December 14, 2011 3:17 PM UTC

Final Post : Day 91 and beyond

My final blog post, as I look to Day 91 and beyond.

To first speak of results, the difference in my appearance is obvious. I went from 88-89kgs at the time I decided to sign up, to 72-73kg at the end of the program. That's a 15-16kg drop in weight while adding new muscle, and a lot of people have noticed. I couldn't be happier about that. You'll find the comparative before/after pictures at the bottom of this post.

I received a great email from my sister living in the States, who I last saw at my wedding a little over 3 years ago.

First of all, congratulations on a pretty amazing transformation. Having said that, WTF? How did you get so fat to begin with???  Seriously, that "before" picture is pretty disturbing.

And it's true. It was disturbing. I looked horrible and unhealthy and never want go back to that place. 

But PCP was about much more than just appearance and weight. It was a behavior-altering experience and comprehensive education on living a healthy life so that I don't ever have to go back, if I so choose. But that choice is the tricky part. As I've said in past posts, I'm not yet completely confident that I will always make the healthy choice for the rest of my life, and part of me fears slipping back to my old ways and succumbing to gluttony and indolence at some point. Hopefully, many of the habits I picked up during PCP will stick and take deeper roots over time so that they become permanent, but we shall see.

To help, I will try to maintain an active lifestyle and set goals to stay motivated. My first goal will be running in a half-marathon next month for the first time in about 7 years. After my mandatory 3-day rest, I will start training for the run. Then, after the race, I am strongly considering training for a triathlon, something I had always dreamed to do but never thought I had the capacity to do. But being able to commit to and complete something like PCP has changed that, and I want to give it a shot. Again, we shall see, but it seems like a lot more achievable goal than it did 90 days ago.

Next, some thanks are in order.

I want to thank Patrick for putting together this program that has made all the difference.

Thanks also to Paulie who introduced me to PCP, showed me that it was all possible, and generally acted as a good senpai as I slogged through the 90 days.

Thanks to Brice who kicked my ass in tennis that one summer night to push me over the edge to get serious about getting back in shape.

Special thanks to my wife Tomoko who put up with me during PCP, and had to endure much of the first trimester of pregnancy while watching me spend most of my free time consumed by PCP.

Thanks to my fellow Draco team members, especially Evelyn and Alison, who made it feel like a real team effort, to Teo for all the supportive comments on the blog posts, and some of the other Yukon-ers whose blogs I enjoyed reading.

Finally, I want to end PCP by saying that it's been one hell of a ride. Getting here is no small feat, and the sense of achievement is very high. I don't consider myself in peak condition yet and feel I can go much further, but I have a good foundation to keep building on. If any prospective out-of-shape person is reading and considering doing this, DO THIS. The program will truly reward you for every ounce of effort put in. Guaranteed.

Photos

December 13, 2011 1:19 PM UTC

Day 90 : Commencement

And it's all over folks. The last of the exercises done and dusted. I must say, doing the Day 8 workout did show how far we've come in the 82 days that followed. Excerpts below from my Day 8 blog talking about the same exercises:

"I was finally able to crank out 2 sets of 8 and another half-set [of push-ups] before the knees came down."
"I am nowhere near being able to whip through 600 [jumps] non-stop."

Well, on Day 90, that was 4 sets of 11, no knees required, and 1,000 jumps non-stop without tripping before deciding to just move on. I breezed through the entire workout in no more than 25 minutes, adhering to the rest times and moving quickly from exercise to exercise. This was probably how it was meant to be done the first time around, but 82 days later, here I am!

Well, with that, PCP comes to a close (though I will eat my egg whites and evening/post-workout fruit for good times sake), and the rest of my life begins. Much like graduating from school, it is appropriate to call this a commencement.

Final and closing post to come in a couple of days after I have a chance to reflect and collect my thoughts 

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, wheat toast, tomatoes, boiled egg, salmon
Morning snack - apples, pineapples, grape mix, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - apples, pineapples, grape mix, egg white
Dinner - pan-fried lean beef strips with onion, tomatoes, rice
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/post-workout snack - strawberries, oranges, 3 egg whites

December 12, 2011 3:36 PM UTC

Day 89 : Thinking about the day after tomorrow

With today's massive workout out of the way, all we have left is just one more day of compliant eating and the secret Day 90 workout (I confess, I'm pretty much aware of what's coming from having read other completed PCPers' blogs). I'm not ready to get all nostalgic and reflective just yet, but the moment is near when the training wheels come off. I've tried not to look too far ahead and just concentrate on each day, but at this point, I can't help thinking about what will happen the day after tomorrow. For example, I know I'm going to have some of those long-awaited sweets that I keep talking about, but other than that, I can't find a good reason why not to wake up early as I have been to eat my breakfast and prepare my lunch the way I have been doing for the past 3 months. I guess I can relax now and have the same dinner as the rest of my family, but I can't think of a good reason why not to pick up the jumprope afterwards and put in 20-30 minutes of work. I don't need a cocktail, I don't need to feast on a steak, and I don't need to really quit what I've been doing on a dime. Basically, I'm free to do and eat as I please, and I will stick to a lot of the eating principles and exercises because I want to. I'll probably never do a kung-fu sit-up again, and I will need a good reason to do another floorjump or set of bicycles, but I will continue to work on strengthening my legs and abs in different ways. Salt will inevitably find its way back into my diet, but things like salad dressing in controlled quantities will only help me consume more vegetables more enjoyably. So, while I look forward to the program being complete, I'm not really anticipating a dramatic change of lifestyle overnight. And if anything, that's what PCP was supposed to be all about anyway, to instill a new mentality and behavior, and I think it's worked. 

Workout notes:
* 20 minutes (10 min x 2) of rope
* Dips/pull-ups/push-ups supersets were great. I got through everything, except for sets 3 and 5 of the dips where I had to rest for a few seconds after the 6-7 reps. I got through the other parts ok (of course I used the assistance band on the pull-ups)
* The arms supersets were crazy. The davinci-forward raise combo was evil.
* V-sits, did 30 x 5. Planks, I really disappointed myself today, stopping at 105, 75, 75, 105 seconds.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, wheat toast, tomatoes, boiled egg, oven-baked salmon
Morning snack - egg white, apple, pineapple, grape mix
Lunch - Salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - egg white, apple, pineapple, grape mix
Dinner - Oven-baked salmon with onions, fresh radish, English muffin
Pre-workout - banana, and borrowed 100g of grapes from evening snack
Evening/Post-workout snack - strawberries, apple, 3 egg whites

Ok, just one more day to go.

December 11, 2011 1:56 PM UTC

Day 88 : Will miss the routine and structure

Just another 48 hours or so until PCP is over. The one thing that I will miss is the routine that has been refined and perfected almost to clockwork over the past 80-something days. In particular, writing these blog entries over my post-workout/evening snack had become somewhat therapeutic, and I will miss this outlet for expressing my PCP thoughts. People outside of PCP will never quite understand the inner-workings of the experience, and these thoughts can only be shared with those within. Even my wife, who has seen me go through the past three months and impressed with my commitment and the results, would be unable to relate entirely to my experience. For me, reading other yukon-ers' blogs had also become part of my routine and was important for me. For example, reading others push through the supersets the last few days motivated me to do the same, even though they were really tough. So I appreciate all the yukon-ers who blogged regularly and shared their experiences. 

I will also miss the structure of the program. I recently heard about a past PCPer who had regained his weight as quickly as he lost it. I think the loss of structure and rules was a big part of that. It's probably a reason why a lot of people who want to stay in shape retain their personal trainer for years. On our own, it's hard to stay motivated and just takes that much more will power, and that's hard to sustain for a prolonged period of time. For me, I have been able to demonstrate to myself that I can stay committed, but that was with a clear-cut 90-day goal, and I fear that a day will come when I will stop giving a shit. It's happened before. I mean, that's how I got into this situation of having to do a PCP to get back into shape in the first place. So the jury is still out on how this will all play out in the long run, and while the emancipation coming in 48 hours will be exciting and liberating, I will also miss the routine and the structure.

Workout notes:
* 30 minutes (10 min x 3) of rope before lunch.
* Pull-ups/chest-dips: now back home, I have my pull-up assist band which is not quite the same as the assist machine at the gym. I prefer the latter, but too bad. I struggled but got through them. THe chest-dips actually got easier in the later sets, as if my muscles were stiff in the first couple of supersets, and got easier as they loosened up towards the end. That's some progress.
* Correctly did the pulldowns this time (not shoulder flies like last time) leading to standing o's. No problems here.
* Outside curls/tricep dips were deceptively hard, but nothing I couldn't handle. I'm proud of the progress I made in the tricep dips during the program.
* V-sits/planks. 30 v-sits per set, followed by 1'45" planks. The last set, I did 2'05" planks before mentally failing. It was my arms that gave out.

Food summary:
Breakfast - rye toast, boiled egg, tomatoes, oven-baked salmon fillet.
Morning snack - banana, 1/4 apple, egg white
Lunch - seafood pasta (sauce from tomato, zucchini, onions)
Afternoon snack - 3/4 apple, 1/4 banana, egg white
Pre-workout - banana
Post-workout snack - 1/2 persimmon, grapes, 2 egg whites
Dinner - Pan-fried salmon, fresh radish, English muffin
Evening snack - grapes, egg white

It is so good to be home for PCP diet purposes. For the first time in a week, I was perfect with everything I ate, particularly from the no salt and no oil and lots of vegetable perspective. It felt really good, and tasted great. For certain things, like toast and pasta and pan-fried/oven-baked fish, I realize I don't need salt at all. And just for confirmation, Japanese tomatoes are far superior to Malaysian ones. I mean, it's like comparing a Maybach to a Hyundai.

December 10, 2011 4:43 AM UTC

Day 87 : Going home

Leaving for the airport in about an hour and I'm all set to go for the rest of the day. I've done my jumprope (had switched the exercises to have my jump-only day today), have my lunch ready to go, also packed my PCP-compliant dinner in a tupperware to avoid the garbage they dare call food on the flight, and have enough fruit and eggs to last me the day. I only now just have to pray that they don't confiscate it before I board the plane.

It really hasn't quite sunk in yet that there are just 3 more days of PCP left after I land in Tokyo later this evening. This vacation in Borneo has highlighted just how my thinking about food has changed over the course of PCP, and I am fairly determined to keep a lot of the eating principles post-PCP as Patrick discusses in his post today. The one thing that will invariably be reintroduced will be sweets and snacks, and I will have to find a place for them. I think being able to indulge in them occasionally will keep me motivated to stay disciplined on the rest of my diet. There are some Borneo chocolates I bought and other snacks that's had my name on them waiting for PCP to end. We'll get a lot of these out of the way on Day 91, and then we'll see. At least I don't have a craving for alcoholic drinks like a lot of other PCPers, so I guess different vices for each of us.

Workout notes:
* 30 minutes of rope (10 min x 3)

Food summary:
* Breakfast - toasted wheat bread, boiled egg, lean beef, roasted tomatoes, steamed broccoli
* Morning snack - papaya (had with breakfast), egg white
* Post-workout snack - 2 egg whites, banana
* Lunch - wheat bread slices, chicken breast, tomato
* Afternoon snack (planned) - banana, apple, egg white
* Dinner (planned) - boiled shrimp, chicken breast, steamed white rice, steamed broccoli, roasted tomato
* Evening snack (planned) - apple, orange, egg white

December 9, 2011 3:05 PM UTC

Day 86 : My last Borneo night

This is our last night in Borneo, and we will be catching a flight back to Tokyo tomorrow afternoon. It was a fun vacation, but looking back on the week, I think I grew a couple of gray hairs fretting over the PCP diet. I think the fact that we are so close to the end made me more anal about it, as 1) I had been very rigid about following the program prior to getting here, 2) as Patrick mentioned in one of his posts, I don't want to look back and have any regrets and let the non-compliance be the lingering image of my performance on the program, and 3) I want to look the best I can for my Day 90 picture, and if I slipped here, there won't be enough time to make it back up. All in all, I can honestly say I did the best I could, nailing the exercises without fail everyday and eating the best I could given my limited options. I did succumb to an occasional tasting of a snack here and there, but never more than one small bite. I will also confess to have had chocolate today for the first time during PCP, when the lady at the counter offered a tasting sample of local chocolates what I was thinking of buying as souvenir for the office and in-laws (it was a really just a taste, a couple tiny fractions of a truffle, but it was amazingly delicious). I do wish I was able to uninhibitedly enjoy all the exotic local foods I normally would on a vacation like this, but I am proud of the restraint I was able to show and the progress I was able to maintain towards PCP completion.

Workout notes:
* 30 minutes of rope (10 min x 3 sets) in the late morning, will try to do another 10-20 minutes after doing this blog post.
* Strength exercises at night as usual.
* I was so relieve upon looking closely at today's workout that the creeps and floorjumps were not a superset. That would have killed me. Instead, with the allowed rest in between, I was able to man up and get them done.
* Davinci-forward raise supersets were absolute agony. I thought supersets were supposed to work opposing muscle groups, not torture the same muscle group for 48 straight reps...
* V-sits to failure for the second day in a row. I did 4 x 30 reps and 20 on my last set. They felt substantially harder than yesterday. One of 3 explanations. 1) My abs were still tired from yesterday's v-sits, 2) senioritis as Patrick mentions and my focus wasn't right, or 3) the plank in yesterday's supersets served as rest to get through the next set of v-sits. I think I'm going to rule #3 out immediately. 

Food summary:
Breakfast - whole grain bread slices, roasted tomatoes, salad with a bit of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, boiled egg, pan-fried chicken breast
Morning snack - papaya (had with breakfast), egg white
Lunch - Wheat bread, chicken breast, tomato (I sucked it up and ate it raw)
Afternoon snack - oranges, I forgot to eat the egg white
Dinner - at a seafood restaurant, boiled shrimp, a little crab meat, a bite of fish, white rice, heap of steamed broccoli (lightly salted I presume)
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/Post-workout snack - mango, apple, half an orange, 3 egg whites

December 8, 2011 4:24 PM UTC

Day 85 : What exactly is planks to failure?

I know I'm one day ahead on the workouts with the travel adjustment coming on Saturday, but I got my first whiff of supersets today. These were interesting.

Pull-up/chest dip combo - used the pull-up assist machine at the gym, which also has dip bars in the same machine, so the transition during each rep was very easy. As last time, the wider width of the bars than what I am used to at home made the dips harder and had to break them up, but 12 reps after 8 assisted pull-ups made them feel a lot tougher even though I'm theoretically not working the same muscles.

Pulldowns/standing o's - I'm a moron and realized just now as I type this that I did shoulder flies instead of pulldowns. Oops. If it means anything, the shoulder flies/standing o's combo was manageable and was almost like a mirror opposite of the other exercise.

Curls/ski jumper - I remember a few weeks ago, I was taken back by the number of curls we had to do on bicep day. Funny thing, today, I saw the 20 x 5 sets of curls and thought to myself, oh thank god, only 100 reps. And I got through them fine. Have I gone insane, or have I gone insane?

V-sits/planks - To failure? What exactly does that mean? V-sits, if I take an extra breath between reps I can jack myself up one more time. So I did about 30 reps per set until the last set where I only got 20-something in. But planks to failure? To me, the planks are a masochistic mental thing more than a physical thing. So I set the timer to 1'45" for each set, and did 5 extra seconds, and that's when I reached mental failure. Oh, and I was so unmotivated to do these today, I had to literally force myself to start each set, which meant I took a lot more than 15 seconds between sets.

As for jumpropes, I did 2 sets of 10 minutes for a total of 20 minutes. I did the same yesterday, which I forgot to log.

I also took a sneak peak at tomorrow's exercises, and see that we have creep/floorjump supersets. I am not looking forward to these. 

Food summary:
Breakfast - toasted brown grain bread boiled egg, pan-fried white fish (soaked up the butter sauce with a napkin), 5 roasted tomatoes, a heap of steamed (but buttered) broccoli. 
Morning snack - papayas (had with breakfast), egg white (had with lunch)
Lunch - wheat bread, roasted chicken breast, small spinach salad (no dressing)
Afternoon snack - papaya (bought cut fruit from a fruit stand. taking a HUGE risk here to be PCP compliant...), egg white (had with dinner)
Dinner - Tasted a small bit of local noodles, consisting of boiled pork ribs (not fatty at all, though I realize it's not complaint protein) and a couple bites of noodles in a broth. To complete my grams, also had compliant chicken breast, wheat bread, but no veges. (The raw tomato I tried buying at the supermarket today was inedible. If a local person here ever got their hands on a Japanese tomato, they would never believe it was the same vegetable.)
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/Post-workout snack - oranges, apple, 3 egg whites

December 7, 2011 4:49 PM UTC

Day 84 : A much better PCP food day

So last night, we were invited to attend a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the resort we are staying in, and a reception that followed which served various hors d'oeuvres, canapes and other typical reception food. While I was briefly tempted by all the sweets on offer, the carving station which featured roasted chicken instead caught my eye, and I immediately identified it as a golden opportunity to obtain dry, bland chicken meat perfect for PCP consumption. I got in line multiple times, and squirreled away every serving in a plastic bag to take back to my room. My efforts netted me about 350 grams of unflavored white chicken meat, enough for a couple of lunches including today's. This greatly put me in position to have a much better PCP food day today, though not perfect, the first one while in Borneo.

Food summary:
Breakfast - whole grain bread slices, boiled egg, 6 roasted tomatoes, a heap of steamed (although flavored) broccoli
Morning snack - papayas (had with breakfast), egg white (had with lunch)
Lunch - Chicken breast meat (as described above), wheat bread (made into a sandwich), house salad with no dressing
Afternoon snack - apples, egg white
Dinner - grilled shrimp, steamed white fish, steamed white rice, 2 bites of fried rice, steamed broccoli at a local seafood restaurant
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/Post-workout snack - orange, apples, 3 egg whites

As far as exercises, as I posted yesterday, I went ahead to Day 85 exercises without taking my rest day, moving that back to this coming Saturday which will be my travel day back home to Tokyo. (I emailed Patrick and got the pdf's.)

Workout notes:
* Pistols, I think I got off a bit easier today. I usually just keep my balance with my arm against a wall, but today used a table, which meant that I was pushing off a little bit taking some of the work away from the quads.
* Floorjumps still hurt, but today I did them on carpet, so I was free to roll over on the ground as soon as 22 jumps were done, which was nice.
* Shoulder work was good today. Still hard but felt I was able to get through them better than usual. The flies, I did 30 reps in each set, as I didn't get to failure.
* My first 2 sets of v-sits look very good, then the later sets tend to be less smooth. I am getting through them, but again may be using a bit of momentum to get my torso up as opposed to lifting it completely unassisted. 

Photos

December 6, 2011 4:12 PM UTC

Day 83 : Short on vegetables

I have been woefully short on vegetables since coming to Borneo. Breakfast is fine as I can get a salad from the buffet and the roasted tomatoes and mixed vegetables aren't too bad, but there is nothing that I can consume compliantly (or even close to compliantly) for lunch or dinner, and I have been ending up taking an average of probably no more than 20 grams of vegetables per meal, if that. I'm not going hungry because of it and it hasn't led me astray on other parts of the diet which I can control, so it's not the end of the world, but it does seem my food consumption the past couple of days is not very well balanced. (Could this be a case of PCP tunnel vision? I guess it could, because pre-PCP me would have eaten a bowl of soup noodles loaded with carbs and sodium with the same minuscule amount of veges in them and not given balance a second thought...)

Food summary:
Breakfast - wheat toast, boiled egg, grilled white fish (scraped off the butter sauce as much as I could), salad with a small amount of balsamic vinegrette, 6 roasted tomatoes
Morning snack - papayas, grapefruit, egg white
Lunch - Wheat bread slices, chicken breast, a couple pieces of shrimp (think I ended up a bit short on protein grams), and whatever bok choy-like green vegetable I could scavenge from a soup noodle dish my wife had (I'd estimate no more than 15-20 grams)
Afternoon snack - bananas, egg white
Dinner - beef and chicken satay sticks, roast lamb, one skewer with a piece of salmon and shrimp (I think I went a little over on protein grams, makes up for lunch?), wheat bread, and ahem, one mini steamed carrot (garnished on the lamb...I'd estimate no more than 10 grams)
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/post-workout snack - 3 egg whites, apples

Workout summary:
* 28 minutes of rope in the afternoon, 21 minutes after muscle exercises at night. Total 49 minutes.
* Assisted pull-ups at the gym, I had to increase assistance into the later sets, but I cranked out the full 60 reps.
* Again, the full exertion on the pull-ups led to my failure to grip the bar for the kung-fu's. It was even worse than the last time. My first set broke in reps of 5-2-2-1, and for the first time, I gave up on them. Just couldn't do them. And it wasn't even about the abs. So in its place, I did 6 sets of v-sits (10 reps each) and did 7 sets of 30 sit-ups hoping that would compensate.

Tomorrow is scheduled to be a rest day with just the jumprope, and I was very much looking forward to the light work, but then realized that Saturday returning to Tokyo could be difficult to get a workout in, so may have to end up switching my rope-only day. Bummer.

Photos

December 5, 2011 4:58 PM UTC

Day 82 : Sodium everywhere

If a person living in Kota Kinabalu wanted to lead a PCP life, would it be possible? Since the day I landed here, I can't get my PCP diet right. I can get my hands on hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit and healthy bread. But that's about it. As far as unsalted vegetables and proteins go, my options are incredibly limited. Actually, I don't have any options and it's basically picking my poison. Salt is everywhere. I don't think people around here really grasp the concept of low-sodium. (Well, I guess you can say that about most people and places.) So I've had to tolerate sodium in my diet, and just do the best I can given my situation. I've stepped up the jumprope to compensate. We'll see where I am at the end of the week. At least I'll be back home in Tokyo for the last few days to right the ship for the closing ceremonies.

Meanwhile, a bit of good news in that the same swimming shorts that I took my week 4 pictures in (the only picture where I'm not wearing my favorite black Underarmour shorts) are now way too big for me. In our last vacation to Hawaii back in July, I was having to squeeze into them and my gut disgustingly hung from them. Now, they can be pulled right off. My wife also told me that I looked the most fit person at the pool area today. Given that she's the type of girl who will tell it like it is and won't give compliments unless she means it, I took a bit of pride in that. Of course, she then remembered to temper her assessment by adding the conditional, "although the sample size is too small," so there you go...

Workout notes:
* 28 minutes of rope before muscle exercises, 14 minutes after muscle exercises. Total 42 minutes.
* I did the dips today at the gym in the resort, where the arm width of the bars was a bit wider than my bars at home. This made it harder, and I could only complete 3 full sets before having to break the subsequent sets to get all my reps in. Consequently, the extra effort affected my performance on the push-ups as well, where the elevated ones became normal ones after the first 3 sets, and my last set involved some knee-down reps.
* 105 second planks? Are you kidding me? I remember when 45 second sets were tough, and now we are basically doing 45 on top of a 60 second set in one go. I did get through these, but I was resting a lot more than 15 seconds between sets to catch my breath. At the end, I'm not sure which I like less, 5 x 90 or 4 x 105.

Food summary:
Breakfast - wheat toast, boiled egg, roasted tomatoes, steamed (but buttered) broccoli and corn, lean beef steak pieces (I scraped the sauce off, but it had salt)
Morning snack - pineapples (had with breakfast), egg white
Lunch - At a food court in a shopping center, did the best I could. Broiled chicken (held the sauce) and rice cooked in chicken broth. Mostly compliant, I think, though not ideal from sodium perspective. The veges were not possible. I ate some sauteed greens (I think they were like bok choy), but definitely sodium involved.
Afternoon snack - apples, egg white
Dinner - salmon chunks and shrimp (a bit of salt in them but decent), chicken breast pieces, multiseed bread, no veges.
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/post-workout snack - apples, 3 egg whites

So my thinking towards the diet may be providing many tunnel vision moments, but a recurring theme is a shortage of decent veges. I will likely resort to room service salads without dressing from tomorrow if need be. 

Photos

December 4, 2011 6:20 PM UTC

Day 81 : A massive Malaysian indulgence

I had my final indulgence today, and it was a full-on, no-holds-barred mother of indulgences here that must have had more than a PCP week's allowance of salt and oils. I must have eaten as much as pre-PCP me would have eaten. At least, I felt as stuffed as pre-PCP me would feel after a full-on dinner, though the quantity of food consumed could possibly have been less. And you know what? It tasted great, and it felt fantastic to eat whatever I wanted to eat without thinking about it and without any restraint. To go off the deep end is probably not the design of indulgences, but knowing it was the only meal that I would be able to fully enjoy local Malaysian cuisine during my week's vacation here somehow flipped a mental switch, 1000 calories be damned. But a lot of revelations and lessons learned.

1. My taste buds are really not that much changed after all. Sure, most dishes felt really salty, but pre-PCP me would probably also felt the same given the cuisine, and I still enjoyed it nonetheless. In other words, being on the PCP diet did not take any joy away from foods I used to enjoy in my previous life. This is a common feeling I had in all three of my indulgences.

2. The forced restraint of sticking to a diet plan is probably not a great idea, especially when you really want it, as the pent-up urge is bound to burst and you end up going all-out at some point. Better to control that urge/craving when absolutely necessary by feeding it, so you can do it in a controlled and moderate fashion and prevent binge eating at some point. The important factor is the knowledge gained during PCP about maintaining a healthy body, so you're not doing it every single day.

3. Salt really does force your body to store more water. I am still getting thirsty and have been drinking a lot of water. As a result, I was sweating during my workout tonight in a way I had not seen since the early days of PCP. It felt good to be soaking in sweat (the perspiration does give you a mental satisfaction), but it did show me how much more efficient my body was performing without the salt in my system. At the same time, I am feeling bloated from drinking all the water my body is asking for, and the sweat today seemed to taste a lot saltier (this may be a bit of perception, as it's not like I'm actively looking to taste my own sweat...just feels that way).

4. No regrets at all about eating everything, but I did not feel all that great afterwards. Just felt sluggish with all that excess food in my system. And I felt a food coma afterwards and crashed for about an hour after coming back to the hotel.

5. I found comfort in the pre-workout banana and the post-workout apple and egg whites. Who knew? This actually goes a bit counter to point #1 above, as it is a bit of a paradigm shift as far as my food preferences goes. I guess the point is, I can enjoy a salty meal like before just fine, but now take as much pleasure fueling my body with fresh fruit and unflavored protein.

6. I don't think I'll need to be eating any more big Malaysian meals the rest of the week. I think I had my fix and can now concentrate on staying compliant and pushing towards PCP completion for the 9 remaining days. This kind of ties into point #2 above.

Food summary:
Breakfast - Wheat toast, boiled egg, chicken breast pieces (it was decent from a PCP perspective), roasted tomatoes, stir-fried broccoli (a bit of salt in the broth it was cooked in, but not oily at all), small salad with a few drops of balsamic vinegrette.
Morning snack - pineapple, papaya, egg white (not too much time in between breakfast and this snack)
Lunch - Did the lunch-dinner gram swap ahead of planned indulgence dinner, and only had dinner portions here. Multiseed bread slices, tandoori chicken chunks (very dry, a bit of salt in it I'm sure), no veges.
Afternoon snack - Banana, apple, egg white
Dinner - Malaysian cuisine as indulgence. I mainly had curry laksa, curry chicken, a beef satay dish, curry fish-head, sauteed green vegetable and rice. Also a bit of beef rendang and butter prawns (which I ate only a little simply because it wasn't as good as the other dishes). A couple pieces of chocolate at the end.
Evening snack - passed.
Pre-workout - banana
Post-workout snack - 2 egg whites, apple (about 100g instead of prescribed 160g)

Workout notes:
* 28 minutes of rope in the afternoon. The extra rope work caused a couple of blisters in my toes.
* Muscle exercises at late night, after getting up from my post-dinner food-coma crash.
* Leg work. My right knee kept popping slightly during the first couple of sets of pistols, then stopped for the last sets. Do feel a little bit of a twinge there during jumprope as well, so may have to be a bit careful. Creeps were the easiest it has ever been. 
* Davincis hurt as always.
* V-sits are coming along well. I was a bit afraid of ab work today given how stuffed I was feeling, but it was not a problem.
* It's 2am here, but will likely do another full set of rope to offset some of the indulgence dinner before going to sleep. 

Photos

December 3, 2011 3:11 PM UTC

Day 80 : The PCP diet is impossible to follow away from home

My first day in Kota Kinabalu was a small disaster from a PCP-diet perspective, despite my best efforts.

The flight departed at 1:20am as scheduled, but the infinitely wise people of Malaysian Airlines decided that turning up all the lights and serving a full meal at 2:30am was in the best interest of people, when I'm sure I wasn't the only one just wanting to go to sleep. Our daughter had a particularly difficult time dealing with this treatment, which naturally meant my wife nor myself weren't getting any sleep either. The only thing that went in my favor all day was that the breakfast buffet had hard-boiled eggs, as many as I wanted. But other than that, food was very difficult. Unsalted or non-oiled protein? Forget about it. Raw vegetables were non-existent other than a few leaves and salad garnishings. And Malay people, as advertised, tend to answer in the affirmative without really understanding you. I ordered room service for my lunch, asking for plain grilled fish without salt or oil. The guy confirmed no oil and no salt, then asked what sauce did I want. I knew this wan't going well. Well, what ended up at my door was a pan-fried crusted fish covered in oil and definitely salted (it was tasty, don't get me wrong, but not at all what I had in mind). Steamed vegetables I asked for ended up being grilled in oil and heavily salted. I had the fish but passed on the veges. I hit a local supermarket, but all they sold were whole fish or chickens (how the hell am I going to do anything with that in my hotel room without a kitchen or knives!?), and the produce was far from fresh (over half of the tomatoes I turned over were molding. Yikes!). 

So, here is my worst PCP food summary to date:
Breakfast - Wheat toast, brown bread, boiled egg, roasted tomatoes (these looked safe, but can't be sure), grilled vegetables (definitely oiled), a little bit of salad with a touch of olive oil vinegrette. The protein suffered from salt. Some curried fish, and a little bit of chicken (it may have been deep fried, but I squeezed the oil out of it on to a napkin. What resulted was a dry piece of dense white flesh.)
Morning snack - egg white, grapes, papaya
Lunch - this meal happened at around 4pm, a good 7 hours after my morning snack. I had a day from hell looking for a supermarket, trying to see if I could be compliant. I tried at first to walk to one in sweltering heat and humidity but needed a ride an hour later after all, then was completely disappointed with what was on offer when I finally got there, then had to stand on a street corner for at least half an hour as I was unable to hail a cab to go back to the hotel. Then the room service incident mentioned above. So, in the end, I had oily salted and crusted grilled fish (I at least took off the crust and tried to dab the oil away), sliced multiseed bread (says 38% seeds and grains), no veges.
Afternoon snack - papayas, egg white, which I actually had with my lunch given the time and how hungry I was.
Pre-workout - banana
Post-workout snack - 2 egg whites, mango, banana, grapes
Dinner - Malaysian cuisine. I tried to be as compliant as possible, but again, salt was everywhere. Biryani rice (this was flavored but relatively safe), steamed prawns stuffed with crab meat (this must have had some salt in the crab stuffing but it was mildly flavored and had no oil as it was steamed- a fine choice given the alternatives), a piece or two of chicken tandoori tenders (pretty dry and limitedly flavored), but the vegetable dish of cauliflower and potato was definitely too oily and salty to be PCP-compliant.
Evening snack - papaya, pineapple, small banana (the fruit I had as dessert with my dinner), egg white

Workout notes:
* 28 minutes of rope in the morning after breakfast
* Pull-ups. There is a decent gym at the resort, and they had the assisted pull-up bars. These were awesome! I did all 6 sets and reps, obviously with increasing assistance. By the end, my forearms gripping the bars were shot (and later affected my kung-fu's).
* Kung-fu's,, I couldn't grip the bar after the 4th set. (And I was already having to break up the earlier sets not because I couldn't get my legs up, but because my hands couldn't stay gripped to the bar.)
* Bicycles continue to be the worst exercise that I can do. These are just plain evil.
* I'm strongly thinking of doing another 21 minutes of rope to partly neutralize today's food.

So, this was my first day, and I have 7 more to go. I thought about treating this day as my indulgence, but the problem is, I didn't indulge. I stuck with the permitted weights, and was just that I couldn't find things that complied even though I tried hard. Also, I am planning a proper dinner tomorrow night which had been planned as my indulgence, so not going to miss that (I will be having more than 50 grams of carbs in my dinner tomorrow). My conclusion is that it's near impossible to stick to a PCP diet away from home, when there is no kitchen and eating out becomes the main source of food intake. I tip my hat to all those who have had business trips during PCP and made out all right. Anyway, we'll see how tomorrow goes.

December 2, 2011 1:28 PM UTC

Day 79 : Off to Borneo

Have a 1:20am flight to Kota Kinabalu, which mean we have to leave the house at around 10:30pm. Which is right about now!

Workout notes:
* 28 minutes of rope (my first set was interrupted by a phone call)
* Did 5 complete sets of dips, and broke the last set into mini-sets. Then did all the push-ups except for the 14th rep of the final set.
* Planks were a bitch as always.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, tomatoes, boiled egg
Morning snack - pineapples, grapes, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - pineapples, grapes, egg white
Dinner - Oven baked chicken, English muffin, cabbage, corn, carrots, banana
Post-workout snack - 2 egg whites, apple
Evening snack - grapes, egg white

Next post from Malaysia, Internet at the hotel allowing!

December 1, 2011 1:54 PM UTC

Day 78 : It's fantastic to have carbs back in my dinners

Not much time to blog tonight. I have to pack for Borneo. I'll just say it's absolutely fantastic to have 50g of carbs back in my dinners.

Workout notes:
* 21 minute of rope
* Getting good at the pistols, but I still dread floorjumps.
* Nice to not have davincis or forward shoulder raises today. Still a good workout for the shoulders.
* V-sits. I think I either found a way to cheat on them a little by bringing up my upper body a little before the legs to gain a bit of momentum, or I got good with them all of a sudden. I suspect it's the former. At least my first set was still very Patrick-in-the-video-like.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, wheat toast, boiled egg, leftover chicken from yesterday, tomatoes
Morning snack - apples, pineapples, grapes, egg white
Lunch - salmon and scallop fried rice
Afternoon snack - apples pineapples, grapes, egg white
Dinner - Oven baked salmon with onions, steamed turnips, half a persimmon, banana, English muffin
Evening/post-workout snack - apple, grapes, 3 egg whites

November 30, 2011 1:17 PM UTC

Day 77 : AMAYW ain't the same as AMAIWTYTGF (as much as it would take you to get full)

Nice to have the rest day. My body was getting fatigued from the long workouts and also the shortage of sleep from the nightly routine of eating, exercising and blogging, so it's a bit of relief to have an easy evening. I was really hungry for dinner today, and my allowance of protein and AMAYW veges did not fill me up (particularly because as much as I want is a lot less than as much as it would take me to get full). So I borrowed from the evening/post-workout snack and had as part of my dinner my pre-workout banana, my evening snack egg white, and half an apple which amounted to about 1/4 of my evening fruit. 

The universe of vegetables that I am eating is fairly limited. Broccoli and asparagus haven't made as many appearances as I thought they would, and tomatoes have instead become a constant. I stay away from the likes of potatoes, sweet potatoes and pumpkin, which I haven't fully embraced as a vegetable from a dietary standpoint. And supermarkets around me don't sell cool stuff like Evelyn's black radishes and purple carrots which would at least tempt me to try them once. What I'm trying to say is, vegetables don't excite me, and I never want to eat much of it. I guess things will be a bit better post-PCP when I can choose to use a discretionary amount of dressing with my salad.

Workout notes:
* 40 minutes of rope (10 min x 4 sets)

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, wheat toast, tomatoes, boiled egg
Morning snack - apple slices, pineapple chunks, grapes, egg white
Lunch - Salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - apple slices, pineapple chunks, grapes, egg white
Dinner - Oven baked chicken breast, cabbage and corn, tomatoes, apple slices, banana, egg white
Evening/post-workout snack - persimmon, grapes, 2 egg whites

November 29, 2011 3:17 PM UTC

Day 76 : Two weeks to go

So we are now officially counting down to the end of PCP with just 2 more weeks remaining. I remember when starting out and looking at the two active groups at the time who I think were on Days 70-something and 50-something, and wondering what it felt like to have made it that far. I would look at some of those PCPers' pictures on flickr and marvel at the changes many of them had made. It made me excited about the program and made me wonder if I'd also be able to make those changes. Well, here we are. Having lost a lot of fat while gaining muscle, I am in such a better place physically, have so much more energy than before to get through each day, and just feel better about myself. But I know that there is still a lot more work left to do to reach peak condition. I am not yet fully confident I can maintain this lifestyle forever, both in terms of the diet and the workouts, but I feel I have the knowledge to be better able to manage myself going forward. As many have mentioned, it's all about maintenance after the program is over. I feel a big part of will be to continue to have objectives to stay motivated. I have signed up for a half marathon in mid-January, and friends have recommended the 100 push-up challenge. Also, I suggested this to Patrick when I met him a couple of weekends ago, but I think there needs to be an alumni site and a page on Facebook for PCP graduates to stay plugged in and continue to be peer-pressured to a degree, if they so wish. Many of us came to PCP with a common purpose facing similar challenges, so I'm sure that a medium to share information about healthy eating and living after our 90 days would be useful to many of us.

Workout notes:
* 24 minutes of rope.
* Pull-ups. No noticeable improvement, but continuing to work with the assistance equipment.
* Getting stronger on the kung-fu's. Did all 6 sets of 9 reps, while my forearms get the most work out of these.
* Couldn't reach failure on sit-ups. Did sets of 30 reps with my knees up, ended up doing either 6 or 7 sets.
* Nothing particular to mention on the other exercises.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, wheat toast, 2 tomatoes, salmon
Morning snack - pineapple chunks, apple slices, grapes, egg white
Lunch - Salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - pineapple chunks, apple slices, grapes, egg white
Dinner - Lean beef steak, stir-fried cabbage and corn, banana
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/Post-workout snack - pineapple, apple slices

Instead of eating 340 grams of fruit after working out around midnight, I decided to shift a part of it and have it with dinner. So I had a banana (weighed about 100 grams) with dinner, and only had 240 grams after working out. That seems to have worked well, as I am not feeling so full going to bed.

November 28, 2011 3:16 PM UTC

Day 75 : My indulgence preview and a rant about sweets

With my much needed vacation to Borneo Island just a few days away, the green light for our last indulgence couldn't come at a better time. I will obviously hold off until I get to Kota Kinabalu, and it's most likely that I will indulge in a Malaysian dinner of various ethnic dishes. I haven't had a mad craving for any spicy or ethnic food (the scent from the Indian restaurant on my way home no longer lures me the way it did in the first PCP month), but what's the purpose of visiting a place you've never been if you can't experience the local fare. Meanwhile, what I have often been tempted by are sweets. I've always had a sweet tooth, and no amount of weight I lose or how much PCP I do will ever change that. The fruits have managed to fill some of that that void, but there are often times I have to will myself to stay away from the cookies, chocolates, ice creams, red bean paste rice cakes, custard flan puddings and cheesecakes. The Japanese get very creative and original with their sweets, and trips to the basement floor of most department stores where their high-end cookies and cakes section are usually located is something I miss dearly. That will most likely be the one type of processed foods I will never be able to quit on. I'll just remember to treat it as an indulgence, have it in moderation, and keep my jumprope near.

Workout notes:
* 24 minutes of rope
* A bit stronger on the dips, needing less breaks during the last sets to get through the reps. The last set was 6-3-3 reps. Push-ups too, did 4+ sets of elevated, had to come down to regular push-ups only for the last few reps of the last set.
* Biceps continue to burn madly when isolated properly.
* 5 x 90 planks... I completed them, but there was no pleasure, and I had to rest more than allowed in between sets.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, wheat toast, boiled egg, assorted seafood, tomato
Morning snack - apple slices, pineapple chunks, grapes, egg white
Lunch - seafood fried rice
Afternoon snack - apple slices, pineapple chunks, grapes, egg white
Dinner - oven baked salmon with onions, raw radish, steamed corn, tomato
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/Post-workout snack - persimmon, apple slice, grapes, 3 egg whites

November 27, 2011 3:38 PM UTC

Day 74 : End of the weekend, start of another week

I like that the PCP week starts on a Thursday, which puts the weekend in the middle of a PCP weekly cycle. I can't imagine how horrible it would have been if the jumprope-only rest day happened on a Sunday, which would have meant that the workweek and the PCP week both started on a Monday. I say this, as I feel I am getting less and less enthusiastic about working out everyday. It hangs over me all day, and I tend to push it back as late as possible, until the thought of getting up the next morning on short rest finally overcomes my inertia for procrastinating. It's a very delicately balanced battle going on in my head. I've not come to the point of thinking about skipping it altogether, and I will force myself to do it, but the positive energy is not really there on most days. I've tried to analyze and pinpoint the reason for this, and I think it's because I know how hard it's going to be. For example, I don't mind the jumprope at all because I can fly through it without problems. But each day with the muscles, there is something I dread. The floorjump and davinci/forward raise on leg/shoulder days. The curls (of any kind) on chest/bicep days. The pull-up and kung-fu's on back/tricep days. It's hard, because while I understand the message that we need to keep challenging the body to build more muscle, the brain has already proclaimed no mas. I will tell my brain that it's just another 16 days (and counting down) and all the good it's done for me over the last 74 (and counting). Let's see how that goes for the next two weeks.

Workout notes:
* 18 minutes of rope (no extras today due to time constraint)
* Creeps were a bitch, but I got through them. Creeps are not as bad as floorjumps, but that's like saying going to a doctor is not as bad as going to a dentist.
* Shoulder work was very hard today. 15 sets altogether was super long.
* V-sits were better today. I got almost through 2 sets, and had a little more at the beginning of each subsequent set before form deteriorated.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, wheat toast, boiled egg, tomato, pan-fried fish
Morning snack - half a persimmon, apple slices, egg white
Lunch - Seafood pasta in vegetable tomato sauce, wheat toast to fill out my carbs
Afternoon snack - grapes, egg white
Dinner - Oven baked salmon with onions, boiled Chinese white cabbage
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/Post-workout snack - apple, grapes, 3 egg whites

November 26, 2011 5:13 PM UTC

Day 73 : Holy lord, they fit!!

Around Day 40-something of PCP, I tried unsuccessfully to squeeze into a pair of fancy jeans I owned. These were jeans I bought 5 years ago the last time I was at my slimmest. I was happy with being in shape, and got carried away with perusing fashion magazines and shelling out substantial money on designer apparel. I saw these jeans in some magazine and sought out the store that sold them. After all the trouble, it turned out that the store didn't have it in my size, but I liked the design so much that I decided to buy what they did have, which was one size smaller, thinking that I would drop another couple of pounds and fit into them. That never happened. So these jeans basically just hung in the deepest corner of my closet for years, having never been worn.

Well, on Day 73 of PCP, these jeans fit. And I didn't have to squeeze into them. They fit comfortably. (Well, as comfortable as designer jeans made to make you look slim will ever fit.) This means my waistline is slimmer now than when I was actively playing tennis and running half-marathons. But I weigh more, which means I have added a few kilos of muscle. This means I'm in better physical shape at 35 than I was at 30. While I can easily slip into the "Well, the difficult part is coming up when you have to maintain this after the 90 days" frame of mind, for today, I am going to savor this victory and be happy about my progress.

Workout notes:
* 2 rope sessions, 30 minutes in the morning before breakfast, 18 minutes at night before getting into the muscles.
* Pull-ups.. My assistance equipment finally arrived. And I gotta say, it was worth the wait, and works exactly like I envisioned it would. Much more effective than tying the resistance bands directly to the bar. I was able to work my pull-up muscles like never before using the device. I did 3 unassisted to start, and many more getting the help. For the first time, I really think that I will eventually be able to finish a full set one day. (See picture below for this fabulous apparatus.)
* Bicycles are my least favorite exercise. Just plain evil. These will most likely not make the cut for my post-PCP routine.

Food summary:
Breakfast - rye toast, boiled egg, tomato, salmon
Morning snack - Banana, apple, grapes, egg white
Lunch - big plate of seafood pasta in tomato sauce
Afternoon snack - Banana, apple, egg white
Dinner - Ate out at a blowfish hot-pot restaurant. Had some blowfish sashimi and chunks boiled in konbu dashi broth for my protein. Had Chinese white cabbage for my veg. Very PCP compliant as I didn't eat any non-compliant dishes and didn't use the condiments and sauces. Just plain boiled fish and cabbage.
Pre-workout - passed on this today, as I still felt I had enough food in my system from dinner.
Evening/post-workout snack - persimmon, grapes, 3 egg whites

Photos

November 25, 2011 4:45 PM UTC

Day 72 : Dude, that's like only 90 seconds

It's already past 1:30am here. A late night at the office forced a late workout today. Just finished the planks and ate my combined evening/post-workout fruit snack- all 340 grams of it, and of course the 3 egg whites. The prospect of being able to eat fruit at 1am was the dangling carrot that kept me pushing through the tough exercises today.

So I was reading a lifestyle magazine the other day, and there was a cover story on a semi-retired fifty-something guy who kept an active lifestyle with many hobbies. He asserted that the key to his lifestyle was to maintain the physical strength to be able to do the things that interested him, and proudly proclaimed that he jumproped 200 times everyday. 72 days ago, I may have been impressed by his consistency, or at least glossed right over that detail with a vague idea that the guy exercises to stay healthy. But now, I was thinking, dude, that's like only 90 seconds. Not that I'm mocking the guy's effort, but if he's actually jumping rope everyday as he claims, 200 shouldn't even begin to warm him up. Clearly, neither the writer nor his editors are in peak condition to be able to tell. Well, I hope I will be continuing to do a lot more than 200 jumps when I am in my fifties.

Workout notes:
* 24 minutes of rope
* Later sets of dips broken up to get all the reps in. Followed with the push-ups, which I was able to do all but the last 2 reps on the final set within regulation. I've come a long way on the push-ups, and definitely feel stronger for it.
* I couldn't fail on the standing o's. I ended up doing 25 reps in each set, then I stopped. I did feel the burn, so at least there's that.
* Biceps were agony. I was burning and hurting on my way to finish everything on the menu. I ended up doing 18, 18, 16, 15 reps for the one-arm sets.
* 4 x 90 planks were harder today than previously, and I had to rest a little more in between sets, but I got through them.

Food summary:
* Breakfast - Hooray for increased carbs. English muffin, rye toast, tomatoes, boiled egg, salmon
* Morning snack - pineapples, egg white
* Lunch - Salmon and scallop fried rice. The scallops add depth to the flavor and it tastes great, but it gets very expensive.
* Afternoon snack - pineapples, egg white
* Dinner - Lean beef steak, tomatoes, turnip (I knew it was going to be a late one, so I had the foresight to pack my dinner today.)
* Pre-workout - banana
* Evening/Post-workout snack - persimmon, half an apple, handful of grapes to make weight, 3 egg whites

November 24, 2011 2:42 PM UTC

Day 70 & 71 : To the hot springs and back

Back from an overnight trip to the hot springs. We drove 2 hours west from Tokyo to the beautiful Fuefukigawa Onsen in Yamanashi prefecture. It was a very serene and peaceful place, and a great getaway from the city. I took advantage of rest day yesterday and got the jumprope out of the way before we left, and I ended up relaxing the entire afternoon and night without having to worry about exercise. Of course, I took my jumprope with me for the morning after, and packed enough PCP food for the duration of the trip (see picture below). The most frustrating part of the trip was not being able to partake in eating all the great food that regional Japan offers. In this case, it was the kaiseki dinner course at the ryokan last night, and some hearty houtou soup noodles for lunch today. As many yukon-ers have voiced their disappointment with being unable to feast for Thanksgiving, I guess I am not alone in feeling the food withdrawal. But it's all good. If I really want to eat that bowl of noodles, I should be willing to do the 4 hour round trip drive in 3 weeks time. If not, well, then maybe I didn't want it that bad. Chances are, 3 weeks from now, I will have forgotten all about the noodles and instead be admiring my 90 days of work in the mirror like a narcissistic idiot.

Summary of the past 2 days--

Day 70 workout notes:
* 40 minutes of rope before breakfast, getting it out of the way before leaving for the hot springs

Day 70 food summary:
Pre-workout/post-workout - passed
Breakfast - English muffin, boiled egg, lean steak strips, tomatoes
Morning snack - pineapples (forgot my egg white)
Lunch - salmon and scallop fried rice
Afternoon snack - pineapples, egg white
Dinner - lean beef steak, cabbage and corn
Evening snack - pineapples, egg white

Day 71 workout notes:
* Rope before breakfast at the hot springs, muscles at night after coming home
* 28 minutes (10 min extra set after prescription)
* Leg work was tough, even with just 2 exercises instead of 3. I think going straight into the pistols right after a light stretch shocked my muscles. Floorjumps were killer again.
* Davincis to fail... I ended up doing less reps each set. Did 28 reps the first set, and last set was about 15 reps. Because I didn't have to worry about getting to a particular number of reps, I was careful with form, went slower than usual and only rested the allowed number of seconds. My shoulders were burning at the end, which made the press and flies that much more difficult.
* V-sits... The increased reps are killing me. I did manage 1.5 sets before form got ugly, but even the 16 reps in the first set was tough towards the end.

Day 71 food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, boiled egg, lean beef steak, tomatoes
Morning snack - pineapples, egg white
Lunch - salmon and scallop fried rice
Afternoon snack - apple, egg white
Dinner - oven baked salmon, tomatoes
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/post-workout snack - grapes, 3 egg whites

Photos

November 22, 2011 4:01 PM UTC

Day 69 : I love my new rope!

It's getting cold at night here in Tokyo, but the jumprope to start the workout gets my body warm and the blood pumping. It's the perfect way to start the workout. I am loving my new jumprope. I bought new ones last weekend, but decided that I liked the feel of the old rope better (the new rope was made of leather and it was a bit too light for my liking). So I mixed and matched, taking the handles from my new rope and combining them with the old rope, and now I have a badass all-black rope with a good-looking cushion grip and super-smooth bearings. I feel I can go on for about an hour, and one of these days, I will. (But definitely not on leg day, or the day before leg day, and it has to be on a day I can split the workout, i.e. a weekend. ...and the stars have to line up right, it has to be a good hair-day, etc etc, blah blah...) Anyway, I love that I am improving on the rope, not just endurance-wise, but also technique-wise, as I can do pretty much all the tricks with the rope now, except how the pros whip the rope on either side of their body without the rope going under their feet. Don't really understand those. But the great thing now is that I can shuffle my feet and alternate them at will, so I don't have to set my feet together to two-leg jump every time. It saves some energy while keeping my heart rate going, and it helps create a good rhythm. My favorite part of the workout by far.

Workout notes:
* 20 minutes of rope
* Pull-ups.. I am starting to see some progress here. I did almost 3 unassisted reps, then several more using the resistance band under my feet to help. I should be getting my official pull-up assist device in a few more days, so hopefully I will have it for my next pull-up day. Will I get to a full set by Day 90? Unlikely. But maybe on Day 120...
* The other back exercises are manageable, though the pulldowns are more challenging with the new band and I have to be about a step closer to the door.
* Tricep work is manageable overall. Last sets of the ski-jumper gets tough.
* Kung-fu's.. Holding on to the bar is still the toughest part of this exercise for me. But I am getting my body higher and higher, though my legs can't extend as straight as Patrick's picture on the sheet. I saw him do this in person when I went to work out with him, and I must say, when you can do this very properly, it looks very kung-fu. Mine definitely doesn't look like a martial art at the moment.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, lean beef strips, tomatoes, boiled egg
Morning snack - mixed it up by chopping up apples and pineapples, and also adding grapes
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - the apples, pineapples, grapes combo again. Love the variety!
Dinner - Leftover lean beef strips from morning, pan-fried salmon, tomato, sauteed asparagus, cabbage and corn
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/post-workout snack - 3 egg whites, apple

The 340 grams of fruit at night after the workout is fantastic. It feels like it's a little too much to eat, but I am enjoying it down to the very last gram. 

November 21, 2011 2:22 PM UTC

Day 68 : Grinding out another PCP day

Just getting by and grinding out another PCP day. A little bit low on energy today and had to push myself to start the workout, but it's become so much a routine now that I now seem to have the ability to just suck it up and get through it. Doesn't mean I enjoyed it, or pushed myself to the limit to maximize the session, but I got it done.

Workout notes:
* 20 minutes of rope. This is the easy part of the workout.
* Dips-to-push-ups combo causing usual pain, split the later sets of dips into mini-sets, but was able to do most of the push-ups on schedule. I did 2 sets of elevated ones, and 3 sets of regular ones.
* One-arm biceps using the new band sapped my strength very quickly. By the time I got to the thumbs-up, I felt weak and that compromised my form a bit.
* 4 x 90 second planks give me no pleasure or joy, but got through them with a little extra rest between sets.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, boiled egg, tomatoes, forgot the protein
Morning snack - Pineapples, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - Pineapples, egg white
Dinner - Lean beef steak, dry sauteed spinach, tomatoes
Evening/post-workout snack - 3 egg whites, apple, grapes to finish grams

I was getting very hungry today, had to eat each meal/snack about 30 minutes earlier than usual. But the evening fruit is a load, and I am feeling very full and satiated right now.

November 20, 2011 3:31 PM UTC

Day 67 : Damn persistent belly flab

Damn persistent belly flab. There is a little over 20 days left on the PCP and the mid-section fat just won't go away. Sure, it looks so much better than 2 months ago (but it better, given the work put in the kitchen and garage), and you can call it PCP tunnel vision, but as I am currently consumed by PCP and my entire day revolves around complying with it, it can't be helped. I know that I will certainly continue to work at it after the 90th day, but since I am also looking forward to eating some normal meals with my family, I want to get as close as I can before the project ends. So to accelerate the process, I did double time on the rope today before breakfast. The first 15 minutes were fine, though I was feeling some tension in my right shoulder blade area (not sure if it was muscle soreness, but I never had that before until today), and maybe it was because it was a lot warmer than in the past few weeks, I started to sweat a lot in the extra time and was properly fatigued by the 30 minute mark. According to the formula from that dumb little Jumpsnap video, 30 minutes of rope is equal to 90 minutes of running? Not so sure about that. (Maybe if it's running really really slow...)

I am noticing more muscle in various areas. Today, I noticed my biceps had gotten a lot bigger and defined than when I started, and also noticed a new muscle above the knee on the outside part of the leg. These discoveries are cool. Now if I can only get my back muscles up to speed...

Workout notes:
* Rope before breakfast, muscles after dinner.
* 30 minutes total of rope. an extra sets of 10 and 5 minutes after the official quota.
* Leg exercises were massive today. I was shaking after the last set of creeps. I tried roping a little at the very end of the workout, and found that I could hardly get going. Legs were shot.
* The new band is great for the shoulder work. Just about the right strength, and elastic enough and doesn't pull like a chord when stretched like my previous one.
* V-sits are the same story. I am getting to 1.5 sets before form deteriorates. But I guess the fact that each day sees more reps per set means my incremental progress is keeping up.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, boiled egg, lean beef steak, tomatoes
Morning snack - 1/2 persimmon, grapes, egg white
Lunch - More English muffin, lean beef steak, tomatoes, and broccoli. For whatever reason, I was craving for more bread after breakfast. The whole wheat English muffin hit the spot. I used to think that butter was compulsory for these, but now I love them plain.
Afternoon snack - 1/4 pear, a small piece of banana and a couple of blueberries blended with egg white, ice and water for a quick tasty shake, grapes to finish grams
Dinner - Boiled chicken wings (don't ask...), turnip, tomatoes
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/post-workout snack - 3 egg whites, apple, grapes

November 19, 2011 4:44 PM UTC

Day 66 : New equipment and gear

An awful day in Tokyo, with rain pouring throughout the day. I decided to go out and shop for some PCP-related equipment that I had been wanting to get. First, my jumprope had gotten squeaky, as the bearings had gotten wobbly on one of the handles, and I could tell it was putting more strain on my wrist and hands. Also, I had been meaning to get a slightly stronger weak band, as the one I was using for shoulders and triceps weren't very good. Finally, I needed to get some workout gloves to save my palms from gripping the bar on pull-ups and the kung-fu's. I bought all these and a pair of wristbands, and adding to my new wardrobe of workout gear I loaded up on last weekend, I feel better equipped to tackle the remaining 25 days of the PCP workout. (There's a sporting apparel store near my house that was doing a clearance sale, and I ended up buying unnecessary quantities of Adidas gear, though at an incredible bargain.)

Also, I posted my week 10 picture, and while I continue to see incremental weight loss, and I guess my picture is showing me incrementally trimmer, I still would like to lose the love handles and the small amount of flab hanging on my mid-section. Yes, that is definitely PCP tunnel vision at work. 

Workout notes:
* Rope in the morning, muscles at night
* Extra set of 10 minutes, total of 25 minutes on the rope
* Pull-ups continue to be a struggle, but the band assistance does help. I am afraid it will snap in my face though. I better hurry up and order that device.
* Kung-fu's felt a bit better today wearing the glove to grip the bar. Still, my grip was dying towards the end, and feels like my forearm got the hardest workout again.
* 60 second bicycles are probably more evil than the 90 second planks.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, boiled egg, lean beef steak, tomato
Morning snack -  banana, grapes, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - apple slices, egg white
Dinner - foil-baked snapper, asparagus, cherry tomatoes
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/post-workout snack - a lot of grapes, banana, 3 egg whites

I am consuming 340 grams of fruit after my workout, as I combine the evening and post-workout snacks. And as much as I love eating the fruit, I was concerned that this was a bit too much to eat at night for fat burning purposes. Patrick has advised that this shouldn't be a problem, but maybe I want to avoid bananas. I got that message after I had my banana tonight, so I'll ditch them starting tomorrow.

Photos

November 18, 2011 3:47 PM UTC

Day 65 : A return to normalcy

Made it through the tough week and with the exception of the blip yesterday, I came out pretty much PCP-intact. I can now get back to my normal PCP routine, and won't have any more major obstacles until I head off to Borneo in two weeks. (I do have an overnight stay at an onsen ryokan coming up next week, but I have already excluded myself from their gorgeous dinner and am packing PCP food instead so should be fine. Sad, but fine.)

Being back in the PCP groove and not having to worry about distractions makes the day much easier. I was happy to not have to wake up extra early to get the jumprope done in anticipation of time pressures at night, I was happy to eat my usual salmon fried rice out of my tupperware for lunch at the office, and I was happy to come straight home and have my unsalted PCP dinner then getting my workout done at a reasonable hour (i.e. before midnight).  It was like everything was all right with the world again. The workout was massive today, but it was the most relaxed session I had all week.

Workout notes:
* An extra set of 5 minutes, for a total of 20 minutes on the rope.
* Did 3 full sets of dips, then needed to break sets 4 and 5 into two mini-sets of five reps, and then the sixth set was a struggle to get all the reps in. I was still able to complete all five sets of push-ups afterwards though, which made myself proud.
* Curls continue to be very tough with the correct isolation. The burn is intense. I barely managed to get it all done
* 90-second planks. This needs its own blog entry... I did complete them. But 90 seconds is a LONG time. I was shaking in the last 2 sets. And I did have to rest more than 15 seconds between sets, though nothing ridiculous.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, salmon, boiled egg, tomato
Morning snack - apple slices, pineapple cuts, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - pineapple cuts, egg white
Dinner - Lean beef steak, mixed vegetables, tomato, 2 asparagus
Pre-workout - banana
Evening/Post-workout snack - 2 egg whites, grapes, half an apple. (I was short one egg white)

November 17, 2011 4:06 PM UTC

Day 64 : PCP Blip

Well, the last of the week's business dinners today. I felt I had been handling the tough week fairly well, but tonight, for the first time, the wheels came off. It was a dinner for three of us at a teppanyaki restaurant, and while I showed restraint by asking them not to salt any of my food and also passing on the fois gras and the creme brulee and all alcoholic drinks, many parts of the meal were consumed, such as grilled vegetable that was well oiled, a wagyu beef hamburger steak, some abalone sauteed in butter, and a bit of the dry curry rice at the end. Not because I was dying to eat it, but because with just three of us eating at the open kitchen counter (and I wasn't paying for the meal), it just felt improper to pass on all the food on the basis that it was "non-compliant with my fitness program." I admit it was all tasty, but did feel that the guilt factor was much larger than whatever pleasure I got from eating it. I came home feeling I ate too much and had a pit in the stomach similar to how I felt after having the oily stir-fried vegetables at the buffet a couple of weeks ago. But I did jet an extra session of rope in, and did complete the exercises in full, and here I am blogging about it at 1am, so let's call this a blip and move on to tomorrow.

Workout notes:
* Rope in the morning, rope again at night, and muscle exercises at night.
* 15 minutes of rope first thing in the morning before breakfast, and another 15 minutes at night before the muscle session.
* The legs were tough. Not having seen floorjumps in a week, they came back harder than ever. I was wobbly during the last 2 sets, having to stop at various points during the set before finally getting enough reps to call it a finish.
* Shoulders were also tough, but not that bad compared to the floorjumps.
* V-sits, same story. 1.5 sets clean, then struggle the rest of the way.
* Side crunches, 3 sets regular, 2 sets lifting knees.

Food summary:
Breakfast - English muffin, boiled egg, mixed vegetables, lean beef steak
Morning snack - pineapple, egg white
Lunch - Apple, lean beef steak, 2 egg whites, cherry tomatoes
Afternoon snack - pineapple, egg white
Dinner - teppanyaki course, including yellowtail sashimi, vegetable puree soup, grilled fish and asparagus, butter sauteed abalone, wagyu hamburger steak, dry curry rice. Not PCP-compliant one bit.
After workout snack - banana, half apple, 2 egg whites

I was pretty much done packing my dinner turned lunch (swapping the grams again to accommodate the business dinner) before I checked out our new week's diet and found that it had taken me off the egg white dinners and found significant changes from last week. Too bad, too late. I will start the new diet starting tomorrow.

November 16, 2011 2:55 PM UTC

Day 63 : Tough PCP workweek continues

Just got home from work dinner, a quarter to midnight. Glad it was just jumprope day, as I got that done the first thing in the morning before work, and no muscle workout to worry about at night. Swapped my lunch and dinner grams around, but with a fixed course again, I probably under-ate again. But since I had the pick of restaurant, I went with a healthy but incredibly tasty Japanese restaurant that featured a lot of fish and vegetables. Glad everyone in our party enjoyed it, but I did end up leaving significant portions of my dinner virtually untouched, including an extremely tasty dessert (how do I know it was tasty? Well, I had a tiny spoon tip of a lick to at least check it out.)

Workout notes:
* Rope in the morning before breakfast. 15 minutes total.
* Rope at night to offset the non-PCP compliant dinner. Will do this after posting. Target 15 minutes. (Update: got into a nice groove, ended up doing 20+ minutes.. But now it's 12:30am....)

Food summary:
Breakfast - toast, lean beef steak, corn, boiled egg
Morning snack - grapes, egg white
Lunch - lean beef steak, 2 egg whites, cherry tomatoes, apple
Afternoon snack - grapes, egg white
Dinner - Japanese course, including a turnip dish, a taro dish, bonito sashimi in onion ponzu sauce, another fish, an organic salad with vinegrette, and salmon steamed rice. Sounds pretty compliant on paper, and it was very healthy for an outside meal, but each dish no doubt contained some salt.
Evening snack - passed

November 15, 2011 3:12 PM UTC

Day 62 : Conquering the pull-ups

The title does not suggest that I have at last vanquished my long-time nemesis. Far from it. In fact, I struggled as usual again today. But for the first time, I feel that there is some hope to improve on these. Let me explain...

To answer Thomas D's comment a couple days ago, yes, I did have Patrick check on my pull-ups when I went to go see him this past weekend. (Sidenote: I do read every single comment left on my blog, and appreciate each one. But between the kitchen, office, workout, sleep and fresh blog entries everyday, I often run out of time to respond to comments.) Patrick called it a need to "grease the grooves." He said it wasn't a problem with muscle strength that is keeping me from being able to do them, but a lack of muscle coordination for this particular exercise. In other words, my mind isn't currently wired to send the right signals to my muscles for this motion, and as a result, I am unnecessarily tensing up in various parts of the neck/arm/shoulders. He suggested I do one rep every time I walk by the pull-up tower (he suggested I put it in the house, but that won't happen while my wife is alive) and let my body and brain get used to the motion, and soon I'd become more natural at it.

That's all fine, but then there is the problem of actually being able to do a couple of reps to get my body accustomed to doing pull-ups. This is where the below link I hope comes in handy:
http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_gear/p90x_gear/p90x-chin-up-max-pull-up-bar.do
Boom!! This looks exactly like what I need. It will get a bit pricey with expedited international shipping, but I need to buy this. (I remember Thomas D leaving me a comment a while ago describing this which I didn't completely understand at the time, but now I get it.) I tried a version of this with some extra resistance bands I had, and it marginally helped, but it just reinforced that I will want to get my hands on the real thing.

So, while we're still a long ways off, I feel with these two pieces, I have finally taken a step towards eventually conquering the pull-ups. To be continued.

Workout notes:
* Rope in the morning, muscle exercises at night.
* Pull-ups: I tried to mimic the assisted pull-ups by tying both ends of a spare resistance bands to the pull-up bar, and stepping on the band. The band is stretched as I hang on the bar in the down position, and the idea is for the pull-up to be assisted by the band on the way up. Well, it only helped marginally, but it was enough to get a few reps in. More than I'd done ever before (which is, ahem, like 4 reps). To think, with the real apparatus, I may finally be able to fatigue my muscles so that I can build on it.
* Kung-fu's also continue to hurt my gripping hands than the abs/core. I am getting better at these. Maybe if I buy a workout glove with padding and grip, I will be better able to perform these.

Food summary:
Breakfast - toast, chicken breast, boiled egg, cherry tomatoes
Morning snack - Asian apple pear, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice (turns out I didn't have a business lunch today. Glad I packed it.)
Afternoon snack - grapes, egg white
Dinner - shake, lean beef steak, tomato
Evening/post-workout snack - banana, Asian apple pear slice, turnip, 2 egg whites

November 14, 2011 3:49 PM UTC

Day 61 : Start of my tough week

This is the start of my tough week on PCP. My bosses from overseas are in town, and I have various dinners and lunches planned during the week. Not that I mind their visit at all, as I, though some may find this notion hard to fathom, actually like the people I work for (and I'm not just saying this in the remote chance that they randomly find this blog in cyberspace). But the after-office commitments does put a strain on my PCP, both in terms of diet and also in terms of finding time to do the exercises. For example, I knew I was going to have dinner tonight, so I got up an hour earlier than usual to get my jumprope done in the morning, and had to swap my lunch and dinner grams around.

I found this diet alternative to be an imperfect solution for three main reasons:
1) Dinner grams are less than lunch grams, so I was getting irritably hungry in the afternoon as I waited for dinner time to roll around.
2) As a work dinner, there was more than a real chance that things got pushed back, and it did, so there was almost a five hour gap between afternoon snack and dinner.
3) As dinner was a fixed course menu, I could not choose the most PCP-compliant thing on the menu, and simply had to eat what seemed PCP-tolerable and pass on the rest. As a result, I ended up under-eating by a lot, especially the vegetable portion.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a lunch, but I am going to pack my PCP fried rice just in case...

Workout notes:
* Rope in the morning, muscle exercise at night.
* Completed 3 full sets of dips, and 5 reps into set 4 before I had to take mini-rests to complete my reps.
* Got through 3 sets of push-ups and most of set 4 before I failed and had to mini-rest to complete my reps.
* Bicep work was less painful than the last time.
* Bicycle is probably the hardest exercise that I can do (so that excludes pull-ups).
* Completed 5 x 60 planks, though I rested a little more than allowed between sets.

Food summary:
Breakfast - toast, lean beef steak, boiled egg, cherry tomatoes
Morning snack - grapes, pineapples, egg white
Lunch - apple, 2 egg whites, lean beef steak (forgot to pack my vegetables)
Afternoon snack - pineapples, egg white
Dinner - Japanese fixed course meal that I hardly ate. Things that went in my mouth include: sashimi, small amounts of vegetable, lean beef-like meat, half a bowl of flavored wild rice.
Evening/post workout snack - 2 egg whites, turnip, 1/2 apple

November 13, 2011 12:10 PM UTC

Day 60 : Working out with Patrick

Woke up at 6am this morning to do something I'd been wanting to do for a while. I drove an hour down to Motomachi to meet and get a workout in with Patrick. The massive hurdle of getting up early on a weekend had kept me from doing it earlier, but it was all for the better. Had it happened before Day 60, I don't think I would have been able to keep up with Patrick on all the exercises. The biggest difference between working out solo and working out with Patrick was the diligent adherence to the rest allowance between sets. It was more painful than usual, but I was able to get through it all (though was dying on the last sets of the shoulder fly), and we got it done in about half the time I usually take. As Patrick says, you get more muscle out of it and get the workout over with so you can get on with your life. True. Very true. But we'll see if I can maintain that mindset when I'm back at it on my own tomorrow. It was also nice to work out with someone else. It forces you to get through it, like a micro-version of the PCP concept itself. Peer pressure is a powerful thing.

Also, I got my driver's license renewed today, and the difference in my picture from 3 years ago was clear as day. I looked a lot thinner and healthier this time around. Very happy about that.

Workout notes:
* Worked out with Patrick in the morning. My first workout before breakfast.
* No problem with the rope. 16 minutes of work.
* Managed the leg work, creeps were getting tough on the last sets. On the creeps, Patrick kept his butt low and maintained a lower crouching position than he does in the video. It made the creep that much harder.
* Shoulder exercises were killer with the less rest than usual, especially at the end on the last sets of the shoulder fly. On the chicken wings, he suggests to keep the elbow high at all times, even at the down position.
* V-sits. The first set was fine, then it deteriorated after the second half of the 2nd set. Patrick suggested that if I can't get my chest up, then keep the legs symmetrical to the chest. (In other words, lift the legs only as high as you lift the chest.)
* Side crunches were fine. We lifted the knees on the last two sets. Found that there is more burn when not lifting the knees, and that, according to Patrick, is because we are working the deeper muscles which has less pain receptors, so we don't feel the burn as much, but it is still working.

Food summary:
Breakfast/post-workout snack - toast (thanks for toasting my bread Patrick), 1 boiled whole egg, 1 boiled egg white, grapes, cherry tomatoes
Morning snack - pineapples, egg white
Lunch - seafood fried rice
Afternoon snack - banana
Dinner - shake with 3 egg whites instead of 2 (as I forgot to eat it with my banana), shrimp, turnip
Evening snack (planned) - egg white, turnip

Photos

November 12, 2011 2:25 PM UTC

Day 59 : Week 9 photo

I posted my week 9 photo up, and the change is ever so gradual since week 5. But I am definitely lighter and stronger than 4 weeks ago, so despite my appearance having stalled more or less, the changes are there. Since we can only post one picture, I'm not uploading them, but I also simultaneously take a side shot, and a "flex" shot from the front and back, and keep it in my PCP photo directory. I might do one of them animated gifs of my side shots at the end of the 90 days to show the progression if I can size them up properly. I've noticed my belly protruding less over this past week. I've been straddling 76kgs the last couple of days, the first time I've been there since when I was in half-marathon shape 5 years ago. I know it's just a number and a dumb number at that, but I am almost at my pre-PCP goal of 72-73 kgs which I think is my optimum weight given my frame, but I will need to trim more fat off my belly to get there. I think I can shed a couple more kilos after PCP when I start training for the half marathon in January, but I would like to get there before the 90 days are over. It's exciting that it's within striking distance, since I didn't think I'd have a chance again before I got involved in PCP.

Workout notes:
* Rope in the morning, muscle work in the evening
* 20 minutes of rope
* Pull-ups. There are now a shade over 30 days left in PCP and I still can't really get in the groove for these things. I did 2 from the middle grip position to start, and then did an assortment of singles, reverse pull-ups, mini-reps and inclines until I was spent.
* Completed the raised dips, though 13 x 5 was a challenge towards the end. Ski jumps were ok, then my triceps died on me during the double katanas.
* Kung-fu's are getting better. I got my legs higher up today, and no longer having to cross them at the ankles, but hard to kill the momentum of swinging especially as they are coming down from a higher position, and I have to put my feet down to come to a stop. My left shoulder and my hands that grip the bar continue to feel the most work.
* An extra set of 25 sit-ups, but that's the least I can do given I haven't done one session of 8 minute abs yet. I've been meaning to, but I don't have a good excuse.

Food summary:
Breakfast - toast, boiled egg, cherry tomatoes
Morning snack - pineapples, egg white
Lunch - penne with scallops and octopus in a tomato-veg sauce
Afternoon snack - grapes, egg white
After workout snack - banana, egg white
Dinner - shake, scallops, tomato-veg sauce leftover from lunch
Evening snack - turnips, egg white

Photos

November 11, 2011 3:29 PM UTC

Day 58 : I'd forgotten what I'd been missing out on

The much anticipated and long awaited indulgence #2 finally happened today. It was our wedding anniversary, and with the day off from work, a celebratory lunch on this day had been on the calendar even before PCP was even in the picture. The question was, now that I was on PCP, where would we go and what would we eat? I wasn't craving anything greasy or heavy or anything off the deep end. I just wanted to eat something tasty and well-prepared by a professional chef, and I wanted salt back in my life if just for one meal. We decided on a nouveau-Japanese restaurant in Roppongi called Hal Yamashita Tokyo. Oh my god. It was SO good. I'd been on veg and salmon fried rice and fruit and egg white shake for so long that I had forgotten how incredible food could taste, how innovative combinations of rich ingredients can create such complex and harmonious flavors that takes you to an unknown place. This is what I had been missing. Nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels? Bullshit. Maybe the line should be revised to "Nothing under $50 tastes as good as being skinny feels." I might buy into that one. (I'm obviously not suggesting that all expensive food is great, because it's not.)

Anyway, I took away the following from my indulgence:
1) I love rich food prepared intricately.
2) I did truly miss food being flavored with salt.
3) Nothing I ate felt too salty or too sweet to me. In other words, my taste buds haven't changed to a point of not enjoying what I would have enjoyed before PCP, unlike some of the others' experiences.
4) I wasn't craving a vegetable after my meal.
5) I was very satisfied with portions that previously would have left me running to a McDonald's afterwards.
6) I did not have any after-effects of eating the meal. No food coma, no pit in my stomach, no nausea. Just full. (I'm pretty sure the whole meal was over the 600-700 calorie limit. Sorry. But I didn't take any liquid calories so that helped.)
7) Despite the larger calorie intake, I got hungry as usual by the time my afternoon snack time rolled around.
8) It seemed as if my body was able to easily burn right through that richer food.

On another note, almost ironic as I talk about loving the non-PCP compliant foods, I had to take in another hole on the belt today, and my suits which had been too tight pre-PCP are now too big. This is a great motivator. It feels really good. Does it feel as good as the below pictures taste? Hmm... I'd love to have both in my life. Greedy bastard...

Workout notes:
* An extra set of 10 minutes on the rope, partly to work off the indulged meal, partly because I felt in a good rhythm. Total 26 minutes.
* Incremental progress on the chest-dips-to-push-ups combo. Still need to break down the later sets of dips to get all my reps in, but I am confident it will eventually come.
* Curls: I'm now isolating the biceps better than ever (think my form has improved and my biceps are stronger so I can concentrate on isolating them), but as a result it burns like hell. It's tough, but a good feeling.
* Planks felt very strong today. 4 x 60 seconds done.

Food summary:
* Breakfast - toast, boiled egg, cherry tomatoes, lean beef steak
* Morning snack - pineapples, egg white
* Lunch - Hal Yamashita Matsu-zen course
* Afternoon snack - banana, grapes to make weight, egg white
* Dinner - shake, lean beef steak, turnip
* Evening/post-workout snack - pineapple, egg white, turnip

Photos

November 10, 2011 3:30 PM UTC

Day 57 : Buying a fresh pack of eggs, every single day

So our new diets featuring AMAYW veges. It's like Patrick read my mind when he says it's not an invitation to skip it, which was what I would likely have done especially in the morning. I'm going to mostly stick to the portions from the previous weeks, except maybe I'll add a little more for lunch to replace my reduced portion of carbs. But more prominently, I am now up to 7 eggs whites a day (including the whole egg at breakfast). Large packs of eggs in Tokyo come in lots of 10. My wife usually uses one or two for her and my daughter's meal sometime during the day. Which means, I pretty much need to buy a fresh pack every single day. Crazy! Thank god that supermarkets abound in Tokyo near train stations, and I am fortunate to live close to the station.

Workout notes:
* An extra set of jumprope. Total 20 minutes.
* Leg work was killing me today. Quads started tightening up during the lunges. Got through the pistols, but oh man, the floorjumps were torture today. I had to briefly stop at various points to get through them, and after the fourth set, I tipped over to the side. Floorjumps get me out of breath more than the rope does.
* Shoulders were fine, but felt more difficult than the last time we worked on them. I think I remember saying I felt stronger in the shoulders last time, so this may have been a small step backwards. But onwards we go.
* V-sits.. Same story as usual. First set clean. Second set clean until the midway point. Third and fourth set, my shoulder blades don't really leave the ground.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual toast, boiled egg, cherry tomatoes
Morning snack - pineapples, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - pineapples, egg white
Dinner - split my dinner today, as I knew I was going to be at the office late. Ate the apple at the office, and after getting home (10pm) had 2 egg whites, and sashimi (my protein). Passed on the veg, as i knew I was having some after the workout.
Evening/post-workout snack - This snack happened a little before midnight after finishing the workout. 2 egg whites, a banana, steamed turnip. I didn't have enough veg in the evening vs prescription, but I'll survive. I had more than enough food after 10pm.

So I ate 4 egg whites in a span of 2 hours. Is that overkill?

November 9, 2011 3:16 PM UTC

Day 56 : I want more!

Rest day. Yay! So we're 8 weeks into PCP. Results so far have been very satisfying, but I am a greedy bastard. I want more! I am starting to notice some definition in various parts of my body, and catch myself looking in the mirror a lot more than I used to, thinking to myself every time, god I have become so vain... But it's a good feeling, to actually like and not be disgusted at the reflection I see in the mirror. And a bit addicting. So I want more. Guess that just means I have to continue to work hard and keep it all up.

Workout notes:
* The jumprope today was easy. Did a 5th set for kicks, so total of 20 minutes, plus a few more minutes afterwards pretending to be Floyd Mayweather and ending up with a reddened left buttcheek from whipping myself with the rope too many times.

Food summary:
Breakfast - toast, boiled egg, cherry tomatoes, sashimi
Morning snack - banana, grapes, egg white
Lunch - beef fried rice
Afternoon snack - grapes
Dinner - shake and lean beef steak
Evening/post-workout snack - banana, turnip, 2 egg whites

Photos

November 8, 2011 3:09 PM UTC

Day 55 : If you feel like crashing, jump rope instead

I felt so out of energy today, that when I got home from work, I drank my shake and then crashed. Next thing I know, it's 9pm. I felt a bit woozy, but forced myself down to the garage and started jumping rope. The rope is pretty much automatic at this point (though I still trip up pretty frequently), and it got my body warmed up, and I was able to complete the rest of the workout. (Well, since it was pull-up day, "complete" would technically not be the right word to use here, but still...) The exercises definitely gave me a burst of energy that I still have now as I type this blog entry. Maybe if I had the mental strength to get down to the garage before I crashed, I wouldn't have had to crash. Lesson learned. Next time, I'm just going to force myself down to the garage and start jumping rope to see if that gets me over the hump.

Workout notes:
* 18 minutes of rope
* Pull-ups, can't really tell if I'm making progress, but I did almost 2 full ones from the middle grip, so inching forward I guess. From there I did some reverse pull-ups, the mini-reps, and some from the narrow grip position until I couldn't do any more. I think I worked out my pull-up muscles the most today. Hopefully this is the start of being able to exponentially compound my gains.
* Tricep work was hard today, kept failing towards the end of both the ski jumps and the extensions. But I did manage the full 5 sets of elevated dips, and did so with the allotted rest times, so pretty happy about that.
* Kung-fu's... Again, my legs are bent coming up (and crossed at the ankles to keep them together), I may be swinging a little more than I should, but managed to get them done. And again, my arms feel like they got the heavier workout than my abs.
* 100 sit-ups was the easiest it's been. I did an extra set of 25 to be sure.

Food summary:
Breakfast - toast, boiled egg, cherry tomatoes, sashimi (I've forgotten about the 50g of protein prescribed a couple of times)
Morning snack - slices of Asian apple pear and persimmon, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice (I keep mentioning this and never put up a picture of the final product, so there it is below)
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear
Dinner - shake and sashimi
Evening/post-workout snack - banana, grapes, turnip, 2 egg whites

Photos

November 7, 2011 3:34 PM UTC

Day 54 : Weak energy day

Got caught at work a little longer than usual, and that delayed my evening routine a bit, but nothing I couldn't overcome. But I was sore all day from yesterdays run, turns out that running works a different part of the gluts and legs than all the leg work (lunge, creep, etc) we've been doing. Maybe because of that fatigue, it was definitely a weak energy day when it came to the workout.

Will be doing the indulgence on Friday. It will be our third wedding anniversary and have the day off from work, so will be going to a nice restaurant for lunch with the missus. Most likely will go for Japanese cuisine, so shouldn't be too sinful (unless a big chunk of A5 BMS12 grade wagyu steps up to the plate). Either way, I'm looking forward to having some delicate foods flavored with salt. Will not be having any alcohol though. 

Workout notes:
* I'm now trying to rest less between sets, almost to the prescribed schedule set on the sheets (I can't go all the way down to 15-20 seconds though), and that is making a mess as far as my ability to crank these sets out.
* Chest dips. The first set was fine, the second set after no more than 30 seconds of rest was difficult, and the next 3 sets were crippled. I failed after 4-6 reps, and had to get back up (which meant a brief rest) before squeezing out a rep or two then fail again, repeat. My last set went something like (4-2-1-1-2).
* Push-ups were difficult afterwards, but managed to get to set 4 before the knees came down for the last few reps.
* Bicep work was killer. I think I isolated the bicep muscles better on the thumb-up curls today than before, and that put burn at a totally new level. I tried to go on the short rest, but had to take more time in the later sets.
* Planks for whatever reason, was a lot more difficult today. I think I rested about the same, maybe a little less, but I could feel that it was a different experience today from the first set. Sure enough, the last set was absolute agony, grunting and making noises to get through the final seconds. Karaoke-ing in my mind did not work today.

Food summary:
Breakfast - wheat toast, boiled egg, forgot to stock up on cherry tomatoes so ate a bowl of frozen mixed veges.
Morning snack - pineapple and a bit of persimmon to make weight, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - pineapples
Dinner - shake and sashimi
Evening/post-workout snack - banana, 1/3 apple, zucchini, 2 egg whites

November 6, 2011 3:26 PM UTC

Day 53 : 5k run in 24'12"

So I had a charity run this morning. When I signed up for this thing, I had the choice of doing a 5k or 10k, but this was before PCP was in the picture, so pre-PCP me naturally went with the 5k. There was no way I could lug around my big belly and all 88kg of me for 10k without destroying my knees and my lungs. Well, 53 days into PCP, a mere 5k was absolutely no problem (and this after doing the jumprope first thing in the morning). Credit to my new lighter body, stronger leg muscles, and increased stamina from the rope, I was able to finish the run in 24'12" (not Usain Bolt, but a decent pace for me) and could have kept going for a bit more. And the best thing about it was, I hadn't even trained a single bit to run. It was just an ancillary side-effect of doing the PCP. Not sure I could have maintained the same pace for another 5k, but my personal best for the 10k is 43 minutes set about 5-6 years ago, so with a bit more training, I think that comes into striking distance. I have signed up for a half marathon in mid-January, where I will be running through a US military air base in Yokota, so that will be my first post-PCP challenge. After PCP, I plan to switch my cardio work to running heading into the race.

Workout notes:
* Jumprope in the morning before breakfast, the 5k run later in the morning, muscle exercises at night.
* Today was a higher energy day for me. A good workout overall.
* 5 sets of creeps after the squats and pistols were burning. I still can't do a straight leg pistol. My legs are still bent at the knees (about 15-20 degrees I would think), and I'm squatting about 60-70% deep.
* I got through the shoulder exercises today with not much problems. Is that a sign of my shoulders strengthening? I'll look for confirmation on our next shoulder day, but happy about today's effort.
* V-sits continue to see incremental progress. Almost 2 full sets of good-looking v-sits before I couldn't get my upper body up and the crooked V's came out.
* 50 second bicycles were killer. The first set was fine, but the rate of pedaling really slowed down in later sets. I mean, if I were actually on a bicycle pedaling like this, I'd probably tip over.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual toast, boiled egg, cherry tomatoes
Morning snack - bananas, egg white (ate after the run)
Lunch - Seafood linguine. Put in a good effort today on the lunch, and was rewarded with a tasty meal.
Afternoon snack - grapes, Asian apple pear
Dinner - shake, peppered lean beef steak
Evening snack - grapes, steamed turnips, 2 egg whites

Photos

November 5, 2011 3:38 PM UTC

Day 52 : Can you tell the difference?

I posted my Week 8 picture up today. I've been mindful of being consistent with the weekly pics. Except for week 1 when I was in Hong Kong, all pictures to this point have been taken first thing in the morning on either the Saturday or Sunday of that week. That way, I am comparing apples to apples when it comes to seeing progress. Or lack of. Seriously, can anybody tell the difference in my Week 5, 6, 7, and 8 pictures? I sure can't. It's as if I took them all on the same day. I continue to get marginally lighter weight-wise, and do feel stronger getting through the exercises, which I guess is the most important evidence of progress, but damn it, I want to see visible change! I was checking out past PCPers and came across Alex M. of the just completed class. Holy cow! Now that's impressive. A totally different guy in the before and after pictures! Too bad he didn't post pictures during his 90 days for us to see when the metamorphosis happened, whether it was gradual and consistent or kind of blossomed towards the end. Whatever. I just want to see more definition and changes. I don't care if it's subcutaneous fat or visceral fat that comes off, but I want to see some changes.

I also cleaned out my closet and took inventory of my clothes, so that I could put the ones that fit best front and center, and the ill-fitting ones in the back. I must have gone through 25 pairs of pants. I was stunned that I owned so many, but the funny thing was that there were all sorts of waist sizes. This was probably a result of shopping to accommodate a larger waistline while holding hope that I would someday return to previous waistline. Hmm... Hopefully my post-PCP life will never put me back to that place.

Workout notes:
* Rope in the morning before breakfast, muscle exercises at night.
* Pull-ups continue to drag me down. There is no way I'm going to get to a full set, let alone 5 full sets, in the next 38 days. I'll take whatever I can get, but it would be mildly disappointing, as I've read past PCPers who have been able to do just that. I've changed approach a little bit, where I'm doing more negative pull-ups, and then mini-reps from the up position while letting my feet touch the ground. Putting as little weight in my legs as possible to mainly work the upper body, I do small movements until fail (which is about 5-7 mini-reps). I feel I worked the back better today than in previous days, so I'll stick to this for a while.
* Did better on the double katanas than the last time. I struggled but did complete the full sets. I had to break the last 2 sets into subsets, but I did all the reps in the end.
* Kung-fu sit ups: I was able to do them today. My legs are bent and they're not going as high as Patrick's picture on the exercise sheet, but I kept my legs fairly controlled and got up to at least 90 degrees. More than the abs, my arms holding on to the bars were in more pain afterwards.

Food summary:
Breakfast - Usual wheat toast, boiled egg, cherry tomatoes. Consistently the most enjoyable meal of the day.
Morning snack - pineapples, egg white
Lunch - Weird concoction. A beef and spinach fried rice. Found some lean beef on sale at the market, and wanted to get some spinach into my system (feeling iron deficient again), so decided to just stir it all up with rice. I'll put up a picture. Tasted ok, but let's just say it won't be joining the regular lunch menu.
Afternoon snack - grapes
Dinner - shake and sashimi
Evening/post-workout snack - apple, grapes to make weight, turnip, 2 egg whites

Photos

November 4, 2011 3:41 PM UTC

Day 51 : Now that's a workout!

My quads are sore as hell from the concentrated leg exercises yesterday. It's not Day 2 sore, but considering I've been at this for 51 straight days now, it's a good feeling that I am continuing to challenge my leg muscles like this. I know that once the soreness abates, my legs will have gotten that much stronger. Speaking of leg exercises, today was the first workout (except the rest days) where we didn't have any leg exercises immediately following the rope. I didn't miss them, but it did kind of feel weird without them. Go figure.

Workout notes:
* Overall, a very demanding workout. Had to put a lot of effort into it, and it took about 90 minutes to finish.
* No problem with the rope, though I do notice that I get increasingly careless towards the later sets and end up tripping a lot. Can't tell if it's because I get a little tired and that throws my rhythm off, but it is annoying. Out of frustration on the last set, I almost whipped myself with the rope before I was able to stop myself and remember that I'm not into that kind of thing... Did an extra set of 5 minutes at the end.
* Chest: For dips, I did 2 full sets of 10, then failed after 8 reps on the third set. Had to rest for a few seconds then grinded out the other 2 reps. Similar result for the last set. I thought at that point my arms were dead, but I was able to power through the push-ups, all except the final rep on the final set.
* Biceps: I don't think I've ever worked my biceps as hard as I did today. That's over 200 curls for each arm between the three variations. I could usually power through them in previous days and never noticed, but today, as my arms wore out, I could feel the significant difference in strength between my good arm (left) and my off-arm (right). I felt this difference in strength was dragging me down on the pull-ups as well (my left side is ready to go up, but my right side won't budge), but seeing it with the curls today made it very clear.
* Abs: 4 x 60 second planks completed again. But I have to confess to say that I'm resting more than 15 seconds between sets. It's more like 30-45 seconds. I've found it much easier to pass the time when I'm karaoke-ing in my mind rather than staring at the timer counting down. By the time I finish one chorus of one song and then peek at the timer, it's already down to about 20 seconds. 

Food summary:
Breakfast - the usual, though I am recently eating the boiled egg and toast separately. I am enjoying eating my plain toasted wheat bread. I've mentioned in a past post, but it tastes a bit like graham cracker and has a sweetness to it. Very enjoyable.
Morning snack - Pineapples, egg white
Lunch - Salmon fried rice. Again. Everyday. It's a habit and a routine now, and it still tastes pretty good.
Afternoon snack - pineapples
Dinner - shake and sashimi
Evening/post-workout snack - banana, turnip, 2 egg whites

I love pineapples. I've always known I liked them, and I enjoyed visiting the Dole Plantation in Oahu. But the PCP has taken my love for pineapples to a new level. I've also loved the Asian apple pear and grapes during the PCP, but pineapples are my #1. It's also great that my local supermarket carries whole pineapples at a bargain 198 yen. That usually gives me enough fruit for 2 snacks, and I'm loving it every time. It's a bit of work to cut it up, hence I don't have it every single day, but that actually provides a perfect balance so I don't get tired of it. My daughter also loves them too. Are these enough reasons to buy Dole stock? Hmm...

November 3, 2011 3:35 PM UTC

Day 50 : Nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels... Really?

I was reading either some article on the web the other day, or it could have been some former PCPer's blog, I don't remember exactly, but there was this great line from someone. The quote went to the effect of "Nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels." What a great line! But I would beg to differ, as there are some incredible tasting foods that's worth every ounce of fat and every calorie, but I guess the point is that we don't need to have it for every single meal, at the cost of destroying your body. I've been doing that all my life, although with sporadic bursts of rigid dieting and exercise, but unsustainable over the long run. With the PCP, I believe that I've picked up some healthy habits and now better informed about proper eating, but the jury is still out on whether I will have the mental strength to live this alter-life, even in moderation, for the rest of my life. I certainly hope that a year from now, I'm not back where I started.

Workout notes:
* With today being a Japan holiday, I did the jumprope in the morning before breakfast, and the muscle at night.
* Jumprope: ended up doing about 22-23 minutes.
* The muscle exercises have really ramped up. When I first saw the sheet, I was intimidated by the 5 big sets of floorjumps after everything else. I surprised myself a bit when I was able to complete all 5 sets at the end. It was painful and torturous, but I got through them.
* Shoulders also tough. We've been doing davincis since the first week, and I've still yet to like them all that much.
* V-sits. My first set is very clean, but the later sets start to struggle big time after the first few reps. Nonetheless, seeing incremental improvement, so am encouraged by that.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - banana, half a persimmon, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - banana, grapes
Dinner - shake, chicken breast
Evening/post-workout snack - the other half of the persimmon, steamed turnips, 2 egg whites

I'm now at 6 eggs during the day. I've never had so much in my life. I don't mind them at all, but it's crazy that I'm buying a case of eggs almost everyday. Kind of makes me laugh. Call me freakish, but I actually like egg whites if freshly boiled. If they go in the fridge or sit for a while, they aren't nearly as palatable.

Also, I am doing the same thing with the evening snack as I did last week under Patrick's guidance, although the portions have changed a bit, which is reducing both the fruit and veg by 50 grams each and having it together. I've emailed Patrick to make sure that was kosher, so we'll see how he replies.

November 1, 2011 3:38 PM UTC

Day 48 : Not getting enough sleep

To blog or not to blog... It's 12:30am, long past my preferred bedtime, and here I am in front of my laptop typing this. Will keep this brief, as I have been short on sleep the past few days, and though I'm able to get through the days for now, I will need to rest my body before it all catches up with me. The one thing that I haven't been able to do consistently (or hardly ever) is getting the 8 hours of sleep as Patrick recommends.

Workout notes:
* Jumprope: Did an extra set of 5 minutes after my eight 2-minute sets.
* Still dipping only about halfway on the pistols. I tried to go deeper and my right knee started to hurt. Also I can't keep my lifted leg straight. But I am feeling the burn on my quads, so no doubt muscles are being worked.
* Getting better at the v-sits. My first set looked great, almost like the video. I still have a problem with the subsequent sets.
* 4 x 60 second planks. They were unquestionably tough, but I was able to get through them without screaming or cursing.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - grapes and egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - grapes
Dinner - shake, sashimi
Evening/post-workout snack - persimmon, steamed turnip, egg white

I was getting hungry very quickly today for some reason. I had my lunch, afternoon snack and dinner all about 30-60 minutes earlier than usual.

Ok, time for bed. Good night.

October 31, 2011 3:11 PM UTC

Day 47 : I stopped counting the jumpropes

It took some serious determination to get down to the garage tonight for my workout. With Europe now done with daylight savings time, my London-based colleague who I pass off my work duties to arrives an hour later than last week. Which means I have to stick around at the office an hour longer. Which then also pushes back everything else by an hour, and jams my already full evening schedule. Oh well, I'll have to adjust, and I'm sure I will, but today was difficult to get my butt off the couch.

Workout notes:
* I stopped counting the jumprope today. I am now comfortable knowing that I am going at a fairly consistent pace of 110-130 jumps per minute. I was counting at first, but then I let my mind go, which made me lose count, and soon wasn't bothering with mumbling numbers under my breath and just kept jumping until the timer went off.
* Pull-ups: no progress. Not sure what I can do to get better at these. It is a bit discouraging, as I know that my back is lagging a lot behind other body parts in terms of muscle development.
* Kung-fu sit-ups are not possible. My pull-up bar isn't tall enough for me to hang with my legs straight, and even if I bend my legs to accommodate, I am swinging rather than doing the controlled sit-ups. I haven't even mastered the v-sit yet, so no surprise I'm not getting these down yet. I'll keep trying, but I will do a bit of other ab work to give the area enough stimulation.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - pineapples, egg white
Lunch - salmon fried rice
Afternoon snack - pineapples
Dinner - shake and sashimi
Evening/post-workout snack - banana, grapes, egg white, steamed turnips

I felt better today that I was back to being 100% compliant on my diet. I'm finding comfort in sticking to the prescribed plan, which is a bit scary, because when the structure and support functions are gone in 43 more days, I will be on my own and will need to manage myself without being a bean-counter for the rest of my life. But I guess that's still down the road somewhat. My immediate goal needs to be to figure out what to do with those damn pull-ups and also the new kung-fu's.

October 30, 2011 3:37 PM UTC

Day 46 : I might as well had the fucking curry and roast beef

So as soon as I pat myself on the back for being 100% compliant through the first half, I stumble out of the gates on the first day of the second half. Full story follows if anyone cares...

A good friend from college who I hadn't seen in a couple of years was in town from the Bay Area. With my mother also in town, we all decided to go out for Sunday brunch. I figured that a hotel buffet would be the best way to do it- it would give each person the freedom to eat whatever and how much ever they wanted, and I would be able to pick foods that would be most PCP compliant- a win for everybody. Well, that was the theory at least. I did the best I could with what was on offer, and ended up with a plate of shrimp cocktails, stir-fried vegetables, and slices of baguette. Meanwhile, everyone else was getting plates loaded with roast beef, chow mein, dumplings, BBQ ribs, Thai curry, desserts, etc etc. Surprisingly, I wasn't tempted at all, and the main reason was this: my mind was obsessively preoccupied with the stir-fried vegetables. It was definitely salted, and was cooked in oil, and I felt I had lost control over my diet. I also didn't have my scale (obviously) so couldn't weigh the food and had to eyeball it. The baguettes were white, so definitely processed flour and was not the ideal carb to be eating (still, it was better than the butter rice, the croissant, or the danish). The sad thing was, I wasn't fully compliant despite trying my best, and didn't even enjoy what I ate. And to make matters even worse, the buffet cost 6,000 JPY (about 80 USD) per head. So, to summarize, I paid obscene money for a plate of pseudo-PCP food I didn't enjoy and stressed over its non-compliance. A big part of me feels if it was going to be like this, I might as well had the fucking curry and roast beef. At least then the guilt would have been justified. 

Anyway, post-meal disposition was horrible. I felt like I ate too much, and there was a pit in the middle of my chest for most of the remainder of the day. Was it the oil in the stir-fry? That's the only explanation I can think of. 

Workout notes:
* Jumpropes in the morning, muscle exercises at night. I also did about 800 jumps at night as well, partly to warm my body up for the other exercises, but mostly to counter the guilt and lessen the damage from lunch.
* I did well on the chest-dips, completed 4 x 8, and I was dipping fairly deeply.
* But that completely sapped my strength for the push-ups. I think I got through one set without the knees. Most of the sets saw my knees come down after 7-10 reps.
* I failed on the davincis with the stronger weak band. And I tweaked my left shoulder in the process. Still bothering me as I type this up. Will reassess tomorrow.
* The shoulder was also bothering me during v-sits.
* I could barely pedal the last set of the bicycle. It was very difficult.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual, but with broccoli instead of tomatoes
Morning snack - banana, a couple of grapes to meet weight, egg white
Lunch - fully described in gory detail above
Afternoon snack - grapes
Dinner - shake, a side of pan-fried salmon
Evening/post-workout snack - tangerine, a couple of grapes to meet weight, steamed turnip, egg white

So today was further proof that the PCP has consumed me in a way. In any other universe, I would (and should) think that I showed a lot of restraint and ate as healthy as possible under the circumstances, but here I am beating myself up for eating stir-fried vegetables. If that's not obsessive, I don't know what is.

October 29, 2011 4:06 PM UTC

Day 45 : Halfway home

At halftime of the PCP, a quick reflection on the first half.

* I am proud of myself for being 100% compliant so far. I haven't missed a day of workout (except that stretch when I was sick), and each meal is carefully weighed and prepared to be within the guidelines. I've also been able to squeeze out these blog entries almost everyday (again, the sick days being the exception) even if a couple of them were retro-entries. In this regard, I am fortunate that there was nothing in my schedule, especially after coming home from Hong Kong, that kept me from focusing on PCP. The second half will have more administrative challenges, as there are going to be some tough weeks with my overseas bosses coming to town for a week, another week of business travel, and a family vacation in the beginning of December. 

* I have seen visible changes in my appearance, especially in the belly. Although there is a lot of fat left in the mid-section, it looks so much better than it did pre-PCP and I can fit into some clothes that I hadn't been able to for the past couple of years. I also look healthier, have more energy throughout the day, and I am definitely lighter on my feet. My leg and chest muscles have developed noticeably, and my lower body especially feels stronger. I am climbing the stairs at the train station much easier, and do not lose my balance as easily when the train jerks during my commute. Even my marriage ring is looser on my finger. 

* The diet is very manageable. I'm hardly ever hungry, I'm enjoying the light shake dinners, and I'm totally loving the fruit. I like the wheat toast I'm eating in the morning (eating it plain has a sweetness almost like graham crackers) and I don't mind egg whites at all (I mostly just consume them boiled and plain).

* On the flip side, the main downside to the diet is that it's time-consuming, as I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and doing dishes. With the restraints on what we can eat, there are no cutting corners like just grabbing something quick at the hot foods section of the supermarket, and certainly never take-out or delivery. I also don't think I will ever fall in love with vegetables entirely, I do miss salt in my life, and the lure of restaurants and eateries are growing stronger by the day. 

* The jumprope is great. I am happy with my progress there, now being able to keep going without getting winded or my quads tightening up. I am able to go at a good pace (between 110-130 per minute), and think this is one part of the workout that will always remain a part of my life.

* The muscle exercises are a challenge. The grim enthusiasm expression by Patrick is very accurate. I am happy that I am doing them everyday, but the willingness to push through the burn comes and goes, especially in the arms and shoulders. I am very happy with my progress in the push-ups and chest-dips, but I am going to need a small miracle to get myself to the point of being able to crank out full sets of pull-ups. 

Overall, I am happy with where I am after the first half. The visible changes are a good motivation to keep pushing ahead. I am definitely looking forward to the changes to my body that the second half brings. Given where I am, I'm guessing that it will likely be more muscle building and definition than it will be of losing weight. I hope to continue to burn the fat away through the diet and jumprope, so that my love handles are less noticeable. 

As for today...

Workout notes:
* Did the jumpropes in the morning before breakfast, then the muscle exercises at night.
* Failed on the double katanas using the stronger weak band. The last 2 sets were disgraceful. I'm thinking of getting a third set of handles to bring back my weak weak band so I can get through all sets of the exercises I'm having problems with.
* Other than the double katanas, a good workout.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - Asian apple pear, egg white
Lunch - Linguine pescatore. The weekend does provide an opportunity to get a bit more elaborate with the food. This was delicious.
Afternoon snack - Was late with this, had it around 730pm, as I couldn't get home with the traffic. Had a banana and a bit of grapes to make weight.
Dinner - shake and leftover shrimp and fish from lunch
Evening/post-workout snack - egg white, Asian apple pear, steamed turnip

I ate a decent bit after 730pm to make my requirements for the day, as I fell behind in time driving to and home from Narita. Workout fell back to around 1030pm, and this blog entry going up around 1am. Time for bed folks.

Good luck to us all for the second half, starting tomorrow.

Photos

October 28, 2011 3:12 PM UTC

Day 44 : My wardrobe is expanding!

So today being casual Friday at the office, I decided to try pulling out a pair of khakis that I hadn't worn in a couple of years and had just been hanging in my closet since my waist size made me give it up. Guess what? They fit. Comfortably. With this confirmation, I think I just gained about 7 or 8 pairs of pants I can start wearing again. Are they still in style? When was the last time you pointed to a guy and said, "Wow, his pants are so last season." I mean, they're men's pants. But a couple of them were damn expensive pants, so I am glad to have them back in my life. I'll just need to shed a few more kilos and I'll be reaching one of my PCP goals of the size 31s hiding in the deepest corner of the closet.

Workout notes:
* Jumps are consistent. Anywhere from 230-260 jumps each 2 minute set.
* Cranked right through the regular squats after working hard on the pistols. I felt my quads having gotten stronger, as the regular squats presented absolutely no problem.
* Pull-ups continue to be the same sad story.
* Shoulder flies are tough. really burning on the last 2 sets.
* I'm finding 4 sets of 25 sit-ups to still be tough.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - pineapples, egg white
Lunch - Salmon fried rice with onions, zucchini, frozen mixed vegetables. The s.o.s. but I don't mind it at all. I have a feeling this (and variations of this) will be my lunch every workday to Day 90. I just can't bother with anything else.
Afternoon snack - pineapples
Dinner - the new shake, side of sashimi
Evening/post-workout snack - steamed turnip, 2 cherry tomatoes to make weight, Asian apple pear, egg white

It's about the time of year when Asian apple pear will go out of season and won't be found in supermarkets anymore. That will be a pretty crushing blow to my fruit repertoire.

October 28, 2011 12:09 AM UTC

Day 43 : Another retro-blog..

As I am occasionally prone to do, I fell asleep yesterday next to my daughter while putting her to bed and didn't wake up until my alarm went off in the morning. Fortunately, when this does happen, it's because I've done the exercises and showered and ate my post-dinner snack that I have the luxury of putting my daughter to bed. At least I got a great night's sleep out of it, so no harm done.

Workout notes:
* I'm averaging anywhere from 220-250 jumps in my 2 minute cycles. So 7 sets of those, I am getting slightly more than what I was doing last week.
* Lunges are back. While they were totally manageable, they take so long to get through and are a bit tedious. I didn't like them then, and I don't like them now, but for a slightly different reason.
* Chest-dips. I completed 4 sets of 8 today, and if I wasn't worried about my left shoulder, I think I could have dipped a little further. I was very happy to get them done, and still have enough for the push-ups. The push-ups, I finished the first 3 sets of 12, then on my last set had to put my knee down for the last 4 reps. But all in all, seeing some progress there.
* 50-second planks... Needed a little more rest than prescribed between each set to collect myself, but got through them.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - pineapples and egg white
Lunch - Assorted seafood fried rice with onions, zucchini, frozen mixed vegs
Afternoon snack - pineapples
Dinner - the shake sans banana. with a side of sashimi
Evening/post workout snack - bananas and steamed turnip and egg white. Yay, fruits are back in my evening snack life. As I posted on the Q&A, as I'm doing the workout at night, I was concerned about the timing of all the snacks. The compromise suggested by Patrick was to combine them, but with less grammage. So my evening/post-workout snack now consists of an egg white (of course), 90 grams of fruit, and 130 grams of vegetable. Having already ate 140 grams of banana while I was opening up the Q&A forum, I cut back on the turnip to adjust. I'll get the grammage correct today and onwards. And on a technical note, since fruits are back, I can take the quotes off the evening "snack" going forward as well.

End of retro-blog.

October 26, 2011 1:52 PM UTC

Day 42 : Hooray for rest day!

I look forward to Wednesdays on the PCP. It's our rest day, which gives my tired muscles and mind a chance to rest and recover. It's also the day when we get a sneak preview to our new sets of exercises for the upcoming week. It's also the last day on our current diet so have that feeling of anticipation when going to sleep to see what changes have been made the next morning. And did I already mention that it's rest day?

Workout notes:
* The 1500 jumps were no problem. After completing them, I tried to practice some of Floyd Mayweather's rope routine, but just ended up giving myself whip marks on my arms and calves. The single taps (jumping while running in place, alternating the skips on each leg) are very difficult and throws me off rhythm. Would love to get some pointers on that.
* I hardly broke a sweat, nor was I even a bit tired after the jumprope. Just felt like I warned up. My body is now completely used to it. I can just keep going. In this state, is it still effective as a fat burning activity?

Food summary:
Breakfast - I had run out of bread and forgot to stock, so had to go with a bowl of rice. Threw the eggs on it raw, mixed it up and scarfed it down. Tomatoes on the side.
Morning snack - grapes
Lunch - beef fried rice with onion, zucchini, frozen mixed vegetables
Afternoon snack - grapes
Dinner - the shake and a bit of assorted sashimi
Evening "snacks" - steamed turnips

I've fallen into deep boredom with my food. I can't bother. Just crank out what's easiest and get on with my day. I remember when I was getting creative to try new combinations of flavors and ingredients, but now, my menu is virtually the same every single day. What happened to the enthusiasm? Oh well, at least it's PCP compliant, and it's getting me through the day. The shake is my highlight of the day. Cinnamon is awesome. (I never wound up using the lactose-free milk, as I found that it's got too much milk fat in it. It's like a regular rich milk instead of the lowfat kind, so I gave it up and just use water. And it doesn't bother me at all, still tastes great.)

One more thing. My legs are getting strong. I've definitely noticed new muscle in my thighs, and when I crouch or flex them, it's rock solid. I'm chronically sore from the floorjumps or creeps from the night before, but I am powering up all the stairs in the subway station. It feels good. By the time I can do the pistols clean and sturdy, they're gonna be awesome!

October 25, 2011 3:33 PM UTC

Day 41 : Drinking oolong tea in a bar

We had some overseas visitors for work, and met up with them for quick drinks before their dinner. It was the first time in a bar since PCP started, and also I think the first time I agreed to an after-work engagement of any sort since flying back to Tokyo from HKG. I told them I was on a fitness program that prohibited alcohol, and I stuck to oolong tea while everyone else had beer. I don't know what they were thinking on the inside, but at least on the outside, they were respectful of my abstinence. I even told them a little about the PCP and at least one of them seemed interested. Anyway, it was 9pm by the time I got home. This obviously threw off my routine by a couple of hours, but I got everything done by midnight, and now here I am blogging.

Workout notes:
* I got off over 1,000 jumps to start for the first time (I think exact count was 1016). It wasn't like everything suddenly clicked or anything, just had a good run. But still, pretty proud of that achievement.
* Getting marginally better at pistol squats. Still wobbly and still not squatting all that deeply, but much better than the first day. Right knee hurt a bit less. I can feel that my quads are getting noticeable bigger and firmer.
* V-sits after the bicycles are tough. Bicycles were tough too.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - pineapples
Lunch - Salmon fried rice with onions and frozen mixed vegetables. Not because I like it so much, but I've mastered it to the point I could probably prepare it with my eyes closed. In the morning when I am battling for an extra 5 minutes, this is the path of least resistance.
Afternoon snack - pineapples
Dinner - the shake and bonito sashimi (@ 9:15-ish pm)
Evening "snack" - took a pass given the time

Final note. I didn't missing drinking at all. I like wine a lot and love the social aspect of drinking and having fun and a loud time and acting stupid in public, but I never particularly enjoyed the taste of alcohol itself, nor have I ever craved it. So, it wasn't much temptation being in a bar, and since my colleagues tonight weren't pressuring me to drink (in the way some of my other friends would), I think I got off easy. But I've got my bosses from NY coming to town in a couple of weeks, and will need to prepare myself to be non-compliant on that occasion. 

October 24, 2011 2:53 PM UTC

Day 40 : 35

Happy birthday to me, as I turned 35 today. With PCP going on, I decided to pass on any kind of celebration and treated it as just another day. As Patrick would say, I'll have more birthdays in the future (unless I get hit by a truck in the next 12 months), but only one chance at the PCP. Kidding aside, I really didn't feel like disrupting my routine with a night out and a dinner that I would just likely regret and feel guilty for afterwards. (Also, I couldn't take an advance on our next indulgence, as our wedding anniversary comes up in a couple of weeks and would like to save it for that.)

I've been noticing that my longing for tasty pre-PCP food is growing by the day lately (which actually makes the fact I didn't use my birthday today as an excuse to ditch PCP for a day all the more impressive). Every time I walk by a bakery, an Indian curry restaurant, or a ramen shop... Every day when I go to the supermarket to buy my fruits and vegetables and they have tasting stations offering sample bites of potstickers, sukiyaki beef, or the newest snack food... Every day at lunch while my colleagues sitting to my right and behind me are eating Thai green curry, katsu-don, or McDonald's.... Every time I turn on the TV and see reporters showcase enticing Italian, French, and Japanese restaurants... Every day at home, when my wife has cooked a wonderfully smelling dinner for my daughter... I can feel my temptation meter going into the red-zone, and question myself, would one bite here and there make that much of a difference? After all, I've been reading other Yukon-ers blogs, and a good number seems to have gone non-compliant now and then. I can honestly say, it's been a struggle to keep my mind focused at times, but so far have been able to resist the urges and stick strictly to the program. But I'm treading dangerous water. It's almost like I am plugging up the leaking dam with my finger, and if I pull it out, the dam will crack and bust open and there will be a roaring flood. (Sorry for the weak analogy. I was not an English major...)

Anyway, food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - grapes
Lunch - Salmon fried rice with onions and frozen mixed vegetables
Afternoon snack - grapes
Dinner - the shake and tuna sashimi
Evening "snack" - steamed turnips

Workout notes:
* Finally was able to do full sets of chest dips, but I'm not dipping that deeply. Maybe 2/3rds dips at most. My left shoulder hurts a bit (actually, a little more than a bit) when doing these, so I am caring to not hurt myself.
* Push-ups: I think one of the main reasons I can't get through all the sets is because I am expending a lot of energy and muscle strength immediately before with the chest dips. I had to knee down on a couple of reps at the end for my 3rd and 4th sets.
* Davincis were very tough with the stronger weak band. Very much a struggle to finish all the sets, but I'll stick to these bands for now.
* Ab work continues to be tough. The planks were tough, having already worked my legs, arms, and done the sit-ups before them. It's a great last exercise in theory. In practice, it's a bitch.

One last note. My new scale arrived today. Bought it on the internet. Yay!

October 23, 2011 3:11 PM UTC

Day 39 : No Change?

Doing the jumps before breakfast is definitely a good feeling. It gets the energy level going for the rest of the morning, but probably more importantly, gives me a psychological edge knowing I got something done so early in the day. The downside is that I tend to sit on those laurels, and I kept putting off the rest of the exercises, the evil voice saying to myself, don't worry, it won't take very long to get it done since you got the jumps out of the way already. And the truth of the matter is, the muscle workout takes a lot longer than the jumps anyway. Anyway, it's currently midnight, and I just got through the exercises, now typing this blog as I eat my evening vegetable "snack" (I'm going to keep snack in quotes for as long as I'm prescribed veggies. I do not, and will not, consider vegetables to be a snack).

Workout notes:
* As above, I split the workout in two again, doing the jumps before b'fast and the muscle exercises at night.
* Pull-ups are still hopeless. I was hoping that I would be a bit further along by now, but hardly. Given how useless I am with this exercise, I obviously don't get close to 40 reps by the end of the session, and as a result, I don't think I'm working out my back hard enough and feel it is lagging the other areas in terms of muscle development. I feel those assisted pull-up machines they have at some gyms would help immensely, if I could get to one.
* The forward shoulder raises may be a problem. I increased the band strength of my weaker band to accommodate some of the other exercises, but guess I wasn't ready for the forward shoulder raises with them. I think I'm pulling back and using my back muscles too much, as I feel most sore there instead of in the shoulders.
* I did a clean set of v-sits again for my first set, but the next 3 sets continue to be difficult.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - grapes and egg white
Lunch - Sashimi over rice, cabbage on the side. I was a bit under for my protein weight, so I did the unthinkable and added an extra egg white.
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear
Dinner - the shake, with a side of snapper
Evening "snack" - steamed turnips (since it was pretty much midnight, I did about 70g less than prescription)

One small concern, although Patrick covered this a bit on the weight update from yesterday and I probably shouldn't be worried. I have hit a bit of a wall in terms of weight loss and my appearance. In fact, I could argue that my gut looks marginally larger than last week. It could be because an apple and a banana is more than 180 grams of fruit, which was what I was eating at night the week before, but food intake overall is still low so hard to believe that would be the reason. I will get alarmed if this trend continues, but let's see if it's still a problem on Day 50...

October 22, 2011 4:01 PM UTC

Day 38 : Doing the jumprope first thing in the morning

Many PCPers have discussed at length about the timeliness of some of Patrick's daily updates, but I couldn't believe this morning's email talking about our weight being a dumb number. It just so happened that my Tanita Karada Scan died on me last night, before I was due for my weekly weigh-in. (The Karada Scan is the most fancy scale you can get in Japan. It's the anti-Patrick's Winnie the Pooh scale. Check out the latest model if you don't know what I'm talking about. The page is in Japanese, but you can see the pictures and get an idea. http://joshinweb.jp/health/bc621.html) Patrick's note is probably not going to stop me from buying this new model, and while I already knew that BMI is a worthless number, my weight, body fat percentage, and all the other numbers the scale spits out are good indicators to me of my current state, and tracking the change is a good motivator for me.

Workout Notes:
* So I did the jumprope this morning first thing, before I put any food in my mouth. Happily, the different time did not affect my ability to jump (or count), and I did my 1400 very efficiently. 
* This made me split the workout in two for the first time, as I did all my muscle exercises at night as usual. I did do about 500 jumps at night as well to just get my body warm and heart pumping.
* My quads are hurting...as in very sore, in a good way. I'm now using a wall to support myself on the pistol squats so that I have less of a crutch for my arm to help lift when coming up. It's made a big difference, and I can't squat as far down now. In fact, they're more like half-squats. Which is good, as now I have a better idea of exactly where I am with my legs.
* Ab work continues to be tough. I do get through everything fine, but I need more time to rest between sets than is prescribed on the sheet. For example, I rested 20 seconds after each plank instead of 15, so each set started at the top of the minute on the stopwatch.
* I was happy that I was able to get a good sweat going during my muscle workout despite not immediately preceding them with the full jumprope. I will try to stick to doing the rope first thing on weekends. Too bad I'm not a morning person at all, or I'd consider for weekdays too... Oh well, can't have it all.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - grapes
Lunch - Assorted sashimi over rice. Flavored with super-diluted soy sauce* and Japanese shiso leaves. For the vegetable, chomped a whole raw cucumber, and a bit of frozen corn to make weight.
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear
Dinner - the shake and sashimi
Evening "snack" - steamed turnips topped with a pinch of bonito flakes for flavor

* The super-diluted soy sauce. I needed to do this. I took a few drops of low-sodium (50% vs regular) soy cause and diluted with water. Ratio like 1 soy sauce to 4 water. And I use sparingly. I don't think that's much sodium at all, and it really helps put down the fish. I won't do this very often, I promise. 

October 21, 2011 11:13 PM UTC

Day 37 : Oops, fell asleep again

I once again fell asleep beside my daughter while putting her to bed, so this will be like a retro-blog for yesterday.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - grapes
Lunch - salmon fried rice with vegetable
Afternoon snack - grapes
Dinner - EW+A+B+water shake, with a side of sashimi
Evening snack - turnips

Food was almost an exact carbon copy of Day 36. In other words, I'm not putting much thought into the food these days and eating has turned more routine than anything. Find something you can tolerate, keep hitting it, and keep plugging ahead.

Talking about the PCP with some uninitiated people has brought on the sarcastic negativity comments like "That seems to be an enjoyable way of life" and such, but I just laugh it off because they do have a point. While getting in shape is a great feeling and reward and well worth the effort, life kind of does suck at the moment. It's more or less a monotonous loop of getting up, kitchen, go to work, come home, kitchen, garage to work out, shower then bed. I know that once the PCP is over and I can add more balance back into my life, life will be so much richer to enjoy while reaping the rewards of my efforts, but that's the pot at the end of the rainbow and it's still 2 months away. But still, this is something I chose to do, so no point feeling sorry for myself!

Workout notes:
* Push-ups: seems I am regressing a bit on this front. I was a bit concerned because push-ups weren't coming up as often this past week and thought I wasn't getting enough reps, and sure enough, I could only get to towards the end of the third set before the knee had to come down for the last couple of reps. The last set also saw the knees come down for the last couple of reps. I do feel stronger overall compared to the start of the program, and the stability in my arms as I go through the reps is so much better, but I just couldn't squeeze out the last couple of reps. Oh well, will keep trying.
* My quads are sore again. Those pistol squats, even if I am helping myself with my supporting arm, are being felt. Plus, the 4x28 creeps were the toughest leg exercises to date.
* Turns out I was doing the standing o's a bit incorrectly, as I wasn't putting the doorstop above my head for a downward motion as the video showed, but was doing them parallel. That seems to have moved the point of most hurt from the outside of the chest to the pectoral area.
* I got a good looking set of v-sits in for the first time. That was nice. But sets 2 and 3 were still ugly, so I now know that I can do them, but just need to strengthen my abs more.

Ok, end of retro-blog for Day 37. On to Day 38. I think I will try to do the jumprope before breakfast, as Patrick mentions, to maximize fat burn.

October 20, 2011 2:58 PM UTC

Day 36 : The fruit and veggie swap

So I skipped the blog yesterday as we just had the jumprope and I decided it was going to sort of be my day off. I put my daughter to bed, and went to sleep beside her much earlier than usual, and didn't wake up until the alarm went off in the morning. The thing I found out was, I better not do that too often, as I realized out how convenient and time-saving not doing the blog was, and I had to force myself on to my laptop to write this entry today, rather than going straight to bed like yesterday.

So we got our new diets today, and I was delighted to find that I am now on the egg white+apple+banana dinner. This would save me a ton of time in the evening after work. Then I look carefully, and saw this:

Non-Dairy Evening Snack: 180g Veg

WTF? So basically, I just swapped the timing of the evening veggies with the fruit, only now I've lost my freedom to choose my fruit at night. So long, frozen grapes. And now I have to eat a whole lot of vegetable without the aid of any fish or meat to taste. And, I still have to prepare the vegetables, so it's not like I'm saving any time after all. Honestly, am a bit bummed out at how this turned out. (Also as a sidenote, I told Patrick I was mildly lactose intolerant so I am not having any milk. In its place, I still have some protein I have to eat at night in addition to the EW+A+B. However, I found some non-lactose milk at the store today, so will see if making my dinner shake with that is better than with water and having fish on the side.)

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - grapes and egg white
Lunch - Chicken fried rice with onions, zucchini, frozen mixed vegetables
Afternoon snack - grapes
Dinner - EB+A+B+water shake with some cinnamon, sashimi on the side
Evening "snack" - steamed turnips with a tiny bit of bonito flakes to top for flavor

Workout notes:
* The pistol squats looked doable in the video, but I guess that was because it was Patrick, and I'm finding out I have three problems: 1) It's hard to keep my heels down and keep the other leg straight, 2) I'm unintentionally using a lot of help from the tabletop that I'm holding onto with the arm, and 3) my right knee, which had experienced the slightest twinge a couple of weeks ago doing lunges, got a lot more pronounced pain after the pistol squats. I'm not looking forward to these coming up every day this week.
* Pull-ups remain my biggest nemesis, but I did manage to get 1 rep from the middle grip, and then a couple using the narrow grip. I did some negative pull-ups from the middle position, and found that I can hold up for an extra couple of seconds. Baby steps.
* The lawnmower was a challenge getting the motion right. I've watched the video, but not sure if I am doing it as necessary to get the maximum work from them.
* Bicycles were manageable, but I'm glad someone asked the question about them, so that I was comfortable with the fact that my upper legs were indeed burning more than my abs.

October 18, 2011 2:41 PM UTC

Day 34 : A new level of lethargy

I couldn't believe how lethargic I was today, feeling sleepy at the office (first time that's happened since I got into the PCP groove and found new energy) sluggish throughout the day, and not at all feeling like doing the exercises after I got home. With biceps and triceps today, the devil in my head reminded me of Patrick's note this morning saying those would be first to go if I couldn't find enough time...though I had the time. Good thing that tomorrow is our rest day, as I convinced myself that if I got through everything today, I get the day off tomorrow. (Well, jumpropes, but those are the least of my problems.)

Workout notes:
* Infuriatingly, I lost count of my jumps and following my rule of taking the conservative number, I may very well have ended up doing an extra 300 jumps. How the fuck do I lose 300 jumps? Just completely inept.
* The one-arm curls are in no-man's land for me at the moment. There is no way I can do them using the heavy bands, but the weaker bands don't quite work the muscles hard enough. Maybe I need a third band?
* Floorjumps and leg lifts seem to be getting harder every time I do them. Makes no sense. Maybe I was just unmotivated and fatigued today, but still. Or maybe it's that after recovering from my cold, I've worked out 9 days straight, and I need the rest day more than I think.

Food summary:
Breakfast - usual open egg sando on wheat, leftover turnips from last night and a bit of tomatoes to make weight
Morning snack - grapes (and egg white)
Lunch - Salmon and zucchini fried rice (with onions and forzen mixed vegetables to make weight as usual)
Afternoon snack - grapes
Dinner - Lean beef strips and zucchini (and egg white)
Evening snacks - frozen grapes. They're the best! (I hope you liked them as well, Megan.)

Ok, time for bed and hope I feel more energetic tomorrow.

October 17, 2011 2:11 PM UTC

Day 33 : This blog entry will post before 12am today for a change

I put in the effort today to start my exercises a little bit earlier, and it's made a world of a difference. I will have this blog up and be in bed before the strike of midnight, a rarity on a weeknight.

Workout notes:
* Jumprope: I tweaked my technique a little bit where my hands are a little lower than where I've been having them. It's made a big difference. The rope slaps against the ground a little louder and harder, but I am getting caught a lot less. I consistently did clips of 200-300 before getting my foot caught, and was done with my 1,350 a lot faster than previously.
* Chest dips: Could not do them today. My triceps and shoulders were sore and in pain, and I could not get myself all the way down. So I had to do very shallow reps just to stimulate the target muscles, but I feel like I regressed a little bit on it today.
* V-sits coming a little better than before, but still far from the clean V's demonstrated by Patrick in his video. And speaking of those videos, why isn't Patrick smiling or pumping us up in any of them?

Food summary:
Breakfast - open egg sando with tomatoes
Morning snack - Asian apple pear and egg white
Lunch - Beef and frozen mixed vegetables fried rice
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear
Dinner - Pan fried salmon fillet and steamed turnips. You can't over-steam turnip or they get disgustingly soggy. I kept them a touch on the hard side, and they turned out to be juicy and crunchy at the same time, and was very good.
Evening snack - Grapes and frozen grapes. The frozen grapes are a smash hit. My daughter also loves them.

I'm noticing through other people's blogs that our diets are vastly different. I'm reading apples+egg white dinners, I'm reading vegetables for snack instead of fruit, and people eating 5 egg whites a day. I don't have any of that. In fact, my diet is very similar to Day 8, except a little less grams. I still have a protruding belly and some meaty love handles that I want to lose, so hoping that next week's diet is more of a game changer.

October 16, 2011 3:01 PM UTC

Day 32 : Cracking below 80kg

A small milestone for me, on my official weekend weigh-in. For the first time since my wedding almost 3 years ago, I've cracked below the 80kg barrier. I remember when breaking above the 80kg line was the red flag back in my 20s to get back in shape, but then how 80+ became the norm over the past 5 years. My ideal weight is probably about 72-74kgs. That was when I was doing half-marathons in a little over 100 minutes and was in the best shape of my life, hardly breaking a sweat or breathing hard after a 10k run. I was wearing waist size 31 pants, which now occupy the back corner of my closet. My wife has threatened to throw them away on several occasions saying they were relics of my past, but somehow they survived. I hope that by the end of PCP, they will be front and center in the closet, and the fat clothes will be relegated to relic status. (One benefit for me is that I won't have to go shopping like many successful PCPers. Or, I don't get to go shopping, depending on your stance on fashion.)

Food summary:
Breakfast - open egg sando on rye toast, and a heap of spinach. I think I was a bit iron-deficient in my diet, and the spinach was welcomed by my body.
Morning snack - grapes
Lunch - Ground chicken burger on wheat bread, with tomatoes and grilled onions
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear and grapes
Dinner - Oven baked salmon with onions, tomatoes, and frozen mixed vegetables to make weight
Evening snack - grapes and some frozen grapes. The frozen grapes were incredible, like a natural sherbet. Gotta do that more often.

Workout notes:
* I hate when I lose count of my sets on lunges. I didn't give myself the benefit of the doubt, so may have ended up doing 4 sets. Ugh.
* Pull-ups: I am up to almost 3 reps on the first go from the middle position and narrow grip. I invested in some cushion grip for tennis rackets to wrap around the middle part of my pole that was not covered. Now I can try doing a middle grip instead of going directly from narrow grip to wide grip. And I tried, but unable to move. So I ended up doing negative pull-ups using the middle grip, and held it for an average of 4-5 seconds. I added a couple sets of inclines, but gotta say, I don't think I'm working out the back as hard as I should be doing to get marked improvement. 
* 4 sets of 40 second planks at the very end is a killer! I had to give myself much more than 15 seconds between sets 2-4 to complete. I was almost in tears on the last set.
* Today is my least favorite combination of exercises. Lunges, pull-ups, davincis, and planks all on the same day is a mentally heavy load.

October 15, 2011 3:07 PM UTC

Day 31 : Pure Bliss

So the highlight of my day was the long awaited and anticipated indulgence. 

My choice: Haagen-Dazs vanilla flavor ice cream cup.

Here are the stats:
Contents: 120g
Calories: 267
Protein: 5g
Fat: 17.8g
Carbs: 21.7g

It was... pure bliss.

So good.

If the idea was to come out of the indulgence feeling it wasn't as good as I thought it would be, well, that didn't happen. I savored every bite. I even scraped the cup clean and dry.

Now, in all honesty, did I need to eat the whole cup? Probably not. I could have stopped halfway and been fairly satisfied. The law of diminishing marginal utility at work. But did I nonetheless enjoy it down to the last bite? You betcha! But it brings up a fairly interesting point. If the incremental utility was diminishing to the point where I would have been ok to put it down, but yet I was enjoying it down to the last bite, is there a mental paradox there? Is it simply the fact knowing that I wouldn't be able to indulge for another couple of weeks affecting my psychology? Or the fact that I wasn't allowed to have it for the last 30 days? If no one was stopping me and I had full access all the time, maybe it wouldn't feel so special and I would put it down after half, especially if I was conscious about Mallory eating (thanks for that link Evelyn).

Aside from the mental side of it, I'm not sure what to make of the physiological effects. I didn't feel a new layer of fat growing on me, I didn't feel that it was "too sweet" or that I was shocking my system at all. I didn't get a sugar rush. I'm not getting diarrhea or gassy. The only thing I noticed is that I took a good nap afterwards. But I'm not sure if that was some sort of sugar crash, or simply the fact that I only slept for 5 hours last night.

So there you have it. A bit overrated in terms of the revelations it would bring, but definitely savored the opportunity to stray from the veggies and feel normal again, if only for a couple of minutes.

Food recap:
Breakfast - usual
Morning snack - Grapes and egg white
Lunch - pasta with tomato based sauce with octopus and chicken. A little short on the protein.
Afternoon snack - pineapples and grapes
Dinner - Pan-fried shrimp flavored with black pepper and paprika and a hint of cayenne pepper, steamed broccoli, and of course egg white
Evening snack - Grapes

Workout notes:
* Not much to note, just kept my head down and muled ahead. Arm work and abs were tough.

October 14, 2011 3:36 PM UTC

Day 30 : Where's my apple and egg white dinner?

Another Friday night where I stay in, eat my food and do my workout. I am currently mixed between being proud of my determination and being a bit sheepish for being so anti-social. People I haven't seen for weeks and months (and who I haven't told about PCP) are in for a surprise when they do see me resurface in December after that 90th day. 

I've been reading through fellow yukon-ers' blogs, and finding that many of them have proceeded to the apple and egg white dinners. Where's mine? (I've actually already emailed Patrick about this.) Maybe a case of be careful what you wish for, but I was actually looking forward to getting serious about shedding more weight, but also about not having to prepare a vegetable and protein dinner anymore. The apple and egg white is so much easier and faster to prepare, and dinner likely to take no more than 5 minutes, as opposed to the current average 30 minutes to prepare and the dishes afterwards. Oh well, we'll see what's in store next week, but it would be a little disappointing if I didn't get a chance to do that for a couple of weeks as part of my PCP experience.

Food summary:
Breakfast - my new usual
Morning snack - grapes!
Lunch - The new and improved pasta with the tomato sauce and salmon. See picture.
Afternoon snack - more grapes!
Dinner - Another assorted sashimi plate, sauteed with more tomato sauce. That's right, all three of my meals prominently featured tomatoes, and if keeping count, the tomato has a huge lead over every other vegetable in appearances, with perhaps onions a close second.
Evening snacks - grapes, what else!?

Workout notes:
* So I changed the way I do my jumpropes, facing one direction and just putting up different things to stare at for each set of 100. I also incorporated a suggestion that was in someone's blog (sorry, I can't remember who) about counting every other jump so you only have to count to 50 to get to 100 jumps. With these two new counting tricks, I was on fire with the rope and got through my 1,300 before I knew it.
* Chest dips: another nemesis. I did sets of 4, 3, 3, 5, with the last set only being able to go a little more than half way down on each rep, but ironically being able to do the most reps because of that. It didn't feel like I was spent at the end, but I certainly gave it everything I had at each set. I used to do these when I was in high school/college, about 3 sets of 10 pretty easily, so I am looking forward to getting that back for the first time in, ahem, about 17 years.
* Fair to say v-sits are still a massive problem. Problem is, I can't get either side up to where it looks like a V. My shoulder blades won't leave the ground, and my knee bends as my legs are being lifted. Just a mess all over. But I did the crooked version in its entirety. Not sure how effective it was.

So tomorrow is my indulgence. I think I know what I'm having. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Photos

October 13, 2011 3:06 PM UTC

Day 29 : Harder exercises

The muscle soreness is back in the arms and shoulders. I guess the new exercises are working and stimulating new body parts. Also, my thighs are chronically tired it seems. Going up a flight of stairs, I can feel the jumprope/squats/lunges/bunny hops from the night before. But it's all good, as it beats having to lie in bed sick. I'll be looking forward to when the muscle definition starts to get more noticeable as the layers of fat further melt off. 

Workout notes:
* I was more careful with the jumpropes but still tangling up more than before. I think it has to do with me turning 30 degrees to the left and right for counting purposes, but somehow my lower body remains in the original straight line, and my body is sort of torqued with just my upper body turning. Anyway, I think that's messing up my technique. I'll have to think about it. Maybe I'll put up markers with numbers which I can stare at instead of actually turning my body. Hmmmm...
* The muscle exercises just got serious, didn't they? Floorjumps after lunges? 4 sets of planks after 100 sit-ups? Wow. I think I let out a high-pitched squeal on the last set of planks that only my dog could hear.
* Pull-ups remain a challenge, but I got 2 with the narrow grip from the middle position. I also started to do the negative pull-ups with the wide grip, and it's working chest and shoulders at the same time. I'll continue to throw a couple of reps of that as well, and hope soon the muscles will respond in time.

Food summary:
Breakfast - the egg sandwich on toast with tomatoes on the side has become my new breakfast staple. It's so much better than the vege-base risotto I was having in the first weeks.
Morning snack - Asian apple pear
Lunch - I did the pasta with the sauce from yesterday. See picture. The sauce was delicious, but it got spoiled as (a) the pasta sucked up all the liquid and made everything dry by lunch time as well as the spaghetti going limp, and (b) the ground chicken was nasty- too much vs how much vegetable was there (especially as it got soaked up by the pasta) and dominated the flavor, and we all know that bland chicken breast isn't very tasty. I'm going to give it another try tomorrow, as I have some sauce left, and I'm going to pack sauce and noodle separately, and combine them at time of eating.
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear
Dinner - Chopped up assorted sashimi (tuna, salmon, white  fish, squid, octopus) and mixed with the pasta sauce, and ate it like a bouillabaisse/chowder. This was awesome, one of the best dinners I've had to date. In fact so good I scarfed it down and forgot to take a picture to share. Oops.
Evening snack - grapes. I finally found American-style grapes that I could just pop in my mouth without having to peel and unseed like most Japanese varietals. I hadn't had these since I was in Hong Kong, and it was so good. So good that I already packed my portions for tomorrow, finally getting to something other than Asian apple pear during the day.

Ok time for bed.. I hate that by the time I'm done with the blog entry, it's usually past midnight.

Photos

October 12, 2011 2:57 PM UTC

Day 28 : Sweet or Savory - Thinking about indulgence

So now that I am two days back into the full swing of it and things are feeling normal again (as if the PCP lifestyle is the new normal!?), I have started to think more and more about the indulgence. I think I've narrowed it down to 4 finalists:

1. Indian curry at Priya in Hiroo

2. Domino's pizza, either their meat lovers or the classic deluxe

3. Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream

4. Japanese red bean paste cake and red bean ice cream bar

The big decision is going sweet or savory. I get some sweetness through fruits, but obviously not in the ice cream sort of way, and my sweet tooth is crying for rescue. I've also had to fight off urges everyday as I walk past the Bangladesh restaurant on my way home from the train station that emanates an irresistible aroma of curry (what saves me every time is my knowledge that the actual food at this particular joint isn't very good). I know that it's going to be a bigger challenge to contain my intake of the savory choices to under 400 calories, so I will also have to weigh that into consideration. The actual indulgence is likely to happen on this upcoming Saturday, so I have a couple more days to ruminate, but it constantly occupies my mind.

Workout notes:
* Maybe because I don't have to focus on keeping count as closely with the new look-in-a-certain-direction counting mechanism, I've noticed I've gotten a bit careless on the rope and find myself tangling up more than before. Getting to 1,300 isn't hard, but today was in spurts of anywhere up to 250 on a good run, but as little as 10-20 on bad ones. I feel very comfortable with the rope, but clearly still room for improvement.
* As mentioned yesterday, I did the Day 27 exercises today to catch up, and some of those suckers were tough.
* Push-ups: 4 reps shy of getting through the entire 4 sets of 10. I had to put my knees down on the last 4 reps of the last set. I made up for it by doing a full set of 10 at the end of all my other exercises.
* Shoulder flies and double katanas were tough, had to use the weaker bands, as I had no chance with the tougher band. But I got through it.
* V-sits still are a major challenge. I did one set, but couldn't do them properly enough, so I did 4 sets of 25 sit-ups as on Day 22. (Day 22 was the day I got sick, so I never did the 4 full sets of 25. That is a lot of sit-ups to crank through and my abs were hurting enough. I think if I can strengthen my abs more through the regular sit-ups, the v-sits will eventually come more naturally.)

Food summary:
Breakfast - my new usual
Morning snack - Asian apple pear
Lunch - Salmon fried rice with chopped onions, zucchini, and mixed vegetables
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear
Dinner - Lean beef slices and (as Evelyn suggests) a forest of steamed broccoli.
Evening snack - pineapples

I am falling into a bit of a routine on food. It's like the famous line in Shawshank Redemption, "Prison life consists of routine, and then more routine." Not that I'm comparing the PCP to prison, mind you. Haha. But I seem to be taking the path of least resistance- tired of eating it but it tastes tolerable, it's fairly quick to prepare and most importantly, I can prepare it without having to think too much about it as I've done it so many times now. Not too happy with this, so I decided that I am going to try something different for lunch tomorrow, and I made a pasta sauce this evening. I've even cooked the ground chicken separately, so that I can adjust to whatever new grammage Patrick throws at me as my new weekly diet tomorrow. Anal? Yes indeed. But that's been my style throughout this project. Why stop now?

October 11, 2011 2:25 PM UTC

Day 27 : V is for Vicious

It feels great to get a full workout in! I'm back on track, feeling closer to 100% and cranked out the exercises. Still playing catch-up, I combined Day 25 and 26 exercises into one. Tomorrow I plan to do Day 27 exercises, as I've had plenty of rest days this week. Then, maybe I can think about using my indulgence, which I haven't done yet. And there's no way I'm going to not use it for two whole weeks and lose it. 

Workout notes:
* Floorjumps and creeps were manageable. I watched Patrick's video before doing them so that I would be careful to do them correctly, and I think I am, but will get a second pair of eyes to take a look tomorrow to make sure I am not far off. I'm a bit concerned simply because I was able to finish both sets of three without too much problems after 1,200 jumpropes, and I'm not assuming these were supposed to come so naturally for me.
* Pull-ups: incremental progress, as I did one and a half on my first try from the middle position and narrow grip. I did a couple more singles and some inclines, then did some rowing exercises to further work the back. I still don't get the pull-downs too much, as they seem to work my triceps more than anything no matter how much I adjust it to try to work the back.
* Standing o's, one arm curls, tricep dips not a problem.
* Shoulder press and chicken wings are hard for me. The band may be a bit too tough, but I'm going to keep at it, as it really burns the last couple of reps and that's a good thing.
* V-sits are vicious! I couldn't really do them so controlled like in Patrick's video. I think there's a decent bit of forced action there. I did one and a half sets before I gave out. I followed with 3 sets of planks which were tough but doable. I'm going to have to really work on the v-sits.

Food summary:
Breakfast - my new usual. An open-egg sandwich with black pepper, and cherry tomatoes on the side
Morning snack - leftovers of apple, pear, orange to make the grams
Lunch - Salmon fried rice with onions and frozen mixed vegetables
Afternoon snack - Apple
Dinner - I found a small lean steak on sale at the market, so just grilled that with black pepper and dried garlic chips. A mountain of broccoli on the side to make the weight.
* Evening snack - Asian apple pear

So I don't know if anyone else has checked it out, but I followed the egg-white link and ended up reading all of Patrick's own 120-day PCP experience blog. Very interesting stuff, and the genesis of the whole thing explained! And it's really cool to see that pre-PCP Patrick was in impressive shape but not in peak condition, and how his PCP got him where he is. Plus, his blog entries are more insightful than simply being daily babble (which mine is), so have a read if you have some free time! It renewed my motivation.

Photos

October 10, 2011 3:16 PM UTC

Day 26 : I'm back, though not yet in a big way..

While I still wasn't feeling completely well, I was feeling decent enough to not have to pass up a fourth day of exercises. I do think I was a bit too eager to get back into it after having to sit out for three full days while others got busy with floorjumps and planks (sort of like the don't want to be left behind feeling), but at the same time I vividly recall how the last forced half-workout turned out, so wanted to make sure I didn't over-do it. I just can't remember the last time I was down for 5 whole days with a simple cold. 

Workout notes:
* 600 jumpropes and I stopped as my heart was pounding just a bit too fast and hard for my comfort. But changing the direction I look at every 100 jumps to help keep count. What a magnificent idea! Whoever came up with that first is Nobel prize worthy.
* I did a selection of exercises from Days 23 and 24 today (instead of Day 26). 2 sets of lunges, some pull-up attempts, push-ups, a little bit of bicep and shoulder work with the bands, and abs.
* Pull-ups: I can now do one at a time from the middle position, which means that instead of hanging and fully extending my arms at the start, I grab the bars standing up which leaves my arms slightly bent, and then I lift myself up without jumping up. Also, my arms has to be directly above me, no more than shoulder width. I can7t do it yet if I grab the bars wider.
* Push-ups: I was able to finish 4 full sets of 8, which made me proud.
* Planks: Not sure I'm doing them correctly, as I was able to bang out 3 sets of 30 seconds. The last set was tough, and I did take an extra minute of rest, but I got through them. Makes me think if I can clear these infamous bad-boys on my first attempt, I must not be doing something right...Hmm... I was even able to follow up with 3 sets of leg-ups to finish.

As far as the food goes, I have been sticking to plan pretty religiously, but I must say, Bjorn gives me waaaay too much undeserved credit on my culinary creativity. I am sick of vegetables. I labor through them. I haven't had a vegetable eating I enjoyed since that fresh steamed corn-on-the-cob several days back. I'd happily hit it again, but none of the supermarkets I have been able to haul my sick body to in the past few days stocks them (and that's 4 supermarkets and a produce store). The fruit, is a different matter. Like Evelyn, I could never bother in the past, but I am finding that I love them a lot, and that they are very satisfying treats.

Another change. I've started to eat bread. I just couldn't handle pasta and rice anymore. Sodium in the baking process? Screw it, whatever. It's seriously added a layer of enjoyment at breakfast, and that's worth it. But funny thing is, because I haven't had any salt in my system since Day 8, I find that the salt in the bread contains enough of it to provide the meals with a salty flavor. Incredible.

Food summary:
Breakfast - Boiled egg open sandwich on a slice of toasted rye-wheat bread with fresh mini-tomatoes on the side.
Morning snack - bananas
Lunch - A ground chicken burger with tomatoes and lettuce, sandwiched between slices of wheat bread. See picture, it was a pretty good dish. First time I went to lettuce during the PCP, as I thought those things don't weigh anything. Au contraire! To my surprise, I was able to cover about 30 grams worth in the sandwich. (Which meant I only took in 310 grams of tomatoes between breakfast and lunch. Haha.)
Afternoon snack - Apple
Dinner - Pan-fried salmon, stir-fried onions and zucchini. No joy at all.
Evening (more like late night) snack - Asian apple pear

So I am almost back. Hopefully tomorrow I will be a bit closer to 100% and things will be normal. Either way, this long weekend sucked. But I am looking forward to putting it all behind me and continuing to plug ahead.

Photos

October 9, 2011 5:04 AM UTC

Days 24 & 25 : Still sick...

Good god, have the health gods abandoned me?

I finally no longer have a fever, but my head is still a bit woozy and now the core of my body aches when I cough or sneeze or even take a deep breath. I've been sticking religiously to the diet, as that's about the only thing i can do at the moment, and today is likely to be the 3rd straight day of not getting a single jumprope or muscle exercise in. A good amount of impatience, restlessness and frustration setting in. I should be happy about the indulgence just announced, but am in no mood for it, thinking that the 3 days off exercises is involuntary indulgence enough.

As a sidenote, probably not in a good way at the moment, but my body has continued its weight loss, coming in today at 80.6 kgs. 

October 7, 2011 12:25 PM UTC

Days 22 & 23 : It's best to rest when you'e sick

So I beat Patrick's email by a day, getting sick yesterday morning with a fever upwards of about 38.5. I emailed Patrick, and he replied with a similar reply as this morning 's post. Went to the doctor and was prescribed some pills including antibiotics, and I was down to about 36.5 and feeling ok by the evening. That's when I decided to crank out the jumprope and do the exercises (only partial sets). 

WHAT A FUCKING MISTAKE!!

I could tell I was being winded very easily during the jumpropes, but I was able to get through them. I did 2 sets of each exercises, taking down my resistance on the bands to the weakest one, and was actually feeling ok afterwards. But after showering and lying down in bed, that's when my head started pulsating and I knew it wasn't going to turn out pretty. My streak of blogging came to an inglorious end, and by this morning, I was up back upwards around 37.5 and now can't seem to shake it off. I took a day off of work, and I've completely put off the exercises for today, putting all priorities and resources to getting better first. Lesson learned.

So folks, if you get sick, I wouldn't stress over the exercises, as one day of rest can't wipe away weeks of effort and hard work. Get some rest.

PS. The food is torture to get through when you're sick and your appetite isn't there. Fruit is the only saving grace.

October 5, 2011 12:52 PM UTC

Day 21 : Higher lucidity

What a crappy day in Tokyo with the rain pouring! I was planning to take my dog, Ume, for a long walk after jumpropes, but that plan had to be shelved. Tough luck, Ume, maybe tomorrow.  So I did the next best thing, which was to stir up my next batch of vegetable base. Only this time, I didn't flavor it. I think I'm done with the COBB+sage flavoring for now. Not sure how I will have it tomorrow morning, but maybe having it plain won't be so bad. Only one way to find out.

As for the 1000 jumps, it's inevitable that you lose count on your way to 1000. And if you're like me and always take the conservative number, then you wind up doing a lot more than 1000. Plus, if I get caught less than 20 or so into the next hundred, I just start back at X01 so I don't mess up the total count in my head. All that and the extra set of 100+ in the end, I think I ended up around the 1300-1400 range, but felt pretty good all the way through. The one thing is that I have chronically sore thighs at the moment. It's undoubtedly the good kind of soreness and it doesn't hinder my ability to workout, but I'm glad we didn't have any lunges today.

One big difference I am noticing the past few days is that I have a lot more energy during the day. Even if I am a bit short on sleep, I seem to be able to get through the day without too much fatigue. That I'm eating a healthy lunch and don't have to worry about a food coma after stuffing my face with a huge burger obviously helps, but it seems I have become more lucid and alert at the office. I also feel I am moving more fluidly and gracefully than before, even for the simple stuff like getting up from the desk to go to the bathroom. Also my pants are fitting a lot looser, and since these were my "fat pants," tomorrow I'm going to try whipping out one of my suits that had become a bit too tight around the waistline.

Food recap:
Breakfast - my usual
Morning snack - Apple
Lunch - Stir fried rice with lean beef, chicken breast, and vege-base
Afternoon snack - Apple
Dinner - Corn on the cob (I weighed the whole cob, then ate it, and weighed the core and found I ate about 20 grams too much, so I compensated by reducing 20 grams of rice), pan-fried fillet of swordfish with black pepper, paprika, and a hint of cayenne pepper, and white rice
Evening snack - Grapes

The corn on the cob was divine. So much sweetness and flavor. It didn't feel like I was laboring through a vegetable. But corn is high in carbs, so I'm guessing I shouldn't have it for my vegetable portion everyday. I'll save it for when I really need it.

Photos

October 4, 2011 2:02 PM UTC

Day 20 : Keeping my head down

So today was a rough one. The late one last night took its toll on me, and by the time I was home from work, had my dinner and had a bit of time to unwind, I just wanted to crash. I had to labor to get up and haul my butt down to the garage to start my workout. Once I got the jumprope going, I became the mule Patrick talked about in a previous post and just put my head down and kept barreling through the rest of the workout until I was done. I even pulled out the pull-up tower and gave it a few reps to stimulate the muscle group, and did an extra set of leg-ups.

Workout notes:
* When you're laboring, 900 jumps is a long way to go...
* The pull-downs were a mystery. No matter how I did them, it seemed to be working my triceps rather than my back.
* When doing the lunges putting my left leg out, my right knee feels the slightest of twinges. I hope this doesn't start to get aggravated. I guess with the rest day tomorrow, I'll have a couple of days to rest it.
* Did an extra set of leg-ups.

Food recap:
Breakfast - The usual. I am seriously getting sick of my vege-base. The famed egg+tomato+avocado on a piece of whole grain toast, here I come!
Morning snack - Apple
Lunch - Penne pasta mixed with vege-base and lean sliced beef. Seriously, I am getting sick of my vege-base.
Afternoon snack - Apple
Dinner - Bonito sashimi with grated ginger and shiso, boiled napa cabbage with grated ginger, sudachi juice and dried bonito flakes, rice
Evening snack - Persimmon

Ok, I am going to try to get to bed a little earlier today and catch up on some sleep.

October 3, 2011 4:06 PM UTC

Day 19 : SASUKE

Most people outside of Japan (except for the hardcore niche audience) probably won't have a clue as to what I'm talking about, but I've been a big fan of SASUKE (Ninja Warrior in the US) for years, marveling at and being in complete awe of the physical capabilities of the top contestants. (I think I got my inspiration person wrong...shud have been Makoto Nagano, the living SASUKE legend.) Tonight's show produced only the 4th ever competitor to beat the course, and the first ever repeat conqueror. I got goose bumps at the end watching Yuji Urushihara make it all the way to the top. I'm nowhere close to the vicinity of the neighborhood of being in the remote region of their class, but watching SASUKE does pump me up every time to workout and get stronger. Come on pull-ups, you're mine!! Well, eventually...

Workout summary:
* Jumprope - got to about 500 to start. Finding that counting in sets of 50 allows me to better keep count. At the least, it hasn't made me lose track by a hundred...yet.
* Pull-ups were a joke. Basically I was hanging on, my legs just dangling like a Christmas tree ornament, as my upper body refused to budge from the start position. I got a reply from Patrick, telling me to just try to keep doing it, even if it means moving just 1cm, as that will stimulate the target muscles and 1cm will eventually become 2 then 4 then... Also, he suggested what he called negative pull-ups, basically starting at the up position and try to hang on for dear life as your body slowly (or fairly quickly in my case) sinks down. I did a set of this as well, my average holding time about 5 seconds per rep. He also said to keep doing the incline pull-ups as they work a similar muscle. I'll keep at it and hopefully one day I'll see some progress, but it seems one of the first keys will be to increase my forearm strength.

Food recap:
Breakfast - my usual
Morning snack - Asian apple pear
Lunch - Grilled salmon and vege-base fried rice
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear
Dinner - Tuna sashimi with rice, a raw cucumber, vege-base to make weight
Evening snack - Apple

Ok, because of the 4hr TV viewing of SASUKE, it's now 1am. Time for bed and a short night's sleep. Good night from Tokyo.

October 2, 2011 3:02 PM UTC

Day 18 : An uneventful Sunday

A fairly mundane day for me, the usual dad stuff during the day with my daughter, then the workout while the rest of the family napped, then cooking my bucket of vege-base in the evening to stock for the coming workweek. 

One exciting thing was successfully experimenting with a new recipe for flavoring. Went fantastic with both raw and steamed fish. Here it is:

Grated ginger
Finely chopped scallions
Finely chopped shiso (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perilla)
Finely chopped fresh green hot pepper
Juice squeezed from one full sudachi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudachi)

Lots of flavor, and very refreshing. Picture below. It may be difficult to replicate outside of Japan for some of the ingredients. Lemon and lime aren't quite the same as sudachi, and I can't think of anything that can substitute for the shiso. 

I am spending an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen these days. I have always liked cooking and consider myself a decent chef, but never before have I had to continuously churn out unsalted food and then do the dishes as I am having to do now. The tips of my fingers are getting dry and cracking from the repeated exposure to water and dishwashing soap. As I type this blog, my keyboard is now oily and slippery with the hand lotion that I've applied.

Food summary:
Breakfast - Stir-fried cabbage and eggs with fresh ground black pepper, and rice
Morning snack - Apple
Lunch - Steamed yellowtail topped with my new flavoring condiment (as described above), gigantic asparagus from Australia (I mean, 2 asparagus almost making up the entire 190 grams? ridiculous!), rice
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear
Dinner - Halibut sashimi with the flavoring condiment with rice, and fresh vege-base on the side
Evening snack - pineapples

Workout notes:
* Did the exercises around 5pm today, much earlier than the usual 8-10pm time slot.
* Was able to power through all sets of push-ups. Proud of my progress there.
* No problems with any of the exercises. Trying hard to not give myself any extra rest, but I'm not yet banging them out one exercise right after next. A sip of water here, a stretch there, collecting my breath and mind in-between sort of thing...

Photos

October 1, 2011 3:33 PM UTC

Day 17 : I can't do a pull-up to save my life

They're here. Pull-ups. I knew that they would be biggest challenge during my PCP. Well today I tried, and to no surprise, I couldn't do one. Not even close. The question is, how do I get myself in position so that I can eventually do one (and more). Since I obviously didn't get much work in the back, and it was a bit late to get to the playground to do incline pull-ups, I did 3 sets of rowing exercises instead.

Workout summary:
* Jumprope - I got to over 500 to start, and 850 was easy. I broke the least sweat to date, partly because it was a cool day, but my body is definitely getting used to the activity. Threw in a couple hundred extra jumps.
* I got new weaker bands for the davincis, and I did both arms simultaneously instead of one-by-one. I think the resistance is just right for now, where I struggle but am able to finish.
* As mentioned above, did rowing exercises instead of the pull-ups.

Food recap:
Breakfast - Did my eggs sunny-side-up today, keeping the yolk fairly raw. Mixed it in with the vege-base, and had it with rice.
Morning snack - Asian apple pear
Lunch - Boiled fish fish (leftover from yesterday) and a bit of salmon to make weight, mixed with vege-base and fusilli pasta.
Afternoon snack - Tangerines (had almost 2 and a half to make weight)
Dinner - Diced lean beef mixed with vege-base and fusilli pasta. Delicious! I guess I am a meat lover after all.
Evening snack - Asian apple pear

I am still staying away from bread, as I still believe rice is the best carb, but also find that pasta in its plain form is just semolina of durum wheat and hardly contains sodium. That said, I see others' PCPers meals especially at breakfast using toast, and thinking I may want to soften my stance to get more variety to my meals. Hmm.. sign of weakness?

September 30, 2011 2:46 PM UTC

Day 16 : Resisting the temptations

It's Friday night, and while the world around me is out and about, I come straight home from work, eat my non-salted dinner and do my workout routine. A part of me is envious, another part of me knows where I will be in 74 days and know it will all have been worth it. Still, the 3-minute walk home from the station is an endless stream of temptations as I walk past many restaurants and see people having a good time. PCP won't completely stop me from having a social life, but I keep telling myself it's just 90 days, and I am trying very hard to avoid putting myself in situations where I'll have to compromise or worry about being non-compliant. It's safe to say that having lost my first few pounds has kept my motivation up, allowing me to resist all the temptations around me.

Food recap:
Breakfast - my usual throw-everything-in-a-bowl-and-mix rice
Morning snack - Asian apple pear
Lunch - Lean beef slices flavored with garlic chips and black pepper, rice, and vege-base (ate it like ratatouille). This was a very nice lunch, almost like a pseudo yakiniku bento
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear
Dinner - Boiled white fish, then mixed with vege-base, and had it with rice
Evening snack - a persimmon, and a piece of apple to make weight

Workout notes:
* Jumpropes continue to get easier. I shortened my rope just a little bit, and it made a big difference. Now it's not whipping the ground before I jump, and I think it gives me a better (and faster) rhythm.
* The reduced sets and reps on the push-ups allowed me to finish.
* I think I will spend a part of my weekend looking for a more robust resistance band set. Rowing is getting too easy, while shoulders are still too tough. Doing one arm at a time seems to strain some muscle in other parts of the body as it tries to compensate. Not a good thing.

Where I would like to one day get to on the rope:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_9DQu-T7A4

A very useful website for deciding what to eat:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/

September 29, 2011 3:59 PM UTC

Day 15 : It's just 30 grams of rice, but oh how I miss thee...

It's already 1:00am and I still gotta cook rice for tomorrow morning! Sleep will have to be sacrificed today.

Food recap:
Breakfast - scrambled the eggs, and threw it into a bowl with the vege-base and rice and mixed it. Something between egg fried rice and risotto.
Morning snack - Asian apple pear
Lunch - Salmon and shrimp with vege-base mixed with fusilli pasta
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear
Dinner - lean beef steak and zucchini, flavored with garlic chips and black pepper, had it with rice. Very delicious!
Evening snack - Apple

So the new diet for the week is out. I can feel the smaller portions. I never thought I'd miss 30 grams of rice so much. But I love the explanation Patrick gave about the food portions. You put your faith in his methods without explanation at first, and then when he finally explains it to you, it turns out to be pretty science-based. It gives me more confidence each day that I signed up for the right program.

Dinner was fantastic. I had opted mainly for fish for the first week, as Patrick said it was by far the best, but it was time for some beef. I made it as close as possible to having a steak, and it worked. Dried garlic chips and black pepper did a fine job of flavoring it, and I didn't miss the salt that much. Very lean beef, all red and almost no white (fat), but very satisfying. 

I also made a new batch of vege-base. This time, I chopped the veggies more coarsely so I had bigger chunks. End result looks much better than the first version. I also think the fresh green chili peppers were a nice touch, but I almost overdid it. Two peppers were plenty enough, as it still tingled my tongue when having a little taste. Thankfully I listened to my wife and halved what I was originally thinking of putting in. Phew!

Workout highlights:
* I keep losing count of jumpropes now that I can go on for a while before getting tangled. I never give myself the benefit of the doubt, so I must be jumping more than the daily quota. I might have lost 100 jumps today, as I wasn't sure if I was at 300 or 400, and I decided to be safe and go with 300.
* Push-ups. I did 3 full sets of 10 + 7 reps on the last set without my knees. I'm almost there, but then I notice that the reps and sets go down for push-ups starting tomorrow. A bit disappointed about that...
* I still do the davincis one arm at a time, but finding that I am straining my neck and lower back in the process. Need to think of a better solution. Maybe I need to buy weaker bands for them for now.

Photos

September 28, 2011 1:55 PM UTC

Day 14 : Two weeks through

So two weeks are in the books, and so far, I am proud to say that I'm following both the workouts and the diet to a T, and have not strayed once despite temptations galore. I've even been able to blog everyday. I hope to keep this perfect record going for the full 90 days, but let's just be realistic now and say that's not gonna happen.

To date, I have lost a couple of kilos, definitely feel a bit thinner as my work pants fit much more snugly, and feel a bit firmer in the thighs and abs. My upper body is still lagging behind, but that's nothing new. My stamina has increased as well, evidenced by my ability to jumprope much longer than when we first started. And most of all, I am still feeling decently motivated about the whole project, so feel that I can keep going at this pace for now.

I was happy to have the day off from the workouts and just do the jumprope. I think I did about 1500 in all. I just kept going, and practiced the one-foot and alternate-foot techniques, though I'm not getting too far with that. I got a great sweat going, and I can envision how by the end of PCP, the jumprope will have helped us burn off the fat.

I also used the off-day to build the pull-up tower that I had bought on Amazon. Now, I know for a fact I cannot do a single pull-up. I think back in junior high, I had to do 3 reps to pass phys ed, and I barely made that by cheating a bit (jumped for the first rep, and barely making the third). So more than the push-ups, the pull-ups will be my arch-enemy, so I'm glad that Patrick is letting us choose the incline or the regular pull-ups for now. Let's just say if I can get to complete a full pull-up set before my PCP is over, that would be my crowning achievement.

Food recap:
Breakfast - my usual
Morning snack - Apple
Lunch - Fusilli pasta with the vege-base, topped with diced tuna cooked in basil
Afternoon snack - Apple
Dinner - Yellowtail sashimi flavored with grated ginger and chopped Japanese basil over rice. Pan-fried zucchini flavored with basil and black pepper
Evening snack - Tangerine, a small plum, and a few grapes to make weight

One shocking discovery. Wasabi, the kind that comes in the tube and sold all over Japan, contains salt, so I've discarded it from the menu. Every major brand does it the same way. Now that may sound picky, but if that was going to be allowed, why can't I use a small pinch of salt in all my dishes? So if I want to use wasabi, I am going to have to find the pure stuff, or buy the plant and grate it myself (though wasabi root is very expensive!) 

Photos

September 27, 2011 2:45 PM UTC

Day 13 : Balance

A long day at the office today. Got home, ate my dinner (including a big pile of microwaved-passed-for-steamed broccoli and asparagus to meet my quota), made a fresh batch of vege-base (with green bell peppers this time instead of red! Talk about living on the edge!), fielded a 30-min call from my boss overseas, cranked through my exercises, ate my fruit, and here I am blogging. The evening was all a blur, but I managed. Anyway, gonna keep this short and get some sleep.

Food recap:
Breakfast - same as yesterday and the day before
Morning snack - Apple
Lunch - Same as yesterday
Afternoon snack - pineapple
Dinner - Tuna sashimi with white rice (of course no soy sauce), a pile of "steamed"broccoli and asparagus as mentioned above
Evening snack - Apple

Food is becoming monotonous. But not really possible to experiment on weekdays.

Workout notes:
* Jumpropes: Did 350 straight today to start before getting tangled. Incremental daily progress. I like it. Plus it gives me a target to beat for the next day.
* Lunges - Didn't I just do these!? It couldn't possibly have been 2 days since I did them, could it?
* Resistance band exercises - not sure if I'm getting the most out of these. Not sure if I need a stronger band for the rowing and standing o's. The bands are plenty strong for the shoulder exercises.

I'll try to get to the new Group Chatter feature tomorrow night unless it's another late one. 

Good night from Tokyo!

September 26, 2011 1:47 PM UTC

Day 12 : Cayenne pepper, Oregano, Basil, Black Pepper (COBB)

Weekdays are tough. Now that I am back home and living my normal life (as opposed to out of a suitcase in a hotel), all the burdens of daily life (like doing some house chores, riding a train to and from work, etc) are being felt by the end of the day, when I need to pump myself up to do the exercises. I can't possibly see myself get up an extra hour earlier to bang out the workouts in the morning, so invariably, the workouts has to happen at night after work. Hopefully, the energy level will go up as I get fitter and the exercises become habit, but I'm not quite there yet.

Like Evelyn, I am starting to notice subtle changes in my body below all the flab. I feel a bit more muscle building especially in my thighs and abs, just that it's still hidden well beneath and hasn't surfaced yet. It's as if the body is quietly building the foundations on which we will make our transformation 3 months down the road. Incremental progress like this keeps the motivation level high, even though I may be feeling lethargic at the end of the day. (Tangent: When I point this out to my wife, she jokes that if I was going to work so hard to lose the fat that I spent a lot of money on to nurture over the years by eating out often, I should have just saved all that money.)

Food recap:
Breakfast - same as yesterday. Veggie-base omelette and veggie-base risotto
Morning snack - Apple
Lunch - Veggie-base fried rice with salmon
Afternoon snack - Apple
Dinner - Veggie-base stir-fried with ground chicken over... you guessed it, rice.
Evening snack - Grapes

So I am getting huuuuuge mileage out of the veggie-base (recipe a couple of blog entries ago, picture below). Even the salmon fried-rice that I had been trying to perfect worked the best with the veggie-base. So I guess that's it. Basil, oregano, black pepper and cayenne pepper. That's the magic spice recipe at the moment, and I'm gonna call it COBB for short. You can obviously get fancy and add others like paprika, celery seed, savory, parsley, etc, but I think the above 4 spices will be my first pillar for my salt-free flavoring. I'm even thinking that I can top steamed broccoli and zucchini with the COBB veggie-base, and sort of get a kill 2 birds with 1 stone kind of action. Now, knowing myself, I know I will get sick of this mix soon enough, so I will have to come up with a new flavoring recipe asap. I'm going to experiment with ginger, wasabi and Japanese basil next weekend to see if I can come up with something fresh.

Workout notes:
* 300 straight jumps to start the routine, a set of extra 140 after my 700
* 1 push-up shy of completing 3 full sets of 10 without my knees, did most of 4th set without knees as well
* DaVincis are tough and I have to give myself more band and do one arm at a time
* Couldn't get to the playground to do incline pull-ups as it was kind of raining outside, so substituted them for sets of rowing

Photos

September 25, 2011 2:35 PM UTC

Day 11 : Inertia and momentum

Today was a difficult day as I split every available minute of the day between wearing my "dad" hat and standing in the kitchen cooking and doing dishes and preparing food for the upcoming workweek. Major props to all mothers out there who do this everyday- I don't know how you all do it day in and day out. Anyway, by the end of the day, I hardly had the mental strength to get to the workout, but I forced my butt into the garage and started the jumprope. Once I got started, it was pretty smooth sailing, as my body is now more familiar with the routine, and I banged it all out. It's ironic that I am feeling the most energized now out of the entire day (and it's 11pm). Talk about inertia and momentum. The workouts are taking a lot longer with the fuller menu (I'm averaging a shade under an hour), and by the time I got through the entire list and I write this blog entry, it's late. 8 hours of rest? I wish, Patrick.

Food recap:
Breakfast - Used the tomato/vegetable base from yesterday to make an omelette. Also mixed the rest of the vegetables with rice, sort of like a risotto.
Morning snack - I honestly can't recall. It's possible I skipped this snack, which would be a shame.
Lunch - Tried something new. Stir-fried frozen mixed vegetables and minced chicken with curry powder I found at the market. It contained all sorts of spices, but no salt! I was really looking forward to this, as it looked and smelled fantastic. Unfortunately, it tasted very bland.
Afternoon snack - Asian apple pear (The Japanese ko-sui variety. This thing weighed 540 grams! It was big. And so delicious. I can't think of a tastier fruit than Asian apple pears. Too bad it's going out of season soon. I will miss it.)
Dinner - Tuna and avocado tartare over rice, flavored with some wasabi and Japanese basil (shiso leaves). Was ok, nothing special. Topped out my veggie prescription with more frozen mixed vegetables.
Evening snack - Some more of the Asian apple pear from the afternoon.

Workout summary:
Jumprope, I got to 270 straight to start. Getting to 650 was not a problem, and did an extra set of 140 at the end. Lunges were tough today. Also, thanks to Alison who sent me a link to the door anchor for the resistance band. It gave me a good idea of what I needed to look for, and hit a sporting goods store nearby. It only cost me 1700 JPY (US$22...yikes!). Stuff is so expensive in central Tokyo (as are fruits and vegetables). Anyway, I think the rowing and standing o's were much more effective today.

Photos

September 24, 2011 3:15 PM UTC

Day 10 : Green peas are a vegetable!

So green peas are a vegetable. Now that that's been cleared up, I get the feeling those frozen mixed veggies are going to get a lot of play, especially during the workweek when I can't bother chopping and sauteeing fresh stuff. On the weekends, I'm going to continue to pretend I am an iron chef and work on perfecting a couple of go-to entrees. I think I got a step closer with the salmon fried rice today, though I'm not ready to patent my recipe or anything yet.

Food recap:
Breakfast - Egg fried rice. Mixed my eggs, those frozen mixed vegetables and white rice in a frying pan. Of course, no oil. Simple but effective, and about time I had my eggs without hard-boiling them.
Morning snack - 1 banana, grapes to tap up my grammage
Lunch - Sauteed tomato and vegetables with salmon and rice. I think I nailed this one. Recipe and picture below.
Afternoon snack - Bananas
Dinner - Second attempt at the salmon fried rice. Done similarly as yesterday, but spiced it up with fresh ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, and dried parsley. The cayenne pepper gave it a nice kick, and I enjoyed it much more than last night's version.
Evening snack - 1 persimmon and 2/3 of a tangerine to get to my grammage

So notice, I am doing a lot of fried rice. It's sort of a natural path I guess, given I rather have my vegetables cooked than raw, my preference for rice as my carbs over bread and pasta (see previous blog entry), and it's easy to prepare (i.e. just throw it all in a frying pan). The only drawback is that because I am using no oil, I am relying completely on the teflon on my frying pan to keep stuff from sticking. The rice unfortunately sticks to the pan, and it's a bitch to clean up afterwards. But oh well...that's the trouble I go through for my beloved PCP.

Workout summary:
I like the fact that push-ups are now every other day. It gives me a chance to rest my push-up muscles a full 48 hrs before having to use them again. I was able to do 2 full sets of 10 normal-style, and half another set before the knees came down. Baby steps, but that's progress. Also, I was able to do my first 230 jumps today non-stop without getting caught with the rope- a personal best so far. I was able to crank out 70-100 after that each time before stopping or getting caught (and minimal rest), and 650 was easy to get to. As for the incline pull-ups, I found a small playground about a 3 minute walk away from my house, and did them there. Only problem was the mosquitos. I think I got bitten in about 3 places on my legs and I wasn't there more than 5 minutes. I rushed through them to avoid getting bitten more, so I don't think I got the maximum out of the reps, but better than not doing them I guess. Will need insect repellent next time.

Recipe for my sauteed tomato and vegetables with salmon and rice, if anyone care. 

Onions
Garlic
Carrots
Bell peppers (red, orange, yellow)
Cherry tomatoes
Basil
Oregano
Black pepper
(Cayenne pepper to make it spicy)

Salmon (I use sashimi-quality, but I think any cut will do)
Your carb of choice (rice or pasta, or even bread)

Saute chopped onions, garlic and carrots until onions are brown in medium-high heat. (Think ratio should be about 2:1 between onions and carrots, and 1/2 a large onion to every clove of garlic, but that's me) Add chopped peppers and saute some more. I think the finer the vegetables are chopped the better, but again, that's me. And I also think the more you saute the better (especially the onions), as long as you keep it from going black and charring. Finally, add cherry tomatoes that have been cut in quarters (lets the water come out easier) and stir in medium-low heat until the tomatoes have lost their shape. Add a dash of water as necessary to keep the mix from drying out. (How much tomato depends on how tomato-ey you want to make it, I guess.) Flavor with basil, oregano and black peppers to liking, but too much oregano will make it taste weird. If you want to give it a kick, throw a bit of cayenne pepper powder in there as well.

That's the vegetable portion of it. I made a good amount of this base, and scooped out my prescribed grammage, and threw it in a pan with my prescribed allowance of diced salmon. Stir over medium heat until salmon has heated. I put this over rice (my preferred carb), but I think it will also go well with pasta and even on toast (like a bruschetta?). You can also do chicken instead of salmon as well.

I heard about a past PCP-er who made a tub of salsa and kept scooping out his allowance every meal, and I guess this is close to that in a way. I think the vegetable portion will hold in the fridge for a couple of days.

Photos

September 23, 2011 3:09 PM UTC

Day 09 : Good to be home

Finally back in Tokyo after a 2-week business trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong. Being on the road can be fun for a while, but it's good to be home.

Food recap:
Breakfast - 2 hard boiled eggs, steamed broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus and tomatoes from the hotel (I don't think I got my full grammage of veggies but I tried), and white rice leftover from last night
Morning snack - 1 banana, 1 apple
Lunch - Tuna sashimi, white rice, frozen mixed vegetables (more on this)
Afternoon snack - grapes (the Japanese variety kyoho. So delicious and so much sweeter than any other grapes, but the sugar content must be that much higher. It was delicious but 180g was a bit too much...and expensive!)
Dinner - Non-oil fried rice with onions, carrots, salmon
Evening snack - one tangerine, a couple pieces of pineapple

Frozen mixed vegetables...you know, the kind that comes in the bag containing diced carrots, corn and green peas in the frozen foods section. I figured this was the easy way to do it- measure out my prescribed weight and pop it in the microwave and voila! But then I got to thinking. Are green peas considered bean or vegetable? Also, carrots, corn, and peas apparently are 3 of the starchier vegetables containing plenty of carbs. Are these the right way to go? If anyone has any thoughts on this, please let me know. Meanwhile, I've hit up Patrick on email, so we'll see what he says.

Dinner was my first opportunity to get a bit creative (experimental may be the better word here). I sauteed chopped onions and carrots in a frying pan (not a single drop of oil at all!) then added steamed white rice and diced sashimi-quality salmon in and mixed the entire thing as if cooking fried rice. No flavoring or spices at all this time. The sweetness of the onion and rice, along with the flavor and natural fat of the salmon provided all the taste necessary. The best PCP meal to date by a landslide. I'm going to perfect this dish over the next day or two by adding some spices to it. A couple that comes to mind are black pepper and a bit of cayenne pepper. Or, rosemary oregano, thyme and white pepper to go in a different direction. (Picture below.)

Workout summary:
My first workout at home using the resistance bands. I had to get creative with the space, as we do not have a yard and I wasn't going to go to a park to do this. So I moved the car out of the garage and did my jumpropes and lunges there. The resistance band exercises were done at the entrance of the house surrounded by everyone's shoes. I then moved to the living/dining room to do the shoulder dips and leg-ups. Felt like I was doing real circuit training around the house! 

A few problems/issues:

1. I still don't know where I'm going to do my incline pull-ups tomorrow. 

2. Where is everyone wrapping the resistance band to do the rowing and the standing ovations? I used my front door today, but the wife wasn't too happy about it. She certainly won't let me wrap it around any door inside the house. Also, because I was using the front door handle, the rowing exercise was at a weird downward angle. Where can you wrap the bands so that is low enough and on a parallel plane to your arms in the seated position?

3. I can't tell if the resistance band is too weak or too strong or just right. It really depends on where on the rope I step on, or how far I stand away from the fulcrum. Obviously, the shorter the band or the farther I stand, the harder it gets near the end when the band is already stretched out. I'm not quite sure what I should be aiming for.

Oh well, I'll go with the flow for now, as doing anything is better than what I was doing before PCP (i.e. nothing). But there will come a time very soon when I will want to be more efficient and effective in the time I'm spending.

Photos

September 22, 2011 2:20 PM UTC

Day 08 : Unflavored raw vegetables suck

I know that things will get infinitely better starting tomorrow when I fly home to Tokyo, but the first day of the real PCP diet was torture. Without a kitchen to prepare my meals, the only foods at the supermarket that adhered to the guidelines (particularly the no salt, oils and sugar part) were of the raw variety. Breakfast and lunch were so bland and dry, it almost made me cry. I am looking forward to getting home and being creative with my meals.

Food recap:
Breakfast - 2 hard-boiled eggs courtesy of room service, the salad I bought last night (spinach, carrots, tomatoes and bell peppers) and a plain piece of wheat roundbread. 
Morning snack - a pear and an apple
Lunch - Bought a loaf of healthy-looking multigrain bread, and stuffed some bland chicken breast and the rest of the morning's dry salad and pretended it was a sandwich. (I was about 50g short on the veggies, but I had no further desire to eat this bland and dry stuff.)
Afternoon snack - grapes
Dinner - Raw fish (salmon and amberjack, sashimi style), white rice, and salad consisting of tomatoes, cucumbers and corn.
Evening snack - grapes

A few observations and thoughts, though some of this may make me sound massively anal...

1. A huge key will be how to flavor the food without using sodium. Eating everything unflavored will grow very tiresome very quickly. I'm a bit wary of the salt substitute that is being referred to by some, as a lot of the dried and powdered stuff may have sodium and other preservative and stabilizing additives. Will have to read the labels carefully. Also, reading some people's blogs, it seemed that Patrick's allowance of olive oil has been interpreted as being a free invitation to soak our food in it. I doubt that was the spirit.

2. If eating vegetables raw, there are ones that go down much much easier than others. Example: Spinach and carrots are absolutely horrible. Cucumbers and peppers are neutral at best. Meanwhile, corn and tomatoes were actually decent (well, I guess the corn was boiled- it was likely the canned variety). I think that if boiled, broccolli, asparagus and squash will also be relatively easy on the palate.

3. Unflavored fish tastes so much better than unflavored chicken. My most enjoyable meal was dinner, as I had the sashimi with the rice and it went down easy, even without any soy sauce. I didn't use the wasabi, but it may give it a kick and neutralize a bit of the fishiness to make it taste even better. I can see this combo of fish (raw or seared) and plain rice becoming a staple when allowed.

4. For the carbs, I am thinking that rice is probably the best of the rice/bread/pasta choices. Bread at the stores, even if of the healthy kind, usually uses salt in the production process. Same with the pasta. So unless we're baking our own bread or churning out our own pasta, I think that rice is the purest carb without any additives.

5. I'm not sure when to eat the evening fruit without it coming too close to bedtime. But whenever I have it, the fruit is one of the major highlights of my eating day. I'm likely going to favor grapes as long as I am allowed to- they're delicious, and I like the red ones better than the green ones.

As for the new (and old) sets of exercises:
Welcome back to my daily routine, push-ups. But the day off apparently helped immensely, as I was finally able to crank out 2 sets of 8 and another half-set before the knees came down. That's incremental progress, and I welcome it! The rest weren't too hard, though I'm going to struggle to find a place to do the incline pull-ups after I check out of the hotel and no longer have a convenient gym with equipment. Were the pull-up bars supposed to take care of this as well?  Either way, it seems to be putting more work on my forearms than my back at the moment. Same with the curls. I feel it more on my forearms than my biceps. As for jumpropes, 500 yesterday, and today 600! Well, it was more like 6 sets of 100 + an extra set. I am nowhere near being able to whip through 600 non-stop.

Ok, time to pack and go to sleep. I have a 8:30am flight to catch tomorrow morning!

September 21, 2011 3:13 PM UTC

Day 07 : Countdown to the plunge

If this week was the clank-clank up the roller-coaster, then today was the brief lull at the top where you admire the view for a second or two while mentally preparing for the ride to let loose. In other words, let it all in, as we won't be coming back here for a while! I did that by indulging one last time on one of my HK staple comfort foods for lunch, a curry beef brisket and with rice- of course while throwing out half of it. Meanwhile, I did have the strength to turn down an offer to be taken out for beers and a steak, so I am mentally into this.

Food summary:
Breakfast - 1/2 coffee danish, 1/2 glass of orange juice
Lunch - 1/2 portion of curry beef brisket with rice
Mid-day, 1/2 can of Lipton sweetened lemon tea, 1 saltine cracker
Dinner - some grapes, a pear, and 1/2 small bowl of beef noodle soup

Workout recap:
500 straight jumps wasn't as easy as I expected. Around jump 150, my quads started feeling it and I was barely getting my feet off the ground to let the rope pass, and I tripped up before getting to 200. I had to take 5 seconds to stretch my thighs before getting right back at it, and from there found myself tripping after every 30-70 jumps before finally squeezing out the last 50 to get to 500. It's obviously clear that shorter sets are much more manageable than doing the entire total without stop. To that point, once I had a minute to catch my breath and rest, I was able to crank out an extra set of 100 without any trouble. 

Lastly, I went to the market this evening to buy my food for tomorrow morning. Since I wasn't sure on the weighing before/after cooking deal, I bot a piece of bread and a salad so there would be no issues. My bread weighs a bit less than my assigned weight and the salad a bit more, but think it's close enough for the government until I get home on Friday and can do it properly. I think it's a win that I could get the Chinese lady to weigh the bread and salad for me at all, and now at least have a point of reference for what I need to get for lunch and dinner.

Looking back on the first week, cutting the food was tough at first but then it got easier. Push-ups are my biggest enemy at the moment (at least until we start using the pull-up bars), but I didn't mind the other exercises and definitely felt stronger as the week went on. I'm enjoying the jumprope in particular, and watched some youtube videos to see the pros go at it. Practicing the two-step and single-step jumping techniques, but those are much harder and need more coordination than the regular jumps. I had been proud of the fact I lost about 1.5 kgs this week until I read Patrick's email telling me to take no pride, as if he read my mind. (Obviously many of us are going through the same thoughts...)

Anyway, so here we go in less than 10 hours!

September 20, 2011 4:18 PM UTC

Day 06 : The little things... there's nothing bigger, is there?

So in Patrick's email this morning, he italicizes that we could eat whatever we want, but just half. And here I was, not only reducing my portions by half, but also trying to be conscientious of what I chose to eat and being hungry all week for it. Well then! The first thoughts that crossed my mind was a fat juicy burger, curry beef brisket and rice, and more of my greasy Chinese barbecue pork (three of my staples while in HK). Then I remembered that I had dropped nearly 2 kgs as a result of my eating decisions this past week alone and decided it wasn't worth killing the momentum I had built. So while I did get a more filling lunch today than leaves and carrots, I didn't let Patrick's taunt get the better of me (I say that in jest, as obviously that wasn't the intent haha). I think it's going to be these little decisions that we make over the course of the 90 days that will make all the difference. As the quote in Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky goes, "The little things... there's nothing bigger, is there?"

Food consumption recap:
Breakfast - a handful of grapes and 1/2 an apple muffin
Lunch - 1/2 bowl of rice with beef brisket and fish balls, and 1/2 tall glass of Chinese iced tea (which I finished later mid-day)
Dinner - the other half of my lunch (which was a mistake, as it didn't taste nearly as good cold as it did at lunch when it was hot. No, I didn't have a microwave in the hotel room! I only have a couple more normal food meals left, and this was what I chose? Talk about dumb "little things" decisions!)

The other thing today... My wife and daughter had to catch an 8:30am flight back to Tokyo this morning, which naturally meant I also had to get up at 5:30am to see them off. It was the appropriate thing to do as opposed to just waving to them from the bed with my eyes half-closed, being reminded that they flew into HK for the long weekend so that we could celebrate our daughter's birthday together. But whatever the reason, I was operating on short rest, and it showed in today's workout. The energy level just wasn't there today, and I felt very unmotivated to do the exercises. I had to will myself into action and while I got it done, it did show me the importance of getting a good night's sleep to operate at a high energy.

Workout recap:
Jumprope continues to be the area in which I shine, easily getting through 5 sets of 75 + a set of 100 at the end. Lunges and abs also not a problem, and I can feel my thighs getting a bit stronger (at least comfortable with the movements). I also squeezed off an extra set of leg-ups. As for push-ups, I got through the first set of 8 reps the right way, and half-way through the second set before the knees came down the rest of the way. But I feel slightly stronger as the knee push-ups are getting a bit easier. After the PCP exercises, just to kick my own ass for laboring through it all, I forced myself on the treadmill and cranked out a 3km run. Now we get a day off tomorrow, with just the jumpropes. Yay!

September 19, 2011 10:23 PM UTC

Day 05 : Mind and body

I was so hungry at lunch today that I felt I had to have something substantial or I was going to pass out. I ordered a bowl of rice noodle soup and had every intention of devouring it all, but then a funny thing happened halfway through the bowl. I realized I didn't need to eat the rest of it. I wasn't completely full or satisfied, but it was enough. I think that my mental state of being in the PCP program obviously played a large part in the restraint, but it also seemed as if my body told me that I could cope without the other half of the bowl. Dinner was a similar experience. I didn't have that much food, but afterwards felt comfortably satiated. It's as if my body (my stomach) is starting to catch up to my mind, and as if I've used a lot of the starting energy and enthusiasm to shrink my stomach to prepare myself for what's to come ahead. After all, I hear about upcoming dinners of just egg whites and apples. 

Food consumption recap:
Breakfast - 1/2 rye croissant, 1/2 piece of multi-grain bread, 2 pieces of pineapple, 2 pieces of papaya
Lunch - 1/2 bowl of rice noodle soup with beef brisket, 2 har gow
Dinner - handful of grapes, small portion of salad w/ 2 pieces of lobster, 3 pieces of sushi, 3 slices of sashimi, a couple of bites of a small dinner roll.

Workout summary:
The soreness has pretty much gone away in the legs, gluts and abs, but I am still mildly sore in my arms and chest. Exercises not a problem except the push-ups. Regular push-ups until rep 6 of set 1, then the knees have to come down. I failed in set 4 after rep 5 or 6. My lack of upper body strength is appalling. I am looking forward to the day off from push-ups in Day 7. Hopefully that will give me a chance to rest and recover. Did an extra set of 100 jumps on the rope at the end for fun.

* Note: I fell asleep in the middle of writing this post, and am submitting it the morning after.

September 18, 2011 3:39 PM UTC

Day 04 : A little bit of dim sum and a whole lot of yum cha

One of my favorite rituals when the family is able to make it to HK while I am on my biz trip is to hit Maxim's Palace at City Hall for some dim sum. I've been told there are better places for dim sum in HK, but the food is delicious enough, and the old style cart pushing and the enormous dining hall make the experience worth the trip every time. Despite being on my PCP, I would not resist this one indulgence, and it was more a matter of how I would define "half portion" when the carts keep coming and I have an extensive history of stuffing myself more than usual there.

In the end, I behaved better than I thought I would. Final tally (I think this is every detail):
1/2 of one shrimp cheou-fan
1/2 of a char siu bau
1-1/2 pieces of har gow
1-1/2 pieces of shiu mai
3 small pieces of beef spare rib in black pepper sauce
a couple spoonfuls of fried rice
...and probably about 2 liters of pu-erh tea to fill up on (ok, maybe a bit less)

I passed on all the deep-fried stuff, including my favorite dim sum, which is the football-shaped deep-fried glutinous dumpling with minced meat inside (fellow dim sum aficionados would certainly know what I am referring to), and also passed on the mango pudding at the end. So it was mostly steamed stuff, which I guess isn't too bad. And plus, it was brunch, meaning it covered 2 meals in 1. 

Dinner was a medium spinach salad with chicken breast, 1 piece (2 bites) of veal from the previous night's doggy-bag, and 1 bite of my wife's Thai green curry. 

Workout-wise, it's more of the same. It all goes down pretty well except for the push-ups. I had to do all my sets today "girl" style (as Megan calls it) due to the lingering soreness in my triceps and chest, and on the 4th set I think my butt was sticking up on the last few reps. (We're adding an extra set when I can't even finish my original 3 sets?) To make myself feel better, I threw in an extra set of 100 jumps on the rope at the end of the workout. 

Also, I read all my fellow Yukon members' blogs today, and Patrick is right. There is no way we'll be able to keep track of everybody, and I seriously doubt that anyone will want to read my ultra-long entries. (I think I've put in the most words to date!) The small subgroups will probably work better, but I do feel bad for the people who are in my subgroup for these endless ramblings. But I'm doing the blog mainly as a recordkeeping tool for myself, so that at the end of my 90 days, I can go back and really appreciate the process. 

I am hungry, but surprisingly it is bothering me a lot less. 

September 17, 2011 5:04 PM UTC

Day 03 : Lactic acid

My body is sore everywhere- my quads, gluts, abs, triceps, chest... name a body part, it's probably sore. Lactic acid's taken over.

Today was my daughter's 2nd birthday. To celebrate, we took her to HK Disneyland. I'm originally from LA and live in Tokyo, so I have been Disney-ed out over my life. But I must say, it was a new and interesting experience hearing Mickey and Minnie speak in Chinese. They have the same voice- it's impressive that they can find people with the same exact voice in each country. (A tangent: the Chinese call Mickey, "Mai-kei" and the Chinese characters that they use to sound out his name literally translate to "rice" and "curious-in-a-weird-kind-of-way." Go figure that out.) 

Point is, I spent the entire day (and a very hot day at that!) walking around, standing around, and with hardly any food inside my system. Then we went for a celebratory dinner for our b-day girl at a Michelin star French restaurant, and afterwards my wife proclaimed, "you didn't eat anything!"

Tired and hungry but still somewhat motivated, I hauled my sore ass down to the hotel gym and completed my Day 3 exercises. Patrick is right. The starting energy and enthusiasm did most of the work for me today.

Exercise summary: 
10 more jumps per set? Not a problem. Squats and sit-ups also not causing any issues. However, push-ups continue to be a problem for me, and the lactic acid in my chest and arms did not help. The knees came down again in sets 2 and 3, and while I came back in the end to throw in a set 4 and 5, we're talking about push-ups with knees on the ground and elbows stopping at 90 degrees. But I do keep my butt on a straight plane as my shoulders and knees (in other words, I'm not sticking my ass up and out), so there's that moral victory. Other than the push-ups I felt pretty good, so I hopped on a treadmill and did a 3km run.

Food recap:
Breakfast - 1 whole-wheat mini-croissant, a small piece of bread, 1 piece of cut pineapple (one bite), 3 pieces of cut papaya (three bites).
Lunch at Disneyland - A caesar salad with smoked salmon and dressing on the side. I left half of the smoked salmon, but I did eat most of the leaves and only used about 1/3 of the dressing.
Dinner at fancy French restaurant - 1/2 of a small welcome cheese puff, a pass on the amuse-bouche, 1/2 a small piece of bread, most of a green leaf salad (had a bit of olive oil based vinegrette), one bite of my wife's veal, and 1/2 of the lightest fish dish I found on the menu (steamed Dover sole with bits of caviar sprinkled on it, served with steamed vegetables). And one small bite of the birthday cake--it wasn't very good.

I'm chewing more, eating slower and drinking lots of water to disguise my hunger and let time pass while the rest of my family eats normally. I'm still constantly feeling hungry throughout the day, but after dinner today, I surprisingly felt ok despite my wife's comment above.

Just to note, I weighed in at 83.1 kgs just now.

Photos

September 16, 2011 4:41 PM UTC

Day 02 : Turning down a Mrs Fields brownie

I doubt I will ever be fully comfortable with this feeling of constant hunger, but at the moment I am able to tolerate it. I am not feeling as hungry as I did yesterday, but I can't tell if it's because I'm getting used to it or if it's because I may have had more food tonight than last night. All I know is that I definitely ate very little relative to what I normally would have eaten. 

Food consumption for the day:
Breakfast - 1 banana, 1 Asian apple pear
Lunch - The other 1/2 portion of last night's dinner
Dinner - Cantonese restaurant with my wife and daughter, who arrived in HK today. Small bit of drunken chicken and jellyfish (I didn't eat it as much as I had a taste), 1/2 a cup of shrimp wonton soup (more like a sip of soup and 1.5 shrimp wonton), 3 small steamed garlic shrimp, 2 small pieces of beef filet, and a small bowl of fried rice. Listing it out makes it sound like I had a feast, but seriously, I ate like a supermodel.

Note also that I refused a morsel of Mrs Fields brownie at the office today. It's a big deal because I never turn down sweets, and certainly never Mrs Fields!

As for the exercise, the jumprope was a breeze. In fact, I did an extra set today just for the hell of it. Leg lifts also not a problem, and I also threw in an extra set. I thought the lunge was gonna be a cinch as well, but I nearly cramped up on my last set. I could feel the burn, especially building on the squats from yesterday. My nemesis is turning out to be the push-ups. I was already sore from yesterday, and I could not finish my second set today. I had to put my knees down and do them that way. The third set was even worse. I think I failed on my third one. I redid them again at the end (knees down), but there is a big difference doing regular push-ups with palms down and using the handlebars. It seems to work a completely different muscle group, as the soreness is mainly in the outer upper chest near the shoulders. It seems this will be my first near-term objective--to get through the 3 sets of pushups without failing. God how pitiful does that sound!

September 15, 2011 1:18 PM UTC

Day 01 : It all re-starts here

The first time I really cared to get myself in shape was back in the summer before my freshman year in college, when I decided that I wanted to start the next chapter of my life in top form. I think I lost about 15 lbs that summer and was in the best shape of my life heading in, but I easily caught the Freshman-15 and proceeded to pack on at least 25 lbs by the time I was a sophomore. Since then, I have been notorious among my friends for being volatile in my weight and digital in my workout and eating habits, easily swinging 10-12 kgs and going from a rigid diet and workout regimen to living like a sloth/glutton.

In Sept 2011 at the age of 34 (turning 35 next month), I find my weight volatility now being mostly to the upside and dramatically reduced motivation for staying in shape. Five years ago, I was running half-marathons, playing tennis matches right after running a 10k--and winning, and wearing "modern fit" shirts and other European/Japanese-inspired apparel. I was also single back then, but um...yeah, it just all seems as it's from another life.

The sense of urgency hit about a month ago, when I stepped on to a tennis court for the first time in about 5 years and got my ass totally handed to me by my French buddy. Not only did I suck, I was completely winded after 10 minutes and my chest muscles started cramping from swinging the racket. Embarrassed (as I had talked some trash about my tennis prowess), I promised myself that I would get my butt into shape and seek redemption.

A former colleague of mine recently completed their PCP and raved about his results. Having sat next to him at work for over a year (and knowing some of his eating, drinking and exercise habits) I was stunned to see the results on his blog. I read every entry and kept saying, wow, no way! Then I went through some more people's blogs and got inspired enough and that's when I decided to reach out to Patrick.

So here I am, at Day 1 of my PCP. I am indeed looking forward to what the next 90 days will bring, with my daughter's birthday, my own birthday, Thanksgiving, and possibly our winter vacation being the visible hurdles. My goals are to lose the gut, fit into some of my old clothes, and get in shape to run the Yokohama half-marathon (fine, so I signed up for just the 10k) in the first weekend of December. In the process, hopefully I will look and feel better and be able to lessen the chronic back pain I have for having to carry around my big pouch. I am not looking for catharsis or a Confucian revelation on life from my PCP. I am looking for my efforts to pay off with solid results, and a bit of external motivation from both peer pressure and Patrick's methods. After all, it's no big secret. Eat well and exercise well, and we should be on our way. I've done it in the past, and I will do it again. It all re-starts here.

I am currently in Hong Kong for a business trip, away from my home in Tokyo, so I am a bit relieved that the load for week 1 seems relatively light. In my eagerness, I was actually eating salads for the past couple of days to give myself a running start, so I was a bit surprised to see the diet requirements for the week being just half portions of my normal fare.

My food consumption for the day was:
Breakfast - 1/2 a croissant and 1/2 can of orange juice
Lunch - 1 slice of Hawaiian pizza (though it was a pretty large slice, I could easily have devoured 1/2 the entire pie)
Dinner - 1/2 portion of Chinese barbecue pork and 1/2 portion of white rice 

Ok, half-portions suck. Around 4pm, I was so famished I thought I was going to kill someone. I am still not satiated now after my half-dinner, but my will is still strong enough on Day 1 to resist any urges. I am a bit concerned, as I have read that suddenly reducing your food intake will actually make your body prone to retain more fat, but we'll see. In Patrick we trust, as have all PCPers before me who have come away with amazing results.

For the record, I weighed in at 84.8 kgs today before dinner. I will get my week 1 picture up tomorrow, when my family flies into HK with our digital camera and my wife can take it for me. I only have the camera on my iPhone at the moment, and it wasn't fit for the job. But it was fit enough for a picture of leftovers of my delightful dinner.

Ok, time for my first training!

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10pm.. Just finished my first workout. Jumprope...I can keep going, though set 4 and 5 were more laborious. Squats...last set burnt, but no problems. Pushups...I don't have my bars yet, so I did them knuckle-style. Sadly, I couldn't finish my last set, so I did them again after my sit-ups. Situps...first set hurt more than the last set. Can feel the burn and it feels good!

Photos