The Tired of Tired

A Spell of Funk

The past few days have been meh! A total lack of interest or enthusiasm. The usually sunny and hot weather has done little to brighten any sense of existence. In bed last night, I felt the tired of tired, but I had to fight off that feeling. It was not healthy.

I had tried to engage in some activity, beginning with the Africa Day event on Saturday, which left me unimpressed. Then at church the following day, I read the notice for the Whit Walks on Monday and was promptly dissuaded from attending: the preacher invited to minister was lauded not for her ministry, but more for her celebrity and her appearance on Gogglebox. I do not care to remember her name.

A Surfeit of Bad News

It does not help that, with my radio tuned to a BBC news channel, the snippets of interesting stories came laced with a surfeit of depressing news. Abuses, infractions, illegalities, and criminality by those who should know better, yet who would neither be held to account nor held accountable by those who matter, the latter too afraid to take a moral stand for fear of the blowback.

At times, you would think you need a holiday from the world, to a place of peaceful reflection on the beauty around you that you almost always fail to see.

In Search of Tranquillity

On Monday, I did go into the country, hoping for that very escape, but the tranquillity and fun I had expected never quite arrived. Tuesday brought another attempt at engagement: a men's group billed as a dance session.

In practice, it was more body movement and the rather boring projection of closing our eyes and imagining silly things. The only genuine pleasure I drew from it was setting up the table for food.

It was at that group, too, that the broader sense of injustice came home in a far more personal way. A fellow attendee had been attacked, and his assailant had received only a light prison sentence. I could do little more than commiserate with him and offer a hug.

The Weight of Work

On the work front, which brings its own share of excitement, things have been somewhat depressing. There is no wherewithal to achieve; the hours like the deepest, longest night of a nightmare, failing to find a conclusion even as the day breaks.

Unease, dissatisfaction, lethargy, fatigue, and listlessness leave you in recoil from living to the full. Once again, I find myself striving to escape this state of funk, and I know it will pass; I just wish it would pass quicker than I can remember I was ever this disturbed.

A Google NotebookLM AI Podcast on this blog

Cape Town: Is it time to lean on the fat?

How addiction hobbles our chances

Walking through a cancer hospital to the department where you are receiving treatment reveals a world of great suffering, the unerring will of humanity to survive, the purveyance of hope for which the only currency of purchase is faith that could waver depending on prognosis, pain, confidence, or despair; it is a teaching and humbling moment.

How I have wanted to walk out of that hospital and snatch a cigarette from the lips of a young smoker totally oblivious of what cancer does to the body and how the odds one faces with cancer depends of what it is, where is has been found, if it has spread and if there is a body of knowledge and expertise available to give you a chance to survive.

Then, I do not have to walk far to realise how much of a hold tobacco and nicotine has over people. As at a designated area near the entrance of the same cancer hospital, you will find patients undergoing cancer treatment huddling in corners for another drag of the poison already killing them. They give themselves no chances at all, and if they come through, good for them.

This is obese in plain sight

In Cape Town, there was something we could not unsee, when we stay in Cape Town, we try as much as possible to walk everywhere and everything is within walking distance. Even on days I did not seem to have the strength or the capacity, I made my daily 10,000 steps.

Walking alongside us or coming into view from our vantage point of observation was someone carrying just that extra extra bit of weight on their hips, their bellies, and usually both, then arms and thighs; sights to make you catch your breath.

What you cannot deny is there is an obesity problem which should be registering somewhere in the South African healthcare system. There cannot be any aesthetic value to wanting to tip the scales until the springs broke.

How you address this obvious health crisis will no doubt require tact, wisdom, and some innovative policy initiatives, it should not be ignored. You could see people who could barely move, some were panting every few steps and I cannot put a statistical value on those who might have already acquired diseases of the heart, the kidneys, the pancreas, the liver, and other related serious health problems because of this excess weight.

The fast in fast-food is weight

One other observation we made when we were in Muizenberg, some 25 kilometres from Cape Town, with long stretches of beautiful beaches that more deserted than walked, was the number of delivery bikes that attended our estate at all hours, as if most did no home cooking, but relied on fast food. We do most of our cooking, from quick preparations like stir fries to slow cooking activities, it is about the willingness and timing.

In town, the fast-food outlets are full, taking orders for tables and takeaways for patrons and the ubiquitous delivery bikers, God forfend we dignify those places with the moniker of restaurant. They offer you something to masticate and swallow, but none of it is of value to your body and if you do not work it off, it sits somewhere in your body and accumulates in fatty tissue.

Maybe the new miracle weight-loss drugs might bring respite to the South Africans we saw and give them a fighting chance, but it also must include some desire and the will to do something about it.

While everyone is free to celebrate their bodies and love who they are, while not being shamed for what they have become, we need to square the circle between feeling good and being healthy. That will not come by lying to be nice.

Trading away health

Are we aware of the harms?

Attending a cancer hospital is a revelation of how medical science is progressing in the treatment of cancer, and none of what I have witnessed or experienced suggests the treatments are cosmetic salves that soothe you.

The treatments are radical, irreversible, usually impactful, and could be life-changing on the completion of treatment. Early in my treatment cycle, one of the nurses who gave me advice and support had a voice box. I do not intend here to introduce the fear of cancer but to provide a perspective on why we should actively avoid harmful practices.

Every time I see someone light up a cigarette, I wonder whether they might end up in a cancer hospital and hopefully, they might have a favourable prognosis. The discovery of the cigarette-lung cancer link was evident from the 1950s, but the conspiracy of capitalism put tobacco conglomerate profits above global health. [National Library of Medicine: Historical Perspectives of the Causation of Lung Cancer] [World Health Organization: Tobacco industry interference with tobacco control]

As we ignore the warnings

Warnings on tobacco product packaging including grotesque pictures of cancers have hardly served as a scary premonition to smokers, it is not like I could be effective in accosting a smoker on any of our streets and hoarsely tell them I am undergoing cancer treatment, and it is not a pleasant experience, considering it is neither indicative of errors commission nor omission.

The prospect of the suffering and life-threatening effects of avoidable cancer should be informative and cautionary enough, but human behaviour cannot be curtailed even in the best interests of the person. As a species, the quest to survive is equally matched by the inexplicable tendency to self-destruct.

Now, I had a wild adolescence, I smoked from the age of fourteen to eighteen, my preference was for menthol cigarettes, and I did consider at one time getting a tobacco pipe. My cousins had unfortunate parental guidance and adopted snuff, it shows how example creates followers and adherents, quite unwittingly.

When I stopped smoking just over 40 years ago, I simply lost the desire for smoking once I became a Christian. The only time I smoked anything again was 15 years ago when my live-in partner being both a cheese head and a pothead, got pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes and I had a puff or two thinking it might be a palliative for cancer pain. I am however glad smoking never became a long-term habit with the inability to wean myself off nicotine addiction.

Issues of fitness and weight

One other thing I have noticed at the hospital is how unfit we are as a country, there are too many morbidly obese people, with some needing wheelchairs to get around. Even when I consider my weight and how certain aspects of my body do not conform to an aesthetic aspect ratio, I have sworn that once my treatment is over and I get my strength back, I will indulge in rigorous exercise to get fit again.

15 years ago, one of the effects of cancer was emaciation, I lost 25% of my body weight and though doctors then suggested I should carry a weight close to what I am now, I would rather be below 80 kg than find the scales show numbers that have horrifyingly shot up to 89 kg at one time. This event of cancer has hardly shown physiological symptoms, I could even be gaining rather than losing weight.

Dropping the excess baggage

Looking at metric measurements, I do a basic calculation that for your height in centimetres you should ideally not exceed that height minus a hundred for your weight. If you do not have the requisite height in the two-metre plus getting to seven feet category, you must ask why your weight exceeds 100 kg.

There are things we can do in terms of diet, exercise, rest, and checkups to keep healthy and hopefully not need a visit to a hospital or a cancer-related one. If warnings cannot do it, we should have some apprehension about the future and what harm we are doing now.

Illness can easily rob one of our sense of youthful invincibility that usually tends to delusions of immortality, some consideration and I aver, care for our bodies can give some of us assurance and a fighting chance that we won't be plagued by something destructively harmful out of what we are doing or what we have failed to do.

Body talk and blessings

The things that wear well

About a week ago, I got sent a picture taken at an event I attended about 3 decades ago, I was both shocked and surprised as I did not know the picture existed.

How I have changed, in all that time and remain more or less the same. I guess one of the things striking about the picture was the jacket I was wearing then and to think that I not only still have the jacket, but it also fits well, I wore it to church just 3 Sundays ago.

That is durability for you, the good sense of spending money on good quality that lasts. Clothes, shoes, hats, umbrellas, or accessories like a pair of binoculars, and I can point to stuff that I bought in the 90s that is wearable or useful today.

The measures that remain true

The other matter is the body, how our bodies change or the way we work on ensuring the body remains fit and trim if you can put the essential work into it.

It is my weight that bothers me more than anything else and then the need to ensure my tummy does not distend and become protuberant.

Except for when I lost 25% of my weight during a bout of cancer, I have kept my weight within 5kg of 83kg, preferring to weigh on the lower side rather than the upper side for a height of 183cm or six feet. In the shops, it appears they do not expect someone with a 32” (81.3cm) waist to be tall, I need according to our UK measurements, a 34” (86.4cm) inside leg.

It is a great blessing

It is a struggle to find that fitting off-the-peg, Brian who is trimmer and taller can wear my trousers, he just needs one more hole in the belt, I think. He always looks so cute beside me.

I do wonder how people cope with the excess that they carry around, the belaboured breathing and other encumbrances that are associated with tending towards obesity.

Maybe I have just been blessed with a body that sticks close to form, even my neck has stuck to 16.5” (42cm) for as long as I can remember.

In everything, I am thankful and blessed be the name of the Lord.

It's walking and it's working - XV

The numbers please me

Since I got back from Cape Town, I have not done any of my intensive walking exercises, though I might have hit the 10,000-step threshold on some days, because it just happened.

I started this walking exercise thing two years ago on the 30^th of July 2020 just as the first lockdown of the pandemic was easing off. Progress has been slow, but I checked on the anniversary to see what I might have done.

Doing the tally for the 730 days from the day I started, I had put in 8,089,788 steps, averaging 11,081 steps a day. I felt quite pleased with myself that I had achieved that, though I am yet to complete a straight calendar year that averages at least 10,000 steps daily, I have the prospect of succeeding this year.

Just keep at it

In terms of gains, the going has been tough, as I have both reached my lowest weight in 12 years and highest weight ever in this timeframe, the work of bringing the weight down is progressing, I feel much fitter and healthier than I ever was. Though traversing the hilliness of Camps Bay was a testing experience of endurance that went to the core of everything you threw at each step you took.

Obviously, I hope to get back to the exercises, I am just hoping I have no new encounters with those out-of-control dogs. I suppose the very basic conclusion to this activity is, “It’s walking and it’s working.”

It's walking and it's working - XIV

Get on up and go

There are mornings that I have woken up early as I like to do my walking exercise at dawn just as the sun is rising and the city is less busy, apart from trying to avoid meeting up with that devil dog and its atrocious owner. Then I feel, I am not that up to it, I need a bit more sleep.

Often, I do levitate myself off the bed by the force of will and get on with it, because I am left needing to get that 10,000-step threshold in the reckoning or I feel I am losing something. However, I do not beat myself up, like for instance, in April, for the last 6 days I barely got 5,000 steps done daily because I was a bit indisposed, however, since I had more than the 10,000-step average for the month by the 20^th day, it was not that bad, it just pulled down the average for the year.

Just pressing on regardless

The walking exercise that I began in late July 2020 is a lonely and individual activity that requires some discipline, dedication, and determination, I want to believe that somewhere in my lazy bones, I have some of all that. I get up, come rain or shine, in the light or the dark, feeling strong or weak and get out to do the steps.

For a while, I was seeing no effects, my weight stuck up where I never wanted it to be, I could not for the life of me understand what else I had to do, I was not going to go down some dieting route or get into the gym to find muscles in places I never knew they could exist. I was focused on the walking, keeping at it and convinced that eventually, something would begin to show. Observations by my boyfriend during our video conversations did not convince me of the expected changes.

Improvements are showing up

However, in the last 6 weeks, things have shifted, I have gone from the highest weight that the scales have truthfully displayed to losing over 8 kilograms. I am not at the best weight I attained in October 2020, but I feel it might soon get there and better.

When I started walking, I barely made 3,000 steps in a half-hour, now, I easily breach 4,500 steps in 30 minutes, though I do not think I can make it 5,000 steps, even if Brian has suggested I walk like one of the cartoon characters in Scooby-Doo, at first I thought he was referring on the one of the four-legged variety, but it was one of the bipedal females he was alluding to that I first thought was Daphne, but he meant Velma. He says he can’t keep up with my walking, even though if he stood by the Eiffel Tower, his legs might just dwarf the edifice.

The statistics are an impetus

In general, I can get my 10,000 steps done in 75 minutes, I have even managed 64 minutes, which is good going. Today, I stayed in bed and then for my late lunch break stepped out for just over 11,000 steps and then after a post-work nap, I added just over 18,000 steps leaving me with around 500 steps to hit 30,000 steps, so, I went for a quick stroll down that street and back to get that number done.

The way my health app breaks down the statistics of my activity gives me an idea of how well I am doing, the times when I could do 7 kilometres in an hour seems to have eluded me, I barely get a kilometre done in 9 minutes. However, getting my heart rate up for intensity is good and I try to work within the aerobic and anaerobic range, the cadence is usually around 140 steps a minute, though my eyes almost popped out when I saw 174 steps a minute this evening and then 177 steps a minute in my earlier walk. I must have been gliding or floating on air as I rarely get 160 steps a minute for my morning walks.

As a creature of habit, the morning walk has a route that yields just over 15,000 steps in 1:50 hours or less and that is before I start work at 8:00 AM. Even without an accountability partner, someone to imitate, or the urging of a coach or mentor, I can say more confidently that it’s walking and it’s working.

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.

A review of the kilo howler

Scales fall as weight rises

It is the rudest occupant in my bedroom, beckoning me on sight without proper address, not averting a gaze when I am in nuditate and indeed blurting out figures with no regard for my figure. As it considers itself modern it gossips the secrets to everyone listening and logs it in a journal as a tale of my excesses.

No, you are not allowed your own opinion or thoughts, for the facts hit you right in the face and the truth, bitter as it might be is served up right up the nose.

The scale of the damage is weighty, the pending disaster is best avoided. Yet, he goes by the name Huawei Scale 3, if you'll like to make an acquaintance.

A smartwatch I bought,
This came for free,
All escapes we sought,
Are blocked from thee,
For all that you ought,
Just count to three,
Everything we are not,
It says with glee.

It's walking and it's working - XI

Measuring up to averages

To an extent, I have walked myself ragged, for, in the last 4 days, I have walked 85,603 steps, but that is not the landmark, I can still feel it in my body. I only really got back to walking properly on the 8^th of April, before that, I had only walked to reach or exceed the 10,000 steps daily for 31 days out of a total of 97 days in the year to that time.

Average for the year was low, and though I thought I might make it for the 5 months of walking last year, I fell short by over half a million steps to bring my average to 9,328 steps for the year. It was already the end of April before I caught up to the average for last year, though, if I had walked every day, I might have breached the 10,000-step average for the year.

It was yesterday on Day 144 of the year that I finally got there, with an average of 10,007 steps for the year 2021, but once we got to Day 145, I was short again. My intention is to keep the daily average for the year above 10,000 steps and have something in reserve. My walk today has given me a day in hand, as my total for the year is now at 1,460,470 steps.

Marketing defines the step rule

In truth, a Harvard Medical School research suggested women only have to make 4,400 steps a day t significantly lower the risk of death. There does not seem to be any significant benefit on the risk of death after 7,500 steps a day. So, you ask, where did the 10,000-step threshold come from? It came from the tradename of a pedometer sold by Yamasa Clock of Japan in 1965 called the Manpo-kei translating to '10,000 steps meter'. [The Conversation: Do we really need to walk 10,000 steps a day?]

There was no solid evidence for this recommendation, but it took hold and that became the de facto standard for walking fitness that subsequent and modern pedometers adopted. There is no doubt that exercise is good for fitness and health. I have seen evidence of it in feeling strong and able, losing weight, and the opportunity to explore nature clearing my mind of all the clutter of the day.

Whilst I do need to walk harder and work harder to reaching what one might consider the ideal weight when my electronic scale appears to suggest I am first overweight because of the BMI (Body Mass Index) measurement. For a system developed in the 1830s, the case is being made for discarding the measurement as an indicator of health and fitness. It is a crude and blunt measurement that it is suggested there is more benefit in measuring your waist. [Business Insider: BMI is bogus]

It's walking and I'm balking - VIII

I gotta walk

Stepping on the scales the other day, I found a few more kilograms had been added to a number of achievement and triumph, I last observed in November. It meant I needed to get back to the walking exercises and step up the frequency.

This year, I have been slow on the uptake, I realised I could not return to the daily walks yet as there was not enough time to recover from the stress on my musculature overnight that I have for now set my regime to every other day.

Things to ponder

Whilst I am not a dieting fan, my struggle with getting sugar out of my diet continues with little success. It still ends up in my tea and coffee except when I have a frothy milk coffee like a latte or a cappuccino. I guess there is enough milk in the drink to compensate for the absence of sugar.

I try to get more vegetables and fruits into my meals, my sweet tooth is a weakness I need to overcome by determination and purpose. I have not dared throw a tape measure around my waistline, I am scared at what I might see, the more reason I should just get on with walking.

It's walking and it's working - VI

What they see I don’t

Brian will say when we are on our WhatsApp video conferences that I have noticeably lost weight and so will my other friends. I, however, have not been convinced that the weight loss is that appreciable. Yet, I cannot deny that stepping on the scales in the past two mornings has given me two readings below 80 kilogrammes and my lowest weight in probably a decade.

What it signifies is I am shifting the pounds, albeit, quite slowly as it is taking a lot more exercise and effort to show results. I can still pinch a good chunk of flab in the front even if the love handles have shrunk away. Maybe, I will have to do some abdominal and leg workouts to trim the belly fat to a better frame.

The optical illusion that forms in the shadow from the light cast from behind almost suggests one is getting a figure-8 midriff, but that will be wishful thinking and the stuff of dreams. I have a lot more work to do.

A warped rhythm of the walk

Whilst it is not the goal, I am usually pleased if I get 7 kilometres done within 60 minutes, though getting it at 63 minutes which is an average of 9 minutes to the kilometre is not entirely bad. Getting 10 kilometres done in under 90 minutes is a worthwhile achievement with over 13,000 steps in it.

My pace much as it seems regular and constant in terms of body rhythm sometimes leaves me wondering how I could have slowed down when I have not stopped at all. 10 minutes to the kilometre when in the same session when I might have done it in just over 8 minutes is something difficult to fathom. I can even get 170 steps to the minute and I am not jogging.

I satisfy myself with the notion that I am making progress, the results will not be instant but show over time and I feel quite fit and happy. I enjoy the exercise regardless of the conditions, I need to plan for how I would keep it up in Cape Town. There is a count down in motion. Yeah!

Blog - It's walking and it's working

Blog - It's walking and it's working - II

Blog - It's walking and it's working - III

Blog - It's walking and it's working - IV

Blog - It’s walking and it’s walking - V

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.

It's walking and it's working - IV

An app in a tizzy

I am a bit crestfallen but not discouraged. On Friday, the 6^th of November, I should have completed a 100-day streak of at least 10,000 steps daily which started on the 30^th of July. My Huawei Health app should have unveiled the medal of achievement for that feat, it did not.

On further scrutiny of the situation, it seems there were was a glitch in the app that messed up the statistics for the week commencing the 25^th of October, the weekly report is not tabulating the daily counts from the 26^th for that week, though the daily view evidently shows I completed each threshold comfortably.

When looking at the monthly report, it is the 26^th of October that is missing, and it might require working with the Huawei support teams to fix this. So far, I can report that at the end of the 6^th of November, I had walked 1,922,073 steps.

It still works beautifully

I probably will not go out for a walk today, I have been trying to catch up on some lost sleep, the last week was fraught. My average night’s sleep for the week was 4 hours and 29 minutes, just not nearly enough.

On the walking front, there is progress, I have not been able to shift my weight much below 80 kilogrammes, it would probably be stuck around that number. My waist size is reduced that I can fit in shorts that I had forsaken months ago and generally, I feel fit, but for the niggling insomnia that commands some interest, concern, and attention.

On the whole, I can still attest to the fact that it is walking and it is working, I do not have to lift weights, run, jog, or perform any other exercises. It is likely I might have to do some abdominal exercises to firm up my stomach, but the distinctive paunch from earlier in the year is gone. Much as I see many jogging on my early morning walks, I have found the routine and regime that works for me and I will continue with it.

It's walking and it's working - III

Competing for myself

Making a modification to the timings of my walking exercises, I now get up at the break of dawn and depending on when I step out from 6:00 AM to 6:30 AM, I can do between 10 to 12 kilometres, getting back home just before 8:00 AM to start work.

In the evenings, I add a few more steps to my already fulfilled quota from the morning. I even entered a competition for a medal that required I complete 5,000 steps every day for 4 days in a row. There were no additional medals for the 36,000+ steps I did on the first day and the over 90,000 steps I had done by the fourth day.

My Manchester anew

In a few days, I should reach 5,000,000 steps having done the bulk of that from an average of 60,000 steps a month in the last 2 and a half months. It is notable that I completed 3,000,000 steps on the 31^st of December, I have probably not felt any fitter for 25 years.

Sometimes, my pace in slow, I try not to compete against the clock, I have set enough personal records that the sense of euphoria is becoming juvenile with every achievement. The morning walk is routine, and the evening walks lead me on new discoveries around my city. I am surprised that I am still seeing new places within miles of my abode in the 7^th year of my residency. You need curiosity and interest to discover and experience.

My burden lightened

One thing that almost frustrated me and left me wondering if there was much else, I could do was getting my weight down, the last kilogramme has been the hardest to lose. It would probably not remain as low but seeing 79.8 kilogrammes this morning was both a shock and a surprise.

I had languished above 81 kilogrammes for weeks. Brian however assured me that I will eventually lose more because my exercise was continuing in earnest.

What Brian will not countenance is allowing it to fall to 75 kilogrammes, which was my original target. What we can agree on is, it’s walking and it’s working. I’m happy with that.

Blog - It's walking and it's working - II

Blog - It's walking and it's working

I'm not losing more

Always get decent gear

Come rain, come shine, I am up at the crack of dawn for my walks, as I found I am usually up early and what better time to get my steps in that doing it early. Today, I found that there is nothing as good as a decent raincoat with a hood. The one I have is an all-weather light coat with zippered air-vents on the sides.

By the middle of my walk, in the fifth kilometre, the rain was pouring down, you would have been soaking wet in a minute without good protection. Some had come out to run in the rain with shorts on. I simply kept my walking pace, my knees strapped with Velcro supports, to ease the discomfort that developed a couple of days ago.

Kneading my knees

I have been advised to try a hot and cold compress; I probably need a good sports massage instead. I can report that I have never felt fitter after over 2 months of walking. I am a bit concerned that I am not dropping any more weight having shed about 8 kilogrammes.

It rained the whole day on Saturday, the volume of water when observed on River Irwell was like a torrent, the embankment that people run on was completely flooded, the river had risen well over half a metre with the swell from the rain. By Monday, it had subsided, I can only wonder what I will see tomorrow.

Numbers, records, maintenance

By the time I get home, I would have done almost 12 kilometres and I will be ready to start work, the jacket, the track bottoms, my trainers and socks hopefully will dry out to consider a walk for lunch or sometime in the evening.

Not that it matters much apart from how measurement enforces competition against yourself, completing 7 kilometres under an hour, getting over 140,000 steps in a 7-day week, maybe we’ll get to 5,000,000 steps soon, considering we are at over 4,700,000 steps now. Why does it matter? Because the charts show improvement and rarely celebrate recidivism.

In a shocking pair of shorts

It is a work in progress

There are things I am probably not yet ready to acknowledge about the way my walking as exercise might have changed aspects of my fitness, my girth and my weight. Brian, for instance would protest until the cows come home that I have lost weight and I am looking trim, I would retort with a vehemence that he is only being biased.

I cannot say he has been that much help in an objective manner because only days ago, he acknowledged that my concerns about my weight that he regularly dismissed as inconsequential before I embarked on my walking regime was quite valid. I was looking like I needed to do something, but he was not going to leave me feeling that I must do something until I started to do something about it on my own, for which I have received enthusiastic partner encouragement.

He is perfect beauty

Now, Brian would most likely ask that I slow down, tone it down a little, get some rest, or something along those lines. Obviously, I do not want to harm myself with excessive workouts that I have considered I might need some deep tissue massage.

Conversely, and definitely, not inversely, I do find Brian quite attractive as he also expresses concerns about filling out places that I think are amazingly perfect as if crafted by a sculptor of incomparable talent. There is no excess, he is man-perfect or all-man, as I would tell him, trim and better than Michelangelo’s David, if I added sexy to the description, I have not even begun to give credit to the form and beauty of art that he is.

Maybe there is some bias in my appreciation, I am attracted to trim and slender men, yet, it appears, we both are caught in degrees of body dysmorphia about how we would like to change some things. In all honesty, the work has mostly been on my part to rise from a sedentary lifestyle to one of moderate to intense activity acquiring a level of fitness, especially for my age. Brian is nature’s perfect form, the model for musculature that you will teach your biology and anatomy on.

There are signs, I admit

Getting up this morning, after a long lie-in, I needed to grab something to wear and as I reached out, it was a pair of shorts that I would have strained to get round my waist just over a month ago. They would be called hot pants as to be illicit or even termed indecent dressing in conservative places. They slipped on and fitted with effortless ease, I think we are getting somewhere.

It reminds me of that nursery rhyme as we prepare for the opportunity to meet up soon within our domesticated set up in Cape Town. I, the personification of Jack and he like the wife or vice versa, which is no reference to roles we play for we are both men in a same-sex relationship without any of that heteronormative stereotyping.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat.
His wife could eat no lean.
But, together both,
They licked the platter clean.

That is the story, he is trying to put it on, I am working hard to put it off, however, we have to agree, we love good food. Then despite the occasional subjective view of how I look, I am grateful that Brian is the greatest and best supporter of my quest to fitness.

I am beginning to look quite good for my age from my perspective even if others have arrived at that conclusion long before me. There is still more working out and walking about to do, to get to the body I am happy to stand in front of the mirror and smile at.

40 days in walking mess

More walk than talk

I would be the first to tell you that not every day of the last 40 since I started my walks around Manchester as my exercise routine has had me excited and rearing to go, for I have been tired, the weather inclement, and the drive expired, yet, I have persevered.

This evening, after a night of barely 4 hours of sleep, I wanted to fall into bed after work and dream, and snore and enter the realm of deep sleep for longer than I had managed before, I could not because I felt my walk was important and I only had to make my 10,000 steps.

Numbers up and down

In that time, I have done 657,850 steps and my recorded exercises have stretched over 446 kilometres, but those are just figures, my figure according to Brian is changing, not that I can see myself, though last week I found I had lost 4 inches about 10 cm off my belly and I am today, exactly 6 kilogrammes lighter.

I guess the greatest feat in all this was on the 5^th of September when twice I managed sub 8-minute kilometres, even to my surprise at 7’56”, I am not looking to break records, I am happy with keeping it under 9’30”, though I can consistently keep it under that. I will keep at it, I think just by the results, it is a good investment in both health and wellbeing at 54.

The pace for 05/09/2020

An Augustine walk of life

Doing more than I thought

I think I have gained the ability to exert myself in ways I would have never considered not too long ago. In planning my walk for yesterday after church, I considered walking to Sale Water Park, my course was just over 7 kilometres with an estimated duration of about 90 minutes.

Along the way, a confusion of road signs left me veering off course, but not away from the bearing, for soon I recognised a place I had walked to some weeks ago and was able to redirect my path under I got to the banks of the River Mersey.

It was my intention to return home for our Sunday soiree drinks, so I walked up to a tram stop and made it just in time for the drinks.

Stretching the goals

Today, being a Bank Holiday, I could also not be happier for the fact that this was the first time in seven years our neighbourhood did not have to endure the cacophonous revelling of Manchester Pride which occurs for 4 days from Friday at the August Bank Holiday. One appreciable benefit of the pandemic, one might say.

However, I had another look at the route to Sale Water Park, but instead of going there, I veered left after Hardy Farm towards Chorlton Water Park which extended my walk to just over 9 kilometres.

To lengths that surprise

After taking a rest by the lake, I walked on the north bank of the Mersey to Princess Road and then over the river back down and to the Sale Water Park tram stop, altogether another 4 kilometres, but which time I had done enough for the day.

I only started measuring my exercise activity on the 7^th of August and I have done 337.44 kilometres of walking in 25 days. That is a feat I would never have thought possible. It is good fun; I think the girth is trimming and the pounds are beginning to fall away. The test of all this would be in keeping it off rather than presenting a yo-yo effect. What I need to investigate is how my pace is getting better, but my heart rate is stuck in the fat-burning range when I need to be in the aerobic range.

Tomorrow, I should have the month statistics for review.

The 39 steps from looking fit

On the length of the tape

On seeing how a lady dropped the flab to a trim look, I could not help but be a little more serious about what I want to achieve with regards to fitness. Now, I have always been concerned about my tummy though it never occurred to me how out of shape I was.

Maintaining a 32” waist has not been that difficult, though when I had cancer, that shrunk to below 30” that all my trousers looked like big brother hand-me-downs. What shocked me was when I measured my girth at my belly button, I was not expecting to see 39”, I thought it would be at least 3” less.

Science the reality

Overnight, I had decided to get a Honor Band 5 which includes a heart rate monitor, a step counter, a sleep monitor, an exercise tracker and many more features I am yet to determine. I thought it would be useful to keep tabs on fat burning and how I sleep.

After trying to install exercise apps without much success or motivation to find out their usefulness, I realised I could get good enough information first from WebMD and our own NHS. I do a lot of brisk walking and I can follow the basic fitness videos. [NHS: Exercise]

Know my vitals

I won’t be dieting or calorie counting, I would eat moderately, cut out the unnecessary, increase my intake of water and put in hours of walking before going to bed exhausted with the aim that all aching muscles recover by the morning.

Critically, I need to find out how well I sleep and if there are things, I could do to get more relaxing and longer sleep. I need to see my weight drop along with the inches of lard. I have my work cut out.