Who would have thought it eh, me making that milestone – or should I say landmark? Now I know it can’t really have come as a huge surprise to me because I see myself every day and I’m not getting any smaller but really – 18 stone? Me? Ok so it was a surprise, we all have goals in our lives but trust me this wasn’t one of mine.

Actually it was more of a shock than a surprise, so much so that I thought I should do something about it, and sooner rather than later. You know when something happens that make you sit up and pay attention – this was one of those occasions.

I’m not a total basket case though, I do work for a living I’m a tiling contractor, I tile bathrooms and kitchens that sort of thing and that’s quite a physical job. Because of that I’m strong in my body but I don’t know about my lungs because I’m not aerobically fit. I think that if I become aerobically fit then along the way I will lose some weight and then be less than 18 stone.

But I have another slight issue which is the other reason for me trying to get aerobically fit which was; would it even be possible for me to do it? Well for most people the answer is yes, but for me I’m not sure. This is because of the work I do which is tiling, and tiling is a dusty job. All that dust has to go somewhere and for sure some of it has ended up in my lungs, how much I don’t know but I do know that breathing after running is becoming an issue for me and this is what concerns me.

So, this was the other reason and maybe the bigger reason for me to start exercising, I wanted to find out if the dust – which is respirable crystalline silica dust has got so far into my lungs, as far as my alveoli, so that my breathing would never improve from how it is now.

The only way to find out is to try to get fit again – well the other way is to go to see the Doctor and get an x-ray but to be honest that’s not going to happen. So, to that end I bought a spin bike, I actually bought it a few months ago and tried it but tired of it because I lacked some motivation. Ok so I lacked a lot of motivation but that’s come back to me now, hence this blog to try to keep me on the right track and record what happens in my journey back towards being and feeling healthy again.

I also need a plan though, an exercise plan which has structure to it and is achievable for me to keep up with. This is the actual reason I lacked the motivation, because in order to get somewhere in life you need a plan to be able to get you there, and that was the bit that was missing for me in my previous attempt on the spin bike.

And this is where my stars aligned, I’ll explain more in my next post.