MartinOgg.com

On an adventure…

Posts Tagged change

Becoming vegetarian

Feb 22

Posted by admin in health and fitness

The last toastmasters meeting of 2009, the group is asked to introduce themselves and give their new years resolution. When my turn comes round I stand up, introduce myself and thank the toastmaster for allowing me this opportunity to state what I want to achieve. When I say this publicly in front of others, I know that I make myself liable to everyone in the room to keep true to my word and I also ask that everyone keeps encouraging me to stay on track. For 2010 I will become a vegetarian!

It was the first time I voiced my opinion on the subject of diet, and as soon as I said it I began to wonder what I had let myself in for. My diet up until then consisted of meat being the main dish. The Scottish traditional meal is Haggis, neeps and tatties. I love Big Macs, big juicy steaks and donner kebabs! How would I be able to eat if I didn’t eat meat? Indeed, the last night of toastmasters had a buffet with lots of lovely nibbles, including chicken skewers, wings and sausage rolls. I was wondering how I would be able to stop myself. Luckily the room was full of people who just listened to my new years resolution. They made sure I never got within reaching distance of the forbidden food.

I failed my New Years Resolution on the very first day. In the evening I went to a friend’s house for a dinner party. The kind host had home-made steak pie waiting for us in the oven. Far from wanting to be polite and eat what was made, I just plain forgot that I had wanted to stop eating meat. The first mouth-full was tasty, but I couldn’t help but think something was wrong.. It wasn’t till the next morning I realised that I just broke my New Years resolution!

However I wasn’t deterred. It made me realise that real dedication would be required to keep up this challenge. The thought of never eating meat again was still overwhelming for me, but I decided to make it a 1 month challenge. At the end of the month I could treat myself. That made the challenge much more palatable. Since that day, I have had a couple of weak moments, but by and large I have managed to keep it up.

Why are you becoming vegetarian?

Here’s a question I get asked by almost every person I talk to. Some ask in a positive way, illiciting a response of general enlightenment, towards society or health. Usually these are the people who already know vegetarians or are ones themselves. Others appear to be more aggressive in their questioning as if I just challenged their own eating habits. They ask why I would want to give up on the tastiest part about food or make statements about how eating meat is not only healthy but necessary for a wholesome diet.

The reasons for me are to find out more about the benefits of vegetarianism. Over the last few years whilst travelling and at university I have met a few people who were vegetarian and claimed various health benefits. In the last year I have discovered a more extreme diet known as Raw Food diet and met a couple of people who practise this. One in fact had a TV interview talking about just that The arguments made in this video were compelling enough for me to consider more fully what I ate.

The strongest reason in my mind wasn’t for health reasons directly but rather more for the opportunities of more up-time during the day that eating more healthily could offer. Over the last year I have been looking at ways of increasing productivity throughout the day. Approaches such as waking up early, organising my day and keeping to schedules have helped me.

Differences so far:

I have experienced some unexpected differences. Instead of craving meat as I thought would happen, I have turned to dairy and sweets, The urges to add some grated cheese to a meal or eat chocolate are greater than ever. As a result I have gained a little extra weight from the start of the year.

I can feel that my up-time has improved slightly, While the day-to-day awakeness and alertness dont feel any different, the times when I thought I would be tired (when going to bed later than usual, or getting up much earlier) I don’t feel quite as bad as I would normally.

None of my long-term friends are vegetarian so its a big surprise to them that I have chosen to become one. They occasionally challenge my decision and argue that unless I have moral or religious objections, there is no reason to not eat meat. The main arguments are that humans are designed to eat meat (why else would we have the incisors?) and that our bodies require the nutritional value offered by meat to live.

There is enough resources online to show that all the nutrients a body needs can be found elsewhere. Most people in fact tend to eat too much meat which overloads the digestive system, making them more lethargic and need to sleep more to work off the toxins.

Social occasions can be difficult when one cooks a meal for everyone. For justnow I have decided that I wont be awkward in these situations and just eat whatever is made. Usually at meals with friends and family, meat is the main dish. It wouldn’t be fair to ask them to prepare an extra dish just for me so I am happy to eat meat once in a while.

I’ve found restaurants to be more challenging than they should be. Whilst the majority of restaurants do have vegetarian options, they are usually a very limited subset of their standard menu. Not nearly as tasty looking as the steaks and burgers I’d have usually gone for. I usually find myself scouring for the ‘V’ signs and choose the least unappealing dish, or go for a fish dish. I know fish is meat, but the health benefits I have seen are better than that of red meat.

One major benefit I can boast is I haven’t had a single food-hangover this year! This is a concept I discovered at university. Much like a hangover caused by drinking, a food-hang over is caused by consuming too much of whats bad for you. After eating a kebab or pizza on a night out, the next morning felt worse than had I not eaten. For a time I was in a phase of not drinking when going out to pubs and clubs, I would only drink water but still eat a kebab at the end of the night. Yet I still suffered the same hangover as 3 large glasses of red wine and shots. By cutting out the worst offender foods, I have really noticed a big change for the better.

I have really noticed a change in myself and others’ for having taken on this challenge. In a sense I can feel my diet has become less healthy because I am gaining a little weight and eating too much diary and chocolate. The next stage for me is to become more disciplined with food. I want to keep a food diary in which I record everything I eat for a few weeks. This will show to me what exactly I take in and ways to improve my diet.

My aims justnow are to increase my up-time to be available to do more things with my time. At this point, health issues or making the world a more environmentally friendly place aren’t the main focus.

I’ll look at my diet again soon and review what can be done to refine my diet further. Who knows, I may start back on the big-macs, or I may become vegan!

Tags: , , , ,

No Comments

Review of 2009 and Plans for 2010. Part 4: Work-life and discipline for goals

Jan 19

Posted by admin in communication skills, personal development

This post is a continuation from my previous entry about my review of 2009 and plans for the next coming year. (http://www.martinogg.com/2010/01/happy-new-year-a-review-of-last-year-and-my-plans-for-next-year/)

Setting and achieving goals is something that has greatly benefit me in 2009. At the start of the year, I did little in the way of forward planning or goal setting.

It just didn’t occur to me that I needed to maintain goals to forward myself from where I currently was. After all, I shared a flat with my girlfriend, had a car each and a reasonably well paid job. It was a comfortable situation and each month I had enough disposable income to buy whatever I reasonably wanted.

That said, there were occasions where I felt frustrated about my situation; some things just never turned out the way I thought they should have done. Working a 9-5 job constricted my free time and I wasn’t meeting new people like I used to when I was traveling or at university. I didnt have the time to see my friends quite as often as I’d have liked and I couldn’t get away for a couple of months at a time because my holiday-allowance at work was too short.

At one point I used work as a scapegoat. Because I was being ‘forced’ to work the best hours of my day away, I consequently was too tired in the evenings to do anything exciting. The weekends were then just time of refuge where I would rest in order to prepare myself for the next week. Because of this job, I was spending all my day on a computer, spending the majority of my day staring at the same screen. I talked to the same small group of people every day. To me it didn’t feel like a brilliant realisation to come to. Programming is my hobby and I was getting to do what I loved, but at the expense of other sides of my life. And after all, I had spent so many years aiming to get to this professional level.

It wasn’t till nearer the middle of the year that I started taking personal development more seriously and started making goals.

By planning out goals and thinking about what it would actually take to achieve them, I began to realise the strength of consciously thinking about what I actually wanted to have; what was realistic and what I thought I wanted but on reflection, turned out to be pretty stupid requests.

One of the most productive goals I aimed for was to have more up-time outside of work time. By getting up at 6:00am instead of 8:00, I found I could make it to work for 7:30am instead of the latest allowed time of 9:30am. And instead of taking a full one hour lunch break I took half hour breaks instead. The result was I managed to finish work at 3:30pm instead of the 6:00pm usual time. This extra time in the afternoons was amazing! I had the time and energy to work more on the things I actually wanted to do outside of work. Whether it be putting my feet up, do some reading or play some games. It was the first time since started professional work I felt I wasn’t time-poor.

Then an amazing transformation happened. I began to realise that I work wasn’t the incapacitating monster I had envisioned.  I began to see work for what I remember it being in high school; a hobby of problem solving and taking on interesting tasks which helped other members of the team achieve their goals in their own work.

Another major goal I worked on was becoming more proficient with reading and in particular photo-reading. Previously reading was a chore for me and consequently I didnt do very much reading. However the last few months have been a real adventure and I have found myself become interested in a larger range of subjects.

For 2010 I would like to continue to work on the goal-setting areas more vigorously. Essentially it is just a simple feedback loop. Consciously discover how things can be done differently and then experiment with making changes to see how it has an effect.

I want to maintain the 6am starts throughout the year, which sets the enables the capacity to do my job and yet still have enough time to work on myself. There are times when I become lazy and I will have a few days or weeks of getting up later, allowing the snooze alarm to get me up at 6:30am or even 7am. Whilst these are still much earlier then my previous wake up times, the lack of free time later in the day makes it a real challenge to be alert and able after work.

For 2010 I need to work on my discipline to keep up challenges I set myself. Maintaining motivation is also another key element to achieve goals, though I am not so worried about any lack of this. The more I seem to do towards personal effectiveness the more I seem to be motivated to do it. Its like a snowball rolling down a slope, gaining mass and momentum all the time. Every goal I set myself and achieve is helping. Whether or not the goal gives the outcome I wanted isn’t as important as having completed the goal itself.

Of course it would be great if every challenge you face gives you immediate satisfaction and benefit but sometimes it doesn’t always go to plan.

My website is an example of this, so far it hasn’t had quite so many views or generated income as much as I’d have expected but I feel I have greatly benefited by sticking at it and writing up content to it.

I aim to keep on looking at ways to improve and set new goals to explore what things can really help me and others.

Experiments I have already started are to try vegetarianism (started from 2nd January :) ) and to look into driving a car which runs on LPG instead of diesel or petrol.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Review of 2009 and Plans for 2010. Part 3: Communication skills & Toastmasters

Jan 7

Posted by admin in communication skills, General, personal development

This post is a continuation from my previous entry about my review of 2009 and plans for the next coming year. (http://www.martinogg.com/2010/01/happy-new-year-a-review-of-last-year-and-my-plans-for-next-year/)

Communication skills have become a topic of focus for me over the last year. It began with a work training course about creating business ideas and pitching them to business minded people in order to receive funding. Because my company is heavily involved with engineering, the classes were geared towards geeks and had a communication-based focus about them – opposite to the technical focus we were used to in Uni at our various courses. I guess this is something they thought we needed to learn.. This is something I enjoyed very much, because time and again I felt that I had great ideas throughout uni and work-life but short of something I could code together to illustrate, the ideas never seemed to make the light of day. I was a very nervous speaker and giving speeches was the worst task I could imagine. Yet it is a very necessary part of business and idea development.

The course left me with a hunger to improve my communication skills. Previously the easiest way to stop the nerves was to avoid speeches or confrontations whenever possible. However now I was willing to face the fact that this was something that scared me and that in order to proceed, hiding away from it was not the answer.

I discovered the Toastmasters group shortly after and went to my first meeting in March last year. Since then I have attended every other week and participated in roles and speeches. In October I took the role of Toastmaster for the first time. It was a very nerve-racking ordeal but I got through it OK without dieing. On later reflection, it showed me that when it comes to social gatherings, its important not to act on nerves. Toastmasters helps to work on things like nerves, as well as communication skills in the form of feedback and speaking tasks.

One unexpected thing about the Toastmasters group is the people I’ve met there and engaging in their own views. Its actually pretty hard to get away from it when they give a speech about their favourite topics. I’ve met Life coaches, NLP practitioners, veteran Toastmasters, engineers, students and other beginner Toastmasters. By meeting every couple of weeks and hearing what they have to say, they inevitably give off a particular view to a subject which is diverse and inspiring to me and makes me challenge my own view. Quite a change from the usual haunt of workmates in the same department and friends who share the same general interests as me.

The end result of this is huge. From my initial view of wanting to improve my speaking skills, my aims have catapulted to other sections of my life such as challenging my own beliefs of the world, to more accurately planning what it takes to become more happy and goal setting. This is a topic I would like to mention later on in another post.

Plans for 2010

I aim to keep on going with the Toastmasters group. Its a very clearly structured environment and because its so encouraging for progression, I dont have to worry about planning what I’ll do. I’ll be continuing my speeches courses, taking roles and chatting to the other toastmasters.

One particular aim I’d like is to meet more people from diverse backgrounds. Its interesting to meet people from all walks of life and can have an influence over your own path. To achieve this I hope to keep on looking at more clubs and meetings which might achieve this. A few months ago I discovered meetup.com where people can join groups of a particular topic of interest and then have real life meet ups to discuss the topic. Edinburgh has loads of groups and I attended one to go for a visit to a local attraction.

Tags: , , , , , ,

No Comments

Review of 2009 and Plans for 2010. Part 2: Health

Jan 5

Posted by admin in health and fitness, personal development

This post is a continuation from my previous entry about my review of 2009 and plans for the next coming year. (http://www.martinogg.com/2010/01/happy-new-year-a-review-of-last-year-and-my-plans-for-next-year/)

The topic I’d like to cover next is Health

Sore knees

I started 2009 with some health problems. 8 years ago I had a skateboarding accident and since then I have suffered a condition where they become very painful when bending past a certain point. For most activities they are fine, such as walking, climbing stairs and cycling but I found stretching or bending my knees was too painful. I have found in recent years that stretching my legs regularly helps a great deal with the condition and I do so on a regular basis. Strangely I found that Tae Kwon Do was exceptionally helpful because I had so much stretching and leg exercises to do. Sadly I gave up the club after university.

At the start of 2009 I began walking 1hr to work each day, which didnt agree with my knees after a festive period of no exercise or stretching. The result was agony whenever I straightened my leg and I had to take time off work as I couldnt walk. Thankfully this was only temporary and after a few days I able to get about again. This prompted me to seek out more medical advice and I was eventually passed to a specialist at a hospital where I received an MRI scan. Unfortunately the results were inconclusive, but the time I spent at the physiotherapist was worth it. After a few weeks I had begun more simple stretching exercises and kept to a daily routine. The other day I crouched down to switch on the TV and I noticed that the pain I would usually experience had disappeared completely.

I doubt the doctors have a conclusive reason why I’m cured, but I certainly know my body enough to know what I need to do to keep my knees healthy.

Working Out

Because of my earlier knee problems, I was reluctant to go out and walk or cycle to work. Add to this I moved in summer and then had a 1 hour drive to work, so walking or cycling to work was impossible. As a result I know I have not given myself the time to get the exercise or training I would like. It hasn’t resulted in any major change, but I know I am about 1 stone heavier than I could be. From summertime I got into the routine of getting up at 6am every morning and that gave me the time to go for a 10 minute stroll and do some press-ups, stomach crunches and stretching. I found this very beneficial and I found myself more alert at work as well as solving the previously mentioned ailments. More recently its become more challenging to stop being lazy and make sure I do these quick exercises, partly because of the time of year (always dark in the mornings when I do them, always feeling tired)

Diet changes:

Since the start of 2009 I read more and more about Raw Food diet and I actually met a person who is a Raw Foodist in Edinburgh. Its great to meet people and hear stories who are committed to becoming more conscious about their food; how damaging some agricultural practises can be to make that tasty steak or burger and keep the corporations get larger through their practise of damaging the environment and serving unhealthy food.

At the end-of-year toastmaster meeting I publicly declared my new-years-resolution to become vegetarian! It wasn’t a particularly well thought through goal, but I guess the calumniation of healthy diets stories had inspired me to say it. I know that for me to take on a goal like this, I couldn’t just keep it to myself, being accountable to others is just the sort of prodding I need to keep up this task.

Unfortunately on New Years Day I failed; I went to a dinner party and had Steak Pie! It wasn’t till it was on my plate and I put the first piece in my mouth that I realised I had just failed. At that point I realised thats going to take more courage and power on my part to make this goal a reality.

This year I want to become more aware of the health implications of my diet, and discover what I can do to enable me to eat the very best; health wise, and for the environment.

Health plan for 2010:

For this year I am confident to keep my health up to scratch, by exercise and diet. I am to continue to keep my knee problems at bay, whilst getting back into shape and drop a few pounds to a more natural weight. I want to become more aware of the food I eat and take measures to be maintain a more healthy balance and how it affects people.

I realised on the very first day of this year that these plans mean nothing if I don’t have an action plan to enforce these goals.

Specific plans include working on a more rigorous exercise and work-out plan. I have a friend who recently turned his hand to become a Personal Trainer at a gym. I will talk to him and help make a battle plan with him for working out. At this stage I am very happy to work out in the early morning daily for a short time but I expect more time will be needed to achieve better results.

I am glad that I mentioned to my toastmaster group about becoming a vegetarian. Although they wont be there all the time to ensure I don’t fail (I usually do most of my eating outside the club), in my mind I am accountable to them if they ever ask me how I’m getting on with it, so I will endeavour not to disappoint.

Tags: , , ,

No Comments

About site change… Changing the focus of my blog

Jun 10

Posted by admin in personal development, Web Site development

I have decided to change the focus of this blog. I had hoped to make this into a personal development website initially, but instead I will make this just a site about my own personal development.

I hoped to make this a site where I could help people with their lives. In some way I’d have hoped to have a site where people could read the stories of my own life which would keep people coming back for more. At the same time I anticipated site traffic and hopefully some income from advertising! (generated $7 in total so far, about 4 months. Not bad :) )
However, I am finding now that I do not have so much to be talking about past experiences. Recently I have been looking forward to learning and experiencing more. I’d like to use this blog more as a focus point to my interests and learning.
At the same time I am seeing that the success of income generation from this site has not gone to plan. The intention was to give readers a reason to come look at this site; to get something from it. In this way we would all benefit; me from revenue and readers from reading it.

One good thing about having a small site is the ease of which to change it if things dont work out. I am also seeing that I would rather focus on improving myself and I would like to change this site to reflect that. I will continue to blog about my life and interesting things I find, but I think the focus for justnow is about my own self improvement. The millions of dollars of passive income from the site will just have to wait..

Interestingly enough I listened to a podcast today by Tal Ben Shahar, called Happier. In it he explains the concept of the currency of happyness and how goals in life all lead to the ultimate goal of becoming happy in life. So in fact my goal of making a popular website has ultimately the same goal as making a website that makes me happy to have written one… we are all aiming for happyness one way or another. How long will it take you to realise that money isn’t the only way?

Tags: , , , , , , ,

1 Comment