Harsh title I know but then you didn't see what I saw when Skyping my nephew yesterday. I wanted to see my nephew's little baby daughter so we arranged to Skype. Trouble is you get to see a little video inset of yourself at the same time. My nephew whom I haven't seen for a year exclaimed, "You put on some weight uncle John!" I looked at the video inset and nearly choked on my can of Kronenberg. Could that treble chinned fat bloke really be me? Did the drinking of beer have something to do with the alarming state of of the body peering back at me.
I made small talk, waved at little Molly, signed off and felt so depressed I immediately had to prepare a spaghetti bolognaise for four people. I know what you are thinking; that I was making enough for four but I would be eating it all myself. Well you would be wrong. My girlfriend was coming round and she would easily eat a quarter of the food being prepared. To be fair, the previous two days had been a mini- bender where I went to see my sons in London, eat pizza, drink beer and watch Fulham beat Newcastle in the first league game of the season. Saturday was then spent with my youngest son eating a fried breakfast, drinking beer and watching Wivenhoe Town play their first game of the season followed by a very tasty Vietnamese meal near where I live. Yesterday of course involved reducing the impact of the two day excess fest by drinking beer, wine, eating cheese on toast and making the Skype call that could change my life.Oh and not forgetting eating that vat of spag bol.
Three days of excess and then in plain, incontrovertible sight, video of me looking like someone who had spent far too many days in his life eating and drinking way too much. Gingerly I weighed myself. A stonking 15st 6 lbs, which for a 5ft 8in 60 year old is well into the red of the BMI chart.
Suddenly my goals for retirement look very different. To have any kind of retirement, I was going to have to seriously address the weight issue. Up until two years ago my weight was around the 13st 7lb mark, which although still too much was fine in that I could run without crushing my knees and in general enjoyed good health.
This is different. I am on blood pressure medication, I am too heavy to run or jog, sleep is poor and I look like a fat bloated sausage. Change has to happen but I know from experience how hard it is to change and stick to changes. Basically I love my food and drink and seem to lose all self control around these. Of course so do a lot of people. Losing weight and keeping it off is tough and I will need to come up with some different strategies if I am going to be be successful. And it's not just vanity. Being overweight with the habits I have is potentially life threatening and could hamper the plans I have for myself over the next ten to fifteen years.
I shall think, plan and establish a way forward. Doing this on line means there is an added incentive to making this work, if it doesn't work I will look like a weak willed failure. It's in my hands but I need a plan. In the next blog I will share that plan and let us see if it works. No, not "if". It will work. It has to. Anyone for salad?
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