Why oh why does January take so long to sort itself out and bugger off?
I mean seriously, this month is bloody long.
It feels longer because I'm dieting too. Every day, watching my calories and (especially at work) watching other people eat what they want when they want is getting annoying.
However, it's not all bad. I'm no longer so tired on the walk to and from the office every morning. It's an inconvenience I'd rather not have, but it's largely a positive one because it's forcing me to walk a couple of miles every day. The inconvenience I still can't stomach is the distance from my desk to the tea room at the office I'm working from now, but I'm sure I'll learn to live with it (or crack up and melt down in a caffeine deficient moment).
The diet itself is going alright. I've cheated a couple of times but I'm still making more sensible choices. For instance, where if I was really being lazy and wanted a takeaway, I'd order a whacking great big pizza, now I'm ordering chicken kebabs, which are better for you. They're still not great for you, but it's better than all that bread and cheese. On the one occasion in the last fortnight where I did get a pizza, it made me so ill (from the grease, I'm assuming), that I have no desire to have another one any time soon.
The food I'm making on a nighttime is getting better too. A particular favourite that I'm enjoying is Gammon steaks, sweetcorn, new potatoes, pineapple and dry fried eggs. It's so very simple, but so delicious and filling. The main one I'm enjoying is my home made bhuna curry. Adapted from the recipe I used to make a fish curry for a party before new years, I've made it a couple of times now and with chicken it's just amazing. Very filling, very tasty and great for these cold nights.
This morning, I weighed myself for the second time. I didn't weigh myself on the first week of the diet for reasons that I can't quite remember, so last week was the starting weight for this bout of dieting.
This week has me dropping 5lbs which I'm over the moon at as I wasn't confident I'd lost any weight at all this week. More impressively as well, my wife, who has always struggled with diets, has lost too. So we're in it together and losing together. This has made me very happy indeed.
For this coming week, I'm going to be starting my exercise regime up again, starting with a run tonight. It's been about 6 weeks since i was running properly so if I'm honest, I'll be amazed if I can manage more than a mile and a half, but we all have to start somewhere. Hopefully I can be back up to 3 mile runs in a few weeks.
Showing posts with label 30 days. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 30 days. Show all posts
Monday, 20 January 2014
Monday, 17 June 2013
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.
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.
Friday, 14 June 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
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:
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.
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
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.
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.
Monday, 10 June 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, 4 June 2013
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
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
Monday, 3 June 2013
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
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
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