Another tip to stop snacking

Before I actually give you this tip, I want to point out that this is in no way a serious post, just something I happened to find out today.  I wouldn’t recommend trying this one at all!

The tip?  Syphon petrol from a car.  My sister wanted me to syphon some petrol out of her old car today so she could use it in the new one she was getting.  Me being the helpful brother, and the man of the house, I duly obliged.

It was the first time I had ever done it, but I knew roughly what to expect.  A nasty taste.  It was!

having got the fuel flowing from her fuel tank in the car into an approved fuel storage container, I had an awful taste in my mouth of petrol.  I tried everything I could to get rid of it and nothing seemed to work.  In fact it only made things worse!

It took a good eight hours to get over the taste of it, and it made everything I ate taste of petrol too.  Nobody wants that, ever!  It puts you off eating because it enhances the taste of petrol.  You really wont want to eat for ages after going that, so it will stop you snacking.

On a slightly more serious note, what did I actually consume on this glorious saturday of petrol siphoning?  See the list below:

Breakfast:

• 4 egg scrambled egg
• 2 slices of toast with light butter
• tomato sauce
• orange juice

Lunch:

• Dry cured ham with cheese sandwich

Dinner:

• Steak and kidney pie, mushy peas and chips with tomato sauce

I’ve also drank a pint of Pepsi-max through the day, a little bit of water, a large quantity of coca-cola at the cinema and a tiny, but memorable, amount of petrol.

Due to the weather and the over excitement of my sister to get her car sorted and accessorise it, I never got my 6 mile walk in today.  I think I have walked about a mile in total today, so that’s something at least.

A simple question today, related to this post; is it right to try to convey sarcasm when giving “health tips” online?

Back from badminton

It’s almost a sequel, and a little quicker to be produced that something like, say the Avatar sequels.  Having not been to badminton in four weeks, I expected my game to be all over the place, and to have a really bad night.  I had quite the opposite.  I won my first 4 games, which is a new personal best; but lost the last two.  Can’t win them all, but I played as well as I could and enjoyed myself which, when you are doing anything, is the important thing.

I drank two litres of water to keep myself going through all of the games, which worked out well it would seem.  I even managed to avoid having chocolate cake which was made by one of the players.

I will admit that the avoidance of that was more down to there being none left when I wanted to have some than it was my determination and will power to avoid it; but that just means I can have a treat tomorrow.  Tomorrow will most likely be coca-cola whilst I am at the cinema.

After badminton I joined everyone for the social side of things, as I usually do, but managed to take the sensible option with what I had then.  I had a half pint of fresh orange juice.  It was a change from my usual pint of coca-cola.  I didn’t even have a bag of crisps or anything.  That is unusual.  That was down to will power alone.  I realised that, although I might feel hungry, it’s probably just a little dehydration and habit rather than hunger.

Alas, I stuck it out and I am here now having not had anything since my meal earlier.  Hooray!

The hardest battles you can fight are the ones in your own mind.  I’ve found this week to be quite easy-going with those battles; the hardcore fight will be through next week when I am working late Monday-Thursday so I will be tired and want the pick-up of junk food.  To save myself from that, I think I am going to have to leave all cash and cards at home.

I’m tired from badminton, so I am off to bed now.  Until tomorrow, good health and goodnight.

Back to Badminton

An early post from me tonight as I am off out to play badminton for two and a half hours.  How I miss that sport!

I haven’t been for a while because of injury and then two weeks of having other commitments.  Now I am fixed and not otherwise occupied I can go back to it.

Why badminton?  Well I seem to do alright in sports which aren’t considered mainstream.  I was/am an avid field hockey player, I’m just trying to get over a back injury I sustained two years ago.  I think that was mainly down to my weight that I got it.  As I haven’t shifted the weight, I think that’s why I havent shaken it off fully.

Also, badminton is a deceptively fast paced sport which focuses on explosive bursts to get you round the court.  The movements keep your body guessing at what is coming next, which makes it a great work out.  One moment you might be darting forward and lunging to get a shot which has just dropped over the net, the next you might be rushing back to get your opponent’s clear.  Great stuff.

As a result, I won’t be doing my regular work out tonight, but I won’t feel bad about that.  More so that I didn’t eat the last, or any, cakes today.  I did have a treat at lunch, however; the bottle of Pepsi-Max I have been going on about all week.  It was lovely!

So, what did I have today?

Breakfast:

• 2 slices of toast with light butter
• 1 glass of orange juice
• 2 slices of cucumber (after I made my lunch, that’s all that was left)

Lunch:

• Tuna-mayo and cucumber sandwich
• Muller light peach and pineapple yogurt
• two granny smiths apples
• 1 banana

Dinner:

• Reheated roast from yesterday: roast beef, cabbage, carrots and mash potato.

As well as the 600ml bottle of Pepsi Max (all 2 calories of it!) I have, so far, gone through 2 litres of water.

At badminton I will probably go through another 2-3 litres of the stuff, and then something else when we go to the bar afterwards to socialise.

I have a busy day tomorrow.  I have to get up early to go with my sister to get her new car; walk to the hair dressers to get my hair cut; and then I probably need to go with my sister to help her pick a sat-nav system.  Busy busy.  I’ll be at the cinema tomorrow night too.  Non-stop for me.

No questions to get you thinking today; I gave you two yesterday in different posts.

My workout step 2: press-ups

If you look back at my work-out plan for this round, the second step is 10 press-ups (or push-ups if you like).  I know pretty much everyone knows what they are, and just about everyone hates them.

I found this page online which explains the movement and what it is good for.  It’s quite detailed and full of information.

Can’t do press/push ups?  no problem, they list some alternatives on there to help you get started.  To be honest, I can’t do more than two full press-ups, which is terrible, so I do the alternative one in my routines at the moment.

I think as part of my next work-out section, I am going to work through this to see how much of an improvement I can get in 6 weeks.  I just need to figure out which days to do it on.

So there you have it, starting March 16th, I am going to go through that program to see how well I can do.  Who’s with me?

A tip to stop snacking on a night

Before this diet and change I started a little over two weeks ago, I used to get bored and snack on and off through the evening/night until I went to bed.  That was one of the many contributing factors to my weight piling back on after all my hard work last year.

Fortunately I have a nice nightly routine for through the week which I could easily adjust to help me stop snacking.  In fact, now I have started it, I find myself wondering why I never did it earlier.  Probably because I enjoy food, so snacking was something to do.

My evening routine, once I get in, is usually:

• make food (if I need to)
• eat food
• play on the Playstation to unwind for 30 minutes
• do my workout, including warm up and cool down
• bath/shower
• work on my websites, check facebook, blog until 9:30
• read a book for 30 minutes
• phone call with my girlfriend for about 30 minutes
• sleep

So how, in all of that, do I add something in to stop me from snacking through the night?  Simple:

Once I have had my bath or shower, I brush my teeth.  Instead of brushing just before I go to bed, I brush nearly two hours earlier.  The last thing you want to do when you have clean teeth is to dirty them again, knowing you will have to brush them once more.  Let’s face it, brushing your teeth is a chore so you do what you can to avoid it.

Also, do you really want to risk having one of your favorite snacks ruined by the taste of toothpaste and mouthwash?  I certainly don’t.

It’s a really easy step to take to help keep the snacking at bay.  What do you do to avoid snacking?

Sometimes you can’t say “no”

As you might have guessed, I didn’t resist everything I was tempted with today.  No one is perfect.  Besides, I am allowed a small treat every now and again.

Today I resisted the temptation of the last blueberry muffin from yesterday, and all of the cream cakes which were brought in today.  However, when one of my colleagues offered me some Icelandic candy, I thought “why not, it’s not every day you get offered Icelandic candy…unless you are in Iceland I guess”.  From what I gather, people in Iceland have a thing for chocolate and licorice.  The genius folks there put the two together to give chocolate coated licorice, so I had a small bar.  It was about a third of the size of a regular Mars bar, but so much nicer!

That was my badness for today but, as I said, I resisted the cream cakes.  I’m going well.

So what did I have for food today?  Whilst you’ll be able to guess lunch for this week, breakfast was a little different.  Not much.

Breakfast:

• 1 slice of toast with light butter
• 1 toasted tea cake with light butter
• 1 glass of orange juice

Lunch:

• Tuna-mayo and cucumber sandwich
• Muller light strawberry yogurt
• 2 granny smiths apples
• 1 banana

Dinner:

• Roast beef dinner with lots of veg; cabbage, potato, peas, parsnip and carrots.

I’ve had over 2 litres of water today to keep me hydrated.  There are points through the day when it never seems enough.  Still, I feel good for it!

Despite the heavy dinner today, I still managed to get my workout in.  I managed to hold the first plank for 30 seconds, the other two for around 20 each.  The whole workout is tiring for me, and really raises my heart rate; which is a good thing.  I hope there are results to show for it in 2 weeks time for the weigh-in.

That gives me two weeks to plan a new exercise routine, which leads to today’s question: What exercises, which can be done with no equipment, would you include in a workout for yourself if you had no access to workout equipment?

My Workout: Prisoner Squat

At present, my work out starts with 10 prisoner squats in a circuit.  I thought I would post here what it is, and how to do it.  It’s really simple and works you a little.

How do you do it?

1. stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart facing forward
2. put your hands behind your head
3. bend your knees until your thighs are parallel with the floor, or as close as you can get.
4. Straighten up.  That’s one rep!

To see a video of how it is done, watch this YouTube video.