The Cycle Scheme

I’ve been investigating the Cycle Scheme further with the help of Sarah of ChainReaction in Bognor Regis, http://www.chainreactionbikes.co.uk/ , and it all seems straight forward. Either as an employer or as an employee you just follow the links on the Schemes website, http://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/ For me this ad from Transport for London say it all.

Step by Step

I've come down from the high of my results from last Thursday and realise that I still have to address the BMI reading. Wessex Heartbeat kindly sell pedometers (£4) so I can encourage myself with a nice high step count. The recommendation is 10,000 steps a day. I have had a pedometer for almost a week now and the results are not too good. Over the weekend I clocked up 34,545 steps but the rest of the week has been fairly abysmal. I have only managed around 4,000 steps per day. It is surprising how easy it is to go from home to car, car to office and then sit all day at the desk. When I took the train yesterday I managed to clock up 8,184 steps but took bus!I have already talked about cycling but what can I do through the course of the day? Any suggestions?

BNI get a visit from Wessex Heartbeat

Small Charities Coalition

I have been asked to expand on my profile. In it I made mention that I am part of the Small Charities Coalition and some people are unsure what it stands for.

Well to begin with what is a small charity. The SCC has defined it as a charity defined by its income as having less than £1million income per year.

The core objective of the SCC is to seek out the problems small charities face and find the best solutions via innovation, inspiration and leadership. This is based on the simple value so well defined by the Samaritan effect: “Don’t pass someone who is struggling”

The SCC is empowering small charities to enable them to unleash their full potential whiles building a bridge between large and small charities. With a vision that "No small charity should struggle in providing social change".

Our aim is to be the one loud and clear voice for small charities. With a goal to inspire innovation and provide leadership. We are building a sustainable framework of support that small charities use to help them achieve their aims. This includes speaking up for small charities, seeking out the problems they face and finding innovative solutions. By encouraging best practice we can promote small charities, provide advice, guidance, support, inspiration and praise and demand change if needed.”

My first session

I’ve had my session with the Cardiac Rehab Sisters and I’m relieved by the results. I already know that I am over weight and have to do something about it. What I suspected or rather dreaded was that either my blood pressure or cholesterol would be high. Both of these as silent killers so the initiative by Wessex Heartbeat is vital, as it helps identify, early, the warning signs. Well both my blood pressure and cholesterol are fine and so is my blood glucose.

My Reading
Blood Pressure 117/70 mmHg
Cholesterol 4.16 mmol/L
Body Mass Index 27
Glucose 6.7 mmol/L

Target Readings
Blood Pressure Below 140/90 mmHg
Cholesterol Total under 5 mmol/L
Body Mass Index 19 – 25 ( Healthy )
Glucose Less than 10 mmol/L

Dose this mean I can take a big sigh and relax? No! I can enjoy the sigh or relief but have now to focus on the weight loss.

Through Chain Reaction in Bognor Regis ( see the links ) I’ve discovered that there is a government scheme call creatively “The Cycle Scheme”. It allows you to purchase a bike through your work cheaper. You can buy any style of bike and normally up to a value of £1,000. The savings made through the scheme are around 45% depending on your tax code. You can also select £50 worth of safety accessories under the scheme, including helmets, lights, locks and reflective clothing. I’m now going to find out how I can offer this to my team so we cal all get on our bikes!

On your bike

I am going to have my session with the Cardiac Sister soon. So in preparation I thought I'd see what proactive things I could do to impress them! I think my office is about two and a half miles from the train station and I currently drive the 44 miles to work. If I took the train and got one of those little folding bikes I could cycle up from the station. It's an idea and would be great for my carbon footprint.
That got me thinking; what is my carbon footprint? I've just gone onto the government website to calculate my footprint. http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/index.html It was fun to do until I got the result. Although my home and appliance use was below national average my transport burden was way up. I rated at 7.55 tonnes of CO2 per year as apposed to 4.48. As I don't fly this is all down to those road miles. Aspirationaly I'd like to see my footprint drop by 20%.

Opening the challenge

I've been the CEO of Wessex Heartbeat since the beginning of January and have gone through an interesting learning curve. One area that I am keen to see the charity grow is in our support of the community. With this in mind we have launched a project called "Your Healthy Heart". We are offering an advisory consultation with a Cardiac Sister in the hope that we help people identify early how their life style choices are affecting their long term health.
As this is quite a challenge I thought I should be the first to step up to it. So what is my blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index and what should they be? Well I know I weight 14stone 10.5lbs! Oh dear that sounds rather heavy. I'm off for a chat with the Sister and will let you know how it goes and what, if anything, I need to do about it.