Getting Fit Without Going Near the Gym
Depending on how much credence you give the BMI scale, I am a little bit overweight. I’m not buff, I’m not ripped, or anything even remotely like it.
Before you hit that little cross in the top right window though, let me explain something. Six months ago I weighed around 300lbs, didn’t exercise, and I smoked – not the most healthy person in the world, eh?
Well, after a rather life changing event (including becoming basically homeless for a week) I decided that it was time to fix my life up, get in shape and basically make having one of the heart attacks that plague my family a little less likely.
First things first, my diet had to change. Gone were sausage sandwiches, full-fat coke, tubes of Pringles (at damn near 1000 calories a go!) and the rest, instead replaced with something that looked a little like this:
- Breakfast: Fruit. Either apples or grapes. Natural sugars and vitamins to start the day.
- Lunch: A jacket potato crammed with either salad or beans.
- Dinner: Chicken with mixed veg, rice/pasta.
- Snacks: Either Yoghurt or fruit if I got peckish between meals
- Drinks: Diet Pepsi, black coffee and Peppermint tea
Hilariously, I used to think that my old diet wasn’t bad; looking back I can see I was wrong! The above diet is a rough guideline, and I balance it each day – for example, if I have a potato for lunch I’ll cut back on carbs for the rest of the day.
I still have the occasional treat of course: On cold morning I’ll have a bacon roll or bagel for my breakfast, and occasional trips to the Chinese don’t do too much damage so long as you’re good. On the weekends my girlfriend and I still have a cooked breakfast as well – remove the fat from bacon and use a fry spray instead of oil and you can still lose weight. I’ve lost 100lbs this year, so believe me, I know it works!
When it comes to exercise, I do all sorts. When I first started my diet I was living in a place that happened to have an exercise bike in it, and spending two hours a week on that combined with the diet meant that I soon shifted a few stones in weight – that exercise bike was my best friend during the early days of the diet!
Unfortunately when I moved the bike couldn’t come with me, so instead I started riding the pushbike that I had invested in almost a year before but never used. I tried to cover 30 miles a week if I could, riding every opportunity I got, but as the winter begins to set in I’m finding this less and less possible (and more dangerous!), so in an effort to keep up the work but also keep my body on its toes, I have started weight lifting – a few curls and presses in your bedroom every night can really keep your body in shape, especially as lifting weights keeps your metabolism up for hours after you’ve finished. I’m a busy fella, but I always make a point of finding a couple of hours to get a bit sweaty (working out, you filthy devils).
I’ve lost around 100lbs so far this year and I haven’t been anywhere near a gym. I might be wobbly and still not in exactly perfect condition, but I’ve come a hell of a long way from where I was, and you can do it as well if you want it enough…