December 14, 2011 12:29 AM JST

Day 90

Certainly feels strange to be at this point, I wasn't really sure how well I would adapt to doing this but I am chuffed with how it's gone. With that in mind, some thank-you's are definitely on the cards.

Firstly, to Patrick, Sarah, Thomas and everyone else behind the scenes - you have all made this experience very worth while, from easing us into it, egging us on, and providing us with useful, relevant information that's completely changed my outlook on nutrition - I said at the start that I've dieted before on and off - purely based on counting calories and being hungry. I think at my worst point many years ago I weighed around 105 kilos! When I got down to about 85 from doing exercise bike every day and eating 1300 calories I figured that was my limit - I wasn't getting any thinner, and I was just going to remain a bit of a chubster. Well you've changed all that.

I'd also say thankyou to my group mates, every one of them has done a fantastic job and I have become accustomed to reading all your blog updates so I will miss that! 

Also thanks to my PCP graduated ripped brother in law who introduced me to this in the first place and gave me the early xmas present of PCP!

Going forward, I will be enjoying my 1 month holiday that's coming up in a weeks time, relaxing and having a lovely Christmas but the skipping rope and resistance bands will definitely be in my luggage!!

In closing I thought I'd take a quote from one of my favourite comedy shows The Thick of It:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPN8RjXxhKA&feature=youtu.be

Hope you all have a great xmas and if you're umming & erring about whether the PCP is right for you - just do it!

December 9, 2011 7:07 AM JST

Day 85

Bit slack on the blogging!!!

Had a couple of slip ups with regards to diet but was always on the cards the closer it gets to xmas. Nothing too terrible though, when I've eaten out I've been mindful of the fact to try and choose the meal with the most veg on the menu and leaving a lot of the unhealthier stuff on the plate. Couple of drinks as well.

Mixed feelings about the impending end, I do wish now I had done the PCP before this one and been able to keep it up for longer after it finished - instead of christmas and a 1 month holiday coming up less than 2 weeks after. I'm still very glad to have done it at all though. 

December 3, 2011 4:27 AM JST

Day 79

Latest weekly photo up.

After Saturdays write off I've had a cold and feel pretty shitty. Struggled through the workouts and kept the diet spot on though. 

November 28, 2011 9:01 AM JST

Day 75

I already cashed in my indulgence early, I ended up going out on Saturday night and I got rather drunk. I didn't cave on the food aspect of the diet, but had a few beers and a few vodkas. Felt almost like drinking for the first time, was ill when I came in and woke up to the worst hangover in the history of hangovers. I actually felt like I had alcohol poisoning, paracetamol had no effect and I tried to eat breakfast and immediately felt 100 times worse; couldn't keep it down. Not looking forward to work xmas drinks which are 1 day before the PCP ends, I think I'm going to have to find an excuse to leave early.

Anyway, working out on a hangover sucks, can really feel the elevated blood pressure from the alcohol.  Struggled through it but didn't feel very healthy. 

Need to get my head back in the game for the last 3 weeks and finish this with a bang. I bought some new jeans & a belt yesterday and was extremely surprised to see that the "medium" belt was much too big. 32" waist on the Jeans also felt too big, so I got the 30" ones. Fairly tight but hoping I can make them slightly more comfortable soon...

November 26, 2011 6:25 AM JST

Is that me?

Oh yeah, it is, I recognise the gut & man tits now. Still, if it wasn't for those I'd be feeling pretty ecstatic about myself, as opposed to just really, really pleased. If someone said to me that by doing the PCP I would be 12 stone at the end without putting on any muscle I'd have bitten their arm off (metaphorically and possibly literally - I ate a lot) but to be at that stage 3 weeks before the end, with a lot of muscle definitely puts the whole tunnel vision thing in perspective. I wasn't able to complete the full elevated push up sets - did 2 elevated, 2.5 normal, 0.5 knee of 11 reps but I don't mind at all... 

p.s what's throbbing, veiny and over 12 inches long... my arm, har har. 

Photos

November 25, 2011 6:41 AM JST

Day 71

Bad case of hunger today. Sad to say I succumbed to some dried apricots and a fig when I realised my veg was going to take 35 minutes to roast in the oven for dinner. On the plus side, I am blaming it on the fact I've done 2 sets of skipping today, I just hope the apricot munching didnt blow the extra burned calories out of the water. Also not being very well prepared for the new diet this week I've eaten 1 serving of plaice with rice, sweet potato and butternut squash for lunch and funnily enough plaice with sweet potato and butternut squash for dinner. Cooked differently each time mind you so a tiny bit of variety there.

Since I started the PCP although the big P said to just think of potatoes as veg I have generally avoided them because they are a carby vegetable. I have wondered what the deal with this is - e.g whats the point in limiting carbs to breakfast and lunch if someone can go eat a whole bag of potatoes for dinner and count them as veg - again, not something that I've done, just wondering.

Anyway day 71 completed, serious ab burn today, I feel like I did the v-sits and the crunches with the best form so far, my shoulders are still pretty weak compared to my chest/biceps so I didnt have that many reps until failure with my strongest resistance band. Off to eat my post workout food now. Still starving for some reason...

November 22, 2011 4:50 AM JST

Just sitting here

Procrastinating, putting off doing the workout. Not sure why, I know I'm going to do it and the sooner I do it I can have my tasty fruit and milk, but I just continue to sit here leafing through other peoples blogs. Seen that question on the QA section about adding an extra skipping sesh per day and the potential to lose another 1-2% BF by the end of the next 22 days. I'm going to try and incorporate that on the mornings where I have enough time before work. 

Also I've been told there's quite a lot of night work coming up so I think the last 1-2 weeks of PCP will be covered by that, any tips for nocturnal eating?

- Ooh, another blog

November 19, 2011 8:02 AM JST

Not a very compliant start to the new week

Long story cut short, I went out with someone and I wanted to make a "normal" first impression with her rather than a health freak one (no offence to anyone intended!) so I did have a pint of beer (shandy) and a bottle of becks blue (non alcoholic stuff). We also ended eating some tapas and I can definitely say that I FAR enjoyed the beer compared to the food, it was generally really salty and oily, and despite not eating my PCP dinner/post workout snack that evening I could not eat very much of it at all. The one exception to that was a little lamb cutlet which was seasoned and I assume fried in something. That was lovely!

Woke up early the next morning and I had a bunch of jobs to do for work which totalled up a 360 mile round trip, so being out the house for 14 hours combined with little sleep meant by the time I returned home and devoured my last bit of Onken for the forseeable future I was completely and utterly cattle trucked, as we say in London. Had to go to sleep because by the time I had got in it was only 8 hours before I had to leave the house for another job 90 miles away.

I have made up for it today, I did a workout which combined parts of both days and ended up doing legs/shoulders from day 64 and chest/abs from day 65. I left the biceps out because my guns are already huge and can afford to miss a day ;)

November 16, 2011 4:13 AM JST

Left my breakfast in the fridge :(

Damn early starts frying up my brain.

Had to improvise, ate my mid morning egg (glad I hadnt pre peeled it, I usually chuck away the yolk before I leave), and bought a bunch of bananas on the way to work. Ate one whilst driving through the Dartford Tunnel.

Had another banana mid morning, and then my wholemeal penne, tomatos, peppers and poached salmon fillet for lunch.

Had another banana on the way home! I'm all banana'd out! I used to dislike these at the beginning of the PCP - not the flavour, I liked it in milkshakes cakes etc, but just hated the mushy texture. Discovered eating them not too ripe made them so much nicer so that's another win chalked up to the PCP.

Since I was 50g carbs light on the days diet I felt the skipping went quite badly, lack of concentration and much tripping and swearing abounded. Beat my previous best on the pull ups, also generally when I start failing at these now I jump up to the bar and try to let myself back down as gradually as possible to get maximum burn and keep counting them as reps - this a good move? 

November 14, 2011 4:51 AM JST

2/3

Just ticking along. Went biking today, did a couple of ascents that I wouldn't have been able to make it up before without stopping for a break. Did a lot of trails, got very muddy, didn't have any "offs" which was a brucie bonus, had a glass of diet coke in the very nice village pub afterwards. Fun day. Just 4 more Sundays left until the PCP is done. Weird.

November 8, 2011 10:06 PM JST

Indulgence Meal

After much hard thought I decided to go for something not too far off the beaten track, scampi, chips, baked beans and mushy peas! This is a meal I'd actually eat quite often pre-PCP times (minus the chips). Anyway it was lovely, feeling quite full up now!

Photos

November 7, 2011 6:06 AM JST

Nearly

I've had quite a busy week - work has returned to being very busy and I've been doing quite a lot of milage this week, the last 3 days have felt completely rushed. By the time I've got home, done my workout, sorted food for the next day its either been time to sleep or in the case of the weekend just gone - in a rush off to some event with some friends. I've not even played Battlefield 3 in the last 3 days dammit!! Worked Saturday & Sunday too. As a result of this I've not yet been able to sort out my indulgence meal and, after getting in this evening I had a very severe case of the fuckit's coming on. 

However, a very unwelcome side effect began to happen as I was preparing myself to just chill out for the rest of this evening and catch up on Boardwalk Empire, some severe guilt. I couldn't really justify skipping the workout no matter how hard I tried - I mean if I miss legs today then by the time I do them again it would be 6 days off and obviously by then my legs would have shrivelled into dessicated twigs. 

Anyway - ipod dock turned on, turned on some very angry music and bashed out the full workout. I have had to cut a couple of exercises from the schedule the last 2 days cos of time constraints but on the whole 90% complete really. Day off tommorow thankfully so I will get to enjoy both a hot breakfast and a hot lunch - and maybe indulge in some Battlefield if I am lucky!

Speaking of indulgences I did figure out that I could drink 1/4 of a litre of vodka for 600 odd calories but I find myself more tempted by steak and chips. Or chinese. Or thai green curry. Decisions decisions.

November 3, 2011 6:11 AM JST

Day 49

What would you like to tell the world? - I'm in dire need of an indulgence day. That is all.

October 29, 2011 8:36 PM JST

Day 45

Weighed myself this morning and was about 12 stone 9lb. That's 177lb or 80.2kg. Need to get smaller belts.

October 24, 2011 3:41 AM JST

Very narrow escape

Today I went to do my pull downs and I decided that the burn I was getting in my muscles wasn't up to the required standard with my band which is the strongest one I have. I decided therefore to attach another slightly weaker band to my door frame anchor and use the two of them for a harder exercise (see picture 1). 

This was all going swimmingly, and was at the difficulty I wanted, until mid way through rep 6 of set 2, whereupon the downward force I was exerting onto the bands forced my door to pop ajar slightly. This ordinarily would not have presented a problem - except for the fact that the heavy rubber door anchor was now loose and proceeding towards my testicles like a rubber bullet hurtling at approximately 300 miles per hour. 

Luckily my ninja cat style reflexes allowed me to move slightly in the time that this was happening and instead of being struck directly in the right bollock and deemed forever infertile it landed about 1 inch shy and has left me with a rather painful mark. TMI perhaps, but us PCP'ers are in this together and I thought you'd better know all the possible risks. 

Anyway it should not be happening again, I have thought long and hard and my brainpower combined with my expertise in the health and safety field has allowed me to come up with a suitable safety solution (see picture 2)

Stay safe people.

Photos

October 23, 2011 7:53 PM JST

Day 39

Hello,

Not much to write home about really. Unfortunately missed a workout day when I got home late from work and had the rest of the night taken up by annoying crap - left me feeling both gutted and slightly guilty. Back on it yesterday and definitely feeling a bit achy today.

Chest dips - struggling through these at the moment, I found if I grip the edge of the seats I am using it stresses the wrist less, but I'm still getting dull aching and random clicks afterwards.

Push ups - feels like ages since we last done these. Could only knock out 10, 10, 10, 6 after the dips

Pistol squats - don't feel hard enough, can't be doing them right yet.

Weight around 81.5kg.

October 17, 2011 5:56 PM JST

Day 33

Weight loss appears to have hit a slight plateau. Was 182lb last Friday and since I seem to have stuck at 181. I'm hoping it's because of putting on muscle, but I haven't been as strict with the grams as I should be. Actually been eating slightly less not more, like I'll cook a chicken breast and realise it comes 30g under my lunch grams and can't be bothered to cook anything else to make it up. I'm also finding it difficult to plan the evening veg snack, I generally have my afternoon tea fruit at around 4pm, work out at 5.30-6, dinner at 7:30 and then I'm usually in bed by 10pm so I don't really get to fit the veg in... not that I'm hungry or anything.

Have told myself to be on the ball a bit more for the next week and see if I can kick it into moving again.

October 12, 2011 4:01 AM JST

Indulgence Day

Just munched my slice of indulgence day cheesecake. Went for the chocolate one in the end. Kind of pushing the limit as far as the calories go... 405kcal for 1 slice!! and 25g of fat... ouch. Telling myself not to feel guilty for eating it as it's all part of the plan, but although it was nice, ultimately I'm not sure it was worth it.

Photos

October 10, 2011 12:21 AM JST

Day 25

Good day today so far. Weight loss seems to be plateauing a bit, was 13st 1lb this morning (183lb/83kg). Woke myself up at 7 to watch the F1, was glad I did. Nice breakfast of scrambled egg, tomatoes, mushrooms & onions and then went out for a trail ride in Surrey with a mate. Wasn't a hectic paced ride as there was just 2 of us, but my legs definitely felt stronger than the last time I went (2 or 3 weeks ago). Did 16km over the course of a few hours (doesn't sound much but it's all offroad and mainly uphill), and I still feel like I'll have the energy to do my PCP workout later.

Lunch was good but completely didn't realise that I shouldn't be eating beansprouts (duh, clue is in the name) as I had made myself a stir fry with steamed chicken and sharwoods singapore style noodles (they come in perfect lunch gram portions of 150g!).

Also managed to do a couple of sections of trail that I'd not tried before, and didn't have any crashes today (always good).
Deliverance - did that, doesn't look like much on video camera but it is about 40-50 feet down in the space of a few seconds and features quite a bit of corrugated iron at the bottom waiting to spear you directly in the heart if you screw it up. Fun Times!

In other news, a slice of M&S New York style cheesecake is definitely on for an indulgence day in the very near future.

October 7, 2011 4:18 AM JST

Fruity revelation

How nice are Kiwis?! Best yet - flavour wise up there with nectarines but a whole load less messy to eat!!

October 5, 2011 12:50 AM JST

Day 20

So the weekend wasn't so good PCP wise, being abroad and all. I literally could not avoid having a drink, no matter how hard I tried people were buying me alcohol anyway. Suffice to say I kept it to the minimum, (but that did involve drinking a shitload of Diet Coke) and my food choices although not perfect were as good as they could have been. Noticed how salty in general food you buy from restaurants/bars etc is... it's annoying. I did 2 out of 3 workouts for the weekend which wasn't bad either considering. Oh yeah and to top it off, I've caught a cold. Marvelous.

Yesterday was perfect, did everything to the letter (still struggling on sit ups though), but today has been a total arsehole. Was doing this job that we had finished by half 1 so I was well on course to get home and have my pcp lunch. Then got a call back on the way home to say something had been found in a locked cupboard that needed checking. Also being kept around for an hour waiting for them to go and get it combined with the 25 mile detour means that now, at 4:30pm, I've only just had my lunch.

Planning to do my workout around 7 and hopefully I'll be hungry after that but not sure I will be. I think by the end of this week all going well I will be down to 13 stone exactly. (182lb/82.5kg) On the tightest notch of my belt now, going to have to start thinking about putting some extra holes in it!

September 27, 2011 10:14 PM JST

Day 13

Am under 13 1/2 stone now for the first time in a good few months. That's 85.4kg for you non English types reading this. Preparing the food has been getting easier, work has certainly not helped with me having to leave around 5.30am most mornings the past couple of weeks. Hopefully that's done with now as I'm soon moving onto another contract. I find myself getting a little bored of steamed fish already, but I'm glad about getting to eat so much Japanese sticky rice. Just wish I could load it up with Furikake or Soy Sauce.

I'm not eating all of the fruit snacks, after dinner I'm generally just not hungry. Is this a problem? I've been reliably informed that the diet gets cut quite drastically sooner or later so I don't anticipate this being an issue forever. I'm very interested in finding out what Patrick has up his sleeve tomorrow when we get the new ones, speck of dust and pint of water for breakfast??

Off to Holland on Friday and I'm hoping that I can: a) Avoid the lovely lovely beer, b) Find a table so I can keep doing my incline pull ups (my skipping rope and resistance band are going in my luggage) c) Hope that my skipping rope and resistance band won't be confiscated by security! (Does anyone have any experience of this?)

September 22, 2011 6:52 PM JST

Week 2

Was a bit shocked when I saw the diet, especially due to the fact I hadn't seen day 8's email. There was me thinking 1 average chicken breast = 40g of protein... lunch = 3 chicken breasts?! Luckily Patrick answered my email and I read day 8s training mail before I left for work at 5:15 this morning. Still seems quite a lot of food though! No coke or fanta zero is going to be a gutting loss, but worse than that is the lack of baked beans!!

Looking forward to getting home from work and trying out day 8s workout...

Oh yeah some not so good news PCP wise, Ive just been roped into a trip to The Hague next weekend, any tips on keeping the iron willpower strong?! The Leffe will be flowing freely.... :/

Edit after workout: That was fun, enjoyed the incline pull ups but I struggle with the
abs exercises big time. Slowly getting more graceful with the rope but fk me is
it annoying when you catch your feet and interrupt your rhythm!

September 17, 2011 5:56 AM JST

No alcohol is difficult.

Been down pub and came home a lot earlier than usual. Lack of alcohol isn't fun but I know it's going to be ultimately rewarding.

I've been cutting my breakfast and lunches in half and for the first time that I can remember I actually left some food on the plate this evening.

I've already decided to go for a normal sized breakfast tommorow (albeit a healthy, omlettey type one). I feel no guilt about this because I'm going for a bike ride in the hills with some friends and I know I will flake out if I don't have some fuel to burn off. Usually I'm absolutely shattered at the end of one of these rides and at the mid point is a little shop that sells pretty much the best cherry bakewell I've ever eaten so some willpower is going to be required.

Getting used to the skipping has been interesting so far but can see it catching on... did a few sets of dumbbell curls after the PCP exercises today because I don't want to lose my SLEEVE BUSTERZ!

Photos

September 15, 2011 3:01 AM JST

&BaconStrips &BaconStrips &BaconStrips

No more. I have cancelled my Youtube subscriptions to EpicMealTime and Furious Pete. I've been meaning to go on a diet for a while anyway, so this past weekend knowing the PCP was approaching I had a farewell weekend to Duvel, post-beer kebabs & Chinese takeaway. I am going to the pub on Friday but I shall drive!

I have also created a user name on www.myfitnesspal.com . I've always found keeping track of how much I'm eating on a daily basis helps to deter me from reaching for the biscuit tin. It's quite easy to forget how many snacks you get through in a day. (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/pcpstevo)

I think the hardest part of this first week will be waiting for my stomach to shrink down the first 2 or 3 days. After that it shouldn't be so bad. I have been a bit of a yo yo dieter the last few years - which isn't good - but I know that once the initial body shock of not eating like a permanently grazing hippotamus wears off I will be ok.

Looking forward to doing the exercises tommorow.