate.
2. Marshall Slash Signature 100W Head amp (this amp belonged to an LA punk rocker called Billy Zoom hence the missing Slash logo on the front gold plate. Slash logo is present on the back. Awesome sound. Based entirely on the Silver Jubilee (Slash’s favourite amp) but with modded for higher gain as per Slash’s request. Bought from ebay. Originally manufactured in 1996. The first signature amp from Marshall. Only 3000 produced worldwide. Definitely a keeper )
3. Marshall Slash Signature Cab 1960 loaded with 4 Celestion Vintage 30  speakers

Top row standing from left to right :

1. Mesa Boogie Roadstar 2×12 Combo with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers as well. Bought brand new. This amp has an awesome and versatile choice of sounds. I like the cleans and the modern distortion on channel 4. Channel 3 is great too. This amp could cover any tone in the musical universe.
2. Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555 100W head. Great amp! Maybe the amp I use mostly. Incredible distortion in true 80′s heavy metal style. Love it to bits! A bit fiddly to go to cleans with the push/pull knob but this amp cleans are not very good anyway. For cleans I use the Mesa Roadster. I bought it together with the Slash signature cab

I also own a small 5W Rat Electronics tube practice amp based on the Epiphone’s 5W tube amp and a Fender practice solid state amp that came with the Squier Strat as a part of a package (cheap and crappy, but hey – that’s my first ever amp). The guy from Rat Electronics has moded the amp for a bit more punch and gain. The result – awsome little monster. This amp is LOUD! I like it a lot although haven’t used it for ages.

I cannot comment on the Fender amp as I haven’t played it for like, 8 years. I should do, judt to see the quality of my other amps.

Lots of pedals on the floor and the pedaltrain pedal board in the case (the sticker covered flight case on the left). I will run you through them probably next time.

Rispek!

I was listening to a discussion about the UK benefits system on LBC Radio today. I was driving along the A13 towards my office and the conversation caught my attention as it concerned me. I actually phoned the radio station to voice my opinion – unfortunately I was told to pull up and then talk to them – someting I could not do at the moment.

Anyway, to cut the story short, the subject was benefit fraud and milking the system. Nothing new, hey Everybody was moaning about paying tax and someone else doing nothing and getting a portion of this money. It doesn’t sound fair at all.

I heard lots of different proposals but neither of them would effectively resole the problem. Imagine you offer a hungry man lots of free food on a plate. What do you think he would do – grab it immediately, of course. The problem lies within the system itself. And the solution is easy – stop the benefits. Allow people to claim job seeker’s allowance for up to 1 year – those who have lost their job and for those who have reach the legal working age and are looking for a job. After that year – thank you very much – you are on your own. Simple as that. 

The result: everybody will start searching for jobs. If one knows he has a year to find a job and then the free lunch stops, he will have to accept a not-that-prestigious (mostly physical) job in the service, construction, retail etc. industries.

At the moment everybody moans that foreigners are stealing the jobs from the British, I hear and read this everywhere. Well, there are plenty of jobs everywhere but not everybody is prepared to start working in McDonalds or Anyclean (:-) you have the details on my blog here!). Nuff said!

Rispek!

Slash is such a funny guy. He didn’t stop laughing during the whole meet & greet thing while Duff was all grumpy and bored. Matt and Dave were very cool guys too. They laughed and posed for photos during the whole thing no matter how boring that may have been for them. Hey, they are doing this every night on the tour and after the first couple of days I guess it becomes a boring obligation. It is moments like this when the real person comes behind the rock star façade. A good guy who really cares for his fans will never disappoint them.

At the end of the day it is his fans money that has brought to him stardom, fame and riches.

Well done, Slash! Funny, all down to earth cool guy.

Respect, man!

I had to re-schedule the meeting with the High Commission of India guy for next Tuesday. Unfortunately I didn’t receive a confirmation last night and stayed home to babysit George.