Das Neue Arbeit

Excuse me if that’s not proper English…..what do you mean it’s German ?

Right then, this a completely new post and will be (if I continue the blog) the first post in it’s new iteration.

New blog time – as I write it’s a really grey and claggy day down here in Cornwall and iv’e just come back in the house after my second exercise session of the day – and number 46 of 100 planned similar exercise sessions.  When I say ‘exercise’ don’t get too excited – it’s only me going for a series of walks around the lanes, some days one session is just an hour of up and down but this week it’s been a couple of hours most days.  Also today I had to use most available fingers and toes to work out where I was in my first long dietary fast of the year….with the use of many digits I conclude that I am round about 70 hours or day 3 for short.

What’s happening here is a low key drive to get rid of some of my (excess) body weight and get a bit more aerobically fit for pedaling the trike on (hopefully) longer journeys, For some reason I gained a lot of weight after the Covid lockdown and I think particularly so while I was building the boat and at the same time not taking much extraneous exercise, whatever, I ended up heavier than I have ever been so when I had a nasty chest infection in December (we both did) it really knocked me out and the recovery , just walking on the lanes and hills here, was particularly hard.

Unlike past times when I have determined to lose weight and gain fitness I am really not trying to push at the limits every day, in fact, right now, I have set myself the simple goal of completing 100 low grade exercise sessions and a couple of dietary fasts before moving things up a notch. Some days, after my morning walk session (usually an hour) I will mess around with a few press-ups and then have a protein shake as my morning replacement meal. Right now i’m not eating any solid food of course and basically only drink coffee (with milk) water, and a glass of fruit juice (ribena) with a half teaspoon of added vitamin C. The only other supplement that I take is a couple of squirts of vitamin D spray taken sublingually.

Several days later…..

So I got to 74 hours total fast and then strangely enough what I really wanted was a hot mug of Bovril or similar. I couldn’t find any anywhere at home and by then I was craving something to eat and reduce the caffeine cramps in my gut so I had a couple of slices of toast and called it quits with the fast. I will probably go back to it next week as I go past 50 sessions in my exercise plan. I do think that I have a completely different approach this time around, I don’t expect rapid change for example and don’t expect to put on muscle mass (always difficult for a man in his 60’s) but do expect to gain ‘fitness’ in terms of greater aerobic capacity and muscular adaptation to a new pedaling technique.

One thing I am working with comes straight out of Dr Attia’s work on diet and fasting : when I first picked up on his work he seemed to be pro fasting and he isn’t now. What changed his attitude, I think, is that he now accepts that fasting normally involves some muscle loss and he seems to have drifted towards actions that are long term sustainable which fasting obviously isn’t. Now, he describes our dietary self control as being that we have 3 levers we can pull on thus 1. Quantity (calorie restriction). 2, Quality (altering what it is we eat and 3. Timing (altering when we eat of for example our eating ‘window’. One thing he says is that he doesn’t believe that 3 on it’s own (timing) is as effective as proponents used to claim and that maybe pulling on 2 levers simultaneously is the way to go. Right now I am practicing dietary restriction and quality modification combined in that I tend to skip breakfast entirely and don’t have an evening snack, I am also working towards a total reduction (to zero eventually) of anything with sugar because that is probably my greatest dietary failure.

The ‘new deal’ or new work that neue arbeit refers to also refers to my blog and writing, Having thought about it a lot I may continue the blog but only put out content when I feel able to write a quality piece, there is also an argument (in my mind) that some subjects need a simple written account rather than me attempting to wear the multiple hats of a video content creator – my recent video for example I think would have been easier and more effective as a written blog post.

I also want to commit some time to working on a series of longer pieces in a completely different genre that one day might make it to published form. Iv’e almost been there before and at one time did have most of the work towards a book already complete – the book to be was my take on the late Maurice Griffiths first slim booklet which I have a very old (it’s from the 1929’s) and dog eared copy of the book in my possession but the main problem is that it is still out of a genre where the enthusiasts just don’t seem to read any more but much prefer the more passive entertainment of video. My proposed genre btw is based on a completely different genre, below is a little spoiler from the original artist Mike Francina.