19th August Part 2

Erm.... yeah, alright then :-/


So, I went to the gym tonight and got my initial weigh in. It's not pretty.

27st 2lbs

Thats 172.5kg, or 380lbs.

This is officially the heaviest I've ever been. Seriously, I've never been this big before in my life. I'm actually disgusted at myself.

The gym session didn't go well either. My fitness has dropped so much I could barely manage half an hour of light cardio. I'm such a mess right now.

However, onwards an upwards. There's only so long I can sit mithering at myself for letting myself go so badly, especially considering how hard I worked in June.

So this is the way I'm looking at it; I managed to go to the gym tonight when I could have easily stayed home, I've been tracking my food and come well under my daily allowance and I'm back at the start of a hard process.

I know it won't take long to start losing weight again, so I'm not allowing myself to be demoralised by this.

I'm going to try. I have to try. I don't want to be this size forever.

Till next time

19th August 2013

Deja Vu? Not likely

Hello again, how are you all doing? It's been a while, hasn't it?

I know I've posted this a few times in the past couple of months, but this time I promise I'm actually getting back on the horse and planning on losing weight again.

It's been a tough time for me over the last couple of months and I'm afraid I've undone all that good work I did in June and I probably weigh more than I did when I started at the beginning of the summer.

It's even got to the point where I've had to buy larger shirts for work, which made me quite sad.

So as of today, I'm back on the weightloss kick. 

As is the title of the blog, I'm still going to take things one month at a time as I still believe small short term goals are the best way to do achieve success.

Tonight I'm going to visit the gym for the first time in about 7 weeks, I'm back on my late evening to lunch time fasts to get things kicked off again. The difference this time is that I'm not going to be having such a restrictive diet like I did the last time. That diet was in no way shape or form sustainable. I'm going to allow myself carbs in small portions, unlike the last diet where I was pretty much denying myself all carbs at all.

So for this month I want to try and lose a stone, which I've achieved before so hopefully I can manage it again.

I'll post my starting weight and the starting picture this evening and keep you all updated with my meal plan and workout report

July 15th 2013

Climbing back on a speeding wagon

So, after a couple of weeks off the diet and generally eating and drinking whatever I like, I'm starting another 4 week stretch of the diet.

To recap, in the last month I managed to lose a stone in total through 2 weeks of extreme diet and exercise and then 2 weeks of just taking it easy. I like the idea of the shorter goals as they're much more satisfying to achieve.

So as of today I'm back on it. I managed to fast again from last night to lunchtime today and I'm currently sat outside enjoying the sun. It's far too warm for any walking right now, I'm just enjoying the sun without working up too much of a sweat.

I'm not visiting the gym tonight because I'm utterly exhausted and frankly, I have too much to do tonight, so I'll be going tomorrow and I'll weigh myself then. I know I've put some of that stone back on, I can feel it in myself and in my clothes, but I'm not worried overall.

My goal for this month (taking me to the middle of August) is to lose another stone. I'm wanting to have load about 4 and a half stone by Christmas so a stone a month between now and December, allowing for some slightly missed targets is something I feel is perfectly achievable.

But the focus is 14lbs in the next four weeks. I managed that much in two weeks last month, so I'm confident that I can manage it.

I'll update tomorrow when I've weighed myself

July 1st, 2013 part 2

Wasting time is a waste of petrol. And dinner.

So this is it. The weigh day at the end of the month.

Given how badly I've been eating over the last fortnight and my lack of exercise, I was prepared for the worst. So I step on the scales and:

25st 12lbs

That means in two weeks I've not lost anything. In better news, it means I've not gained anything either. I know, I'm as surprised as you are.

That means in a month I've lost a flat stone. It's not as much as I wanted to lose, however, I'm not going to argue considering I only actually tried for half of that time.

I'm counting it as a win.

In other news, I don't think I'm over the sickness bug I had last week. When I was at the gym, I was halfway into my warmup when I had to stop. I was dizzy, nauseous and didn't feel grand. When I stopped the machine, I took a swig of water then immediately had to run to the toilets and throw up. I felt fine before I went on the machines, so I don't know what triggered that off.

Suffice it to say I'm a little disappointed and feeling rough.

I was planning on doing P90X tomorrow night but it looks like I'll have to put that on hold for now.

This week is the work event I have been building up to and it is the North East Chilli Fest so I won't be dieting or exercising for the rest of this week. Given how I'm feeling, I'm not going to go crazy and binge on junk food, I'm still going to eat sensibly, but I'm not going to be as fastidious as I have been about eating.

Next Monday I'll be setting myself another 4 week target to see if I can drop some more pounds.

In retrospect, maybe I should have weighed myself after throwing up... I might have weighed less...

July 1st 2013

Hello... is there anyone still there?

Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated, though rumours that I've fallen off the wagon are pretty much spot on.

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks due to a tumultuous time in my personal life (before you start, don't ask, I wont tell). Because of these issues, I haven't been exercising like I have before and I have been eating more out of necessity than of desire, so I've been eating crap.

Not literally of course, but I haven't been eating with a diet in mind. I've just been eating what I can find when I can find it.

I've also had a bout of what can be described as either food poisoning or stomach flu. Either way, I spent most of last week off work, within sprinting distance of a toilet. Bad times.

I'm posting again today because, of course, today is the final day of this first month. Yes, this is the last weigh day before my work event so I can see how much I've (hopefully) lost in total.

As of the last time weigh day came around (two weeks ago), I had lost almost a stone in weight. I don't think I will have lost much more than that if I'm honest, but I'm hopeful that I haven't put any back on.

I will be heading to the gym tonight for the first time in a fortnight to weigh myself and get back into some form of exercising ahead of the work event on thursday which will be a chance for me to really blow out and have a good eat and drink with some colleagues.

I'll post my latest statistics up tonight, fingers crossed everything is still reducing.

June 21st 2013

Hello again

I know I haven't posted for a few days. I'm not going to go into the details, but suffice to say, I'm dealing with some issues at the minute so blogging hasn't been on the top of my agenda.

For that matter, neither has diet or exercise. I haven't been to the gym since monday, but I have been trying my best to continue with walks during the day at work, making sure, at the very least I get out once a day. It's not the level of intensity I was wanting to maintain, but it's better than nothing I guess.

This weekend I go to get measured for my suit for the work event. I know I haven't lost as much as I want to , especially in inches, but I'm confident I can get something nice.

I'm hoping to get to the gym tonight and get some frustration out on the treadmill. It's always fun to spend a friday night in a gym, isn't it?

I'll probably post again to let you all know how the suit fitting goes. I may even supply a picture, but only if you're all good and are playing nice out there.

I really need to lay off the coffee... that got a bit weird there, did it?

June 17th part 2

Yes, we're here again, another Monday, another moment, another moan and another weigh in.

Lets get straight down to business. My measurements are:

Weight: 25st 12lbs

Chest: 50"

Stomach: 60"

Biceps: 13.5"

Thigh: 31"

So in two weeks I've lost a mammoth 13lbs! That's 1lb shy of a full stone lost. Immense! I've never lost weight like this. I suppose I've never worked this intensely or strictly either, but hey, I'm over the moon. I need to work harder this week to lose 8lbs to keep me on track for my unofficial 2 stone in 30 days target (I don't actually have a target for this first month, just to lose as much as I physically can) but I'm not dwelling on that right now.

On the inches, it's a definite torso reduction which I'm happy about, however, it's not coming off as quickly as I was hoping. My body appears to want to trim fat from other areas first before it starts majorly eating away at the enormous deposit around my midsection. Stupid body.

My biceps and thighs are becoming more muscular, hence why they're not reducing. I'm already starting to see the difference in my biceps as the definition is starting to come in and I can feel the muscle is more solid even when I'm not tensing it.

Now, for the weekly picture. As usual, avert the gaze of small children as it may scar them for life. You've been warned:

Scanning between this weeks picture and last week's, I'm starting to notice differences. I can definitely see that it's coming off my face. I can see my jawline returning and the bit below my chin tightening up a bit. My stomach is continuing to raise as well. This is why I think I'm not losing any inches off my belly, I think fat is going, but as the shape changes it's artificially keeping the circumference the same.

What you can't see in that picture is that I'm also beginning to notice definition around my collar bone and in my neck. My calves are also becoming more defined as I continue to walk and gym. I'm in that wonderful phase where I'm starting to notice the changes every day. 

Today I even had my first clothing victory. My work trousers got ripped in the washing machine last night (God knows how) and were in no fit state to be repaired. As an interim measure, my wife suggested I try an older pair which I had all but abandoned as they no longer fit me. So I tried them on and lo and behold, they fit me. A touch on the snug side but they still fit me. I'm counting it in my book.

There's nothing greater when you're on a diet than being able to get into a garment that you've not worn in years because it was too small. I remember when it happened to me last, it was amazing.

I have several target clothes of varying sizes that I can't wait to get back into. They are (in no particular order):

- My leather jacket

- my good suit

- a black Basick Records T-shirt

- a pair of shorts that irritate my wife no end

- an old Newcastle United replica kit top from the 2004/2005 season (I think? It's the one with Northern Rock written in blue)

- a pair of jeans that I've had for about 8 years that still have the tags on and have never once fit me

- two going out shirts, both black

They're all different sizes so I'll hit different garments as I go an post pictures as I fit into each one.

I've blathered on enough for one night, so I'll wrap this up. Overall, I'm pleased with my progress so far. Hopefully I can maintain weight loss, even if its not at this level. Any weight loss is good weight loss

June 17th 2013

Wait... is it Monday again? Who said it could be Monday again?

I seem to be getting out of the habit of blogging at the weekend. I should rectify that..

Anyway, this weekend was a quiet one for me. Given how much pressure I put on my body last week and the effect it had on me when working out on Thursday, I decided to rest over the weekend and let my body recover. I did manage to do a couple of miles of walking on Saturday morning, but over all, I kept the weekend relatively quiet.

On the food front, I stayed relatively on course with the diet. On Saturday we attended a friend's birthday barbecue (or Braai, for the South Africans in attendance) where I pretty much gorged on meat. Just meat though. Lots of chicken wings, sausage, burgers, all cleanly cooked and all carb free. Nothing more manly than a dinner consisting of meat, meat and more meat. I had a couple of burger buns but definitely had less than my 100g of carbs across the day.

Sunday, I was a touch more relaxed, in that for dinner I had fishcakes and potatoes, which was comparatively heavy on the carbs, but it was all good clean food, so I don't feel guilty about it.

Over the weekend, I also discovered something amazing. I've been struggling a bit with hunger on this diet and I do feel myself wanting to snack during the days at work, especially when people around me are munching their way through the day. So a friend recommended I try making spinach crisps. They give you the crunch and the flavour you crave, but they're positively good for you. They're also a doddle to make. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
A couple of handfuls of baby leaf spinach
1 tablespoon of oil (olive, sunflower, or vegetable)
Salt
Pepper
Whatever flavouring you want

Put the spinach in a bowl and pour the oil on top. You only need a tablespoon of it, a little oil goes a long way.  Sprinkle the salt, pepper and your chosen flavouring on top (in this case, I'm using chilli flakes) and get your hands in, rolling the spinach and flavouring around in the oil until every leaf is covered.

Pre-heat an oven to 125 degrees centigrade. Place non-stick baking parchment or non-stick foil onto a baking tray. Lay out the leaves individually, making sure they don't overlap. Place the tray in the oven and bake.

Check the leaves after 10 minutes. Some leaves will cook faster than others. You want them to dry out and the oil to dissipate. It took about half an hour of mine to be ready in total. If you want, you can turn some of the bigger leaves over halfway through.

Once they're cooked, take the tray out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. Once they're cool, serve and enjoy.

They're so good and very moreish. Give it a try, I really like them.

Onto this week and the pressure is back on. This weekend will the point I get measured for the suit for the work event so I need to keep the intensity up across the week to try and lose as many inches as I can. Today is weigh day so later on today I'll know how much work I need to put in to try and maximise what I can for the week.

Expect my stats and another picture this evening. For now though, go and try the spinach crisps.

June 14th 2013

Well, that was frustrating.

So my treat day was a mixed bag. On the one hand, the bolognese was amazing. I've been missing pasta and rice while I've been doing this diet, so it was a perfect treat for me. However, when I got to the gym last night, I suddenly realised that I may have been overdoing the exercise this last fortnight.

I started on the cross trainer, like I normally do, but my legs were like lead. Seriously, after 2 minutes I was sweating like I'd done 30, I had no energy and I was really struggling. I pushed on to 10 minutes worth but I was pretty much dying on my feet at that point. I managed to get some weights done after that so the trip to the gym wasn't entirely a wasted effort, but I just felt ghastly.

This morning it took every ounce of self determination just to get out of bed. I think I'm well and truly exhausted now, as in, exhausted to the bone. I've decided today I'm having a day off from exercise.  I need to give my muscles a chance to repair themselves and get their strength back, otherwise I'll never be able to work out.

I'm also going to fuel myself today, so I'll be having sweet potatoes with my dinner and I've bought some nuts into work with me to keep myself going.

It is really frustrating because I know how little time I have left this month to make a difference for the target event, have a day off from exercise feels like a waste to me. I'd rather not have a day off, but I realise that my body is telling me it needs to rest.

Bah. Stupid body.

June 13th 2013

Me - "You there! Boy in the street! What day is today?"
Boy - "Me? guv'nor?"
Me - "Yes you! What day is today?"
Boy - "Why it's the tenf day of your diet guv"

Yes, butchering A Christmas Carol to the point that Charles Dickens is positively drilling for crude oil due to the speed his coffin is spinning indicates that I've made it through the first 10 days of this monumental effort to lose weight and I get to have my first cheat day!

Oh, precious carbohydrates, come to me, fuel me!

As you can guess, I've been looking forward to this. Mostly because tonight I get to indulge myself after a week and a half of carb abstinence. Given how tight time scales are, I'm not going to go ballistic as some people do, but I'm going to treat myself to a big plate of Pasta Bolognese to reward myself for being as strong as I have been.

However...

The exercise must continue so with a full belly I will be hitting the gym again tonight, so the treats will be short lived, but well enjoyed.

I'm still stiff as a board from Tuesday's foray into P90X, so I'm glad I've decided to leave trying that again until Friday because I think at this point I'm just far to broken to even consider it. The gym tonight will be a mix of cardio and resistance, with focus on my back and arms. I've done plenty of work on my legs in the past week or so, but seeing as they increased in size by an inch I think I could do with laying off them and toning my upper body. Expect me to be more broken tomorrow.

I'm maintaining a high rate of activity this week and I'm trying to stay on the wagon. It's not helping that it appears to be biscuit and sweets week at work as I'm constantly receiving group emails saying some tasty treat has been left on a desk for everyone to share. So far though i haven't cracked and I haven't inflicted wrath upon anyone, so I think I'm doing well.

That said, I'm practically salivating at the chance to have some pasta tonight...

June 12th 2013 part two

Today has been a mixed bag.

On the one hand, I'm incredibly sore still from last night's P90X experiment, but on the other, I have managed to get another 4 miles of walking under my belt. So I guess it's not all bad.

Tonight I'll be having a chill night. I need to rest, I've had a week of nearly constant exercise and my body is screaming for a rest, so I'm going to visit my friends tonight and just kick back. Tomorrow though, back to the grind, back to the gym, and back to kicking ass.

Yesterday I promised you all that I would give you the recipe for my super-amazing, great for you chilli con carne. Well, here it is in all it's glory:

This chilli is high in protein, low in fat and pretty good on carbohydrates. It makes four portions and is easily freezable. It's also a great meal to cook up in the morning, leave all day and reheat when you get in from work. In fact, it's better when you heat it up a second time (don't ask me why, it just is).

Ingredients:

• 500g Turkey Mince
• A red onion
• A bell pepper
• two or three cloves of garlic
• 1 or 2 jalapeno pepper(s)
• 120g of mushroom
• A tin of baked beans
• A tin of Red Kidney beans in water
• a tin of chopped tomatoes
• Tomato puree
• Oregano
• Mixed spice
• Mild chilli powder

Preparation time: 30 mins

Makes: 4 portions

Start by finding a large pan (I use a huge soup/stewing pan) and drizzle a teaspoon of oil in the bottom of it. Then crush the garlic, dice the onion, mushroom and pepper and slice the jalapeno peppers, removing the seeds (if you like it REALLY hot, leave the seeds in). Throw it all in the pan and start to brown it all.

When the vegetables have started to brown, throw in the turkey mince. Break it up in the pan and make sure it gets mixed in with all the veg. You want the turkey to take on the flavour from the garlic and the heat from the chilli.

While the turkey is starting to cook, open the tins and wash the kidney beans in a colander. The turkey needs to cook until it goes a light brown colour and you can't see any blood left. The turkey should clump into little balls of meat. When you reach this stage, take the pan off the heat and drain off the residual fat. Turkey mince has less fat than beef mince and what fat it does have, comes out as soon as you cook it, so you're effectively left with fat free meat once you've drained as much of the fluid out as you can.

Return the pan back to the heat and pour in the kidney beans, baked beans and chopped tomatoes. Mix it all up now and kick the heat up to full. You should notice that it looks quite watery right now, this is about to change. Squeeze in a good dollop of tomato puree (tomato ketchup will also work here, but it's worse for you), as much as you feel you need. Then a generous sprinkling of oregano and mixed herbs. Stir for a couple of minutes and reduce the heat slightly to let it simmer.

Have a taste of it. Salt and pepper to taste, but what we are interested in here is the heat. If it requires more punch, add the mild chilli powder until you're happy with it. Then drop the heat right down and let it simmer. You need to stir it occasionally. I normally wait until all of the fluids rise to the top of the chilli, then I stir it all back in. As it simmers, it begins to thicken up. It normally takes a further five to ten minutes for it to reach the ideal consistency. It should be thick and heavy, not thin and watery. It should clump together nicely.

Once it's reached the right consistency, take it off the heat and leave it for a further five minutes. Use this time to prepare your plates and the food you're having with it. Then it'll be ready to serve.

Serving Suggestion: Because I am on a carb reduced diet for this month, I can't have rice with this chilli. The chilli itself is relatively high in carbs, being about 35g of carbs per portion, so rice, wraps or tortilla chips are out of the question with it. I am combining it with super foods to make it extra great for me. In this case, I had broccoli, green beans and spinach with it and it was fantastic. An absolutely gorgeous meal.

If you're not being as restrictive as I am, then this goes great with white rice and a little sprinkling of cheese on top.

Please do give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments box below.

June 12th 2013

Ow.

Double ow.

For anyone who is unsure and wondering, P90X is brutal. Really brutal.

Last night I took my first foray into high intensity training. I chose workout 11 which is a cross of Yoga, Kembo and cardio.

Firstly, who knew that yoga could be so strenuous? (I appreciate half the world does, but this is my first time doing it). The warm up for this workout is 15 mins of yoga which made me realise exactly how inflexible I am. I did my best to match what they were doing on the screen but a lack of flexibility and poor balance meant I did struggle a bit.

I had better success with the Kembo workout. I had already done similar workouts to this on Your Shape: Fitness Evolved on the Xbox, so I was a bit more comfortable with the moves and combos the video was throwing at me.

Then lastly it was the cardio workout involving a myriad of ways for me to jump around, squat and run on the spot. This actually took less out of me than the rest of the workout, make of that what you will.

I managed the whole 45 minutes in one sitting, however, I did have to modify almost every exercise. Given this is my first ever time doing it, I'm not unduly worried, I'm just impressed that I managed to get through it without dying.

Here's a couple of pictures that Emma (my wife, for those who don't know) took of me while I was doing it and when I finished. They're not for the faint hearted:

Hot and sweaty doesn't come into it. I've woken up today stiff as a board and aching from head to toe. Fortunately, today is a kind of rest day. I'll still be walking but there's no gym and no P90X tonight. I'm back in the gym tomorrow and Friday will be a workout at home.

Hopefully all this effort will translate to more inches lost.

Fingers crossed

June 11th 2013

Today was a day spent in pain.

Mostly because I overdid it at the gym last night. For the first time in a long time I used that machine which simulates climbing stairs. Boy was that a mistake. It had my legs, backside and back in agony all day.

But, I'm not going to complain as I'm still on a high because of my weightloss so far.

Today at work I managed about 4 miles worth of walks without the pain that came last time I did such a lot of walking. I would have managed more, but I was very conscious about how far I'm walking at work, I don't want to be away from the office for too long, lest I get in trouble.

Food wise, I haven't really deviated from my normal chicken, pepperoni, ham, egg and spinach lunch box. It's still nice, I still love it, it's still all protein and hardly any carbs which suits me down to the ground. For dinner tonight, it was chilli con carne, with broccoli and slim green beans on the side. Again, high in protein but still very low in carbs. And bloody delicious to boot. Yum.

I'm actually going to write up the recipe for my chilli con carne at some point this week, I think you guys will really enjoy it. It's cheap, simple to make, makes about 4 portions and is easily freezable for months after cooking. It's fantastic.

Tonight I was planning on going to the gym, however, after nearly 2 hours pissing about trying to update my phone, failing and then having roll it back, it now seems a bit late to be going to the gym. I reckon I might try P90X for the first time tonight and see if it works for me.

If you don't hear from me in 24 hours, assume it's killed me.

June 10th 2013 part 2

Ah, weigh in day.

On my last health kick I elected to do fortnightly weigh ins because I was working at a much gentler pace (I.e, eating normally), however, being on such a limited time frame, I have no choice but to weigh in every Monday. So here it goes:

Weight: 26.1 stone

I've lost half a stone. In a week. 7lbs, in under 7 days! Mint. But it doesn't stop there, no sir. There's also my measurements:

Chest: 52"

Stomach: 61"

Bicep: 12.5"

Thigh: 31"

So, from last week, that's 2 inches off my chest, one inch off my stomach, an inch off my arms and an inch increase to my thighs.

So despite my thighs getting bigger (putting that down to all the walking and cardio work building muscle) it's still a net reduction in body mass, which is aces in my book.

So there, proof that this ridiculous diet regime works. At this rate, I stand to have lost two stone by the end of this month, which if I can achieve would be amazing.

As per last week, here's a photo for the comparison gallery:

Now, what I noticed scanning between the two pictures is that my stomach has changed shape, so although its only an actual inch reduction in size, it's beginning to lift up slightly, which is what happened last time I lost weight.

The biggest problem I have with my midsection is my hips. They're such a stupid shape. Honestly, my body is mental. Those are what give me grief trying to get clothes to fit, so from tomorrow I'm going to attack them in a significant way.

Tomorrow, as well as the walking, the diet and the gym, I'm going to start P90X high intensity training. Hopefully that should shock my midsection into buggering off.

Regardless though, I'm still happy with my progress this week. Hopefully next week I can report just as good news.

June 10th 2013

Is it monday again already? Ugh.

Everyone was telling me that the weekend was going to be the hardest part of my diet. That it would be a struggle to stay clean and healthy because everyone naturally treats themselves on weekend.

Well, bugger that. It wasn't any harder than during the week. I'm thinking that's because I slept in later on both days, so I had less time of actual fasting before I could eat. Either way though, it wasn't too difficult to stay good.

The hardest part of the whole weekend is when me and Mrs D popped to the cinema (saw Star Trek, brilliant film, go and see it) on saturday night. Instinctively when you go to the cinema you want the largest popcorn available and an enormous fizzy drink to wash it down with. I managed to resist, partly due to the fact that a large popcorn and drink combo is nearly £9 but also because I had earlier managed to convince myself that I wasn't going to buy sweets. Instead, I popped into Tesco on the way to the cinema and bought a bag of mixed nuts and a bottle of mineral water. Much more filling, much more satisfying and slightly quieter. I also burped less.

I managed to get to the gym on Sunday morning and walloped through a quick workout. It was much busier than when I normally go on an evening, so I didn't really want to hang around with groups of people flocking past me. I did discover a great way to keep me going at the gym, though and it's not music. Audio Books. I've been listening to the Game Of Thrones books for a while through the Audible app on my phone and it honestly wiles away the time on the cardio machines so much better than music ever could. When I'm listening to music, I'm picking the song to bits and analysing it, or I'm wondering what the next song to come on is. When I'm listening to the book, it's just the story that's happening and I get lost in the tale being told. It's a revelation, I'd recommend you try it.

Today is monday (you can imagine my displeasure) so that means it's also weight and measurement day. I'll be posting another picture of myself today too, so you can all go and compare me to last week. Hopefully I've lost a nice chunk of weight and prove that all this hard work and suffering is working.

June 6th 2013

Boom, boom, BOOM!

I've been feeling great today. A bit more energy and a bit happier. I've still been hungry enough to want to chew my own arm off, but that's to be expected, I'm a big guy who is hardly eating, you do the math.

Today at work I only managed one walk out. This was because I've been incredibly busy being awesome so there was no time for exercise. I didn't actually mind this because it was gym night tonight, so I was going to make up for it.

Tonight's dinner consisted of a rather fabulous chicken stir fry. Lots of protein, lots of vitamins, hardly any carbs. Mint. In fact, despite my allowance of 100g of carbs a day, so far this week I've averaged less than 20g a day. Double mint.

Now when I got to the gym (remember, I like to gym in the evening when it's quiet), I decided that I would have a resistance day to try and balance out the masses of cardio work I've been doing. So I kicked off with 10 mins of cross trainer and set about the weights. 

How much strength have I lost in the last year? Turns out, a lot. Especially in my arms. When I was going to the gym in 2011 I was able to push about 70kg on the chest press, today I was struggling with half of that. 

Most people would be discouraged by a revelation like that, but I'm trying to remain positive in the face of adversity and I've set myself a little challenge. You see, I've never, in my 27 years, never once done a proper, full press up. I've done modified press ups where you arch your back slightly and pivot from your knees instead of your toes, but I've never had the upper body or core strength to do them properly.

So my challenge to myself is to do 10 press ups by September. Can't be that hard, can it?

Anyway, I digress. I'm starting to feel like this diet and exercise régime is beginning to work. I'm over the intense tiredness and I'm feeling good again. The post gym buzz is even better than it was the other day.

In total at the gym I managed a half an hour of solid cardio instead of the 20 mins I managed on Monday. Win.

I'm going back to the gym tomorrow night too but the hard bit comes after that... The weekend! The part of the week where I've always given myself a cheat or treat day. I have to be so strict this month, I can't afford any slips. It will be torture...

June 5th 2013 part two

Seriously tired...

Today hasn't been anywhere near as intense as yesterday was. I've managed one walk today. My feet are still blistered and sore from yesterday, which puts the kybosh on walking.

I was planning on doing a bit of exercise at home but, I didn't. Simple enough. I'm far too tired. In fact, my eyes are still burning, I'm that tired.

I didn't have any nuts with me at work today so I came home from the office hungry enough to chew through a wall. On this diet of mine, I'm allowed up to 100g of carbs a day, though the idea is to minimise that as much as possible. My lunch (which was the same as yesterday) contains about 4g of carbs, so I have pretty much my entire day's allowance to play with.

So tonight's tea consisted of chilli, broccoli and potato waffles. That's right, potato waffles. Going off the package breakdowns, the portion of chilli worked out at 50g of carbs, the broccoli is free and the waffles were only 30g of carbs in total. Really nice, really different dinner and completely within the constraints of the diet. Win.

Tonight is the weekly visit to a friends house where we normally engage in beers to break up the week. Now, for the last 4 weeks I've not been drinking anyway and bringing pop but because I'm being so strict I can only really bring water. Big bottle of flavoured water it is, then.

However, I maintain, so tired...

June 5th 2013

Man, I'm tired.

This diet really takes it out of you, energy wise. With me trying to shock my body into using up its stores of fat and carbs, it's leaving me very tired. Apparently it'll get better by Friday. I sincerely hope it does.

I'm still utterly hungry but I'm getting used to the hunger pans and I'm trying not to clock watch up until 1230 when I can eat today. It's only an hour and a half from this point, but it does feel like a million miles away.

I've tried going for a walk this morning but the blisters on my feet are making it difficult. I definitely don't think I'll be hitting 5 miles today. Lets call today a kind of rest day, still doing exercise but massively reducing the intensity.

In news unrelated to the diet (but related to health), I've now made it a month without smoking. I don't feel the need to smoke any more and it's not bothering me to be around smokers. Also, I've saved a fair chunk of cash, as demonstrated by the NHS Quit Smoking app right here:

If I can do that, I can lose weight again. After all, that only took a month, so this idea of taking things a month at a time should hopefully work for weight loss too.

June 4th 2013, part 2

Evening all

So today I feel has been a fairly successful day. I've done a lot of exercise and I've eaten very well. However, the exercise has come at a price. I'm utterly broken.

Today I walked a total of about 5 miles around the business park where I work. You can see the walks I do on the runkeeper widget on the side of this blog. Today has been an utter scorcher with temperatures around about the 21 degree mark. Today I was power walking as hard as I could to maximise my potential calorie burn. When wearing business dress and sweating like a bastard in the midday sun, things aren't going to go to well.

Without getting into graphic detail (I appreciate many of you may be reading this at breakfast time), I've over exerted and the natural friction that comes from my thighs and a poor choice of boxer short for the day have provided me with an almighty and very painful rash across my inner thighs. Added to the gargantuan blisters I've got from walking in rubber soled shoes that aren't trainers, I'm a bit of a wreck right now. It hurts to even walk.

So, with that in mind, tomorrow I will probably still walk around work, but not as much or as intensely. Tomorrow's exercise I feel will need to be a touch gentler. This will probably be a great juncture to break out Your Shape on the Xbox again and do some Tai-Chi, Yoga and Boxercise.

Today was the first real day of my 30 day challenge and I think it has gone well. Granted, yes, I'm in pain and I'm uncomfortably hot, but I think all things considered I could be in a much worse state.

Lets see what tomorrow brings

Michael

June 4th 2013

Fasting sucks.

It really does.

Despite my grumbling, I made it to lunch time without caving, giving myself a good 16 hour fast with just water and coffee to keep me going.

Lunch consisted of this:

Chicken, ham, boiled eggs, pepperoni and spinach leaves. All protein and iron. Spectacular. Complemented with some cashew nuts its got me full and feeling satisfied.

I've managed to walk about 3 and a half miles so far today and depending on if my feet stop hurting, I should be able to make it out for another one before home time.

Right now though I'm going to dive into a pint of water because I'm red hot.

Michael

June 3rd, 2013 part two

Hi again

So, as I promised, I have some more details for you all. I weighed myself at the gym and I've had myself measured. It's slightly grim reading but we all start somewhere:

Weight: 26.7 stone

Chest: 54"

Waist: 64"

Bicep: 13"

Thigh: 30"

So what we can glean from that is that yes, I'm a fat bastard.

Self deprecation aside, this means I'm exactly back to my heaviest weight when I started in 2011. This is annoying on several levels. Firstly, it means all the hard work I put in during 2011 has been wasted and secondly, I appear to have put all of that weight back on my stomach. Bastard body.

Anyway, I visited the gym for the first time in ages and managed to have a nice workout. 10 minutes on the exercise bike, 20 mins of resistance then 10 minutes on the cross trainer. Not bad considering my fitness is back to 0. And that I've already walked 2 miles today too.

Diet wise, I had a large, carb loaded dinner tonight. It's going to be my last carb heavy meal for 10 days, I enjoyed it.

Last of all for today, here is my weekly picture. I'll post one every Monday so you can get a visual idea of how I'm doing. If anyone notices any change before I do, please let me know.

Night all

Michael

June 3rd 2013

Hi there.

My name is Michael and I am a man who struggles with many things. Depression, weight, money and a few other things to boot.

For years I have struggled with my weight. In 2011, I managed to successfully lose about 5 stone in weight. You can have a look at my old blog about it over on http://weightytimes.tumblr.com. However, in the intervening two years or so, I have been through a lot and managed to put most of that weight back on. I'm not back up to my heaviest, but I'm not far off it.

My weight gets me down, significantly. I have no clothes that fit me any more and, annoyingly enough, I can't really afford to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe. More importantly, I don't really want to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe. I have a lot of nice clothes that have either barely been worn or not even worn at all.

I recently quit smoking after about 5 years of fairly heavy smoking. I know I've put on weight from that, mostly because I became orally fixated and replaced cigarettes with sweets. But, I'm now at 28 days without smoking so I feel the time is right now to start losing weight again.

To achieve this, I've decided that I need to use short term targets. When I lost weight last time, it was because I had two months to fit into a suit for a friend's wedding. This time, I have 30 days to fit into a suit for a posh work do. So today is the first day of my new regime.

So here is my plan for the next 30 days.

I haven't weighed myself yet today, but I am visiting the gym later today, I'll weight myself there and post up my starting point. I'm also going to post up my stomach, chest, thigh and bicep measurements as well.

I will be conducting some high intensity training (to the best of my fitness) consisting of several gym visits a week, complemented with up to three walks around the park next to my office and then a home workout (something along the lines of P90x, Insanity or 30 day shred). I will have one rest day a week where no exercise at all occurs.

Diet wise, for the next 30 days I'm doing some extreme dieting. This will consist of fasting from 9pm to midday every day and for the first 10 days, limiting the amount of carbs I'm taking in massively. I will be eating mostly lean meat and green vegetables, maintaining a low GI balance on the foods I can eat. After 10 days, I'll gradually start to reintroduce carbs into my diet. This also means a strict no alcohol policy with the possible exception of one day in June I will take off for a friend's birthday.

The work event is on July 4th, so at that point, I will have a couple of days back on normal eating before I commence my next 30 days (which won't be as extreme, this is just to get the ball rolling).

I hope to keep you all updated with my progress as I go.

Thanks for reading

Michael