EP 6: Bank Holiday update

It's Bank Holiday weekend - time for a little update about MRIs, vaping and cycles.

Thanks for listening to me waffle.

You can learn more about me on most social media channels under the handle of @mrlukedodd

Love you.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, my name's Luke, and this is my podcast, Finding the Words. A podcast that's going to be looking at communication, culture, and purpose, as well as a few other little bits thrown in. Stick with me and let's have a good conversation. Hello. It's bank holiday weekend on the Monday. And yep, got a free day today, so I thought why not let's have a little podcast session. Hope you're having a good one. Um, I'm going to upload this today, so it'll still be the bank holiday weekend. But yeah, hope you've had a good, good little break. I've had a nice one. Went to a birthday party on Saturday in Essex, just outside of Chalmsford, which was super nice. Um it was quite a big deal, actually. There was fireworks that went on for a while, for about 20 minutes, food vans, marquee, quite a biggie. So yeah, that was that was super nice to to to go to. Um I haven't recorded in a little while. To be honest, work stuff has taken priority. It's quite a big time at my company, and there's a lot going on, so I'm just focusing on that. But yeah, I wanted to come back on and and maybe just do a little update, in particular focusing on fitness, health, um and just what that looks like when you're A, in your 40s, and then B constantly battling different vices that you know set you back quite a lot. So maybe just looking more broadly at health and and what's going on there. So I'm actually gonna book myself in for, well, I have booked myself in for an MRI scan for my lower back. So every morning without fail, I wake up with a bad back, it's it's lower back, it's really tricky for me to bend down and lift things up. Um, I've started doing exercises in bed and just stretches when I get to the gym in the morning. But yeah, it's it's been going on for the last four to five months, and I'm a bit sick of it. So yeah, booked in for an MRI to see if it's a slip disc or anything like that or a bulging disc. I've been informed it could be. So yeah, hopefully after that's um happened and been been reviewed, I'll have a bit of a plan of action. To be honest, I think the advice is pretty much the same for anything when you've got an issue with discs. I think it's like yoga stretches, all this stuff, but at least I'll know that it's that's what it is. So that's been a bit of a bummer, and you know, I think you can approach these things with either, you know, getting down about it or just focusing on the things that relieve it. So I've I've gone the latter route, just focusing on doing loads of stretches. I'm really, really determined to just be my peak physically this year in terms of appearance. So I want to get a six pack. I've got I the the top abs are visible, it's just the lower abs, which are a bit hidden. So yeah, I'm really determined to get a six pack by July, maybe, and yeah, and just you know, be flexible, be mobile, and just focus on that at the gym. So, you know, I'm I'm doing weight training four or five times a week with about 15 minutes of stretches in each session. Haven't been doing cardio just because I thought road running wouldn't be good for the for the spine. But actually, when I was speaking to my osteopath, she advised, or actually, no, the booper lady, she advised, you know, don't limit yourself to what you're doing if it feels fine. So if it feels okay, keep doing it, stay as mobile as possible. But obviously, if it hurts, don't do that exercise. So running's never caused me issues with my back. So I'm just gonna go for it, but not go too hard, but just you know, get back in the saddle with that. Um, so yeah, so just battling with that, and then the other part of health and fitness is the vice part. Now it's starting to get a bit boring, to be honest. Um, the kind of cycle I found myself in. So, you know, my two vices, much like a lot of people, number one is drinking. So I actually don't drink a huge amount, but you know, when you have a drink socially and then you feel like rubbish the next day, it kind of throws you out of your health and fitness uh routine for a couple of days, and it's I feel it's the thing that's keeping me from reaching the next level, so that's infuriating, and then also vaping. So yeah, I am I go through ebbs and flows with vaping, and at the minute I've I haven't had a vape for the last couple of days. I was doing it quite a lot at the end of last week, and actually at the party or Saturday, I had it, I vaped quite a lot, and then I had a bit of chest pain yesterday, so I really just don't want to do it anymore. It's it's it's annoying me that I I do it as much as I do. So, yes, so I I think my approach is gonna be I'm gonna have a drink every now and again, but I'm not gonna do it every week, and I'm not gonna beat myself up on things like holidays or when there's a particular social thing that's coming up, because you know, a drink does help in social situations, it gets everyone on a level, it makes things fun, and it kind of kind of hits that part of your brain that needs that social connection and it helps enable that. Whereas if you're stood there just having a coke and everyone else is on a level and you're not you're not making that connection. But I, you know, I think that's fine for the for the you know evening social thing, but I think I need to start going to health and fitness social events, so you know they do a lot of things where like wellness retreats, yoga retreats, all this kind of stuff, and I think I need to start exploring that and um going to those because you know uh socially I don't just want that to be all there is, like parties and having a drink, like there's got to be more to the social side of things than that. I want to connect with people around ideas, around you know common goals, whether that's the health and fitness side of things. So I just need to start exploring that a bit more, and and you know, that will come. So, in terms of health and fitness for today, so brand new week, brand new start. I've yeah, diet-wise, had a black edition bottle of fuel for breakfast, and then I had uh chicken fillets in a whole grain wrap with salad and a little bit of a little bit of sauce. Um, it's like one of those Tex Mex sauce things that come in four corners, but which I really like sour cream and guacamole and stuff, so just put a bat bit of that in there, and then I think later on we're gonna have chicken fillets, rice, and green veg. So pretty healthy day. Um, I would normally have protein shake, but I don't particularly feel like it today. I've I feel like I've had a couple of coffees and it's and that's kind of it for my drink allocation that's not water and and tea. Um so yeah, it just feels like it would make me feel a bit sick if I had a shake as well as coffee as well as the Huel. So yeah, I think I've got to really focus on making sure that I'm not just drinking for the sake of it, that I'm not ruining my routine, and get some things in the diary that are that are things to really focus on. I mean I've got I've got a Spartan race in September, which would be good. Um but yeah, I think I'm gonna book something in. So I'll leave it there. Just a short update today. This is just really for me to to make note of where I am and just you know, update for now. But as ever. Love you all. Speak soon.