Mr Fat gets on his Bike

You'll recall that December was a pretty quiet month for me in that I completely took the month off.

To get back on track I decided to increase my step count from 10000 steps per day to 12000 per day.  that has been going well and in fact I am averaging between 13 and 18000 steps per day.

Additionally, I have decreased my calorie intake dramatically, but, and again I am not to worried about it, although slightly frustrating, I still don't seem to be shedding the weight!

This morning I decided to get out on the bike for the first time in months.  Now I don't have a super expensive all singing all dancing road racer or even an off road bike.  No, my bike is a bog standard, less than £200.00, street bike that I bought in 2009 when I first gave up the car, with panniers so that that I could do the shopping, sad but true.....

When I bought it in 2009 and got on it for the first time, it was sheer hell, I was so fat and so unfit I was in agony.  I couldn't even swing my leg over the cross bar to mount it. I had to lower the bike down to one side to allow me to get my 'leg over' as it were! But I persevered and enjoyed it.  After a while the sore legs and the very sore ass got less sore, and I always wondered how an ass my size, with so much cushioning, could hurt so much!

Anyway, I haven't been on the bike for a few months as, concentrating more on the steps as I think unless you are cycling for a couple of hours and a lot of miles, you get more benefit from a brisk walk, than you do from a cycle to the shops and back.

So, that's what I did, I got on the bike to go to the shops this morning which are a ten minute walk or a three minute cycle.  I've discovered that if you don't cycle regularly that getting back on to it, even for a few minutes, makes you feel as if you have just taken part in a gruelling stage of the Tour De France, seriously, you start to get pains in the top of your legs caused by the unfamiliar rotational movement, your ass starts to hurt again, even although there is still plenty of cushioning there and all of this as you cycled to the end of the street, shit what's it going to be like by the time I get to the shops.......  Do I stop and walk the bike back to the house or carry on pushing those stiff pedals that seem to be in need of some oil as they really don't feel like turning after being neglected for so many months.  Persevere was the answer so off I went teetering on my way to the shops to buy some paprika, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers and corn, for a spicy sauce I'm making later.

It was only when I got home later, that I realised and remembered that there are 27 gears on my old bike and guess why the pedals were so hard to turn............ yeah Mr Fat Numpty had them on the lowest gear or is it the highest, I never know which is which, anyway the one that makes it harder to pedal, but I suppose in a way that's better for me, right, so my stupidity is actually helping my fitness....

I think the answer may be that as I am managing to get my steps in from my morning walk and then by getting away from my desk while at work, that as the lighter evenings are starting to come in, instead of going for another walk, would be to get out on my bike for an hour or so as well and then get the benefit of the steps and the cycle each day.... I'll let you know how that goes