When I was growing up, I had a good friend, John, who could and would eat just about anything. We’d go to Burger King for lunch, and John would order multiple Whoppers, with fries, onion rings, and a shake, and never put on a pound. I’d eat a single Whopper and a small fry, and every bit of it would turn to fat. I know, I shouldn’t have been eating at Burger King, but my point is that even though he ate more than I did and we probably did about the same amount of exercise, he wouldn’t put on weight, yet I would. The reason for this is body types.

There are three body types: ectomorphs, mesomorphs, and endomorphs. Ectomorphs tend to be thin and slender and struggle to gain weight. The ads in the comic books used to call them 98-pound weaklings. Mesomorphs are athletic and muscular, while endomorphs are rounder and tend to retain fat. Unfortunately, I’m an endomorph. It sucks, but you have to play the game with the cards the Universe deals you, and that’s what it dealt me. It’s no excuse, though; I just have to work harder to keep the weight down.

In the spring, summer, and fall, I do a pretty good job. I get outside, take four to five-mile walks every day, and hike on occasion. In addition, throughout the year, I pretty much get on the elliptical every morning and do at least a half-hour workout at a decent pace. Finally, I do a weight routine once every three days. I hate weightlifting. It’s uncomfortable and boring, but I do it anyway because the more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn, and for someone like me, every calorie counts.

During the winter, I keep up with the weightlifting and elliptical, but seldom do anything outside. I don’t like the cold. I never have, and I do my best to avoid it. I’ll go out and use the snowblower on the driveway and dig out the mailbox, but that’s about it. For me, the winters are best spent indoors. So, the calories I typically burn off the rest of the year end up being stored as fat instead.

If the lack of exercise isn’t enough. Being housebound puts me into closer proximity to food, and even though I stay busy throughout the day, it’s just too tempting to grab a handful of Cheez-Its or a cookie from time to time, which once again manifests itself in fat.

So by the time I get to spring, I’m usually packing an extra 10 to 20 pounds and start the uphill battle to lose weight.

I’ve already started doing some lawn work, and the walks will start once again in a week or so. That should really help.

I also know I have to eat healthier, and after doing a bit of research, I determined that an air fryer might help with that. I settled on the Corsori 9-in-1 TurboBlaze Air Fryer, which got overwhelmingly positive reviews. It seems to have a lot of good features, is a decent size that will enable me to cook meals for both my wife and me, and the price was really reasonable.

I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve been looking at a lot of air fryer recipes, and I look forward to trying some of them. I’ll let you know how it works out.