Ship's New League Of Health And Fitness

Given the old one has gone the way of all flesh.
I've just finished Couch25K. Well, Couch 2 30mins which is rather more like 3.5K for me.
I'm quite glad I've finished it as I did discover that while I can run if I really force myself it's still on a par with being flogged with stinging nettles in terms of enjoyment. So it's been a great motivator to get back on the bike as an alternative.
Now, losing weight - that's the hard one, because cheese. I can sub that out for low fat cottage cheese, but there's only one brand I like because everyone else's is too soggy and I can only get it from one supermarket.
How go other people's efforts in these general directions?
I've just finished Couch25K. Well, Couch 2 30mins which is rather more like 3.5K for me.
I'm quite glad I've finished it as I did discover that while I can run if I really force myself it's still on a par with being flogged with stinging nettles in terms of enjoyment. So it's been a great motivator to get back on the bike as an alternative.
Now, losing weight - that's the hard one, because cheese. I can sub that out for low fat cottage cheese, but there's only one brand I like because everyone else's is too soggy and I can only get it from one supermarket.
How go other people's efforts in these general directions?
Comments
You're doing better than me - I'd struggle to do 100m three times a week
I am trying hard because of dementia on both sides of the family - fitness may help to hold it off according to some studies. Not to mention the sarcopenia that left my mother very frail far too young, before she died.
Time in the gym has been transformed by joining the earpods generation - not just music, but podcasts, audio-books… I think findings ways to enjoy it (or make it less unpleasant) may be the key for me. I really want to try Zumba or dance-based stuff like that, but I think it might be too embarassing for an older geezer 😳
But even if it were done in total silence wild horses couldn't drag me to a Zumba session.
Ah, that’s the thing about fancy earpods - noise cancelling. You can only hear your own stuff 😀
I wasn’t recommending things like Zumba - haven’t been myself (yet?), and I am sure those kinds of things are not for everyone. Team-based competitive sports would be my version of hell - too many memories of compulsory rugby at school, which was not a fun pastime for this gay wimp.
I tried cricket a few years ago. Unfortunately although everyone in the club was very nice about it and encouraging (so not like school PE) I just sucked so badly I ended up not even being interested in the test series any more. That was a mistake. I think you've got to be good enough to hold your own for sports. I got lots of exercise at school playing tennis - rescuing the ball from the back of the court and collecting my serves from wherever they went when I tried to serve.
Don’t think there are maces at my gym, otherwise I might have a go at the barbarian squat, just because it sounds so evocative.
Barbarians and gladiators? Sign me up!
"Not my favourite form of exercise" is a very diplomatic way of putting it.
More seriously I was thinking about taking my pushbike in to be serviced. The gears don't function properly because it fell over and something broke.
I really enjoyed cycling but have become lazy, especially since the change in timetables meant buses come along every 10 minutes on week days and every 15 on the weekend.
I try and walk a fair amount every day, and do Pilates and play badminton and table tennis pretty regularly.
I love Zumba, and one of my favourite pictures from the Election was Ed Davey joining in a class. However there are no classes round here at a time I can get to so that is off the agenda at the moment.
Two years ago, I was told I had cirrhosis of the liver. I immediately changed my diet, and I started taking Mounjaro which is actually a once-a-week injection. Over the past two years I have lost over 40 pounds.
Mounjaro works by getting your liver to produce less sugar, and it reduces the digestive process. Almost like a chemical surgery when you think about it.
Since taking it, my blood pressure is within normal range, and I am not in the prediabetic range any more. I think next time I am with the doctor we will discuss changing some of my prescriptions.
Yesterday, I had an upper GI to look for varicose veins in the esophagus. They usually develop because of cirrhosis, None were found. But I will likely have to have this exam on an annual basis.
Too bad it took me this long to do something about obesity, but I am glad I did it.
Another advantage to losing the weight is my back no longer hurts. That issue is another story.
They have, of course, seen it all before.
Today i have travelled on five buses!
First time I'll have managed that since September.
There are songs about pickleball by the Holderness Family!
https://youtu.be/95_HeEELzYU?si=_c8irg0qbvEct8vn
https://youtube.com/shorts/iHDq53ZqBzk?si=6oW8XktwM4CSb0j7
Yes, we do get to coffee shops, but we normally only have coffee, with nothing to eat. There's the aerobic exercise of walking, much more within our ability than formal exercising at a gym - and the other issues KarlLB mentions. It's probably safer than cycling around here. We usually see friends at the different coffee shops we visit, and that's another positive aspect to it (and no-one has the bother of buying something to eat and then doing the cleaning up).
Christchurch also has a network of cycleways, and since I rode my bike regularly every bus has been equipped to take 2 or 3 cycles, so there's a back up if I ran out of puff.
The more I think about it, the more attractive it becomes,
Yay! 😀
If I'm working from home I try and go for a long walk at lunch time. Other than that it's instructor led stuff, judo atm, mainly because it involves other people and as long as I turn up for the class I'm going to get a decent workout whether in the mood for it or not.
Have always preferred walking holidays but small children tend to make that more difficult.
No pain, no gain ....
But how long, oh Lord, how long ...
Summer doesn't agree with my attempts to exercise.
@KarlLB up in Scotland I am safe from oppressive heat, which means my only excuse for not exercising today* was an attack of CBA**. Early tomorrow morning looks like it is going to be perfect running weather here though (10C, sunny, light winds), so I would be a fool to miss that. Hope some cool air heads your way too.
*Unless walking to the coffee shop for an americano and a cream bun counts as exercise. No? Thought not.
**Couldn’t Be Arsed.
My neck is feeling much better so I'll probably give it a go tomorrow.
I do not know whether I am more envious of her fitness, or the glitter-encrusted lifting belt she is rocking
And? I sometimes wear items I've had 20+ years. That's the great thing about being old - you don't have to give a damn.
Errrr…
I still have a t-shirt I bought decades ago.
It is plain black.
Apart from the designer logo on the back, 12 inches wide, in black sequins.
😳
(Not clubbing anymore at my age 🤣)
We have a quarter-hourly service on our train line in suburban Sydney. Those who live closer to the city get 8 and sometimes more trains an hour. I used the train to travel as much as possible when I was working. There were occasions when using a train was impossible, other times when a train journey would have been potentially dangerous. You're right about liking trains. We still travel by train quite a bit, and indeed would have taken a train tomorrow morning has services not been suspended for regular trackwork.
Back to long ago posts...I as a 30 something male did Zumba and BodyJam aerobic classes... I get bored very easily and need it to be entertaining. I am very uncoordinated so I amused myself if no-one else!
@KarlLB I'm squarely in the anti-snob fraternity of cycling. Arrange for a 1:1 gear ration if you can! You're in the foothills of the Pennines, right?! E-bike? Yes! If you ride a bike, you are a cyclist, full stop, and a fellow traveler of mine.
She is encouraging me to join hher in 'Couch to 5K' next!
I did that. It taught me two important things.
No, three important things.
1. I can, in fact, run for thirty minutes at a time.
2. I absolutely loathe, hate, detest and abhor running.
3. Getting back into cycling the 15 miles to work and back each way isn't anything like as bad as running as a means of improving fitness.
I'm trying to get out once a week for a bushwalk (hike). I used to love it but during years of poor mental health I let it slip. I am quite unfit now and hills are my enemies. But, slowly.
I wish they didn't seem to hate bakery products as much as I like them. Their idea of a portion is smaller than one slice of the bread I make.
I mean it's working but a world where a cheese salad baguette, sausage roll or Cornish pasty is effectively out of bounds is not one I can inhabit long term.