1. I find pull ups REALLY tough. This will be a good personal challenge
2. It seems that there is also a poledancing class at 2pm on a Monday. Happy days.
Jan 31, 2011
14/15/16 - An action packed weekend...
It's amazing how much you can fit into a weekend when you put your mind to it! I've said all the way through that I'm determined that a healthy lifestyle won't turn me into a recluse, and this weekend I set out to prove it...
Friday night was one of those nights that you just fall back in love with Hong Kong. I took the Star Ferry over to Kowloon where I was meeting someone for a drink and dinner, which is onw of my favourite things to do. A quick cocktail (wine for her, fresh lime and soda for me) at The Peninsula before going for some fantastic street food at Temple Street Market. I had some steamed fish and steamed broccoli, both which were very good and felt like they were pretty healthy too. I forgot the carbs but had some brown bread when I got home later (cheating? probably just a little bit...). Temple Street is a great way to spend an evening; market stalls, open air food, Chinese Opera and fortune tellers. All these distractions also meant that the fact that we weren't drinking didn't matter at all. All in all a great evening!
Saturday morning meant new diet which all seems pretty good and straightforward. I headed to the gym and then made myself some lunch as I was going out on a junk (chinese boat) to a seafood restaurant for lunch. Luckily nobody minded that I wasn't actually eating but the food did look and smell AMAZING!! Salt and pepper squid, calamari, I'm salivating just thinking about it.... Dinner was back to my favourite chef who made me some seabass with salad and beetroot (he's still in my good books).
Sunday started with coffee with a friend (I'm drinking quite a lot of coffee at the moment, considering it my only vice...) before lunch with other friends. This included un-seasoned grilled sardines and a green salad. Lunch was followed by a foot massage and then the gym, before watching a small amount of the tennis. Finally a good (if somewhat plain) dinner of grilled peppers, chicken and cous cous before watching the movie Black Swan (which is brilliant by the way).
This morning I woke up feeling great! Not often you can say that on a Monday morning...
Friday night was one of those nights that you just fall back in love with Hong Kong. I took the Star Ferry over to Kowloon where I was meeting someone for a drink and dinner, which is onw of my favourite things to do. A quick cocktail (wine for her, fresh lime and soda for me) at The Peninsula before going for some fantastic street food at Temple Street Market. I had some steamed fish and steamed broccoli, both which were very good and felt like they were pretty healthy too. I forgot the carbs but had some brown bread when I got home later (cheating? probably just a little bit...). Temple Street is a great way to spend an evening; market stalls, open air food, Chinese Opera and fortune tellers. All these distractions also meant that the fact that we weren't drinking didn't matter at all. All in all a great evening!
Saturday morning meant new diet which all seems pretty good and straightforward. I headed to the gym and then made myself some lunch as I was going out on a junk (chinese boat) to a seafood restaurant for lunch. Luckily nobody minded that I wasn't actually eating but the food did look and smell AMAZING!! Salt and pepper squid, calamari, I'm salivating just thinking about it.... Dinner was back to my favourite chef who made me some seabass with salad and beetroot (he's still in my good books).
Sunday started with coffee with a friend (I'm drinking quite a lot of coffee at the moment, considering it my only vice...) before lunch with other friends. This included un-seasoned grilled sardines and a green salad. Lunch was followed by a foot massage and then the gym, before watching a small amount of the tennis. Finally a good (if somewhat plain) dinner of grilled peppers, chicken and cous cous before watching the movie Black Swan (which is brilliant by the way).
This morning I woke up feeling great! Not often you can say that on a Monday morning...
Jan 28, 2011
Day 12/13 - More of the same...
Okay, so I've now reached Friday and this rather hectic week is almost over, thank goodness... Wednesday heralded another journalist lunch which included my new favourite mackerel dish again - luckily still delicious so that was fine. A relatively relaxed evening (albeit with quite a late training session) before hitting Thursday which I new was going to be tough. First challenge was a lunch for 12 journalists... I think that it's fair to say that journalists enjoy a drink now and again, and you can only imagine how that's amplified if they're dining with someone in the booze trade! I was worried for nothing it turned out; everyone behaved and enjoyed the 3 wines that we were tasting and I stuck to my PCP menu. Last night was a big tasting as well - 35 2009 Burgundy's from all the top producers. This is quite a major event and we hosted about 65 guests who spent the evening spitting, willing and pontificating. It was fun though, and great to be able to talk to everyone about the wines, without indulging myself. As Patrick noted in his recent comment, they'll all still be there after the 90 days are up, and most of these wines will be drinking at their best nearer to 2020! I didn't get out of there until 8.30pm but made it to the gym at 9pm. Work-outs are going well, but I did realise when I got home that I'd neglected to do the lunges by mistake (I find these quite tough so maybe my subconciousness was working overtime!). I'm guessing that it's probably not the end of the world if I add these on to the workout today.
Oh, and discovery for the day, it seems that between 9pm and 10pm there is a poledancing class in the room next to where I train... Needless to say I found it quite hard to concentrate on my skipping...
Oh, and discovery for the day, it seems that between 9pm and 10pm there is a poledancing class in the room next to where I train... Needless to say I found it quite hard to concentrate on my skipping...
Jan 26, 2011
Day 11 - Super-chef
Okay, so I admit, I do have a fun job I love it, but it’s just not that conducive to a healthy lifestyle! This is a particularly brutal week in terms of tastings and lunches, but you can imagine how bloated and lethargic you get, constantly feeling a little bit off your game. Anyway… lunch was great and the chef really excelled himself. Just before we sat down I got the following email from him:
3 pieces medium bread 60-80g
Starter
salad, veg, avocado, 140g
salmon, 30g
Main
Mackeral 135g (raw so allowed 5g shrinkage)
Spinach (lemon juice) 40g
Jerusalem Artichoke 40g
How great is that? The other lesson that I learned from this is that PCP food can be delicious. I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has been lamenting the lack of flavor in the initial dishes that we’ve been cooking; we’re so used to salt and excessive seasoning from years of conditioning that everything seemed bland and lifeless. What yesterday’s menu proved is that you can get flavor by the bucket-load if you know what you’re doing without using salt/sugar/flavorings. The other thing that I’m getting used to, is that if you have a drink with you, no-one notices whether you’re actually drinking it or not. I sat opposite the winemaker yesterday and had two of his incredible wines sitting in front of me for the entire meal. Every once in a while I would pick one up and ‘nose’ it, then return it to the table. I don’t think that anyone suspected a thing and I actually got a real sense of the wines as well (smell is hugely important when it comes to wine tasting). Another small tasting in the evening for 6 people meant 6 more wines to lust after… In all seriousness though, I’m not finding the drinking element too tough at the moment – sometimes it’s nice to have a break from alcohol!
Due to the tasting I made it the gym a little later than usual, around 9pm. It was blissfully quiet and I made it through the routine without too many concerns. Today means another lunch and then my first free evening since Saturday – can’t wait…!
Jan 25, 2011
Day 10
It seems that my job is intent on throwing a few challenges my direction this week! Breakfast is now a good routine, and with a little bit of multitasking I was able to get some brown rice, carrots and grilled chicken rady for lunch before heading to the office, but my on-going issue for the next few days is eating out. Although it's reasonable to cut down your social calander whilst committing to PCP, it's a harder task when it's work orientated (especially when you work in the wine trade). When I sat down to look at my week's schedule yesterday I was faced with the following prospect: Monday - Staff Dinner and wine tasting; Tuesday - Journalist lunch with winemaker, wine tasting in the evening; Wednesday - journalist lunch; Thursday - Journalist lunch followed by wine tasting; Friday - Client lunch. Now, it doesn't take a veteran PCPer to realise that this is a pretty tall order... Consequently, I spent most of yesterday getting pretty friendly with chefs. Dinner last night was fine. I nosed the wines and didn't drink them and I got the chef to prepare a pcp friendly version of the dinner which was delicious: Scallops on spinach and french beans followed by steak, cauliflower and bok choy, with carbs in the form of brown rolls. I have to admit that I was forced to slightly guesstimate of portion weights but I think that I was pretty spot on. I've managed to ensure that the rest of my lunches this week happen in the same restaurant. I organised a meeting with the chef yesterday and took him through the requirements. The good news is that he was kind of interested so I'm hoping that it's all amazing. Today I'm looking forward to a salmon salad followed by a mackerel dish of some sort... can't wait!
The biggest concern is how do I have lunch with a wine maker/journalists and not drink his wine? Answers on a postcard please...
Exercises all going well. Tonight will have to be late training but at least it's getting done...
The biggest concern is how do I have lunch with a wine maker/journalists and not drink his wine? Answers on a postcard please...
Exercises all going well. Tonight will have to be late training but at least it's getting done...
Jan 24, 2011
Days 8 & 9 - A new diet
I think that we all knew that the first week was when we'd just be asked to dip our toe into the water and that Saturday was the day when the real challanges commenced. It was with this in mind that I enjoyed my last meal on Friday night. Half a portion of Norweigan salmon and some grilled vegetables. I went to bed knowing that the weekend would have some treats in store!
Saturday morning I woke up and tried to think what to have for breakfast. I'd been to the supermarket on Friday so my fridge and counter were overflowing with fruit and vegetables and I had my digital scales all ready and waiting. First quandry of the day - is avocado a fruit or a vegetable? My gut says that it's down to semantics so for the purpose of PCP (and unless Patrick sends me to the naughty step) I think that I'm considering that avocados and tomatoes are vegetables (cue dissent in the ranks). Consequently I enjoyed a delicious combination of poached eggs on avocado with wholemeal toast. Very tasty and amazingly rather a lot to eat. I couldn't be happier. By the way, if you don't already have one, you can buy these little silicon egg poachers - they're genius http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZDI7W8veA
I followed breakfast with a an 8km hike up and round The Peak (if I can work out how to post pics I'm put one up - one of the world's great city views), before returning home for some broccoli, grilled chicken and wholemeal pasta. So far so good.
The afternoon included a little gym visit to tick off the day's exercise routine. I don't mind telling you, my cardio is pretty horrendous at the moment. I'm hopeing that it picks up as my lunges and the skipping if hurting at the moment!
Dinner included some bok choy, salmon and the left over pasta (mental note, pasta gets heavier when cooked, lots of other things get lighter).
I woke on Sunday morning and the sun was shining so I decided to head outdoors to train. One of the joys of HK is that there are a multitude of small, well-kept public parks that are equiped with rubber tarmac and exercise stations. It was a different feeling to being in the gym but just as enjoyable to be outside. Skipping is still hurting me (I hope that this will improve somewhat over the coming days) but the rest of the exercses were, whilst challenging, enjoyable.
I had friends in town so the next stop was Zuma (again) for brunch. This was both a success and failure. Great fun yes, but less easy that I anticipated. Sushimi is perfect in that what you see is what you get, rice is just about okay, but it was hard to get hold of a decent quantity of vegetables. I ended up with spinach with seasame seeds. On a normal day I'd consider this to be a healthy option, but I fear that I won't be able to go down this path again.
The afternoon included a Chinese Tea Ceremony in HK Park and a foot massage (another joy of HK life and a god-send when it came to my aching legs!).
It was the evening however that I was dreading - a staff party. Firstly, who has a staff party on a Sunday night? Secondly, I work for a wine company - 'piss-up in a brewary comes to mind'. Luckily I had an ex-pcper at lunch and he gave me some good advice. Rather than arriving at the dinner and trying to pick food that works, eat first and abstain. I'm pleased to say that it all worked out. With a stroke of luck, all the food was brought to the tables on platters. It was an Italian NY pizza place so there were mountains of pasta, pizza, chicken wings etc. Because I'd eaten before I wasn't hungry. I helped myself to some salad which I pushed around my plate, and a glass of wine that I never touched. I'm pretty sure that no-one noticed. A big sigh of relief all round!
Busy day today, but will read everyone else's posts a little later.
Saturday morning I woke up and tried to think what to have for breakfast. I'd been to the supermarket on Friday so my fridge and counter were overflowing with fruit and vegetables and I had my digital scales all ready and waiting. First quandry of the day - is avocado a fruit or a vegetable? My gut says that it's down to semantics so for the purpose of PCP (and unless Patrick sends me to the naughty step) I think that I'm considering that avocados and tomatoes are vegetables (cue dissent in the ranks). Consequently I enjoyed a delicious combination of poached eggs on avocado with wholemeal toast. Very tasty and amazingly rather a lot to eat. I couldn't be happier. By the way, if you don't already have one, you can buy these little silicon egg poachers - they're genius http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZDI7W8veA
I followed breakfast with a an 8km hike up and round The Peak (if I can work out how to post pics I'm put one up - one of the world's great city views), before returning home for some broccoli, grilled chicken and wholemeal pasta. So far so good.
The afternoon included a little gym visit to tick off the day's exercise routine. I don't mind telling you, my cardio is pretty horrendous at the moment. I'm hopeing that it picks up as my lunges and the skipping if hurting at the moment!
Dinner included some bok choy, salmon and the left over pasta (mental note, pasta gets heavier when cooked, lots of other things get lighter).
I woke on Sunday morning and the sun was shining so I decided to head outdoors to train. One of the joys of HK is that there are a multitude of small, well-kept public parks that are equiped with rubber tarmac and exercise stations. It was a different feeling to being in the gym but just as enjoyable to be outside. Skipping is still hurting me (I hope that this will improve somewhat over the coming days) but the rest of the exercses were, whilst challenging, enjoyable.
I had friends in town so the next stop was Zuma (again) for brunch. This was both a success and failure. Great fun yes, but less easy that I anticipated. Sushimi is perfect in that what you see is what you get, rice is just about okay, but it was hard to get hold of a decent quantity of vegetables. I ended up with spinach with seasame seeds. On a normal day I'd consider this to be a healthy option, but I fear that I won't be able to go down this path again.
The afternoon included a Chinese Tea Ceremony in HK Park and a foot massage (another joy of HK life and a god-send when it came to my aching legs!).
It was the evening however that I was dreading - a staff party. Firstly, who has a staff party on a Sunday night? Secondly, I work for a wine company - 'piss-up in a brewary comes to mind'. Luckily I had an ex-pcper at lunch and he gave me some good advice. Rather than arriving at the dinner and trying to pick food that works, eat first and abstain. I'm pleased to say that it all worked out. With a stroke of luck, all the food was brought to the tables on platters. It was an Italian NY pizza place so there were mountains of pasta, pizza, chicken wings etc. Because I'd eaten before I wasn't hungry. I helped myself to some salad which I pushed around my plate, and a glass of wine that I never touched. I'm pretty sure that no-one noticed. A big sigh of relief all round!
Busy day today, but will read everyone else's posts a little later.
Jan 21, 2011
Day 7
Yesterday I decided to do my exercises in the gym and I must say it really helped. There was something about the location, the music, the other people etc that made me work harder than normal. Consequently it felt tough, but hard work is also more rewarding right?? I think that I'm probably going to do this from now on as I'm lucky, the gym is pretty close to my house and i'm already a paid up member. The cushioned floors are also great for skipping and if anyone knows HK, they'll know how small apartments are (genuinely couldn't swing a cat)!! Food is still going well. An avocado and pine nut wrap for lunch was delicious (and half the size of the two sandwiches that I'd normally chose) and then dinner was out on the town. I went with a couple of girls to one of my favourite restaurants, Zuma. It's an amazing sushi joint and I normally stuff myself there (they do an AMAZING buffet brunch on Sundays). I tried an interesting experiment when it came to ordering; I knew that I was hungry, and when I'm hungry I tend to over-order, I also know that girls tend to order less than guys (is that an awful generalisation??), so I asked one of the girls to pick all the food. Consequently the amount of food we received was considerably less than usual. I then made sure to eat half of what was there - success! Fresh lime and soda is still my drink of choice at the moment. I find that even a small glass of wine drops my inhibitions enough to leave me reaching for the bottle!
Jan 20, 2011
Day 5 Stats
Weight: 95.6kg
SMM: 47.1kg
Body Fat Mass: 13.9kg
Body Mass Index: 25.9kg/m
Percentage Body Fat: 14.6%
Waist-Hip Ratio: 0.83
Visceral Fat Area: 97.8
SMM: 47.1kg
Body Fat Mass: 13.9kg
Body Mass Index: 25.9kg/m
Percentage Body Fat: 14.6%
Waist-Hip Ratio: 0.83
Visceral Fat Area: 97.8
Day 6 - First social outing...
Last night was the first social work commitment that has come up since starting PCP and I must admit that I've been wondering how I am going to cope with these. It was a gallery opening and we had sponsored the wines for the first night of the new exhibition. My initial concern was that if we were supplying the wines, people would think it strange that I was not drinking them (what's wrong with them??), but I think that was just paranoia; I held a glass of water all evening and no-one batted an eye-lid. As tray after tray of canapes passed by I smiled and refused them and actually it was all relatively straightforward. While one group of friends tried to rally the troops to a late dinner (inevitably boozy and too many courses), I joined two friends for a lime soda at a nearby bar. Admittedly I was quite hungry when I arrived home at 9.30pm, but all in all a successful evening.
So, my observation for the day... You can still be sociable when trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I spoke to a couple of friends about the program and rather than dismissing it, they were interested and wanted to participate (i.e. join for a hike, meet for a non-alcoholic drink, go for a run), when I was expecting them to be dismissive. This is good news!
So, my observation for the day... You can still be sociable when trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I spoke to a couple of friends about the program and rather than dismissing it, they were interested and wanted to participate (i.e. join for a hike, meet for a non-alcoholic drink, go for a run), when I was expecting them to be dismissive. This is good news!
Jan 19, 2011
Back to Reality
Just a quick blog this morning as I have the inevitable pile of emails on my desk that always result from a couple of days out of the office... Half portions are still going well. What's interesting is that I'm really not that hungry inbetween meals, which only goes to show that I normally have a tendency to over-eat. I would generally start my day with a bowl of oats with banana or poached eggs on toast with baked beans. This morning I went for the latter but cut down to just one slice of toast, one egg etc, and I must say I'm feeling as full as I normally would - whether I still do by lunchtime remains to be seen...! Exercises are still going well but I echo some of the other posts that I've just been reading; it's great that we're easing in slowly!
Jan 18, 2011
The Peak Condition Project - Geordie: Finally back online!
Hi all, and apologies that my first blog has taken a few days to get up. I've been in Tokyo for the last 4 days and my lap-top gave up on me day one. The good news is that I've been keeping up with everything even though I haven't been online.
This was my first time in Tokyo and I have to say, what a great city! It's a beautiful place filled with wonderfully friendly people, and it's also not a bad place to stay healthy! I've been indulging in some delicious sushi and sashimi (half portions of course) and have been discovering everything on foot.
Hoping that everyone is getting on fine with the program and looking forward to being more involved from here on...
Jan 14, 2011
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