Quick post from me

I’ve just passed up the chance for crisps and chocolate.  That is good in itself, but it is not all good news.  I am going to have a curry for dinner, before I go out with friends for a few end of week beers.

Still, I managed a walk around town today, which was impressive seeing as badminton really took it out of me last night.

Yesterday was a good liquid intake day: 5 litres of water, a glass of pineapple juice but also an energy drink and a pint of coke.  Not all good news.

I should drink more today, I can’t remember having much yet…

An age transition workout

It has been a month since I created my first home work-out, and it yielded some good results, along with a generally good month of dieting.

In 3 weeks time I turn 25 and i want to be under 120Kg for that, for no other reason that it will mean I am where I was 14 months ago from that date.  As much as I would like to be the same as I was a year ago, losing 14Kg in 21 days is not a healthy option.  If I can get my weight under 120Kg for April 6th, and then lose another 2 by the 16th to take me down another 6Kg in a month then I will be happy.

If I can keep shifting 6Kg a month I will be under 100Kg for my holiday in July and I will be really happy with that.  To do that I need to be careful with what I consume, and work hard with the exercise too.

As part of my work-out in the next month, I am going to be doing the exercises on the One hundred push ups website.  Following that should mean that in 3 weeks time, I should be able to do around 15 push ups at a time, and in 6 weeks be able to manage around 40.  Because of this, the training on that website will be part of my work out for the next two months to see how many I can manage.

I will also be doing bicycle crunches, side lunge with windmill and some shadow boxing.

With the nights getting lighter and the weather (supposedly) improving, I’m hoping to get out and walk more often too.

Report: Needs to try harder

Me being on a diet is a lot like some of the classes in school which I wasn’t interested in “needs to apply himself”, “must try harder” and all those other comments which mean “is doing well, but could be doing so much better!”

How well am I doing?  Well today is the 16th, so I weighed myself this morning.  I have lost around 6Kg (about 13lb) which I think is quite a good start for 4 weeks into it.  Most people would be thrilled with that, but I feel like I did after sitting my exams with no preparation and doing better than those who tried ever so hard and only just got through.

Where can I improve?  Well most critically, as I am typing this I am also eating pizza.  A double pepperoni one with stuffed crust.  It was that or tomato soup, and as I have to go and pick my sister up from the train station soon, I am going to have a good meal for doing so.  Good being subjective and relative to the other choice.

Because of last week’s busy schedule,  I hardly exercised last week, except badminton on Friday, and a little bit of walking on Saturday.

On Sunday I had a large coke at the cinema; Monday I was shattered so I had an energy drink; yesterday I was quite good, but still no exercise and today…well I don’t want to go into it but here goes:

Breakfast:

• Chicken, bacon and mayonnaise sandwich with lettuce
• 1 chocolate cereal bar
• 1 insanely sugar filled energy drink

Lunch:

• Egg mayonnaise sandwich (light mayo though)
• 1 strawberry yogurt
• 1 apple
• 1 banana
• 1 orange
• 1 high sugar energy drink

Snack:

• 1 double chocolate cookie
• 1 high sugar energy drink

Dinner:

• double pepperoni stuffed crust pizza

How do I feel for being open and honest?  I feel disgusted with myself.  Ashamed and embarrassed.  I wish I hadn’t got up late this morning, which would have meant I could have a better breakfast, and I might have been less tired if I didn’t feel rushed first thing, but I was so energy drinks saved me.

I did have my 2 litres of water with those, so that’s about 3 and a half litres of liquid today, and 164% of my sugar RDA in 3 drinks.  Naughty.

Please, express your distain for me and chastise me as you see fit.  I deserve it.

When I get back, I’ll figure out my work-out plan for the next month and let you know what that involves.

Time to go and get my sister.

Finally the weekend

It’s finally the weekend which means I can rest and relax a bit to recover from a very busy week.

A week, however, where my diet and exercise really went out of the window because of things at work.

On Tuesday, my evening meal was a pizza.  Not a huge one, but a pizza all the same.  Not great.  I was better on Wednesday when I had soup and brown bread rolls, but I had a really long day so I also had a couple of chocolate digestive biscuits and a donut.

Thursday saw the tiredness of a busy week hit me, so I ended up having a high sugar energy drink to keep me going.  I worked late again then, so it was curry for my evening meal.  I didn’t eat it all, but I had the rest for lunch on Friday.

Certainly less than ideal.

Still, I can use the weekend to rest and recover, and to set myself up for another busy week, but a one with less junk food.  That’s the plan!

Update from the office

I’ve said in a couple of previous posts that I will be working late a lot of this week, just with the insane workload we have on.  As such, this update is coming to you from my office whilst I wait for the first part of my work to be done.  I can’t carry on until this stage is complete.

I’m all out of food now, having had a good, healthy lunch – but the cookies are staring at me.  Bullies.  I don’t have much water left to keep my hunger suppressed, so it might come down to a battle of wills.  Dark times maybe ahead.

That last part sounds a little bit like a zombie horror.  Maybe that’s just me though.

Anyway, most people will be used to my normal weekday breakfast by now.  The juice tends to change week-on-week, but that’s all.

Breakfast:

• 2 slices of toast with light butter
• 1 glass of pineapple juice

Lunch:

• Ham salad sandwiches
• a mandarin Muller light yogurt
• 1 banana
• 2 satsumas (after I read you need two of them to count towards your 5-a-day)
• 1 granny smiths apple

Dinner:

I haven’t had this yet, but I know what it is for later:

• Reheated roast pork dinner with mash potato, cabbage, carrots and swede
• Two Yorkshire puddings

I know there is a danger now of me being more tempted into eating bad things as I have already posted, but I have managed to hold off all of last week, through the donuts and the cream cakes, so I am sure I can cope without cookies easily.

I don’t know what time I will be finishing work yet, so I don’t know if I will have time to get my work-out in.  Shame really as I had a sneak peek at how my weight was going as a result of temptation resisting and exercise so I would like to further that progress ready for the results next week.

Let’s see how the rest of the day pans out.

Balancing diets with busy schedules

I think I mentioned last week that throughout the course of this week I am going to be insanely busy with work.  Normally I am in the office from around 9am until 5:30pm, meaning I have time on a night to do all kinds of things which I might wish to do.

However, this week I will be working from 9am or earlier, until around 8pm until Thursday because of the work load we have on.  I’m not concerned about the tiredness, I always find time to sleep, but I am more concerned about me looking for quick fixes when my energy levels drop off and I start feeling tired at work.

As such I am starting today with a question for you all; as always, any answers are appreciated.  When you are very busy, how do you keep your energy levels up without resorting to quick fix solutions such as high sugar foods and drinks?

It’s probably worth noting here that I don’t drink hot drinks, so coffee isn’t a solution for me.

Sloth Sunday

I’ve had a very inactive and lazy day today, my exercise has been going up and down the stairs for food, or whenever I was called.  Nice lazy day.

I have, however, been exercising my brain all day, which I think must count for something.

As a software engineer by trade, I occasionally have ideas I like to try out when I am at home.  Today was one of those days.  Because of that, I have been sat on my computer all day working my way through my latest idea.  What it is isn’t really important, at least not yet, but it has kept me busy.

Despite being a sloth for most of the day, I haven’t pigged out.  I’ve been very restrained.

Breakfast:

• A bowl of Kellogg’s Coco-Pops with semi-skimmed milk

Lunch:

• No lunch – I was busy

Dinner:

• Roast pork dinner with loads of veg: mash potato, peas, carrots, cabbage, swede, and parsnip.  And a couple of Yorkshire puddings.

I’ve drank about a litre and a half of pepsi-max, and probably about half a litre of water, so I am nicely hydrated.

Another simple question for today, and a friendly one too.  Did you have a good Sunday?