My Graduate (Post-Student) Debt Diary!

MrJester

>12 Months

sauceoclock wrote: »

Don't push yourself too much, when I was on the skinnier side (7 stone... can't even believe I let myself get that thin) I was exhausted and continued to push myself and ended up in hospital!

I know you've given up bread, are you replacing the carb calories with wholemeal/corn pastas etc? Polenta is pretty good too for upping calories in meals! Don't go too overboard!

yeah im not really i just think my body has been lazy and unhealthy for too long, kinda since xmas time. i weigh 155lbs so im a very healthy weight, im just monitoring calories to see how my body fat levels change, which will likely happen most when i get into my workouts consistently.

the cycling im just not used to so its eating up all my calories i think right now, will have a bit of a refeed over the weekend with rest.
im still pretty damn high on carbs, lots of fruit going in right now and still eating pasta even white. e.g. yesterday looks like 50% carbs 20% protein 30% fats.
everything is being counted and im anywhere between 2-500 calories deficit daily.

i need to up my protein for the repairing which currently isnt happening and i think is causing issue with the legs being overworked.

had ever so slight anxiety too but its ok i know when im pushing myself too hard and when to back off and how to rewire. its a body shock cause ive been fairly inactive of recent due to ups/downs with injury and the diet has been real bad so now in a short space of time ive began cycling over 10km every day, removing bread, sugar drinks, and crisps which my body depended on for energy, and slowly working in more workouts for strength and some muscle development.. so its no surprise is it really!
had crashes like this many times and just need to remember to take care and dont push myself too hard its all good :T

MrJester

>12 Months

wowsers. finally got my halifax card address changed to my current address lol. have to get this telephone banking code from them to change it over the phone, bit annoying but suppose it makes it secure.

sooo tired, early night for me

System

Definitely do the telephone banking thing with Halifax... I hate them as a bank but my 'bills' account is with them as it's an internet account with no card and it's quite difficult to spend on it so I've stuck with them!

Did you see any of the Prudential cycle race?

MrJester

>12 Months

they're pretty good over the phone, helpful and stuff.

Nope I havent, I googled it after reading this and read that someone died at it again.. wonderful. Not really interested in cycling like some are, not into the stupid shorts and the races and bla bla. Its a transport vehicle to me, with the benefit of being free and to keep/get fit.

speaking of which got a friend at halfords i need to take the bike in to sort it out for me, its being dodgy!

im off to have a chat with a therapist of sorts tonight, their work was suggested to me to help fix my posture and my hope is that it will be useful for fixing my permanent back pain. gonna have a chat first to make sure its worth it for me, it costs.. ALOT. Its £80 per session, and would require 12 sessions.
but im massively considering it. after the chat i will sit down and look at how i might be able to afford it. ive made some good leaps recently in lowering my costs, quite a lot, but i still want to get rid of the capitalonecard within 3 months because it will be really great progress.

each weekend i spend anywhere between 30-60 going out with a friend so cutting back on things like that, or just being clever about it at least, can make it possible. im in a fairly good money wise spot for once like this time of the month im usually counting my pennies but i have about £150 of debits to come out before next payday and it will leave just under £200 to last me 16 days as of today - which for me, is good.

but can i justify a total of £960? from my research of the sessions it would be around once every 2 weeks. so it would be finished after 24 weeks. so lets say i started it on my payday this month, then it'd be finished before my february payday. so it'd be split over 6 pay cheques by my calculation.. so £160 each pay cheque until its finished.

System

Glad you feel the same about cycling as me, was an absolute nightmare, my friend was visiting and all the roads were closed and the cab we got to dinner couldn't even get close to the restaurant. Ridiculous. Can't believe someone died, it's crazy behaviour!

I'd definitely say you need to speak to the NHS, you can do a self-referral for physio, especially in this area. I can give you info on it if you want? My boyfriend is both an NHS and Private physio and does exactly the same thing for private and his NHS jobs. You can also be referred for acupuncture and chiropracters on the NHS you just have to be firm with them... It would save you a lot of expenditure but you'd have to wait for an appt.. Swings and roundabouts but your health comes first!

MrJester

>12 Months

Yeah its daft, 55 year old bloke. A bit too past his prime and yet is pushing himself to limits just for a cycle race. Theres challenges, then theres OTT. And a lot of cyclists are OTT. Skinny as bone, and push their body to an extreme? Daft. An obese man would have a better chance with all that stored fat to provide energy!

ha anyway..
I've been on and off NHS physios ever since my main injury. I've never at all found them of any use to be honest. They do the simple basic stuff, and I just get the same thing every time and sometimes feel like I know more than they do and its so frustrating. Like advice on how to stretch out my body etc, its all stuff I already know and I'm like when is this going to move up a gear.
So in recent I haven't bothered to do another self referral. I did one in my area a while ago and got on it pretty quick because of my long history.

Not trying to hate on the profession, but I think my problem is beyond physiotherapy. I really do not want to go to chiropracter as tbh I'm afraid of them messing around like they do. I've had neck cracks with an osteopath and its not pleasant, and didnt end up correcting much as he had to keep bloody doing it.

I'll take another look at it. But I dont want to waste more time on physio. My health insurance just wont cover me because its such an old injury. I need to get to some form of specialist but the problem is if they are a specialist and are good they all go private because they make more money!

MrJester

>12 Months

Sent self-referral form off.

At least, my hope, is that whilst im on it i can talk to them about referring me elsewhere if im not making any progress.
The GP I have is pretty rubbish, been there twice once was a woman who just couldnt wait to leave work for the day and pretty crap attitude, and the main GP I couldnt even understand him and I dont think he barely understood me. Its annoying cause in london ive had one or two good GPs previously who showed care but even when i have had a condition for a long long time they fob you off WELL YOU DONT HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT.

happy tuesday lol

MrJester

>12 Months

so I went to see this specialist last night just for a free chat, he also offered to do a full diagnose and within half an hour he flagged up every single issue in my body. it was quite remarkable, a lot of it i knew i had issue with but he could give me exact reasoning and causes and it pretty much all starts from my right foot.

gotta think it over hard, make sure i can put the money aside each month. like i said, the pros go private for a reason. he could identify how my spine was positioned by just a slight touch.
ive been to so many practitioners and ive never had this amount of detail and explanation - just someone who knows the human structure extremely well from skeleton to muscle and tissue.

gotta look at the numbers..

System

If you feel that's best then go for it, your health is important. I'll go by the assumption you've researched this private specialist/testimonials/reviews from other patients as it's so important to do that.

Sounds like he's great - perhaps you could make a pledge to do some freelance work to cover it once a month. If you're feeling better you'll probably have more energy to do it as the course of treatment goes on too?

I do hope you get it sorted, my Mum broke her spine and it was touch and go for a while when I was a bit younger and she got the best surgeon on the NHS (She's in healthcare and her colleagues arranged the top surgeon in the UK to fly down to do her surgery) - the difference good treatment does is astounding.

MrJester

>12 Months

just had an olnine chat with EE to discuss contract.. need to claim cancellation before 20th if im going to leave. which i think i still am. BT does sim only for £25 which has 20gb of data and you get bt sport app to watch premier league games so its kind of a no brainer, ill save near £20 a month and couldnt possibly ever go over on data like i used to.

sure i could get cheaper but i think paying a bit extra and i wont ever go over the amount its not a bad price to pay for a good deal. and BT are on EE network anyway so will get the same coverage i expect, and BT are buying out EE eventually too.

it got a tad confusing but think i have one final payment early sept for the contract, then assuming ive asked to end it i will then get a refund for the amount of days unused.