Day 15

Today has been a bit of a grind, I just felt like every meal was more than I wanted to eat, I choked it all down but have been feeling overfull since breakfast.   A bit of a change from the other days when I was hungry when it was time to eat.   There really is a big difference, at least to me, in the way you get your carbs and veggies.  For breakfast I had spinach, peppers, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and fresh basil.  The spinach felt so heavy, on other days I have had avocado, peppers, onions, mushrooms, cilantro and a bit of lime juice, and it went down a lot easier.  Same with carbs, brown rice a lot more filling than white rice even in the same volumes.  

Passed by a middle eastern joint today and wondered, is hummus on the menu?  Vegetable?

The workout today went ok, I really don't like the leg exercises, I always feel it in the last set.   The upper body stuff is ok, I make sure to do each exercise until I feel the burn, thought I was doing the back exercises, rowing in particular, wrong but saw Patrick's mail that the back won't make the burn, so I guess am doing those ok.  Weight has been the same over the last couple days 162.5lbs.    I find myself looking in the mirror and trying to discern if there is any visible change yet to my body, sometimes I think I looks a bit more fit, but other days when I am leaning over to put on my socks, and notice the big ball of pudge around the midriff I wonder.   Got thru today though, and it feels good.   These small accomplishments like mastering time, space, and dimension and getting thru the workouts are great boosts to my confidence that I can make it the 90 days.

I am slowly getting better at the rope, today I did the 800 jumps in 300, 200, 150, 75, 75...I was winded by the end, taking just 15 sec breaks between sets.   Remember Patrick saying that we shouldn't be too winded skipping rope, so I tried to keep a steady pace today, but found myself speeding up at times, trying to rip them out.   Tops of my feet are killing me now, but my ankles are feeling better than the last couple days, still I need to find a place to jump rope that isn't a cement parking lot.

Thru Day 13

Southern California has been much more accomodating for my diet than Sedona was, and I've been weighing my meals at restaurants despite the funny looks, has made it easier now to know roughly how much brown rice is 120g or how much chicken is my protien allotment for lunch, so while I am not weighing things all the time (I wasn't going to pull out the scale when we were out with the girlfriends family for dinner...they already think I am odd enough as it is), I am definitely getting the portions more or less correct. 

Workouts are going fine, I think I need to get a "heavier" resistance cord because for some of the exercises I find my current one a bit light while for others it is fine.  When it feels to easy after the reps we are supposed to do, I add more until I feel my muscle wearing out.  

Jumping rope is SO much easier when you aren't using an actually rope, I bought the kind Patrick recommended and I'm doing the 700 jumps now in the time I was doing 400 with the old rope, but I notice my ankles getting sore near the end, so hope that isn't going to be a problem as we go forward.   The lunges and squats are my least favorite, I just find on the last set I start to wobble like a drunkard in some old Irish film, my thighs burn, and I find it hard to get back up, I am hoping it is my muscles and not some inner ear issue. 

Still find the eating on the road a bit more stressful than I would like, in part because it is probably annoying the people I go out with, they are all having to cater a bit to my needs, and while they are supportive, I think at times, they would like to eat at Chipotle (frankly so would I)...will be easier when I am back in Japan, though I wonder how breakfast is going to workout since I already get up at 5:30 to get to work on time, now I need to be up at 5?   Yikes.

Day 8 thru 10 and a half

So traveling and doing the hard core diet part is extremely difficult.   I would not recommend anyone doing this program to start it while on vacation, it makes the diet part something to stress out over while you are trying to do anything other than add stress to your life.   That said, I am in already and committed to doing the best I can.   I have been pretty good about fulfilling most of the dietary requirements.   The first day I had 2 egg whites with a little pepper, and a bunch of lightly stir fried veggies (in olive oil, no salt), a bowl of cheerios with low fat milk and a poppy seed muffin for the carbs.  It felt like a ton of food and after I finished I was barely able to move.    I was thinking there is no way I can eat these sorts of volumes, but an interesting thing has happened over the past couple of days, I have found an incredible appetite.   Naturally my first concern is that I am not eating as much as I should as I am eating every meal out, I can't weigh things all the time.  Have used the internet to get an idea what things weight, and I have been weighing things on occasion, so have a rough idea what a chicken breast weighs, what a piece of toast is, how much granola roughly is my morning allotment of carbs.   Today I actually tried to step it up a bit in volms just in case I was under eating, and I am still finding myself hungry almost every 2-3 hours.   Is this normal?

Workouts have been fine, though after Steve and I worked out at his dad's club the other day, I realized that my jumprope, which was, well...a rope, was a steaming piece of shit, so I went out that afternoon and bought a "real" jumprope, today's 650 jumps went by much more quickly.   I haven't felt sore since the first couple of days,  my legs definitely wear out by the end of the squats or lunges, but the upper body feels all right.

I can't really tell if my body is changing, my girlfriend says I have definitely lost some weight.   I sometimes look in the mirror and think, "hey, looking a bit better", then I take the photos and think, "yeah, not so much".

Dietary stuff is stressing me out because the food in restaurants is never going to be exactly what I need. Even the yogurt snack in the afternoon, all I have been able to find on the road in flagstaff and sedona, AZ is danon low fat some fruit flavor yogurt, it definitely has too much sugar in it, but tomorrow am back to LA and can hit a whole foods with the proper stuff.   The restaurants have been all right about my annoyingly particular requests,
Me: "ok, so I apologize up front but can I get this Veggie and Chicken wrap with brown rice, not white, and no salt, can you please leave out the cheese, and no ranch dressing,  wait, do you have a light balsamic based dressing?"
Waiter: "no, how about our homemade tomato and basil dressing?",
Me: "does it have a lot of salt and oil, any sugar added?"
Waiter: "ah, no sugar, it's made fresh, it's not salty, I think it's pretty healthy"
Me:  "Right, hmm ok, actually no wait, can you bring it on the side?  Thanks.  Oh, and can I get extra veggies in there..wait, sorry how do you cook the veggies"
Waiter: "we don't, they're fresh",
Me: "Right yeah, extra veggies in that,  and can I just get a side salad with no dressing please, and no salt on anything ok?"
Waiter  "yes, you said that already ass, I mean sir".
Me: "right, ok look, I am going to leave a big tip so just don't spit in my food, not sure if phlegm is approved on this program."

Anyway...I'm pretty hungry all the time now, and feel like I could eat more...so I wonder, am I eating enough, or is this my bodies metabolism speeding up?

Day 7 Redux

Ok well I guess the time difference between the US and Japan got me a little screwed up and I was actually a day ahead.   So today I redid the Day 7 exercises and added lunges, push ups, and sit ups to the mix.  Was easier doing the 500 jumps today than it was during the first day 7 workout.  I had nice chicken sandwich (only half!) with cheese, bacon, and pesto sauce, washed it down with a few fries and half a pint of ale.   God I am going to miss that stuff.  

Just got Day 8 details from Patrick.  First off, Michael Pollan, must get paid by the word.  Good article though.   Right so I am very worried about being on the road for days 8-19 and really not sure how I am going to manage the diet portion of this when I will be eating out about, roughly, 99.9% of the time.    Fortunately California does have some health conscious individuals so should be able to stick to the diet.  

Workouts also going to be interesting with out a gym or a pull up bar at times, but will do my best to get everything done.  

Kicking it up a notch fellow PCPers...

Jump rope length

Hey, question for all PCPers out there...is there a good way to check if your jump rope in the correct length?   Any ratio of height to rope length I can use, I think mine may be the wrong size.

Day 7 exercise done

Whoooo, finished day 7, 500 jumps of the old rope.  It wasn't as bad as I expected, couple of periods where I had 70-80 jumps in a row before I tripped up, in the beginning if I got 10-15 in a row I was happy.   Finishing the last 50 or so was tough my coordination seemed to just give out on me or maybe it was my shoes, definitely could have been the shoes, or possibly the angle at which the sunlight was coming into the gym.  I am pretty sure that affected me on the last 50 jumps, it must have been about a 38' angle and frankly I don't know how anyone can be asked to exercise in anything between 35'-40', it's just nonsense.  But I pushed thru despite the selfishness of the Sun, and got done with 500.  I know I will regret saying this next sentence, but I actually felt like I should do some more exercises after jumping rope.  I didn't though, figuring that one should not mess with the Zen Masters Plan, and I am sure there is a reason we only had to jump rope today.

I woke up this morning and for the first time since we started this, I did not feel hungry, so I just went with it and had a very light breakfast of about half a cup of granola with some low fat yogurt and a bit of fresh fruit, had a cup of coffee, low fat milk and half a pack of brown sugar (I know, it is pointless to even put that in there cause you can't taste it, I'm cutting it out from tomorrow), also had half a glass of OJ.   It's about 12:30 now and I don't feel hungry at all, so until I do, I'm not going to eat.

Off to play golf in about 45mins, weather in Sedona is great, a dry heat, about 80'.  After finishing golf I am going to look for some out of shape 8 year olds and challenge them to a game of hoops, pretty sure I can take them.

Going to weight myself later tonight, but based on a mathematical formula derived by the ancient Persians and perfected by a robot held captive against his will in a Russian Gulag between 1971-1975, I would guess that I'm down about 1.5-2kg.   Not sure how this works but ideally I don't want to lose too much weight, I am not a big guy by nature, I want to replace the fat with muscle if possible.  

83 days to go and feeling all right at the moment....

Done with Day 6

Sun has set here in Sedona AZ, was a good day with round of golf in the morning, then right to peak condition work out day 6.  Not feeling as sore in the legs today as I was.  Still a bit hungry at times.  Had some fruit and coffee and half a small biscuit for breakfast, half a grilled chicken sandwich for dinner and half a salad along with half a small veggie pizza for dinner.   According to the scale at the gym here as of yesterday night I am 165lbs, so I guess I have lost about 1.1kg so far.   Not bad.  Feel a bit run down tonight, may be the activity coupled with light meals or just that I am not sleeping great.  Any way..day 7 tomorrow.

Keep it coming!

Day 2 & 3

Right so typing this out on the iPhone gonna keep it short. Am now in California have finished day three workout and feel all right though a bit hungry. My calves are killing me from the jump rope, not sure if I need to stretch put more before or after or maybe they are just out of shape. Rest of the body is fine no real
soreness to speak of. Since day one I have eaten half a cup
of granola w/ low fat milk, had a coffee but halved the sugar I usually put in. Had a bit of grilled chicken and half a small bowl of soba for
lunch on day two then had half a burger and half fries at narita. On the plane I ate a small garden salad about 8 grapes and a piece of cheese. Then since getting to California I've ha a greek salad with half a piece of pita no feta and half the yogurt dressing for lunch and just finished dinner of roasted chicken a couple spoonfuls of mac and cheese (so
tasty) and a bowl of salad. I didn't realize that socal is basically all fast food joints took me forever to find a place to get lunch. Bit jet lagged and out of sorts so getting to bed now.

Rock on fellow pcpers.

Day one

Well I am pretty much starving, have had half a cup of granola a coffee and half a sandwich along with a half pint of beer so far today, have dinner waiting, will be half a burrito (got to get it in while I can).  Finished up the days work out, the skipping rope was tougher than I thought, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to skip or jump so I mixed it up a bit but either way, getting 50 consecutive jumps tested the coordination.  Rest of the work out wasn't too bad, but I am still sweating and its been about 25mins since I finished.   Took the photos, jeez, I am not in anywhere near the shape I thought, look at how fat I am from the back...fark!   Guess you need to look in the mirror once in a while for perspective.   

Well, that's all for day one, I am off to the states for 2 weeks from tomorrow evening, will get the days workout in before getting on the plane.   

Good luck all, 89 days to go! 

It Begins

Jason's large and IN CHARGE!