The Wall

Last Friday night, we had a little get-together at our house. My wife makes these beautiful "boere" Mediterranean pizzas. It has a wafer thin crunchy crust, covered with either olive or basil pesto, topped with powdered biltong, feta and parmesan cheese, baby tomatoes and fresh parsley. It goes terrific with a nice robust red wine, like a Shiraz... or whatever the cheapest one in the store was, which off-course was what I had.


Needless to say, I packed the stuff like there was no tomorrow. Both the wine and the pizza. It was so great I just could not help myself. In the process a cheat-meal turned into a cheat weekend, with overindulgence the next day on rump steak, boerewors and buffalo wings.


By Monday, I was up 3kg, and really depressed about it. Luckily gym is good therapy and I really hit it hard this week. I am still up 1.4 kg, but at least things are on the straight and narrow again. Furthermore, I need to learn to stop snacking on cookies which are readily available all over at my work-place. It's in every boardroom and I attend a lot of meetings.

It seems I've hit a bit of a wall now. It takes a little cheating to instantly gain a lot and a fair bit of work to actually lose the weight again. Challenge accepted.

I try to exercise twice daily now, although it doesn't always work out that way. Lunch-time gym and back to suspension training at home as well. I do about 80 sit-ups and 700 stairs every day, although not in the same session. Combined with the lifting in the circuit and on my suspension rings, I think that's not too bad for a middle-aged obese man. In fact, I'm quite proud.

I reconnected with an old friend this week. We worked closely together for a long time and made a great team. We still work for the same company, but not directly together any more, so we drifted apart a bit. To be honest he was always so disciplined about every aspect of his life, which I was a bit envious about. A few years ago he got into Cross-fit, or Functional Training. His transformation was remarkable. It was only now after taking a bit of control over my own life that I can engage with him without feeling insecure... I am strange that way, I'm sure he does not see it that way at all.

My friends asked me to update some "during" pictures. This morning I put on some new "thinner" clothes so it might be a good opportunity. Here's a picture from  May 2016 (as punishment they are also in the picture):

And this was this morning:

The original before photo is too gross for this post, you can see it at the beginning

In any case who would have thought Roger Waters can be brought into context with Sandie Shaw on a blog, the internet is a strange place.

Like a puppet on a string

Happy new year to you all!


So December holidays came and went... With all the indulgence that goes with that. We had a great time, even though we were at home.


Proud to say, everything that does not require special tools or equipment is now fixed. Bike service - check, tumble drier belt replaced - check, oven heating elements replaced - check, pool blue again - check, fence painted - check, half a cow, a pig and battery of chickens eaten - check, back-up fridge still needs gas though...


As my gym partner and I parted ways for the holidays, I was extremely worried about the inactivity. I attempted to join the three local gyms, closest to home, but the prices at two was very high, and the last one was trying his best to scam my credit card, so I left abruptly. The gym business really should clean up its act. It is really off-putting to have some pushy hyper muscled guy trying his best to part you with your hard earned money. That's my children's job you idiot!

To solve this, I did what every metro man would, I Googled for options. I've been following this program called Fit2Fat2Fit on TV, and I saw some nifty exercise equipment there. Specifically these things called TRX suspension trainers:

I went shopping for these things. Got them at Sportsman's Warehouse for... ahem... R2500. There was no way I was going to pay that, essentially for... rope? So I Googled again, and DIY'ed it big time. Made one for me and the children. There I was, on my holiday hanging on for dear life trying to emulate this:

And it sort of caught on. My wife is joining me, the boys are, albeit under duress. (Amazing what a wonderful tool Wi-Fi is for motivating teenagers!) So now, my patio is starting more and more to look like an outside gym, with four (yes four!) of these bands hanging there, multiple skipping ropes, a mini stair-master and a broken tread-mill.

I made one for a friend's young boy, kind of as a new-year's gift. The boy has a beautiful soul and his life has its own difficulties, like us all. He has sort of latched on to exercise as a way to express himself and he is doing a great job. To be honest, I have never seen a twelve year boy ripped like he is! He owns those bands. Does pull-ups like there's no effort to it at all. Here's to you Rein!

I finally went to see my doctor as well. He was very impressed with my lifestyle changes. Did an EKG, not sure why. In any case, all normal. He compared my vitals from my previous check-up: 27 kg lost, blood pressure down from 165/95 to 125/82, heart rate down from 95 to... 45!

So I've talked about everything except my weight. Cannot delay the inevitable I guess. Due to my over-indulgence, I picked up 4 kg over Christmas and New year. Very sad, felt like blubber-man. I almost lost hope, but decided I must just get back on the wagon. Since Monday it was back to eating healthy again, with suspension training sessions every day. To be honest, I never stopped eating healthy, it was just the extra cakes, second helpings and snacks that hit me.

This is truly the fastest weight loss I have ever experienced. I lost 3.5 kg from Tuesday morning to this Friday morning. Insane. Hopefully next week Monday I will hit the actual gym again as well.

So for now, we look like a giant puppet show at home and I love it. I think even the teenagers are loving it, although they hide it behind snide comments and bored expressions. I do see those involuntary almost-smiles sometimes though...