Sunday, 10 April 2011
The Cure
Yes I know it's not completely PCP friendly, but after eating almost entirely white meat for six weeks, I had to have some: today's lunch was a super lean, but super good grilled fillet steak sandwich. Complemented by a small mountain of grilled onions and spot of chopped chilli, it hit the nail squarely and firmly on the head. And the first time I've felt full in days. I'm not going to be doing it every day, but I think a bit of lean red meat once a week wouldn't be remiss from now on...it's sorted me out big time. Now ready to take on the world again!
Sunday
It's been another fabulous weekend with a perfect temperature, humidity that's under control and glorious sunshine. Really hoped to go hiking, but today I'm just completely wiped out. Have done some great sessions all week and have pushed it as far as I can go. The hunger has however been getting worse and today I really have just simply run out of juice. The motivation is still all there, but after doing only a bit of work in the garden this morning, I am glued to the sofa, no energy, half awake, can't nap, staring into space, muscles only feeling tired. Actually reminds me a little of accounting lectures at university, but at least then I had the energy to run out the door. Need a bit of an energy boost here as I know this middle section of the PCP is key.....
Oh one thing before I go, we have some absolutely awesome fillets of barramundi yesterday and cod today, cooked simply in foil with some peppercorns, asparagus and mushrooms. This is one thing I have to thank the PCP for - I've been really enjoying getting back into quality pieces of fish!
Oh one thing before I go, we have some absolutely awesome fillets of barramundi yesterday and cod today, cooked simply in foil with some peppercorns, asparagus and mushrooms. This is one thing I have to thank the PCP for - I've been really enjoying getting back into quality pieces of fish!
Thursday, 7 April 2011
The Hunger
Well from looking at James Y's progress over the last couple of months it was around now that he went through big changes between weeks four and six and I now am beginning to understand why. The hunger is really kicking in. Last night I actually had to stop half way through playing a squash match and go and drink some water - just because my stomach was so empty it was making me feel ill! Getting up this morning was a real problem again - running on empty. Need more protein! Or something.
But at least I feel thinner every day. And the trousers are getting pretty baggy now. And some old shirts that I haven't worn for two or three years are wearable again. The trouble is that if I look in the mirror I don't really see it. This is a special feature of dieting: because everything gets smaller at the same time, my gut still sticks out as much as it did relative to everything else and it leaves me wondering what it is I have to do?? I am fully aware of this from my last dieting effort so nothing to worry about as it will go eventually. And the only thing one can do is shut up, keep the eyes closed and carry on with the program. Don't worry about it and only check the progress when its all done! Trust in the PCP and it will happen!!!
But at least I feel thinner every day. And the trousers are getting pretty baggy now. And some old shirts that I haven't worn for two or three years are wearable again. The trouble is that if I look in the mirror I don't really see it. This is a special feature of dieting: because everything gets smaller at the same time, my gut still sticks out as much as it did relative to everything else and it leaves me wondering what it is I have to do?? I am fully aware of this from my last dieting effort so nothing to worry about as it will go eventually. And the only thing one can do is shut up, keep the eyes closed and carry on with the program. Don't worry about it and only check the progress when its all done! Trust in the PCP and it will happen!!!
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
The Good Gerbil
After bleating quite a lot about the horrors of the gym/gerbil cage, I've done my last couple of PCP sessions there and I will go back again tonight. And I'm actually quite enjoying it (sharp intake of breath from the audience!). I quite like the range of resistance levels and proper machines to do some of this stuff where the edge of the table or the back of a chair would be normally trying to split my hand in two.
The other major advantage is that, well, lets face it PCP isn't very friendly to the knees and being a bit of a cripple myself, the gym presents a whole world of alternatives to pistol squats and skipping. I went through a couple of weeks of not quite knowing what to do to keep up and have developed a mountainous guilt complex. But since then even just a couple of hard sessions in the gym have left me feeling a lot better about my current progress and I've been able to do a lot of extra stuff on low impact cross country machines, squat machines etc. which give me more control over what my knee is doing (but doesn't give me the full range of movement I might get the PCP way). I know this isn't quite in the spirit of the PCP, just as Rocky trained down at the abattoir while his Russian foe trained on all the latest hi-tech equipment, but at least I'm working mostly the right muscle groups and walking out of the place completely drained and that's good enough for me.
Have found it very hard to get up the last few mornings and slept through the alarm yesterday which is very dangerous - absolutely can't be late for work. More protein??
The other major advantage is that, well, lets face it PCP isn't very friendly to the knees and being a bit of a cripple myself, the gym presents a whole world of alternatives to pistol squats and skipping. I went through a couple of weeks of not quite knowing what to do to keep up and have developed a mountainous guilt complex. But since then even just a couple of hard sessions in the gym have left me feeling a lot better about my current progress and I've been able to do a lot of extra stuff on low impact cross country machines, squat machines etc. which give me more control over what my knee is doing (but doesn't give me the full range of movement I might get the PCP way). I know this isn't quite in the spirit of the PCP, just as Rocky trained down at the abattoir while his Russian foe trained on all the latest hi-tech equipment, but at least I'm working mostly the right muscle groups and walking out of the place completely drained and that's good enough for me.
Have found it very hard to get up the last few mornings and slept through the alarm yesterday which is very dangerous - absolutely can't be late for work. More protein??
Monday, 4 April 2011
The Gym...
Was super bleary eyed this morning. Still getting the exercises done too late in the day which is not helping sleep much. The key is to exercise straight after work, which for us means going to the gym. However after years of gym dodging, it's become second nature to say "fck it!" and go home, which is what we did again last night. We did all the stuff when we got home, but it was easily 10pm by the time we finished, which for early birds is bed time already...
Why do I hate the gym so much? I suppose I've built up an impression in my mind that the gym is the saddest place on earth where human gerbils, trapped by an oppressive society, too lacking in imagination to go outside and do something worthwhile miserably grind away on machines in some sort of Orwellian effort to conform with the suffocating values of that society. On the adverts for Pure Fitnesss, they don't paint quite such a grey picture, but I'm sure five minutes in the hands of Terry Gilliam, and that's what we'd get.
Competitive sport seems to me a much more acceptable activity, where in my case, a friend and I will chase a little ball around a small room attempting to hit it as hard as possible. It is utterly pointless as well, but at least it retains a social element and the all important competitiveness that's missing from individual training - you get no points or no recognition for doing that last extra rep, so why bother? I will quite happily run after a ball like a happy labrador until I fall over with exhaustion without thinking about the pain once...
Where am I going with this ramble? Well I suppose my point is really that I'm sitting at my desk glued to a computer and when I go home, I often spend more time glued to a computer (as I can't deal with any personal communication in the office much) and there is no physical component to what has become an otherwise entirely sedentary existence. So in order to the redress the balance, I have to visit the gerbil cage once a day which feels as if had properly organised my life in the first place, it should be completely unnecessary. Working out at the gym seems to expend vast amounts of human effort singularly for our own personal physical betterment...surely there is a yet higher purpose to which we can commit so much of our energies?
Or why not just get new occupation where exercise is at least included as part of the job description? Mountain guide? hod carrier? Fitness instructor? But if you work in a gym, are you the teacher, helping people achieve their personal goals or are you the evil master, exploiting a blinkered populous? Maybe Animal Farm was an allegory for the local yoga studio?? Patrick???
Ok, just kidding... he'll be cutting my bananas next....oh...he's done it already.....apparently I can keep the apple as long as I say that yoga studios have nothing whatever to do with totalitarianism...
Why do I hate the gym so much? I suppose I've built up an impression in my mind that the gym is the saddest place on earth where human gerbils, trapped by an oppressive society, too lacking in imagination to go outside and do something worthwhile miserably grind away on machines in some sort of Orwellian effort to conform with the suffocating values of that society. On the adverts for Pure Fitnesss, they don't paint quite such a grey picture, but I'm sure five minutes in the hands of Terry Gilliam, and that's what we'd get.
Competitive sport seems to me a much more acceptable activity, where in my case, a friend and I will chase a little ball around a small room attempting to hit it as hard as possible. It is utterly pointless as well, but at least it retains a social element and the all important competitiveness that's missing from individual training - you get no points or no recognition for doing that last extra rep, so why bother? I will quite happily run after a ball like a happy labrador until I fall over with exhaustion without thinking about the pain once...
Where am I going with this ramble? Well I suppose my point is really that I'm sitting at my desk glued to a computer and when I go home, I often spend more time glued to a computer (as I can't deal with any personal communication in the office much) and there is no physical component to what has become an otherwise entirely sedentary existence. So in order to the redress the balance, I have to visit the gerbil cage once a day which feels as if had properly organised my life in the first place, it should be completely unnecessary. Working out at the gym seems to expend vast amounts of human effort singularly for our own personal physical betterment...surely there is a yet higher purpose to which we can commit so much of our energies?
Or why not just get new occupation where exercise is at least included as part of the job description? Mountain guide? hod carrier? Fitness instructor? But if you work in a gym, are you the teacher, helping people achieve their personal goals or are you the evil master, exploiting a blinkered populous? Maybe Animal Farm was an allegory for the local yoga studio?? Patrick???
Ok, just kidding... he'll be cutting my bananas next....oh...he's done it already.....apparently I can keep the apple as long as I say that yoga studios have nothing whatever to do with totalitarianism...
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Walking on Sunshine
HK has a summer "on" switch. It happened on friday and since then our miserable existences have been transformed into an orgy of fabulous weather. I'm sitting here with all the doors open out on the garden - its just an awesome day. Its also as far as PCP goes going to be the thing that supercharges all the exercises and thing I've been counting on. Those guys finishing the PCP shortly will have missed it, those about to start will learn to hate it, but we've had time to acclimatise in the cool and now we can get the full benefit of the heat and humidity. The exercised are already a lot harder than last month, but when the heat kicks in the benefit will be a truck load more! Keeping hydrated's going to be a lot harder from now on....
In keeping with my promise to replace the rope with other stuff, I hiked up Castle Peak yesterday. It took only about an hour and ten minutes to get up there which was a lot quicker than i expected (with stronger legs and reduced gut), but i reckon I could get the time down to around 55mins, so am going to give it another whirl today. Just trying to get psyched us for it as its a bit daunting. Its like being on an exceptionally mean stairmaster for an hour - and once you start you can't just hop off it...brilliant exercise in this weather though.
Weighed in at 125 yesterday. I was complaining I hadn't met my target of losing 10kg in the first month, but a late spurt and I made it two days after. I'm now in sight of the second milestone - get down to the same weight as I was when i got married, 120 and the next is the same weight I was when I met the missus - 110. My final target is 100 which is unlikely to happen during the PCP time, but I'll keep going till I get there. And then figure out a lifestyle to keep me there...with a social life!
In keeping with my promise to replace the rope with other stuff, I hiked up Castle Peak yesterday. It took only about an hour and ten minutes to get up there which was a lot quicker than i expected (with stronger legs and reduced gut), but i reckon I could get the time down to around 55mins, so am going to give it another whirl today. Just trying to get psyched us for it as its a bit daunting. Its like being on an exceptionally mean stairmaster for an hour - and once you start you can't just hop off it...brilliant exercise in this weather though.
Weighed in at 125 yesterday. I was complaining I hadn't met my target of losing 10kg in the first month, but a late spurt and I made it two days after. I'm now in sight of the second milestone - get down to the same weight as I was when i got married, 120 and the next is the same weight I was when I met the missus - 110. My final target is 100 which is unlikely to happen during the PCP time, but I'll keep going till I get there. And then figure out a lifestyle to keep me there...with a social life!
Friday, 1 April 2011
PCP a-go-go
Well kinda. Trawled through the sets, snotty nose and all, but only managed 200 skips before I realised its just not going to happen. Knee and ankle flared up again. I think we're just going to have to figure out how get through this thing without the rope as its just sending me backwards phsically and not doing much to improve my sense of humour either.
We live on a very steep hill (basically one of the steeper continuous hikes in HK) and while I've been up it before, I've been dreading he day when I feel I need to do it again and I know now I've run out of excuses. It only takes 1-2 hours depending on the weather, so its something we can do in the morning and if i can go up and down that thing a couple of times a week, I'll have legs like tree trunks. Maybe swimming a couple of times a week and squash three times and I should be pretty well sorted. Anything that involves stepping or lunging is fine, but pounding seems to be a problem - so any ideas of other stuff i can do, then I'm all ears...ballroom dancing???
The best news is that this is the first friday I've finished work without being absolutely desperate to go out and get completely smashed - the cravings are gone! A relatively quiet week and being a bit under the weather helps, but is this the beginning of a new me?
We live on a very steep hill (basically one of the steeper continuous hikes in HK) and while I've been up it before, I've been dreading he day when I feel I need to do it again and I know now I've run out of excuses. It only takes 1-2 hours depending on the weather, so its something we can do in the morning and if i can go up and down that thing a couple of times a week, I'll have legs like tree trunks. Maybe swimming a couple of times a week and squash three times and I should be pretty well sorted. Anything that involves stepping or lunging is fine, but pounding seems to be a problem - so any ideas of other stuff i can do, then I'm all ears...ballroom dancing???
The best news is that this is the first friday I've finished work without being absolutely desperate to go out and get completely smashed - the cravings are gone! A relatively quiet week and being a bit under the weather helps, but is this the beginning of a new me?
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