Reflections

Day 90 Pics @ 73-75kg & 17% body fat



Time for some new trousers





Inspired by Vittorio-though not as impressive.




Fitter,certainly-though more gormless.

Day 90 Thoughts.

Overall the PCP has been the one of the things in my life that I’ve been proudest of doing. To have gone from my usual -just watching other people do  something to actually having done it myself is something that I still don’t really believe I’ve done. Like Chris said it was a choice that I wasn’t really sure I could commit the time, money and energy to but doing it has made me realize that I couldn’t have afforded not to do it. With apologies to Geordie for stealing his format.The last 3 months have taught me

1.       Eating healthily is simple.

2.       I really like and want to eat vegetables.

3.       I really like eating (at least) 6 times a day.

4.       The connection between my diet and my body is  real, if I eat crap I look crap.

5.       Going to the gym without eating carefully is useless.

6.       I always knew I liked skipping for a good reason.

7.       My self-confidence is much higher when I am in shape.

8.       You can’t drink 3 pints and a big glass of port and eat fish and chips, chocolate and cookies without throwing up.

9.       Doing difficult things with a group of great people makes them a lot less difficult.

10.   Its great having a waist again- I want to keep it.

11.   An average apple weighs 170gms.

12.   The public are quite happy to eat a horrible amount of s$%t.

Last of all thanks. Thanks to my wife and kids for putting up with this. Thanks to all my fellow PCPers whose blogs really inspired me during the tough times. Particularly -Chris whose posts were always great to read, Vittorio who was always positive, George's thoughtful writing, a special PCP hero award to Richard G whose commitment in the midst of the earthquake/nuclear crisis while doing a really important job was humbling. I really appreciated all the comments I got from everyone, esp Molly, Heather, Chris and Juan.

Patrick and Chen- PCP is the bomb- you rock.





Complete

Day 90-done, done done. Day 3 workout done in less time than it took my 3D breakfast to cool down. On a high all morning. Some pics taken will post them tomorrow- out tonight for fish and chips and 3 pints of Kilkenny- lovely.

Thank you Patrick and Chen.

More thoughtful post tomorrow.

Congratulations everyone.We. Did. It.

. 

Day 89

2nd last day, had a busy day at work and got the gym at 5 but without having lunch, - oops not good prep for supersets. My sets aren't that super as my shoulder wont do dips, and front raises are a bit ropey too, but I think the back chest combo rocks and could be the key to efficient, effective workouts in the future. V-sits killed and the plank is , well, the plank.

Should be shattered but feeling oddly energetic, and wierdly feel like I could go on for another few weeks when actually I know that I really need a break., must be going mad.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Night all.  

Supersets

in the afternoon yesterday- sent to bed by wife at 8.30pm shattered.Feeling good this morning though.

Supersets

look crazy hard.

Friday catch up

Did the chest and biceps workout which i missed this week today, this is my favourite i think with the appropriately named show-offs in there. Had a morning at home catching up on domestic stuff and worked out after lunch.I've been skipping straight through this week and 21 minutes this week feels easier than 5 sets of 100 did in Week 1. Whoodathotit?
Spent this evening at a Fairy  Princess/ Star Wars birthday party which was nice and relaxed, out on the lawn at sunset I had quite bad cravings for a cold beer though for really the first , or maybe 2nd time in the last 3 months. The party also contained the 2 staple momets of birthday partes since we started this- the moment when i decide to have mouthful of cake- (carrot this time) and the moment when everyone talks about how much weight I've lost. I admit i enjoyed them both. Though i do think quite often- God was i really so out of shape before? I think i must have been. 

Thats enough for now- off to eat eggs and some veggies-

Night all

Twice in 3 days?

Thought I'd blog again, just to see if I could. Enjoyed the workout today, managed 6-4-4-3-3-2  puuuulll uuuuupppps. These have really been eluding me and I think what has got me over the hump has been using the lat pull down machine in the gym for the past 2 or 3 weeks. Hoping to build on this and get up to 3x10 which would take me back to an university gym about 1991. I'm still giving dips a miss but did some ski-jumpers along with the other tricep stuff .  Managing some KF sit ups this week as well.

Diet was 80% today, I didn't have time for eggs this morning so through some cheese onto toast and am going into egg deficit big time today. and eyeballed lunch and dinner make this a bit too approximate. ...

Gym homework-is a bit difficult because there are only a handful of other people who this the gym at college, and everyone seems pretty committed. The really obvious thing is that nobody has made anything like the changes that the PCP has made on me- in fact there aren't any really noticable changes on anyone really.



Enjoy our last day off tomorrow.

Day 81

Been too slack to post a photo for a long time, here we go

Checking in

Still here, still going on the workouts and diet. I missed 2 days workouts last week but have been going on the skipping. Didn't really do the full indulgence- didn't deserve it with all the picking at this and that I\ve been doing. I did have a 25g bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk- which is an old friend of mine- I probably used to have between 3 and 6 of them a week. I enjoyed all of it and could have eaten another one I'm sad to report. The interesting thing was the knock-on effect of the all the sugar. I ate the chocolate around 9pm and ended staying up til 2AM watching the Wire (an excellent show). This use to happen at least once or twice a week pre PCP. The end result was a useless, sleepy me the next day who didn't get all the stuff that I had planned done. I knew that chocolate wasn't really good for me physically , but I hadn't really made the connection to my day to day routine and productivity. So while certainly wont be giving up that Cadbury goodness completely I'll definitely be eating it a lot less and a bit more carefully.

Shoulder is quite @##ked , but workouts are going well but dips are not being done.

Thats all for now. We are preparing for arrival of our 3rd baby, who will be arriving in a couple of weeks - so a few more big changes on the way.

TFI Thursday

The weekend begins here in the UAE tonight and its been a long week, but on the whole a good PCP one. Feeling back on it this week- workouts are going well and diet has been good too. Going to get the most out of this last month, weight continues to go the right way, stomach muscles are occasionally visible and things are looking tighter.

Gambatte

Day 65 still here

Good workouts today and yesterday- really like the chest / arms days. Really felt good through the leg-upos tonight, finally feeling that there are some stomach muscles there.Trying to make the most of this last month- will get to the gym at work tomorrow for back and arms.

 Diet good today- not so good at the weekend, 3 birthday parties meant lots of tempting things, had a couple of tastes of cake. Need to get more egg whites in, I guess hard-boiled is the most portable and convenient way?? Getting more compliments and questions but no one has got past the magic 3 enquiries yet.

Looks like things in Fukishima are turning a corner,hope so i have to say you PCPers in Tokyo have done an amazing job.

Good night

Day 56

Just back from desert camp where there's no net access- heard about Japan but no details until today- I hope that all of you in Japan and your friends and relatives are OK. We used to live in Japan and our thoughts and best wishes are with everyone there.

Stupido 54-

PCP trough week, been busy with work, and have a couple of injuries and been cheating on the food and missed 2 days exercises- bloody hell, low low motivation this week combined with work commitemnts meant less time and focus on PCP. Left shoulder rotator cuff/stability issues are making dips v rough and katanas need to be done with care, stupidly I have also managed to strain my intercostals- I think - on the same side - the shoulder is playing up and really pissing me off. Managed everything on the sheet today apart from dips which are not worth it at the moment.

Off to a desert camp for a leadership/ activity weekend  tomorrow, there will be plenty of activity and it should be good fun, and I'm tempted to leave the pcp at home for a couple of days and just try to have a weekend off- my upper body would appreciate it and so would my head I think.

Visual proof of my existence to follow - I won a new camera this week.

Good night

Legs + vegs

are working again- first full workout since the rugby. In the gym at college and the at least 2 people commented on how much slimmer I looked. There were students in the gym for an introduction to circuits and I was busy with my workout but the great thing was that just 7 weeks ago I couldn't have done circuits at all but that today I actually quite fancied it.
Stuck with diet today- loving my roast veggies evening snack- times. have. changed.

Going to bed now while I'm still behaving.

Night all.

You've come a long way , baby.

Doesn't feel real that we are actually half the way done. I think we are all the way to a more longer term change than just 45 days from today and I have to confess that  actually don't even know the date we finish.
Managed to work out at lunchtime today and just had a long yoga session which seems to have helped my legs, rugby at the weekend and yoga makes me realise that the PCP isn't so much a goal in itself, wrapped up in though we are but a means to open up more avenues of things to do.
Diet was OK , usual breakfast , took  steak and bread to work but didn't have time to get any veggies until 5ish and really missed them. Had my shake, following Richards recipe, - very tasty and have gone off the rails with a strawberry yoghurt. which i confess to fully enjoying.

Time for bed, am trying to get more sleep this week but resting adequately always seems to be the part of the PCP that I miss out.

Congratulations to everyone on getting this far- lets cane the rest of it.

Night

Day 44

Evening all.

Another late run today. Just finished workout . Jumped rope fine but legs will not lunge or squat yet. Will try tomorrow. No pull up bar so swapped days and really enjoyed the arms and abs today.
Diet good today- grilled up a tuna steak last night and took it along to the salad bar at work and teamed it up with everything that wasn't covered in oil or mayo.  Followed by quick egg white and plum- no apple in house tonight-oops.
Finding the switch to timed skipping a bit disruptive- I find myself still counting. Other than that its all good.

Night night

PCP= time machine

Yesterday The PCP managed to beam me back in time to a cold winter's day in Edinburgh sometime around 1991, as I played rugby for the 1st time in 20 years. It was hard going at times and this morning  i have a  strained left thigh and a dead right leg (for balance)  and am missing half a tooth but i really enjoyed myself. I was playing for a team called the Fat O ld Boys and our first game was against the Arabian Potbellies- I'm very glad that i don't quite live up to the names any more. If I hadn't started the PCP there's no way I would have even considered playing yesterday. All this pales in comparison to the PCPers who are doing the Tokyo Marathon this weekend -good luck to them-

Had to miss out  legs today but managed to skip and did the rest of the workout tonight while watching England beat France- setting things up for Scotland to spoil things nicely in a couple of weeks. I think this week is going to have to be a grind it out time-  am going to try really hard this week to blog every day.I  stuck to the diet today, maybe even missed a few carbs at lunch time,  I was very pleased to see as much as you like on the diet sheet- makes a change. Might hit the salad bar at work tomorrow- whoo hoo.

Thats all for now- keep going everyone.

3D breakfast

One of the collateral benefits of the PCP in our house is that , more often than not my 2 boys (7&4) join me in a poached eggs, tomatoes and brown toast  PCP breakfast, or as Joseph -4 - called it today a 3D breakfast. Compared to cheerios or toast and jam the PCP breakfast really is 3 dimensional so I think that's what we'll be calling it from now on.

Quick One

Things generally  going OK, not been feeling like blogging, so just a quick dip back in today. Dip- is that Freudian? New exercises are good, except katanas- they seem to disagree with an old shoulder injury, as do dips. Food is ok, missing my evening banana- though I'm enjoying the evening veggies more than I ever thought I would.
Will post pic soon, camera and computer having some sort of argument. 

Enjoying reading , if not writing  blog posts- good work everyone.

Update

Good points this week- workouts going fine, couple of late ones but getting most done early which is working well.Body fat measured at 20% today, 1st day of the PCP it came out as 30% on one of the in pharmacy machines they have here. I'm not sure if the first reading was reliable but today's was done by the health & wellness staff at college so I think it should be trustworthy. The good news is I'm no longer officially obese. Still plenty of room for improvement weight was up at 87/88kg then too and is now hovering around 80kg

Yoga was a blast again tonight, really noticing a big difference here and also ran around at rugby last night- might even be playing next weekend first time in 20 years. .....

I'm going to follow Geordie's lead and fess up here to a couple of cheats- Valentines I had a few bites of Russian Honey Cake and a couple of days later I had half a muffin- I'm not going to make any excuses here. On the whole I'm sticking with the diet, I can think of a handful of meals that have been eyeballed but almost everything is being weighed out to the gram, I'm faithfully taking my lunchbox to work but I'm still getting the urge to eat things I shouldn't know and again.

Right time for bed-

Keep going everyone

Week 5

Getting over my initial reaction to the removal of dinner as we know it - and strangely enough rather enjoyed my first banana/egg white /milk smoothie- added some cinammon, honey and a drop of vanilla extract- and it wasn't too bad. I have to admit  a lifelong dislike of egg whites and bananas-its a textural thing- meant i wasn't overjoyed with our new dinner arrangements. But lets see how it goes.

Work-outs have been good this week I still need to work on the pull-ups though and am going to try and fit some swimming in this week too.Stomach muscles are feeling stronger too and I like almost all the new exercises. Weight must be coming down as i could fit into a shirt today that I would have beeb busting out of (in all the wrong places) last month. I tweaked my back ( lifting an armchair in a coffee shop ???!) today so went a bit easy on the back exercise today.

Indulgence was yesterday 4 small homemade oatmeal raisin cookies- 4 might seem excessive but before the PCP I would have eaten 4 while walking through the kitchen so it seemed about right for an indulgence. I don't know if its because they are homemade and therefore relatively "clean" -oats, butter egg, mostly brown sugar and a little salt- but i felt none the worse for eating them -I was half expecting to feel at least a bit ill etc. So Patrick can we offiically sanction them as PCP approved cookies? What do you reckon?

That's quite enough from me tonight.

Last few days have been good- Monday was excellent -i went to the gym at work at lunchtime- really good to be back in a gym and feeling vaguely competent again. Managed to do 4-3-2 pull-ups which is s start at least- I remember when i could do 3x10 to round off a back routine, think that will take some time. Working out earlier is so much better for me so its the way I'm going to go- i think there will still be be a couple of midnight runs ervery week but they don't feel so healthy. Other success on Monday was my yoga session- i had had a couple of weeks off so i think this was the first one where i was feeling the benefits of PCP. Yoga felt much better, because my core  strength is much improved my stability was way up and i could concentrate on the stretch rather than just not falling over, nailed headstand and a few other things. Also a smaller gut was much easier to work around as well. That was a real positive moment this week. Staying positive i 'm getting some nice comments at work about looking slimmer- that's not hurting.

Looking forward to the indulgence does anyone know the calorie count in homemade oatmeal raisin cookies?

Ok guys keep on going

Week 4 pic

Day23

Sqeezed in the workout late tonight- today felt more like a maintanenance session rather than anything particularly dynamic- enjoyed the pull-downs.

Food was good except I forgot my carbs for lunch and had to settle for some thin white pitta rather than the brown seed-filled goodness that I had lined up. My wife very kindly made a very good roast chicken with no salt but lots of garlic and herbs for dinner - which i fully enjoyed my 90g of, but I need some carbs.

Going to use the gym at work tomorrow- should be good.

Day 22

New week, new work-outs , new diet. Diet numbers moving down, work-out numbers going up. 1st day  went alright. The creep and the plank should keep the exercise front interesting. Did my exercises while watching Scotland lose to France at least I was sharing their pain. Skipping was a bit sticky today, lots of stop starting, other stuff fine.

Food started well with my regular poached egg, tomatoes and rye toast- this is proper breakfast,lunch was adventurously taken out, in perhaps Sharjahs best- and admittedly only Japanese restaurant- had v nice Teriyaki salmon with only a dribble of sauce, some good edamame, dipped into some v good kimchi and had a bowl of miso - is this a good or a bad thing- it tasted like a good thing, which makes me think it must be a bad thing- can anyone confirm the PCP goodness of miso?  I was guessing at quantities and suspect that I wnt over on protein and under on veg- surprise surprise. Dinner is now carb free but i kept the Scottish theme going by using up 70g of veg on mash potato, as Patrick mentioned potato is a bona fide vegetable, this went well a small steak and some steamed veg.
So overall I think i might have been straying a little from the path today but it felt alright.

Hope everyone else is getting on with getting on.

Day 20 - Aaadrian

Been quite on the blogging front-but happy to report that diet and exercises are going just about to plan apart from a couple of nights where i've been working out at almost midnight. The work-outs are going fine with the exception of lunges- my bogie exercise.  The diet is going ok I'm finally the proud owner of a set of digital scales. I'm still trying to find things which I can cook that are PCP friendly but can then be added to to make them acceptable to 2 small boys. Had chicken pasta last night with brocolli and steamed red peppers and have to admit to a teaspoonful of pesto too.  That seemed to keep everyone quite happy.

Skipping is generally fine but calves are feeling a little heavy for the first 100 or so. If we're at 900 now what sort of numbers will be be lookin at come April. Still i have to admit the skipping makes me feel a little Rocky, which i quite like.

Mercifully , that's all for now.

Week 3 Pic- Mehh

If you look closely, you can see the results of standing outside at the rugby all day without any sunblock on.Other results wise I'm not sure yet.

Day 13- Back on it.

Missed the last 2 days of work-outs, finally back on it today- about 80% better so managed to get  exercises done, kept the reps at the low end and cut a set here and there but basically finished the workout. Cut some carbs over the last couple of days and sticking to the diet hasn't been a  problem. Food tip- made a salsa with tomatoes, onions, and peppers,a couple of chillis  lemon juice and vinegar. Good for a couple of days and livens up grilled chicken etc.

Helping out at sons rugby tournament all day tomorrow so will be dodging beer and burgers. Should be fine.

Day 11

Yesterday was a good PCP day, exercise done in the morning -I'm enjoying the resisitance bands- and diet seems to be going well. Also went along to yoga class for the ist time in a few weeks and had a not bad session. Today not so great, I've been feeling a bit ropey this week and had a fever last night, turns out that I've got tonsilitis again and had IV antibiotics today and tomorrow. Spent most of today crashed out- so missed work out and lunch stuck to diet though.Meds starting to work so hope to get in a work out tomorrow- PCP bonus lower weight and blood pressure than last months visit to the docs. Score.

Keep it up everyone.

Week 2 Pic-

This week's pic- - think this is working , feeling trimmer and fitter but not sure the pic really shows a big difference.

Diet done, munching through piles of veg, exercises  done-I am feeling the rowing from this morning.

Day 8

Ist day of diet fun- I now know how much a cucumber weighs- and some more. Worked out in the morning - all good and ended up having breakfast at 12 and lunch at 3. Still stuffed now, considering whether to eat dinner or not. The odds are i will. Photos will have to  wait till tomorrow, definitely feeling a difference though. 

Good luck in the kitchen guys- I'm off there now.

Day 7 - Skippy

Ist if all thanks guys for all the supportive comments on the last post. Its really good to know you're all out there. This is going to be another short post- had a busy day, Friday is the 1st day of the weekend here in the UAE and we've had a houseful of kids all day for my youngest sons birthday party, been busy but good. Just did my skipping 5x100 with a few stumbles but not too bad.

Diet was much better than yesterday, lots of grazing but mostly grapes, cucumber & carrot sticks- normally I'd be eating as many nuggets and mini-burgers as the kids. Tried to be aware of what I was eating and perhaps as importantly- why I was eating. And I'm planning on enjoying my  2 pieces of -lazy, on the couch, Friday evening, with the Mrs, pizza tonight- just as mindfully. Last chance for a while

Lots to think about from Patricks e-mail, I realise that I think the diet part of the PCP will be the biggest challenge. Think I'm going to do some trawling of the complete blogs for recipe ideas- Ren's Prison Chilli might be a winner I think.

More later - thanks again guys.

Day 6 Bad

In short a bad day food wise, skipped breakfast and forgot my PCP friendly packed lunch- substituted with slice of carrot cake and too much coffee until mid afternoon when i caught up with my lunch, dinner was a lamb burger plus another 1/3. And I had a cookie too.  Today was a weak day.

Exercises were fine, lunges felt better thanks for the tips guys. Skipping good too. I felt ropey all day becuase of the food but i defiitely felt better after getting the workout done and that has to be a good sign.
Start again tomorrow.

Day- 5

Very briefly - food still on track though with a bit of snackage- workout done late again- really tried to stick ot the timing between sets which definitely upped the intensity. Felt good today more energy and no real muscle pain from yesterday.

Gambatte

Day the 4th

Behaved with the eating so far today, usual breakfast- chicken, rye and cucumber for lunch, small bowl of pasta and meat sauce, snacks - raisins and an apple and half a small piece of sponge. I'm still getting sweet cravings must.not.eat.chocolate.
Snuck out of work early and got the workout done in the afternoon -not liking lunges- feel forced and unstable-but I'm enjoying the skipping.
No other pearls of wisdom to share tonight- keep going everyone.

Day 3

was much like day 2- eating half is going well, especially for a naturally er, hearty eater. I realised today that this is really the first time i have ever actually tried to control what I eat. I'm realising that while I eat too much at meals i also like to graze through the day. So I need to avoid snacks or find better alternatives.
Todays menu was usual weetabix +apple breakfast: 2/3rds cheese and pickle sandwich- cucumber sticks lunch:and for dinner, grilled chicken, tomato & garlic salad with balsamic dressing 2 sneaky pieces of fried  potato -bad  and a small slice of rye bread- good ,on a side plate. Snacks were an apple, a handful of raisins and another slice of rye bread.
I have to say the licence that the first week gives you to eat your normal diet seems really smart to me, it makes you control your eating urges but lets you avoid the stress of eating a super specialised diet. And also takes away excuses for not doing it, you're still allowed to eat with everyone else but you just have to eat less.
Exercises were better today, done late again,  skipping is still improving , extra reps didn't seem too tough. Managing to get some power into the squats and push ups, yesterday everything felt pretty weak. Let's hope it continues.  

Day 2

Went fine, exercises very late again but done. I like squats better than lunges and leg-ups better than sit-ups. Skipping was smoother than Day 1 but I'm still waiting to get through a set without a mistake.

Diet was OK too, as usual the  morning and afternoon are OK, its the later part of the day which has got the most potential for slippage- will have to go to bed at 7 every night to be on the safe side.

Night All

Week 1 pic- Why is he smiling?

Day 1 - Done

First day went well,

 The half food diet wasn't too bad- breakfast was one weetabix and one apple, I've been resisting the urge to double all my meals for the past week in preparation for this week. Lunch was Chillis Fajitas - but only 2 and dinner was a gourmet feast of my sons' leftover bacon, beans and toast eaten over the kitchen  sink. Feeling hungry but its manageable so far.

Exercises were tougher than expected, they didn't get done until late and I think earlier will be better. It looks like I can still skip, though its probably 20 years and 20+kgs since I last jumped rope. 1st couple of sets were a bit stop/starty but things smoothed out after that. Squats seemed fine but push-ups were tougher than i thought. Using handles for the first time might have made them tougher, we'll see.

Good luck to all of us,- let's cane it.