Leather me up…I’m a biker chick
By Nicola Hayward
Recently I became a biker chick……….I know, me……leathers…..a fast bike……could the combination get any better??!!! My bloke has just bought a Honda CBR 1000cc Fireblade – now I don’t know much about motorbikes as such, but what I can tell you is that this one goes like s**t off a shovel and as a ‘sports’ bike, rather than say, a tourer, it’s marginally less comfy than having a smear done while still wearing tights…….not that I’ve done that, I hasten to add, but you get the picture.
I would consider that I am fairly fit (lots of walking of pooches, up hill and down dale) and I can actually get on the bike without a set of stepladders…………but it is a rather unusual position for your legs to be in. Just before anyone thinks anything completely off the wall…….on a sports bike the passenger has their legs perched on ‘steps’ higher than you would be normally on a more traditional motorbike
Now I’m no skinny Minnie, but if I was any more curvier than I am already, I’d find riding this thing pretty difficult – and we’d have to alter the suspension, there’d be a risk of toppling over….you know what I mean. So, whilst you don’t have to be stick thin, you do have to be reasonably in shape – and who wants to look at someone squeezed into leathers (or rather, everything bulging out of their leathers!!)?
Cue this week’s rant – and boy it is a rant and a half………… I am appalled at the amount of money the government is spending on helping obese people lose weight. Locally, Slimming World has won a contract for a further 19 months to provide cheaper access to weight management. Now, before you crack on that I’m being fattist….if that is indeed a word…….I am more than happy for money to be spent helping people improve their health – but the patient has to meet the doctor half way. It’s no good complaining that your asthma is bad if you still smoke 20 a day. Equally, don’t complain that you can’t fit into the MRI scanner because your height to weight ratio is off the scale. I get the whole addiction thing………I love chocolate….and wine……..and why not?……but the point is, whilst I could be a size 10 if I dropped these two desires, (a) I’d be incredibly irritable (and more so than normal) and (b) I do at least an hour’s exercise every single day, rain or shine. I’m not some pariah of good health, I’m just looking after my body – and everyone else should too.
Why has the Government spent millions of pounds on ‘open’ CT/MRI scanners that morbidly obese people can fit into?…………and if that’s not bad enough, the scanner has to have some larger than average ability to radiate its way through the fat to get to the organ it’s scanning in the first place!!
I get that we should help obese people lose weight now to try and reduce the number of patients who have diabetes and add onto that other complications of being overweight – if we don’t help them now, we’ll be spending more than double what we’re already spending by sorting out the broken joints, the worn out ligaments, the heart problems etc……
But people, really………….your body is your responsibility. If you’re taking food from the kitchen to an obese person who can’t walk to the food themselves, then you’re just as culpable. A walk to the kitchen from the lounge is a start…………..
We have to start making really difficult decisions about how and where our money is spent. Meet the doctor in the middle, do what you can to help yourself – so drink in moderation, smoke if you must, but in moderation, eat what you like – but take some exercise to counteract what you’re eating!!
You only have one heart – so look after it. I’ve given mine to someone else now – and I’d like it to carry on working for a few more years yet – you owe it to your loved ones to do the same.
