A story of most people's fitness, weight loss, healthy life journeys. True Story.
I’m in Cafe Nero, Didsbury. It was my plan to go to the gym today and lift weights but I got up late (procrastinated), it was raining (procrastinated), so I could’t go there on my motorbike (procrastinated) and I had a domestic with wifey so I wasn’t in the mood (procrastinated).
I did however watch a You Tube vid by Dan Koe about making social media posts. But then I had to switch it off because wifey thinks it’s all rubbish. So instead of watching “some rubbish” about making effective social media posts, I found myself watching “Loose Women” on daytime TV. That’s not rubbish though. Anyway as my day was slowly slipping down the pan I thought “I promised myself to do a social media and blog post today”. About health and fitness and how consistency is the key…
So I took my own advice and the advice I’m going to give you and I got up, put my laptop in my ruckie, donned my trilby, and went for a walk, a coffee, a blog and a catch up with friends and family. Walking is great “me” time.
Anyway, I rang my baby (53yo) brother for a chat. Bruv is a good guy, your typical old school working class male. He’s always worked hard all week, in fact he now owns a sweet shop he bought with his redundancy money. As I was saying, he works hard all week and on Saturday he always played football, now he watches it whilst going “on the lash” (has a few drinks, well 15-20 really, of beer), goes home, watches more footy Sunday. And repeat. Unfortunately the change from playing, watching football, over the last 30 years, has taken its toll…
I pint of beer is roughly 200 calories, multiply that by 20 equals 4000 calories. One pound of fat is 3500 calories. Multiplied by 52 weeks. Multiplied by 30 years. You get the picture.. He’s put weight on, it happens. But he’s 53 so the weight comes with other “free bonuses”. Not. Bruv has got health issues. I’m not gonna put them all out here but if I say he has mobility issues and circulation issues that have needed hospital treatment, you get the picture. Thing is, he’s a male, of a certain age, brought up in a working class culture in the North of England. This means real men don’t complain, don’t go to the doctors and certainly don’t have health checks. Oh, they definitely don’t get lectured about the healthy lifestyle, ok? He knows. But he trusts me I think because he knows I’m in decent nick AND I can still go for a beer with him and his mates. Anyway, in between organising a boys weekend away in response to his wife planning a girlie holiday and not telling him we talk fitness, again because he wants to get a beach body before we go.
“I’m gonna get back int’ gym Monday when I’m off and get sorted” he says.
“Why not just walk home tonight? That’s a start. “He lives about half a mile from his shop
“Yeah but I’ve got to take the dogs for a walk too” They’re dachshunds aka sausage dogs, short legs, and they’re fat too!
“why not walk home…and take the dogs out too, result”
“yeah suppose, I need to get it done” Then I tell him about why I’m walking instead of being at the gym and that every little bit counts. He agrees.
“How’s your food?” I say.
” It’s alright you know, all I had last night was baked potato and beans”
OK. Sounds good. Low fat? Low cal?
So I tell him about what he’s just eaten. Apart from the beans which have a bit of protein in them and the skin of the potato which is a decent source of fibre, he just eaten a carbohydrate meal. Carbs ARE NOT BAD got it? I’ll say again CARBS ARE NOT BAD, ok? Carbs are the bodies fuel, think the petrol you put in your car. If your fuel tank is full where are you gonna put another gallon of fuel? In a container, in the boot? So unless you use that fuel (moving, exercising) and then top it up the fuel you’ve just put in the boot, what effect will that container in the boot have on you? Well it means you have to carry it around for starters which puts extra stress on your joints and heart and makes your body have to work harder than it needs to. Makes sense?
No protein. Protein is the oil that prevents the machine that is your body, wear out. It just is, deal with it. So here we are, we have a full tank of fuel but don’t use much of it because we only do very small trips and never give it the chance to stretch its legs. We also don’t take care to keep the oil topped up to protect it from premature wear and tear. And spookily, just like a car, the older you get the more oil (protein) you need.
Does that make any sense at all? It does to me but I know about fitness, diet and old cars and motorbikes. Anyway as with all mechanical items if neglected they will start to decrease in efficiency before making horrible noises then breaking down. You could give the body some oil, and take it out for a drive, which is what it wants really.
But what do we do? We buy some more fuel, the boot’s full so we put it on the back seats then we drive it for 5 minutes a day, creaking, breaking and rotting away. Joints will go first, then the engine will start to struggle and make horrible noises and it won’t now start or move. Action needed. Better go to the doctor (mechanic). He does what mechanics and doctors do and says “ooh that’s broken, it’ll need replacing soon or it’ll be dangerous ” What he won’t say is, and both doctors and mechanic used to make these comments but can’t or can’t be bothered to do these days is “mate, there’s no oil in your engine, that’s why it won’t start and why is you boot and back seats full of cans of fuel, the tanks full, I’ll put some new parts in but in an old machine like this the parts are getting scarce so use it and keep it serviced or it’ll stop one day and have to be scrapped”
I’ll start Monday