Finally found a good balance with delivering parcels and weightlifting.

After a few years of trying and failing at finding a weightlifting routine that suited my body alongside my delivery driving day job, I think I might have finally found a routine that is working, and that I can stick to long term.

In the past when I thought I had found a routine that would work alongside the physical demands of delivering parcels, a day or two after a heavy barbell squat routine or deadlift routine I would not only be whacked physically, but I’d get a heavy day or two at work where I’d shift 300+ parcels weighing over 2,000kg and I’d be fucking wiped out for the week!

I tried changing the reps, changing the weight I used and changing the days I worked out, but nothing seemed to work. I could cope with being physically tired after a heavy workout, but then after an even heavier day delivering parcels I just couldn’t recover quick enough, or sufficient enough to not be wiped out for days after.

I’d only change things up after four to six weeks of trying a new weight, reps or day of the week etc. In an attempt to try and give my body the chance to adapt, but because I wasn’t willing to give up various home comforts of a beer or two, or a bit of junk food etc, I was just expecting too much from my body.

I wanted my cake and I wanted to eat it pmsl.

Anyway, here we are two months into this new routine I’ve set up, and so far it seems to be working.

At the weekend when I’m not working I’m doing my heaviest main lifts like squats and overhead presses, and during the week I’m doing mainly accessory movements and one main lift, but not too heavy.

So for instance Saturdays I do barbell overhead presses and Sundays I do barbell squats. Two main movements that I go heavier on. Then Monday through to Wednesday I do medium weight accessory movements like side raises, rear raises, flyes, lunges and bent over rows amongst a few others, and the only lift I go heavier on is decline weighted push ups.

I tried to get into bench pressing again, but it just doesn’t feel right and I don’t feel comfortable doing them, so I’m sticking with weighted push ups.

I’m also feeling the need to move away from heavy barbell squats too, as I’m finding my back is feeling a bit whacked on days that I do a heavy delivery day. It is fine doing the barbell squats and the days after if I don’t have a heavy day on parcels, but as I literally never know what’s going to be the score with parcels, until the day arrives, I’ve not been able to find a good day to do heavier barbell squats.

I’m leaning towards doing heavy lunges instead for my main leg exercise. I generally do them with 10/12.5kg dumbbells so I might start working them up a few more kg’s each week and see how I feel with leaving barbell squats at the weight I’m on now.

So, for the two months I’ve been doing this routine on the whole I’ve not felt too whacked on heavy parcel days, or the days after and last week I had two back to back heavy parcels days, and still managed to do the weightlifting I wanted which was awesome.

I’ve also got into the habit on the weekends of doing my weightlifting in the mornings, and sometimes first thing when I get up. Which has helped my motivation for the day too, as sometimes I got on with household stuff or met up with friends etc, and by the time the evening came around I didn’t feel like working out, especially on the heavy lifts.

But again, the last two months I’ve made the effort to do them in the mornings at the weekends, and it’s been going well so far. Also having the lighter, accessory movements during week days means I don’t feel demotivated after a heavy day of parcel delivery knowing that I’ve got a heavy weights session in the evening.

I did a measure of my waist and chest this morning and in two months I’ve managed to lose 1.5 inches off my stomach and add 1 inch to my chest, which is pretty sweet. I didn’t set out with a specific measurement I wanted either to be at after a specified amount of time, but knew that if I was consistent my waist would shrink and it goes that I’d build more muscle too.

My chest has grown along with my upper back simply because of being consistent. Shrinking my stomach or losing belly fat to be specific, I think is easier as I burn so many calories during the day delivering parcels, that I only need to eat slightly less food eat day and my belly fat starts to disappear.

I’ve always been able to lose belly fat pretty easily, but in the past I’ve also lost muscle mass, as missing certain meals to lose the fat meant I was sacrificing muscle building too.

But again, so far this routine is going well eating wise too, so I’m pretty chuffed with the last two months all in.

Long may it continue.

Until next time…

WeeMike

Despite meeting a lot of people in my day job, I enjoy being a recluse outside of it.

I finished work on Friday and after a physically demanding week I was glad it was over. Multi drop parcel delivery is physically and mentally demanding and pretty relentless. As more and more people are shopping online, there never seems to be a quiet day anymore.

My route isn’t particularly heavy on parcels, being a half rural and urban route with not many businesses in, but it’s tiring enough.

I enjoy meeting people everyday, there are always unique interactions, challenging interactions and plenty of mundane interactions, but always interactions with a few hundred people a day. Which means you have got to be good with people and in a variety of situations, so not at all a shy person or an introvert, in my opinion anyway.

So if you said 6 years ago I’d be doing this job, I’d have laughed in your face, then walked away from you to go do a job on the farm on my own, or go home to be on my own pmsl.

I loved the farming job I had, I worked on the land and I didn’t need to interact with many people, I got things delivered to my house when I could and rarely went out to where lots of people were. My ideal lifestyle.

But something was niggling inside of me saying that I need more human interaction, I needed it to build myself in something better.

And so today, I find myself meeting more people in a day than I did in a month on the farm. But I’ve found a balance in that in the evenings and on my days off work, I don’t meet many people if possible.

I’ve never been a family person, I see family once a month or less than that (other than my partner who I live with) and I’m happy with that. If I can get things delivered, I do. If I can order things ahead of going to collect them, I do that to. All to avoid being around too many people.

Do I get nervous or anxious around crowds? Strangely not. I’ve been to large music, sport or food festivals with thousands of people around me and felt fine, but I’m glad to get home and get away from the crowds.

Fridays have always been my favourite working day of the week, as it generally means I have 2 days off work to do what I want, which is generally being at home and alone or just with my partner in the house.

Ideally I’d prefer to do what I wanted every day of the week, but I’ve yet to find something I enjoy to pay my day to day bills that I can do long term.

Anyway, Friday nights are usually movie, gaming or music night, sometimes all of them.

And being a bit of a recluse I prefer to stay at home most weekends and do my own thing.

I enjoy spending time in the garden. Spending a fair amount of time planting lots of different flowers to encourage the bee’s and butterflies over the last few years has paid off as we get lots of different visitors during the warmer months.

I deliberately leave my grass to grow long as its field grass so it slowly turns into a meadow during the warmer months with some wild flowers coming through. I leave what others call weeds, I like to see the insects they bring in with their flowers, rarely seen in most people’s gardens these days.

Much to the disdain of my neighbours who are your stereo typical mown grass, weed killing, none pollen producing flower type people.

Or as I call them, boring garden people.

I prefer a messy, wild garden. One filled with wild flowers and weeds. I enjoy seeing the insects it brings in and can sit for hours watching the bee’s and butterflies and every other crawling or flying thing.

I enjoy seeing my garden come to life with the different wild flowers and the grasses that grow in the meadow lawn and then the insects this brings in too, especially the less seen insects like moths and grasshoppers.

I’ve no idea how they all find our garden amongst the sterile non pollen filled gardens of our neighbours, but I welcome them and it makes me happy to see them.

I put in a small sink pond a few years ago and it’s now established and a few frogs have made it there home, again, how’d they find it. Build it and they will come seems to work with nature.

Being in debt I guess also helps my love of being at home, because it means I can’t go out and spend money I don’t have. I’ve got a few luxuries I pay for at home, like movie, sport and music apps etc. But I need to keep my outgoings down until my debt is gone, so it does help enjoying being a recluse and being at home.

Anyway, time for a quick bit of weight lifting which is going alright. Not moved on from the weights I’d got to a few weeks back but I’ve found a level which is working to keep my healthy and fit to continue my job which is what it’s all about I guess. Then it’s time to watch some sport with a nice cold cider I think.

Until next time…

WeeMike

Life goes on but not much changes.

Not sure what’s happened to the last 6 months, whizzed by delivering parcels and not a lot else due to Covid-19.

I’ve been able to keep a basic weight lifting routine going and have just the last few weeks started to get towards something heavy again on the main lifts.

I’ve moved my heaviest main lifts like squats and shoulder press to the weekends and try and do the easier (for me) other lifts during the week so that my body is less whacked after a hard day’s parcel delivering.

It’s working so far which is good, but it’s taken longer than I wanted as I’ve fallen off the routine a few times over the months but at least I’m still going with it this time, which shows to me that it’s doable with my job at least.

I’ve settled down in my new route, having had half of it changed to a more urban area and to be honest its not that bad really. Closer to home so I get to go home for lunch sometimes, which is awesome on baking hot days so I can cool down rather than sit in a hot van.

The last few weeks though I’ve been pining for a proper outdoor job again though. It’s probably due to the nicer weather and I’m missing working on the land once again.

But due to our financial situation with the debt, I’ve got to stay where I am for now as its the highest paying job I want to do at the moment. And as it is one of the highest paying jobs in the industry I’d be silly to leave it when our debt needs paying off.

I didn’t realise how well paid it was until I started looking at other delivery driving jobs that are around, no idea how companies think they can offer the low wage that they do and expect to get good drivers.

Which might be the point when I see some of the delivery drivers around, they shite pmsl.

Anyway, got my blog on an app on my phone now so might write something down a bit more regularly again.

Time for some euro 2020 footy and a beer I think.

Until next time…

WeeMike

2021 is shaping up to be crazy, but you’re always in control of yourself.

I felt like I needed to write some shit down today, so this is a fucking weird one as normal, looking back over what I’ve written below whilst writing this beginning part seems like I’m reading the thoughts of someone else.

Where the fuck did this come from midget?

See I’m talking to myself again ha. Oh well, keeps me sane whilst the world is losing it’s mind. Or maybe it’s the other way around these days.

Fuck.

—–

Delivering parcels in 2021 is only 10 days old, but it’s been the same as 2020 so far for this parcel delivering midget. Well fucking busy.

It’s to be expected as it is the New Year for a start and people always have Christmas money to spend, plus January sales are here and of course we still have fucking Covid-19 too.

One thing that has changed for me already this year, is my route. Without any prior warning or discussion with me or other drivers as to what might work, mine and a few others areas have been changed by management.

I’ve had the prison and M.O.D deliveries taken off me and the main urban area I had and I’ve now been given a few different villages and a different urban area to deliver to.

Don’t mind so much about the change of villages as I enjoy rural routes, but the new urban area I deliver to is bigger than my old one, really condensed and always busy regardless of holidays etc.

I’ve still got half of my old route, which is good as at least I know that really well. I’ve now got 12 villages in total instead of 14 and my 1 main urban area has grown in size by 2 fold I’d say.

Overall I’ll have more deliveries to do throughout the day, however, because the urban area is condensed I can plough through it quicker than the computer gives me time to.

Due to the company I work for bringing in a new automated routing system last year (which is shite) and me having no say in what way the route is done, I have to do the route in the way the awesome (not) computer tells me to and it gives me more time for each delivery than is needed, so I can generally deliver quicker than it says I can and therefore I get ahead of my time schedule and can take a few breaks throughout the day now.

Well, hopefully I can anyway, we’ll see how it goes as this first week was shite due to us still being locked down due to Covid-19 here in the UK and so the overall volume of deliveries is still way higher than it normally is.

And until it dies down I won’t get a true picture of how busy the route really is, but even with the parcel volumes being as high as they are, I still think I’ll regularly get through it each day with time to spare.

I don’t like to fuck around delivering like some of our drivers do. They make sure they take their time in delivering, the exact time or a little more than the computer gives them time for. That way they don’t get too many deliveries, clever, but lazy, the fuckwits.

As it is, the company isn’t questioning the time frame they have for each delivery, but I think at some point in the near future they will reduce the time and there will be some proper moaning.

Ha, lazy fuckers have it coming.

I’m not a corporate kiss ass, I don’t work hard because I’m told to, I work hard because it’s the right thing to do for me mentally and physically in the long term.

And ultimately it makes me feel good.

Fuck letting a company change the way I feel in the long term. Sure sometimes I let a company change how I feel in the short term, but that’s because I choose to, I allow it to and can at any moment change that.

But long term it will never happen. I always think of myself first long term and I always do things to make me feel good/happy in the long term.

Which you’d think these moaning drivers would be doing too, thinking of themselves long term, but clearly they’re not, all are responsible for their own feelings, but seemingly allow this company to control them and how they ultimately feel in the long term, well short term too as they’re always the same.

Weak minded fuck wits.

I don’t understand people who say their day job is like a prison sentence. If you hate your job, that’s your fault, not the companies fault. Change jobs you pussy. Yes it really is that simple, you just think some jobs are below you.

Sure some people have special circumstances that keep them in certain jobs. Fine, change your mindset then because no-one has ultimate control over that other than you.

Change your mindset and eventually you’ll be able to change jobs too.

I’ve always been a happy positive outlook kind of person, even in some of literally the shittiest jobs out there.

I’ve cleaned the shit stains off of toilets and the hardened sick off floors.

I’ve picked up shit filled bin bags and bin bags filled with dead animals.

I’ve worked on fruit and veg farms in the shittiest of weathers, pissing down for days torrential rain and freezing cold for weeks in the winters.

I’ve worked in factories with my mind doing nothing all day but counting things whizzing past on a conveyor belt.

I’ve worked at computers typing data into a screen for hours, days and months on end.

And through all of it, I’ve always looked on the positive side of things, always had a smile for everyone, always willing to have a laugh.

All because I’ve chosen too, no-one else has decided what my attitude will be, just me.

Now I’m working just as hard as I ever have, in a day job like parcel delivering.

I get to keep fit physically as well as mentally.

I see that as a win win.

The rest, meh, just shit I ignore.

The way I see it is that I get paid to use my body to lift and move things all day thereby keeping fit and strong (as long as my diet is good enough) and I get paid to keep my mind active and sharp by driving a vehicle around safely and professionally.

Some people look down on delivery drivers, I’ve met them and still meet them on a daily basis. Although Covid-19 has reduced that quite significantly, there are still people who I meet (deliver to mostly) that I can tell have a lowly opinion of delivery drivers.

That’s fine, they’re fuckwits, the world is full of fuckwits, I don’t give them any special treatment though, everyone gets treated the same, seemingly rich or poor, rude or nice.

And I always do things because I want to, not because I’m told to. And I think that makes a big difference to how I feel about myself.

I don’t offer a smile at the door with your parcel because the company tells me to. I do it because I like to and it makes me happy.

I don’t treat your package with respect and care because the company tells me to. I do it because it’s how I want my packages to be treated.

I don’t drive with disrespect for other road users or pedestrians, again not because the company tells me to, but because that’s how I want to be treated.

I also don’t bring any negative outside influences from my life into my day job. If my life outside of work is shitty, it stays outside of work. Again, not because the company wants that (they do actually, its just they can’t say it because of weak minded fuckers) but because I don’t want negativity to lead my life.

I’m always positive, always smiling, always having a laugh. Because life is meant to be fun.

Sure negative things happen to me, all the fucking time. But I choose not to react to them negatively. Well, in the long term anyway.

Short term, sure I allow negative things to get to me. But ultimately I choose to allow them to get to me.

I’m aware when negativity is becoming more powerful around me, some particularly negative people have come into my life, or something is effecting me negatively that shouldn’t be and eventually when it becomes close to overwhelming me, I choose to step back from it and turn on some positivity.

Basic positivity helps in any situation. Being thankful for the basics has always been my go to.

If I have food in my stomach, clothes on my back and a roof over my head, the rest doesn’t matter. I can be happy and positive no matter what.

Some people might not be able to, perhaps they need more life experiences, more shit to happen to them to toughen them up mentally, because if one things for sure, there are some proper mentally weak people in the world in 2021.

A lot of people seem to think that everything happens to them, that life just happens and they blame others for it.

But ultimately we choose everything that happens to us, doesn’t matter if it is negative or positive. We have made choices that have lead us to this very moment in time.

Most are just not conscious of making a decision which often means someone else has made one for them.

Fuck that shit. Only you have control of yourself.

Where the fuck are you going with this midget? Why am I now writing to myself, is my head that fucked I don’t know how many of me there are now.

Fuck, that’s a scary thought there, more of me then just me in the world, ha ha, the world is fucked.

Oh wait, it already is. Ha.

Looking back to the past I can see shit that has happened but have never been this conscious of the effects it has on the world around me. Is that because I’ve never really been me, until now.

Well that’s true I guess, until this very moment I was someone else. Right now I’m me, but yesterday and tomorrow I was and will be someone else.

Yeah ok midget, trying to be deep and meaningful, tit.

That’s my mind dumped, I feel relieved at writing this all down, as normal for a mind dump post.

Right, it’s time for some movement then some food and drink, I’ve been sat here for 2hrs or so writing this.

I can feel my body needs to move, I think some basic bodyweight exercises are in order, chin ups, push ups and some squats I think. No major weightlifting this week as I had planned, my body and mind has felt pretty whacked every night so far.

Guess it has been the first week on a new route, a lot of new things to take in. I have done some basic bodyweight stuff 3 times this week though, so that’s maintenance level at least.

Until next time…

WeeMike

2020 – a memorable year delivering parcels and some.

Well that was a long time without posting anything on this blog. It’s weird because I felt like I wanted to write something at times, but just never did.

So where to start, I guess the best place would be….. fucking hell 2020, fuck right off!

I’ve been lucky to be in an industry that hasn’t negatively been affected by Covid-19 and 2020 was by far the busiest I have ever been in a day job.

Online delivery just went proper job mainstream pmsl.

I delivered to more people who hardly or had never done any online shopping then ever last year. Sometimes it was funny listening to their stories of ordering online for the first time, other times it simply mad me laugh out loud when they pronounced that online shopping isn’t the way forward and will stop soon enough!

Mostly I was just happy to be able to help people get the things they needed, food, medicine, DIY stuff, fashion and every fucking doodad you can imagine, I delivered it all in 2020.

At times my route was 50% busier than normal and as a company we got days behind on deliveries, other times it was normal and we met all delivery timescales ahead of schedule.

But on the whole it’s been an extremely busy year for delivery and one I’m glad to see the back of. Unfortunately though I see no end to the glut of deliveries any time soon.

Obviously government lockdowns are still a thing here in the UK and people have no choice but to buy things online, that I can understand, but I still am and even more so now, frustrated by those ordering shit they don’t need.

But I’ve still got a job, I’ve still got my health and I’ve still got loved one’s alive, so that’s what matters the most to me right now.

So, a little look back over last year I think, for future reference….

Health and fitness wise last year was pretty good really. I stuck to cutting down on my sugar intake and made sure I ate more whole meals rather than snacking when I got home from a hard days work.

It paid off as I now automatically get home and start my evenings meal prep and the next days food for work without even thinking about it.

I’ve also stuck to taking the supplements I got myself at the beginning of the year, Vit D, Fish Oil, Multi Vit etc to make sure I was getting everything I needed and it’s paid off as I’m definitely feeling healthier than I have for a long time, on every front.

Weightlifting could’ve been better, I didn’t do as much as I’d wanted to at the beginning of the year, but I didn’t expect to be as busy and as fucking knackered every night after work for the rest of the year, so I’m not beating myself up over it.

I know what I can do after each work day and what I need to do at weekends, so my plan is to carry on for 2021 as I wanted to at the beginning of 2020 but with the knowledge I’ve gained of what my body can and can’t take after the physical demands of driving around delivering parcels.

4 main lifts during the week, Barbell Squats, Barbell Overhead Press, Barbell Deadlifts and Weighted Pushups (because I hate bench press still) during the week. And some accessory movements during the weekend.

From a health point of view it’s been even more important to look after myself after 2020, regardless if you think Covid-19 is a government conspiracy to enslave us all or just another disease us humans get. It’s vital now that health is a priority and that includes fitness, so I’ve set myself up as well as I can hope for.

Years of experience health and fitness wise have given me the confidence to get through times like 2020 and I can’t highlight the fact enough that being fit and healthy is probably the most important thing someone can do for themselves in times like this, our human body and immune system is an amazing thing if given the chance.

Anyway. What else. Ah yes finances, fucking finances.

I started off 2020 with a plan to pay off our debt each month, set us an end date in a few years time and off we went. And then of course fucking Covid-19 hit.

To be fair we could’ve been hit worse then we were in 2020, compared to a lot of people here in the UK, we’re doing ok. We’re not great and we’re not doing shit, we’re just ok.

My partner was unfortunately furloughed a few times in 2020 and may well yet be again in 2021, but we got through it, made some changes and came through it ok.

Debt wise we’re roughly in the same position as a year ago, so no biggy, we didn’t reduce the debt and we didn’t increase it, it’s almost exactly where it was a year ago, so it could’ve been a lot lot worse.

We’ve set goals based on what happened last year and we should be able to ride out this year if it happens again, which if it does, again we probably won’t have paid off any debt, but we won’t have increased it either, but that will be ok right now.

A job loss on my partners side might put a spanner in the works and we can’t plan for that unfortunately. Sure if we’d not been in debt at all then probably yes we could, but we have debt and we’ll deal with that kind of situation if it arises.

She could always come and be a delivery driver with me pmsl, that’s one industry that is just going to go from strength to strength. Well until the robots take over, but I’m pretty confident I won’t be alive by then, let alone a delivery driver still!

So everything else is just a bit meh, without me needing to go into detail, it’s the same for everyone else here in the UK isn’t it. It is what it is right now, we’ll get through it eventually, we’ve not had it as bad as other countries and we won’t once/if this eventually ends.

I’ve given up even thinking about writing about conspiracy theories as there are plenty of people out there writing about them themselves and whilst none are proven right 100%, this last year some have come close to being right, which is fucking scary.

Regardless of what anyone thinks, the statistics don’t lie. Once we have facts in front of us we should rethinking our previous choices and future decisions. However, that’s easier said than done when you’re a group of people that loves to control others.

That’s about as much as I’ll write on that, it’s far too time consuming to try and guess what’s going to happen, regardless if you believe in conspiracy theories or not.

I’d much rather spend my time preparing myself physically and mentally for worst case scenarios, just in case. That way if something doesn’t happen, I’m fit and healthy to enjoy a good life.

I’d suggest anyone who reads this (someone reads my blog? haha) you do the same too, because being physically fit and healthy can help you overcome a lot of life’s obstacles and it also shows how much you care about yourself and others too.

I think I’ll start writing shit down once a week again. Maybe download the wordpress app this time and that might encourage me lol.

Until next time…

WeeMike