Fitness....

At one point I played for four different football teams a week, Fishtoft YFC, MaySAF, Shodfrairs and my school team mostly as a attack minded left back or on occasion as holding midfielder. Now I don't mean to toot my own horn to much here but I wasn't a bad player, I always used to try and play my game the same as the great Dennis Irwin, I played to my strengths and in his honour I also became a decent penalty taker. It led me to get trials at Peterbrough United, alongside Russell Murphy, Brendan Barnes and little Stephen Skinner (yes all these years later I still refer to him as this whenever I see him!). I was under no illusion about being good enough to be taken on, they wanted the other Brendan and took us so he didn't feel lonely at his trial. To be fair they did take him on for a couple of years and to this day I would say he's the best player I've ever played regularly with. I obviously played for the legendary Team Park when at Uni but I was the man between the posts and that meant not a lot of running involved, although again not tooting to much but I was a damn good keeper!  

Somewhere along the lines after that it all went wrong. I could blame a knee injury that required surgery, or a dodgy ankle that still plays me up occasionally but the truth in the matter is that I got lazy, I was happier sitting in front of a TV doing nothing physical, add to this the fact that I have always had a large appetite and the weight just piled on. Covid and the lockdown didn't help me at all, I was left to my devices for hours everyday and that normally meant doing not a lot and eating copious amounts of food that wasn't good for me. I used to burn off the calories at work being on my feet all the time but without that I got bigger and bigger. At one point I topped in at nearly 20 stone and for someone of my height I looked awful. I felt awful, I was out of breath walking up a couple of flights of stairs. I didn't like myself and it was a vicious circle. I used to hide my body behind baggy clothes and laughed off the jokes about my weight. We used to go away a lot with my ex's sister and her partner they would insist on having a hot tub in our little cottage getaways but I never got in, I didn't want anyone but her to see my body, I felt ashamed and although it was irrational of me, knowing they wouldn't judge me I couldn't bring myself to get in. I made excuses why I couldn't do things and blamed the knee or the ankle, it almost became second nature for me.

So what changed? The breakup was the catalyst, as it it for loads of people I'm guessing. I took a good long hard look at myself in the mirror and thought what a mess. Another factor was my body, it started breaking down on me. My knee and ankle, two injuries that hadn't healed 100% were playing me up more and more. It was also down to my back, I'd found a lump at the bottom of my spine and after several tests and MRI's and treatment plans they came to the conclusion I'd had a bleed on my spine at one point that had cauterised against my spinal chord. They've since discovered four more lumps, one behind my kneecap, two in my right ankle and the latest one underneath the nail on my index finger on my left hand. Now it's not serious, it's an issue with my cartilage, in layman's terms mine doesn't heal properly, where I've damaged it by tearing or cutting off the tip of my finger it goes into this lumps. It's a form of osteoarthritis and unfortunately it might get worse the older I get, it was the reason behind me failing my medical to get to America.

This is why is what important that I acted when I did. The extra weight I was carrying was doing me no good at all, so I decided on two things. One, I needed to change my diet and two I needed to get in shape. The diet was easier than I thought, I stopped drinking as many fizzy drinks as I did, switching to water. Out went the crisps and fried food, I got an air fryer which I'd say is one of the greatest things ever invented, it does the perfect fishfingers in 8 minutes and a good fishfinger sandwich is a favourite of mine! I started eating more vegetables and switching out potatoes and other carbs for more beans and pulses. I do have my cheat moments where I gorge myself on all those bad things washed down with copious amounts of iron bru but they are few and far between these days. In fact I've just enjoyed eating a very nice salad and can say I'm enjoying my food a lot more these days trying new combinations and recipes, some butter beans tossed in harissa paste with salmon is a big fave of mine at the minute!

That was the easy part. The harder part was getting back in shape. I joined the local gym and got myself a few sessions with a personal trainer. I won't lie and say it's been easy. In fact those first sessions were agony, I worked muscles that hadn't been used in years, following the doctors orders doing stretching and strengthening exercises aimed at my weak points, I found myself bending in ways that I didn't think were possible for me. I slowly built up the cardio, starting off with the treadmill and then onto the exercise bike. Within a month I could feel the difference, I felt lighter, had more energy. It also helped that I was doing a lot more walking which not only helped with the losing weight but it gave me time to focus my mind and look for answers on things that had been bothering me, it also gave me time to compile this list of 100 things I wanted to do so maybe it wasn't all good? I've got into a routine of going to the gym at least three times a week, it does help that it's air conditioned in there during this hot weather and apart from seeing far to many old men naked when entering the locker room I love going there. I put on my headphones get a podcast or some music on and get into the zone. I've started to do some targeted weight work now to build up my core and loose the gut I still have, it's shrunk quite a lot but it could do with shrinking a little more!

Why am I writing about this? Well I've got two close friends who are starting on their own fitness journeys and I want to say to them that it does get easier. It's hard to begin with but if you persevere and put the effort in then as they say the juice is worth the squeeze. Knowing the two like I do I have no doubts that they will be successful in their aims. I've got a bit to go but since the start of the fitness journey I've lost over 5 1/2 stone, I'm down from a 38 waist size to a 34 and I certainly haven't felt this fit in a long time, I can feel the benefits with my general health as well, my knee isn't aching as much, my ankle hasn't been a cause of concern for a while, even my left hand which I've had problems with for decades hasn't been playing me up.