Well here it is. The pictures don't lie. PCP really works.
The "complete" section just treats PCP as a destination - Take good look at yourself, close your eyes, do the program and open them again only at the finish. That's how I approached PCP to begin with. Actually what has surprised me is that the journey itself has been a remarkably valuable (if not always completely pleasant) experience. It was always going to be a lot of hard work, perseverance and commitment, but its been worth every minute. Here's what it did for me:
1. I did actually learn something! This is not just a mumbo-jumbo diet where you live on just ginko nuts for three months but a full-on practical education into nutrition. You think you know about what is healthy? Really do it for three months, actually stick to it and then see what you really know (what Camilo says about this is interesting). While most of PCP is common sense, doing it has given me a new level of understanding and changed a lot of my perspectives.
2. I needed to do a detox. I have a relatively high stress job and I'd let myself put work first and body second for too long. I'm not quite sure how my blood pressure was, but I know it wasn't great. Greasy food and alcohol had become a way to bust the stress. PCP took out most of the fat, all the added sugar, all the chemicals and allowed me to thoroughly clean my system, but without having to eat odd things or do colonic irrigation or any of the other crazy stuff. I mean honestly, the guy that came up with the idea of colonic irrigation AND managed to get people to pay to do it to themselves deserves a medal.
3. Food had stopped being special. Going regularly to good restaurants, drinking lots of wine, eating plenty of rich food makes the whole dining experience boring and many of these strong flavours had lost their edge. It took a while, but now apples taste amazing, grapes awesome, I am loving my fresh fish and of course rich foods now frequently taste incredibly greasy. Going to restaurants these days is a completely new and refreshing experience, indeed it feels once again a privilege. Unfortuantely my eyes have been opened to how much grease and cheap carb that goes into most average restaurant food....we really are getting completely ripped off most of the time. I will be a lot more choosy over getting high quality meat and fresh veg from here.
4. PCP is accessible. It has a good mix: the food is time consuming but straightforward and balanced, most exercises are easy to do at home and its got some slightly more hairy-chested bits to keep the hardcore fitness nutters happy. So its something I've been able to do with my wife. And doing it together we have definitely found it easier and got better results. She's happy that her husband doesn't have a fat arse any more anyway. While I have had to modify the course a little to cater for my dodgy knees, I have also made it through with no new injuries and all my joints are still working which is quite something.
5. You can eat seven times a day and still lose weight. That's pretty cool.
6. On day one I could only do 30 sit-ups. And it nearly put me in hospital. I can now do more than 500 before getting...well...bored. I've done a lot of sport over the years, but now overall fitness is now better than it ever has been. Squash is a sport I've played for many years and I now thrash people that three months ago I couldn't get close to....to get to that point in such a short space of time is very very cool.
7. Low sodium is painfully tedious: I still have bouts of sense of humour failure over plain brown rice or steamed vegetables, but there are ways to get around the problem with creative cooking and with herbs and chili and other natural flavourings. . It's done amazing things for my skin! It's one of the hardest things to stick to, but just try it....
8. I'm chronically skeptical about, well, everything really and in particular having anything to do with "wellness". While certain yoga-ey or zen-ey type stuff occasionally gets dropped into the conversation, I have really appreciated the fact that PCP is refreshingly free of any gimmicks or agenda which would have ordinarily driven me nuts. Patrick is not only surprisingly a lot more knowledgeable and scientific about nutrition than I expected, but is very open and gradually explains everything extremely well as we go. Ultimately it does all boil down to eat vegetables, do the exercise, cut out the junk food, work consistently. There are no short cuts. That's the real message here but it's been really nice to know how the diet has been put together and why food combinations work and importantly have a bunch of people around help muddle our way through the process.
9. Its a good lesson in life. The PCP by itself is not sustainable under ordinary circumstances, but in order to live long and healthily we need a lot more control over our diet and exercise over the long term than we normally allow ourselves. I'm still quite far from my ultimate goal of a healthy to low body fat percentage, but at least I have a very much enhanced box of tools to help me get there. Probably I have to lose another 15 kg before the muscles start to show. After PCP, I'll be taking a bit of a rest and catching up with friends I have been missing since becoming a hermit, but I do intend to finish the job with more PCP...watch this space....and thereafter put together a suitable diet and exercise regime that maintains my condition and suits my lifestyle.
10. Some things are never going to change. I still love chocolate, steaks, sticky toffee pudding, deep fried anything etc... PCP doesn't fix that. So what Patrick says about you not wanting to eat this stuff after PCP is not quite true, but what is true is that greasy stuff now makes me feel quite sick. My post-PCP world will involve indulgences including all of the above and more, but having already indulged, I can say with some certainty it isn't going to be all that often. In any case, Mimi I am sure will strictly regulate such things. As apparently she didn't really appreciate the 20% extra husband she got for free...
....Oh yeah and I almost forgot, after literally working my arse off for three months, I lost 23kg (around 3 1/2 stone in old money) or 17% of my bodyweight. Pics are up..,
A very Big Thanks to Patrick and everyone on the course! And and even bigger one to Mimi for putting up with me thoughout all this. Roll the tape....
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Thursday 2 June 2011
Tuesday 31 May 2011
Not Quite...
Done the pics and stuff, but my computer chose that moment to break - will have them up and do the final post as soon as its fixed.
One thing I have done over the last few days, just as Patrick suggested we do an early exercise to see how we have come along, I have deliberately gone back to my pre-PCP diet to see what its like. I really am staggered by how greasy everything is (probably just as staggered as I was to find out how boring carbs are without some sort of greasy sauce when i started PCP). We were out on a boat trip with a bunch of people on the first day and nominally the food looked quite healthy, with different kinds of salad, quiches, sausages, roast chicken etc... The salads were dripping in oil, the quiche seems to be almost entirely made of butter..etc... I was feeling really sick by the end. In fact just about everything "normal" has left me feeling sick since the end of PCP. Restaurants really do pump their food with cheap carbs and oil to avoid using more expensive fresh ingredients...in most restaurants we've found it almost impossible to order something properly healthy. I thought I'd try a McDonalds for fun yesterday....yeap, big mistake. I played squash for an hour last night, but spent most of the time just trying to keep my food down. I think I've been cured....
During the working day we've gone back to a roughly PCP friendly diet, with the addition of a bit of fish to liven up breakfast. And I have started again at day 46 exercises last night. I won't necessarily do the exercises absolutely every day, but I will try about 4-5 times a week and keep dinners out to a reasonable 1 big one a week (and maybe one small one). We'll be keeping dinner very light otherwise. We have come this far, so we need to finish the job, but happy to take a bit more time over it. Another 40 or 50 years should be about right...
One thing I have done over the last few days, just as Patrick suggested we do an early exercise to see how we have come along, I have deliberately gone back to my pre-PCP diet to see what its like. I really am staggered by how greasy everything is (probably just as staggered as I was to find out how boring carbs are without some sort of greasy sauce when i started PCP). We were out on a boat trip with a bunch of people on the first day and nominally the food looked quite healthy, with different kinds of salad, quiches, sausages, roast chicken etc... The salads were dripping in oil, the quiche seems to be almost entirely made of butter..etc... I was feeling really sick by the end. In fact just about everything "normal" has left me feeling sick since the end of PCP. Restaurants really do pump their food with cheap carbs and oil to avoid using more expensive fresh ingredients...in most restaurants we've found it almost impossible to order something properly healthy. I thought I'd try a McDonalds for fun yesterday....yeap, big mistake. I played squash for an hour last night, but spent most of the time just trying to keep my food down. I think I've been cured....
During the working day we've gone back to a roughly PCP friendly diet, with the addition of a bit of fish to liven up breakfast. And I have started again at day 46 exercises last night. I won't necessarily do the exercises absolutely every day, but I will try about 4-5 times a week and keep dinners out to a reasonable 1 big one a week (and maybe one small one). We'll be keeping dinner very light otherwise. We have come this far, so we need to finish the job, but happy to take a bit more time over it. Another 40 or 50 years should be about right...
Wednesday 25 May 2011
Day 'nuff
I can practically taste the finish line!
Yes, its made of cheesecake...
My company restricted access to the blogging website, so I have been a bit quiet lately, but for some odd reason its working today (?). Anyway, while we've continued to haul our arses through the program, I haven't had the best few days: work has been that bit more stressful and unfortunately my last indulgence is getting waaaaay too distant in the memory, we're getting very tired now, worn out in fact, grumpy and down in the dumps. Only a couple of days to go, but the end couldn't come quickly enough. Looking forward to a lie in at the weekend and let the batteries properly recharge....bottles of Champagne and Great Big Cakes apparently recharge batteries like nothing else, so I'll be tackling a hamper full of those with "extreme prejudice" as they say in the movies.
Already have plans how to continue on with a (slightly more relaxed) version of PCP next week. As a certain Mr. Churchill put it: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Yes, its made of cheesecake...
My company restricted access to the blogging website, so I have been a bit quiet lately, but for some odd reason its working today (?). Anyway, while we've continued to haul our arses through the program, I haven't had the best few days: work has been that bit more stressful and unfortunately my last indulgence is getting waaaaay too distant in the memory, we're getting very tired now, worn out in fact, grumpy and down in the dumps. Only a couple of days to go, but the end couldn't come quickly enough. Looking forward to a lie in at the weekend and let the batteries properly recharge....bottles of Champagne and Great Big Cakes apparently recharge batteries like nothing else, so I'll be tackling a hamper full of those with "extreme prejudice" as they say in the movies.
Already have plans how to continue on with a (slightly more relaxed) version of PCP next week. As a certain Mr. Churchill put it: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Wednesday 18 May 2011
80 - Some thoughts about the exercise....
Feeling tired today for the first time in a while. I wrote about food yesterday, so heres some thoughts on the exercise...
The current sets are getting on the long and boring side. I know I'm getting probably the best results from these at any time in PCP, but I can't help but think that 5 or more sets of something is too many and I'm finding the repetition a bit tedious. After PCP, I will probably use the time to do more exercises and smaller sets with higher resistance (as in earlier PCP).
Niggling aches and pains are starting to accumulate and increasingly just about everything hurts a bit, although I will admit it is partially from pushing it a bit too hard in squash training. Looking forward to having the odd complete rest day here and there....probably this will be Sunday.
I still haven't touched the skipping rope since week three and really quite pleased about it. The joints are holding together nicely and I'm managing to space out my squash matches so that the knees don't swell. After PCP I will try and play roughly every other day. AND I will try and incorporate a strength training session after every match (which was previously unthinkable). Skipping would never have been something I do after PCP, so I'm glad I've managed to do things which I'm interested in doing anyway....although....
The eliptical trainer thing has proven to be a revelation as I used to hate it with a passion and now I quite enjoy watching a bit of sport while churning away on the thing. I viewed it as the ultimate gerbil wheel, but I do miss watching sport on TV and this is my chance to catch up. And I am so amazingly a lot better on thing since day 1 that I never stop surprising myself, so I may even keep using it after PCP. Depends a bit on when I play squash and how often Mimi wants to go to the gym! (?).
Overall my basic fitness and strength has improved substantially, and this (injuries permitting) has made a huge differnce to my performance at squash - this is really great. It's a sport I've been involved in for nigh on 30 years now, so its quite important to me and doing PCP has pushed me back to being in touch with my best.
But lets face it, after three months of PCP, I'm still not exactly skinny, so there is still a load I can do to improve my power to weight ratio. As I said before, given my shabby condition at the beginning of PCP, 3 months was never going to be enough, so after a brief hiatus after PCP I will be back on the case. If I can be playing the best squash of my life while pushing 40, then that would be quite something...
The current sets are getting on the long and boring side. I know I'm getting probably the best results from these at any time in PCP, but I can't help but think that 5 or more sets of something is too many and I'm finding the repetition a bit tedious. After PCP, I will probably use the time to do more exercises and smaller sets with higher resistance (as in earlier PCP).
Niggling aches and pains are starting to accumulate and increasingly just about everything hurts a bit, although I will admit it is partially from pushing it a bit too hard in squash training. Looking forward to having the odd complete rest day here and there....probably this will be Sunday.
I still haven't touched the skipping rope since week three and really quite pleased about it. The joints are holding together nicely and I'm managing to space out my squash matches so that the knees don't swell. After PCP I will try and play roughly every other day. AND I will try and incorporate a strength training session after every match (which was previously unthinkable). Skipping would never have been something I do after PCP, so I'm glad I've managed to do things which I'm interested in doing anyway....although....
The eliptical trainer thing has proven to be a revelation as I used to hate it with a passion and now I quite enjoy watching a bit of sport while churning away on the thing. I viewed it as the ultimate gerbil wheel, but I do miss watching sport on TV and this is my chance to catch up. And I am so amazingly a lot better on thing since day 1 that I never stop surprising myself, so I may even keep using it after PCP. Depends a bit on when I play squash and how often Mimi wants to go to the gym! (?).
Overall my basic fitness and strength has improved substantially, and this (injuries permitting) has made a huge differnce to my performance at squash - this is really great. It's a sport I've been involved in for nigh on 30 years now, so its quite important to me and doing PCP has pushed me back to being in touch with my best.
But lets face it, after three months of PCP, I'm still not exactly skinny, so there is still a load I can do to improve my power to weight ratio. As I said before, given my shabby condition at the beginning of PCP, 3 months was never going to be enough, so after a brief hiatus after PCP I will be back on the case. If I can be playing the best squash of my life while pushing 40, then that would be quite something...
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Preparing for the end...where to start?
Getting tantalizingly close to cheesecake...er...the end of PCP, although I know there is still a lot in between now and then. As I am sure most people are, its time to figure out whats next? PCP turns a life upside down, massively changing the daily apportionment of time between social (down 90%), drinking (down 95%), exercise (up 1000%), junk food (down 100%) and healthy eating (up 1000%). I'm beginning to wonder whether I can maintain a monk-like existence or am I going to bury myself in pudding and then glue myself to the sofa when this is all over?
You see, after the first couple of weeks of PCP all I wanted was a steak....and then at the first indulgence I had one. And a great big icecreamcookiething. At the next indulgence I had some more meat...and I had promised that the moment I finish PCP, I'd be off on a plane to Japan to find my favourite steak house in Takayama and order one of the world's largest A5 steaks. But having knocked out the meat cravings in the indulgences, I don't really feel like it any more. A couple of weeks ago, I went out with a bunch of mates and got beltingly pissed (which counted as my last indulgence). My hangover was sufficient to put me off drinking probably forever, although while I am increasingly keen to get stuck into a couple of glasses of decent red wine, my cravings for lots of beer have gone. The really odd thing is that my cravings for pizza are also beginning to wane.... (wooo spooooky!)
Patrick mentioned that this would happen, however I instantly wrote this off as the mad ravings of some lunatic crazyman. Maybe I'm a late developer and I know for a fact I'm still going to indulge when I'm done, but I can't help but think I'm beginning to enter the bermuda triangle of my own feelings about food. Strange things are afoot where a visualisation of cake no longer induces the same seek and destroy emotions that used to instantly invade my mind. Ok, I lie. I did come across a cheesecake the other day and it only survived by the skin of its teeth. And just a little bit of it didn't. Making sense of this I suppose is that as long as its not around, I'm not thinking about junk food and I'm not making plans to do anything to get more of it. But if it's there in front of me, it had still better look out....its a step in the right direction though.
So what plans have we actually made? At the end of all this, we'll be off on a boat trip with some friends and have a few drinks, but the next day I will endeavor to get outside of a stromboli and a banoffee pie. That should knock out the remaining big craving. Thereafter each weekend, it'll be catching up with friends that we've been missing for the last three months.
We then need to rebuild with a post PCP daily diet and routine. Not sure of the ratio yet and still waiting to hear what kind of exercise program Patrick proposes but we figure that each evening out or proper dinner from now on requires a payment of say at least three big exercise sessions. We'll do our best to continue PCP type meals and eating schedule during office hours. Ultimately it seems we will have to maintain some sort of rule based approach to food. Its not ideal and it would be lovely to say I have suddenly become self moderating, but that just isn't me. With some rules, where I knock out cravings periodically, pay for them with exercise and stick to a PCP friendly diet and regular exercise in the meanwhile, I should be able to broadly stick to a longer term weight and fitness target.
What is the best thing about PCP and food now? Well the other day after going to the gym, we stopped and ordered a dry salad. That salad had a handful of croutons in it. Those croutons had just been covered in garlic butter and fried and they were just fantastic!! And now I'm banging on about croutons in a blog when three months ago, I wouldn't have even registered that they were there...Yes, the tastebuds have been switched on and I now recognise that rich food should be treated as a special thing, rather than a norm. Because yes, good food had become boring...
What is the worst thing about PCP? Its probably the thing that induces many of us to get fat in the first place: stress! How do you bust the stress in a PCP friendly way? "I've had a really crappy day at work and I'm going to go out and have..."
a) some egg whites?
b) a yogurt?
c) ten pints of lager?
If, Patrick, you can figure out how to answer the last one, you'll be a millionaire....
You see, after the first couple of weeks of PCP all I wanted was a steak....and then at the first indulgence I had one. And a great big icecreamcookiething. At the next indulgence I had some more meat...and I had promised that the moment I finish PCP, I'd be off on a plane to Japan to find my favourite steak house in Takayama and order one of the world's largest A5 steaks. But having knocked out the meat cravings in the indulgences, I don't really feel like it any more. A couple of weeks ago, I went out with a bunch of mates and got beltingly pissed (which counted as my last indulgence). My hangover was sufficient to put me off drinking probably forever, although while I am increasingly keen to get stuck into a couple of glasses of decent red wine, my cravings for lots of beer have gone. The really odd thing is that my cravings for pizza are also beginning to wane.... (wooo spooooky!)
Patrick mentioned that this would happen, however I instantly wrote this off as the mad ravings of some lunatic crazyman. Maybe I'm a late developer and I know for a fact I'm still going to indulge when I'm done, but I can't help but think I'm beginning to enter the bermuda triangle of my own feelings about food. Strange things are afoot where a visualisation of cake no longer induces the same seek and destroy emotions that used to instantly invade my mind. Ok, I lie. I did come across a cheesecake the other day and it only survived by the skin of its teeth. And just a little bit of it didn't. Making sense of this I suppose is that as long as its not around, I'm not thinking about junk food and I'm not making plans to do anything to get more of it. But if it's there in front of me, it had still better look out....its a step in the right direction though.
So what plans have we actually made? At the end of all this, we'll be off on a boat trip with some friends and have a few drinks, but the next day I will endeavor to get outside of a stromboli and a banoffee pie. That should knock out the remaining big craving. Thereafter each weekend, it'll be catching up with friends that we've been missing for the last three months.
We then need to rebuild with a post PCP daily diet and routine. Not sure of the ratio yet and still waiting to hear what kind of exercise program Patrick proposes but we figure that each evening out or proper dinner from now on requires a payment of say at least three big exercise sessions. We'll do our best to continue PCP type meals and eating schedule during office hours. Ultimately it seems we will have to maintain some sort of rule based approach to food. Its not ideal and it would be lovely to say I have suddenly become self moderating, but that just isn't me. With some rules, where I knock out cravings periodically, pay for them with exercise and stick to a PCP friendly diet and regular exercise in the meanwhile, I should be able to broadly stick to a longer term weight and fitness target.
What is the best thing about PCP and food now? Well the other day after going to the gym, we stopped and ordered a dry salad. That salad had a handful of croutons in it. Those croutons had just been covered in garlic butter and fried and they were just fantastic!! And now I'm banging on about croutons in a blog when three months ago, I wouldn't have even registered that they were there...Yes, the tastebuds have been switched on and I now recognise that rich food should be treated as a special thing, rather than a norm. Because yes, good food had become boring...
What is the worst thing about PCP? Its probably the thing that induces many of us to get fat in the first place: stress! How do you bust the stress in a PCP friendly way? "I've had a really crappy day at work and I'm going to go out and have..."
a) some egg whites?
b) a yogurt?
c) ten pints of lager?
If, Patrick, you can figure out how to answer the last one, you'll be a millionaire....
Sunday 15 May 2011
77 Frustrations
Last few days have been mixed again: after a week off and managing to average 2-3hours exercise a day and then being back at work and struggling to find an hour here or there, I have naturally felt irritation that I am not so far putting in quite the strong finish I was looking for.
I have to get myself to the gym and glue myself to the eliptical this week as I'm simply too tired by the time I get home to do exercise and particularly now its increasingly humid, I'm not really that keen to sweat all over the bedroom floor either.
Nevertheless, I am getting the week off to a good start by playing in a squash competition tonight. I've been drawn against one of the top club players in HK and I am going to get slaughtered, but it'll be amazingly good exercise. And then I will be going to go to the gym....how times have changed....
I have to get myself to the gym and glue myself to the eliptical this week as I'm simply too tired by the time I get home to do exercise and particularly now its increasingly humid, I'm not really that keen to sweat all over the bedroom floor either.
Nevertheless, I am getting the week off to a good start by playing in a squash competition tonight. I've been drawn against one of the top club players in HK and I am going to get slaughtered, but it'll be amazingly good exercise. And then I will be going to go to the gym....how times have changed....
Wednesday 11 May 2011
day 73
Back at work for last couple of days...really think I did some good stuff last week and now just don't have the time to do the same amount of aerobic stuff as I was doing before....feeling a bit lost without my hour of cross country trainer thingy with rugby on the telly...just playing squash for aerobic stuff for the moment.
Sets continue to get harder, but I can really start to see the results now.... With a couple of weeks to go, I think I'm getting dangerosly close to that shrink-wrap zone where every additonal kg lost will make a big difference to the way I look, but I'm still a good couple of PCP months away from six pack territory. Just happy that I've made some solid progress, have got myself back in shape, playing sport back at the same level I was 5 years ago and importantly have a pretty clear picture of what I need to do if I want to take it to the next level. I'm defintiely ready for a couple of weeks off this (I could murder a pizza), but it'd be a shame having come this far if I didn't aim for a six pack once in my life, wouldn't it?
Sets continue to get harder, but I can really start to see the results now.... With a couple of weeks to go, I think I'm getting dangerosly close to that shrink-wrap zone where every additonal kg lost will make a big difference to the way I look, but I'm still a good couple of PCP months away from six pack territory. Just happy that I've made some solid progress, have got myself back in shape, playing sport back at the same level I was 5 years ago and importantly have a pretty clear picture of what I need to do if I want to take it to the next level. I'm defintiely ready for a couple of weeks off this (I could murder a pizza), but it'd be a shame having come this far if I didn't aim for a six pack once in my life, wouldn't it?
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