Preparedness makes us powerful. Butter merely makes us fat

Retro Boy posted this the other day:

"It starts slowly. A bad day. You didn't eat enough yesterday. Maybe you were working late. Maybe you had half a sandwich at your desk. Maybe you grabbed a bar of chocolate. Maybe you went to bed hungry last night. Maybe you forgot to cook. Power cut. So where's the harm. A bar of choclate. An extra slice of pizza. You sit at home, and you don't feel like exercising.

An extra sandwich. Nobody notices. Nobody minds. Middle-aged spread, they call it. Signs of natural aging, for others. But your clothes have a memory. They do not shrink in the wash. Steel expands in the heat, not humans. Clothes never forget.

It's how you become fat. Think of it as storage. Extra fuel for the lean times ahead. That's it. Yes. So maybe standing becomes difficult. Maybe you don't want to stand up for hours on end. Maybe you find the muscles in your legs have wekened. One day you go out onto the porch, and it's the last time you see the world with your naked eyes for 8 years. You can't leave the house. The doors have shrunk.

By the end, they need a crane to demolish the side of the wall so they can take you to hospital. Or the morgue.

Every journey starts with a small step. "

I've started making my small steps. I would say I really need to lose about 2 stone to be at a weight I'm happy with, but I haven't been that weight for around 6 years.

I've alway been 'big-boned' (not in the prison sense) and would say that I've got got quite a large frame... i.e. fat, but over those past 6 years it's got worse. Do you know what I did 6 years ago? I went to University.

I found beer, alcopops, irregular sleep patterns, fast food, women, the internet, etc. And it's been a slippery slope since then. I had always been an active person, riding my bike, playing sports, and generally enjoying doing stuff, but when this is replaced by meeting friends at the pub instead of the park there's bound to be an inevitable change in lifestyle and fitness.

When I was doing my A-levels I used to only have a saturday job at a local butchers and for working 8:30am till 5:30pm I got the handsome some of £20! With this I would go out on the saturday night over to the other nearest town on the "free train" (i.e. I didn't by a ticket) go to a pub (which isn't there anymore) and invest some of my money on a fair few pints of 'Toby Bitter' which cost £1 a pint...bargain and I'd maybe have a few shorts to finish off, play a few games of pool, and then get the "free train" home again. One night a week of doin stuff was all I could afford (and the bitter was like water anyway). My waist remained at a steady size.

When I was at Uni there wasn't just the weekend it was the whole week too and I'd probably go out on most nights and have a fair few beers, funded by my student loan. Eventually you are running on empty and the only food that really picks you up is junk food with its ready supply of fats and sugars. My exercise was cut down, my eating and drinking went up and that was the start of a slippery slope into fatness.

I've had several false starts into fitness, I've previously joined a couple of gyms, tried to cut down of indulgances, but ultimately they have been a failure.
Sice I moved back to my home town last year I'd got a more regular timetable in my life, and I was playing more sports than ever, and eating better food. I thought this would lead to a healthier lifestyle. Apparently it improves fitness but still doesn't get rid of the weight. I've finally accepted that the curse of my adulthood is ......wait for it......BEER!

I know it's not really much of a surprise but it seems that we British usually need to have a pint in our hand to be having a good time. It's the way our society has been built. Well I've eventually cottoned on to the evils of alcohol. I do like beer and I don't think I could give it up but I've realised that is is okay to say 'no' every so often. I used to feel pressure to always have a pint when out and I'd always have to keep up with the rounds, as it was the done thing.

I think the secret is not abstaining completely but only drinking when you actually want to. I'm now quite happy to have a pint (yummy) and if I think I don't really want anymore then I switch over to my drink of choice, a pint of orange squash and soda water. It's very refreshing and at 60p, compared to £2.80 a pint, very cheap (I've blogged a fair few times about how I haven't got much spare money now).

This regime has only been going on the past few weeks but it's great to wake up in the morning with a perfectly clear head anda wallet with money in!

Every so often it's good to get bolloxed but the need hasn't come yet so I'm still good. I think another reason is that I've now got over the initial stage where friends were joking about my squash drinking, and now they don't care about it.

Viva la revolution!

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Don't you hate it when people are utter c**ts? i'm quite a good natured fellow most of the time but when people are rude and obnoxious I get very angry and a storm rages inside me. This happened yesterday when I was working at my local pub. this person walked in and I thought to myself "ok, he's been a c**t to me before but everyone deserves a second chance, I'll see how he acts today and reserve my judgement. He was still a c**t. No surprises, but it was worse because I had been willing to rethink about his c**ticity. This put me in a bad mood which I'm sure reflected onto other customers. I finished work at 8pm and guess what? I had to have a beer to relax me! first of all I wanted lot's of beers, but one seemed to do the trick and Istopped there. My journey into semi-abstaintion is still on the right tracks.