Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

 

I bought a mountain bike yesterday – what was I thinking?

So today I thought I would start with a piece of advice for you all. If you have not cycled for about 6 years, and weigh 5 stone (70lbs) heavier since you last rode a bike then for love of god do not buy one from a shop 5 miles away at the bottom of a hill and expect to be in one piece when you make it home, having carried the bloody thing up 3 flights of stairs.

That advice is free the next bit of advice comes with a donation link 🙂

I decided maybe to try the exercise route to try and combat depression despite there being a study conducted recently which concluded

“Exercise doesn’t help depression,” according to The Guardian. The paper said that patients advised to exercise fare no better than those who receive only standard care. For more details on this please refer to http://www.nhs.uk/news/2012/06june/Pages/exercise-may-not-ease-depression.aspx where the NHS (National Health Service for you non UK residents dissect the findings and present their own ideas)

As a back story to this let me explain my physical conditions to go along with the mental issues I enjoy.

Currently I’m what the doctors would call “Obese” or what the kids at the school I used to work at would call “fat bastard”, either way its something that needs working on.
The pringles and big mac diet that I have worked on for the last 10 years is really not giving me the results I need but I just don’t like “healthy food” I find it bland but thats another issue.

So besides the depression and obesity the biggest problem I have is my knees and it is here I think that the depression problem begins. My youth was spent playing football (soccer) and as a result of an injury picked up as a young teenager I had an operation on my knee at 17. After the Operation the hospital kindly lost all notes and made the problem worse to the point where I used to train on a Tuesday and not be able to walk without pain until Saturday, play a match on Saturday and not walk properly till Tuesday and start all over again. This carried on until I was 23 when I had to stop playing altogether  which meant the only thing I truly loved and enjoyed doing was taken away me.

This was when my weight started to become an issue and without the regular (albeit) painful exercise I ballooned and enjoyed comments like being told I couldn’t shave properly because my face is too fat! Thanks for that Dad! 

A second operation in 2009 has not made the problem any better (despite being told they couldn’t find anything) and I am now in the vicious circle of having knees not able to support the weight I carry but not allowing me to exercise to lose the weight! And people wonder why I’m depressed and comfort eat LOL

Fingers crossed I can take the cycling on and start shifting some weight and see if the healthy body healthy mind philosophy works out if not then I’m screwed.

Have a great weekend folks and remember if you see a man on the side of the road having a fight with a bike it could be me!!

Garry