Day 80

Finally got some time to go out kiteboarding yesterday and what a great session! Typhoon just north east of us brought in some nice solid wind and swell. I now can use my smallest kite in winds I would have used my biggest kite for. The weight loss makes a big difference in overall performance. Dragged my feet a bit while moving home and dealing with never ending furniture deliveries. Wasn't a day that someone wasn't coming over and mucking about. Now I am free I am getting back into more outdoor activities and overall lifestyle changes.

Day 62

Been a while since my last post, sorry, been busy moving. Tried to upload some pics to Flicker but it seems that I have been blocked out. Not sure why. Anyways. Been plugging away, doing all my workouts besides 2 days when I was just too busy moving. I am down to 95kg now and dropped 8% body fat. Need a bit more off the mid section but feel in 2 weeks I'll be pretty trim around the edges.

Here are my 2 month pics. Took them a couple days ago on the fly. No flex poses sorry. Just a straight pic.

Day 44

Keeping at it. Though had a couple Oolong Hi drinks last night 2 and a half to be exact. Haven't missed a workout and feeling stronger than ever. Went out and bought some new shorts as all my other shorts are way too small and I look like I am wearing some fat dudes cloths. Even my tank top for the gym is like double to big for me. I will pick up some small ones. It's hard to size up cloths as I pick it up and think NO WAY that I will fit into that, then find out I do. I can finally go shopping in Japan!

Day 40 did a test the other day

OK here it goes. I did a test to see how my body responded, as I am so curious as to what works exactly and what doesn't as this is a long term thing for me not just a 90 day thing. Though PCP is the best thing I have done to date health wise, I feel there is still room to tweak things as it's impossible for Patrick to know exactly what is going on within my body.

So the other day about day 3 of this week's diet, I had some problems to deal with, was at home mulling over them, then WHAM like a ton of bricks I felt like a beer, maybe 2. was in a pissy mood so said screw it off to the store to get 2 cans of light calorie beer 125 cal each. Drank them feeling well not any better, but now the food craving kicked in. (beer makes you want to eat crap food) Again said screw it woofed down some cookies and a turkey sandwich. Went to bed woke up to see my weight didn't change. sounds good right? Well nope, I usually loose .4 to .6 kg every morning, so I didn't get that loss I would have usually have had. Then did my workout of course, (never missed a day) then the next day had a .4 kg loss. So here is the kicker. If you cheat on the diet twice a week you will loose only half the weight as supposed to following the diet. The binge was a test as well, which proved to be quite motivating. Since then I have been much more motivated to stick to the diet, as it clearly works well.

Yesterday I also started to run 30 min level 9.5 instead of skipping and think (for me) burns a lot more calories during the day. Don't get me wrong skipping is awesome but getting my heart rate up keeps my metabolism up all day even though running is cardio more so than fat burn, the long term calorie burn seems to be better for me. I'll keep an eye on how the weight loss goes this week while I run every day instead of skipping. Seemed to drop even more quickly for me.

Last night I thought about beer a bit but after remembering how UNSATISFYING it was last time it was easy to pass on. This was a really good feeling.

Some people can look at this as being weak, but for me it made me stronger. Exactly what I wanted. I now love my veggies very much more so than the crap food. I also love my Perrier and plums. I crave those. This is what is needed to maintain this new body. Not torture and wishing I had a pizza instead.

Saying that the egg white dinners suck and very boring, but needed for the cause. Once we are off this hell dinner I am sure I can replace it with a very healthy satisfying dinner.

Day 39 and reached the 99kg mark!

Yup dropped 12 kg a good sign. People are starting to say I am skinny. Funny thing is I went to the gym today first time in a couple months and the owners and staff all kept asking me how I lost the weight. Got a bit to go as the last bit is always the abs for me. Will be running this week as my foot swelled up from the skipping. All's good. Diet a bit hard especially evenings. egg whites, milk and an apple is nothing much to look forward to. Also miss socializing which is hard to do as it's always based around food and drink. Besides that, had a cookie last night. But still lost weight over night. Walked over 2 hours yesterday on top of my exercises to not a big deal.

Day 36 and short on Eggs

All the supermarkets are closed due to the Typhoon, and the Convenience stores are sold out of eggs. I'll have to compromise today with a bit of chicken for dinner. Last night I could not fall asleep as the power went out and the aircon was off. Soaked in sweat in bed till wee hours of the morning. Skipped, but sucked royally. I took a video for ya. Think it was 150 in a min, but you be the judge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pelmy-6SsQ0

Day 34 Shorts fell down!

Alright, when I signed up for the PCP I was told to buy a scale, bands, push up bars, pull up bar and maybe a yoga mat. There was no mention of buying new cloths in advance! All of my shorts are so big they don't stay on, I mean fall right off! I had to use a plastic tie to hold my shorts up as they were about 5" too big. I can't imagine what I am going to do with the thousands of dollars of cloths I have. The question is what to do right now, as this is only month one? We have 2 more months so should I buy some cheap transition cloths? Resize my cloths now? I did that for 5 shirts and they are already too big. Change is happening too quick to keep up. Seriously wonder what I am going to wear today....

Day 31

Workouts getting harder and longer. Doing 4 sets of leg lifts the Plank then 8 min abs is killer. 15 sec brakes aren't enough for me so wait till I catch my breath then hit them again. Floor jumps are easy at first then on the last set I can't gather enough energy to jump so do it in slow motion. I am laughing will doing these as I feel so helpless.

Was extra tired yesterday and had a nap. Went to bed early but couldn't fall asleep so had to pop a sleeping pill. Seems every time we have the diet change I have a hard time in the evenings for the first few days, then get use to it.

Diet still no problem. Skipping 13min for 1300 skips, but tripped up a fair bit. Really depends on my day it seems. Being tired is a big part of the tripping for sure. All's good. Just going through the motions.

Funny thing is within a month I am probably in better shape than going to the gym for 13 years! What a waist of time.

Day 29

I just weighed myself and it is the lightest I have been in well over 15 years! 103.4kg. I am also starting to see my abs, but have a ways to go yet.

Workouts are killer many I can't do with the 20 sec break. Full body pull ups maybe 6 max then have to do the ones with legs out. Pushups also kill me, and for some reason sit ups. I can do the first set then the second by the 10th I am almost in tears. Hurts right below my ribcage.

Food is no problem whatsoever.

Amazing the change in less than a month. The big motivator is I can see change in my body in about 3 days time as well as weight loss. Not too many things in life that give you results that fast.

Oh and none of my board shorts fit any more! I resized a bunch of shirts 2 weeks ago so that they fit when I suck in my gut, those shirts are now loose. I think I'll have a bunch of shopping to do.

Day 26

My skipping is way better now finally. 12 min to do 1150! Workouts all good, the new leg exercises are killer as expected but that will soon be taken care of within a week a guess. Weight front sticking in around 105kg down from my 112kg. My back is getting stronger legs more toned. Fat around the mid slowly melting off, but needs time. Diet is now easy again after the No carbs Dinner.

Feeling really good about everything all in all.

Day 24

All's good. Here is a quick pic. I'll take some better ones end of the month. Hopefully will have more improvements to show.

Day 23 KOed

Workouts are killer. Only prob is the evening diet. I am sooo hungry. Skipping also improved 4 fold.

Day 21 I suck skipping!

I call it my tripping exercise. The rope goes under my feet maybe 20 times then hits my feet, sometime just catches it and then sling shoots it to the back of my head and today almost tore my nipple off! I tried everything, slower faster, jump higher, watched videos, nothing works. I just suck! I think I am too tall 6'4" to be doing skipping. Still 1000 skips took me 12 minutes. Not bad considering and got my heart rate up due to being so frustrated, so all's good.

PS my body would like to say thank you to Patrick for allowing me to only skip today. It really needed the break.

Day 20 Burt out!

From an all time high to an all time low, in 2 days. Amazing.
Well up to now I have done the workouts everyday not missing a day, as well as eating the diet plan 99% but due to stress in my daily life I have become physically tired. I did my workout today barely. I was way weaker than usual and could barely squeeze out the reps. I am also weaker than when I stared due to working out everyday. Maybe this is part of the plan. Just feels unsatisfying today. Not sure if I need a day or 2 rest to get me back on track or not, but I will not take any days off.

I also decided to not try to go to the gym as well as I don't want to overdue it like Patrick said.

So that's today. I'll have a nap now and hopefully feel a bit better. Tomorrow will be a fresh new day.

Day 18 and need 3 towels!

Worked it hard this morning, and needed 3 towels just to keep my body dry! Crazy. I checked before my workout and I am down to 106kg now from 111-112kg. Yee Haa! Giddy up. Two more KGs and it will be the lightest I have been since 1997. Think I'll hit the gym tonight to give my body an added boost.

I am kicking the pushups now 4 sets of 10 on my toes no prob. We are 18 days into this and I can't imagine what I will look like half way through. So excited!

Getting ripped!

Workouts have been great check out the results I got just in 17 days!

Day 17

Well I think I am truly over all my cravings now. I have zero desire to drink beer, or have a late night snack. Also don't miss salt at all. So took 17 days to get to this point.

I also no longer have sleeping problems and now have the opposite problem. I had to go to bed last night at 9 as I couldn't keep my eyes open. Woke up at 8 this morning feeling almost drunk tired.

Some key points that are helping me along.

I am trying all kinds of new foods like a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. I checked the internet for the best ones and wrote a shopping list. Fruits like grapes, cherries, strawberries are high in antioxidants also fruits I haven't eaten in ages. Same in the vegetable area, I am eating all the healthiest vegetables and having fun eating them. Usually steamed for about 1 minute, just to colour them up.

I also often have vegetable juice (home made) for my veggie portion for breakfast. Celery cabbage and carrots.

I find my workouts at home are better than when I went to the gym. I mix things up with my dumbbells which gives me a far better burn. For example I would do shoulder front raises with dumbbells to failure then hit the light band and crank out 10-15 more reps till I can't lift my arms. Seems to just cook my muscles.

On the weight loss front, I am staying around 107kg now. I am sure it is due to adding muscle. The fat around my stomach is going slowly not that fast, which was to be expected. I am sure by week 6 there will be a noticeable difference. Not a problem. I am seeing my arms, shoulders and chest becoming more trim for sure, so think fat in this area is going first. I can't wait to see my mid section fat going. I think this will make me the happiest!

Day 15

Went out last night. Had a tea only. I think I'll keep my evening outing to once in 2 weeks as the temptation is far too strong. At home it's fun to figure out how to make something interesting to eat that fits within the diet. So far so good. Green Tabasco seems to work well for many items. Daytime is easy as it's too hot to eat anyways so have to keep reminding myself to eat. Dinner or evenings is when I get the hungriest, but as long as I eat 6-8ish then I am fine.

Haven't seen much change over the last 3-4 days, weight wise about the same 107kg + - I think I am loosing fat in my liver first then in about a month I should start seeing fat coming off the midsection.

Still very motivated and looking forward to my new self!

Day 13

Killed the exercises today. Skipped like a champion and did the whole workouts and some.

On the craving front, it's gone for now. A couple small changes might of helped. One was move all my meals 1-2 hours forward. I now have dinner around 7 instead of 5 or 6. The other one was eat more leafy vegetables for the vegetable portions especially for dinner. Fills me up more.

Starting to see more definition in areas but the stomach will probably be the last to go by the looks of it. Change is happening so quickly I am excited every day now as I want to see how well I can exercise or how my cravings have still stopped.

Also first time I got a really good sleep. Think things are all falling into place.

Day 12

Well last night was tough, ended up having 2 beers and a bit of wine and a roast beef sandwich before bed. I was also very irritable all day. Kind of in a real crappy mood. Woke up feeling pretty crap and hit the skipping rope and did the squats. My ass is killing me! Had an early appointment so had to finish the workout just now and feel good. Ate healthy all day, and no cravings so far.

I came to the conclusion that I think I am getting the hunger cravings due to the sudden stopping of drinking the beer in the evenings. So need to really work hard at kicking those cravings. A banana seems to work. Stomach growling is also a good sign my metabolism is up and running.

I still suck at skipping. I think it's due to being half asleep while doing them, then after 300 I trip up a lot less. Also think my "Professional jump rope" isn't so professional and prefer the cheaper plastic one I had in my other place. So may change the rope.

Push-ups also killing me. Had to do half on my knees! WTF. So I am liking the home workouts as they are much harder than lifting the heavy weights at the gym. Pull-ups too.

I was contemplating using free weights to do some of the exercises but chose against it as I want to get lean and not bulk up as well as they are hitting the muscles a lot differently than what I have been doing up to now. Furthermore no excuses that I can't exercise while traveling. All in all a good thing.

I can't imagine dropping 7kg and being only 100kg! If I can do that then I will have a whole new perspective on life for sure.

One day at a time.

Day 10

Today was interesting. Figured out my skipping rope was too long so shortened it and managed to skip a lot better. Also Calves are fine now. Problem was with the workout after. It killed me today. Looks so easy but I literally fell down from my heart pounding so hard and I never sweated so much in my life. Not sure why. Push ups are now so hard. I do them with my toes not knees but 4 sets of 10 was a no go today. Last set could only get 8 out. The push up bars are way harder than just using my hands. Interesting. I am sure I'll be fine in a couple days. Also with the 20 sec breaks my heart rate was way over 180. Wonder if I should take a few minutes break between exercises to bring my rate down. I have the aircon on my but still so hot here. Last night I needed a Sliced beef sandwich with Tabasco and black pepper for a late night snack as I was sooo hungry. So figured it was a good compromise. I spent the day kiteboarding so surely burned it off. Speaking of which I am almost down 4kg! Sad thing is my gut is still the same size, so think in must be muscle or water loss. Either way it's a good sign of change to come.
Had dinner at the beach watching the sun go down. Had a Shrimp Nama Hurumaki and 2 tuna avocado wraps and Seafood salad. Had dressing on it so felt a bit guilty so after finishing my Perrier promptly went home and skipped another 500 skips

Alright all is good now....maybe :(

Day 8

Well was in the hotel and managed to skim in the room! Had tofu salad and yogurt for breakfast as there was no way to cook an egg. Had Mackerel on rice for lunch and an apple for a snack. Dinner will be Salmon Veggies on Brown rice.
Just weighed myself and I am 107.6 KG! And this is after eating. Think it is due to stopping drinking beer, snacking at night and salt (retains water). Pretty close to the lowest I have been in 10 years. And this is just week one. Can't imagine what I'll look like in 3 months.

Day 7

Man my calves hurt! Kept tripping on the rope due to my calves just not having enough power to lift me.

I have come to realize that the Peak Condition Project is not just about loosing weight, in fact there maybe even better benefits to this than many people know. For me it is getting me away from drinking beer, which has been a long time issue for me, also food cravings in the middle of the night, that I am sure have health issues. Also many people have sugar cravings and it's amazing to see how much we use sugar. I think it maybe linked a lot to the Coffee culture. Bringing the alcohol and sugar consumption down to a fraction of what it was to me is more important than the weight, but by doing this I will also loose weight and feel better!

Nothing is more important than taking care of ourselves but we all neglect it. We are self destructive in many ways.

I am looking forward to my new life!

Day 6

Yesterday was a right off due to some personal problems, so did day 5 this morning and then will do day 6 late tonight before bed. Good news is I am already down from 111 kg to 109 kg. Probably due to not drinking beer mostly and eating really healthy. I didn't just cut the portions in half but also been eating only veggies and boiled chicken breast mostly. No midnight cravings the last two nights either. I think the salt and the beer will be as easy to give up as the sugar was. Just takes a week or two to kill it.

Day 3

Ate very healthy yesterday, but at 2 am got very hungry. Ate two small bags of chips as that was all that was around in the hotel. Zero sleep as well. Not sure why.

5 Days till I start

Well bought my bands, and pull-up bar have my scale and measuring cup ready. Can't wait to get trim!