Blog 10 - Keep on Swimming, Keep on Swimming

Keep on swimming, keep on swimming….

Those were the words that were going over and over my head for over an hour today when I along with my swimming pal Lara Ramsay managed to swim 40 lengths of the 50m pool in Cardiff Bay non-stop! I surprised myself that I managed to do it without stopping as I don’t think I’ve actually been swimming properly (without kids) for at least 3 years and have never ever swum that far in my life!

I managed 20 lengths breast stroke (old lady style), 19 lengths backstroke and 1 length front crawl! After length 16 I had a stitch the whole way and started hallucinating a bit after 31!! But I kept swimming, slow and steady like a swimming tortoise (would that be a turtle?) and the last length of front crawl I mainly looked like a panicked dog drowning but hey I did it. Truth be told, Lara didn’t look like she broke a sweat and could have done another 40, and I definately couldn’t have done it without her!! We did have a sneaky glass of presecco to celebrate after.

And our treat of Proseco!

Before the swim, all goggled up!

After the swim!

I also managed to complete Challenge 18 this week, where I turned my mobile phone off for 40 hours and had no access to facebook, twitter or emails either. Although not taxing it was a tough challenge but good to get a break from my addiction! I took time to look around and take notice of things more, I struggled to make it on time for anything as I couldn’t find a working watch to use instead of my phone and shock horror I had to use a phone directory at one point. During the 40 hours my phone was off, I missed 2 phone calls, 3 text messages, 10 Facebook messages and 8 notifications for my personal facebook and 10 notifications for work facebook, 37 personal emails and 56 work emails and finally 16 work related mentions on Twitter.

Bearing in mind the 40 hours covered the days I don’t actually work, I can see why I am so addicted! I really am going to make sure though I try to have a couple of hours off each day and take time to look around me more and properly relax my brain a lot more!

So, two more challenges completed which brings it to 7 completed challenges so far, only 33 to go! Next month I am going to try 40 hours without swearing and probably the trickest to keep uo 40 hours of complete silence as in I will not be allowed to make any sound, talk, hum or sing for 40 hours (this is the one the husband is looking forward to the most!!)

Update on the other challenges:

·         (Challenge 17 – Visit 40 pubs) I have visited 10 pubs so far.

·         (Challenge6 – 40 Sit ups every day) keeping up although some days are a bit half hearted!

·         (Challenge 26 – lose 14 pounds in weight ) up and down on the weight loss but still only 7 pounds loss

·         (Challenge 11 – Read 40 Books) I am on book number 9

• (Challenge 12 - Volunteer for 40 hours) - I have completed 5 hours of NSPCC volunteer training.
• (Challenge 14 - 40 Dates with Husband) - I have had 8 dates with the hubbie.

·         (Challenge 36 – Listen to my entire CD collection) I am still trying to get through this one!

·         (Challenge 28 – Commit 12 acts of kindness to random strangers) I have completed 5 acts so far.

·         (Challenge 24 – Have Afternoon Tea at The Ritz) This is booked for May 2014 to also celebrate my mum’s 70th Birthday.

·         (Challenge 2 –Get 40 people to donate £10 to charity) Raised £60 so far, £340 to go!!

·         (Challenge 1 – Write 40 Blogs) this is blog number 10 written

COMPLETED:

Challenge 4 – SWIM 40 LENGTHS – Swan 40 lengths of the 50m pool in Cardiff Bay with Lara Ramsay on 27.10.13. (Money spent £16 for goggles and entry to pool)

Challenge 9 – 40 HOUR FAST – I completed 40 hours not eating any food and surviving on water and flavoured water only. (Sept, with Karen Daniel)

Challenge 18 – TURN MOBILE PHONE OFF FOR 40 HOURS – I turned my phone off and had no access to facebook, twitter or emails at all for 40 hours. (Oct)

Challenge 22 – ADOPTED A WILD ANIMAL – I adopted Jubilee an Asian Elephant through the Born Free Foundation. (Spent £30 for adoption fee)

Challenge 25 – GIVE BLOOD – Completed on 11.10.13.

Challenge 30 – APPLY FOR A GAME SHOW – I applied to two game shows ‘Deal or No Deal’ and ‘The Chase’ in August but have still not heard anything back. I also applied to Bargain Hunt this month for my colleague Paul who would love to go on this programme.

Challenge 38 – HULA HOOP FOR 40 REVOLUTIONS – Completed in Sept. (Spent £18 on buying hoola hoop)

Blog 9 - Donate to the MUPPET charity - all in the name of charity fundraising!

Well my blog this time is all about my most embarrassing day on the planet (so far!)
In order to try and raise as much money as possible for the RSPCA and to keep me motivated to complete the 40 challenges, I agreed for an interview in the South Wales Echo. I really expected a very small piece and although grateful as hopefully it will help to get more people to sponsor me, I was not expecting a double page spread!

When the photographer came round I must admit, I was dying of embarrassment then as the photos were so cheesy! I kept saying I'm going to look awful, but the photographer was very reassuring and at one point even said... "You remind me a little of the newsreader Susannah Read" Blimey I thought the photos must be better than I thought as I bear little resemblance to the Breakfast stunner at the best of times!

When I saw the photos today however, yes I thought I do look a little like Susannah ............................................................if you are blind in one eye and clearly very drunk!!!!!

Sure enough very soon friends and colleagues all started getting wind of the coverage and proceeded to mercilessly take the mick out of me all day, or just wetting themselves laughing! It has to be said though whilst explaining to my mate Gus how to donate to my charity or to choose a charity of her choice she came back with the best quip of the day! She said that she would prefer to donate to a special charity called MUPPET as it is very close to her heart as she has a friend who suffers from the Muppet infliction. It stands for 'Most Unflattering Press Photo Ever Taken"!!!

So to see this stunning picture, check out the spread or the online coverage and judge for yourself the muppet qualities, look below. But the most important thing is look at the fundraising link as surely laying my pride on the line in the name of fundraising is worth a tenner??

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/cardiff-mum-two-sets-herself-6224320

Blog 8 - Blood challenge completed!

Heavy on the bandage!

It’s been busy couple of weeks with lots of family birthdays and illness, but I have managed to also complete one more challenge by donating blood today! And no not 40 pints just the regular 3/4 pint! I have given blood only once before when I was a student so it was about time that I got my butt in gear! I am now in the 16 week cycle of giving blood so hope to keep it up throughout the year and beyond!

I have also done a bit of extra planning and booked Afternoon Tea at The Ritz in May 2014 to also celebrate my mum’s 70^th birthday, registered for the St David’s Day run in March for the first 10k run.

Next weekend I am attempting Challenge 18 and turning my phone off for 40 hours and having no access to Facebook, Twitter, messages. Emails etc. and totally switching off! Although this sounds easy I have really struggled to think of a suitable date to do this as I can’t do this challenge during my working days as I spend so much time on Twitter and Facebook for my job that this would be impossible.  Although truth be told I am permanently attached to my phone and seriously addicted to Facebook and Twitter outside of work also and I need to find a watch as I use my phone to keep time!! I'll let you know how I get on...

Update on the other challenges:

·         (Challenge 17 – Visit 40 pubs) I have visited 9 pubs so far, with the girls helping me out big time with this one by varying where we go for our regular catch ups; this week we ventured to the Black Cock on Caerphilly Mountain which was hilarious! As I was a little late, I walked in to find my three very glamourous friends sipping their wine in a completely empty pub looking slightly bewildered – it looked like they had been taking hostage!

·         (Challenge6 – 40 Sit ups every day) keeping up although some days are a bit half hearted!

·         (Challenge 26 – lose 14 pounds in weight ) up and down on the weight loss but still only 7 pounds loss

·         (Challenge 11 – Read 40 Books) I am on book number 8

·         (Challenge 36 – Listen to my entire CD collection) I am still trying to get through this one!

·         (Challenge 28 – Commit 12 acts of kindness to random strangers) I have completed 5 acts so far.

·         (Challenge 24 – Have Afternoon Tea at The Ritz) This is booked for May 2014 to also celebrate my mum’s 70th Birthday.

·         (Challenge 2 –Get 40 people to donate £10 to charity) Only raised £10 so far, £390 to go!!

·         (Challenge 1 – Write 40 Blogs) this is blog number 8 written

COMPLETED:

Challenge 30 – APPLY FOR A GAME SHOW – I applied to two game shows ‘Deal or No Deal’ and ‘The Chase’ in August but have still no heard anything back.

Challenge 9 – 40 HOUR FAST – I completed 40 hours not eating any food and surviving on water and flavoured water only. (Sept)

Challenge 22 – ADOPTED A WILD ANIMAL – I adopted Jubilee an Asian Elephant through the Born Free Foundation.

Challenge 38 – HULA HOOP FOR 40 REVOLUTIONS – Completed in Sept.

Challenge 25 – GIVE BLOOD – Completed on 11.10.13.

Blog 7 - Hula hooping!




Challenge 38 - Hula Hoop!

 Yes my hula hoop arrived so I thought I may as well give Challenge 38 a go! Previously I have tried to keep a hula hoop up, but mainly using a child's small hoop and have failed miserably! So, I bought an adult weighted hoop and although there were a few very rubbish attempts and my technique looks more like a weird cowgirl jolting around rather than a sexy and sultry technique that you see most hula hooping ladies do, I managed to complete 40 revolutions... just! As it was a slightly easier challenge than I expected I will try and get my mate Jo to complete the 40 too! At least I now have a new hobby and can try and make my technique a little bit less strange!

Other progress on the other challenges... no word from the game shows (Challenge 30), I attended an interview for a new volunteer job (Challenge 12) and got the job so will be starting training at the end of October. I have also registered with the Blood Donor Wales and have made an appointment in October to give blood. (Challenge 25) I know it seems a relatively simple challenge again however I tried multiple times last year to give blood but they always turned me away as they were too busy or I was under the weather. So this time I have made an actual appointment.

I have also done my 40 sit ups every day (Challenge 6), lost half a stone in weight (Challenge 26), on my 7th reading book (Challenge 11), had 5 date nights with the hubby (Challenge 14), visited 7 pubs (Challenge 17), listened to countless CDs (Challenge 36) and committed 5 acts of random kindness to strangers (Challenge 28).

I have spent some time planning out some of the challenges and spacing them out throughout the year. Next month, I'm going to try and tackle swimming 40 lengths, turning my phone off for 40 hours and finishing off the kindness acts.

But for now enjoy proof of my ridiculously unsexy hula hooping!!

Blog 6 - More publicity...

CHALLENGE 22 Completed - I am now the proud mum of Jubilee the baby Asian orphan elephant! My adoption pack complete with my little cuddly elephant now proud of place on my daughters bed, arrived today with details on the elephant I adopted through the Born Free Foundation.

In my attempt to get as many charity donations as possible for CHALLENGE 2 – the RSPCA Cardiff branch (my chosen charity) published details of the challenges and the Just Giving site on their website to help raise awareness and hopefully money. It also means I really do need to complete these challenges even more now!

http://www.rspca-cardiff.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=547:michelles-40-challenges&catid=36&Itemid=101  

As my mate said though that photo of my first sandwich after the FAST will haunt me for some time!!

Blog 5 - the first cooking challenge!

Last night I managed to cook my first meal from scratch - CHALLENGE 35 - a chilli con carne (quorn and a meat version). I managed to cook it without too many traumas through the tears from the onions, although I did almost have a minor catastrophe when I tried to drain off the excess fat from the mince and almost tipped the whole lot in the sink!. Disaster averted, I was very proud of myself until I saw the faces of my two children and husband when they tried it! I must admit it wasn’t the best and was pretty bland with very little flavour but hey for a first attempt at least< I was proud and  it wasn't burnt! The family can't wait till my next attempt... NOT!

Onto the next challenge, I thought I would try and do some random acts of kindness to strangers (CHALLENGE 28) for the next couple of weeks and hopefully cheer some people up!

Blog 4 - FAST complete!

Challenge 9 completed! Yes I managed along with my fellow challenger Karen Daniel to complete the 40 hour FAST!

I celebrated my wedding anniversary on Saturday 31 August so had a lovely slap up meal and was necking champagne just before my 9pm curfew when I needed to stop eating all food for 40 hours. For the next 40 hours I then drank cold water, flavoured water or boiled flavoured water (Fruit Tea!).

Karen and I text each other throughout the challenge to keep us both motivated and weirdly both of us suffered with headaches as the worst complaint - both big caffeine drinkers I think we suffered more from the lack of caffeine than food!

The first thing I ate was a bread roll! which I had to wait an extra 20 minutes for as I was stuck in the pony rides queue for my daughter at 1pm!!
It did amaze me how well I coped without food to be honest, not too many grumps! It was definately better starting at night and I kept myself very busy and distracted most of the time, but nothing too physical. I craved tea and different drinks much more than food although I did wake up several times in the middle of the second night with stomach cramps and had a banging headache the whole time. In the last 3 or 4 hours I did become a little light headed too but all in all not too bad!

It really did make me think of all the people in this world who sadly have to go to bed lots of nights with those hunger cramps which made me more determined to get through it really and stop wussing out!

Anyway enough about that challenge as it is now done and dusted! I have not heard back from the game show applications yet and I am still trawling through Guinness Records for a suitable World Record attempt - any ideas let me know. I have recruited a few people for the physical challenges, Mudrunner, 40k runs and swimming etc. but Im still looking for someone to attempt the 40 hour silence - any takers??

Today I am attempting my first cooking challenge for CHALLENGE 35 - COOK A NEW RECIPE EACH MONTH - which to lots of people would seem easy enough but as a lot of you know I am the most rubbish of cooks in fact Popty Ping (Microwave) and the freezer and generally my best friends and as close I come to cooking anything from scratch! But tonight, drum roll please...... I am attempting to cook a chilli con carne (meat and seperate veggie one!). Hopefully I won't poison anyone!

I also had my first donation of £10 for my charity - Thank You Chris Bullen - very much obliged!

So for now my lovelies, I'd better get chopping some onions - where are my protective goggles??