One Month ...

...  and one third of the way. We're switching up again and it's only to get more challenging as time goes on. I know some will relish this challenge, but let me present an alternative.

Further Anal-ysis

Once again, my anally retentive nature has produced a wealth of useful progress-tracking data. That first week, is still a remarkable blip, but was a nice way to get started. As previously noted, that drop is somewhat unfair, as I was up more than a kilo from my typical morning weight on June 1st. Nevertheless that was the starting weight, so it counts (like taking a deliberately bad 'before photo' with shoddy lighting and a bad haircut and red eyes to make the 'after' look even better).

Now that we're all friends I can reveal that a significant portion of that initial loss (I would estimate 600g+) was accounted for through a swift but unusually prodigious dump that went crowned-to-drowned in under 3 seconds on the afternoon of June 2nd. It stays in my memory as the sensation was at once alarming and inspiring, terrifying but fundamentally satisfying (unlike so many of the more recent puny little bowel-movements).

In any case, the later weeks' progress has been much more measured but very much in the right direction. I seem to have dispensed with a further 2kg of pure fat and we're not even a third of the way through yet. After 10 days of grudging admission that I had, in fact, achieved a body fat percentage of 18%, Mr. Tanita finally had to concede that yet another percent was gone. So without further ado, je te présente le graphe:

Indulgence = Tastiness + Minor Nausea

To be honest, when I read that we were "allowed" an indulgence, I didn't feel inspired. I haven't been craving any particular food.

I am a booze-hound, but I'm really not feeling attracted to the idea of alcohol at the moment; I prefer drinking in company and recognise that when I stop at two glasses, my friends won't. Stopping drinking after two in company is harder than not drinking at all in my view.

So, maybe I'll save that for the next one. However, Patrick's mention of cheesecake put me in mind of Banoffe which I rarely get to eat and is not all that common in Australia. With a little research I found out the excellent Cafe Sopra makes one so decided that would be my mission for a Sunday mid-morning snack.

Behold Banoffe - in all her biscuity, banana-ey, caramelly, creamy, chocolate sprinkly awesomeness!

It was excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite over 15 minutes. My friend, Jo, ate about a quarter of it, but I relished the rest. I also had two coffees. Now, I haven't been drinking much coffee lately and found after an hour and a half that I felt a little nauseous. I'm not sure if it was the cake or the coffees but in any case, it wasn't horrible and I got through it.

I also picked up some excellent Italian pasta (no sodium, low GI) for later and half-a-dozen bottles of Santa Vittoria sparkling mineral water. PARTY!!!

New Exercises HURT

I genuinely think I did myself an injury on those V-sits; they seriously hurt my stomach and I think I ruptured something.

I was in quite a bit of pain, so I got my friend Larry to drive me to the medical centre. My other mate Quentin tagged along for the ride, and, got some embarrassing footage of me "belly-aching". Oh well, I suppose we're supposed to document the downs as well as the ups, so here it is:

http://youtu.be/IPThI4rrpLs

But Seriously ...

I notice I haven't posted anything about my actual progress in a little while. Generally, it's going well. I'm getting into the pattern of cooking and shopping on a regular basis and feel life has taken on a more cruisey pace. All expectations that I would have lots of free time have dissipated - it seemed like it on the first week but never since. Eating out and socialising have been passable (reduced but not eliminated). I just try to get fish or meat and a side of steamed veggies (though never quite trust that the only added ingredient is steam). When with drinking buddies I don't mind a soda-water if they can tolerate a dry-shite in their midst.

Getting started on the training each morning is hard but I always get through at least one of the strength or cardio exercises before work and get to the other after. Possibly not ideal but manageable.

• Skipping still requires short breaks for catching breath and tripping, but the runs are longer and the breaks are shorter.
• Push-ups still feel weak. On toes I'm not getting a real deep lowering and have to fail back to knees on the third and fourth sets. But I do flesh out the reps when this is necessary.
• Incline Pull-ups are still very tough and I'm only getting through two sets cleanly. Third set is half-motion and fourth is just a sort of vague strain that is wilfully upwards.
• Sit-ups are okay for the first set but become crunches in the second and later sets. I have a question for Patrick about this.
• Lunges are difficult and boring, but actually easier now that I'm returning to full standing position between each rep.
• Everything else is fine. Resistance bands make it easy to find a place which requires a lot of effort but is doable.

And that's it. No injuries, illnesses, excessive hunger or cravings to speak of. I'm a bit of a boring prick but I can live with that for a few months. I can always get back to being a grumpy, arrogant, dipsomaniac arsehole afterwards if I still feel like it.

Beware of Farmers

For those of you going to the farmers' markets for fresh produce this weekend, remember they're all scamming bastards after a quick buck.

Day # 21: I want to look like Gillian McKeith so ...

Breakfast:

Also, snacks, lunch and dinner!

OCD About NaCl

Patrick's been advising us to look for low-salt foods, but while I have an idea of normal/good amounts of protein, fat and carbs to eat daily, I realised I never really paid attention to salt. I don't seek out salt, don't add it to my food ever, but Patrick's convinced they're hiding it everywhere. Luckily he pointed me to this article as I had no idea what a large or small amount of sodium in food was. Turns out, 1,000mg a day is right (or 920 - 2,300mg according to the Australian government - I wonder why so wide a range and why so specific the lower number).

So having ignored that ingredient on most foods, I became a bit obsessed about it in the supermarket. Obviously, veggies have whatever salt they have (a carrot = 42mg, squash and zucchini/courgette cooked = 6mg).

However, in basic packaged and prepared (though unprocessed) food the amounts vary widely. Even in fancy swiss-bakery bread, there's a lot of salt - usually between 400-600mg per 100g. The lowest I could find was 195mg.

What about whole-grain pasta versus normal? Surprisingly, though wholegrain is better for you in terms of fibre content, it has more salt than the plain variety. By a factor of 4 (though still quite low compared to bread). Couscous is worse than both of these and brown rice has almost none.

Frozen green peas varies by a factor of 2 between brands with no other obvious difference.

And you think all tuna is equal? No? Well, how about all tinned tuna in spring-water - surely they must be about equal. John West sets the benchmark at 400mg per 100g but an obsessive monomanical search (call me Ahab) revealed a rare beast from beneath the seas, caught, trapped and tinned for Aldi and with only 114mg per 100g. Quite a catch, so I bought 10 to see me through the next few weeks.

Let the hunt continue!

Physiological Changes

Well, Patrick told us we would be noticing changes in our bodies at this point - hair in places there wasn't hair, strange bowel movements or, in this case, my balls appear finally to have dropped. Who knew this was the trigger they finally needed?

Seriously though, my digestive system seems to have mostly adjusted to the new menu. I'm feeling good most of the time; very rarely hungry unless I don't stick to the schedule. This makes weekends more difficult, but still manageable.

Mood is generally positive and not subject to the swings of drinking and hangovers. I haven't noticed any changes in my skin - but seeing as these sound like they're bad before they get better, maybe I should be grateful.

Most noticeably, and I guess because the food is blander than what I'm used to (still tasty) I think I'm getting more sensitive to subtle flavours. I had to eat an emergency lunch just now because I was at a film ("Senna", by the way; awesome documentary) and so just had a few slices of bread to make up the carbs. By Christ, I swear I could taste the salt in the bread. And last night I was having a soda water and was seriously questioning whether there wasn't something else in there (lemonade, salt or something).

Skipping is improving slowly. Maybe I would trip less if I stopped showboating:

Peak Practice reference

For those who care.

It really, really, really could happen ...

I got taken to Universal a rather nice restaurant today by a vendor. It was horrible. Fancy beers and decent wine and rich food all paid for someone else. And all fucking worthless to me.

Almost none of the food was suitable and they wouldn't even prepare me some steamed veggies. So I nibbled on some ridiculously expensive fish, ate a chunk of bread and waited to get back to the office to fill up on roast vegetables from my packed lunch.

And then I had to go out for a farewell drinks for a colleague. I don't mind soda-water but I'm beginning to see how ricockulous this whole thing looks from outside our cult. Oh, well; here's to another Friday at home watching Peak Practice with my life.

The Steak Out Challenge

Back on track with training today - came up with the brilliant plan of sleeping with my Adidas shirt on - thus minimising temperature shock in the morning.

The proper-length skipping rope is great - not that my sequences are getting that much better, but it hurts a lot less.

The big challenge today was my first restaurant meal since we started on controlled rations. I psyched myself up for it, reading the menu in advance, and I think I passed. I got a 160g pasture-fed petit fillet (less fatty than the grain-fed ones - also this was pre-cooked weight, so I ate it all despite my allowance being 120g), steamed vegetables (I think I can eyeball 190g by now - though I had some suspicions about possible added oil/butter) and a small chunk of bread and some baked potato.

I'm sure this was not 100% compliant, but we have been told not to obsess, so I'm calling it close enough.

I did also taste the beer and wine, but between them it would constitute less than a mouthful. I'm sure God would forgive me that if s/he/it existed.

Unideal

Somehow I couldn't get started this morning - the world outside my bed just seemed too cold. I checked the new emails and blogs, and then realised it was too late to do the training and make breakfast, pack lunch and get to work.

So I didn't do the training - any of it. Felt bad about it all morning - kind of like hangover guilt - but without the grim satisfaction of at least knowing one had been drunk. And I had a friend coming for dinner, so after-work options were looking dicey.

But with Patrick's advice about not allowing PCP to be a choice (and the words of another trainer telling me I have to replace the word "should" with "must") I rushed home and did the entire thing faster than usual (less the pull-ups which I did after my guest was gone).

Hmmm. This has been a remarkably dull post. I apologise.

Oh - bugger - the real news is my longer skipping rope arrived (I love that phrase by the way - 'jumprope' sounds so hardcore and serious - skipping rope sounds like something frivolous children do). If anything it's slightly too long, but with a couple of knots near the handles, it seems to be a great improvement. Roll on 15,000 reps!

I Have Detailed Files

As everyone knows, nothing can possibly be happening on the PCP unless there are scientifically rigorous data to back it up.

To this end, may I present the first graph of weight loss to date (I know what you're thinking "WHAT? Only 2 primary and one derived metric?". Well, you needn't worry, I am keep ing a range of other metrics too - it's just I don't yet have sufficient data points to make a compelling graph. But many more graphs there will be).

So, as you can see week 1 came out swinging hard in the weight loss category. Average loss per day was over 500g. That's a pound a day for you Americans. Now, as Patrick rightly pointed out, this is not necessarily a good thing if you're losing muscle. And it sure as hell didn't look like I was losing fat according to the scales.

Week 2 changed everything, introducing almost 2kg of food per day (plus milk) and upping the activity a little. The weight immediately and abruptly stabilised and meandered around a 400g range for the whole week.

Okay, so weight-loss consolidated, but where's the payoff in fat reduction? Why is the body fat percentage stubbornly staying at 19-20%?

And then BOOM - this morning the the scales finally admitted things were moving in the right direction. Twice! 18% fat, bitches! Read my statistics and weep!

Next step: titanium endoskeleton under human flesh!

Latissimus Lateral Thinking

It were coming down in sheets in Sydney today so I was very much dissuaded from going to the park to do the incline pull-up. I have a little gym in my building and I went there to do my skipping and noticed the bench press machine - it has horizontal handles protruding. So I kicked away the bench, ratcheted up the bar et voilà - a perfect incline pull-up bar.

Exercise is a mixed bag - skipping still troublesome, but improving. No matter how often I trip, though, I try to get going again without hesitation. Longer rope is on order but may take a few days. Let's hope it makes a difference.

Scheduling meals at the weekend is more difficult than around work. If you get a late start, then it feels like you're eating all day to cram in all the means and snacks. Was getting bored of the bland already, so made my own pasta sauce for dinner tonight. Sure beats plain spiralini and I have a bunch in the fridge for future meals. I absently threw in some kalamata olives and realised while eating it, they're rather salty. I suspect they'll be banned from future iterations of the sauce.

It's interesting shopping while channelling the spirit of my great-grandmother. My supermarket has 14 aisles. If you removed the cleaning products, and other non-food items, you'd have maybe 10 left. If you then removed the frozen dinners, processed foods, foods that are 'enhanced' or 'improved', foods you'd remove easily another 5-6. If you then took out things that are too fatty or sweet for PCP and you'd be left with maybe 2. It would be nice if they did this, as it would make shopping a damn-sight quicker!

Peak Flatulence Project

So I guess I'm not the only one having inconsistency in the bowel region. Thanks Pete for drawing attention to society's silent trauma. Or not so silent. Or silent but deadly.

I've had a mix of minor cramps and times when I've rushed to the bathroom only to release a cacophonous litre of air and nothing else; and we've gone from nicely bratwurst-shaped tubes with the consistency of a freshly baked biscuit to a green-tinged almost-sludge.

I'm sure ultimately this is good for me.

I treated myself to kangaroo steaks for dinner. Lean and tasty; haven't had them in far too long.

Longer Skipping Rope Required

I've tried a few skipping ropes now. I like my leather one best, but it is just about a half-foot too short and it's messing me around. If I get the tempo absolutely perfect I can miss the back of my head and can even avoid having the rope touch the floor. When you get a run of those, it feels pretty great.

However, the slightest perturbation in the air or any unevenness and thwack you've hit your head, and spoiled the rhythm or worse caused a trip.

I've been doing some online window shopping and I think I've found the solution (emphasis mine):

The Skipmate has two modes of play, the first will count the number of skips and encourage you. The second lets you skip along to 4 different groovy skipping songs. Rope has glittery handles and the rope itself has sparkle woven in. The Skipmate Pod has belt clips that hook on the the belt. Skipmate comes with all accessories including skipping rope, Skipmate pod (batteries included) and adjustable belt.

This is how happy I want to look while skipping or I want my money back

Day 1 (if we're honest)

First real day today I feel. Double the number of exercises and a real start on dietary management. Like everyone else (it would seem) I felt like I spent a whole lot of the day stuffing myself. I was so excited when my diet said I could go back to two eggs for breakfast but by the end of lunch was struggling to complete.

What it comes down to is almost 2kg of food per day (1880g + 300ml milk to be precise). That's an astonishing amount of mass to put in one's body. No wonder I look pregnant tonight. I was feeling a bit smug when I saw that I got to eat more than most other people in my group this morning. This was before I discovered what that quantity of food actually feels like.

Bye bye hunger pangs.

Disorganisation

Got Patrick's email at 11pm last night. Bad enough that I hadn't prepared any of the vegetables I bought but I have no eggs, milk or bread in the house. So I arose early(ish) and got straight to steaming a mass of veges and cooked up a couple of chicken breasts. I did my squats and push-ups while these were cooking.

Skipping wasn't happening so I have quite a bit to do this evening including finding a low pull-up bar. I know an outdoor one but it's bloody cold here.

Managed to pack measured lunch plus fruit snacks, ducked into a convenience store to down approx 300ml of low-fat milk and then confused my regular café again by switching back to 2 eggs but a lower GI bread -which I surreptitiously weighed and came in only 15g less than carb requirement.

So a rocky but not disastrous start. Lesson of the day: prepare.

Last (half) Supper

I spent a large portion of this afternoon (should have been a half-portion really) at work wondering about what I would have as my last normal (but shrunken) meal before super-easy first week finished.

Would it be some fine French dining at Birstro Papillon? A semi-Tarte Gratinée with a half-glass of Hugel pinot gris followed by a cut-size Souris d'Agneau au Romarin with a mini Bernard Metrat gamay, perhaps. And to finish, a bisected Crème Brûlée with a soupçon of the Monbazillac. That would be adequate to the occasion.

Or would it be Neapolitan style at Pizzeria Lucio? To start, a small birra, maybe accompanied by a hemi-sphere of burrata caprese. And who could go past a salumi pizza with a half-bottle of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo? Then next door to Universal for a tiny sliver of Black Beauty.

Yeah. That'd be real nice. And given I'd only be eating half of it - it wouldn't even be cheating.

Or, as is more likely, I end up at so starving after work that I'd settle for a fucking Nando's and scoff down a grilled chicken burger sans mayonnaise. Yup - quite the culinary occasion.

Just like Mamma used to make (Mamma was psychotic)

Irony

Needless to say, after saying how not hurting my calves were from skipping, they now hurt a bit. Because I left it till last night, I did my 5x70 at 9pm then and another 500 at 8am today. That stung quite quickly.

Skipping

I skipped a day in my blog, yesterday. What of it? I wrote a long email to team Puck yesterday and I could easily run out of words if I attempted to blog too.

It was a reasonable day though. Exercises were smooth and I finally managed 50 jumps continuously. It gives me a great sense of schadenfreude to read about everyone else's aching calves form the skipping. I've been getting used to running almost-barefoot for over a year and have luckily lived through all of that calf pain already, and much more - using your calves as a combined shock-absorber-cum-spring while running is way more of a strain than skipping. But I guess others can feel a similar superiority over my lack of coordination and still-too-short skipping-rope that regularly clips my almost-bald-spot. Every single hair I have left in that defoliated area is precious and here I am mowing that struggling patch of dirt. This also messes up the timing, so it may be a good idea to seek out a different rope.

I capitulated last night and had a glass of wine. This still means that since we started I've had about 1/20th of the alcohol I would have on a good weekend. But get this: my body rejected it - I woke up in the middle of the night, a struggling dehydrated dipsomaniac and couldn't sleep for the following 2 hours. Has Patrick already broken my body's ability to process wine - nature's wonder-food? (you may later hear me refer to potatoes as nature's wonder-food - don't think me a hypocrite - I'm just an enthusiastic Irishman with a short memory). I didn't sign up for alcohol allergies; if I end up lactose-intolerant and unable to enjoy cheese too I will be seeking a refund at best and preferably a torturous revenge (a dish which is, much like sashimi, best served cold and prepared with a sharp knife - I may even dip my revenge in wasabi).

So after the poor sleep and the very minor but more unexpected hangover, exercises this morning were hard to get into. The lunges in particular were much burnier than usual. In good news, though, I knocked out my first full set of honest-to-god on-my-toes pushups ... possibly ever. I can already feel my man-boobs filling with rippling man-beef.

Hmm. That doesn't sound filthy, does it?

I skipped skipping as I'm leaving it for a treat when I get home from work.

Addendum: I also found a three-tier George Foreman vegetable steamer for $39 - I asked for a deal if I bought it with a grill and I got the pair for 74 big ones - less than half-price. I am now fully healthy-food mass-production capable. Let's hope I don't get floored by any e.coli infested bean-sprouts.

Keep on Rolling

So, apparently it's possible to have a restful night's sleep on Friday and wake up with no hangover on Saturday. For me this also means waking up later.

Nice.

After a phone call back to Ireland, I did the weight exercises, and then dropped off my broken amplifier to the dealer, some documentation to my car insurer, met my cousin's family for fun in the park and lunch, came back and did the skipping, then went to Roller Derby (greatest new thing ever) and then stayed up with friends happily talking shite without alcohol.

What's the point of that litany? I have every stitch of clothing I own laundered, my taxes ready weeks in advance of end-of-year and I still have shitloads of time free for cramming in more than I could on a normal Saturday. I'm sure PCP will become a time-sink of its own, but it appears to be less impactful than boozing so far.

Today I ate more than on previous days (in keeping with the half-portion idea, I would normally eat more on a Saturday so that's okay). Split a burrito between lunch and dinner instead of eating it in one sitting. Got some ice-cream, but only ate 1/3 of it.

And I can honestly say I did not feel hungry since I had breakfast.

Tetchy

So we're into day 3. Exercises this morning were middling. The sit-ups were really crunches; the push-ups were mostly from the knee - still working on form. The leather jumprope is definitely too short though it feels much nicer than the plastic one. I wonder if I can exchange it anywhere.

Food-wise, I've managed to stick to half-portions and, of course, no booze yet. Because I eat out a lot, the half-portion has required a little thought. I eat three meals a day and no snacks; so I'm often pretty hungry by the time dinner comes around. Now, I'm ravenous.

To date the meal has solved this, but I just had my third lunch and definitely still feel hungry. I think I'll drink a litre or two of water to stave it off. Feeling ravenous normally doesn't result in my snacking but does lead to unhealthy choices in the name of expediency. I'd prefer for that not to be the case during this first week.

I was surprised at how dehydrated I was this morning. Usually this happens if I drink too much (alcohol) but is strange considering I drank two large glasses of water last night. Too little salt? Too much? Anyway; I've dropped 1.6kg since the start according to the scales though I suspect this is mostly water and the massive meal I had on Tuesday (I was almost a kilo heavier on Wed morning than Tues).

Zombie Exercise

Because I slept so poorly on PCP-eve due to massive doses of Italian food, last night I slept like a log. The alarm was a genuine shock to the system.

The exercise was okay once I started. Again, I did the strength things first followed by the skipping. The rhythm (BTW - I'm hoping a take-away of the PCP is that I finally learn how to spell 'rhythm' on demand) is getting a little better and I managed 30+ jumps at one point. I also tried an acrylic rope instead of leather for two sets and even though it's cut shorter, I got less head slapping. I'll keep practising with both for now.

Feel a bit weak after all of that but about to tuck into half-breakfast.

On that note - I realise I get a lot of my calories from alcohol (I don't drink every day, but a few beers or glasses of wine of an evening is fairly normal). In the past, when I stop drinking and change nothing else about my lifestyle, I start losing weight immediately. So assuming I don't drink this first week (and I don't plan to drink) I'll actually be cutting much more than half my caloric intake. Probably not a bad thing as it will cancel out my last week of bad behaviour.

 Looking forward to future weeks when food quantities go up again - have been receiving tips from previous PCP'ers on bulk food preparation.

Kick Start

Fortunately this morning in Sydney was unseasonably warm - 19C when my alarm went off - so getting up and into PCP should have been easy.

However, thinking that last night was my last night of drinking and any freedom in eating choices, I had a too-large Italian meal and several glasses of wine with it. So I was feeling a little bit seedy this morning.

Nevertheless I gave the exercises my best shot. Squats were fine; push-ups were not as bad as I feared. However, my form wasn't great - I wasn't getting down far enough. Which brings me to a question for Patrick; my thinking is it's better to get as many reps out with good form as possible. If I'm failing is it okay to switch to push-ups from the knee to get the last few reps out?

Sit-ups - first set was fine. The second set didn't seem to start; somehow my body just wasn't moving very far off the ground. So I settled for crunches with good form. I know from past experience that this should improve somewhat quickly (but maybe not quickly enough to keep up with the later demands!).

Skipping was slightly problematical. I had trouble getting a rhythm - however, once I got into the swing of it (forgive the pun), I was getting 20+ jumps. With a brand new leather rope I also had problems with it hitting the back of my head on the up-swing. I literally need to work out the kinks. I'll post a picture later of how!

Food should also be relatively easy. I eat the same breakfast and lunch on week-days, so halving the portions is easy.

One possible exception - I drink a cup or two of black coffee daily. Seeing as this is calorie free, I'm going to take the view that I can continue this (also half-finishing a well-made espresso coffee is immoral - I'd rather go without than insult my dedicated baristas by leaving half the product in the cup).