Enjoying the off season

Had a great weekend even if it is freezing cold here. Went to see "Love and other drugs" with Wendy, it's not a total chick flick and it is a good movie, well constructed and with a great sound track. We gave the Aston Martin its first run for over a month on Sunday which was great fun too and we also spent some time with my two Grandsons, Caden & Colby. I see even more of them now that Natalie is a single Mum and we all have a lot of fun together. I'm loving the off season but have just two more weeks of eating what I like and then it will be dieting time again, it's come around so quickly. To cap a great weekend, I have finally got a copy of the Daily Star from December 7th when they printed the picture of me with Gavin Henson. It's on the press and media page already!

A clean bill of health again

Yesterday I had my yearly "MOT" at the Saxon clinic in Milton Keynes and I'm pleased to say that all is good. Many thanks to Dr. Ratne who was very helpful and actually understood that bodybuilders can have a BMI of 35 and not be clinically obese as the chart says! So next week I'm back to full training, I've been invited to do the Bodypower show in May again as I won it last year but it's a UKBFF show so I will have to think about it. Spent yesterday afternoon with Caden, I missed him so much while I was away and we had a great time. Here he is eating chicken dippers, sitting by the fire, watching Toy Story (again). Is it any wonder that he loves staying with his Granddad?

Here comes the pain....

Well I started back at Golds yesterday with some stretching and cardio as planned. I felt so good that I decided to hit the legs today and even though I wasn't lifting anything like my normal weights I am this afternoon confined to sitting down! So I'm really looking forward to walking down the stairs tomorrow morning as you can imagine. It has to be done though, the legs need to be 30" this year if I'm going to take a new package to the shows; I also want to get the arms up to 20" which will be hard work too but after a month off I'm up for the challenge. The holiday is already just a nice memory so here's one last photo, taken by Wendy on one of our excellent sightseeing trips.

And we're back...

The worst part of any holiday is coming home to this “bracing” weather that we suffer in England, but home I am and tomorrow I will start back at Golds, just stretching and cardio for the first day at least, then some light weights sessions with a view to getting back to full training by February 1^st. The dieting will start again, as is now traditional, the day after the Valentines Day weekend. Considering how good I feel after the holiday that I’ve just finished, I’m planning that weekend away already. A quick hi to Cy Gregory, stay positive mate, injuries soon heal and you will enter and win your first show this year. Finally here’s another holiday picture, most people that I meet only get one photo on the blog but Lucy is such a lovely kid I said that she could have two!

Holidaying to the max

I’m having an amazing time here and have made so many new friends, but all good things must come to an end and next week I will be home and getting back into routine, so I will make the most of this last week here. The Canaries are like a second home to me, I’ve lost count of the amount of times that I’ve been here, I would buy a place and live here for part of the year if it wasn’t for the fact that I miss my kids and Grandchildren so much when I'm away from them. Here’s what I look like after almost of month of being a normal person, not training and eating whatever I like, including chips 4 times a day! This will be the start point for “operation total rebuild” which starts on February 1st, which gives me 3 months to get ready for the first show of the year, the NABBA London & South East Britain on April 30^th.

Still scorchio!

Well it’s getting quiet here as a lot of the friends that I have made are going home either today or tomorrow. So Wendy & I (remember her, the pole dancer from Mexico last year?) are going to spend a week doing all the tourist stuff and that will keep me very busy so I will apologise in advance for next weeks lack of blogging. Heard from my good friend Tommo, he’s just had 6 weeks off and says he feels great now, so that reinforces what a good idea this break was. Here’s a picture of me with 12 year old Lucy Branthwaite from Cumbria who has brightened up everyone’s holiday while she has been here. I promised that I would put this picture on here for her to show her friends at school so here you go sweetheart.

This years plans....

There is a lot to be said for spending quality time doing absolutely nothing, it clears the mind and helps you focus on the future. Although I’m having a month of not being a bodybuilder somehow people here have still noticed that I am one and the subject dominates any conversation that I have, so to be pro active I have started to plan this years shows. There are 5 potential shows between April 30^th and June 4^th, details to follow, also Joe Wheatley from Muscle Beach in California has extended his invitation to me to compete there at any time this year so I will probably go there in September. Looks like it might be a busy year!

Scorchio!

I’ve been here for almost a week now and I'm beginning to feel the benefits already. There were a few raised eyebrows when I told people that I was taking a month off from bodybuilding to live a normal life, most notably from the two people at Golds gym that I listen to the most, Martin Duckett and Gary Walsh. They both doubted whether or not I could have that long off but considering that all of the injuries and aches are easing daily I think that I’m definitely doing the right thing, although it is fair to say that I'm missing the gym already, sad but nevertheless true, and to put it into perspective, nowhere near as much as I'm missing my babies. Here’s a picture of a strange fireball that appears in the sky everyday here.

Holiday time at last

Hola! Greetings from sunny Lanzarote and a happy New Year to everyone. I'm in a beautiful hotel, getting some well deserved rest and recuperation, the weather is great and the food is brilliant. In fact today I had the best full English breakfast that I’ve ever had outside of England and all the meals are eat as much as you like. As my willpower is also on holiday this may not have a happy ending! I hope that your New Year celebrations went well, Lilybelle’s birthday party was great and she just gets more beautiful every day. My darling daughter Natalie has had a new tattoo, Daddy paid of course, we are calling it an early Birthday present. I have to say that I agree totally with what it says, “Dream irresponsibly, love unconditionally, laugh uncontrollably”, what an awesome Daughter she is.