Another plea for sponsorship!!!
Right, time has rolled inexorably onward (as it has a tendency to do).. and Michael's half marathon is now THIS COMING SUNDAY!!!
So, let's recap.
A year ago this coming Friday, Michael smoked his last cigarette. He's not had a single one since then - the longest he's ever managed to give up, and he says he doesn't even get cravings. Then, in February, he decided that he really needed to do something about the other big risk to his health; his weight.
With trepidation, he stood on the scales and found he weighed in at almost 19st. But with portion control, cutting down on snacks, and walking the three miles each way to work and back he started making progress quite rapidly. Soon, he had lost enough weight that he felt ready to join the gym.
About this time, he decided that he really wanted to give something back to the world. We lost his mum to cancer back in 2008 and he felt he wanted to do something to kick back at that awful disease. With this in mind, he gave himself a target - a quite impressive one for someone who only a couple of months earlier would have struggled to run for the bus. He signed up to do the BUPA Great North Run (a half marathon starting in Newcastle) for Breast Cancer Care.
Well, he has trained hard, and (mostly!!) stuck to a sensible diet. At his last weigh in, on Sunday, we found he had lost over four stone since he started. He's now only a few pounds heavier than I am, and a good deal fitter. He's no longer classed as obese or even overweight, and he can run for MILES, let alone for a bus. And according to the whizzy fancy scales, his fat percentage has dropped from over 36% to 20.3%. And much to my approval, he hasn't snored in months! In short, he's a transformed man and I for one, am very proud of his determination and his acheivments so far.
His chosen charity is Breast Cancer Care, and you can find out more about them here: www.breastcancercare.org.uk/server/show/nav.11
If you would like to sponsor him - and all donations are very much appreciated, no matter how small - there is a button at the bottom of this entry which will take you directly to his JustGiving page. The donation process is simple (you can even use paypal if I remember correctly) and has the added bonus that you can declare yourself as a UK taxpayer.. this means that the government does something funky with tax you have paid and the charity gets something like an extra 28 pence for every pound you donate - at no extra cost to yourself.
Here's the button...
Go on. Click it. If he can do all that, I'm sure you can manage a couple of pounds.. he's even going to be running in the fuschia pink vest supplied by the charity... it's worth the money just to see the photo I'll post after he finishes!!
...oh, and a very heartfelt THANKYOU from both of us to those of you who have already donated so generously.
So, let's recap.
A year ago this coming Friday, Michael smoked his last cigarette. He's not had a single one since then - the longest he's ever managed to give up, and he says he doesn't even get cravings. Then, in February, he decided that he really needed to do something about the other big risk to his health; his weight.
With trepidation, he stood on the scales and found he weighed in at almost 19st. But with portion control, cutting down on snacks, and walking the three miles each way to work and back he started making progress quite rapidly. Soon, he had lost enough weight that he felt ready to join the gym.
About this time, he decided that he really wanted to give something back to the world. We lost his mum to cancer back in 2008 and he felt he wanted to do something to kick back at that awful disease. With this in mind, he gave himself a target - a quite impressive one for someone who only a couple of months earlier would have struggled to run for the bus. He signed up to do the BUPA Great North Run (a half marathon starting in Newcastle) for Breast Cancer Care.
Well, he has trained hard, and (mostly!!) stuck to a sensible diet. At his last weigh in, on Sunday, we found he had lost over four stone since he started. He's now only a few pounds heavier than I am, and a good deal fitter. He's no longer classed as obese or even overweight, and he can run for MILES, let alone for a bus. And according to the whizzy fancy scales, his fat percentage has dropped from over 36% to 20.3%. And much to my approval, he hasn't snored in months! In short, he's a transformed man and I for one, am very proud of his determination and his acheivments so far.
His chosen charity is Breast Cancer Care, and you can find out more about them here: www.breastcancercare.org.uk/server/show/nav.11
If you would like to sponsor him - and all donations are very much appreciated, no matter how small - there is a button at the bottom of this entry which will take you directly to his JustGiving page. The donation process is simple (you can even use paypal if I remember correctly) and has the added bonus that you can declare yourself as a UK taxpayer.. this means that the government does something funky with tax you have paid and the charity gets something like an extra 28 pence for every pound you donate - at no extra cost to yourself.
Here's the button...
Go on. Click it. If he can do all that, I'm sure you can manage a couple of pounds.. he's even going to be running in the fuschia pink vest supplied by the charity... it's worth the money just to see the photo I'll post after he finishes!!
...oh, and a very heartfelt THANKYOU from both of us to those of you who have already donated so generously.