Killing me softly.

An un-health post, summer 2023.

Being a fat b’stard and doing something about it.

June 2023……I was shooting a video for my Pathfinder build project recently and when I came to download the video segments from my camera and then review them for adding or editing to the piece I was working on I was shocked by my shape. I actually said, out loud, hey fattie ! and I didn’t use those clips in the video that I was making….which is kind-of cheating I feel.

Now, one thing that iv’e always disliked about doing video instead of writing is that at some time I have to appear, and talk, in the video’s. Some people seem to be perfectly happy with their appearance and voice on video ; i’m not as it happens but that’s fairly minor compared to being shocked by my appearance, knowing how overweight I am and knowing that I need to do something about it for the sake of my health. Right now I estimate that I am at least 20Kg – lets call it a rather round 45-50 Lbs overweight. I haven’t actually weighed – to be honest i’m almost afraid to but a reasonable metric is that i’m almost on the last notch of my usual belt and a few years back I was a good few inches – maybe as much as 4-5 inches less.

It really isn’t just video vanity either, unlike many who seem to run (or waddle) with the excuse that it’s ok to be ‘large’ and that obesity is just a negative term thought up by the health Nazi’s I genuinely believe that obesity is a damn fine indicator of encroaching metabolic disease. Maybe, just maybe iv’e been getting away with it although there have been some indications that that isn’t the case and I feel that I really have to get rid of a whole load of fat and work on the essential things for a man my age (65) which are : cardiovascular fitness, strength and muscle mass and metabolic health.

For the last 3 years I really haven’t exercised deliberately while iv’e been building the boat ; for sure iv’e been out on the occasional walk, last year I did a press-up challenge until I got bored with it and at the end of each season’s boatbuilding iv’e gone straight into heavy work sessions in our gardens. This year though, with the physical workload slowing right down I feel that the last few years of coffee and biscuits and coffee and cake consumption have totally caught up with me. If anything iv’e always been prone to being overweight because I think I have a genuine long term problem with sugar addiction.

Ok, so that’s the moaning and excuses over with – my question is what am I going to do about it ?

Well, as I write it’s a Sunday and the end of what I regard as yet another week 1 for me. This week iv’e been fasting pretty well all week – not so much a total fast as iv’e had the odd slice of toast in the evening but as low food input as would keep me in ketosis all week. Also iv’e walked 6 days out of 7 and some of them have been of decent length over some ‘lumpy’ scenery….lumpy enough to get me breathless which is about right. On just one day I cranked out a set of press-ups just to see how bad that would be – and it wasn’t so bad : the usual difficult thing is when I do a lot one day, by my standards, and then really struggle with the first set on the next session.

I have a basic plan for this so…..

It looks as though there will be a delay in proceedings with my Pathfinder project because the sail isn’t back yet and iv’e also yet to pick up the timber for the new gaff spar. I doubt that i’ll get all the work done to get boat to water and the first launch for sea trials all done. The reason for that is that we will be in Norfolk real soon and without the boat because of the reasons I explained in an earlier post. In a way it takes the pressure off and I can be a lot more relaxed about the launch and sea trials and it’s much more likely that i’ll start my around England project later in the summer.

Instead, I have a few weeks to concentrate on re-establishing a proper dietary routine, fasting is only a short term correction, and build up an exercise discipline once again. Walking is surprisingly effective around here because east Cornwall inland is mostly made of narrow roads, sharp hills and useful off road trails. I used to be a bit dismissive about walking even when I was training with load over distance over hills in preparation for somewhere like Yosemite. Peter Attia and Jordan Peterson both say otherwise and that going from zero exercise to even a basic walking programme of a few hours a week total maybe has the best overall outcome for health bar none….Attia says that when the walking no longer causes physiological stress then I can up my game by adding weight…..rucking in short.

Maybe I should make a video about it and moan that ‘its all gone wrong’ when something minor happens ?…..perhaps it will rain (I wish it would) or maybe I will have an absolute disaster with something like a shoelace breaking…..who knows.

The relevant video…..not mine of course.