And a big thank you to Wendy, to Pia, to Chris Cats, to Toby and Cress, and to Glenn, Dickon, Robbie, Sam and Churchy and Toby again for making my 7 year paralysis anniversary day ( and the one after ) far better than it has been in the past.
❤️

Just spent a few hours with Chris Cats down by the river. It’s a hot and sunny day, and lots of people are out. Pubs are serving drinks for take away, or people are bringing a bottle.
What’s very evident is that there is a behavioural line separating the youth from say their parents. The 18/22 year olds are behaving almost exactly as they did Pre Corona, grouping close together and sharing physically and spatially.
When this virus has the next spike, which I believe it certainly will, it’ll have been THAT age group which caused it. They themselves won’t be ill, but they’ll be responsible for much suffering.

It IS all very predictable.

Going forward though I don’t think there’ll be another lockdown. It’ll be for the vulnerable to avoid contact with carriers. For some that’ll be impossible, as they are dependent on the aid of the youth, so they’ll perish, but for those that have the capacity and ability to reduce to a minimum their chances of catching it, then it’s going to be up to them to do just that. To expect ‘ everyone not at risk ‘ to stymie their lifestyles indefinitely in order to save the vulnerable, isn’t a realistic proposition. Humans are way too selfish to stop doing what they WANT to do, for the sake of others’ health.

A vaccine is the only hope for many, many people, that and making yourself less vulnerable by making yourself more resistant through diet and exercise.

Interesting times ahead.

Jesus, I only something out today – that a lad I was in school with, a really funny lad too, lost his father to suicide whilst in school. Then his brother committed suicide some time after that.

And his mum was found dead, officially of hypothermia, in a field at the top of a local ( small ) mountain.

To think I saw Keith, from time to time, and wondered why he didn’t seem ‘ that friendly ‘ now makes sense. Not many people would still be smiling a lot, after that loss.

https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/covid-obesity

Well after 16 days of being strict ( with the exception of drinking like a fish to ‘ celebrate my survival’ with half of the Toulon Twelve – bless em ) it’s fair to say it’s worked pretty well.
I’ll do some sort of short video with pictures at the end of the 30 days but this is me this morning.

So In less than a fortnight I’ve lost so much bloody weight that my chest muscle disappeared over 24 hours, as my body turned to burning muscle to fuel itself.. this despite me eating a lot more and even chocolate biscuits!

So I’ve had to pause the crank for a bit and do some resistance exercise, along with eating more. The objective was NOT to become scrawny.

Did you see that Vinegar is being renamed as ‘Vi’?

And Arnold Schwarzenneger is going to be Arnold Schwarz?

I’m losing weight at high speed. Initially that was fine, but after not even 2 weeks I’m in danger of it going too far the other way and just being really thin !

Already I’m eating far more than I was for the first 11 days, but it’s still falling off me. Another 2 KGs in the last 24 hours, and probably 10 KGs at least overall.

I’ve proven that weight loss is easy, you just have to exercise more than you were, and eat less than you were, at the same time.

It’s THAT EASY.

I’m going to have to reduce the arm crank or triple my calorie intake then.
Hmmm. I look at the ‘ distance cranked in an hour’ and yesterday on the third of my 3 separate hour long cranks I beat my best ever distance, so I haven’t lost power ( or its been compensated for by improved fitness ).

Maybe I should just eat loads of chocolate every day?

I can’t be sure, but I think I have lost something between 10 and 14 kg over the last 12 days.
I can’t be SURE because I’ve only just found a way to weigh myself – that is i bought an industrial type hook with integrated electronic scales that arrived 2 days ago.
By hooking that into a hoist that lifts me up, I can weigh.

The weight loss is drastic though. I lost 6 kg over 24 hours. By weighing myself ( with Carer’s help ) at the same time first thing in the morning I’m taking away the variables.

I wish I’d taken more pictures as I’d gone along too. Only got a few at the start ( which is the main thing ) and then none for the next 7 days. I have taken them for the last 3 and will continue to from now on.

I can certainly see the difference! I’m not trying to starve myself.. and I think I now need to eat more than I have been doing, before I disappear altogether.
I don’t seem to be losing any power to crank the handle, so that’s not suffering at all, and neither am I excessively tired or anything, but blimey I’m leaner. I’ve only done 12 days and I’ve 18 left. I’ll change tack and up the food intake and see what happens.

I’ll gauge what I do for the next 18 days by what I see in the mirror.

This Sunday will mark 7 years to the day that I got on my bicycle, on Fathers Day, for the last time. About 6 hours after getting on I was lying in a road with a broken back and spinal cord severed, a broken collar bone, and 13 ribs broken on my right side. I also smashed my cycle helmet to pieces, sustaining frontal lobe concussion.

Over the next few hours I was helicoptered to a French hospital, had had 2 heart attacks, major emergency surgery and and was put into a coma.
More was to come, as , in no particular order, organ failure followed, a tracheotomy inserted, pneumonia was contracted, and feeding through tubes became the only way to nourish my rapidly wasting body.

Welcome to paraplegia ! Not the most fun club…

It was months before they even lifted my battered onto its new legs .. the wheelchair… in which I will always remain.

Sounds grim doesn’t it? Amazingly though, I’m smiling genuine smiles again, and have consistently positive thoughts. It took a while, having had many other knockdowns after my physical injury… but hey I’m a Fighter, me.

As society around me finds out what it’s like to suddenly be deprived of normal stuff, I look on and think ‘ ahh if only you REALLY KNEW what properly going without the so called essentials is like – health, mobility and a body that can stand up and walk.

So smile peeps, because worse things can definitely happen to you!
❤️