Walking Back to Fitness..Part 1

My journey to walk back to fitness started in September 2021. I am on a mission to get my life back, enjoy every moment along the way and never give up. When a person becomes so ill, he or she may give up thinking they can’t carry on anymore. I probably felt the same in the beginning but I’m not for quitting. I always make an attempt at completing any task I take on and walking back to fitness to regain my life after getting Covid 19 was number one on my list.

Here I will tell you about my challenges and walks since September 2021 and then I will write about the first major challenge I took on in March 2022. I will share some pictures of some of the wonderful trails and walks that I have already completed. And then in part 2, I will write about my new challenge for Diabetes.co.uk where I will attempt to reach a goal of half a million steps between 1st July 2022 and 30 September 2022. The challenge is for a million steps, but I have chosen a realistic half a million steps. Anything I achieve over my target will be a bonus.

My first walk to get fit took place inside my house! Yes, I was able to walk from the lounge through in dining room and back via the kitchen into the lounge. I went round in circles walking as fast as possible and started with a five-thousand steps goal. It was difficult but I managed it and slowly moved into the garden where I did the same thing, creating a trail of circles on the lawn! This had to change so I started visiting the local Pippins Park where there was already a track laid out for walking or running. There is an outside gym which I also started to use. It was not long before I was achieving over five thousand steps during my walks. Somedays, when it was cold during the winter months, I found it difficult but not impossible, and I always had the house to fall back on.

My walking challenge took me to various National Trust sites and Runneymead and the Magna Carta park were my favourites. The paths are well laid out and walking beside the River Thames is always a great bonus. I visited Claremont Gardens in Esher and Bookham Common in Maidenhead. The one I enjoyed immensely was Cliveden House. This place has great gardens but the house and Thames Path behind the big house is a beautiful place to visit. There are 45-minute boat trips taking in some spectacular scenery of the tower on top of Cliveden House, which has a golden glow when the sun shines on it. I visited many places of beauty and interest. And during the final week of March 2022, I visited FAro in Portugal where I completed my 31-day challenge. Phew!

I have already mentioned my first challenge for Marie Curie Cance Care. That started on 1st March 2022 with 10k steps a day.

This is in Laleham near Staines where I walked along the Thames path towards Ashford Middlesex, where some of the views are really beautiful as well as the Riverfront properties which have some spectacular views.

The above photos are a sample of some of the places I visited. Walking not only improved my health with a significant weight loss but my mental health improved as I had the time for a lot of self-reflection and it gave me the opportunity to assess my then state of mind and where my life was headed. I would recommend walking to anyone that has the physical ability to do so. Although I started my walks alone with a good Audible book or some music, I found that joining a group called the Windsor and District Ramblers, which are part of the Ramblers.org site, gave me the chance to interact with like-minded people and have discussions along the way on many a varied subject. This made my walks interesting, and enjoyable. They recently celebrated 27 years as a local Ramling group.

Some more photos from Faro in Portugal.

From Tomorrow 1st of July 2022, I am starting my million-step challenge for Diabetes UK. I hope that my followers and new ones will support and encourage me along the way. See you all in the next chapter.

Walking Back to Fitness

Photo by Yogendra Singh on Pexels.com

In September 2021, I decided to get my fitness back. I had contracted Covid 19 in January 2021 and had spent 10 days in hospital in an isolation ward. Let me tell you, it was scary and very unpleasant, especially since I didn’t know that I would go home. My only contact was by video calls and I found that despite spending a short 10 days in the hospital, they were like 10 years to me. It was a lonely ward. No one was able to talk to each other due to distancing rules. There were 4 separate side rooms and 3 beds. The side room patients were in a bad way and during my stay, 3 patients died.

So, upon my discharge, I was isolating for more than three months as my breathlessness was quite bad, but I was recovering slowly. I needed to get fit and be able to walk upstairs without getting breathless. By September 2021, the first jab had been administered and I was waiting for my second one. I started going out and began taking short walks. First a thousand, then two and so on until I knew that I could walk for at least an hour without stopping. And I began setting myself challenges where I would walk until I had to stop.

By January 2022, my fitness was back to the old days, but I also needed to lose weight. In my previous blog “New Beginnings” I mentioned my goals, which I am still in pursuit of. I started to follow strict eating habits and took control of my diabetes status, which wasn’t that good. Fast forward to March 2022 and I took on a challenge for Marie Curie Cancer care to walk ten thousand steps a day for the whole of March for 31 days, and I am very happy to report that I did this comfortably by achieving more than the 310k target. In the coming days, I will publish more stories on how and where I achieved the 10k-a-day step challenge. I hope that my loyal followers and some more new ones will stay with me and encourage me to achieve my next challenge, starting in 01July2022. More on that later.

This is my link to the million-step challenge that I will be taking on from 1st July 2022.
step.diabetes.org.uk/fundraising/anil757

Any donation however small will be appreciated greatly. Please follow my progress on the JustGiving page. Please share the link with your followers so that we can raise money and awareness for Diabetes. Thanking you all in advance…Anil

New Beginnings- Conclusion

Firstly, an apology to my followers and readers for not posting for over five weeks. I went on a vacation to Portugal for a week during the last week in March and then flew to Canada, where I stayed just over three weeks. I went to see my younger sister, whom I had not seen for nearly three years due to the Covid pandemic.

As far as my journey during the past eight weeks is concerned, I am carrying on with the process to reverse my diabetes by losing weight and controlling my carb intake to bring sugar levels down. The weight loss has been maintained at 88kgs despite a little overindulgence during my vacation. This was something I could not control as I was being looked after and spoilt by my dear sister.!!

I have to also mention that the walking journey of 300k steps for Marie Curie Cancer care went extremely well and I have achieved over 400k steps in total and raised £471 in the process. I went on some wonderful walks in Portugal and Canada to complete them. More on this in a new post later!

I have now taken on the challenge of completing 500k or more steps in the million steps campaign run by Diabetes UK. This will take place from the 1st of July 2022 and finish in September 2022, so I have plenty of time, and I’m confident that I will achieve more than I have taken on, bearing in mind, how many steps I did in March 2022. I will be posting links and stories on my JustGiving page for Diabetes UK.

Why am I taking on another challenge you may ask? Well, as you all know, I went through Cancer and also have diabetes and a heart condition. In taking up these challenges, I have been able to prove to myself that anything is possible, especially as my recovery from Covid 19 in January 2021 took its toll on my ability to walk even short distances. And as you have all witnessed from my posts, I managed to recover quite well and started to take on challenges to spur me on.

Thank you to everyone who follows my journey, supports me with likewise content and encourages me along the way. I really appreciate all of you for taking the time out to read my story. I hope that I have kept all of you interested enough to stay the course and keep on following me.

Thank You once again.

New Beginnings-Week 1

Today, January 3rd, 2022, I have started what I said I would do, and that is to lose weight and reverse my diabetes. My current weight of 91.2 kg will be brought down to 80kg in eight weeks following Dr. Mosley’s advice in his book “The 8 week Blood sugar diet”. The book sounds very logical in its approach to weight loss and sugar control, as explained in detail by Dr.Mosley.

I am almost a vegan, not fully converted yet so I am having to amend or change some of the recipes provided at the end of the book to suit my lifestyle. But I will keep to the minimum of 800 calories and allow up to 1200 calories on bad days. Coupled with exercise and good eating habits, my target should be reached.

I’ve been a diabetic since 1992 and determined to get off the tablets completely and the two daily injections which work in combination with the medication. I managed to get in more than my 5000 steps daily target by doing an average so far of 6900 with a maximum of 9000. Light to moderate exercise daily for fitness and the all-powerful positive attitude. Nothing ventured nothing gained, right.

This is the day one log. Starting weight 91kg, Blood sugar level at 8.9mmol, and blood pressure at 115/77 with a pulse rate of 79. So a good start to the day, and have almost reached the daily calorie count of 800.

I didn’t cook today as I ate out at a family member’s house. But tomorrow will be different.

A very good start to my sugar check this morning. It was at 6.1. That made me happy. I was on track.

I was up quite early so I decided to do half of my daily walk in the morning for 15 minutes and 3000 steps. Nearly there, but just under by a few 100 steps. Not to worry because I had all day to catch up.

By lunchtime, I had run a couple of errands and then had a Greggs vegetable bake and cinnamon tea followed by a satsuma. I was warned by someone not to drop down to an 800 calorie diet as it would prove to be dangerous due to my diabetic condition, so I have allowed myself to go up to 1200 calories.

I managed to finish all my steps by 7.30pm and had walked for a total of 45 minutes. And also burned about 300 calories in the process, but I broke my target and achieved 7144 steps. Hooray for me. Self-appreciation for self-encouragement. And what interesting food did I have for dinner?

I made myself a Tofo salad. I marinated the tofu in soy sauce, salt, black pepper, and achar(pickle) masala, drizzled it with some olive oil, and air-fried them. Yum. I had the tofu with a portion of little gem lettuce, 1 tomato, cucumber, grated carrot, green pepper, and edamame beans, topped with vinaigrette. Yum again.

Now, I have to be creative tomorrow…….So instead of writing daily, I think weekly will be more digestible(no pun intended). From day three, I had to be more careful as I was constantly thinking of food and what I could eat that would not pile on the calories. I have started to munch on cucumbers, carrots, sugar snap peas to avoid the carbs and maintain my sugar levels. I was advised to increase the daily intake of calories from 800 to about 1500. That is why the weight loss has slowed. I managed to lose 1 kg, but it’s a start. The exercise is going well with the achievement of more than 5000 steps a day. I have been averaging 7000 steps and also 15 minutes on the static bike.

All in all, I’m pleased with my first week’s progress, although I didn’t lose the expected 2 or 3 kg. But positively thinking, making the start, and maintaining the momentum in the first week has boosted my confidence. I know I can do it too. Week two to follow….