I've got seven women on my mind...

I went to school in small rural school in Pietersburg in the northern part of South Africa. There is something magical about the first day of school that make you never forget it. Parents and teachers should keep that in mind. I remember the first days' hall opening like it was this morning. 

I was sitting there in the front row, watching dust particles drifting in a ray of light that shone through a small hole in the thick curtains. I nervously glanced to the back door to see if my parents were still there, and they were. A boy was crying next to me. I tried to console him, but had no impact. His mother came to him and took him outside. With that, I checked on my parents again. They were gone. 

A strange feeling came over me. Should I be sad as well or not, but I was too excited. I could sense a new beginning (Queue the star wars sound track). I smiled an enjoyed the moment. Our first grade teacher was an alien. A very nice one, but still an alien. Let me explain.

Our first grade photo was taken so long ago that it was in black and white, I kid you not:

Gr 1 - Ivypark Laerskool 1977

I met Miss Dickenson a month or so ago in our local supermarket. She remembered me immediately and we chatted as if we last spoke week ago, she hasn't aged a day. Alien. (I am the first guy on the left, by the way.)

I met some of my best friends on that first day. After all those years most of us are still in daily contact. It is interesting to see the paths their lives have taken. Our class has had real trauma, health scares, divorces but we are still the same people. We share our lives only as true friends can.

Five of these ladies are in this quest for a better lifestyle with me. We have a WhatsApp group, where we bare our weights to one another, bemoan our temptations and dream about heavenly bodies. They came up with the name of this blog as well. Thanks Riette!

The sixth lady on my mind is my sister. She has the same weight challenges as me, she is a very brave person, and she is also in this group. 

The last lady on my mind is my wife. She is one of those people that carries natural grace and beauty. Somehow she was happy to be seen with a guy classified as morbidly obese. One of the reasons I am doing this is to make her proud of me!

I will be hitting the gym this afternoon for a longer session. After that I will climb that scale and officially see how I did for this week. Feedback on Monday!

Enjoy the week-end, and take it easy...

I've got a song stuck in my head...

I've been doing stationary bicycles for three weeks now. It's quite nifty and tells you how many calories you burn in a session. On day one I started on level 4/25, timer set for 15 minutes. I burned 100 calories and almost died.

My feeling was that I must start with some cardio exercise, just to get up my fitness levels, to enable me to really become active. I think its kind of working. Week one, my aim was to break 100 calories every day, which I did. Week two my aim was a daily dose of 130 calories, and this week it was 150 at double the effort level. So far so good...

Yesterday it felt like I could do a bit more, so I asked around. The general feeling is that I could start some upper body exercises as well, just to help things along. So today, after my 150 calories on the stationary bike, my eyes fell on this beauty:

My thoughts were that I could squeeze some calories out of my upper body while my legs got a rest. It is really hard work, but I actually got 100 extra calories out of my system today! You kind of use two muscle groups on this. You push forward and once you grow tired of that you pull on the down-stroke. Sounds a bit kinky... I think I will do it again, once I have regained the use of my arms. 

Got on the scale afterwards, 0.5 kg off since yesterday. Yeah!

I installed MyFitnessPal on my phone as well. It helps you to keep track of what you eat and your exercise on a daily basis. You can immediately see how your calorie budget is doing. Hopefully its easier to manage than your financial budget!

That song is still stuck in my head. Awkward when a song about riding a bicycle is better than anything produced these days.

The beginning...

This all started with a very good friend and colleague being diagnosed with Leukemia. Initially doctors were of the opinion that he had the aggressive kind and he was immediately put on an extreme treatment regiment. As a precaution, the doctors repeated the tests, just to find that it was actually not as serious as they found originally and it could be treated and controlled in the long run. For a weekend the poor man had a death sentence hanging over his head and if it was not for his internal fortitude, who knows how things might have turned out?

To me this was an extreme wake-up call. Although he is fourteen years older than me, he seemed in such good health, while I was grossly overweight, having to take chronic medication for the control of hypertension and gout. What was waiting in my future?

He and another friend and colleague, Johan car pools and had just just started to hit the gym early mornings in an attempt to get fit and miss the notorious Gauteng N1 gridlock. Johan has a magical "Black Tag" from Planet Fitness that allows him to take a friend along. As it turned out, our friend with Leukemia was strongly advised not to exercise strenuously any longer in his fight with Leukemia, so Johan was without his gym partner.

We discussed it and I became his gym partner. Only not five o'clock in the mornings, but over lunch times, as my situation makes it a bit difficult to get away from home that early. 

I've been into this for three weeks now and after reading Hélène Horak's  story, would like to share this journey with my friends and family as well. Therefore this blog was started. I plan to discuss my relationship with food and exercise, celebrate successes and share my hardships. At least giving up will be really embarrassing on such a public platform, providing even more motivation.

With the little bit of exercise and improved eating (Still a long way to go to get to better eating habits!) I've lost 7.4 kg up to now. 

Now the worst part... the obligatory before photos. I absolutely need them up here to keep my motivation going. I apologise if it makes you nauseous, please realise it is even worse for me.