"Fat to Fittie"

There is absolute no doubt stress is a killer, it’s also a huge reason for many strokes, so why aren’t we better at controlling this? It’s almost as if this silent assassin waits in the shadows for the first sign that something’s turning a bit shit in our lives, then throws everything our way at the same time. There’s no particular type of person that suffers, the feeling is that everyone experiences stress at some point, it’s how we deal with it that matters. I guess we all judge the importance at different levels, but the fact is, something you might deem to be just a blip, is an absolute mountain to someone else. So you should never judge people who say they’re having a bad day, the truth is, they might be hoping yours has been better and you can give them that little bit of reassurance and comfort they need to drag themself back to reality.

I’ve been trying to sort the first episode of my podcast this week, in terms of stress levels, that should be very low on the scale compared to what everyone else has to deal with, let me tell you, that was not the case. I felt it had to be good if I wanted people to continue listening, so spent a bit of time writing the script, then I had an afternoon recording test runs, to check sound and fine tuning the words, got to the point I was sick of hearing myself. I also realised that I had to close the curtains, not only to improve the recording, but so that I couldn’t see when someone came to my door, which put me off and also un-plug the doorbell. I’d decided that Friday morning was best to record straight after weigh in at fat club, so everything was in place. Had a cup of tea and bacon butty watching This morning, I do like to see the news segment, only halfway through it, I put it on pause and thought I’d do the podcast.

The first go was a rehearsal, I still recorded it and felt it went ok, at least I had something to use. The second however was gold, couldn’t believe how well it was going. I’d decided that as I was crap at editing, I’d just record in one go and let any mistakes stay, makes it a bit more natural, but this one was perfect, only 60 seconds to go and my hour on pause was up, maybe if I’d not frigged around in the kitchen for 20 mins, I’d have been ok, but as I was reaching the final bit, the telly kicked in and all I could hear in the background was Dermot O’Leary’s voice. I kept talking, maybe it won’t show I thought, but then after getting up and switching it off, I decided to just record the last bit again, I could probably edit the crap bit out, well I could if I didn’t accidently delete the whole thing. To say I was in an arse is an understatement, recording three was ok, not as good as two, but better than one.

Now to edit in the intro and outro, or not. I can’t begin to tell you how much stress this caused me, even after watching 4 hrs of “help” videos on you tube and messaging my podcast host, I just couldn’t get it to work, bed was the best option and let’s try again in the morning. Another hour of videos later over tea and toast still didn’t help and while trying a different approach, in the click of a button, my file had gone…………………….I can’t begin to describe that feeling, there really are no words. I had no choice but to do it again, though on the plus side, I realised that by doing it this way, I could add some music to the beginning and record the outro at the end, so at least it would solve that problem, it just meant doing it again and hoping the monotony I was feeling, didn’t show in my voice. I think it went well, you can judge for yourself if you listen, but my ordeal wasn’t over, I now had to spend 90 mins trying to upload it on the site, then when I finally did realised it was too loud, so had to go back and edit it before uploading again, you have no idea how worried about this I was, especially considering my track record for the last few days and my accidents with the delete button.

Pleased to say, I managed to get it all sorted, can’t describe my relief, I was probably more happy that I’d managed to stay calm. Sometimes it really is better if you can sit down, breath and try to come up with a resolution to whatever your problem is, as opposed to, getting angry, turning green and blaming everyone else. I know for many, that’s easier said than done, but the thing is, whatever it is that’s causing you to blow a fuse, is more often than not eventually sorted and you end up asking yourself why you got so heated about it at all. If you do find it hard though to keep your annoyance at a subtle level, I have an idea that might work, try thinking about someone being intimate with your partner, might not help, but it’ll put thing’s into perspective.