Flu really sucks. Left work early yesterday feeling like absolute crap and went to bed around 7ish, body temperature dropping like crazy. Lay there for a couple of hours shivering under two duvets and in my ski suit (in HK!). Then the darling wife brought restorative yoghurt and 'nanas. Soon temperature started climbing and finally around midnight I was more or less back to normal....And apart from a few small aches and pains and a mega runny nose, this morning I feel a billion times better and almost ready to jump back on the PCP wagon. Even the pain in my ankles and knee has miraculously disappeared after about 10 days of agony, although I'm a bit nervous about picking up the rope again - will do my best to find other stuff to do as the knee joint is just not really up to it after ACL/meniscus operation a few years ago.
I've made precisely zero progress this week for all sorts of reasons, but at least I haven't gone backwards - progress for the month as a whole wasn't at all bad, but I did hope to lose 10k instead of just 7k. Will take it easy again today and make sure I'm over the worst of it, but will be giving it some over the weekend to jumpstart the progress again....
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Day 30
All forms of blogging, blog reading, personal e-mail, photo viewing, all that stuff is banned in the office - why I've not maybe been quite so avid a blogger or commenter as I migth have been....but just discovered someone forgot to block blogger.com....so hopefully should be able to keep up a little better!
Leg situaiton still bad. I haven't skipped in a week and have done my best mix up the exercises, but recovery hasn't gone terribly well. The left leg is fine, but my right feels like its been badly strained and the knee twisted (which i haven't actually done, just something to do with the fluid on the knee and shin splints). Got my third throat infection/cold of the year yesterday which has only added to the frustration. I felt freezing cold all day yesterday and have no doubt it was a contributing factor. Almost felt like its because my blood pressure has dropped and its having an effect on my core temperature - I definitely don't run as hot as I used to....
I guess in pure exercise terms, if I add it all up I'm probably behind three or four days worth from all the disruption that has accumulated recently and physically I feel like I've been going sideways for the last few days. Doing my best to hang in there as we got a long way to go and plenty of time to get back on top of things.
On the bright side, I've managed to stick to the diet fairly closely. Its fairly easy as I take a bag of stuff to the office to eat and I can turn my own inate laziness to my advantage by not getting off my fat arse to go and buy something naughty thats not on the PCP menu. Am sure there has to be something about this in martial arts philosophy as they are full of useful stuff like using your opponents weight against him and all that, but "use your laziness to conquer your temptations" must be in there somewhere as its bloody handy.
Leg situaiton still bad. I haven't skipped in a week and have done my best mix up the exercises, but recovery hasn't gone terribly well. The left leg is fine, but my right feels like its been badly strained and the knee twisted (which i haven't actually done, just something to do with the fluid on the knee and shin splints). Got my third throat infection/cold of the year yesterday which has only added to the frustration. I felt freezing cold all day yesterday and have no doubt it was a contributing factor. Almost felt like its because my blood pressure has dropped and its having an effect on my core temperature - I definitely don't run as hot as I used to....
I guess in pure exercise terms, if I add it all up I'm probably behind three or four days worth from all the disruption that has accumulated recently and physically I feel like I've been going sideways for the last few days. Doing my best to hang in there as we got a long way to go and plenty of time to get back on top of things.
On the bright side, I've managed to stick to the diet fairly closely. Its fairly easy as I take a bag of stuff to the office to eat and I can turn my own inate laziness to my advantage by not getting off my fat arse to go and buy something naughty thats not on the PCP menu. Am sure there has to be something about this in martial arts philosophy as they are full of useful stuff like using your opponents weight against him and all that, but "use your laziness to conquer your temptations" must be in there somewhere as its bloody handy.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Day 26 1/2
Its official, skipping has completely ruined my right knee, my shins and ankles. Pissed off as any leg exercises are just agony now. Rope is going in the bin - when I recover its going to be squash, hiking, more circuits and swimming from here on in....anything that pounds or jars the joints is a nono for me...
Friday, 25 March 2011
Day 26
Decided to do all the photos and stuff at the weekend as its always too dark in the evenings and am always coming back too late to worry about it. So am going to call this the end of month 1 even though I know we're not quite there yet. Weight lost 7kg, GMAX (max distance around gut) down to 117 from 126cm, and the pic makes the change look fairly obvious now. I realise that weight is not all that important, particularly as i can already tell I've put on a lot of muscle, but at 128kg, I still have plenty to do.
Some people seem to get quite energised by whatever changes they see. I think partially because I've done this before and (incorrectly) believe I can lose weight whenever I feel like it and partially because i had PCP sense of humour failure yesterday, I can't claim to be quite so pepped up.
Patrick's note about PCP blues was extraordinarily well timed as I got it in size yesterday. Just soooo sick of boring food, particularly as rice and pasta taste horrific now and I'm pretty desperate for a few drinks as well. The only thing I've got to look forward to is good bread and salmon. My stomach has been feeling full, but my mouth and brain have been telling me I'm still hungry, my shin splints have spread into my ankles and even playing squash is now becoming agony, I haven't slept well for seemingly ages, I've been drinking too much coffee and the sheer amount of change that's happening around me has generated a lot of pent up stress. How do you let your hair down in a PCP friendly way????
The timing of the indulgence couldn't be better, but I think if I'm going to stick this out for the next two months, its going to have to be a bit more than a piece of carrot cake...
Some people seem to get quite energised by whatever changes they see. I think partially because I've done this before and (incorrectly) believe I can lose weight whenever I feel like it and partially because i had PCP sense of humour failure yesterday, I can't claim to be quite so pepped up.
Patrick's note about PCP blues was extraordinarily well timed as I got it in size yesterday. Just soooo sick of boring food, particularly as rice and pasta taste horrific now and I'm pretty desperate for a few drinks as well. The only thing I've got to look forward to is good bread and salmon. My stomach has been feeling full, but my mouth and brain have been telling me I'm still hungry, my shin splints have spread into my ankles and even playing squash is now becoming agony, I haven't slept well for seemingly ages, I've been drinking too much coffee and the sheer amount of change that's happening around me has generated a lot of pent up stress. How do you let your hair down in a PCP friendly way????
The timing of the indulgence couldn't be better, but I think if I'm going to stick this out for the next two months, its going to have to be a bit more than a piece of carrot cake...
Its Friday, the sevens start tonight and I'm at home with a salad....
But, when its all over there is finally a Bar for PCPers to go....
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/bar-stool-cycling-bar-stool-exercise-bike,news-10554.html
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/bar-stool-cycling-bar-stool-exercise-bike,news-10554.html
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Back on Track
Well I can't say I've had the best or most relaxing weekend. In part its because the in-laws are in town and staying with us....all of 'em. And they've commandeered my sofa. Which is directly in front of my telly. I've also been busting my gut attempting to catch up with my exercises. And after two double sessions yesterday and today I'm pretty much there. Need to do a bit more tomorrow and I will have done every push, pull, jump etc on the program. Also got on top of all my other personal crap this weekend, paper work, fixing the house etc. So at least I should be able to sit back and genuinely say I'm on top of my shit, all of it, by the end of week three!
You may have noticed me mention my my favourite subject of steak and wine on a number of occasions, and it might be easy to think I've been naughty on the side, however I've only made one teeny mistake on my regime in terms of amount and regularity when I missed a dinner and ended up having a small packet of oatmeal biscuits instead. But back to steak, I think I've already decided on day 91, I'm going to catch an early flight from HK to Nagoya, hop on the train to Takayama and hunt down a farm shop I went to before at the end of last year. The shop has a "restaurant" which is amazingly similar to my old village dentist's waiting room circa 1977, but here's the thing: They sell 700 gram, thick cut, A5 Hida beef steaks at around 100 bucks a pop. Chopped, whacked on a charcoal BBQ and washed down with their giant flagons of ice cold nama beeru and I challenge any man, any man not to fall in love!
After a bit of a miserable weekend, I'm just going to hold that thought for a bit....
You may have noticed me mention my my favourite subject of steak and wine on a number of occasions, and it might be easy to think I've been naughty on the side, however I've only made one teeny mistake on my regime in terms of amount and regularity when I missed a dinner and ended up having a small packet of oatmeal biscuits instead. But back to steak, I think I've already decided on day 91, I'm going to catch an early flight from HK to Nagoya, hop on the train to Takayama and hunt down a farm shop I went to before at the end of last year. The shop has a "restaurant" which is amazingly similar to my old village dentist's waiting room circa 1977, but here's the thing: They sell 700 gram, thick cut, A5 Hida beef steaks at around 100 bucks a pop. Chopped, whacked on a charcoal BBQ and washed down with their giant flagons of ice cold nama beeru and I challenge any man, any man not to fall in love!
After a bit of a miserable weekend, I'm just going to hold that thought for a bit....
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Day 19
Had a killer week with 14-16 hour days and mega stress. I managed to stick with the food quite well and only missed one meal. I really see the sense in the eating program now. I'm now very keen to eat something fatty in the morning to give me energy, protein at night to help me build muscle and now i never even need to check the clock when to take my fruit snack. I can somehow just seem to detect my blood sugar dropping and I have to pop some strawberries - if I'm late by even a few minutes, I start to get manically desperate.
Exercise went out of the window on wed and thurs and friday I got home earlyish around 9pm, but was just too knackered to contemplate it. I managed to squeeze in a couple of games of squash in gaps during the week, but I'm three days behind. I did a double session today to catch up and will do another double session tomorrow. Its quite nice that the exercises vary muscle groups from day to day so if I do have to do double, its actually not too bad. I bought a dumbell set last week and have been doing the upper body stuff with those and really noticed a step change improvement - maybe we couldn't find strong enough bands, but much happier with progress here now. The rest from skipping may have also been a blessing in disguise as I have a dodgey knee (had ACL op a few years ago) and since starting PCP its swelled up like a grapefruit. Three days off the pounding of skipping has made a big difference. That and the new bionic knee brace thingy I've found...1700 skips today went like a breeze!
Its been a tough week for a lot of people, and I'm sure at least one has dropped out. I've certainly had a lot of bad thoughts, but I think there are a couple of important things to bare in mind.
1. PCP is three months. In dieting terms that's a lifetime. If something really important comes along that's going to screw with your PCP plan for a few days, that shouldn't be a big deal....as long as you don't do really stupid stuff for any great lenght of time. A week long drinking bender will take a lot of time to correct, but missing a day or two of exercise or accidentally necking a couple of glasses of wine and a steak isn't going to ruin three months work.
2. Even if you're missing your grams and exercise is not going quite as well as you hope, you're still not eating even half the fat, sugar and salt you used to eat and are probably still doing a lot more exercise. I often remind myself that even if I'm doing 30% of what I set out to do, I'm still doing two or three times more than what I would have been doing anyway. Its ok to let it slide a bit from time to time even if it annoys Patrick - its his job to get you super ripped, but I think most of us would be pretty chuffed with even half the results he's setting out for us.
To cut a long story short, I'm doing my best to stick with the program and catch up where I'm falling short, but I'm not going to get fired just because I have run off and do some skipping. Hopefully back to some sort of normality next week!
Exercise went out of the window on wed and thurs and friday I got home earlyish around 9pm, but was just too knackered to contemplate it. I managed to squeeze in a couple of games of squash in gaps during the week, but I'm three days behind. I did a double session today to catch up and will do another double session tomorrow. Its quite nice that the exercises vary muscle groups from day to day so if I do have to do double, its actually not too bad. I bought a dumbell set last week and have been doing the upper body stuff with those and really noticed a step change improvement - maybe we couldn't find strong enough bands, but much happier with progress here now. The rest from skipping may have also been a blessing in disguise as I have a dodgey knee (had ACL op a few years ago) and since starting PCP its swelled up like a grapefruit. Three days off the pounding of skipping has made a big difference. That and the new bionic knee brace thingy I've found...1700 skips today went like a breeze!
Its been a tough week for a lot of people, and I'm sure at least one has dropped out. I've certainly had a lot of bad thoughts, but I think there are a couple of important things to bare in mind.
1. PCP is three months. In dieting terms that's a lifetime. If something really important comes along that's going to screw with your PCP plan for a few days, that shouldn't be a big deal....as long as you don't do really stupid stuff for any great lenght of time. A week long drinking bender will take a lot of time to correct, but missing a day or two of exercise or accidentally necking a couple of glasses of wine and a steak isn't going to ruin three months work.
2. Even if you're missing your grams and exercise is not going quite as well as you hope, you're still not eating even half the fat, sugar and salt you used to eat and are probably still doing a lot more exercise. I often remind myself that even if I'm doing 30% of what I set out to do, I'm still doing two or three times more than what I would have been doing anyway. Its ok to let it slide a bit from time to time even if it annoys Patrick - its his job to get you super ripped, but I think most of us would be pretty chuffed with even half the results he's setting out for us.
To cut a long story short, I'm doing my best to stick with the program and catch up where I'm falling short, but I'm not going to get fired just because I have run off and do some skipping. Hopefully back to some sort of normality next week!
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Day 60...ish...
Patrick was certainly right that is about now that the attention starts to wander and PCP starts to look like an increasingly big hill to climb. Whats happening in Japan certainly puts a lot of things in perspective and that with lots of additonal stress at work just makes my own personal crusades seem a bit pointless.
Somehow though, with iron will and determination, mostly displayed by my wife, I've managed to ride the dip in focus, the stress and all the other stuff and not drop the ball so far. While those bottles of wine seem all too approachable and those nice salty greasy steaks all too friendly, 100% PCP compliance has been maintained!
I still can't help being incredibly jealous of our PCP brethren on day 60 however. Only a month to Pizza and Beer! My watch seems to have stopped somehow because for some reason its telling me I'm actually only on day fifteen....I'm sure I've been doing this for half a year already...
Somehow though, with iron will and determination, mostly displayed by my wife, I've managed to ride the dip in focus, the stress and all the other stuff and not drop the ball so far. While those bottles of wine seem all too approachable and those nice salty greasy steaks all too friendly, 100% PCP compliance has been maintained!
I still can't help being incredibly jealous of our PCP brethren on day 60 however. Only a month to Pizza and Beer! My watch seems to have stopped somehow because for some reason its telling me I'm actually only on day fifteen....I'm sure I've been doing this for half a year already...
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Day Something-or-other
Well we're still not even at the end of the second week and its already starting to feel vaguely normal. As I set out to begin with I think the most important thing about dieting is for me to ignore the time and current weight or its very easy to fall into despair and jack it all in. Keep the eyes closed, do the exercise, eat the stuff and only open them again when its all finished...
So anyway, I couldn't help a little peak and stepped on some scales - off 3kg, which is actually less than I would have guessed and exactly the reason why I should avoid the scales. I'll save that until week six for now. Food's going fine - ramped up the onions and chilli and aside from increasingly bad breath, the food has got a lot more interesting. Feel like I'm doing way too much bread at the moment and am going to try switching to pasta, simply to reduce the volume. I've learned one very important lesson about this: that what I though of as carb before was not really carb. My bread always came with butter, my pasta with oily meat sauce, my rice with curry etc...carb in the real world is just a grease transportation device. Carbs are actually dry and really very boring by themselves....if at some point we have to give lots of it up, I won't be missing it...
Everyone seems to complain about loss of sleep - for me its all about dehydration - I'm doing a lot more sweating than normal and even though i normally get through a couple of litres of water during the day at work, if i exercise late, i can still end up quite dehydrated and not sleep well. How can i tell? well I've noticed a pretty high correlation between bad sleep and very yellow pee in the morning (just thought I'd share that with you) so am trying to drink quite a bit before going to bed.
Exercise is going fine - tried using the gym today and its a lot better with more toys, resistance levels and most importantly a sprung floor for skipping. My right knee's developing a fine bulge of fluid, mainly from pounding on concrete as far as I can tell. Hoping the gym will be the solution.
Noticing some of the earlier group of PCPers are making BIG changes over the last couple of weeks - seems like their program is starting to really accelerate their progress. James Y's barely recognisable!
So anyway, I couldn't help a little peak and stepped on some scales - off 3kg, which is actually less than I would have guessed and exactly the reason why I should avoid the scales. I'll save that until week six for now. Food's going fine - ramped up the onions and chilli and aside from increasingly bad breath, the food has got a lot more interesting. Feel like I'm doing way too much bread at the moment and am going to try switching to pasta, simply to reduce the volume. I've learned one very important lesson about this: that what I though of as carb before was not really carb. My bread always came with butter, my pasta with oily meat sauce, my rice with curry etc...carb in the real world is just a grease transportation device. Carbs are actually dry and really very boring by themselves....if at some point we have to give lots of it up, I won't be missing it...
Everyone seems to complain about loss of sleep - for me its all about dehydration - I'm doing a lot more sweating than normal and even though i normally get through a couple of litres of water during the day at work, if i exercise late, i can still end up quite dehydrated and not sleep well. How can i tell? well I've noticed a pretty high correlation between bad sleep and very yellow pee in the morning (just thought I'd share that with you) so am trying to drink quite a bit before going to bed.
Exercise is going fine - tried using the gym today and its a lot better with more toys, resistance levels and most importantly a sprung floor for skipping. My right knee's developing a fine bulge of fluid, mainly from pounding on concrete as far as I can tell. Hoping the gym will be the solution.
Noticing some of the earlier group of PCPers are making BIG changes over the last couple of weeks - seems like their program is starting to really accelerate their progress. James Y's barely recognisable!
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
No more Mr Nice Guy...
So day 8 was a bit painful - lots of food prep, more tupperware than I've seen in my whole life and a realisation that we really need to get a bit creative with the food straight away or otherwise its going to be a very loooong three months. Brekkie started out with a triple decker scrambled egg sandwich, which seemed like a cracking idea to begin with, but six mouthfuls in I realised it was really very boring. So I reckon the first thing to do it hunt down the strongest tasting herbs and vegetables: chilli, onion, tomato, corriander etc... and make sure I have a vat of salsa and other strong sauces ready for any boring moment.
Exercise was a lot more today and was fine apart from the skipping. Am still averaging about seven jumps in a row and max out at about thirty.I started to get a bit frustrated about being so bloody crap at this around the half way mark at which point the next door neighbour's dog started whining and barking at me which didn't improve my sense of humour one bit. The dog barks almost continuously and has over the last couple of years become the bane of my life! However, a sudden vision of the dog with skipping rope handles protruding from either end propelled me through the end of the session with a broad smile on my face. Its all in the imagination after all....
Exercise was a lot more today and was fine apart from the skipping. Am still averaging about seven jumps in a row and max out at about thirty.I started to get a bit frustrated about being so bloody crap at this around the half way mark at which point the next door neighbour's dog started whining and barking at me which didn't improve my sense of humour one bit. The dog barks almost continuously and has over the last couple of years become the bane of my life! However, a sudden vision of the dog with skipping rope handles protruding from either end propelled me through the end of the session with a broad smile on my face. Its all in the imagination after all....
Monday, 7 March 2011
A new week approaches
Well, the party's definitely over! Diet starts tomorrow and after talking to Mimi about it for a while, it's not quite so bad after all. I could probably live forever on tuna salad sandwiches, so the realisation that stuff like this is still possible for lunch is excellent news! I might even still be able to get in the odd trip to subway if I'm really lucky!
The exercises look fairly daunting, particularly as my right knee is starting to complain about all the skipping: Will be trying to hunt down a mat like the ones at kiddies play grounds to give it some protection. Any ideas where to get one, let me know.
The exercises look fairly daunting, particularly as my right knee is starting to complain about all the skipping: Will be trying to hunt down a mat like the ones at kiddies play grounds to give it some protection. Any ideas where to get one, let me know.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
How its really done...
apparently this is what happens when you actually finish PCP....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In6jZU8OG0I&feature=related
I'm still struggling to do more than ten in a row....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In6jZU8OG0I&feature=related
I'm still struggling to do more than ten in a row....
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Day 6
Have finally caught up with the exercises....everything under control. Aapart from the pain of course, but if you're gonna make an omelette, you gotta break some eggs...
Friday, 4 March 2011
Day 5
Well, my fellow PCPists, it's 8am on Saturday morning and I've done my stuff already, who'd have though it? "Morning Person" is definitely not my middle name and Mrs Weatherall is still tucked up in bed! Although she did do her exercises at around 1am last night after getting home late and really struggled with her "runges", which kept me amused.
Whats the catch? Well because I shredded my stomach muscles on day one, leaving myself in a state of complete agony for a couple of days, I'm still effectively only on day three. I have to catch up over this weekend, so started early today in order to get another session in later and similarly will do two tomorrow. Today's Patrick message about being consistent on a daily basis is obviously making me look a bit silly here, but can't really let the side down.
Foodwise, well I haven't exactly been a saint this week, but I guess because I ate so much crap last week, I have at least maintained the spirit of the eating half portions! I have dialled in some vegetables for brekkie in a last ditch attempt to salvage some pride for the week. Next week I will be all over this...
Whats the catch? Well because I shredded my stomach muscles on day one, leaving myself in a state of complete agony for a couple of days, I'm still effectively only on day three. I have to catch up over this weekend, so started early today in order to get another session in later and similarly will do two tomorrow. Today's Patrick message about being consistent on a daily basis is obviously making me look a bit silly here, but can't really let the side down.
Foodwise, well I haven't exactly been a saint this week, but I guess because I ate so much crap last week, I have at least maintained the spirit of the eating half portions! I have dialled in some vegetables for brekkie in a last ditch attempt to salvage some pride for the week. Next week I will be all over this...
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Day 3
Think I've fallen by the wayside a bit already this week...I had the unfeasibly bad luck to get a text saying "hello mate, I'm in Hong Kong tomorrow and....", well you get the picture. Basically rabbit food doesn't absorb alcohol terribly well and I have had the mother of all hangovers today. It is however absolutely the last time I will be doing this for the next three months so expect a more attentive me from this point on. Embarrassingly I strained just about every muscle massively on day one so exercises have been impossible anyway. I played a couple of games of squash in the meanwhile, so at least I'm getting some exercise, but I understand I have to keep up with the PCP or I've got no chance of finishing. I will be doing lots of catching up over the weekend when my stomach stops feeling like I'm being continuously disemboweled. You have my word that not a single skip or press-up will be missed!!
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
The Peak Condition Project - Day 1
Well, finally got cracking. Looking forward to it? Er...well.... but determined to see it through. The major challenge is time I think - having done a big diet thing once before, its all about perseverance and seeing it through for as long as possible. And then seeing it through some more.
I remember the main problem being that for the first two months, I didn't actually SEE any changes, but just as one might imagine a tasty chocolate bar being shrink wrapped, you only see what the object is when the last drop of air is sucked out. So I only see ribs and muscles when I'm down to the last couple of kg I have to lose: The first twenty or so are just depressing....And weighing in daily is probably even more depressing. Time tends to go very very slowly when I do this and every tick of the clock reminds me how hungry I am. So I will do my best to pretend its all just normal, get on with keeping busy and do my best not to think about beer and steak and pies and that.
Exercises went well to begin with, although I know i will be sore tomorrow....I've never skipped much before and its quite a bit more punishing than I imagined. Hopefully with a bit more practice, it'll get easier.
Targets, well I'm 135kg right now. 110 would be nice, 100 would be awesome. Biggest distance around gut (we'll call that "GMax" to keep the dietitians in buzzwords) is 126cm for reference....I'll try and update once a month only to keep my mind off what I'm doing...
I remember the main problem being that for the first two months, I didn't actually SEE any changes, but just as one might imagine a tasty chocolate bar being shrink wrapped, you only see what the object is when the last drop of air is sucked out. So I only see ribs and muscles when I'm down to the last couple of kg I have to lose: The first twenty or so are just depressing....And weighing in daily is probably even more depressing. Time tends to go very very slowly when I do this and every tick of the clock reminds me how hungry I am. So I will do my best to pretend its all just normal, get on with keeping busy and do my best not to think about beer and steak and pies and that.
Exercises went well to begin with, although I know i will be sore tomorrow....I've never skipped much before and its quite a bit more punishing than I imagined. Hopefully with a bit more practice, it'll get easier.
Targets, well I'm 135kg right now. 110 would be nice, 100 would be awesome. Biggest distance around gut (we'll call that "GMax" to keep the dietitians in buzzwords) is 126cm for reference....I'll try and update once a month only to keep my mind off what I'm doing...
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