being healthy whilst enjoying your favourite alcoholic beverage

Good morning to you all, I hope your all having a fantastic week so far and enjoying the gorgeous sunny UK weather, it’s so nice to see some sunshine and not have any rain, especially now that I am back at work! It certainly does feel so good to be back and it’s a great feeling to catch up with all of the members and staff, it’s been a very long five months!

Anyway, before I kick off with today’s post, I wanted to share an update with you all regarding my future content that I am writing up over the next couple of months! Firstly, I’ve taken the decision to postpone future beer/whisky review posts on my blog until further notice, however, you can still check out my latest samples by visiting my Instagram page.

Secondly, I’ve always been a person who has the passion to improve the content that I’ve produced, so basically, in order to make my site more enjoyable and interesting, I am now going to be exploring the interesting facts about cask beer and whisky, plus a variety of posts which include some personal top tips. 

Let’s kick things off in style and begin with this post which is based on having a balancing lifestyle whilst still enjoying your favourite alcoholic beverage.

I believe it’s ultimately important to have an active healthy lifestyle, but also as a treat, everyone enjoys indulging into a beer now and again, however too many beers then you’ll be saying hello to those extra pounds, this was one mistake I made a couple of years ago.

Around 2015/2016, I was overweight especially for my age and I knew I needed to make a change, I mean eating chocolate and crisps doesn’t help and, to be honest, high consumption of sugary drinks was a bad idea as well. Anyway, at the start of 2016, I came across a local cycling club, (Mercia Cycling Club) I thought perfect, I’m signing up now!

I started off doing some small rides on my mountain bike, it was extremely tough, but I managed to keep up with the group and then after saving up most of my own money, I bought my first road bike, it was awesome, I really loved riding it, and it was so light, I even gave it a name, The Atomic Rocker, haha!

Doesn’t my bike look a beauty?

Throughout 2015, I participated in many local club runs and also competed in the local time trials which took place on this challenging but fun course around the small village of Anslow in Burton Upon Trent!

I have to admit competing in the Time Trials improved my fitness so much and my weight at that point of my life was average, but then the realisation of my 18th birthday is just around the corner, things kind of changed!

In August 2015, my working career began and my job entailed a huge amount of physical exercise which again was perfect, but as most people will know hospitality is one of those industries that require long working hours, and due to my workplace having such a jampacked social event calendar, I lost a fair amount of my cycling time, it felt like the interest I had for the sport was wearing off!

And then, suddenly, it was my 18th birthday, my first legal pint in a pub and after enjoying a decent alcoholic beverage my passion for beer started to grow which inevitably meant I was drinking a fair bit of alcohol but not doing enough exercise, I was piling on the pounds, it was a horrible phase and I sometimes look back now and think why did I let that happen to myself!

Also, throughout 2017, I went through the phase of going out on some bike rides, but then leaving it for months and months before I went out again, as you can see, certainly not the greatest idea.

Then in 2018, the adventure of moving into a new house began, but sadly this also bought the story of me selling my road bike, which was probably one of the stupidest things I have ever done, I gave all of my cycling kits to charity and that was it, my cycling had come to a close, one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made in my life.

Then April 2019 arrived and I met the love of my life, Isobel! Isobel has been an absolute saint in terms of getting my fitness back up to scratch, we did enjoy going out for pub meals a lot, but we both managed to balance it out whilst enjoying glorious walks around the National Trust or English Heritage Trust properties, I remember when I first met Isobel, I told her about my love for cycling and she insisted that I should get back into it and this gave me some thought!

In November 2019, I started my new job and my fitness levels began to increase once again, I took brisk steady walks to work, but had to use the local taxi service to return home due to finishing at dark and walking from Horninglow to Branston is quite a way!

Next, March 2020 arrived and that saw the COVID-19 pandemic hit the UK as well as the rest of the world, the whole of the UK was put into lockdown and pretty much everyone, apart from essential workers had to stay at home! it was horrible, I couldn’t see Isobel, the only time I left home was to go for a walk, the saddest part of this lockdown though was not having a bike! Even though, club riding was forbidden, I still could have gone out on a solo ride, but it wasn’t to be!

After a long battering four months, July 2020 arrived and this bought some positiveness to me personally, I bought a new mountain bike, not top of the range, but a bike that would be perfect so I could commute to work and also trial out some local rides.

I noticed a couple of times that whilst riding to work it made me realise how much I’ve missed my cycling and it gave me that extra bit of boost to restart it, but then the UK was hit with another lockdown! On the 5th November 2020, Staffordshire was placed in tier 3 which meant hospitality had to close, this again meant no work once again, but this also made me realise how much tougher this lockdown was going to be!

After a long, cold and frosty winter, I decided to do one ride on my mountain bike, it was roughly 30 miles, the day I went out was beautiful at first but then the rain came and I got totally soaked, but it was all fun and games. After completing this ride, I thought enough was enough, I gave the Mercia CC a call and stated that I wanted to rejoin the cycling club.

I was really happy to deliver this news to Isobel and my family! Furthermore, I am pleased to say that I’ve now got a new road bike which I can truthfully tell you is astonishingly better than my old road bike, I am so in love with it!

Oh, it certainly feels good to be back and enjoying something that I really love!

One thing that cycling has taught me is that I can still enjoy having a beer now and again in the week, but I’ve also got to keep up with my cycling activity! I’ve certainly noticed that I am drinking less which is a massive improvement, between the start of March 2021 and April 2021, I’ve managed to lose 1 whole stone which of course I am very proud!

Last week, I competed in my first time trial and I was completely stunned with how well I’ve improved since restarting my cycling, I participated in a 10 mile time trial and managed to do it in a staggering 34 minutes, which I couldn’t believe, I was chuffed to bits to be fair!

To finish this post off, I’m going to give you all some small bits advice that I learnt from and yes before you ask, everyone does make mistakes, but I recommend you all not to make the same mistake twice!

Next, it’s perfectly okay to have a beer/whisky or any beverage now and again, but I would advise that you compete in more physical activity just so that we all can have a healthy, active and balanced lifestyle.

Secondly, if you love a specific sport so much, don’t quit, keep your passion going and your goals will still be met!

I really hope you’ve all enjoyed this post, this is literally the beginning of something new and I’ve got a whole load of content that I cannot wait to share with you all!

Enjoy the rest of your remarkable week!

Cheers

The Cask Connoisseur