Given Covid 19 has a thing about obese people ( who as a consequence of obesity – and ok this isn’t straightforward in EVERY SINGLE case – have more arterial furring up, higher blood pressure, weaker and more overworked hearts etc etc ) I thought I’d see what I could do about the spare tyre that seems to have appeared around my middle.
Given I can’t stand up, let alone run… or cycle, or go to body pump classes etc etc, my options to aerobically exercise are limited ( to say the least ). I do however have a ‘ crank ‘ machine ( Ex gym machine gifted to me by my pal, Dan ) that i can now use ( after 18 months of allowing my metal and screws to ‘ set ‘ ).
I started using it for 20 minutes a day, then an hour, and for a week or so for 3 hours a day, that I split into 3 separate hours.
It’s pretty well known that if you exercise ‘ on empty ‘ that is that you exercise first thing in the morning, having eaten nothing, you burn bodily fat. This is what I did for years, pre injury. So I do an hour ( and wearing a heart monitor my heartbeat is around 110 which is ideal ‘ fat burning zone ‘ ) first thing, and then I have a small amount of oats with a few berries. Then I visit the bathroom.. and having had an hour’s break i crank for another hour.
Some time later I do a further hour. I’ve got an old iPad next to the Crank on which I can watch BBCi Player, to make the time go faster.
So my ‘ proper exercise’ has been for about a week, accompanied by in general only eating uncooked veg and fruit, along with hard boiled eggs and tins of tuna. I’ve seen my temptation to eat chocolate/ sweets almost disappear, from Very Tempted to Not Bothered At All.
I think I’ve only had 2 glasses of wine and 1 gin and tonic altogether in the last 2 weeks, which I’m sure is a tenth of what I’d normally have had.

Before my injury, I’d occasionally think about ( the impossible I know ) transplantation of ‘ my brain and mindset’ into a fully functioning but obese body, it being an experiment to see whether my mindset could transform that body from obese to lean ( something that the previous owner of the obese body claimed was really hard/ impossible to do…

Now I find myself in a body that is even more difficult to transform, because a good half of it doesn’t even work!

But I’m up for a challenge, me. I know what’s it’s like to have an impressive physique, and that isn’t going to return ( after 7 years of paralysis ).. but I do KNOW that I can make a fair bit of difference to the body I do have.

And the thing is that IF A PARAPLEGIC WHO DOESNT HAVE MANY OPTIONS CAN SHED THE POUNDS, THEN THE ABLE BODIED HAVE NO EXCUSES…

I’m going to post pictures/ maybe video of the before / during and after one month’s training. I have 3 weeks of 3 hours a day to go, and then I’ll post the pictures.

I don’t know how I’ll be at the end ( and I’m not going to stop altogether after a month ) but already after a week the difference is obvious.

Eat less and exercise more ( at the same time ) to lose weight.
I don’t think it’s rocket science.