The Reckoning

The January Reckoning - kung hei fat choy!

Interestingly enough, both my parents were born in another year of the horse...I won't tell you which one, but another good omen I reckon.

Fundraising
I've raised £450 so far... Just shy of my £500 fundraising target for New Year.  Thank you so much to everyone who helped me get that far.  My next push will be a Valentines target so watch this space.  

And donate here to the fight against avoidable blindness.

Riding
I've been riding every weekend, except over New Year when I was in Austria.  I definitely feel more comfortable in the saddle and very happy on Cheyenne, the horse I've been riding.

Cheyenne (left) in a rare moment of friendliness (she's not overly fond of other horses)

Thank you so much Maggie Pattinson for the lend of Cheyenne and all your help and support so far.  Maggie is a fantastic endurance riding coach - I've been amazed by how far people travel to see her and it's really lovely seeing the improvements she makes and how happy her clients are.  I should also say that her horses are a delight and an education to ride.

You can find out more about Maggie on her website - she offers a kind and intelligent approach to training for both horse and rider.

Cross training
I wish I'd taken a photo of me push pressing (?!) the bar + 2kgs last night...  I think this getting stronger lark is going to be a long road.

It's not all doom and gloom, though.  I'm feeling reasonably fit and a 24hr bout of food poisoning earlier this week didn't really phase me which feels like a good sign.  As an older and wiser person I'm trying to build up gradually and Crossfit has been really helpful, or rather the coaches at Crossfit Central London have been really helpful - particularly Naama Chezar (@NaamaChezar) and Matt Rodwell (@mattrodwell).

After three sessions a week for three weeks, I can see I've lost fat and gained muscle ...but you can't because apparently it's not acceptable to post selfies of me in my underwear.

Weight
I weighed a massive 72 kgs on return from Austrian fat camp...

I now weigh 69.7 - hopefully I've put on muscle, but either way some of the chub has gone.

Sponsorship

I've had a lot of interest in the last couple of weeks and I'm in email back and forth with a couple of companies...

Thanks to my employer, Standard Chartered Bank, for the first bit of sponsorship, for letting me work flexibly and for doubling all donations made to Seeing is Believing.  You rock!