Days 14 to 18 – 23rd to 27th January 2012

Hello everybody! 

This is the biggest gap between posts since I started and it now feels that it’s probably the correct frequency, unless something significant occurs in between posts. This was also the week of the Burns Supper, which was always going to be a challenge to my dietary plans! It turned out not too bad on that front I reckon, and it was also a fantastic night catching up with Ken, Dave, Craig and others whom I hadn’t seen for quite a while.

WEIGHTS & MEASURES

So, the weekly Tuesday weigh in at the gym took place as usual. I’m delighted to say progress is still being made as I clocked in at 99.6kg. Breaking 100kg made me feel very happy as you can imagine. For the record here are the results of the weekly weigh in jury…

Week 1 – 101.7kg

Week2 – 100.5kg

Week 3– 99.6kg

In a previous post I mentioned using Wii Fit to weigh myself and track progress. I was pleased to find out that it is completely in line with my weigh ins at the gym. This gives me some confidence in the accuracy of the measurements! On the Wii Fit you have an Avatar known as a Mii. It actually gets fatter/slimmer based on your BMI.  My Mii is still a bit rotund, but slightly less so this week.  Just like Mii.

FOOD

1.       A review of anything new I’ve tried that is ‘in scope’.

I haven’t taken on any of Susan’s soup recipes yet but when I do I would like to publish the recipe and results if she is cool with that. I’ll check with her.  Karen gave me a great curry recipe book for Christmas and it had its first outing tonight. Scarlett and I made a fantastic chicken and spinach curry which was really tasty and low in carbs and fat. Scarlett’s mum loved it!

2.       Passing on recommendations from others. (Do’s and Don’ts)

I have finally settled down to the controlled carbs approach. This means I’m not eating very much carbs but hopefully they are ‘good carbs’.  Have been doing muesli in the morning, which has been great, but I reckon porridge is the better option from a carb perspective. Both Clare and Susan put me on the porridge path and I will try to stick to it while working away.

3.       Stories of me straying from the true path (and seeking forgiveness!)

Burns Supper!

Ate the haggis and the neeps but not the tatties!

Had three glasses of red wine

Loads of Highland Park

But…Lots of water

4.       Questions that I haven’t been able to get an answer to (yet).

On food labeling is there a good ratio between total weight and the amount of carbs and the amount of carbs that are sugars? And what about starch? For example….

Porridge              100g   Carbs 60g   Carbs that are sugars 1g

Rice Krispies      100g   Carbs 87g   Carbs that are sugars 10g Starch 77g !!

Any insight into these ratios would be gratefully welcomed.

EXERCISE

In Copenhagen things have been going great based on Jimmy’s programme. This week though I have been working from home for a couple of days, so I attended the local ‘council gym’ down at East Ren in order to keep the momentum going (22 quid for induction plus 4 additional visits).  It’s not as spacious but it’s pretty well equipped and the folk there were really helpful. However, some of the machines for developing the areas I’m targeting are designed differently and I discovered that you can’t compare like with like when it comes to weights. The result is that I have injured myself by going too hard and too heavy on one of the machines. Deep Heat has been applied to the offending area. I’ll discuss the injury and my ‘other gym’ strategy with Jimmy on Monday.

Bye !

Days 11,12, & 13 - 20th to 22nd January 2012

Hello everybody! 

Well, I’ve now kept this up for two weeks and it’s beginning to feel ‘normal’. Eugene said to me that it takes 3 weeks to form a habit and I reckon he’s spot on. On each occasion today that I had a choice whether to stick to the programme or not, I did the right thing. So, I went to the gym even though I couldn’t really be bothered. I stayed on the treadmill for the allotted time even though I really felt it tough. I did all the strength exercises 3 times even though my body was saying ‘what the hell are you doing’?  I missed one exercise today though, as will be explained in the exercise section.  Have re-evaluated my approach to food this week due to advice received from various good folk! Read on.

(Haven’t weighed or measured myself since the previous post, so this section does not appear this week)

FOOD

1.       A review of anything new I’ve tried that is ‘in scope’.

In my Copenhagen ‘hotel’ room I have a microwave, a kettle and a toaster.  So, if I’m going to cook anything myself it has to be compatible with those tools. (There’s also a hairdryer, but I’m struggling to think what you could cook with it).  Don’t laugh, but I decided to microwave a sirloin steak. Now I usually like my steaks ‘rare’, but this is not really an option when using a microwave.  I blasted it so much that it actually got to the same texture as beef jerky (or maybe more like biltong. Erle?) Anyway, it still had flavour and it wasn’t too difficult to eat, Just goes to show you!

2.       Passing on recommendations from others. (Do’s and Don’ts)

Three main points to talk about.

a.    Good advice from Susan and Will about the amount of fat I should be eating. It should be low. Will recommends about 200g per day, which I might just eat with a spoon from a tub of Lurpak. :P   Actually I haven’t been paying attention to fat content until now because it’s not carbs(!). Last week I ate an entire plate of pork crackling (with some pork meat attached) in the work’s canteen. Now I am going to be much more sensible!

b.    A few folk have said to me (Clare, Susan, Karen, Paul, Jane, Erle ,Neill)  that carbs aren’t   necessarily off the menu, as long as it’s the right kind of carbs at the right time. This was reinforced by my trainer, Jimmy. He suggested that I have some slow releasing carbs at breakfast, like muesli. For some reason though I am still suspicious of this. Probably because it is contrary to Eugene’s approach and he has had a lot of success with that.

c.   Trainer Jimmy also said not to overdo the fruit. Once again Susan was in first with this recommendation (now endorsed by the Australian government). This is a wee bit of a shame because I wasn’t a big fruit eater before and I’m now really into it. As for tomatoes, no-one has really defined their contribution yet , apart from Erle who says that they’re the only thing you can eat loads of and not die as a result(!)

3.       Stories of me straying from the true path (and seeking forgiveness!)

I had to scrape some sauce from my tuna steak tonight. Apart from that, not much to report.

HOWEVER !

On Wednesday next week I’m attending a Burns Supper. I can’t see any way of sticking to the programme on that night!  Haggis, neeps, tatties! Need I say more?  Might just have to be a night off!  Will let you know if I succumb.

4.       Questions that I haven’t been able to get an answer to.

Tomatoes. Nobody knows! Are they good, bad or indifferent?!

EXERCISE

I had a 75 minute session with my trainer Jimmy on Saturday at 9am. Even having to get up and get prepared for exercise at this time on a Saturday morning was good for me.  This was the most educational training session I’ve ever had. I realised that for the past week or so I had been doing ‘pretendy’ exercise! Undoubtedly I have been getting benefit from my own ‘programme’, but post Jimmy it’s a different game.

Firstly, I am now running. On the flat. Although I was fast walking at 6.5kph on an incline of 6%, I am now running at 8kph on 0%. It feels much harder although the calorie count is almost identical!  I do this for 20 minutes with 1 minute walking breaks every 4 minutes.

Jimmy has set this weights/strength programme for me.  (the leg stuff is targeted on my snapped, right ACL)

All of the exercises below are done 3 times with 12 repetitions.

·         Leg Press  - 70kg

·         Leg Curl  - 20kg

·         Chest Press  - 0kg (Just using the bar to practise technique, then add weights.).

·         Back Row – 40kg

·         Pull Down – 35

·         Shoulder Press (free weight) – 4kg per arm

·         Abs on a big gym ball !

·         Lower Back on a weird device you think you might fall off ( and which is really tough)

Didn’t do the Abs today because they are really sore from yesterday! Need to ask Jimmy how best to approach this. Any ideas?

Bye !

Days 8,9, & 10 - 17th to 19th January 2012

So, back in Copenhagen and back on the straight and narrow. Have been in the gym every night since I got here and have been sticking to the dietary plan almost 100%. Fairly exhausted tonight though. I reckon this is an accumulation of fatigue throughout the week, so will probably still attend the gym tomorrow but keep it light. Bit of cycling or something. If you think this is a bit wimpy and that I should keep the tempo up, please let me know, and let me know why!

WEIGHTS & MEASURES

Day 8 was a Tuesday and this is the day of the week I have chosen to weigh myself on the scales at the gym.  Here are the results…

Day 1 Weight:  101.7kg

Day 8 Weight:  100.5kg

So that’s a loss of 1.2kg (or 2.6lbs in old money) during the first week. I have to say that I’m very pleased with that. However, something in the back of my mind says that there is often a first week dividend in weight loss when you commence a new diet. Not sure if this is true, but I will be happy enough if I continue to lose even 1lb each week.

Another measure I’m calculating is how much it’s costing me per visit to the gym (can’t help it). It cost me 120 quid for 3 months membership, and I have been to the gym 7 times now. So it’s now standing and 17.14 quid for each episode of torture! This is another driver to get me out the hotel room and into the gym when I get back from work.

FOOD

Going with the new structure for this section as outlined in the previous blog post, here goes…

1.       A review of anything new I’ve tried that is ‘in scope’.

It’s nice to eat out occasionally and there’s usually a steak on the menu in most places. However, this week I tried out the Kebabish that I spotted a week or so ago. The place itself is really basic, with almost a ‘greasy spoon’ feel to it. Their mixed grill though was absolutely fantastic. Seekh kebab, chicken tikka, lamb tikka and a lamb chop with some salad! Yum.  Will definitely be going back… soon!

2.       Passing on recommendations from others. (Do’s and Don’ts)

After the previous disappointment around chick peas and Bovril I’ve been looking for some good news. I think the answer is Coke Zero. I have been reassured (you know who you are!) that there is practically nothing in this but fizzy water, caffeine and some black colouring! :P

I have bought into this, and it is nice to have a fizzy soft drink that’s allowed. Saying that, I’ve always drunk a lot of water, so the Coke Zero is a nice to have.

3.       Stories of me straying from the true path (and seeking forgiveness!)

I have been a good boy!  The only thing maybe worth a mention is my visit to The Globe bar on Wednesday night to watch El Clasico. I had a few straight vodkas and ice with slices of lemon. I believe this is about as strict as you can get while still drinking alcohol. What do you think?

4.       Questions that I haven’t been able to get an answer to.

Here’s a question. Can I take on as much protein and fat in my food as I want as long as I avoid carbs? This is a message I’ve been getting from a number of sources, however it is counter intuitive to me based on how I’ve been educated on this subject in the past.  This is exactly my approach at the moment, but any thoughts on it?

Guacamole. Well? Good or bad?!

EXERCISE

For the last three days I have kept with the treadmill and then some weights. I’m still fast walking at 6.5kph but upping the challenge by increasing the incline of the walk. The majority of the time this is at 6%, but I drop to 4.5% or even 3% when it’s a bit of a struggle.

On Saturday (Day 12) at 9 am I have an hour with one of the trainer’s from the gym (Jimmy), so that puts the kaibosh on any Friday night pub shenanigans!  Also I got it wrong in my previous post about the class I am attending later that Saturday morning. It is ‘Kettle Cross’. Apparently it involves a big heavy kettle. The mind boggles.

Bye !

Days 5,6, & 7 - 14th to 16th January 2012

I haven’t posted for a few days, basically because I didn’t find any time! However, now that I’m past the first week of the new lifestyle it’s probably sufficient to only post every few days in order to keep momentum.

Tomorrow is the day of the week when I check my weight. Also, I did a few body measurements at the weekend so I shall be monitoring and reporting on progress in that area too. When I have something to report it will be in a section called WEIGHTS & MEASURES. I actually do have something to report in this post, and it concerns my archive weight/bmi in Wii Fit !

WEIGHTS & MEASURES

We got a Wii Fit about 3 years ago, and as with many of these things it was used enthusiastically for a wee (Wii) while.  I haven’t touched it for years, although the kids still use it on occasion. This Sunday I went back on it to check the difference between my current weight and that from nearly 900 days ago! Interestingly I was 7lb lighter than I was then. This doesn’t surprise me too much, because I have been well over 16st a few times over the years.  I’ll now be using the Wii every couple of weeks as another way of tracking progress.

Regarding the 7lb weight loss, I informed Erle of this today and he asked ‘is it due to loss of fat or los of muscle’? Good question! I have absolutely no idea! Maybe a mixture of both.

FOOD

First things first. Chick Peas are 27% carbohydrate , so they are, sadly, off the menu.  

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/legumes-and-legume-products/4326/2

As I’m moving to a post every few days this section will now be structured on four topics.

1.       A review of anything new I’ve tried that is ‘in scope’.

2.       Passing on recommendations from others. (Do’s and Don’ts)

3.       Stories of me straying from the true path (and seeking forgiveness!)

4.       Questions that I haven’t been able to get an answer to.

I should hopefully have plenty of new material for each new post.

As regards my food intake in the past few days I have been a very good boy! I even took some sliced red peppers and broccoli to the IMAX for Mission Impossible!  My only faux pas was having a Bovril at the football. I assumed that this would be fairly safe. Wrong!! Full of potato starch, as I found out when I actually checked.

Finally a mention for Susan, who has sent me some delicious looking soup recipes. I’ll be trying out one of theme as soon as I get back home to my kitchen!

EXERCISE

Apart from running up and down to the car with a few bags for recycling, I had no meaningful exercise over the weekend. The 6km walk I had planned didn’t happen due to other events (dear boy, events). The lesson here is that my weekend planning needs to be much better. At least one weekend day should contain a long walk in it. Will also be trying to get swimming on the agenda as this can be a family inclusive venture!

So, after that weekend it was good to get back into the gym this evening. Did some fast walking , some weights and also tried the cross trainer. This was the first time I had been on this device and it took a bit of getting used to! Once I got some limb coordination going it I found it quite good, and it provides a bit of variety.

I also booked in to see one of the trainers for an hour so that he can help me put a programme together. The particular guy I want to see is only available on Saturday at 9am though, so it’s going to be a quiet Friday night for me.  At 11.15am on the same day I have enrolled in an introduction to cross training. As I get these sessions for free I thought I should start attending some when I can. I get the impression that cross training is a milder version of Jane’s recommended ‘boot camp’ events! We’ll see.

Day 4 - 13th January 2012

Friday is the day I travel back from Denmark to Scotland.  I usually get a direct flight to Glasgow around lunchtime, but today I had to stay later at the office to do a presentation, so it was a convoluted and much longer trip back via Amsterdam .  This was always going to impact my exercise schedule, but I managed to keep in control of the food.

FOOD

Brekky – Four pieces of cooked ham, slices of red pepper, some tomatoes and cucumber. Glass of water

Lunch –  Canteen salad bar. Four slices of roast pork, cheese, green peppers, onions, cucumber and one egg.

Dinner –  Had dinner at the airport. Initially I thought this was going to be a challenge with all the noodle,  pizza and pasta places I had used there in the past. What I hadn’t seen before was the Hereford  Steak House, who promise to have your steak at your table in 12 minutes max! I went for a 200g rib eye on its own (if you don’t count the wee bit of parsley) and I also took the all you could eat salad option. Had two visits to the salad bar and it was very, very good. Had lots of jalapenos, olives (are they ok?), cucumber, pickled onions, peppers, broccoli, spinach and raw mushroom. Steak was fantastic quality, although I asked for it rare and it came medium rare. I reckon it’s those burning hot plates they serve them to you on. The steaks probably leave the grill rare and have cooked a bit more by the time they arrive at your table!

Snacks – Two bananas, some roast chicken bits.

Drinks – Green tea and black tea. Loads of water. Had two drams of Ardberg’s finest when I got home. (A leaving gift from my previous job. Thanks folks, it’s delicious)

Today’s question is about Diet Coke. I’ve been told by more than one person to avoid Diet Coke, but that Coke Zero should be ok. I can’t remember exactly why. Can someone remind me?! Also, are there similar issues with other low calorie drinks? I’ve got a bottle of 7 Up Free in the fridge. Is it ok to drink it?!!

EXERCISE

No gym today due to work and travel. This actually irritated me a bit and I suppose that’s a good thing. Instead I used as many stairs as I could, even if it was a spurious look around CPH airport. Had some luck on arriving at AMS airport for my transfer. The inbound plane parked at the end of the B pier and my outbound flight was at the end of the D pier. I don’t think you can actually get gates that are further apart at AMS. So, I avoided the excellent moving walkways they have for dealing with these long distances and just walked along the floor. At times I was trying to keep up with people who were on the moving walkways, but I reckon they had about 1kmph on me.

Tomorrow’s cunning plan is to do a 6km walk in the morning. Hopefully the weather in Glasgow will be as good as it (apparently) was today.  

Day 3 - 12th January 2012

Woke up this morning after last night in the pub with no ill effects, and actually felt a bit more energetic than during Day 2.  Ended up in a pub again this evening, but it was a quiz night at The Globe, so that’s ok then.  (Neill and I came 2nd out of 24 teams, only just beaten by the regular winning team of 5 boffins! They won 130 quid but we got 65. Obviously we came out best on a winnings per team member basis!)

My mention of Body Mass Index in the Day 2 post got a lot of reaction both online and offline, and I am now a skeptic. Darren’s view of it gets a 12A certificate. Phil pointed out that rugby players who are fit as fiddles have BMIs which make them ‘morbidly obese’!  My nephew Chris told me that he is considered overweight via BMI, which, if you know him,  is ridiculous. Susan suggested that hip to waist ratio might be one of the ways to monitor progress.  On that last point, there was a discussion over breakfast at the hotel where Erle also suggested measuring your body stats to check progress, as you may lose fat without necessarily losing weight. This sounds very sensible as I am carrying a lot of extra weight on the torso at the moment and I would hope that it would start disappearing over the coming weeks and months. Time to buy a measuring tape!

Reckon that I’ll still weigh myself every week though, just to see if there is any change in that area. Will let you know.

FOOD

Brekky – Four pieces of cooked ham, slices of red pepper and some tomatoes. Glass of water

Lunch –  A plate with the following piled on it from the canteen salad bar. Four slices of roast pork, four slices of roast chicken, herring, cheese, green peppers, celery, red cabbage and one egg. I also put cold butter beans on my plate but was informed by Neill and Erle that this was ‘starch city’, so I sadly had to leave them untouched.

Dinner – Bit of a rush after the gym as Neill and I had to get to the quiz at the Globe. Had scrambled eggs with smoke salmon and tomatoes, two rice cakes and some raw cauliflower.

Snacks – Two bananas, an orange, raw cauliflower and some slices of ham.

Drinks – Green tea, black tea, black tea with lemon and camomile tea.  Loads of water. A ‘few’ straight vodkas and ice during the quiz!  

A  question about chick peas and the derivative, humous.  I’ve been informed that, as they are protein and not starched based, that they are available for selection! Is this your view too? I’m hoping there’s a positive response to this because I love the stuff.

EXERCISE

This was another quick visit to the gym due to the need to make it along to the Globe quiz (see opening paragraph, decision vindicated).

I went straight to the treadmill. Although it can be a wee bit boring I had my Infinite Monkey Cage BBC podcast to get me through it. As with yesterday I just kept to the fast walking because this seems to be exercising me enough for the moment.  This time though I upped the gradient to make it a wee bit harder.

I used the treadmill for 30 minutes. I walked just over 3km and burned 220 calories fast walking on a gradient of 5% for 20 minutes and 6% for 10 minutes. I noticed that I could control my breathing in a way that brought my heartbeat down and allowed me to up the gradient!

I then went on the weights for remaining 15 minutes. It was all upper body stuff as I want to be like Charles Atlas! (See Bazooka Joe bubble gum offers circa 1974).

Back tomorrow!

Day 2 - 11th January 2012

I’ve been a wee bit tired today which I’ve put down to a combination of blogging to 0030 yesterday, adjusting to exercise and also adjusting to a new diet.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's Day 1 post that I weighed myself at the gym.  I came in at a whopping 101.7kg, which is almost bang on 16st in old money.  As I am 1.84m tall I either have to lose about 3st (over 20kg) or to grow to about 2.1m in height in order to have a healthy BMI (Body Mass Index). It’s currently at 30.1 and I should be in the 20 to 25 region.

I have had different advice on the frequency of weighing yourself (daily or once a week). I reckon I’ll go for the once a week option as I would be hoping to see progress, and it might be demotivating to see up and down fluctuations on a daily basis!

FOOD

Brekky – Three pieces of cooked ham, scrambled eggs, melon and pineapple. Half litre of water.

Lunch – Once again a big plateful from the canteen salad bar with small portions each of red and green peppers, cold ham, salami, roast beef, pickled herring, tuna, salmon,  onions, blue cheese, raw mushrooms, two hard boiled eggs.  Half litre of water. (I also had some beetroot before realising it was of course a root vegetable!)  

By the way they have this stuff called Chilli Explosion at the canteen. It’s in a large pepper grinder type thingy and I use copious amounts of it after I’ve loaded up my plate!

Dinner - Went out with colleagues and had a 200g sirloin steak with green beans. Drank San Pellegrino with it! Really good.

Snacks – Two small bananas , a pear, 3 slices of parma ham, raw cauliflower

Drinks – Green tea. Loads of water. One bourbon and ice, two Stolichnaya and ice (with slices of lemon!)   

So it didn’t take me very long into this venture to end up in a pub!  (The justification of this visit was to watch the Man City v Liverpool match, so that’s ok then). While in there I followed Eugene’s advice of only having spirits and, if having a mixer, which I didn't, only using diet tonic water or actual water. Was a bit weird compared to sinking pints of Guinness, but on the whole it’s an approach I could get used to.   

Still eating a lot of fruit! Susan reckons this might be too much (lots of sugars in them  I presume), so I shall start cutting down, starting with breakfast tomorrow.  Of course I still need my Five-A-Day, which up until now I got via the wonderful Magner’s Cider.

Quick question to everyone about tomatoes. As these are apparently a fruit (seeds on inside), should I cut down on these too?

I'm also worried about my egg consumption. Think I might be overdoing it a bit and piling up the cholestorol.

EXERCISE

As I was going out with colleagues this evening I only had 45 minutes available in the gym. I eschewed the weight machines and focused on the treadmill and bicycle. Based on Eugene and Susan’s feedback I checked out my optimum heart rate range for exercising, which turns out to be between 128 and 138 bpm. This knowledge had a direct impact on how I used the treadmill !

So, I used the treadmill first for 30 minutes. I walked 3km and burned 170 calories fast walking on a gradient of 4%. The reason for the walking was that whenever I sped up, my heart rate quickly jumped to 150+.  I think this means that I have a bit to go yet to even get close to fitness!

In the remaining 15 minutes I jumped on the bike and burned 95 calories over 5.5km at level 4.

You might have noticed that I dropped a couple of levels from Day 1 on the bike. This is because I felt really tired after only one day’s exercise. Will be interesting to see how my body responds on Day 3.

Finally, I want to send my good wishes to my brother-in-law Neil who lives in Turks & Caicos. A car driver cut across him today and knocked him off his bicycle. From the photos it looks like the helmet and his face took most of the impact of his fall. In fact his helmet split in two so it’s a good job he was wearing one in the first place or it could have been very serious.  Although drivers in Denmark are very aware of the cyclists they share the roads with, this incident has made me think twice of cycling to and from the office.  Many in the medical profession jokingly refer to cyclists as ‘organ donors’ but unfortunately there are real risks for cyclists on any road, anywhere.

Day 1 - 10th January 2012

Firstly I'm still overwhelmed about how many folk are sharing advice and their experiences on both exercise and nutrition. A few in quite some detail. Sincere thanks again for taking the time to do this. It's very much appreciated. Although there are occasionally competing approaches proposed (especially on the ideal foods to eat), it means that I am fully informed of the options and their particular benefits. I will share these with you in this the blog and tell you which I've decided to go for. Feel free to add your own experiences and opinions about these choices.

I consider this the real Day 1 of this venture as yesterday I did no actual exercise apart from handing over 999 DKR for 3 months gym membership! Today I actually went to the gym and used the equipment. I'll tell you more about this later in the post.

I think I need some sort of structure to these posts. Not sure what would be best, so I'll take a trial and error approach. Any feedback on the structure gratefully received! Here goes...

Food
I have been munching for Scotland today. stuffing myself with every piece of 'healthy' food I can get my hands on. In fact I've already stopped while writing this post to cut up chunks of cauliflower to snack on. Contrary to Susan's advice earlier today that I should, in effect, 'breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper' , I actually swapped the king and the pauper roles around and was a bit king-esque at lunchtime too. Here's the inventory....

Brekky - Muesli and natural yoghurt, melon and pineapple. Glass of water. (was in a hurry mind you)
Lunch - Big plateful from the canteen salad bar of red and green peppers, cold ham, salami, red cabbage, red lentils, pate (smaller bit than yesterday), blue cheese,raw mushrooms, two hard boiled eggs.  Half litre of water.
Dinner - Scrambled eggs (3!) with parma ham and tomatoes. A rice cake. Two slices of cooked ham, three slices of roast beef.
Snacks - Two bananas, a tangerine, a mango, a few handfuls of peanuts and some cauliflower
Drinks - Four cups of green tea and lots of water.

I mean, that is veritable feast! This is no challenge at all if I'm munching this on a daily basis. Doesn't feel right! Would be interested to know what you think?

One thing I do have available as a snack, but which I haven't touched, are some carrots. This is because Eugene, who has been exceptionally good at sharing his own very successful experiences, has told me that root vegetables are out! Apparently this is to do with their solubility in your stomach. The thing is, as they are soluble they slow down your metabolism. So I'm going to avoid them and stick to green leaf stuff instead. Eugene actually has a complete radical programme that worked extremely well for him. Will come back to it in another post.

Many of you, Julie, Pam, Susan, etc are very much recommending a balanced diet where the bad stuff is significantly reduced, if not completely eliminated (e.g. vino!), or you eat moderate portions of 'good verions' of the bad stuff like, wholemeal bread.

The Jury's still out for me on which consistent approach to nutrition to select , but I should really make some sort of decision soon!

Exercise
Although Darren and Julie suggested (for different reasons) that I shouldn't use a gym, I had already paid my dosh so I went along for the first time this evening. Started out on some simple, light stuff as I obviously need to acclimatise a bit first! Here's the 'programme' and the stats.

Used the cycling machine for 27 minutes. Level 5 for the first 15 mins and then the rest on level 6. Both on the flat. The calorie count was 192 and the distance was a smidgen over 10KM. I like the bike because it's gentle on my dodgy knee, but it's not as hard as the treadmill as I later found out!

Did a few weight machines on various muscles around the body. didn't push it too much and on one occasion I had to drop the previous user's 65KG setting down to 30KG! A bit of a way to go then!

Finished off on the treadmill for 23 minutes. Ran on the flat for 2.4KM. Calorie count was 122. Heart rate got to 150 on one occasion. Need to check if this is ok! I have to say that I felt more benefit (knacked) from the running than the cycling.

When I got back to hotel I took the stairs to my 4th floor room. I'm employing this 'take the stairs' tactic, as recommended by Ture, whenever I can.

Got some interesting suggestions during the day on exercise ideas.

The scariest one was from Jane who recommended army style bootcamps that take place at the weekend around Glasgow! Not sure I'm quite ready for this yet! Maybe if I improve my general fitness a bit first.

Darren proposed that I get off public transport earlier than I need to and walk the rest of the way to my destination. Will probably do this occasionally. Would expect the frequency to increase as the weather improves!

Finally, my cousin Paul suggested that I cycle to work, as a considerable number of people do in Copenhagen. I checked the distance between hotel and the office (10KM) and I'm seriously considering it. Will make enquiries on how to obtain a cheap, cheerful and functional bicycle !

Thanks again to all who are taking an interest!   

Day 0 (zero) - 9th January 2012

So, in my enthusiasm to enlist the help of FaceBook friends for encouragement and advice on how achieve my lifestyle change, I inadvertently caused mayhem in many inboxes and on many timelines. I'm just about over the embarrassment of this but have at least learned something else about the mechanics of FaceBook.

Of course the reason why there was so much activity was due to the great response I got. As well as genuine encouragement there was no shortage of advice and folk sharing their own experiences. I think some of the different advice on approach may be incompatible with each other, so I quickly have to decide what's the most appropriate way forward for me.

The reason I called today Day Zero was because I always expected this to be a day of positioning and dipping my toes in the water of healthy eating before getting stuck in completely from Day 1. So, here is a (short) list of today's achievements!

• Joined a gym just around the corner from my Copenhagen hotel (but no gym activity today I must confess)
• Had hotel a breakfast that did not involve bread, but did involve muesli ! Also had two boiled eggs.
• At work I lunched on turkey (yes, I know), salad peas, tomatoes and pate. (What's the general view on pate as an acceptable food in this venture?)
• Went to the supermarket and bought eggs, ham, tomatoes, carrots, grapes,celery,water,mixed nuts and paprika rice cakes (which are delicious, so i'm having one right now).
• Rustled up some scrambled egg with tomato and ham and had my first rice cake.
• No alcohol !

 Would be interested in getting your opinion on the suitability of the above foodstuffs and if you've got any other recommendations (especially tasty ones!).

Advice Received
Thanks to everyone for their advice on how to approach this. Received various recommendations via various channels. Here are some of the highlights.

• Use a pedometer to measure how much walking you're doing each day (Susan and Pam separately) - this one looks pretty good http://www.argos.co.uk/ProductDisplayTRK019?partNumber=9279430
  
• Choose hills and stairs when walking if they're an option (Ture)


• Regularly do 10 minutes of press ups/sit ups in the hotel room. Use apps such as iPushUps and iSitUps to support this. (Darren)


• Stay focussed but do things in moderation (Janice)


• Get to sleep early! (Ross) - this is difficult for me


• Cut way down on the carbs but don't go mad or you'll just end up having a blow out! (Neill and Erle) - I completely eliminated carbs once and ended up devouring an entire tub of Haagen-Dazs in a frenzy


• And a pile of advice from (Eugene) , including; Routine, routine and routine. 3km brisk walk every day. Breakfast without any Wheat, Bread, Butter. Soup for lunch. Dinner without any pasta, rice, potatoes. 2 litres of water. No wine, beer but white spirits ok with diet tonic. (also Jack and ice would be ok).

So there's a lot to play with there!

Tomorrow is Day 1 for real, and I'll be heading to the gym. Should be fun :P

Day -1 (minus 1) - 8th January 2012

Two fried eggs, square sausage (fried), fried bacon, white Warburtons toast with thick layer of Lurpak, two wines on a flight to Copenhagen, two pints of Guinness and two cheeseburgers from McDonalds.

In theory this is my last 'unhealthy' day for quite some time. I would like to think that today was like a condemned man's last meal, but it's not far from typical, especially on a weekend day.

The fact that I travel a lot doesn't help and it adds another dimension to this challenge!

I'm hoping that writing this blog keeps me focussed on this objective. If you're following it then your encouragement and advice is much appreciated!

ps Happy 1st Birthday to my granddaughter Lily!