I always chuckle to myself when I’m parked up in a rest area and see a driver (usually of considerable proportion), precariously shuffle and half fall out his cab, before covering his pale, liquidlike belly with his stained t-shirt and proceed to hobble across the parking area with that strange gait, surely y’all know the one? With the arms held out away from their sides, each step taken very gingerly and looking around to make sure there’s nobody like me watching and laughing.
Then I realised, that could be me one day. I try to eat as healthy as I can/bicycle in and out of work etc, but does sitting down for so long every day really do that to you eventually? Or do you have to be actively lazy for that to happen?
Interested in hearing from health freaks and waddlers alike!
It’s simply maths at the end of the day. If you put more in than you expend it’s inevitable. The body is designed to store and harvest fat. I’m constantly trying to curb the calorie intake. It’s surprising how little amount of food an take you up to 2000 calories.
Today’s intake will be
2 weetabix with semi skimmed. 200 calories
2muller light yogurts. 200 calories
Medium Apple 100 calories
Small ham pasta salad homemade. 500 calories
Flask of tea. 100 calories
Banana. 100 calories
And whatever my tea is when I get in. Prob 750 calories.
This takes me over my target of 1800 calories daily for a loss but I’m trying.pair this with 15 hr days and early starts and trucking = unhealthy.
It’s not compulsory! I’m a box jockey, so very little exercise at work. But I walk when I can once parked up, and hit the gym 2 or 3 times most weekends!
That overweight old geezer you find so hilarious might have several reasons for his ungainly progress when he’s just dismounted from the saddle after 3 or so hours stuck to it.
When he started on the lorries this was the common scenario :-
no power steering, you turn your engine off and reverse a fully loaded artic down a slope round a corner, then imagine what it must have been like spending all day in one heaving the bloody thing round none of this one finger reversing into huge loading bays, they barely existed then, you soon learned to reverse competently you had to.
No assistance on the hydraulic clutches, constant mesh boxes…you had to be physically strong and some nous about you, they didn’t drive themselves.
many of the loads were handball, ie possibly 21 tons of bagged fertilizer or whatever it was he carried onto and off the flat bed
nearly all loads were roped (proper ropes) and sheeted on in all weathers, curtain siders in their infancy, containers also rare (cos we still made things in those days, Britain wasn’t a giant warehouse full of chinese made tat), steel was chained on then sheeted etc etc…supermarket RDC’s were not the bulk of lorry drivers work.
in the changeover time when the digs were vanishing, not everyone suddenly got issued a Volvo F88 overnight, far too often when no digs available the drivers bed consisted of two short wooden planks laid from window ledge to window ledge meeting in the middle on the engine hump, the driver then laid his sleeping bag on these planks and attempted to get some kip, night heaters unheard off, wake up in the middle of winter and scrape ice from the windows, the typical lorry engine, a Gardner, could run all day and put but a slight tepid warmth out…except for in the heat of the summer when it cooked you in the cramped cabs, air conditioning don’t make me laugh.
Every lorry driver from those days will be nursing the results of the damage his (and her) years have inflicted on their bodies.
So when you see that silly old bugger get out of his cab and, for the first 5 minutes anyway, struggle to walk upright like some of the young kids do (who’ve not been there and most of them wouldn’t and couldn’t have coped), try to curb the laughter and instead ask yourself why that older driver isn’t bouncing across the lorry park like some erstwhile Fred Astaire.
I know I’m a bit of a ■■■■■■ at times, but I’m not talking about the older boys. I know it’s in some peoples’ genes to uncontrollably gain weight in their 50s and beyond, but the image I have is of 30-40 something guys who aren’t even meaty fat, just pure flab and there’s no way at that age, without suffering a severe injury or illness, your body can be so wrecked you can’t even move enough to keep yourself on the right side of obese at the very least?
I think there comes an age where if you want to call it quits on living a strict lifestyle and say ■■■■ it, you bloody deserve to. But 30-40 ain’t that age!
No thats fair enough, didn’t mean to jump down your throat, just i get a bit touchy about such subjects, cos i know (having been there) what it was really like and the results 40 years later…
It’s hard to see younger blokes like this cos they’ll get other problems in later life, trouble being that so many are attracted to the easiest work, containers/rdc stuff where the hardest work they do is opening two doors or twisting 4 container locks, you hear them on here often urging the avoidance of jobs that require a bit of graft.
To move along a bit with Juddians post. every café serves full cooked breakfasts, and why not but this traditional fare came from a time when a drivers burnt them calories off, for the reasons outlined by Juddian, but still its a popular meal choice, but without the physical effort available to burn it off .
I’m lucky to be able to eat as I wish, and not carry any significant extra inches, but this doesn’t make Me healthy, just lean. Mrs Snax eats like a sparrow and struggles to control her weight, though she walks upto 2hrs a day(kids to school and dog to exercise), and can out pace Me for stamina anytime. Sometimes this weight problem must have other causes than simply eating to much, and doing to little, maybe genetic .
Though I’m sorry to admit, that sometimes I cant help but smile at others misfortune
not due to my rotund waistline, just cos my knees and ankles are getting stiffer as I age.
I climb down from the cab, straighten my back, then like a toddler, try to walk!
Sitting in a comfortable cab, for extended periods of time, you tend not to need to move much which makes your knees and ankles stiff.
This is made even worse now that I mainly drive an auto.
The days that I do drive a manual now are limited, but boy do I know it at the end of the day! My left leg/knee is killing after clutch-pumping either on the M1 or round London!
Never judge a man till youve waddled for a mile in his shoes, then watch the poor bugger waddle after you to get em back.
Not to be confused with the agency limp the full timers waddle comes from years or either hard graft or personal abuse, or a mixture of both.
I can almost hear the scream of agency drivers now becoming aware us full timers have a fault, rejoice yee of the silly limp, the full timers waddle is now at hand…
Watching the calories won’t help shift what’s already there. It’s the sugar you need to cut down on, that’s what’s stored in the waistline, it’s not fat, a common misconception. The 5 and 2 diet was very successful for me about 4 years ago. Dropped 3 stone in about 2 months, still ate what I wanted for 5 days a week. I now watch what I eat like a hawk, and go to the gym 4 times a week. You’ve got to cut out secondary sugar too, things like milk, pasta, white rice, cereals etc
Javiatrix:
but does sitting down for so long every day really do that to you eventually? Or do you have to be actively lazy for that to happen?
You don’t need to be actively lazy, just suffer a spinal injury. Many many drivers have spinal injuries that usually exhibit themselves with sciatica pain which is basically shooting pains down one leg or another or both or in really extreme cases like me, both legs and your hips as well. The worst thing is that sitting for prolonged periods makes it worse.
The waddling isn’t from being fat. You can be fat and still walk normally. The waddling is because their backs are shafted.
All it needs is for you to pull out one too many heavy pallets with a pump truck or jump off the back of a trailer one too many times and you too will be doing the agency driver shuffle.
When I started it was all flatbeds, I don’t think I ever climbed down from one as opposed to jumping off, hell I never ever climbed out of a truck when the opportunity to leap out like a demented ninja presented itself. Luckily I’m not suffering for my youthful exuberance yet but I have no doubt that I will at some point.
I’m starting to gain weight now, used to be skinny as a rake, not anymore. Need to stop eating crap. I was going to get a McDonald’s, suddenly it doesn’t appeal that much now
When home go do 10k I just have now I’m all bathed shaved and ready for my din dins which I prepared after run and set in oven while bathing my Adonis body. Black farmer sausages 99.9% pork aldi potato wedges Branston beans 2 perfect fried eggs using my silicon egg moulds ,1 slice of aldi farmhouse brown 1 large glass of orange juice not from concentrate with bits. ,followed by 1 tin of aldi peach slices mmmmm and I’m still losing weight EXCERCISE is KEY
dange666: It’s not compulsory! I’m a box jockey, so very little exercise at work. But I walk when I can once parked up, and hit the gym 2 or 3 times most weekends! [/quote] Yep I do the same . Walk to the car park get in the car and go to the gym … That’s where it all goes south The gym ain’t open at 4:30 am
I spent a solid hour on the new machine at our gym, I almost threw up when I got off it but it was worth it, there was Mars bars, Snickers, crisps, coke the lot in it!
Juddian:
That overweight old geezer you find so hilarious might have several reasons for his ungainly progress when he’s just dismounted from the saddle after 3 or so hours stuck to it.
When he started on the lorries this was the common scenario :-
no power steering, you turn your engine off and reverse a fully loaded artic down a slope round a corner, then imagine what it must have been like spending all day in one heaving the bloody thing round none of this one finger reversing into huge loading bays, they barely existed then, you soon learned to reverse competently you had to.
No assistance on the hydraulic clutches, constant mesh boxes…you had to be physically strong and some nous about you, they didn’t drive themselves.
many of the loads were handball, ie possibly 21 tons of bagged fertilizer or whatever it was he carried onto and off the flat bed
nearly all loads were roped (proper ropes) and sheeted on in all weathers, curtain siders in their infancy, containers also rare (cos we still made things in those days, Britain wasn’t a giant warehouse full of chinese made tat), steel was chained on then sheeted etc etc…supermarket RDC’s were not the bulk of lorry drivers work.
in the changeover time when the digs were vanishing, not everyone suddenly got issued a Volvo F88 overnight, far too often when no digs available the drivers bed consisted of two short wooden planks laid from window ledge to window ledge meeting in the middle on the engine hump, the driver then laid his sleeping bag on these planks and attempted to get some kip, night heaters unheard off, wake up in the middle of winter and scrape ice from the windows, the typical lorry engine, a Gardner, could run all day and put but a slight tepid warmth out…except for in the heat of the summer when it cooked you in the cramped cabs, air conditioning don’t make me laugh.
Every lorry driver from those days will be nursing the results of the damage his (and her) years have inflicted on their bodies.
So when you see that silly old bugger get out of his cab and, for the first 5 minutes anyway, struggle to walk upright like some of the young kids do (who’ve not been there and most of them wouldn’t and couldn’t have coped), try to curb the laughter and instead ask yourself why that older driver isn’t bouncing across the lorry park like some erstwhile Fred Astaire.
Spot on there mate,been there in the 70s/80s/.
regards dave.
but this traditional fare came from a time when a drivers burnt them calories off, for the reasons outlined by Juddian, but still its a popular meal choice, but without the physical effort available to burn it off 
.
.