Fit to Dive: Entry 2

Fit to Dive Update: Week 2

Weight: 18 stone 11lbs

Lost: 9lbs

Changing what I eat on a day-to-day basis is hard. My body is used to the routine of drinking 2ltrs of coke and eating half a loaf of bread each day, plus dinner at night. A large chunk of this is due to boredom, spending the day sitting in the centre will result in multiple trips to the cupboard to get something to eat, usually a packet of crisps or a sandwich.

My first task was to change what I was eating. I found that the best thing for me was not to eat first thing in the morning. As soon as I started eating, I wanted more.

I used to have a sandwich at lunch time if I was in school, sometimes with a flapjack and a bottle of water. Instead I’ve made the move to wraps and salads. On the way home, I used to make a pit stop to pick up a sandwich and possibly a pork pie – this had to stop. I also now make myself dinner, minus the three rounds of bread. It’s easy to see the pattern here, lots of bread, chugged down with a can of coke. The only time I drink coke now is with Jack Daniels at the weekend, or possibly a few beers instead.

As for the work outs. They are still occurring with Jay twice a week. Pilates on way to build up my core strength, whilst also working on my legs, arms and abs. Although the exercises are mixed up, I'm finding movement easier and the stamina is starting to come back. I'm finding it easier to breath. But as soon as I think @I've mastered an exercise, Jay outs an add-on or changes it slightly often using the BOSU which helps with balance.

Catch up!

We've been doing a lot over the last couple of weeks....
On Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th we were in Open Water with the help of Ian S, Nick, Rhonda, Joe and Graham. Our students, Luke, David, Heidi and Rob who are reservists and Callie & Eric who are with the US air force all did very well despite it still being very cold.

On Monday we had a LOT of clearing up to do, including washing wet suits and filling cylinders. It's very important to us to maintain and clean all of our kit so that we know it's all working well. On Tuesday, the pool night was very busy with South Essex College starting their Open Water Courses with several different instructors. They're all very quick learners and will be through their course in no time at all!

Wednesday morning, Gary went to an open day at Writtle College where a lot of students showed interest in the Womens Dive Day as well as doing their Open Water Courses. Later on that day, Ian Herbert took a group of people to Nemes with the help of Rhonda and Andy H. 4 students qualified as Night Divers even despite the chaos and terrible visibility! Massive well done to Vince, Connor, John and Rachel!!

Thursday night entailed 15 scouts! Janie had organised this night especially for the scouts as they had been before and were itching to get back in! Everybody had a great time and enjoyed it. A bit thank you to all of the staff who ran around and helped pack up the trailer that night. It made it a lot easier to unpack on Friday morning!

Saturday morning, Ian H was at Stoney Cove doing Wreck, Deep and Search and Recovery. Then on Sunday he was down at Nemes doing Navigation and Drysuit. His student did very well and is looking forward to going diving again.

Lastly, on Monday, Rhonda and Janie went to Nemes for their Easter Egg Hunt and won a fluffy bunny and an Easter egg. It was shocking weather but still a good day! Gary was in the shop clearing out all the mess and doing a stock rotation. It's now nice and fresh!

Fit To Dive: Entry 1.

A few months ago, PADI issued a statement from the HSE regarding the BMI of instructors. Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on your weight in relation to your height.

My BMI, is kind enough to tell me that I’m overweight… So how can I fix it?

I could go on a diet. This will no doubt result in two days of not eating, followed by one night of gluttony in which I devour everything I can find. FAIL.

“I’ll go to the gym,” I told myself. However, before every gym session I’ll find countless more important tasks to occupy my time. FAIL.

At age 54, height 6ft, weight 19.6 stone and a BMI of 36.1, it’s certainly no easy task to motivate myself. 

I get out of breath easily and am getting stiffer by the day. At the same time I have two instructors complaining about equipment no longer fitting them.  

After spending the last few weeks thinking about my physical predicament, and heading to teach open water only to find that my dry suit had shrunk over the winter, I decided now is the time to do something about my situation.

The priority is getting fit to dive.

I concluded a personal trainer was needed, which I knew would help conquer my lack of motivation, as well as take care of old injuries (bad knees, lower back and arthritis).

I’ve found in the past that different gyms offer different advise, often leaving you with no idea of how to make the best use of your time.

A call was made to Jay, a personal trainer that dives with us, and a meeting was set up.

Day 1: Measurements were taken and then straight into a pilates based workout (Jay doesn’t mess around). Finding all of those muscles that were hidden under layers of fat. Stretches, push-ups, sit-ups, lunges and various other exhausting exercises including balance work. The idea was to get my body moving again before upping the tempo.

As part of this effort, Jay wanted to know everything I had eaten over the last week, and had asked me to keep a diary that we could look through together. Considering my diet is based mainly on bread and coca cola, and large quantities at that, it became clear that had to change. 

So as I embark on this journey, I will keep you up to date with my progress, which will hopefully help in holding myself accountable as well as keeping me motivated to continue. 

Nemo 33

After just returning from our trip to Brussels, I thought I'd fill you all in with the pros and cons of everything we did, including Nemo 33.

The weekend started off when we opened the shop at 5:30am on Saturday morning. Everybody arrived on time and we headed to Nemes Diving Academy in Kent. We then left there at 7am and drove through to Folkestone where we all got some breakfast and headed onto the tunnel. Being my first time on it, I guess it did feel a bit weird but we had a fantastic driver who made everything feel safe. The only con I have on the tunnel was that the toilets smelled atrocious. Other than that, it was pretty fun trying to amuse ourselves.

Calais! As we got to Calais it was raining! but we still had another few hours on the road so most of the passengers went to sleep whilst the rest of us chatted. Having had no traffic, no accidents, nothing getting in our way, the journey was actually very pleasant. On arriving at our hotel, we booked in and I gave out room combination numbers. The facilities in the hotel were lovely however the staff weren't very helpful. Once everybody had settled in,  we arranged to meet in the lobby at 2:45pm. We then drove to Nemo 33 where the real fun began.

After all of the boring paperwork, I took a look around the shop, the bar and the restaurant to find it was very nice but small. Our pool session was at 5pm and we were not permitted to get changed until 4:45pm. This meant a lot of rushing around as we thought we were getting in at 5pm. We were wrong! We waiting for the last session to finish, then were instructed to get fins and masks and get into the pool. This was to allow 10 minutes for free divers. So after this period was up, we got out of the pool, got our kit together and got back in! We finally descended at 5:25. My buddy and I decided to go to the  deepest point first just to be safe and luckily there was only 4 people down there as the amount of bubbles was astounding. As we ascended, there was a tunnel that you could go through, at either end there was a hole where you could stand up and talk to each other. I can't stress enough how dangerous this is and would advise that NOBODY does this. It's so dangerous, I don't know how there hasn't been a casualty yet. It's basically all carbon dioxide.

After this, we just poodled around at different depths and made it back to the surface at 5:55 giving us a 30 minute dive when essentially we thought it would be an hour! Nevertheless, the experience was good. Now that I've been, I probably wouldn't consider going back.  The changing rooms afterwards became full of water and there were no private cubicles. So after awkwardly shimmying out of our wetsuits, we dried our hair and got out! The next stop? THE BAR!! I definitely needed a drink after the 4am start! I ordered a cocktail which was essentially a glass full of vodka. People form Brussels can definitely handle their drink! When the coach turned up, we headed back to the hotel, got changed and then headed to the Italian restaurant down the road!

On arriving at the restaurant, we discovered that they didn't speak a word of English but they were very nice and helpful! There was a lovely man playing music live, he was very talented. After stuffing ourselves with pizza, pasta and everything else on the menu, we headed back to the pub! A very cheap pub too. I was told that we made it back to the hotel at around 12:30am. After a good gossip and a lot of good food, we all slept like babies.

On Sunday, we all grabbed breakfast (which may have included cake and donuts) and took our seats on the coach, where serious games of eye-spy, guess the animal and 21 questions began. Then we arrived at Brugge! Despite the absolutely freezing whether, Brugge is beautiful! Full of churches and chocolate shops which were thoroughly inspected by most of us! We then took shelter in several different restaurants whilst the rain blew over. After eating our entire bodyweight in food, we went to yet another pub! Although it looked like we wouldn't make it out alive, it was surprisingly friendly. At about 4:30pm we started walking back to the coach with bags full of chocolate and alcohol. We headed back to England an hour later.

The journey home was full of karaoke, pranks and general silliness but it was great to unwind in a coach full of fun people. We headed to Nemes first then to Orca and made it back for a late dinner at 9:30pm. I'd just like to thank everybody for making it such a fantastic weekend. Although we all come from different backgrounds, everybody was friendly and there wasn't a single problem!

A little bit chilly....

This weekend we were at Nemes doing the first and second dive for the Wreck Specialty, the first and second dive for Full Face Mask specialty and the Search and Recovery scenario for one of our Dive Masters. Rhonda came back with ice hanging from her nose! It was absolutely freezing. Our students managed to do very well despite it being so cold.

In the centre, Gary and Janie have been having a spring clean! They found a few snorkles that have been left behind so if you think you've lost one, tell us the make and colour & it's yours! We've put a lot of old stock in the bargain bucket so if you're looking for a cheap pool bag, a knife or a wetsuit, get down to the shop before it all goes! 

We're now stocking childrens' kit! Blue and pink sets are available as well as yellow masks! Fins are available on order. We also have a lot of new Scubapro stock! Including BCD's, regs, fins, masks torches!

Gary was in Chelmsford County High School on Friday so we'll hopefully be starting courses with them in September. This is a great addition to the list of schools that we work with in Essex. We also recieved this lovely 'thank you' card from a nursery in Essex that borrowed our equipment!

We'd love to feature some stories from other divers' in our blog next week. So if you have any funny or frightening story, email us!