Day 8 - Phew

Today
Well, this is going to sound like gloating but it really isn't... I am really glad I am working from home. I don't know how the rest of you do it. I felt like I was up and eating for most of the day... grazing really. I also had a really early call with India this morning that went on and on and on for hours so I ended up working out this afternoon instead of in the morning. Presumably as we get used to what and when to eat it will be more instinctive and not be so mechanical with the pre-weigh, cook, weigh. Breakfast and lunch were great. Fingers crossed that seasoning is OK as long as it doesn't include salt. Speaking of which, at dinner I was really craving salt... That said, these Fuji apples must be in season because they are like candy!


Workout
Not too shabby but it would have been nicer to have done it in the morning. Timing the workout between grazings was awkward.

1. Squats: feeling good! Burn but not too bad.
2. Incline pull-up: felt more than a little weird to be laying down under the table and doing this exercise. Also, it sort of felt like it was straining my shoulders rather than working my back but I presume that I was compensating for lack of strength in my back...
3. Pushups: really tough. I had to do the last set at half reps and pause for a few counts between some of the reps.
4. Curls: dig em... really felt it in a good way. Can keep good solid form all the way through for once.
5. Davinci: started out with great form but by the last set was really at the limit of my strength and wasn't able to keep them as high
6. Situps: didn't do the max reps, but did them nice and slow... good burn.
7. Jumprope: slowly improving... managed to do three of the sets without tripping up. Still has me panting and sweating though. But, and this is a big but... I am getting truly sharp pain up and down my right shin. Extremely painful. Reminds me of shin splints or what I would imagine it would feel like if you had fractured (not broken) your leg. After the workout the pain turns into an ache and then throbbing and very slowly tapers off. I can still feel a ghost of it 6 hours later. Hopefully this is just a temporary thing because its really quite aggravating.

Seasoned and grilled more chicken, hard boiled some eggs... I'm really going to need to have a fair bit of food prepared in order to not be cooking all day. Still, aside from that shin pain, good day...

Day 8 - Midday Food Shock

Holy smokes... assuming my food scale isn't broken I'm not likely to go hungry on this plan. My lunch was e-freakin-normous!

Day 7 - Last Day of Half Measures

Today
Last day of half measures in more ways than one... Went out to the grocery store armed with Patrick's food/diet list. I tried to estimate how much of everything I will need in the coming days/week so hopefully things won't spoil too quick. Will likely need to stock up on more fish this weekend... Planning to go to the farmer's market on Saturday morning too when Kim comes home so we can round out the list. Lots and lots of fruit evidently... Avocado is a fruit, right? Why do avocados feel like cheating? Someone tell me if this isn't right... because I love eggs and avocado!


Workout
Not much to say given that its my ol' arch-nemesis jump rope at 500 reps, although I did develop quite a sore right leg that ached for about an hour. Roughly from my calf muscle to just above my ankle. Really weird place to have discomfort, but that's where it was... First 300 weren't too bad. Standard occasional trip up, but 300-400 were really really tough so I took a bit of a breather before finishing up the last 100.


Tomorrow
Perversely looking forward to getting started on the diet tomorrow!

Day 6 - Trippin' the Life Fantastic

Today
Major hunger pangs this afternoon... possibly had too small a breakfast. Saw Patrick's email about the diet this morning. One of the benefits of being a day behind means I can see the diet before our day arrives. Should give me plenty of time to pick up what we need from the grocery store.


Workout
I am decidedly not a morning person so getting up to workout before breakfast was definitely tough. It sounds like its a pretty popular way to get started, not to mention a more effective way to burn fat. If waking up earlier turns out to be the most difficult part of the program I should count myself lucky... "Fat" chance...

1. Lunges: Not too bad, but lots of burn towards the end...
2. Pushups: Last set was a bit of a struggle. Had to stop half way through to catch my breath. Think I might have ended up using my arms too much this time as they are aching more than my chest ~10 hours on.
3. Leg ups: again, not to shabby, but the last set was tough... Quick form question: should we be floating our feet at the bottom or should they touch the ground?
4. Jump Rope: As both my past few days have indicated and the title of the post suggests, I continue to struggle with The Jump Rope. I can usually complete 1 or 2 sets clean, but the rest usually have a few trip ups marring the overall exercise. Still difficult, however not panting quite as bad as when I started. 

Day 5 - Sabbath Slumber

Today
Got up at 3:30am to take Kim to the airport and absolutely crashed out when I got back home, not waking up until midday. So I feel like I am a little off my game as my food schedule is a bit weird... brunch instead of breakfast and lunch. At least I'm not going to repeat our error yesterday and cycle downtown for the "Taste of Louisville". That was a mistake of greasy gaussian proportions. Every other booth on main street had deep fried sweets and meats, the smell of which wafting around Kim and I. Even writing this is making me salivate. So we high tailed it out of there and cycled to the grocery store which was yet another circle that Dante had laid out... May have to purchase blinders for future trips. Thankfully the local Farmer's Market has started up so we can cycle over on Saturday mornings and pick up heaps of cheap veggies as they come in season.


Workout
Stretched for longer again and that definitely seems to be helping. Rolling out with the PVC pipe is quite painful, but likewise appears to be lessening the leg pain. Details:

1. Squats: the now typical burn towards the end, but otherwise fairly uneventful
2. Pushups: Last set was quite difficult. Poor form on the final few...
3. Situps: Again, trying to do these slowly to protect the lower back, but doing them slowly also seems to make them quite a bit more difficult too. Last set was a bear, but I can feel the burn in my lower abs again.
4. Jump rope: gradually appear to be getting better. Skipping, rather than two footed hops appears to be far less taxing and I was able to make it through all the sets without being winded to quite the degree that I've experienced over the past few days. Still out of breath on the last two sets

OK, I know its not a numbers game and the goal is fitness over weight loss, but I couldn't help weighing myself this morning out of curiosity and am down 7lbs already from my 230lbs (104.32 kg) starting weight. I promise this is curiosity and not number obsession, but it was definitely nice to see!

Day 4 - Puck Luck

Today
Sweet... our group has been designated Puck from Midsummer Night's Dream. I'm blaming one of our members (Pete) for that label! An update from the bard:

Either I mistake your (obese) shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery (because you are overweight and out of shape);
Skim milk (better than 2%), and sometimes labour in the quern
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn (too many jump rope reps, perhaps);
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm (as long as it has 0 calories);
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work(outs), and they shall have good luck (losing weight with PCP)...

Picture of me jumping rope?

So we are the trickster jesters of Oberon. In a completely uninteresting note, I actually played Oberon in a high school production, so this might be a step down. Still, being a fairy in high school, let alone king of the fairies was definitely tough so Puck might be a step up. And a little sprightliness (or spriteliness) in my jump roping wouldn't go amiss.


Workout
So much better today... Stretched for quite bit longer and rolled out my legs with a PVC pipe this morning (loosely defined as we got up at 10:30 am). Possibly helped as, while the gams still feel a bit rubbery post workout, the burning sensation was limited more to the workout than after:

1. Lunges: not to bad... definitely still burning towards the end
2. Leg ups: nice. I felt like I must have been getting the form fairly well since I could really feel it in my lower abs especially in the last set
3. Push ups: that extra set was no cakewalk (mmmmmm... cake walk....), but I can definitely feel it. Had to restrict my motion from going too low in the last set though so I could keep better form.
4. Jump rope: sooooooo... more skipping and less jumping. Is that cheating? Rather than jumping with both legs at once as I had been doing, using more of a one legged skip definitely made this, even considering the extra reps, a much more palatable, less exhausting workout. The hops are definitely far far more difficult than skipping.

Hope all the PCPer's are enjoying themselves thus far. And a special shout out to all my fellow Pucksters!

Day 3 - You be trippin' instead of skippin'

Today
Half meals aren't too bad so far. Sure, the occasional pang still hits, but I've oddly found that drinking boatloads of water seems to be working to placate my belly. Historically, given my wont for working long hours and the fact that I actually enjoy my work I tend to get very involved in a project and actually forget to eat (usually breakfast and lunch), so those two meals don't seem to be too bad. So if/when I get cravings its almost always in the evening. Actually being conscious of the half meals has oddly been a good thing with respect to reminding me to actually eat. But the massive, gorging meals for dinner are definitely out...


Workout
Its the tale of the legs. Wobbling around all day like an old maid... Really did not expect the legs to be bearing the brunt early on, but its good... a regular reminder both that I am out of shape and that the exercises are having some effect. The workout:

1. Squats: again, despite the shakiness, not too bad. Definite burn towards the end...
2. Pushups: I really like these. Its possibly mental, but I would certainly love to come out of PCP with a little less chicken chest and a little more thickened chest (pity my poor Kim, she has to live with this nonsense day in, day out). Seriously though, for as long as I can remember I've had a fairly featureless, flat chest. Hoping to change that.
3. Situps: not bad again. Just taking it slow and deliberate, making the most of each sit up and trying to not jerk my back.
4. Jump Rope: I keep telling myself I will learn to love this... I will learn to love this. But not yet. I'm just terrible at it. Not as bad as day one as I have a bit more of a sense of the rhythm, but still occasionally losing the beat and missing skips. And by the last two sets I am really panting. After reading Patrick's Day 4 admonishments I really hope I'm not ruining it for myself. I'm definitely having to stop and catch my breath at the end of the last 3 sets, the last 2 being pretty bad.

Next!