Thoughts On Fitness and Fatness

Well, I am fat. Fatty fatty fat fat fat. And I do not like it. Too little exercise, too much junk. I am not going to go on and on about how all bodies are beautiful, because frankly that is not true.

I don’t have a problem with stairs, but sometimes I am out of breath after checking the mail. The weight is starting to hurt my back.

Recently I went to Walmart, parked in the rear of the parking lot, walked into the store, walked to the other end of the store, then back out and back to my car. I was out of breath. I realized, “I am one of them. I am one of the People of Walmart.” Go to that site and weep for the huge manatee.

I starting spending time with a Daoist group in Austin, and they do some guided meditations. One of them is supposed to improve your health and extend your life. The instructor said there was a student who drank lots of soda. One day after doing this meditation for years, when he took a drink of soda, he vomitted it out, and had not touched soda since. I decided I would do this meditation on a regular basis, and in the meantime gorge on junk until my body rejects it. I found out this prior student had been doing this meditation for several years before the incident related above, far longer than I have been doing it. And my stomach is getting bigger and bigger, and so far my body shows no signs of rejecting junk.

In regular Daoist meditation, you are not supposed to control the breath. Just breathe naturally, and let the breath get longer and longer. But when you get fatter and fatter, your breath gets shorter. My stomach is already out as far as it can go, and I guess there is a lot of padding inside preventing it from going in too far. So my breaths are very short.

I have not been tested, but I wonder if I came down with a mild case of COVID. Shortness of breath is a symptom, and it has long-term affects on peoples’ lungs. So I am having trouble exercising and meditating, and I was hoping those would reinforce each other.

I have heard of a few neigong instructors who might be able to help me with my breath, so I will look into this further. I have also started doing some breathing exercises in the morning (in for 7 seconds, hold for 2, out for 14, hold for 2) for five minutes. I think this can help improve lung capacity.

It might be time to give up junk food. Easier said than done. Maybe I am still clinging to the old definition and use of the word “diet”.

I am still exercising, just not as much as I should. Part of the issue is my sleep schedule. Most nights I get really tired around 7 to 8 PM, which is the best time for me to exercise.

I did make some progress on squat thrusts. I was running out of breath, but I got better at coordinating my breathing. I exhale before I start a set. So I am inhaling on the way down, and exhaling as I am standing up. I think for a while I was unconsciously holding my breath and generally not paying attention.

I have also been working with where to place my fists. I think it can affect which part of my legs experience muscle growth. Too much adductor growth crowds the boys out. Putting my fists about a foot in front of my feet helps, but it is murder on my back. I have started putting them next to my feet (or using boards next to my feet) and that seems to help. I am also working on flexibility.

A week ago I worked out in an unused section of my complex’s parking lot, and included a set of shuttle runs. I first did them a few years ago. They are really hard, but are really good. I started them up again at a gym just before Coronavirus. Hopefully I will be able to include them some more in the future.

Squat thrusts and shuttle runs both seem to push my body more than anything. If I want to have the body of an Adonis that will drive the ladies wild, I will have to keep doing them. Every time I resume them, I can only do sets of 5 every minute, and I have to work up to doing sets of 10 a minute. Sometimes I can get to sets of 12 a minute. (I do exercises in super-sets of 5 minutes.) Ideally I would like to be able to do sets of 20 a minute for 30 minutes. I think if I could do that, I would be an unstoppable superman.

In addition to sets of squat thrusts and the occasional shuttle run, I also do sets of kicks. I realized today that I might be getting larger inner thighs because of the kicks. I might just do lots and lots of squat thrusts for a while to see what happens.

Big Jim doesn’t like his own body when it’s flabby, so don’t expect him to like yours when it’s flabby either. BTW: his stomach is not the reason he’s called “Big Jim”.

Adam and Eve (1907) by Julius Paulsen (1860-1940) assumed allowed under Public Domain.