Thursday, July 14, 2011

Day 90: Stats and Comparison

It has been tough but great journey for the last 3 months.  After completing all the 90th day activity and diet, I am being nostalgic and have mixed feeling..  I will organize my thought for next few days and blog it out as a commencement over the weekend.

Let's get stats and pics

Stats
Weight
Day 0:   80.9kg
Day 90: 65.4kg
Delta: -15.5kg

Body Fat
Day 0:   27% ~ 30%
Day 90: 12%
Delta: - 15% ~ -18%

VFA
Day 0: unknown
Day 90: 40

Others
- Ran half marathon under 2 hours.
- Able to do 8 raps of pull up for 5sets. (Great improvement if you remember me whining about not being able to do even 1 pull up in the first part of program!)

Visual Comparison
Face:  Who is dis fat man on the left?

Side: this fat man on the left is definitely wearing some kinds of full body suit.

Front: ..  Look Humpty Dumpty on the left!

Extra:  Not quite there yet but good'nuff


Flex time: Front and Back

Finally.. You can fit one more person in!

By looking at the day 0 photo, I am stunned to see how fat I was...  and now I know that loosing 15+kg you are really a different person.   anyway very pleased with the result!!




Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Day 88: 2 more days

Can't believe we made it this far.

Superset is kicking my ass.  I struggled but have completed everything. I am already fearing about the supah for tomorrow..

re. gout.  doc subscribed me Loxonin and pain is gone instantaneously.  I am glad that I was able to be back in the game without any major downtime.

leave you all with the pics for my last meal preparation that I did over last weekend.  I will probably continue this habit of mass chopping veggies and soak them in balsamic vinegar and lemon juice even after I complete PCP.  Veggies won't go bad and taste fresh for several days.  in the morning you scoup out the amount you need to your lunch box and ready to hit the road.  you don't have to worry about saltless dressing or anything as veggies are already seasoned with balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.  those two green things on the left of chopped veggies are guacamole made of avocado, lemon juice and chill.   I put this on bagle, or pita bread and put chicken and veggies to make it chicken sandwich.  This becomes my favorite food during PCP program.




I was too lazy to post my pics but finally did it.  6 packs are finally starting to surface!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Day 81: WTF? Execuse me? Did you say GOUT?

9 more days to go and I was so ready to squeeze last bit of fat out of my system and build more muscle, but you know what, apparently I have gout..

Gout

[It is caused by elevated levels of uric acid in the blood which crystallize and are deposited in joints, tendons, and surrounding tissues.
Diagnosis is confirmed clinically by the visualization of the characteristic crystals in joint fluid. Treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids, or colchicine improves symptoms. Once the acute attack has subsided, levels of uric acid are usually lowered via lifestyle changes, and in those with frequent attacks allopurinol or probenecid provide long-term prevention.]

[The increase is believed to be due to increasing risk factors in the population, such as metabolic syndrome, longer life expectancy and changes in diet. Gout was historically known as "the disease of kings" or "rich man's disease".]

My feet (sorry for the visual..)
right foot is red and swollen.  (if you compare to the left foot, you don't see vein on the right foot, do you?).
It supposed to come with devastating pain, and people put the pain in very colorful ways such as

"it is like your foot is vised and crashed in little pieces"
"it is like you put your foot in the meat grinder"


Luckily enough, mine wasn't that bad but still I can't bend toe and I am struggling to put my foot in the shoe...  My level of uric acid has always been high for last several years with lots of beer consumption, unhealthy diet etc etc but it has been already 80 days since I've changed my lifestyle to better food and daily exercise so it never occurred to me that I get gout at this point.  At first I thought I had some sort of fatigue bone fractures as I was doing half marathon training on top of PCP.   80 days of tough discipline and I get gout in return.  it's just so ironic and sad that leaves me nothing but only to laugh...   what is bothering me the most is I can't do any exercise which involves toe joint movement like Creep, Jumping..   I really need to push my self for last 10 days but I can't jump!!  

On the positive end, pistol squat, it was the first time I completed all the sets with my sole completely flat on the floor :)   Since I can't do jumps (and jog), I swam for 40mins and it was very refreshing.


Only explanation that I can give is that I was just a few mils meters away from getting GOUT.   The last indulgence ( Ra-men :D ) pushed me over the cliff and here I am with gout.  Last 80 days of being a good-being just helped to extend the gout free time.  All the crazy life style before the PCP days was really setting this off and it was my destiny that I am paying the price.


Oh well, I just have to bare with it for 10 days.  Nothing can stop me at this point. I WON'T EASILY GIVE IN!!
(Yes I am talking to you, you fat muthafocking GOUT!)





Friday, July 1, 2011

Day 78: Leaving something behind for the young generation

The finish line is almost there and I see lots of people from the recent class actively blogging away which makes me feel that I become an old man...  I might look better if I start to do Taichi than 2000+ jumps in the park.   Like old dude from Karate Kid (forgot the name..)

Anyway, not sure if the younger generation appreciates it but me old and about to retire man would like to leave something behind wishing if this might benefit young people with full of bright future..


"THIS IS HOW THE REAL PCPers BOIL THE EGG, DAWG!!"

60 eggs in one go, man, word!   You not only learn how to eat healthy and stay fit, but you learn how to be super efficient while you are on this program!  
Not sure about the other class, but my class seems obsessed with egg.  There were lots of wise-man talk about egg topic.  If you have time, go visit Pat M's blog where he is insisting on the benefit of brown egg over white.  Tony S who is the professional chef taught us how to boil egg so that the shell peels right off under 1 sec.  (first boil water to the boiling point, then put the egg for 10 min, then immediately put them in the cold water.  this makes inside of egg shrinks which create the gap b/w the egg white and shell)  this really saved tremendous amount of time for me when I am preparing lunch box in the busy morning! (thanx Tony!)

It's two Friday away from the end and just being a little nostalgic here :)

  

Monday, June 27, 2011

Day 73: Mastering Jumps

I did full 18mins continuous jumps this evening in the darkness.  I was in the "zone" so jumped through last 10mins without rope getting caught.  I even tried jumping with closing my eyes.  In the end, it was the record breaking set with 2700 jumps.  I rocked it.

I soon might be able to stop someone's heart by just wishing in my mind....  :P

Day 69 - 72

Gap store nearby my house was doing 25% summer sales.  I wanted to take the shopping till I finish the program but unfortunately the sales will not last till then so I decided to spend few bucks on new set of clothes!

Result as you would expect, now my body fits into S size.  Giving I was wearing L to XL range, it was huge improvement.

I had a farewell party of my friends from work at Gonpachi.  He knew that I was in this program so he ordered me a special veggie dinner set.   Japanese food with only serving veggie sounds very healthy but I can tell they put lots of salt in the dishes.  I didn't use a drop of soy sauce but toward the end of the party my throat was sore.  I thought I ate more than I should so decided to walk back from Nishi-Azabu to my home Daiba.  Fortunately, it was neither humid nor hot so it was very pleasant 1-1.5hrs walk in the mid-night.

week 10 pic is up.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Day 62 - 68: Back In The Game

Apology for not updating blog for a week.
I hurt my upper arms so I couldn't do any upper body work out for a week.  Since the pain is gone, I started to resume on my upper body work out from yesterday.  Man exercises are getting tougher but I feel fresh and great!
On my 30th days into the PCP, I pledged to finish my half marathon within 2.5 hours.  I had the race on Sunday and guess what?
I finished under 2 HOURS!  

I never expected to break 2 hours but I did it!!   All the hard work seems to be paid off!  Thank you Patrick and PCP colleagues to get me where I am now!
I usually couldn't walk for a week after race, but my legs are all fine already.  I actually did cool off run of 3km today.  I really am getting fit. :o
My Photo is up.  Still need to work on my love handle!

22 more days to go!!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Day 60 - 61: SOS

Let's start with the good news.
Milestone accomplished! 2/3 done!!  hooya!

Bad news.
I have sprained my left upper arms....    On Day 55, I didn't do any warm up and did pull up.  I had funny feeling at the time but I ignored it as it was just a minor feeling..   as days go by, especially when working on the upper body, the weird feeling starts to turn in to real pain.  From yesterday I can't raise my shoulder and if I tilt my left arm in certain angle, I feel the pain.  It's funny that I can't really pin point where the pain is coming from..  I can feel it inside the muscle.  let me use this opportunity to test if I can explain in more muscle terminology...  small area where deltoid, pectorals and biceps meet.  hmm..  this area where I am feeling the pain, it seems like little to do with pull up motion but I am sure I felt something went wrong when I was doing pull up..  I could do shoulder work out in very controlled movement yesterday but today I CAN NOT do any push ups as I can't bend arms.  I am struggling to reach out to my pull up bar now.   this is what I can/can't
- dip -> no
- push-up -> no
- standing ovation -> no
- curl -> no
- outside curl -> no
- show off -> no
- pull up -> no
- inclined pull up -> may be
- rowing -> yes
- pull down -> no
- triceps dip -> no
- ski jumper -> yes
- triceps extension -> yes

I hate this feeling where I am loosing the opportunity to grow some muscle..  I know this is VERY dangerous feeling cas I once quit going gym when similar thing happened to me.  You suddenly feel you are in the dead end and can't make any progress for a while and start to feel all the effort you have put into is washed down the toilet.  I don't want to put me in this vicious cycle ever again....   any suggestion?
I think I will at least do all the exercise which I can (leg, triceps, abs)..

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Day 56 - 59

Work out is really getting tougher.  Especially leg work out.  I can feel the soreness the day after.

Today I did the last long distance training for half marathon.  I did 18km in 2 hrs and 5mins.  I will be glad if I can
a. finish half marathon without stopping for rest.
b. and in 2.5 hrs.

PCP work out has made me stronger not only physically but also mentally.  I think I can endure 2.5hrs of pain without a problem!

week 8 pic is up.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Day 53 - 55

I forgot to bring my carb portion of my lunch so I ended up buying plane rice balls with a little bit of salt.  I was questioning myself if I should get non-salted rice ball with something in it or plane rice ball with little bit salt..  Anyway I felt like I cheated..  :(
It's really difficult to find convenience store which sells non-processed grains like brown rice Onigiri or whole bread or non-salted meal!.. oh well.. sometimes I need to make some compromises..

I was having tough time eating dinner portion of the meal in respectable time.  I usually come home at around 10pm and then start eating dinner and night snack.  (this means I have good 7-6 hours from afternoon tea session to dinner session..  I know this is not the ideal..) With work getting busier, it is tough to maintain my daily healthy pattern but I always make sure I give 1-2hrs for exercise for not only for PCP sake but I want to feel fresh after moving my bodies and sweating off the fatigue.

On a positive end, I am now able to go through 8MA exercise without taking any break.  hoo ya, I feel strong!

 

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Day 50 - 52

Indulgence Part II:  Sushi
I was promising myself to go get the 天下一品 Ramen but decided to stick to the healthier indulgence plan.  I learned the lesson about soy sauce from last indulgence session, so I did some experiment.  Sushi without soy sauce!   Rice used in Sushi comes with little bit of vinegar and salt so sushi was actually tasteful without soy sauce.  But even then my throat is dried and I am now drinking water..  I never enjoy this feeling and probably will never do..

I was getting bored with my regular PCP lunch as I was only preparing salad every day up until now.   I got pita bread from Costco yesterday and made Pita Salad sandwich.  I spread guacamole which I made two weeks ago inside the pita bread and threw my salad in it.  Just a little changes to the appearance of the food with pita but taste made huge difference!  I will go with pita sandwich for next several weeks until I get bored again :)



My picture for week 7 is posted.
I am having some trouble doing kung-fu sit up.  my palm is getting sore and I can't hold on to the bar long enough to complete each set.  any suggestion for the work out gloves, anyone?


Friday, June 3, 2011

Day 47 - 49

this will be a short posting but 8MA is really addictive.  I feel something wrong if I don't finish a day without going through 8MA.  "Hey Gang!"  I still struggle in the end a bit but definitely I am now keeping up with it better than I did a week ago.

BTW, for new joiners, welcome all!  You will have lots of fun!

Monday, May 30, 2011

BTW..

Congrats for all the COMPLETERS!

lots of respect, everyone!

I will soon join you, so expect me!!

Day 43 - 46

We reached the milestone on Sunday (half-way done! yay!) but didn't have time to sit down and look back the accomplishment for last 45 days.  why?  caz there are more and more that I have to do now.  more reps, more sets, more skips, more works, more cutting veggie!  if I don't move quick enough, I can't get all the shit done within 24 hours!!  if I have tome to think, I rather move my body to do something productive!  adrenalin is pumping!

All I can remember from this weekend was boiling eggs after eggs and chopping veggies after veggies as if there were no tomorrow.  My fridge is now packed with ziplock Tupperwares.   My wife complaints as there are literally no space for her to put anything :)  I WILL GIVE YOU SALAD SO YOU SHUDDUP, SIT DOWN AND EAT WHAT I GIVE TO YOU, WOMAN muwahahahaha :)

today's chest exercise was painful.  dipping 8raps by 4 sets followed by push-up with 15raps by 4 sets.  I thought I was going to split right in half!

week 6 photo is up!  I can see the trend where everyone is reporting.  The actual weight loss seems to be ceased down a bit.  I am not that concerned as I can now see the definition clearly.   however, I have to admit there are lots for me to burn around my love band zone :)  Hoping by the time I finish all the 90 days, I will have no fat around my waist!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Day 41 - 42

Chin-up bar finally arrived and it didn't hang well from the door frame as it supposed to.  I pre-measured all the dimension and it looked like it would fit...   boo....  it sucks.
I now have to order another straight bar which needs some drilling...

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Day 39 - 40

I will just blog whatever it comes to my mind...  bare with me

I have set a golden pattern of my daily life for 7 days a week.  The day I do a half marathon training in the morning, I wake up at 5:30am, prep my lunch, and breakfast for my family, then go for the run at around 6am.  The key here is to spend 30mins in the kitchen so that your mind becomes clear before you go for the run.  Non training day, I sleep in till 6:30am.  In this case, I make sure I prep all the food before I go to bed the previous night.  For both training/non-training day I finish the skips before the breakfast at 7am.  (Skip is now my favorite exercise out of all the kinds so 13-15mins feels really short! )  You go to the office and if it's back and arm days, I hit the gym during lunch time because A. Gym has chin-up bars.  B. want to spend dead-time (lunch time) more effectively.  For the chest day, I save the exercise till night time at home caz gym doesn't have good equipment for the dip (I can use my dining chairs for the dip exercise at home).
Once pattern is set, then the rest is so easy, you just cruise~.  However I start getting VERY irritated with unexpected that disturb my harmonized pattern like user calls right before I am going to the gym, long queue in the gym for the chin-up.......
or......  iPad2 arrives at home waiting for me to play with it!! YEAH!!!!!  I really hate when this happens!!   because of this iPad, I am not preping food for tomorrow, soon about to pass the bed time.  man..  what the hell am I doing?   I am trying to get 8MA dude on my 46'' flat TV through HDMI cable...   what a great way to waste my precious time!!!

I HATE YOU iPAD!!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Day 38

I thought zucchini is some kinds of cucumber for the longest time, but today I learned it is relative of pumpkins :O
I bought a lots of zucchini  from Costco but had no idea how to cook them so I decided to put them on the fried pan (without any oil).  The outcome was something closer to the texture of pumpkins.  I was totally expecting something similar to cucumber so I googled it.  I became a little bit more knowledgeable than who I was yesterday :D

Since I am having lots of trouble with pistol squat, I search the how-to in youtube.  Those people do the pistol with their feet on the ground completely flat at all time!  When I tried to do it with feet at flat position, I fell from my butt to the ground.  My ankle is not flexible enough to lean forward to counter balance the weight shift as I am coming down.   Does everyone suffer from the same situation?

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Day 35 - 37

New set of exercise, man they are brutal!
Am I the only one thinking pistol squat is impossible no matter how hard you try?

Whenever I saw new set of exercise, I first fear them but in a week or two they become do-able.  I can see the progress and this really feels good.  I hope I can conquer pistol squat in a few weeks too!

I have ordered chin up bar finally (going to the gym for the back exercise day is getting pain the butt).  The product name is "どこでもマッチョ" (Macho Anywhere).  Sounds very cheesy but it looks to do what is expected to do.  I just worry how my wife reacts to it....  It should arrive today!

I have posted week 5 pic.  Start seeing some definitions!
Alright ladies and gents, have a great weekend!  I am off to Costco now!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Day 33 - 34 Fat @$$

Excuse my language here.  but my fat @$$ saved me today.

I was in the studio at the gym doing elevated triceps dip and around a mid way through when I was pushing myself up, my hands must have have put force a little bit toward my butt which results in generating torque on the chair I was holding.  Next mill second the chair fell and I also fell right on my tale bone.  If I had lost all the butt cheek fat, the outcome would have been devastating but thank god I still saved some for the case just like this!  I think my butt cheek served as the cushion b/w my tale bone and the wooden floor.   Yes it was painful and I was limping around the studio but the pain was not that much where I couldn't even breath.  I could see ladies in the studio was trying to hold her laughter..  I was deeply embarrassed but continued my elevated triceps dip as if nothing had happened...  I took it like a man.

Thank you my fat @$$ for saving me today. I really do appreciate your kindness but unfortunately this is the last time of this happening and soon I am going to ged rid of you.  Again thank you and hope I never see you in rest of my life!

I was planning to jog around imperial palace twice to train up for half marathon but I took a pass to be on the safe side.  If I don't feel the pain tomorrow, I will do the jog. (it's a rest day anyway)

BTW, it is my 2nd day doing 8MA...  I could only do first set of ab exercise in full, from the second exercise I start to struggle..  that is only 45sec into the show..  8mins seem forever but will keep on trying!  負けねーぞ!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Day 28 - 32

We are already a third into the this program..  time flies doesn't it?

Accomplishment for the first month of PCP
1) Lost 6kg (13.2lbs)
2) I am now able to do 4 pull-ups in the first set!
3) Didn't drink any alcohol!  (-> the biggest achievement ever)

Pretty good, eh?

Goal setting for the 2nd month of PCP
1) Be able to complete 4 set of Plank with 40 sec each! (30sec x 3 sets are the maximum I can do at this moment..)
2) Continue not to drink any alcohol.
3) do 8-min abs on top of regular PCP ab-work.

Loosing weight, staying away from alcohol and being able to perform things I couldn't perform in the past really make me feel great.  Wife is happy caz I don't snore as loud as I used to and I wake up every morning before her to prepare breakfast salad for her and daughter.  This really is a win-win for everyone!  One thing I need to watch out is the crave for Ra-men and Pizza (and Aussie Cheese Fries in Outback!)..  I still feel deep inside of my heart, I am still wanting that suckers.  I will kill my obsession for those bad boys in next round of indulgence! 

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Day 26 - 27

I decided to take on the indulgence lunch today.  (It's about a time as I couldn't stop thinking about 中落ち丼 for last few days..)
I used to dump bottle full of soy sauce over the bowl but this time I behaved like the real PCPer: Moderate amount of LOW salt soy sauce on the bowl.  I enjoyed every bites of this and was thinking "man, Patrick lied, this taste so damn good!"  I was worried that I still felt great about the taste.. wasn't I supposed to be like "is this what I was craving for?" ?? 
Well, the moment actually came after 15mins later I finished eating.  I was feeling my throat dried up and hurt because of the salt (even though I was very careful about the amount..).  Now it is midnight I still feel it...  yikes.
I used to be still hungry after finishing the full bowl but today I was VERY full.  (almost put me into sleep.)  I guess my stomach is getting to the normal size, which is good :)

For the next indulgence (if I get more days), I will try my next food of choice 天下一品こってりラーメン.  I am curious to see how I will feel after eating this sucker :)

Monday, May 9, 2011

Day 23 - 25

I renewed my jump rope after receiving good suggestion and feedback from various people (Thanx Nick, Yeeman, Mikael and Ren!).  New rope obviously made a HUGE difference.  Now I can jump up to 300+ continuously.   Suddenly jump rope became a fan exercise not a torture!  I actually bought one with the counter so that I didn't have to count from 1 to 1000+ which was the mind numbingly boring thing to do.  Only downside of this new rope is that it's very heavy..  After I finish all the jumps, my forearms are sore..

Pull up, I am still not sure about the right angle of arms.  If I narrow it, I can pull my self up a few times but looking at Patrick's form in the exercise sheet, the angle b/w both arms looks quite wide.  In the tip, it said, "you raise your hands when you have gun pointing at you... that is the ideal angle for the pull up"...  well..  I am in Japan and never be pointed by the gun so don't really now the IDEAL angle..   Someone please explain me..   (when you are using lat pull machine..  you try to reach the far end of bars which is kinked..  is that the right angle?)

Pull-down, I feel the soreness in my triceps.  I must be doing something wrong?  Anyone feels the same by any chance?

New set of exercise, V-sit and Plank are killing me already...  Not looking forward to get the rep/set increased for next week....

Friday, May 6, 2011

Day 18 - 22

It was such a nice long golden week, unfortunately it will end in just a few more days.  It sucks :(
  
Went back to my grandpa's for several days and as with all the relatives on this planet do, they threw big feast..  They live in Kochi where it is located south part of Japan and known for good seafood and lots of drinking...   It was hard to say no to the food and drinks they are offering but I did it somehow.  It was my first time I ate fish for the protein.  Sashimi was fantastic but it wasn't as tasty as eating with soy sauce which I stayed away because of its salt contents..

As for my exercise, I managed not to miss any workouts so far.  But jump rope is getting on my nerves cas I can't continue more than 100.  I think it is because rope is too light as I don't feel enough inertia while it rotates around my body.   Jumping over 1000 is putting mental burden on me.  I found it is easier if I jump in front of the big mirror but that means I have to go to the gym which defeats the purpose of this program...  hmm..  I will go get the new rope to see if it makes some differences..

My weight is going down at constant pace.  It hits 76.0kg when I measured myself this morning.  YEAH!

I will end today's blog with the picture of village where my relatives live.
Traditional Japanese house, creek, flower and mountains.  looks pretty isn't it? :)

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Day 16 - 17

Everyone in Japan enjoying GW?  I certainly do!  I am not in the usual Sunday evening blueness caz I am taking a day off tomorrow.  haha

Started seeing some changes in my figure (as wife pointed out), so it is definitely giving me more motivation to be on this program.  In day 17th exercise, we have new set of activity which is the true pull-up.  I couldn't even finish one rep....  am I the only one who is struggling with my own mass?  With Rat Pull machine, I am usually doing 45-50kg..  my weight is about 77kg so yes I am trying to pull more than what I usually do..  but ZERO success..  man..  felt beat down and defeated..  by the time I graduate from PCP, I hope I will be able to pull myself at least once or twice.

My food these days:  my favorite chicken breast fillet with veggies salad.  I become a bit creative in the dressing.  I mix up my paste (with lots of garlic, ginger and all kinds of spices), with lemon juice and chili powder.  chili powder definitely adds some kicks to the taste. 

I am off to see my grandpa in the country yard in Kochi.  Will enjoy the primitive life surrounded by pure nature for a few days!

Enjoy the rest of GW everyone!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Day 14 - 15

It was the last day at work before the GW so my team decided to throw meat dinner party which we used to do on 29th of each month. (29th day, 肉の日).  My team mates already knew that I've been on this program so they picked the place where I don't feel that stressed about not eating what they are eating..  LAMB restaurant!  I HATE LAMB. I can't stand with its gammy smell..   As soon as I entered into the restaurant, I almost threw up because of the smell..   I brought PCP dinner set in my tapper ware, sat as far away as possible from the lamb, chew away veggies, chicken breast fillet and whole grained bagels with bottle of water.  again I did not take any alcohol and I am so proud!
Hit Karaoke after the dinner.   I've never been to Karaoke sober so I was worried how well/bad I would sing but I think I did alright...  (I will let others to comment on this.)  I was in this embarrassing mood singing in front of crowd for entire time.  I missed one good effect of alcohol which is to take away fear from your system.
Came home after midight, did jump rope and went to bed.

Next day which was the first day of the GW.  Spend time with my daughter.  did shopping, play in the yard.  I had fulfill my duty as a father.  well done myself!  As I was reading book for her to make her a sleep, I fell a sleep before she did.  I woke up this morning and found my daughter put blanket over me.  She already grew old enough to take care of her father.  I am so proud :)

I've been making great progress on PCP.  I have lost 3.6kg in 2 weeks!  YEAH!!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Day 13

Went to supermarket near my house and found watermelon on the shelf (it is still in April..).  I LOVE watermelon so I bought it although it is still a bit expensive.  I actually skipped fruit in the morning and the afternoon so I will compensate what I missed by eating watermelon more than I should.  I feel I cheated (it is definitely a cheat..) but can't resist the temptation..  

Exercise
  • 18km bike ride
  • Day 13 exercise completed.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Day 12

I am exhausted..  I am barely able to go through all the exercise..
I am going to bed now..

Salad as usual but this time, I used lemon juice to dilute my thick Paste.  Very fresh taste to the chicken and salad.  New finding:  you get to enjoy eating these healthy food more if you make sandwich out of them.  I was eating carb, veggies and meat separately.. duh..
Exercise
  • 8km jog
  • 18km bicycle ride
  • day 12 exercise

Monday, April 25, 2011

Day 11

Quiet day (LN and HK are off for the Easter holidays.)

Went to Docomo shop to replace my cell phone with smart phone but found out it doesn't support SUICA, so I have to wait until the summer.. bummer...   I wanted to replace mine with smart phone caz I will be having my annual event of visiting grandpa during GW to pluck some tea.  He lives deep inside the mountain in Kochi prefecture where there are more dead than lives.  The average age of the villager is somewhere in late 60 or early 70.  Obviously nobody has PC to connect to internet so I thought smart phone helps me to stay connected to the rest of world.  Now I think about this, why do I need to be connected?  I am going there to see my relatives, enjoy the nature, eat well (ahem.. healthy non pesticide veggies right off the back yard ), work hard (tea plucking is actually a hard labor..), sleep well and have a good time!  I might as well enjoy being disconnected with rest of the world!

Again foods are basically similar for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  (I mass steamed variety of veggies and chicken breast fillet in the morning. )
half tea spoon of paste with balsamic vinegar works well.  not salty but still has flavor to enjoy.  I bought ***t load of whole grained bread so I will be eating this stuff for next few days...  I am already getting bored with the taste on the first day :P

Exercise
  • Day 11 exercise done.  I hate front shoulder raise...
  • 18km bike ride

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Day 10

1/9 is done.   Good job everyone!  only 8/9 to go.

I had several good suggestions for what I can do to make the no-salt dull food more tasty.  so I went ahead and made my special paste with ginger, garlic, red-chili, black pepper, dried oregano, dried basil and mustard.  It was easy to make as all I had to do is to throw all the ingredients into a mixer.   I pick two spoons of this paste and added to the balsamic vinegar to make the special dressing.   Now, the plain flavored chicken breast fillet salad was actually full of all different but sensational flavors!!  It worked but with three exceptions...
1. I put way too much red-chills.  Good god, this stuff is SPICY!  I like the spicy food so luckily it didn't bother me much.
2. same for Garlic.  I NOW GOT LETHAL GARLIC BREATH.   It doesn't go away after 20 mis of teeth brushing and mouse washing.  For those I will see in the office tomorrow, apology in advance!
3. I think I put mustard more than I should.  It now gives the salty taste and now I am very thirsty..

I will probably take only half the tea spoon of this paste and dilute it with vinegar or lemon juice so that the effect/experience will be much smoother.

The Paste

Food today.  basically same for breakfast, lunch and dinner with minor variation.  so I will only post one for dinner.  veggies with The Paste woth balsamic vinegar, chicken breast fillet, whole grain pasta and bread.




Exercise
Day 10 exercises all completed (max rep per set)

8km jog

Am I over working?  I need to do the training for half marathon that I signed up for mid June..  will post this question to the mail thread.

Day 9

I went to IKEA today and did shopping for shelves in our living rooms.  At the food market after the cashier, I found whole grain pasta and macaroni so I bought 4 bags each.  I am little excited about what and how I will cook for rest of this project as I enjoy cooking myself.  Tomorrow, I will go to Costco for more healthy food and ingredients.

breakfast: put tomato into a microwave for the deadly steaming by mistake.  It exploded like a bomb as expected.  luckily I had a rid on the steamer..  put raw onion to put extra punch to the taste.  brown rice.  soy milk which had expiry date of 2010 Oct which I found out after I drank'em all.... yikes  
Lunch: lettuce, mushroom, pumpkins,  chicken breast fillet, half egg and brown rice.  I can taste a tiny grain of salty flavor in chicken breast fillet.  my tong is getting very sensitive.
Dinner:  Green pepper, pumpkin, cabbage, chicken breast fillet. brown rice.

Exercise:
  • Day 9's exercise all done (max number of rep for each set)

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Day 8

I never thought much about how much the food weighs.  It was a little surprise to see 140g of breads..   It looked A LOT.  
Questions to everyone.

1.  I found food without salt VERY BORING.  is there any receipts to make the dish tasty but salt friendly at the same time?   I can't imagine myself munching 140g of elbows without any source or dressing..
2  Tofu.  is it in veggie category, protein category or since it is technically PROCESSED food, you avoid eating? 


Today's new finding
1. Low Fat milk is hard to get in Japan..  I hates milk and last time I drank it was almost 2 decades ago so it never occurs to me how difficult to get low fat milk in Japan.  I was expecting it is easily obtainable in convenience store around the office but couldn't find one.  same for low fat yogurt..  You imagine Japan where people eats healthy stuff, it will be easy to get the healthy daily products but seems it's not.  I will go to supermarket near my house tomorrow. (I had drink non-sugar soy milk today instead)
2. brown rice took ages to cook.  I had to wait 2 and a half hours to get 1 cup of brown rice...  I will incorporates this into the plan going forward..

Breakfast: 3 thick slices of bread (90g carbs), egg and 130g veggies

Lunch: No photo...
Dinner: brown rice which took age to cook with some veggie from Chige-hotpot. (I should not have eaten this as it was WAY TOO SALTY.)
 Chicken Breast Fillet with some more veggies.  200ml of soy milk (can't get milk in the morning.)
I will be more creative on the food.

Exercise
  • day 8 exercise is all completed.  (tried highest number of rep for a set).  Enjoyed the variety now.
  • 5.8km jog
  • 18km bicycle ride

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Day 7

I went to bed at around 2am last night so now I am really tired and sleepy.  I will take shower and crawl into bed...   500 jump ropes were pretty tough.  I was out of breath around 150 jumps..  had to take quick break to catch up on the breath.  Am I  out of shape??  I think so..   19 years of smoking must have done some serious damage to my lungs. (btw I quit smoking last August and it has been 7 months!!)

I am looking for the real PCP starting from tomorrow!!

Breakfast:  Lettuce, pumpkins, carrot, ham and potato.  spruuts with chicken breast fillet thread.  1 Onigiri, Okara, Egg, and noodle soup.
Lunch: 2 onigiris, Okara and Egg.  Salad with lots of Chicken breast fillets and sprouts.  BTW Okara was half bad.. Yuck...
Dinner: Last dinner before the real PCP!  Wife made a rice, mushroom, tofu casserole with tomato source.  Damn it was so GOOOOD!

Exercise:
  • 500 jump ropes
  • 18km bike ride

Day 6

One more day to achieve the first milestone.  Time flies!  I am calming down on the craving sensation.  I had a dinner with my colleagues from work and you know what?  I didn't have a sip of alcohol again (but drank couple bottles of non-alcohol beer instead.. you may call it a cheat. :P ).  Surprising thing is that I wasn't even tempted at all.  Along with this PCP, I will see how long I can last without drinking alcohol. 

Breakfast: Okara (residues after squeeze out the soy milk out of soy beans) with veggies.  Steam salad with tomato.  Onigiri and Egg.
Lunch: Chicken breast fillet salad with Okara and left over Oden.  two Onigiri (rice balls) and egg
Dinner: couple bottle of non-alcohol beers, chicken breast fillet, fried tofu, veggie sticks and salad.
Exercise
  • Day 6 exercise all completed
  • 5km jog
  • 18km bike ride

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Day 5

Today wasn't so bad compare to yesterday.  Drank coffee instead of water must have made some differences.  I didn't feel soreness in my leg this morning which made me worried that I didn't do lunge in correct form.  Soreness in the muscle is the proof that you are using right muscle to do the exercise.  oh well as Patrick's suggestion, I decide not to worry about it too much.  Important thing is to keep it up every day! 

Jump rope.  I thought my body figured out how to jump with continuous success but not last few days.  every 15 reps or so, the rope gets caught.  VERY STRESSFUL.  I was measuring my heart rate today while I jump and it peeked up to 160/min!  is it because the pace gets disrupted?   I will try with slower pace tomorrow to see if that makes difference.

Breakfast: Oden (Egg, Ganmo, Carrot, Radish) and Okara on green Salad,  Kiwi and Orange, Onigiri
 Lunch: Desk Lunch.  2 Onigiris, Oden (Ganmo, Egg, Radish, Carrot), Chicken and Okara on green salad
Dinner: Sprouts soup, Egg, Oden (Ganmo, Carrots, Radish) and Okara with lots of veggies.
Exercise:
Day 5 to do completed.  (4 sets of push up is really killing me!)
18km bike ride

Monday, April 18, 2011

Day 4

Geez..  I was so hungry through out the day..  Couldn't focus on anything today at work.  But, I wasn't in misery for the whole time but instead I found some positives to cheer me up.
1. Lost 1kg.  YEAH BABY
2. steaming food is actually so damn easy.  this rubber thing is awesome.  I use my hand to rip the veggies, toss them on this rubber thing and throw it in the microwave.  wait for 5 mins and they are all well cooked!  I never knew steamed veggies are so tasty.

breakfast: steam veggies, onigiri and banana
lunch: @ desk:  steam veggies, chicken and egg.  2 onigiris
 dinner: tofu onion soup, ganmo with veggies and left over (chicken and veggies in tomato soup.)
Exercise
Day 4 exercise all completed
5 km jogging
18 km bike ride to work

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Day 3

Usually I spent most of the weekend's morning suffering from hang over but this weekend was just so fresh and I really feel good about this.  I actually woke up before my daughter who always wakes up early to watch Sat/Sun cartoon! 

Vacumed the floor, played with daughter and went to Yodobashi to get IPod Nano as my old one has died recently.  Very peaceful and productive weekend. 

I gradually start to feel the starve through out the day.  As with Patrick's suggestion I kept my hand and mouth busy by sipping through bottle of water.

Another challenge that I am facing right now is the training I have recently started for half marathon in Yamanashi in mid June.   Jog 5km with half the food I normally eat is really really tough!

Breakfast: whole toasted bread with ham, cheeze and sunny side up on top. salad with white asparagus, pumpkin, broccoli, green leaf and Okara.   Banana as a desert.
Lunch:  Soumen Salad with tomato, pumpkin, green onion, white asparagus. Okara and Kiwi, apple and orange.
Dinner: Chicken, celery, carrot, onion in tomato soup.  Egg, Okara and Kiwi.
Exercise
Jump Rope: 60 jumps x 5 sets
Squat: 15 reps x 3 sets
Push Ups: 8 reps x 3 sets
Sit Ups: 15 reps x 3 sets
Strech for 5 mins
Jogging: 5 km

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Day 2

One of my colleague from work got tons of seafood shipped from his parent in Kyoto.  (more than 100 oysters, turban shells, flat fishes, squid etc etc..) 
In order to consume this insane amount of seafood, my team planned BBQ over the weekend inviting other teams from work.  It turned out to be the perfect weather for the BBQ so lots of people with their family showed up! 

Breakfast: Sunny side up on toast whole bread (ham and little bit of cheeze).  Salad.
Lunch:  BBQ.  I was very cautious of what I eat and how much I eat.  mainly veggies and seafood with only a few slices of meat.  drunk 2 cans of non alcohol Kirin and one glass of Hoppy.  No snack consumed.  It was fun being sober while the rest getting wasted!


Dinner: Kinpira gobo, Harusame salad, Konyaku noodle, Okara, bits of broccoli and pumpkin and Miso soup.

Exercise
  • Jump Ropes: 50 jumps x 5 sets
  • Lunges: 10 reps (each leg) x 3 sets
  • Push Ups: 8 reps x 3 sets
  • Leg Raises: 10 reps x 3 sets
  • 10mins of streching
you know what?  My legs are already hurting from the squat exercise from yesterday...   and I found myself very hard doing Push Ups.  I was not on the knee but toes when I do the push up..  I am curious what will be the equivalent weight when I do dumbbell press.