So here we are, day 45 and halfway through the 'official' part of our PCP. All feels pretty good I must say, the sun is shining in Hong Kong and I feel great for a Monday morning! A few things have happened since I last blogged. Before Christmas I had gone to a clothing store and bought a couple of pairs of jeans, one smart pair (i.e. good fit, straight leg, the sort of thing you might be able to wear with a blazer at work) and another pair that are of a slightly more relaxed cut for slobbing around at the weekend. On Saturday night I was going to a birthday dinner for a friend of mine (it was her brother that put me on to PCP and it was being hosted at his house, so I knew that I would have a sympathetic audience in my hosts). I had been wearing the more relaxed pair of jeans during the day and when it came to getting ready I couldn't find the smarter pair ANYWHERE. It's always frustrating when you can't find something and this is exagerated 10-fold in HK where apartments are so small it should be physically impossible to misplace anything. Anyway, after about 30 minutes of turning the wardrobe upside down, I realised something: I had been wearing the smart pair all day and they were just that much loser that I assumed that they were the other pair - What an idiot - I fear that I'm going to have to do some clothes shopping in about 45 days time!!
Coupled with this, I also found myself having to put another hole in my belt. I'll be interested to see what the breakdown is when I have my fortnightly weigh-in tomorrow.
The dinner was great, but it was one of the first times that I've been REALLY jealous other people's food. I'd already had my egg whites so I wasn't hungry as such, but the dishes of roasted tomato and parmesan pasta, lamb shanks, tiramisu, and Italian cheeses that came out just looked and smelt delicious!
Oh, and I also broke my first resistance band - weirdly proud of that....
Everyone seems to be doing really well, keep it going!
Feb 28, 2011
Feb 24, 2011
Day 40 - a bit of a wobble
It's funny, just yesterday i was talking to Nick J about how healthy and well I was feeling. Cut to about an hour later and I was feeling rotten, achy and sore...! I guess you've got to be careful what you say sometimes. Consequently yesterday's work-out was pretty tough, but I'm delighted to say that I'm feeling 100% again today. I'm still concerned about these pistol squats though - I simply can't get the movement right and it's really doing bad things to my knees (previous marathon running perhaps??). This is frustrating as I feel like I'm missing a leg exercise and I'd really like a replacement exercise to tide me over. I'm still trying to do the pistol sqats each day but I know my joints well enough to know that I'm not a million miles away from doing some damage...!
Feb 22, 2011
Day 37
Although we're not a million miles away from the halfway point now, I feel that we've really come a long way since we started this project in January. Blogs are slowing down a bit, but I guess that's because describing what you're eating each day loses its appeal after a while (for the record, mashed avocado with cayenne pepper and Bragg's Liquid Aminos on Ezekiel 4:9 bread with a poached egg is the breakfast of kings - someone put me on to this bread the other day, it's unbelievably good!!). Consequently I imagine that over the next few days blogs are going to get more philosophical.
I have to say I agree with Molly's latest post; I find it hard to understand why people might want to quit around now when the real changes are first becoming evident. For me this is the time when it's all starting to get exciting!
For these 3 months PCP does take over your life to a greater degree and I've been blown away by the way everyone in the group has been able to balance everything so well, whether that's Andy with his hectic tennis schedule or Heather with her kids; it's seriously impressive stuff. It's made me realise that my life before PCP probably lacked some sort of control. In the past I would decide what to eat when I was hungry, exercise when (if) I had the time. Consequently it was hard to find real balance or stability. Now I have to think ahead and with that has come a new sense of responsability - my attitude has altered. No longer do dishes get left in the sink until the morning, or do I forget to leave money out for the cleaner. I don't get up to find that the milk has run out and I'm better prepared for meetings. So a side-effect of having more respect for yourself and your body is having more respect for others it seems. That can't be a bad thing at all can it?
I have to say I agree with Molly's latest post; I find it hard to understand why people might want to quit around now when the real changes are first becoming evident. For me this is the time when it's all starting to get exciting!
For these 3 months PCP does take over your life to a greater degree and I've been blown away by the way everyone in the group has been able to balance everything so well, whether that's Andy with his hectic tennis schedule or Heather with her kids; it's seriously impressive stuff. It's made me realise that my life before PCP probably lacked some sort of control. In the past I would decide what to eat when I was hungry, exercise when (if) I had the time. Consequently it was hard to find real balance or stability. Now I have to think ahead and with that has come a new sense of responsability - my attitude has altered. No longer do dishes get left in the sink until the morning, or do I forget to leave money out for the cleaner. I don't get up to find that the milk has run out and I'm better prepared for meetings. So a side-effect of having more respect for yourself and your body is having more respect for others it seems. That can't be a bad thing at all can it?
Feb 19, 2011
Day 35
I'm loving the fact that the exercises have gone up a notch and the new variety is great, but those pistol squats are close to impossible! I was completely stumped by them; hoping that I get the hang of them soon...!
Feb 17, 2011
Day 34 - Bad co-ordination
I've had mixed success over the last 24 hours. I hit the gym yesterday afternoon with the intention of pushing myself on the skipping - I have a feeling that I have been giving myself a bit of an easy ride on this front so far... Normally I manage around 250 or 300 skips with a short 30 - 30 second break before starting again. Up until now, this has really been a counting issue as much as anything else. Last night I wanted to see how many I could manage if I just kept going. You can imagine my surprise when I hit 400 without too many problems, suddenly 500, 600 and 700 sailed by as well. I finally got to 1,219 before I snagged my toe. So there you go, who'd've thought it.
This morning I had to visit the gym at 7am as I have a lunch and then the theatre to go to this evening. It was a completely different story! On reading everyone's blogs i can see that a lot of you far prefer to be working out in the morning. What I realised is that when it comes to coordination, I don't think I wake up until after breakfast! I got through it all okay, but after such a successful run last night, it was ridiculous to be tripping every 50 skips or so...
Oh well, at least work-out is out of the way for the day. Those floor jumps were pretty painful this morning!!
This morning I had to visit the gym at 7am as I have a lunch and then the theatre to go to this evening. It was a completely different story! On reading everyone's blogs i can see that a lot of you far prefer to be working out in the morning. What I realised is that when it comes to coordination, I don't think I wake up until after breakfast! I got through it all okay, but after such a successful run last night, it was ridiculous to be tripping every 50 skips or so...
Oh well, at least work-out is out of the way for the day. Those floor jumps were pretty painful this morning!!
Feb 15, 2011
Week 5 Weigh-in
Some interesting revelations in today's weigh-in. I'm doing this once every two weeks, just out of interest really:
Original Weight: 95.6kg
Weight (01/02/11): 94.7kg (-0.9kg)
Weight: (15/02/11): 90.7kg (-4.0kg)
SMM: 47.1kg
SMM*(01/02/11): 47.7kg (+0.6kg) *Skeletal Muscle Mass
SMM: (15/02/11): 46.7kg (-1.0kg)
Body Fat Mass: 13.9kg
Body Fat Mass (01/02/11): 11.9kg (-2.0kg)
Body Fat Mass: (15/02/11): 9.3kg (-2.6kg)
Body Mass Index: 25.9kg/m
Body Mass Index (01/02/11): 25.7kg/m (-0.2kg)
Body Mass Index: (15/02/11): 24.6kg/m (-1.1kg)
Percentage Body Fat: 14.6%
Percentage Body Fat (01/02/11): 12.6% (-2%)
Percentage Body Fat: (15/02/11): 10.3% (-2.3%)
Waist-Hip Ratio: 0.83
Waist-Hip Ratio (01/02/11): 0.82 (-0.01)
Waist-Hip Ratio : (15/02/11): 0.81 (-0.01)
Visceral Fat Area: 97.8
Visceral Fat Area: (01/02/11) 93.1 (-4.7)
Visceral Fat Area: (15/02/11): 82.3 (-10.8)
Original Weight: 95.6kg
Weight (01/02/11): 94.7kg (-0.9kg)
Weight: (15/02/11): 90.7kg (-4.0kg)
SMM: 47.1kg
SMM*(01/02/11): 47.7kg (+0.6kg) *Skeletal Muscle Mass
SMM: (15/02/11): 46.7kg (-1.0kg)
Body Fat Mass: 13.9kg
Body Fat Mass (01/02/11): 11.9kg (-2.0kg)
Body Fat Mass: (15/02/11): 9.3kg (-2.6kg)
Body Mass Index: 25.9kg/m
Body Mass Index (01/02/11): 25.7kg/m (-0.2kg)
Body Mass Index: (15/02/11): 24.6kg/m (-1.1kg)
Percentage Body Fat: 14.6%
Percentage Body Fat (01/02/11): 12.6% (-2%)
Percentage Body Fat: (15/02/11): 10.3% (-2.3%)
Waist-Hip Ratio: 0.83
Waist-Hip Ratio (01/02/11): 0.82 (-0.01)
Waist-Hip Ratio : (15/02/11): 0.81 (-0.01)
Visceral Fat Area: 97.8
Visceral Fat Area: (01/02/11) 93.1 (-4.7)
Visceral Fat Area: (15/02/11): 82.3 (-10.8)
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