The day my favourite brand disappointed me: Panasonic

This is a report of the beginning of a story that has everything to be sad. But Panasonic can make it have a very happy ending.

On 28/12/2011, I bought my first Panasonic Plasma TV in the UK. Having owned Panasonic Plasmas in the past, I was very confident that this TV was going to be a success.

It was a 42 inch, model  TX-P42GT30B.

When I bought it from Amazon.co.uk, the standard manufacturer warranty of 12 months was given.
As it happens, I found out that Panasonic used to give 2 year warranty in their products. I have a theory:

If a product is good, Well built, With quality materials and technology, With the customer's satisfaction in mind, the company can afford 2 years warranty.

However, if the company lacks confidence in the product they make, only the statutory 12 months is commercially viable.

That is just my theory.

As a trick of the Universe, maybe Murphy's law, my 42 inch Panasonic Plasma simply stopped working completely, just as if it understood that after 12 months of mandatory labour, it could give up and die. That was on Monday, 18/03/2013. Less than 3 months after the warranty period was over. Well within the 2 year warranty previously offered by Panasonic, just a few months before I decided to choose them.

The weight that the Panasonic brand carries with it is huge. And it was the main reason why I chose this TV instead of the other 13 options I had available within my specs requirements and price range.
Putting it ahead of some major rivals like Sony, Samsung, LG and others.
Some of these competitors do offer 2 year warranty. Just to make a note.

After a first attempt to contact the Panasonic, I was able to speak to someone who didn't seem happy to be answering the phone in first place. I wasn't sure that I was going to be helped at all.
I don't like to let my assumptions take place over the facts, but this time they were accurate. The only thing the attendant was able to do, was to offer me the telephone of the closest support services especiallist (something I had already figured out by myself from Panasonic's website). 

I tried calling them. No answer. I tried emailling them. No answer. That was all three days ago.

I was really hoping that Panasonic could come back to me and just like in the good old days where they were unbeatable in the Plasma business and cared a lot more about their customers.

Tomorrow, 22/03/2013, I will make a second attempt to contact Panasonic. 
Hope is all I have left.

P.S.
This is my 4th day without a TV. 
And to be honest, if this TV doesn't get fixed, it seems like I will not get another one. Life is probably better when you're not in front of the TV.

The day I switched to BT

My name is Thiago Regueira Jorge and this is the beginning of the report of a situation that seems to have no end.

Subject: BT Infinity Broadband and Landline

I was very happy because I was switching from Sky broadband to BT infinity broadband. That was until the following events:

Monday 18th February 2013 – 5pm
A BT engineer completed the installation of my landline and Infinity Broadband.
He handed over a piece of paper with ‘my new phone number’: 0208XXX0094 (at this point I thought it was strange to have a new number because I was switching and I should have kept the same number).
A few minutes later, the phone rang:
“Hello” – I said
“Who is this?” – The person on the other side said. Like if she was convicted that I should not be answering this phone
“Sorry, I believe you got the wrong number. I have just switched to BT and this number was assigned to me” – I should have realised that this was the start of my BT nightmare.

Sometime later that night, I got another call. This time, from a person claiming that that line belonged to her for a long time and that she had just upgraded her broadband plan.
We had a chat and discovered that we had our lines crossed. My old number was nowhere to be found – I called it and it wasn’t ringing. However, when I called ‘my new number’, it was ringing just fine.
It was working so well, that the phone was ringing in my flat and in the other person’s house. So, what the real owner of that phone did? She called BT that night and arranged a visit from the engineer to fix her crossed line problem.

Tuesday, 19th February 2013
Unaware that my neighbour called BT and arranged her problem to be solved, I believed in the British efficiency to sort everything out and I was just waiting for a call, an e-mail, a smoke signal to inform me that the problem was identified, solved and that they would be apologising for the inconvenient.

I am so naive.

At this point, I had agreed that I was not going to answer the phone because nobody had ‘my new number’ and that it wouldn’t make sense to keep answering the phone if the chances of a call being for her were immensely bigger.

Wednesday, 20th February 2013 – 11am
I am in the office and I got a call from my wife (mobile to mobile) saying that the internet was not working. I told her a few troubleshooting steps to see if they would solve the problem and kept with my duties.
An hour later, she calls again to inform that it is not only the broadband that is not working, but the landline is also muted.

Reluctant to believe, but still giving BT some credit I told her:
“Honey, they must be fixing the problem our neighbour reported to BT the night we had our installation. I am going to call and check.”

So, I called BT.
I really believed that ‘my number’ was 0208XXX0094. So, in every call, I dialled this number on the automatic answering machine before I was put through to talk to someone.
This is where my frustration rose exponentially. Call after call, the BT customer service seemed to get worse and worse.
In the first call, I spoke to someone who tried to do some tests in ‘my line’. All I could get from that call, was that they knew my line had a problem. The guy was going to transfer me to some department that I couldn’t hear the name when suddenly… the call dropped.
This was call number 1. Total duration 22 minutes. Problem not solved, not addressed

Suspicious that they didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, I called again. This trick works sometimes, you get to talk to a different person who either knows more about what they are doing or is willing to go deep into the issue and solve it no matter what. This time, the person on the other side of the world - should I say line – put me through to the order management team, because they could see an outstanding order in my account.
At this point, I still believed ‘my number’ was 0208XXX0094.
Detail here: until this point they had no idea who they were talking to and they wouldn’t provide me with my account number (due to this ‘Data Protection Act’). My Bank account is public and there is nothing a person can do with that information alone. Why can’t they give me MY BT account number?
The guy in the order management team said that before midnight that day, my order would be closed and “hopefully” my problem would be solved but he “could not guarantee”.
That was call number two. Total duration: 36 minutes. Problem not solved, not addressed

I had to carry on with my own work because that’s what I am paid for. To work and then spend a lot of money with services like BT. Who doesn’t give a damn about what is behind their customers’ needs and doesn’t care about how their customer service is so bad.
On my way home, I was going through my e-mails and I found that I received an e-mail with username for the BT website. I reset my password and logged in their website. I was finally able to get my account number and further details.
This was when, in a moment of epiphany, I realised that next to my name and address, was ‘my real phone number’ 0203XXX9469. With that revealed, flashes of the last two days passed in front of my eyes and I decided that I had to make another phone call.
So I called BT one more time.
I got to talk to a machine this time. Much better, yes? No!

I was at least able to report a problem on my line and register a ‘fault’ with their system. This made me feel like the problem was going to be solved. Until I get an SMS saying that someone would take a look at this case in 5 days. 5 days!!!!
That’s not to mention the threat on the recording as well as on the SMS saying that if they find that the problem was caused by me OR within my property limits, I was going to be charged £99.
Should I remind them that I just had my installation done two days ago?

When I got home, I conducted a few tests to make sure my phone and broadband were not working, and I called the number I thought was mine. The one that the BT engineer said was going to be my number from now on.
Fortunately, my neighbour answered the phone and said she got her services restored. She had a fully functional phone and broadband, while I had a fancy modem, a state-of-the-art router and a phone dead, sitting in my living room with no use or expectations that I was going to be able to use them in the foreseeable future.
It is worth to mention that my neighbour (whom I never met in person) described the engineer that solved her problem this morning a very stupid man, with no touch to deal with people, laughed at her when she described the issue, said that it was not possible to happen and nearly called her a liar. This is not the standard you would expect from one of the biggest companies in Britain.
So I decided to call. Again.
Optimistic me, hum.

This time, when my call was answered by a person that had no idea why I was calling and I had to explain everything, over and over again, that frustration kicked in.
In summary, after over 30 minutes trying to dodge from the old call centre ‘let me solve this by telling him I am going to take care of the issue and delay until he can no longer stand’ style, I asked for her supervisor.
I explained, many times, in many different ways, that I need broadband connection in order to talk to my family, for my entertainment and more importantly… to work.

I had agreed with my boss that I was going to work from home on Thursday afternoon when a builder was going to visit my flat. Guess what now? I can’t cancel the builder’s visit, and I am still going to have to work on Thursday afternoon. This means going home at lunch time, doing business with the builder and rushing back to the office to finish whatever I couldn’t do at home because I had no broadband.
In addition, my wife had a medical appointment scheduled over three months ago for the same afternoon and someone was going to have to take care of our 3 year old son. Now, I won’t be able to stay at home to take care of him and her medical appointment is at risk. She can’t afford to skip this and wait another three months for another booking.

The supervisor seemed genuinely interested in solving my problem, but not in a way that was going to make satisfied. He wanted to procrastinate until “tomorrow at 1pm” when he would be back to the office and the BT Open Reach department would be open. I insisted that that wouldn’t suffice. To wait for another 14 hours for him to have another look at my case, was just going to be insanely extensive and the solution to this case would take even longer.
This was when I put my knowledge of support services to work and asked the supervisor to handover this case to the morning shift by writing an e-mail explaining everything that happened. He said it was not possible to copy me in the same e-mail because he was unable to send external e-mails. I can understand that. Really.

I am writing this log, so I can contact BT directly and solve my problem. Because if I believe in my gut, I know the ‘supervisor’ was only trying to get rid of me ASAP.
This is the number he gave me: VOL 012-73391154307
That was call number three. Total duration: 44 minutes. Problem not solved, not addressed

I have the feeling this is nowhere near the end.
It is now 11:30pm on Wednesday the 20th of February 2013 and I just received an e-mail from BT. The irony is so that the e-mail content says:

“GOOD NEWS!
Hello, your phone service is ready for you.
Your order number is VOL012-72397215520
Things you need to know.
Your home phone number is: 0203XXX9469. You can start using your phone any time.
Some random stuff
Thanks for choosing BT
Warren Buckley.”

According to the guy in the order management department, this was the trigger for my services to start being charged. They don't dare charging me before I am 100%  satisfied.

Just to pinpoint some of the incompetence identified in this case:
1 – Engineer did a poor job, crossed two lines, gave me a number from a different person
2 – Support services completely clueless of their duties and their mission: HELP THE CUSTOMER
3 – Dropping the call and endless pushing over to someone else. The level of customer satisfaction is definitely not in their KPIs.
4 – Incapability to address the problems properly
5 – No problem with outsourcing, but in the event of an issue where the customer needs escalation, a local team should be able to handle. The absence of a local support team makes things only worse.

Thursday 21st February 2013

Last night, after I post my blog on BT's Facebook page and on their BT Care website, I went to bed with no hopes that I would get my connection reestablished in time for my work shift this afternoon.

When I got to the office, I got a call from the same team in India to which I spoke late the night before.
This time, expecting a solution to my problem, I gave them a chance to explain themselves and come with a reasonable solution. Hopeless. It was the same small talk and justification from 12 hours ago. With no solution or improvements on the time to fix the problem.

That was call number four. Total duration: 12 minutes. Problem not solved, not addressed

Instead of focusing on the real problem and try to raise the priority to send some 'engineer' today, they tried to 'buy' me with a BT Openzone login so I can connect and do my work. (I appreciate this, but this is going to make things any better as I need secure connection to log into my company's network. Let's see what I can do when I get home.

I went to check my Facebook this morning and there was an update from 'Darren D' from BT care. He said he was going to read my blog and "take care of this situation" (Yeah, right).

Later, I get an email from Robbie in the same BTCare team with nothing but an apology, the reiteration of the 5 days deadline to have someone look at the issue and a very frustrating outcome once again.

Of course I started a rant on the Facebook page. They think I am not serious. Not satisfied, I also started to twit in their account and I am not going to call a truce until I am happy with service I paid In advance for.

Oh! I didn't mention that I paid 12 months of line rental in advance? For what? To have my line and broadband cut without warning.

I got another call from BT later this morning. Amazingly, they said that my BT Open zone account was setup. Yeah... I had already called my wife and given her the login details so she could test the connection for me before I make the decision to go home or not.

Do you see how poorly organised these guys are?

I think I know what is going on here. They agree all afraid of Open Reach (Who handles the infrastructure and employs the 'engineers' that work for them).

Just Send a fucking engineer to the switch where my flat is linked to and fix this bloody connection. How simple is that?

If they feel pleasure in making my life miserable, I will feel pleasure of making them spend every single penny just handling this case. And I am going to mention every single point...
Compensation for lost time in these endless calls.
Compensation for disruption of an essential service that was working fine before they touch it.
Compensation for the embarrassment they made me go through receiving calls from other people and having other people answering my calls
Compensation for the frustration of all these days and hours of incompetence.

Let's see how Ofcom will like to see this detailed report of their service standard.

Wait for more.

I am not going quiet on this one. Here is an update.

Now that I published my blog on every recent post on BT's Facebook account, they remembered I exist and  wrote the following reply:

@Thiago, Yes Jaimie can save you from your misery. All I ask that you reply to my colleagues email and stop spamming this page with the same post. It's against our house rules. Help me to help you.

Jaimie - BTCare Team

What they seem to forget is that the more they focus on PR, the less they make the customers happy if the technical side of the business is upside down.

With a BTOpenZone that keeps disconnecting, it's impossible to do any work. I am being very improductive this afternoon. 

Please, send an engineer here. It's not the end of the world! AHHHH!!

Janathon - Days 30 & 31 (The end is the beginning is the end)

Yes, you read it right.

Janathon has come to an end. These were the most active days I had in a long time. I overcame (temporarily) my aversion to gyms, improved my resistance, got closer to my ideal weight and prepared myself to start cycling to work.

I haven't asked for donations like most of my colleagues, but I am sure they will raise a considerable amount of help to SOS Children.

Like I've said previously, Janathon will not be completely over for me in January. I will continue to exercise and with the winter almost over, it will be time to go outdoors and do the things I like the most: playing tennis, cycling and maybe with some good effort playing football.

It was very good to have the commitment of Janathon. You feel you're not alone pursuing something that will benefit you immensely.

I changed the way I eat, the way I perceive food and more importantly the way my body responds to junk food when I've been away from it for a time.
Once in a while I allow myself some extravaganza because nobody likes to stay away from the things they enjoy the most: In my case, sweet stuff.

I felt like losing between 8-9kg in a month had a huge impact on my clothes and if I continue to go down this road, I am either have to come to work looking like a clown on the clothes I have now, or I am going to have to buy some new suits and shirts.
My belt already lost his fight. With 25 days into Janathon, I had to cut it so my trousers don't fall off every 5 minutes.

I know I am far away from the ideal 95kg I aspire and it might take a long time to win this war. However, this feels like a small victory towards the end of the journey and it is lie the first battle is over.

I would like to thank everyone who kept pushing me and especially my wife for helping me, sometimes without even noticing.

The last couple of days in the gym were very productive.
30 minutes on the bike were enough to do 8 and 8,25 miles respectively. Always trying to reproduce the real hill conditions I would face on my daily commute.

Again, thanks and if you want to read about other stuff, I will maintain this blog more generic.

See you soon!

Janathon - Days 25-29 *(Where have I been?)

This is a special post.

It is about the struggle I've been to in the final stages of my Janathon campaign.
I wasn't completely recovered of my ailment and the weekend was a lazy one. We did a lot of playing in the snow, though.

Although I am not religiously filling my commitment of blogging every single day, I am doing some exercise and still going towards my ultimate goal which is losing weight.

Yesterday, I went to the gym again and for my surprise, I managed to do quite well.

It was the return of the Jedi after almost a week away from the bike. The prodigal son returned.

And after a good start I finished 8 miles in 30 minutes.

If I was to translate that into my daily commute, I could take an easier route (not the shortest one) and still get to work in half the time I take today using public transport.

Of course the gym does not simulate some of the elements of a real commute like:

1 - Rain
2 - Cold
3 - Vehicles (cars, buses, other bikes)
4 - Pedestrians
5 - Hills (I mean true hills, not what I try to simulate)
6 - Pollution
7 - Darkness
8 - The fact that at the end of my journey to work, I need to be dry and clean for a full day of work ahead.

The solution for all this?

When I feel I am ready and light enough to take on the streets of London on my bike, none of this will matter. Only Start and Finish lines will matter.

For those of you who stayed with me all along during this month of January and challenges, my 'Thank you very much'. For those of you who plan to continue reading this blog, bear with me, I will try to bring some interesting, not fitness related stuff soon. As most of you know, I was never a 'fitness-minded' person.
I do love sports and for the sake of practicing the sports I love I will get fit enough, as I am just as competitive as I am stubborn and I will not give up because Yes, I can do It!

Weight this morning: 116,6kg
This means 8,4kg less than when I started this year.

Tomorrow's post will be a difficult one to write...

Janathon - Days 23 & 24 (Recovery)

I've been quite ill last few days and unable to attend to my daily commitment.
But on a small window for recovery I decided to try and exercise tonight.
For my own surprise, I was able to continue from where I stopped last Friday.

30 minutes on the bike and 8.25 miles
10 minutes on the row and 2 km

It was pretty decent to my standards and enough to make me want to make plans for the future.

They will be revealed at the end of my term at this gym in a month time.

On my secondary goal (which is actually more Important than the primary goal), my weight this morning was 117,8 kg.

That's some improvement from the 125kg on the 1st of January.

Thanks again. Tomorrow is table tennis day.

Janathon - Days 21 & 22 (sick as a brick)

No exercise or blog in the last two days.
I've been sick... Really bad.
But it doesn't mean I didn't lose weight.

118,5kg and counting... Goal is set: 105 kg

Janathon - Days 19 & 20 (Winter exercises)

I didn't blog yesterday.
But it doesn't mean I didn't exercise.

In fact, I had the hardest possible exercise yesterday. For 3 hours, I've made a huge snowman with my family and never thought it would be so painful afterwards.

Today, we played in the snow for another 90 minutes.

I haven't weighted myself this weekend.

But I've been conscious about my food. Let's see tomorrow how things work out.

Thanks for the support.

Janathon - Day 18 (Snowing down)

Outside falls the snow. Inside I'm getting slow.
I don't know what it is but I've been struggling to find motivation to do my training. For two days in a row I disappointed myself with poor performances and even poorer diet.

This morning the scale reflected this unacceptable behaviour if I am still trying to reach my goal. 119,2kg.

A set back to the current rhythm.

Tonight, took me 30 minutes to do 8 miles on the bike and, on a faster pace, I felt a bit of a tiredness.

That's it for this week.
Hopefully I will play in the snow with my son and that will count for Janathon.

Thanks once again.

Janathon - Day 17 (A near miss)

I will start confessing that I nearly skipped the gym tonight.
But I didn't and that's what's important.

After an extended period in the office, I left on a slow pace towards the well known dungeon I frequent. All bikes were in use so I adventured myself at the rowing machine. 5 minutes and 1.3 km later I decided to stop so my arms don't fall off tomorrow.

On the bike 30 minutes were enough for 7.5 miles and I was happy with that.

For the first time in years I saw myself under 119kg this morning. 118,9kg.
I also almost blew that up having a delicious but not very nutritional sandwich.

And forecast says it's going to snow tonight and over the weekend. Let's see.

Thank you all of you for reading this blog.
Statistics show that I have readers in Brazil, UK, USA, Germany, Japan and Malta. That's amazing.

There will be more tomorrow.

Janathon - Day 16 (Effort = Reward)

I decided that I am definitely going to focus on bike training to prepare  for when my season ticket expires. That is when I am going commute on manpower rather than engine power.

But my rhythm needs improvement. So far, my main enemy (Champion Hill) is still a strong one and might cause some problems if I make an attempt to beat it on my actual physique.

Changing the topic to my current training, tonight I managed 42 minutes, 11 miles on a 14-16mph average (so I say... That's what I think).

Weight this morning: 118,9 kg.

BTW... It's my sister's birthday, she is in Amsterdam and I can't reach her on mobile.

Mi, If you read this, I love you. Happy Birthday and log onto Facebook to read my message.

Hope you're enjoying and to see you soon.

Janathon - Days 13/14/15 (Not a Triathlon - yet)

Sunday was a very hard day. Hard to get any motivation to do any exercise. Lucky me that in the advent of such day I can always go back to my wife's mini standing bike.

But Monday and Today were very good.

Yesterday, my 45 minutes were dedicated to the bike again. This time I pushed harder and managed to squeeze 12 miles in that time.

That's twice the length of my commute. It made me feel extremely happy.

Today was a bit different. It was much harder to repeat that performance and 35 minutes after I started, I'd done 9 miles and some extra yards.

I hope I have the strength to push a bit over 10 mikes tomorrow.

Thinking about Janathon being almost over, I decided to extend my experience until I think it's necessary to achieve my target. This morning, the scale was still showing 119,3kg. But that's because of that delicious pie Juliana baked for us last night.

Overall, I think I am doing OK. What's your opinion?

Thanks for the usual support.

Janathon - Day 12 (Another tough Saturday)

My body was in pain after 2 hours of table tennis, especially my right arm and shoulder. So, to make things manageable I decided to ride my wife's mini bike again.

This time I only did it for 30 minutes because in the morning, we went grocery shopping. And when we decide to go grocery shopping on weekends is never easy.

12kg of fruits, juice, actimel, meats, etc, later, walking all over the place, my shoulder and arm were not happy at all.

This has to count for some exercise right? To add up to those 30 minutes and meet my 45 minutes target. Right?

So, on Saturday morning, 1 day after that huge serving of Nachos and Barbacoa beef, the scale was showing amazing 120,3kg. 

And, I know I am writing this blog on Sunday (That's because it was NFL Playoffs last night and I went to bed a few minutes after 4am), but this morning the scale smiled to me. Surprising 119,3kg after a day of not much exercise.

Janathon - Day 11 (Having fun)

A long time ago I told myself that the only way to enjoy exercising is if you are having fun.

Tonight I proved that.

It was beer and nuts, as it is every Friday, and I didn't want to drink beer. Instead, I had a J20. But that isn't relevant. What is relevant is that after the beer and nuts some magic happens in that office and a dead area becomes alive.

It's Table Tennis time. Most of you will think this is boring, but I like to play at a very competitive level.

Since when I was 18 and I used to work for a steel company in Brazil, when we used to play during lunch times with the machine operators and people from all over the plant, I played quite a few times but nowhere compared to the daily appointment with the racquet, ball and table. 

So I played for 2 hours with Andy, Sam and a whole lot of other fellas who play regularly (lucky bastards with a table tennis table in the office - I am sure there is space for one in Dexter House). I was still sweating when I got home!

Exactly! Nearly 2 hours of non-stop activity - plus a 15 minute fast paced walk from one office to the other -  should count for my Janathon, shouldn't it? 

I also started to use an app called MyFitness Pal, to help me control my calories and the food I eat... It also estimates the amount of energy spent on an exercise.

I have to confess that my calorie intake on my lunch time was enough to explode the app calculation capability. I had the all good 'Grilled Nachos with Barbacoa Beef' from that Mexican place at Minories. 

That is my favourite food in that area. But it comes at a cost - nearly 1500 calories. One one meal!!!

Strangely enough, the scale must have showed me something really bad this morning, or I was in a deep sleep state because I can't remember how heavy I was. Good thing is that I checked again now and it was showing 121,1kg. This means my weight is gonna go down during my sleep.

As far as Janathon is concerned, I am still a contender. Tomorrow seems like it will be a busy day at the Forest Hill Pools. I will tell you how it went.

Thanks a million for the support!

Janathon - Day 10 (I love cycling - so much)

Honey,

We need to talk. There is something I have to tell you.
You are not the only one I love.
The more I return to my cycling form, the more I fall in love with it.
Can't wait to go back on cycling for real.

Jokes apart. In 45 minutes of intense cycling in the gym, I managed to do 11,5 miles.
This is nearly two-way commuting. From home to work, and then back home. Total 12 miles.

It was enough to burn around 900 calories... so it says the machine.

And to make things even better, weight this morning  was 120,7kg.

You might think I am too focused on cycling. Well, I hate almost everything else on a gym. The only thing I like more than cycling on a gym is spinning classes. And unfortunately, my gym has only 3 bikes, so you see why they don't have one.

That is not a problem because I requested cancellation of my subscription today. Until the end of February it is paid. But after that, I will be joining the Forest Hill Pools... We went to visit yesterday. It's just on another league, and for the same price.

And I get to swim too. Let's just wait and hold the anxiety for now.

Thanks all of you for coming this far with me.

Janathon - Day 9 (Out of Routine)

Whenever I escape my routine, things don't get to go very well as I initially wanted.

I took half day off from work to go to my son's school for a meeting and not having anything but a banana until 3pm, we stopped at a Wetherspoons and I couldn't decide what to order. In the end, 657kcal worth of a Gourmet Chicken Burger.

Well, putting my diet aside and talking about the purpose of this blog, my Janathon was not as intense as I it usually is in the gym. I've mentioned here before how easy it feels to exercise on my wife's mini standing bike.  While we were watching Ripper Street, I managed to do 1 hour non-stop in a moderate to fast pace.

By the way, the scale was showing 120,9kg again this morning. So things going back to normal and hopefully it will be even better tomorrow.

Can't wait to be back playing tennis and riding a bike fully.

Janathon - Day 8 (Not Wiggins nor Cavendish, Regueira)

On last night’s post, I said the scale was showing 120,9kg. I was really happy to see some great progress but it seems that my body has reclaimed most of the energy I consumed in the last couple of days and therefore, this morning I weighted 121,5kg. 

I am very used to daily fluctuations but that hit me like a hard message.

What I got from that? I need to do better. Train harder and commit to my dietary rules strongly.

Remember when I said about determination in my first post? And when I mentioned that my target is to be able to cycle to work every day? Well, tonight, I put myself to a test.

Few of you know that I used to cycle a lot. I mean, not as much as Wiggins or Cavendish, but I had my good moments on top of a skinny (that’s how we intimately call our bikes back home – or ‘magrela’ for those interested in the real term in Portuguese).

My dad (my real dad, not my biological father) used to say that I used my bikes up to the limit. Up to the point where there was no maintenance capable of saving them. Well, honestly, there were ways of saving my bikes. So it is that as far as I am concerned, after I left my parents house the bikes were still there being used by whoever fancied an adventure. Not expensive bikes, though. They never were.

The test I was referring to was basically try to increase my limits and constantly reach the optimum rhythm, varying from high speed to hill climbing, I wanted to reach 10 miles before my 45 minutes mark.

Before I start with the details of what I achieved, I never thought about skipping this day of exercise. Not even when I realised I had forgotten my trainers in the office and I would have to do everything on my working shoes…

So I mounted and started my normal rhythm, 5 minutes normal speed, 1 minute hill climbing, 1 minute high speed.

Without ever feeling any pain on my legs or soul, I reached 10 miles in 38 minutes. Always varying and trying to simulate real conditions on my route to work. Even on the so feared Champion Hill.

I am hoping to continue with the motivation up there. Thanks for helping me do that!

Janathon - Day 7 (Time to compensate)

It was a weekend of slow progress (if any).
It just felt too good to stay in the sofa on Sunday to move and do something else.

Because of that lazy day, I told myself I had to compensate and work harder at the gym tonight.
And so I did.

1 - I endured 10 minutes of hard crossramp - enough for some 130 calories burnt

2 - Another 25 minutes on the bike - enough to complete my 6 mile simulation of a commute to work (even including hills)

3 - And 10 more minutes on the treadmill for some 90 calories dropping from my face in the form of sweat.

And it was a very sweaty exercise indeed.

The best part of the day was the weighting this morning. It showed 120.9kg. A total of 4,1kg loss since New Year.

I believe this weight loss will normalize once all the liquids are eliminated. But for now, the progress is great!

Thanks to all of you who make me feel guilty of guiving up.
I have no intention on doing so. It will just get better from now on.

Janathon - Day 6 (Sundays of sofa)

Not much happened today. Really. My Sunday was very typical and I wish want to change this.

I have not made any plans and today, my exercise was pathetic.

I did 15 minutes on my wifes standing mini bike.

That was it. Oh, and I took the trash out.

But, (and this is a big but) this morning, the scale was showing my weight 121.5kg.
Even if I am not exercising as brutally as I first wanted, my diet is helping a little bit.

Let's just hope the carrot cake is not too irresistible tomorrow.

Janathon - Day 5 (Wow, just before midnight)

Oh, boy... the weekend is something I really appreciate. But this one was special.
I had my entire body in pain from this weeks exercise. For many hours I could only think of rest. But I also have a duty as a dad and husband.
That's why we went out on a very 'touristy' day.

And boy, that made me tired. We walked for an hour or more.

I have to confess my food wasn't very healthy today. But it's no big deal. I had it under control.

To punish my lack of discipline yesterday with only 25 minutes of exercise I had to compensate tonight.

On my wife's standing minibike I did 75 minutes. Straight. But this is too light for an exercise. I didn't even sweat.

My tights are not happy with that.

By the way, my weight this morning was 122.3kg. It is still looking good for only a week of heavy work.

Thank you so much again!!

Janathon - Day 4 (The Near Death Experience)

In Japanese, 4 means death (shi). And the fourth day almost killed me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_superstitions

As I mentioned in the previous post, tonight I was going to have to improvise.
With no gym to bother me, I was creative and thought about another thing I criticized my wife for (And here I am burning my tongue, eating my words and putting my head down).

In order to stay up to my commitment, I decided to try this 'My Fitness Coach Club' PS3 video game we've had for a while. I only tried it once and like Mr Cristophedes there will be no photos of me exercising in front of the TV.

To be honest, and to put all my scepticism behind me, it was heavy as hell. So heavy that I couldn't do my 45 minutes.

1 - The warm-up session was so strong that I thought I was too tired to continue. (After only 5 minutes).

2 - I then went for a session of Kickboxing punches - 10 minutes of jumping, punching, elbowing and sweating. Oh boy how tired I was after just 10 minutes.

3 - To continue with the Fighting mood, I went for another session of Kickboxing. This time, Kickboxing kicks. 10 minutes of front, side and back kicking and kneeing. (I really like kicking).

Maybe next time I will put a target in front of me so I can kick with a bit more emphatically.

Oh, and this morning I had a bit of a surprise. My weight was 122.9kg. 
And minutes before I have dinner, it was still 122.9kg which is a good sign because it means that when I wake up tomorrow, I would have lost a few more grams during my sleep.

Like always, thank you so much for visiting and supporting! It makes this 'job' easier.

Janathon - Day 3 (Is this progress, already?)

Okay. Things are getting harder now. I’m not getting satisfied until my sweat drops from all over my head. I knew this was going to happen: Once I am on a bike, I see no evil, I hear no evil, I speak no evil.

Today’s exercises were a bit more intensive than those from the previous days.

Maybe it is because I know I will have to improvise tomorrow when there will be no gym as I am leaving early for my son’s medical appointment.

I got even more excited when I finished my cycling and I saw the distance I’ve done: 6 miles. That’s almost the distance between home and work. Do I need to say that my dream is to be able to buy a bike and cycle to work? My current weight makes it virtually impossible.

The only thing I am not so sure about is the fact that if I intend to do so, I will have to count with the cooperation of my co-workers. The only bathing option is either a sink bath, or no bath at all. Yeah… you see the drama.

But let’s stick to the facts of tonight’s 45 minute session:

1 – 25 minutes on the bike – total of 6 miles

2 – 10 minutes on the treadmill – total of 1 mile

3 – 10 minutes on the cross ramp – total of 0.7 mile (honestly, this was in the end of my exercise and I did it really slowly – but on level 20).

4 – No… No abdominals this time. My fellow Janathonist Graham Jones is right saying they have a special place in hell. Six pack? Only those bought from the shop above 4.5%.

You might find all this gym talk really boring and useless. I am not a fan of this world myself, but I am learning to use the right names and appropriate terminology. Bear with me for a few more days and when I get bored of it too, I will stop with this bullshit!

As I started checking my weight in the morning and I am writing this blog during the evening, I will only post my weight when I remember.

It was 123.4 kg earlier today!

Janathon - Day 2 (Are we near the end yet?)

Like I said on the previous post, I always knew this wouldn't be easy. That it would require planning and determination.

Planning didn't work out very well because I didn't sort my food for the day very efficiently and found myself starving right after lunch.

But determination kept me going with glasses of water until I got home.

On my second day into Janathon I went for the whole package:

1 - Changed the routine into an extreme low fat/ high fruit diet;

2 - Joined the dungeon - I mean the gym - to keep my rhythm for a 45 minutes exercise in the max

As a punishment for being so persistent and for setting so strict goals I allowed myself no pause. 

Tonight's 45 min were:

10 min on the threadmill - enough to make me sweat between walking and running.

25 min on the bike - enough to make me go 5 miles

10 min on the abdominals - enough to make me want to die (55 total today)

I can't wait to cut my wait just a bit (10kg) to be able to cycle for real and go back to my tennis matches. 

Maybe then, Mr Amott will accept my invitations to play again! We'll see... we'll see.

Thanks for the audience and support!

Janathon - Day 1

OK.
It's time. Challenge given, challenge accepted.

I never thought it was going to be easy to start but I woke up motivated this morning. After all, it is the 1st of January and this will be my Lucky 13! Lucky because I will make it this way.
I was lucky enough in 2012 with little effort. Now it's the year where I am going to make it happen.

But motivation isn't everything. You need planning. And you need vision. But above all, you better be determined. This is noone else's dream. Nobody is going to exercise for you or congratulate you for doing nothing.

It all began with a stretching session of all muscles I could reach. Thanks to the time I was a very dedicated tennis coach I remember the sequences very well.
It took me 10 minutes to do all the stretching I judged necessary for the first day.

I hope I won't be in too much pain tomorrow.

1. I started the morning with a rather difficult task for me: Abdominals. I was never good at it and in my sincere opinion, the belly is supposed to look like a belly so I never bothered with it. Never! 

50 Abs in 5 minutes, in series of 10, later transformed into series of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

2. Straight after that, I went for something easier that most people do every day: Stairs.

Going up and downstairs 10 times. 10 x 17 = 170 stairs in 5 minutes.

3. Now it was time for something I was very familiar with. I always loved cycling and with a tool my wife bought a few months ago (and I always criticized her for doing so) I did what was left to my daily goal.

30 minutes on maximum resistance was enough for day 1.

Tomorrow is going to be a new set. Professional equipment and, hopefully, some guideance too.
I will enter the gates of hell, also known as GYM.

Current weight: 124.6 kg

Will Mr Sargeant be ready to join me and give my so needed support?