Day NINE.

My rather EXTREME exercise regime is definitely paying off.

Forgotten how much I like suffering.

Already I feel ( and I can’t ‘ feel ‘ most of me ) quite different.

Another 21 days and I may have actually disappeared.

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.

So I said to Wendy …

Would you cut my hair ? Just take a centimetre off ( and pointed to the bits I meant.

What Wendy HEARD …

Can you cut all of my hair so that it’s all a centimetre long?

Sure, she said.

I thought she was taking her time over what was surely a small job.

Return of the Human Tennis Ball. …

Dominic Cummings…

Drove to a castle to ‘ test his eyesight’ …
You what?

I’ve been an optometrist for 33 years. I can categorically say that in an eye examination I’ve never thought to ask ..

‘ so what’s your vision like when you visit your local castle ? ‘

Good grief.

So black African Americans are up in arms at the relaxing of lockdown measures. They are more likely to die from Covid 19 than their white counterparts.
In Africa itself, black ( and most people there are ) people are not dying in their droves.

So you have to be black, and live in America, to be vulnerable? What if a black American moved to Africa then? Would this save him/her? And what if an African black moved to America? Would that spell death for them?

When, on the news, we get those collages of pictures of the dead ( of all colours and ages ) it’s absolutely notable that pretty much all of them, other than those who have other crippling conditions ( and the photos are not necessarily ‘ current’ , having been supplied by grieving families who tend to submit ‘ best ‘ pictures ) are OVERWEIGHT.

In America, obesity is ( literally ) a massive problem. In impoverished Africa, excessive food just isn’t a financial option…

It strikes me that this virus targets the fat, who are by and large unfit, who therefore have weaker hearts/ cardiovascular systems, and less able respiratory systems, and it so happens that there are an awful lot of fat black Americans in America.

That’s not anybody’s fault ( in almost every case ) other than that of the individual for over eating and under exercising.

Black, white, yellow, old or young .. eat sensibly and do enough exercise. I don’t think that’s anyone’s responsibility other than your own.

So…

with no dentists open still, and tired of being the only redneck in Brentford, I explored the Make Your Own Replacement Tooth options out there.
For about fifteen quid you can buy this plastic stuff called CREADENT which allows you to mould a tooth to go in the gap.
I didn’t have a lot of faith that for only a few quid you can look ok, so I’m pleasantly impressed and surprised that actually the stuff is brilliant. I mean it’s not perfect, and it’s not an exact colour match etc but hey it’s better than looking life the village idiot for months, right?

See! You can’t even tell ! 😂

We agreed some compromises and adjustments.. you could say then that Wendy came back with my tail between her legs…..

And she missed me !

Well I coulda told her she would..!

Apparently 29 London bus drivers have died from Covid 19.

That leaves about 2000 of the unhelpful f*****s to go.

And also I fixed this clock.. which hasn’t been working for 6 years.

I bought it 30 years ago!

Post break up is obviously a tricky time, so I’ve thrown myself into lots of exercise.
A week in and actually it’s amazing how my ravaged body still somehow responds positively.
Im using my arm crank for a hour every day and varying what I do on it. Always it’s hard tho ! I don’t take any prisoners when it comes to exercise. Benefits – better body ( what’s left of me ) and definitely better sleep.
Ive always always said that the best cure for insomnia is loads of exercise. You have no Choice but to sleep.

Wendy recommended something called an Airofit. It’s resistance lung training. You inhale or exhale via a mouthpiece like a snorkel mouth part, and connect to an app on your phone which tells you what to do in the sessions. It’s all about increasing your lung capacity. For me that means I’d be more Covid resistant, and have a louder voice hopefully ( cos it’s been very quiet for 7 years! ) At the start my lung capacity was less than 3 litres ( half what it was pre injury ). I’ll see what happens.. but already after a week I’m DEFINITELY breathing differently and more deeply.
Not cheap at £250 but for me it may produce a dramatic difference.

And my resting pulse rate is now 52.. which is good.
Pre injury it was 37, but hey!