T-2. The Bonk and sweet sugary hell.

So, two days to the operation and still I am bricking it. A little more so given the events of the last few days................ dissolve, wibbly wobbly style to Sunday afternoon.....

It being a nice afternoon: sunny, warm and little wind, and having finished my work around the house, I dragged my old fat body out for a ride with the intention of doing at least 20 miles and perhaps, with a little luck and a fair wind, a few miles more. Sadly that's not the way it turned out.

It started so well however with the "mountains" of Staffordshire put to the sword by my powerful leg muscles. Or, in reality, I managed to drag myself up a couple of slopes which normally cause me issues. Indeed, after 10 miles I was feeling good. And then it hit me, the bonk.

Okay, stop sniggering at the back. To "bonk" means something completely different to a cyclist than it does to a "normal" member of the public. To bonk to a cyclist means that they run out of energy as their blood sugar levels drop to a low level meaning the muscles can't use sugar to form energy. Or something like that. All I know is I was bombing along the airfield road watching the gliders when bammmmmm.... nothing left in the tank....it was like I had been hit by anti aircraft fire and was going down..... sorry.

For such occasions, most cyclists have a "gel" and with the aid of this sticky, horrible mess, I managed to get home a little underpowered and underspeed. My wish for a "long" day in the saddle (long day to me is far different than that for other cyclists!) went out of the window, but another 14.4 miles at 11.8mph was achieved, taking my yearly mileage to over 1 200. Now I know that's not great, but its better than last years and the year befores effort.

So what do I put the bonk down to.... well it might have something to do with how few calories this pre-op diet gives you. For example, on Sunday I started off with one egg, some mushrooms on toast for breakfast and then one diet shake for "lunch." Around, as a rough guess, 500 calories. According to Strava, the ride itself burnt over 800. The diet is also quite low in carbs which are useful when cycling. I do feel I am going to have to watch very, very closely what I eat whilst out cycling to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

Right, finished with bonking, which as a fat bastard CBH will be pleased to hear..... and onto Sweet Sugary Hell....

As part of the pre-op diet, the clinic expects the victim....sorry the person undergoing the treatment to lose some weight and reduce the size of their liver. To do this, they (Healthier Weight) sell a pre-op box which contains sufficient meal replacement shakes for the pre and post op "liquids only" diet. Well, being the good boy that I am....stop laughing at the back.... I decided to try one of them yesterday morning instead of the Tescos own brand I had been using..... NEVER AGAIN.... they were so sweet I can still feel my teeth rotting away despite having cleaned them twice since! How they get away with selling such rubbish is beyond me! A quick look at the packet shows that they are mostly sugar which, as someone with diabetes and a hate of anything sweet, is about as much use to me as a chocolate tea pot!

So, I have 98 Healthier Weight shakes laying there waiting to be drunk that I have no intention of  ever going near again! If you want them, make me an offer....although I do realise I haven't really made a good job of selling them! Instead, I went to the well know slave employers Holland and Barratt and brought some whey powder with the intention of making my own protein shakes. I'll add some fruit, a drop of milk and a multi vit and it should do the same and leave me not facing a huge dental bill at the end of the day!

Right, that's sufficient from me for today....some might say the first line was sufficient but hey ho!