Hey Stud Muffins,

It's been a week and ITS OVER!!!! Haha! I have officially, and successfully completed Challenge Doug: WEEK ONE - Vegetarian for a week

In all honesty, I haven't consumed a piece of meat all week, and massively deserved the burger I just ate! I thought I'd really struggle with this one, but I was proven wrong on every occasion.

Although my work schedule prepared me from properly making and trying a range of dishes of the vegetarian variety, I noticed that I ate a whole load of cheese, potatoes, chips and bread (including a pizza), to make up for the lack of meat.

I don't eat much meat at the best of times (only chicken, pork and beef, really - no lamb, fish or other meats at all!) so this week has certainly been enlightening to see what life would be like as an anti-meat eater. It is also important to tell you that in under 24 hours, I was craving meat - just a slice of ham, or a bit of chicken on my baked potato!

With Challenge Doug, week 2 approaching tomorrow, I thought I'd enlighten you as to its content.

I was challenged to:

Cycle to work (and back) every day for a week.

PISS EASY! Well, there's ONE slight problem. :-S I don't have a bike.

But to combat this, I will be making up the appropriate miles on the bike at my local gym, AFTER WORK. So, thanks to Google Maps, I have calculated that the exact distance between my workplace and my home is 6.5miles, which as a round trip, totals 13 miles.

And my rota for this week shows me that I am working 5 days this week.

So, while I will try my best to go to the gym each day that I'm AT work, on one day, a double shift will prevent me from going to the gym during their opening hours. To combat this, I will make up the hours on my days off, and on the other days when I'm at the gym.

13 miles multiplied by 5 days equals 65 miles, and THAT is my target by the end of the week.

I'll keep you posted, and as usual, please feel free to give me help, support and advice as a comment to this blog, or on Twitter @dougmcmuffin

Hello Stud Muffins: IT BEGINS!!!

Tomorrow is officially day one of my "Challenge Doug" adventure! I have had quite the flood of suggestions and they're still piling up! Keep 'em comin!

I'll be blogging throughout the week and you can follow my progress on Twitter: @dougmcmuffin

WEEK ONE:

You are a vegetarian for ONE WEEK. (MON am- SUN pm)

Bugger! This one's gonna be haaaarrddd. I'm not going Vegan, remember (because that wasn't the suggestion!) ;)

Any meal suggestions will be great, because I haven't researched this at all.

In the meantime, what do y'all think of mine hat?

Hey Stud Muffins,

Well, I did say I'd be writing on here sooner than you all thought!

Already, within 24 hours or so, I've compiled quite an eclectic list of challenges from you guys, both on Twitter and in life.

I'm not done collecting, so don't think I'm letting you off!!!

Here's just a few to get the ball rolling:

"See if you can survive 1900's communication style. No computer, tv, internet, phone, twitter. "

"Go see a football match"

"No swearing for a week"

"Learn a language"

"Do something for a charity"

Already these are just a few that have struck a chord with me, so will probably make the cut! Please continue to send in your suggestions to @dougmcmuffin on Twitter, or as a comment to this Blog!

This is something I'm very serious about and already I've started thinking about things I could do for myself; a long distance cycle and a charity abseil are currently in the very very early stages of planning, so keep an eye out to see how they progress!

Hello Stud Muffins!

It's been more than a year. How horrible. I also don't want to bore you, which I would've had you been reading this every day for the last year!

What's new?

I'm going to the USA in October
I'm recently single
I've left University

And perhaps most importantly:

I've had a sudden craving to live life.

But in order to help me do that - I NEED YOUR HELP!!!

In a very Danny Wallace style, I really want to start saying yes more. So, between now and the end of the 2010 - I've decided to change my ways and start doing stuff.

I need your ideas, challenges, and suggestions to get me on the road to a fuller life experience. After all, you only live once. And whats the point of just "going through the motions" and getting stuck in a rut, when you can have fun, with people you love, and in the same breath, with yourself.

It's important that in this time in my life I find more out about myself, and that's not going to happen if I sit inside all day.

So whatever you suggest I do, I want it to be something that will make my day(s) brighter and more worthwhile.

Whether it's a Flying Lesson, A Hike or simply Being a Vegetarian for a week, I want you to help me do this.

Please leave your suggestions/challenges as a comment to this post, or send them to me on Twitter: @dougmcmuffin

I'll be back sooner than you might think!

Is It After Eight Yet?

Hi folks (that's me a Simpson). I hope you're not getting your hopes up about this blog (i.e. wishing I'll write regularly) because I doubt that'll ever happen. What I do wish for though is that you enjoy what I write, or atleast read it out of interest. Anyway, that probably didn't make much sense but hey!

As for what's been going on so far in 2009; not much. I've started working properly in my new job and its going well. Hopefully those above me agree (lol). I've also been watching alot of The West Wing Thank god for Martin Sheen, I don't know what I'd do without him! I've also been getting stuck in with reading BO's book. Woop.

There are new videos up on my YouTube Channel! and also on Steph's Channel, which funnily enough feature yours truly.

I bought a diary this year, for both keeping work dates and a memory. But I hope and have an incling that this blog will turn into a wasted £3.67(15% VAT rate made the price funny) on a book that I never used.

Steph and I also set up a collaborative youtube channel, where we challenge ourselves to do things and film video diaries of how its all going. The first challenge is that dreaded New Years Resolution of "lose weight". Of course, we have a target. We're off to Florida on hols in April, and we wanna be skinnier before we go, so that we can put on the pounds when we come back. We're not disclosing our weights right this moment, but I can tell you that we're both aiming to lose 10% of our overall weight(each). Wow, lol - 10% between us might be fun; but far too easy for Steph. Anyway, this box of after eights has been staring me out for days (since xmas actually) and my will power is keeping me by until ATLEAST eight o'clock before I look at them again. Lol. MMM. Is it after eight yet?

I'm Listening to Greenday. And it's 2009. The Year of Change, I Guess.

I'm sitting here writing this, having spent the last few days drinking alcohol much later than in the day I should have and also much earlier than is allowed at any other time in the year. Today I've been watching videos from tapes on my old camera. In there I've watched a Barbie re-enactment of JFK's assasination and me pretending to be an Austrian Spy. There's also a very entertaining poetry recital involving the lyric "Carol Ann Duffy is old and puffy" ._. (The above may be uploaded to my youtube channel soon.)

Christmas was fun, my love and I spent the day at mine with the family; your typical Christmas, I guess. New Year was fun; drunken and a failed Bon Fire; your typical Hogmanay really!

If there's anyone even reading this who watches my vids on youtube, you may or may not have noticed as yet that I got a new video camera for Xmas from Steph, so I shall be abusing it until it is no longer a novelty. Lol. But I have the slightest feeling, that it'll probably be a novelty for ages.

No New Years resolutions as yet, as according to physchologists and this article , we shouldn't set standards at the beginning of the year, only to be dissappointed in the next few weeks.

But, who knows, maybe some resolutions will appear on here soon enough. Im getting fat and I'm off to Flo Rida in April, so we'll see if I hit the gym quick enough or not.

That's all my thoughts for now. I'm going to go and bore myself to death with the wonders of C-List celebrities and Davina McCall's nose in the new series of CBB which begins in half an hour.

Ciao for now!

Happy New Year Folks: