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27.3.25

This week has been a good week. I had a couple of really good training sessions in the gym, one of which led me to squat 130kg for 6 reps. My wife and I (jointly but mostly her, with me just assisting) re-did the wallpaper in our living room.

I have been putting more focus this week on the various internet platforms, more Instagram and Facebook advertising, and I've been having some fun with my creativity on Canva, designing videos to use as advertising for my wordsearch. I was impressed with the outcome of the 2 adverts I did, and surprised myself with what came out, let's hope they generate traction.

One of the difficulties when you create your own product and put it out on the market is figuring out which market is best for your product, and if you have designed and advertised your product in the right way to reach a particular audience, and that's what I've got to figure out next.

Something I have noticed that I need to figure out is how tired I get from looking at numbers and online data for websites and spreadsheets, it really saps my energy, but it's the most important aspect of running a business so it needs to be looked after.

So I'm in the exciting process of figuring out which platforms work best, with my focus being on the following:

Etsy
Whatnot
Facebook
Instagram
TikTok
Ebay
Amazon

What I find most difficult is simply just waiting, I hate it, but I think it's something I have to learn to live with. You can spend 30 minutes making a really good video on Canva, and then boosting it on Instagram or Facebook, but, it needs to be seen, head and hopefully, gain some attention and click-throughs.

I don't think you can force this, I think you just have to design the video and hope that one thing resonates with a potential customer.

I'm most excited about Etsy because I really feel like my wordsearches would attract a lot of attention there, and Whatnot is good because I can interact with people on there, and I have a very eccentric personality when I get going so I need to utilise Whatnot more.

I'm still trying to figure TikTok out, I have a creative side but I need to explore that more because I'm not quite cutting it creatively for TikTok, my content is too boring and basic.

I'm close to finishing my second wordsearch/puzzle book so I'm excited to get a batch of those printed soon, but I'm even more excited to get my first batch of volume 1 wordsearches.

Punchbag Training

One hobby I've always wanted to be more actively involved in is punchbag training, and I finally bought one for my back garden and have been using it as much as possible. I find it really fun and a good form of cardio as well as great for balance and co-ordination.

You could say that I'm getting to used to all the different nuances of boxing, such as much stance, hand positioning, the way I attack the bag, the level of aggressiveness I use versus the light combinations I do.

I try to get in about 30 minutes – 1 hour a week, made up over 15 minute sessions, because hitting the bag really takes it out of you!

Gym

As I said earlier, gym has been going really well, I have prioritised focus on squats and presses this week, and I have seen some fantastic results. I got in a lot of incline press work and some heavy flat press work with dumbbells, mainly to build strength in my press, with my weak area being my forearms and wrist strength. I'm currently able to press 42.5kg for about 3 reps, and I'm excited about the prospect of pressing 50kg dumbbells one day.

In the same evening as presses, I had a new sense of confidence, and really wanted to squat, so I loaded the bar:

60kg x 3 reps
80kg x 3 reps
100kg x 3 reps
110kg x 2 reps
120kg x 2 reps
130kg x 6 single reps

These felt really good and strong and solid.

That's all I have planned to write about this week. At the moment I'm just writing from my head without any planned content, so perhaps I need to plan my content for each week.

Blog

Date: 20.3.2025

This blog is intend to highlight my week by week activities, specifically regarding my son's autism and how his week has been, and my gym and nutrition lifestyle. I hope this content brings you hope, inspires you and helps you relate to someone in some way.

I will begin this blog post with a small summary about me and my son (not too much detail as the Mrs wont like it but enough to hope to engage with you, the reader), as well as my gym and nutrition life.

My Son Noah

My son Noah is currently 4.5 years old and is at nursery. He was diagnosed with Autism, Klinefelter Syndrome and Global Development Delay at about 2-3 years old. He speaks more than he used to, although he still doesn't talk much, but he's a clever kid who knows what he wants and he acts out like any 4.5 year old does, except he just uses noises instead of talking when he's whinging.

He doesn't care for social norms and tends to do whatever activity he feels like at the time, but he minds his own business and goes to read books when he wants to be on his own and doesn't really fuss with anybody. He loves fruit shoots and cartoons, especially Disney cartoons like Hercules, 101 Dalmations and Aristocrats.

He also loves bubbles!

Our SEN teacher described him as 'cause and effect', which means he doesn't play with one thing for too long, so keeping him occupied can be quite a challenge!

He doesn't talk a lot, and he does a lot of scripting, which is where he repeats phrases he hears on cartoons, sometimes at random as he is often in his own little world! He will also do things like counting at random times and often comes up to both me and his mum, holds his hand up (similar to the third right picture with the bubbles) and looks at us with a face of shock, and will stay like it until we repeat it back, and sometimes he will go back and forth with us 5 or 6 times before he stops.

Gym and Nutrition

I am currently 35 and have been training since I was 13, although I spent a large amount of time trying to build a personal training business and did lots of videos trying to teach fitness instead of actually pack on muscle, so I'm not as muscly as I could be. 

I go to the gym 3-4 times a week and tend to do a mixture of different sessions, nothing is really planned, only very vividly, and I tend to improvise when I go to the gym. I just want to build as much muscle as naturally as possible.

My workouts tend to be 1.5 - 2 hours long and I prefer training in the day or in the evening as that is when I am the most alert for training, and at the moment I am heavily focusing on improving my squat, which is sitting at 120kg for 5 sets of 2-3 reps. I hit 140kg for a PR a matter of a few months ago but want to get it easier so I'm really going for squats at the moment.

My max deadlift is 170kg but I don't focus on it enough, but one day I'll chase 200kg.

Bench press such, because I have really weak forearms and a weak chest, my heaviest bench is 110kg.

I am currently trying to get better at hack squats even though I hate them, and I'm getting 1 plate and a 10kg on either side for 6-8 reps.

I can occasionally press 60kg with a barbell above my head, but some days I can't, it's very strange.

I just want to put on as much muscle as possible and I love feeling my muscles burn. It's just a monotonous activity that needs boredom to thrive.

This week my highlighted activities at the gym were:

- Getting 10 reps with number 10 on the Pec Fly, which has been weeks of hard work, WEEKS.

- Getting 120kg on the squat and handling the pressure.

- Getting better at hack squats and actually feeling my quads working.

- Rowing 40kg for single arm rows.

That's all for this week!

01.04.25

This Week's Blog Post Topics Include:-

My son, screen time, sensory toys and potty training

Squats and Presses at the gym

Did you see my previous post? I talked a bit about my son and his autism, but here's a gentle recap in case you missed it:

So, my son, who is now 4 years and 5 months old, is autistic and considered pre-verbal, so he is talking, just not a lot, but he is talking more, which is good.

He has a tablet, which he uses for going on cartoons and playing games, a lot of which are education games, titles include:

Finding Dory: Just Keep Swimming
Go Jetters Colouring
Sago Mini World
Peppa Pig: Holiday Adventures
Fun Kids+
Do, Re and Mi: Musical Adventure
The Lion Guard

He has a lot more on his tablet but these are the first ones I can see. It can be difficult as a parent, to help a child who is non or pre-verbal who requires sensory seeking play time, to raise that child in the same environment as a neurotypical child, so eventually you sort of find your own way a little bit.

There is a big argument against screentime for children, but I think a bigger problem is ensuring the quality of the attention a child receives.
Our son is still currently in pull ups, this is mainly down to trying to schedule in a 10 minute slot to practise using the potty, which can bring on tantrums, which bringing out the toothbrush also does, because usually trying to get him to try a new activity has proven to be quite difficult, and he has shown us plenty of times that he will often start doing something when he feels ready, so we don't put too much pressure on him to get these things done, as we feels these tantrums can lead to stress, strains on our relationship and tiredness, as well as not actually looking forward to trying to do the thing that causes tantrums.

This may lead to a further delay in his development, but I think the most important thing is his wellbeing and the happiness and bond of our relationship.

I honestly believe that sensory seeking children and autistic children are very good at doing what they need to do, when they need to do it, but sometimes they will prefer to do it on their own terms and in their own time, or in their own way, and sometimes, if not always, differently to other children.

Yesterday he sat on the potty for the 2nd time in 2 months, before that he wouldn't even consider giving any time or attention to the potty, and the fact he sat there for 10 minutes was a big deal for all of us.

He didn't need to use the potty at the time, but he chose to sit there, which was the most important part, we just need to recognise his level of understanding regarding the potty.

Does he know what the potty is for?

My wife recently bought him some sensory squidgy ball toys which he absolutely loves, and he uses them intermittently for 5-10 seconds at a time, squeezing them in both hands as hard as possible, and then he relaxes.

Gym Time

I like to go to the gym a couple of times a week, and I have some goals that I'm trying to achieve, and today was presses and squats.

I did flat dumbbell press and incline dumbbell press. I managed flat dumbbell press with 40kg for 2 sets of 6 and 1 set of 4, which I was really pleased with, and then I did 30kg on incline for 3 sets of 6-7, before finishing off with pec fly machine.

I then did a set of squats:

60kg for 3 reps
80kg for 3 reps
100kg for 3 reps
110kg for 3 reps
120kg for 2 reps
130kg for 4 singles
120kg for 3 sets of 2

My aim is to squat as heavy as possible for as long as possible in life, but I'm looking forward to squatting 140kg for 5 reps.

Hopefully you have found this blog post useful and/or enjoyable/albeit slightly interesting and I hope you found some similar stories that you've been through with your child or children 😊

If you would like to chat to me about your experience with raising autistic children and the struggles that come with it, as well as the many moments of sheer joy, please feel free to reach out to me here.