"... your muscles give up, they wave a little white flag and all of a sudden you're a fat bastard."

[reddragdiva]

ladylilith appreciates the Shiny PVC-Clad Arse, and has expressed her desire to ogle said trousers accompanied by a mesh top. This would certainly fit into my own plans for sxxy deth chykitudinality, not to mention attracting the goths like swarms of nice-booted flies.

Except, of course, for the ten kilograms I have put on since arriving in the UK.

I worked out long ago that the only reason I work for a living is in order to eat the food I really want to, not cheap crap I have no option other than. And, having moved to the Island of Drinkable Beer, that's certainly not leaving the diet. (But nitrokeg and pish lager are OFF the menu.) But, hmm, less simply gratuitous crap.

So. I talk a good game with this exercise lark. But it's time for action.

1. Get some fecking exercise. Half hour minimum at a time, every day I can manage.
2. Do the goddamn situps and stomach crunches. I'm in my mid-thirties, and it's EXERCISE OR EXPAND.
3. Stop eating lard by the ton. This means cut down on the gratuitous goddamn cheese.

The other hope is that the exercise will do something about the asthma attacks. Slight one this afternoon, after ten minutes' walking in two degrees, but it actually cleared after another ten. Get my lungs used to doing more than sitting at a desk or on the tube.

Dinner tonight: a bowl of pasta, a tin of tuna (in brine, not oil), tabasco, soy sauce. No butter, no cheese. 500ml Budvar. Mm-mmm.

(And here's to the inconvenience store next to the tube station. The one that stocks multiple varieties of superlager. Know your customer base! They've taken to stocking the lovely Budvar. Lager that could almost make you believe lager is beer.)

Flem may have stopped, but flemco continues. And he certainly knows how to cure a cold.

Comments

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Bear in mind that the slight asthma attack may not be entirely due to unfitness - breathing in chilled air can be another trigger for asthma. Michael and I went out for a walk this afternoon, and the cold caused my asthma to play up. Ever heard the phrase, "so cold it takes your breath away"? The best way to avoid it is to wear a scarf over your mouth and nose for the first ten minutes or so of walking, to help your body grow adjusted to breathing in the cold air; and make sure you only breathe in through your nose. Your nose is there for many reasons; to filter out airborn particles, to regulate the temperature of your air intake, etc.

Oh, as for tuna; get the sort that's canned in springwater. Far tastier IMHO, and less salty so won't push up your blood pressure.

Fitness will help in asthma control, as it will also increase your lung capacity. Also consider taking up a wind instrument. Ever thought of learning to play sax? Or singing - though I don't know what your singing voice is like.... Swimming is also good for breath control, as well as all-round fitness.

Hope all that helps....

[reddragdiva]

"Bear in mind that the slight asthma attack may not be entirely due to unfitness - breathing in chilled air can be another trigger for asthma."

Oh, definitely.

I figure walking will do for the moment. The hard part is getting myself to do any plan regularly - there's a gym literally 100 metres down the street; probability of me bothering on a windy, rainy evening after work is zero - so I'll see how I go on this one. Having one's loved one fancy the pants on one is a nice incentive, of course.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

There's been a bunch of useful advice in the Other Place. In the [mumble] months that I've been visiting the gym on a (mostly) thrice-weekly basis, I've shrunk seriously in the beer-gut, added some muscle... And stayed about the same weight. I'm not eating any differently, other than not needing to keep prodding my blood-sugar every couple of hours with junk from the sweetie-machine.

I guess I'm lucky that there's an on-site gym so I can slope off work a bit early and work off the stress before going home.

The disturbing thing about gyms is how quickly one can look forward to the endorphins, but I guess that's a Good Thing.

Oh, and sit-ups won't loose the beer-gut. It doesn't work like that.

[reddragdiva]

"Oh, and sit-ups won't loose the beer-gut. It doesn't work like that."

I know, I know. It'll be a much longer process. This is a start.

[giolla.livejournal.com]

Also try breathing exercises, there's a proper breathing technique that's very good for asthmatics, but whose name I currently forget. It does work, having got a load of information on it, nto gone to a proper course ruis has been able to reduce ventalin and other inhaler usage to virtually nill. Except for in the event of smokey fires and very dusty servers, and even that tends to be only a problem when under the weather.

[reddragdiva]

Buteyko. I've been meaning to do something along those lines for ages.

[giolla.livejournal.com]

That's the thing.
Seems to work incredibly well.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

*ears perk up*

Your lovely lady linked back here, I missed it the first time around. I definitely am going to look into this.

[reddragdiva]

Buteyko providers have a nasty tendency to be New Age space cadets, but the stuff apparently does work.

[silverfiligree.livejournal.com]

Cheese is a bit dodgy on the asthma front, I mostly limit dairy products to milk in tea these days.

Oily fish is supposed to be good, or you could take supplements if you don't like fish.

[reddragdiva]

I love cheese. And fish. And meat. And beer. And cigs. Bah.

Excersice? Bah humbug.

[lpetersson.livejournal.com]

But you might want to get one of these:
http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=firebox&action=product&pid=67

They rock.
Servus,
Mr Eleganza

[giolla.livejournal.com]

Cycle to work.
It'll take you about as long as the tube does, but with more reliability. Plus cycling in central London is fun!

[reddragdiva]

"Plus cycling in central London is fun!"

FSVO ;-)

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not so bad. It's a hell of a lot better than Cambridge. If you don't look like a courier everyone is so surprised to see you they tend to steer clear - in extremis you could put a doll in a child trailer and tow that, which would also improve the exercise value.

I tend to feel that exercise for its own sake, like walking more than 200 yards, is fit only for people without bicycles.

[alaincis.livejournal.com]

Some thoughts and suggestions:

Start boxing. You're still young'nuff to spare at the gym and even have a few fights, if I believe an 41 years old fella who just started a few months away. Really, you'll love it and your blubber will run away in no time. heh. Really!

Blubber can't be busted locally by performing specific excercises. At least, it's what professionals seem to think. Apparently, you won't lose more gut if you do exclusively crunches than if you did only squats.
The only reason you can sometimes have the impression that you lose blubber from a specific area due to going heavily at a specific excercise is because said excercise increased the muscular mass in this area, thus making it protrude a lot more and repartiting the blubber more evenly. In any case, increasing general muscular mass, no matter where it is on your bod, sure will increase your metabolism, which is quite good to burn more calories, allowing you to eat more and bringing lots of goodies, like a better protection for your bones and organs.

No matter what you eat, split the elements as much as possible in this way: carbs (and some proteins) -before- training (almost no carbs after training) and lots of proteins/some fat -after- training. And go for many small meals rather than 2-3 big ass ones.

Just before training, eat fruits. A good dose. And masticate well if you do it less than two hours before said activity or harsh intestinal pain might ensue as you begin training. It's really possible to eat stuff right before training, but, really, it must arrive in almost liquid form in your gut. At least, that's my personal observations made in the process of learning from trials and errors. But I believe it's stuff that is already supported by more scientific sources ;) Nonelessly, these observations were put in application not only by myself, but by other folks at the gyms where I train, so you can trust me.. Really.. you can. heh.

Hmm and if you have a low heart, why not increase your performance with a good dose of caffeine, eh? But only if your have a slow pump, really. And even there: if you have unpleasant cardio vascular feelings that makes you feel nervous (most of the time happening when you hit the bed), lower or cut completely your intake.

I could blabber on training and eating-share the stuff that worked for me- for quite a while, but only if it doesn't put my audience to sleep ;)

[reddragdiva]

At the moment I'm still working on getting to square one: bothering to do anything at all. But the above is filed away for future reference!