It's walking and slow in showing - XIII

Scales do me wrong

The thing that bothers me most about my body is my weight. Now, whilst I cannot say I have essentially been overweight, that is not the reckoning by the Body Mass Index (BMI) as the reading suggests for my height, I need to lose a few kilogrammes.

The BMI is imperfect, but I will not get into the whys and wherefores of it, as far as Brian is concerned, my weight serves as a reliable anchor in the boisterous winds of Cape Town that I am not permitted to take it below a certain level that I last obtained in November 2020. Since then, I have struggled to shed weight. [Medical News Today: Why BMI is inaccurate and misleading]

Walking outdoors is it

When it comes to exercise, I have found that walking suits me better than any other exertion. All the weightlifting, press-up, or planking activity is more a source of pain than any other satisfaction, I just need to burn fat and watch some of my consumption without radically changing much.

I seem to prefer walking outside to using a treadmill in the gym. A few times I did go to the gym to get my exercise and steps done. I cranked it up to 7.2 km/h on a steady fat-burning pace for 50 minutes out of the allocated 60-minute workout and what I inadvertently did was sprain a thigh muscle that required intervention.

Visiting a sports injury clinic after 4 days of radiating pain, it was worked on for almost an hour, with deep tissue massage, hot stones, and acupuncture, short of using a meat tenderiser on it. The sprain was dealt with, but the effect of the work has lasted another week, though the relief was helped on the advice of Brian by keeping the muscles warm with a hot water bottle.

What it would take

Generally, when I go for my walks that is a circuit of just over 11 kilometres, I look to getting 10,000 steps done in 75 minutes, it means I need to get a steps cadence of around 140 steps a minute. Outside, this can modulate between 110 steps per minute to 150 steps per minute, I did reach 163 steps per minute during my walk this morning, which was in the pouring rain throughout, and I did clinch 10,000 steps in 67 minutes.

On the weight, it is coming down, though, not as fast as one would like it. It is a long haul activity and I have the mind of keeping my steps above the 10,000 step average for the year.

It's walking and it's working - XII

Up on my feet

When it comes to my walking exercises, I must say I have had a rather lazy year to date. Yet, there is every reason to celebrate the achievements in relation to aspects of health and wellbeing.

It was a year ago that I decided to start walking as a form of exercise as I cannot run due to longstanding shin splints and gradual bone mass reduction because of my medication. There are times when walking itself can induce chronic pain in my legs that I just have to work through the pain barrier.

Really quite a feat

Finding out about the Brooks Ghost trainers of which I have had 3 pairs has made a whole world of difference. They are running shoes, but the cushioning effect works so well for me that I rarely need my walking cane when wearing them.

Looking at my 365 days of walking, I have put in 4,654,091 steps coming to an average of 12,751 steps a day. If I had managed 10,000 steps a day this year, I would have been another 120,000 steps ahead, but I will not beat myself up, I am not that far off the daily 10,000 step count which I first breached at the end of May.

And still keeping fit

I guess what concerns me is whilst I am apparently fitter, I have not been able to shed the pounds as much as I would have liked, though my friends and especially Brian are given to flattering me about my figure, I am not that easily fooled, the scales can do everything but lie.

If there is any consolation, walking costs nothing apart from finding the time to do it and hopefully in good enough weather. No gym, no equipment and no time-limited access to anything. Just getting out there and doing it is enough without distractions or intrusion. It is walking and even if I am not so completely satisfied with the results, it is working too.

Walking to see more results

Still driven but eased

Having met the goal of doing at least 10,000 steps a day for 100 days in a stretch, there is no major achievement in sight until I make it to 10,000,000 steps in probably over a year. However, that would require keeping at the pace I was of about 600,000 steps a month, and that really is not currently happening.

I am still getting out for my walks, usually getting in just over 10 kilometres before I start work which could vary between 13,000 steps and 15,000 steps depending on my stride, but I am not as worked up about my workouts.

One thing I have noticed though is no matter how high my heart rate gets, my breathing remains constant, I neither gasp for air nor pant, it is like I am quite used to the activity or somewhat conditioned to the level of exercise.

Still working it off

The weight is not budging as much as I would like it to, I have not had a reading below 80 kilogrammes since the 17^th of October, though it is steady around that mark.

Getting out this morning into a downpour, I varied my route from the river towpath to the pavement on the road that runs beside it. It was a better walk this time as the fallen autumnal leaves had been swept away, though I was still left with wet trainers and dampened track bottom leggings. On the home straight, the weather had improved. I will not be deterred by inclement weather, once I am out, the workout will be done.

Fat, that is always on my mind, much visceral fat I have lost, the subcutaneous fat still lingers, though I am informed, keeping at the exercise will eventually yield results. I hope so, whilst I enjoy walking and feeling fitter for doing so.

The design of the birdcage trolley

My hotel in Antwerp

In many ways, I have taken a liking for Antwerp, not for any particular reason than the fact that it is easy to get to and a generally nice place to be.

It has also become one of my pet luxuries to stay only at the Astrid Park Plaza Hotel which is directly in front of the Central Station, in fact, if I cannot get a room in this hotel, I strike Antwerp off my list.

I have also noticed that the staff might have cottoned on me being a regular such that I now always get a 7th-floor room overlooking some part of Antwerp, some spectacular others so dreary.

So, as I arrived at the hotel on Friday night and tried to negotiate the 10 or so steps that looked like I was about to walk up the steps of the Basilica of Sacré Coeur – two bags, cane and all – I have not mastered the art of travelling light; the bellboy came to my rescue and I was parted from the luggage as I checked in at reception.

Once that was done, the bellboy, hardly a boy really; helped me up to my room as I wondered aloud why a bellboy’s trolley was designed the way it was, a bit camp, a bit overstated and almost impossible to reason out.

But when I saw how he manoeuvred the trolley, taking advantage of the 4-wheel drive, the horizontal bars, the possible holds and the cage structure that allows for heaped baggage without the danger of spilling the luggage, it began to make sense.

Then I found out, it is not called a bellboy’s trolley, but a birdcage trolley – sometimes, these names are just as camp as Christmas – feast your eyes.

© Legend Hotel Supplies

39 Steps

Steps as years

The unlikely story of an ordinary man being thrust into a situation he had no control over and then fighting in everyway to prove his innocence, is the stuff of one of the greatest films called The Thirty-Nine Steps [1], directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock [2] and released in 1939.

The making of this film was what took Alfred Hitchcock to the notice of the Americans, the rest is purely history.

My 39 steps started on the selfsame day in 1965 on a cold winter's morning where eventually I was to be found not in a manger but in an incubator where I was for 2 months. That story was told last year. [3]

Having been through a very eventful year that started with grim uncertainties about my career and future, through an acrimonious resignation to a new job and starting a Master's course in Information Technology and then almost being kicked to death by some rotten misfits only 16 days ago, I do have everything to be thankful for.

The process of learning, recognition, appreciation, acknowledgement and communication continues to stimulate me, that above that niggling thought of one's supposed frailty, the will to live life to the full and enthuse everyone around me with that exhilarating experience is so profound to me.

The joy of living

Sometimes, I miss myself if I am not just ready to make a situation better by any means at my disposal and I have disposed a lot, the life of a spendthrift could be quite nerve-racking, but beyond just surviving I am constructed to overcome and create that purpose in every situation I am in.

I have a full calendar ahead of me to completing a majority of the modules of my Master's degree and start preparing for my dissertation and sounding out universities in which to do a research degree. The quest to remain relevant in the Information Technology industry continues apace.

Gosh! He has taken religion

Regaining the power of spirituality which shapes my outlook and put me on a Turbo-charge for ever-increasing attainment and development is a unique purpose and ensuring that my health is buttressed against its enemies is paramount.

Each year I have been given to celebrate is a gift of grace and favour, as it leads to 40, one can lift ones eyes to the hills from  whence cometh my help [4], because of my own, I am nothing without the life that God gives me.

By God's great mercy and grace, I am a lot more than where I started and still a lot short of where I am going, but this journey would be as exciting as it can ever be and you can join me anytime, anywhere even here and now.

My belief systems are formed from my religious meditation and values, nothing I have said a foretime has been devoid of that foundational thought. You might yet read more on that matter.

Thank you for another memorable day!

[1] The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935)

http://www.filmsite.org/thirt.html

[2] Alfred Hitchcock

http://www.mysterynet.com/hitchcock/

[3] Birthdays - A lot more people were involved

http://akin.blog-city.com/read/403429.htm

[4] HOLY BIBLE, KJV. Text of PSALMS, Chapter 121

http://godsview.com/kjvtx05/kt019121.html

http://www.athomewithme.com/From%20whence%20cometh%20my%20help.htm