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."
