Author: Geoff

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Geoff's Travel Blog

Sunday June 20 – Cool morning then a punt..in the sun!!

What a brilliant day! Another lazy start with my roomies, Kate, Iain and gorgeous young Ollie just hanging about the house. The weather started out somewhat attrociously but as the day progressed, so too did the weather. I ended up riding a briskly cold ride into town on Iain’s push bike where I meandered the streets of Cambridge, did a spot of shopping (didn’t buy anything apart from a nice coffee). Then I joined Kate, Iain and Oliver at ‘The Anchor’ pub on the Cambridge Cam for two pints…followed by that was a punt on the Cam where I was taught the skill of ‘punting’ and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Miraculously or not, the sun came out and it turned out to be a magical Cambridge afternoon, scarf, beanie and jumper off and it was nearly ‘hot’! After about an hour and a half on the Cam we ventured back home, me on the bike to prepare dinner…spicey prawns with a lentil/rice/onion finish…of course with a glass of beautiful red wine, listening to the tunes of Crowded House…nothing short of Bliss! 🙂

Photos to follow, or on the smugmug site!

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Geoff's Travel Blog

Saturday March 19 in Cambridge

Very cruisey day today.

After a lovely personal tour of Cambridge town by Kate, where I saw Kings College and surrounds we came back home to have an ‘Aussie’ BBQ with some of Kate and Iain’s friends, Laura, Dan & Stephen. We watched The World Cup soccer, Aus Vs Ghana (1-1) then had a delicious BBQ together 🙂

A few drinks later everyone was very relaxed and enjoying the warmth of inside, this isn’t summer! 🙂

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Geoff's Travel Blog

Day 2 – Central London from Cambridge!

Well today was fun, but crazy busy fun!

Here’s a quick summary (with photos to come eventually).

A late start, leaving Cambridge with Kate, Iain and Oliver at about 10am (Kate and Iain choose not to start til late and the day care they have Oliver in closes at 6pm, they often have to go in after hours as well to check up on/watch experiments they are running)…
So…from Cambridge I caught the train into London, first stop Kings Cross, then another (tube) train to Covent Garden where everything seemed to come alive…it was beautiful…I strolled around there for a while then walked all the way down to Knightsbridge, via Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square…sooo Monopoly!! I felt like the top hat!! 🙂

I didn’t stay in Harrods that long, nice but not really my thing…from Harrods I went directly to the Underground again and got a train to Waterloo, which is where I went on the famous London Eye – it was great. Expensive, but great!! The weather wasn’t rainy but very overcast, got some nice shots some of which you will see soon I hope!

After a few hours down there I made my way back to Piccadilly Circus, SoHo, Covent Gardens (where I enjoyed a beer) and then back to Kings Cross, and then finally Cambridge. Walked back home from the station at Cambridge, a good 35 minute (very flat) walk!

Me on the London Eye!

Doing a local/personal tour of Cambridge with Kate/Iain tomorrow then helping host a soccer( Football party at their place for a few Aussie friends). Should be a bit more chilled out than today was.

I enjoyed it very much but the enormous mass of people in London is a little scary – the tube was MENTAL during the evening peak hour!!

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Day to Day

Friday June 18th – Day 1

The plan today is to go into London Central and become a real sight seeing tourist, as I’ve already done the cathedrals etc and towers my goals today are;

The London Eye
Harrods
Hyde Park
Covent Garden

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Geoff's Travel Blog

Made it! Hello UK and Cambridge

Well – it’s been a looong time since I’ve flown anywhere of distance so I have to say first up that the 22hr flight nearly killed me! All good though.

The first 8hr leg from Sydney to Singapore was ok, being farewelled by Son, Soph, Hugh, Mum and Dad was a delight at Sydney airport.

The 2nd leg (13hrs) was looong, so long. Wasn’t overly impressed with British Airways, however it was ‘ok’.

Landed at Heathrow at 5:20am and then managed to get on an earlier bus (0710hrs) from Heathrow to Trumpington Park and Ride, Cambridge where I was met by Kate Duggin! Kate brought me home to their beautiful little place in Cambridge, gave me the grand tour and now has gone to work. I made myself a nice three egg omlette, have had a shower and now time to have a few hours sleep before I head out for a walk and maybe some photos! Clear, sunny blue skies and the current temperature is about 16 degrees!

Over and out!

At Sydney airport, feeling fresh and ready to go:

Ready for take off!

Cambridge!!

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Day to Day

Beaten, by TWO calories.

So I went back to the gym on Tuesday night, determined to beat the 814 calories I burned the other day. I did it!!

Here’s proof! 55 mins, 816 calories!!

Exhausted after this one!!
Exhausted after this one!!
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Fitness, Health & Nutrition Stuff Geoff's Travel Blog

New PB! Wooohooo!

So after a nice weekend with Jane, Steve, Liam and Flynn in Dubbo and a little bit of over indulgance (not too much), I got back to the gym tonight and went nuts.

814calories in 55 minutes and 30.1kms later! UNREAL! Felt fantastic (but nearly dead) afterwards!!

Here’s the proof:

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Fitness, Health & Nutrition Stuff

9kgs in 10 weeks!

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog but I’m still going strong.

After coming off my motorbike on Good Friday (April 2nd) I was limited to what I could do at the gym and couldn’t really exercise much at all but I kept on eating super healthy and well yeah..I’ve now lost 9kgs! Only another 7kg to go! 🙂 ‘only’ hahahaha.

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Fitness, Health & Nutrition Stuff

Sitting Steady at 6kgs weight loss

Well, after a rather large weekend of fun and festivites (aka boozing) at Pip and Andrew’s BEAUTIFUL wedding in Mollymook I thought that I would’ve put on some weight, but I came straight from Mollymook yesterday (Sunday) morning and did a session at the gym followed by an evening shift at work. This morning I did a spin class and I’m still sitting steady at the 6kg mark which I’m quite ok about. With 3 more gym sessions already booked in for this week I hope to get some more kgs off! All in all it’s going well. It’s been a little while since the update. Apart from this weekend just gone I’m still really eating very cautiously and carefully with higher protein input and less carbs. I am definitely feeling better for it!

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Fitness, Health & Nutrition Stuff

5.8kgs in 5 weeks.

Well, it’s been a little while since I’ve blogged my weight loss stuff…but…as the title tells you can still see that I’m going as strong as I can and have lost NEARLY SIX KILOS in 5 weeks!! STOKED I am.
I’m still eating VERY well, and watching everything that goes into my mouth. A main motivator at the moment is when I see something I’d really like to eat, I think about how long it’d take me to spin/cycle/ride/walk or run it off…it seems to be a good way for me to prevent anything too horrendous from a calorie perspective going into my mouth.

People at work are now saying that they can see it in my face that I’ve lost weight. My tummy ‘love handles’ are going, which is great. Still a fair way to go, but I MAY just achieve my 8kgs in 6 weeks mark. Not likely but possible.

Thanks for reading!

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Day to Day

Video Footage of The World’s Greatest Shave – Geoff’s head goes ‘nude’!

Thank you sooo much everyone who sponsored me! $2195 raised for The Leukaemia Foundation – top effort by you all!

PART I
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PART II
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PART III
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Day to Day

A week away, well six days.

So I went away on our Mild Hogs II Motorbike trip with my mates Steve and Patrick. Obviously I couldn’t go to the gym and well, I was away with two mates, riding motorbikes so the food was what we could get. I did try hard not to over indulge and I think I did ‘ok’. Not great, but ok. To add insult to injury (metaphor only, I didn’t have any motorcycling injuries) I’ve come down with a stupid chest infection that’s got me feeling pretty lousy so I didn’t go to the gym today. I WILL go for a bit of a walk tomorrow, and hopefully back to the gym on Wednesday.Speaking of Wednesday that’s the day I will be shaving all my hair off for ‘The World’s Greatest Shave” – eeek!

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Day to Day

Service Interruption – PLEASE READ!

ok ok..some of you may be sick of me rabbiting on about The World’s Greatest Shave but I have 10 days left of having hair on my head.

I’m taking part in the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave 2010. Please sponsor me! Working in a busy Intensive Care Nurse as a Registered Nurse, I see patients with leukaemia and other haematological illnesses, this is a great cause!! The funds we raise will help the Leukaemia Foundation to provide practical care and support to patients and families living with leukaemias, lymphomas, myeloma and related blood disorders.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SPONSOR ME!

Photos and video pre/mid and post shave will be made public!! It’s a GREAT cause!

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Day to Day

New record, most calories burnt – Day 15

Well I went off to the gym in the early afternoon and did the following workout:

20 minutes of weights training followed by;
Run
20 mins
2.83km
Avg speed 8.5km
279 cals

Eliptical Trainer:
265 cals
19mins 11 secs
0.81km
MHR 171bpm

Spin/Cycle:
20mins
291cals
10.4km

Total calories burnt: 835!!

Total weight loss thus far: 3.5kgs in 15 days.

Brekky: Cup of black tea.

Lunch: 5 small pieces of salmon sushi (with rice) and a chilli tuna sushi roll + a diet coke.

Dinner: Stir fried (in a small amount of Canola oil) chicken breast cut into diced pieces, marinated in lemon juice, garlic, soy and hot chilli, served with rice + a big glass of H2O.

I’m about to embark on a 6 day/5 night tour on the motorbike with my buddies Steve and Patrick. I plan to walk every night in absence of the gym! This is our ‘promo’ poster (hehe):

Milds Hogs II
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Day to Day

Feelings of mild guilt – Day 14

So why am I feeling guilty? I endulged a little last night and enjoyed a beautiful Thai dinner with Amanda and Steve and a few of their friends. Had 3-4 beers too! Oh well. One day of ‘badness’ can’t be TOO bad can it? 🙂

Back to the gym tomorrow, have to beat 755 calories!

Brekky: 3 x weetbix with skm milk + 1 large smilk flat white no sugar.

Lunch: Grilled fish (basa) with rice, pumpkin and peas and a very small splash of gravy & a diet coke.

Dinner: One deep fried dim sim (I know I know!!)…then a plate of  baked salmon, beans, carrot and cauliflower.

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Day to Day

Most Calories burned – Day 13

Brekky: 2 x weetbix with skim milk and a coffee.

Run-walk
20mins
281 cals
2.82km
MHR 181

Eliptical trainer
249 cals
20 mins
0.82km

Spin
225 cals
20mins
11.4km

Total calories burnt: 755!!

Dinner:

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Fitness, Health & Nutrition Stuff

Too sore after yesterday – Day 12

Off I go again, this time at a reasonable hour of 0930hrs then to work.

Brekky: Horley’s Protein Shake with 250mls skim milk, no fruit added today.

Lunch: 3 slice sandwhich with lean ham, lettuce, alfalfa sprout and avacado + one glass of water.

Dinner: Left over Barramundi green curry with rice (small serve) + bbq chicken breast (no skin)
Hi, ho hi ho it’s off to the gym I go (Saturday)…

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Fitness, Health & Nutrition Stuff

Ignition – start up! Day 11

Today I have my ‘ignition startup’ session at the gym with a personal instructor. Not really a personal training session but more of an assesement of my fitness level and what goals I want to achieve. If it’s not tough (not sure what to expect) then I will do some cardio workout after the one hour assessment.

The assessment with Tony from Virgin Gym went well…we had a good chat then he showed me the ropes (well not really) of learning how to use some of the weights which he said was imperative to continuing weight loss and that I should do them before the cardio stuff. All made sense to me. Another gym session tomorrow (spin class) at 0930hrs…woot!  After my session with Tony…I hopped on the cardio equipment and did:

Run/walk
267 cals
2.8km
MHR 180
avg speed 8.5km/hr

Step
20 mins
Floors 77.1
202 cals

Spin/Ride
25 mins
261 cals
14.7km

Total calories burned: 730!!

Brekky: 1 x 250ml protein shake (Horleys) with a ripe banana, blended with skim milk. 1 x large skim milk flat white, no sugar.

Lunch: 2 large glasses of water and an apple.

Dinner: Terriyaki fish and rice with a small simple salad…yum! A cup of yummy green tea (thanks Leigh Stark) and a bottle of powerade (not so good re sugar content but meh).

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Fitness, Health & Nutrition Stuff

Day Off! The ‘new’ Geoff – Day 10

So today I’m not going to the gym but will go for a walk a bit later. I’ve been to the gym the last 5 days in a row so figure one day off is ok.

Brekky: 3 pieces of brown bread/toast with avacodo + 2 cups of coffee (no sugar). I’m slowly getting used to the no sugar thing!

Lunch: 1 sushi/salmon pack + 1 terryaki chicken shushi roll and a diet coke.

Pan fried maranated chicken with fresh garden salad

Exercise today: A brisk 30 minute walk after dinner.
My wrist watch has begun to losen up…freaky, but oh so good 🙂

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Fitness, Health & Nutrition Stuff

2.9kgs now! Wooot – Day 9

Quieter day today, 12hr night shifts can get in the way, however I managed a session at the gym this afternoon. No class, just 3 x 20 minute sessions on the cardio stuff. some weights and 20 situps. The cardio stuff  consisted of:

Walk/run:
20 mins
2.51km
242 Calories burned
Ave speed 7.6km/hr

Elliptical Trainer:
20 mins
1.04km
220 calories burned
Max HR = 166bpm

Ride/Spin:
20 mins
213 calories burned
11.8km

Total Calories burnt: 675!

Breakfast: Didn’t happen (just a coffee)

Lunch: 3 pieces of white bread/toast and half a tin of baked beans + 1 large glass of water

Dinner: Left over chicken/vege stir fry + one small glass of red wine and a cup of tea  + one square of chocolate (yum!).

I just realised I’ve been to the gym for the last 5 days in a row!! FREAAAKY! Tomorrow will be day 6.