Days 19 to 25 – 28th January to 3rd February 2012

Hello everybody! 

When I initially started this blog I stated that it was a tactic to help me improve my diet and my fitness habits by almost shaming myself into actually doing something about it. At that time I was blogging on a daily basis and this was fuelled by the excellent contributions quite a few of you made during that initial period, in the way of advice, encouragement or both. As I’ve been developing good habits over the first few weeks  (as predicted by Eugene), I have been using the blog less as a daily motivation tool and the frequency of posts has lengthened. It’s now been a week since my last post and maybe that’s the correct frequency for sharing my experiences and canvassing your advice.  Of course if I stray off the path of righteousness I may have to start blogging more frequently again!  

WEIGHTS & MEASURES

Once again I have made progress at the Tuesday weigh in. I’m now at the stage where I will be crushed if I don’t because I’m getting too used to it!  So, between the week 3 and week 4 weigh-ins I lost another kilo (or 2.2 lbs in old money ). Here’s the story so far…

Week 1 – 101.7kg

Week2 – 100.5kg

Week 3 –  99.6kg

Week 4 –  98.6kg

Haven’t checked the Wii fit numbers yet, but I will before the next blog post.

FOOD

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

Susan, I still haven’t made any of your recommended soups yet, but I shall tonight! Will report back on the success or otherwise of the venture.

I’m sticking to the porridge plan for brekky, but when I’m away it is only available as raw oats in the hotel breakfast bar. I just add milk and some light yogurt to a couple of tablespoonfuls of this. It is surprisingly good, however I stick to the cooked stuff at home. By the way I still add salt to porridge, which is a particularly Scottish habit I believe. Do others do this too?

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

A recommendation from my trainer Jimmy is to take a handful of nuts before exercising at the gym. They’ve got carbs but they are slow release and good for supplying the wee bit of energy that you need during a workout. I’ve just been using plain old peanuts but my colleague Neill tells me that almonds are particularly good for this job.

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

Sorry to be boring, but I’ve been pretty good this week!  I’m occasionally adding ingredients to things that I make that are dodgy in their own right, but which are a small percentage of an overall healthy meal. (e.g. Soy Sauce). That’s as naughty as it gets at the moment.

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

It seems to me that all I’ve really cut out of my diet significantly is bread, rice, potatoes (all forms) , wine , beer and sugar (all forms). Everything else is more or less available to me, albeit sometimes in small quantities. Is that it? Is that all that is required? If so then my confidence in sustaining this lifestyle is increasing. In tandem with the weight loss each week this is very encouraging. Maybe it will be challenged when the weight loss finally stops!

EXERCISE

I took some advice from a trainer at the Copenhagen gym about the back muscle injury I sustained at the Eastwood gym and I got some surprising advice. I was expecting to be advised to stop any back related exercises until it was better, but instead I was told the following…

·         Continue the full programme

·         For exercises impacting the injured muscle….

o   Change from 3x12 repetitions to 1x20

o   Half the weight used in each exercise

The theory behind this is that it keeps the muscle from tensing up without causing it additional damage. You know, this counter intuitive advice has worked a treat. The muscle has improved all week.  I did have a setback on day 25 though when I hauled bags of shopping up from the car. It wasn’t the best thing for the muscle and I suffered a bit that evening. Back out with the Deep Heat and the paracetamol !

Bye !