What the hell happened?
25 years ago I could run 100 metres in around 12 seconds and I had a 30" waist. Now, at 45 it would take me 12 seconds to run round my waist. Life has conspired against me over the last decade or so and I'm paying for it. I like value for money and I'm not getting it so the time has come to do something about it.
I'm not huge, I'm just growing out of control. I've noticed bits that used to be skin and bone now having a layer of fleshy padding. I've got man boobs that wobble under my t-shirt (which is odd as the chest is often pulled taught by my expanding gut). Whereas I used to be a whippet, I'm now an overweight labrador. I look at pictures of myself now and frankly I'm shocked. Even my other half's mother, who's only known me for around three years, has passed the odd comment.
One hugely scary thing is that I notice pains in places that shouldn't be painful. I'm a bit of a hypochondriac there but with good reason. My gorgeous partner Sharon had a massive jolt almost three years ago when she suffered a blood clot that almost killed her. She ended up losing 90% of her bowel as a result and is now fed intravenously. That was caused by smoking but the lesson was there to be learned; don't ever take your health for granted. I gave up smoking on June 11th 2003 but the benefits of that have been negated by the change in our lifestyles. I gave up work to keep house when Sharon became ill and because of her condition now, I'm handy to have around. Consequently I now work largely from home sitting on the sofa with a laptop and a packet of crisps whereas before I was quite active.
Genetically I've inherited many of my maternal grandmother's line's physiological features (I've recently grown a beard and last week my mother showed me a picture of a cousin of around the same age I've not seen for years who also has one. We could be twins). The main trait of the line though is not the slightly bulbous nose and shortish legs, it's an alarming capacity to get lardy that develops in early middle age. My eventual corpulence would seem to be pre-ordained although thankfully Grandma lived into her 90s.
So what's to do? I don't really fancy doing a diet for a start. I lack the discipline for all that idiot calorie counting and point scoring. Similarly, I won't go the slimming club route; I'm not into that kind of public humiliation (says he,writing a blog). I'm hoping that by writing this blog I'll just start examining what I eat and how I exercise in the hope that a subtle change of attitude will work. My basic knowledge of biology and physics tells me that if output exceeds intake I will start to burn fat but if done sensibly I can still enjoy myself. Thankfully I'm not obsessive about things so I'm not about to starve myself in the interests of bloggery. I want to eat healthier food but I don't want to go without the treats. Should be interesting!
So, starting when I get up in the morning (no, that's not a cop out, it's 2.15 am where I am!) I will weigh myself and take some vital statistics. Then the fun starts.
I'm not huge, I'm just growing out of control. I've noticed bits that used to be skin and bone now having a layer of fleshy padding. I've got man boobs that wobble under my t-shirt (which is odd as the chest is often pulled taught by my expanding gut). Whereas I used to be a whippet, I'm now an overweight labrador. I look at pictures of myself now and frankly I'm shocked. Even my other half's mother, who's only known me for around three years, has passed the odd comment.
One hugely scary thing is that I notice pains in places that shouldn't be painful. I'm a bit of a hypochondriac there but with good reason. My gorgeous partner Sharon had a massive jolt almost three years ago when she suffered a blood clot that almost killed her. She ended up losing 90% of her bowel as a result and is now fed intravenously. That was caused by smoking but the lesson was there to be learned; don't ever take your health for granted. I gave up smoking on June 11th 2003 but the benefits of that have been negated by the change in our lifestyles. I gave up work to keep house when Sharon became ill and because of her condition now, I'm handy to have around. Consequently I now work largely from home sitting on the sofa with a laptop and a packet of crisps whereas before I was quite active.
Genetically I've inherited many of my maternal grandmother's line's physiological features (I've recently grown a beard and last week my mother showed me a picture of a cousin of around the same age I've not seen for years who also has one. We could be twins). The main trait of the line though is not the slightly bulbous nose and shortish legs, it's an alarming capacity to get lardy that develops in early middle age. My eventual corpulence would seem to be pre-ordained although thankfully Grandma lived into her 90s.
So what's to do? I don't really fancy doing a diet for a start. I lack the discipline for all that idiot calorie counting and point scoring. Similarly, I won't go the slimming club route; I'm not into that kind of public humiliation (says he,writing a blog). I'm hoping that by writing this blog I'll just start examining what I eat and how I exercise in the hope that a subtle change of attitude will work. My basic knowledge of biology and physics tells me that if output exceeds intake I will start to burn fat but if done sensibly I can still enjoy myself. Thankfully I'm not obsessive about things so I'm not about to starve myself in the interests of bloggery. I want to eat healthier food but I don't want to go without the treats. Should be interesting!
So, starting when I get up in the morning (no, that's not a cop out, it's 2.15 am where I am!) I will weigh myself and take some vital statistics. Then the fun starts.
posted by Richard at 5:10 PM
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