Day Seventeen: "Head Case"

The above is a poster of the Alfred Hitchcock film, Number Seventeen. If you haven't seen it, don't worry. It's not considered one of his classics. It is a head case and a bit confusing. I have a "head case" of a different kind. I've had headaches the last two days when jumping rope.

It started yesterday at Patrick's studio in Yokohama as small flecks of snow fell outside the window. If you haven't been to Patrick's studio yet and you are within reasonable traveling distance, I recommend it. It's good to get a session in with the man. It certainly inspired me to get better at jump-rope, especially. I managed to string 223 together, easily eclipsing my previous record of 150 in a row. Patrick was probably on 1,500 by the time Brian and I got through our 800. Something about jumping barefoot on the floor though (I forgot my indoor-only shoes), my head started to hurt a bit. It went away after a bit so I thought nothing of it.

But I woke up this morning with a mild headache still. Took some ibuprofen and went to work. It got better over the day, but during today's jump-rope session, the head started to hurt quite a bit. Everything has a silver lining and in this case, I really slowed down the jumping and hopped as low as I could to reduce the impact on each hop.  I hope I just need rest for it to go away. I did hit my head hard one time earlier this month while skiing although I was wearing a helmet, and I had some headaches then for a few days, usually when I went over bumpy surfaces while skiing or went to the top of the mountain. After a few days in Tokyo, they were gone. I presumed worst case it was a mild concussion but more likely I just had my bell rung a bit. I've had worse ones way back years and years ago from back when people foolishly did not wear helmets while skiing/boarding. Anyway, the last two days, jump rope = headache, so I hope this is just a blip. Rest of the exercises were fine. I have no pull-up bar at this time, so I did the inclined pull-ups and added lat pull downs with 40kg weights as well to emulate the vertical pull-up as best I can. I have, as Patrick calls it, "wimpy back muscles." Guilty, as charged.

One more thing I discovered as I was unable to watch the first video due to technical difficulties. Weigh the muesli wet. So it turns out I was eating too much in the morning.  This morning I weighed out 50grams of dry muesli (my allotment is 100grams of carbs) and I added 100ml of milk. The thing weighed 153grams wet. So I cut out the 53 grams and went with the 100grams wet. I'd been doing 100grams dry + 250ml of milk, so by that measure, I was probably somewhere around 250grams wet, about 2.5x what I should have been eating. Inadvertent cheating that will be rectified. But now, I have to ask this...if I were having whole grain bread instead and having it dry, and then I consumed 250ml of milk, would the bread also not soak in the milk and become heavier inside my stomach and therefore I am over-eating as well? I.e., 35grams dry muesli + 80ml milk in the bowl = say, 100grams wet carbs. And then I have 170ml milk in a glass. But what about the weight of the milk itself in the first number? On the other hand, 100 grams whole wheat toast taken with 250ml milk in a glass = well over 100grams of wet carbs too, no? It seems like with muesli, if you follow the wet rule, you miss out more than you would with bread?

While I ponder that one, am off to bed to rest my head. And dinner yesterday: broiled sardine, roasted red pepper, zucchini, and shiitake mushrooms. Simple, pretty quick, and healthy.

Day Sixteen: "Getting used to blue skies"

"At that time, I often thought that if I had had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but look up at the sky flowing overhead, little by little I would have gotten used to it." [Camus, L'Etranger]

I am no Meursault, rest assured, but the sentiment of "getting used to things" makes a lot of sense in the context of the PCP. When I moved to Japan eight-plus years ago, I made a conscious decision not to watch television. Oh, I have a TV, yes, but I connect it only to my DVD and Blu-Ray player and watch films or TV shows. I know what I am in for before I begin. This movie is two hours, that show is thirty minutes. TV is endless. It goes on and on and it is destructive to your will power, keeping you glued to the screen and the couch as you bounce from channel to channel, show to show. It does help that most Japanese TV is terrible. If I moved back to North America, I would struggle to resist watching all the pro and college sports. Nonetheless, I got used to not watching TV.

As Patrick mentioned in his email this week, I guess a big key is making this a routine just like anything else, like brushing your teeth or taking a shower. Weighing your food? Just like anything else. Exercises even when you are tired or stressed? Needs to be done or you cannot unwind.

This afternoon, I am going with Brian to meet Patrick in Yokohama. I am contemplating whether to do my exercises there, which I believe is Brian's plan, or get them done alone earlier this afternoon and use the time in Yokohama instead to ask and make sure I am doing all the exercises correctly. For whatever reason, whenever I try to watch the question video, my computer crashes. I am pretty sure I am doing them correctly as I have done them before under trainer supervision, but I've never used bands so much before so my time might be better spent making sure I am doing things the right way.

Since I will be out this afternoon, here are the obligatory Week 3 photos. 67.8kg at weigh-in this morning, down from 71kg before the program started. Although this 67.8kg number is cheating a bit as I weighed myself first thing in the morning and that is always when we are lightest, is it not. The previous two were in the evening.

Day Fifteen: "Progress"

Finished my workout today and came back upstairs to my apartment in time to catch the sunset. One thing I love about my place is the view. Mount Fuji, the skyscrapers of Shinjuku, and great sunsets. Today's workout felt as good as watching the sunset did. I broke down the 800 jumps into blocks of 100 with twenty second breaks in between. I got through each block of 100 in two attempts, i.e., only tripping once per 100 and thus averaging fifty jumps per attempt. Unlike yesterday when I went as long as I could without stopping (up to 150 jumps), I didn't end up winding myself and was able to finish my whole set in about ten minutes. Progress is a wonderful thing.

For some reason today, I was tired and a bit lethargic. The jumps were fine, but I struggled a little with the strength exercises, such as the push-ups. I never have problems with them, but was just low in energy. Hopefully it's just a one day thing.

I took a couple of photos in my workout gear today. Mostly just identifying my problem areas that I hope to focus on in particular. I thought these show a little more of the problem than the weekly photos, which I will take tomorrow. Too much gut, nothing in the chest.

Day Fourteen "A fortnight"

The tail end of this week went by really quickly. And today I have a bit of a reason to smile. 112. Then 150. My previous best had been ninety-two jumps in a row, but back to back I managed to best that number. Doing that many in succession winded me a little bit, and my calves were tightening up so the next couple hundred went by with many trip-ups and quick pauses, but overall the 800 jumps went by quickly. It felt a little light in terms of workload because of the lack of exercises, but I know we need a rest day in there, too. Still, I went and did some abs--some oblique stuff, nothing too strenuous. I just know the abs need a lot of work.

The weekend is here at last and tonight, I can definitely get 8 hours' worth of sleep. I can also take my time prepping my food the next couple of days and trying out a few new things. I am definitely looking forward to that. Reflecting on how funny it is that it's Friday night and I don't even consider or want to go out. I think it helps that I picked the dead of winter to do this program, but I think my will power would be strong enough even if it were a balmy spring day out there. That said, I am only fourteen days in. We'll see if I still feel this strong around Day Sixty.  Come on little graph next to the Blue Man, go, go, go!

Day Thirteen: "You've got a friend in me"

Worked out with Brian today. I was inspired. Brian is one of my best friends and he kicked my ass at jump rope. He finished his 700 while I was still somewhere near 500. Not only was it good to have someone to work out with and push me, it was also so great to see how far Brian had come along from the pre-Foundation days. I couldn't imagine Brian being that slick with a jump-rope back then, but he was pretty darn good. Just awesome! We gave each exercise a few extra reps on the last set to get that extra burn as well.

Then tried a new dish I'd prepped the night before. Poached cod in veggie stock. The veggies go right ahead into our veggie quota and the stock was made only with water, the vegetables, garlic, bay leaves, and pepper. A little bland, but the cod wasn't too bad and I think it worked alright. Need a bit more flavor next time, but I think that may come from mixing up the veggies a bit to something with a bit more punch. My choice of eggplant, carrots, and red onions might have been a bit too much on the bland side.

Definitely looking forward to the next workout with Brian. Keep it up, dude!

Day Twelve: "Steady as she goes"

This is the Sugar Loaf in Rio de Janeiro. Just like the steep sides look impossible to scale, thinking about another seventy-eight days of weighed food and exercises is daunting--are we there yet? I know that the PCP is designed to help me get to that peak though, and that it has me on a path just as clear as the lines of the cable car. I just need the patience to stay on track and not look too far ahead. One. Day. At. A. Time.

"Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast" [Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet]

I had a solid gym session mixed in with my PCP workout today. I need to get in at least one good weight workout a week and that, for me, falls on Wednesdays. Those squats were a lot more demanding with some weights on. I procured a new jump-rope as well. One of those Nike speed ropes that a few people have suggested we use here on the blog. A friend offered me his used one for free. Gave it a go and the handles are a bit heavier, but the rope is light. Seems like a pretty good combo. I should probably cut the length a little bit this weekend and switch to that full-time.

Day Eleven "Donde esta Juan?"

"I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon." - Ronald Reagan

I woke up late and forgot Senor Valdez this morning. Actually, that's not true, I have a great Italian coffee machine I received as a gift and it takes whole beans and grinds them for you and spits out beautiful, rich, coffee in under a minute. [Don't worry, Patrick, I just have it black.] Well, with my head in a fog, I went off to work...and left my PCP food at home. In the immortal words of Homer Jay Simpson... "D'oh!"

Scrambled back home at lunch time to grab it and ran back to work. Made a veggie, chicken and egg fried rice the night before that turned out to not be half bad. No oil, just pepper. Getting the brown rice just a little crispy helped to mix things up a bit. Slow steps towards fusing a few things together.

Looking forward to the weekend when I can try out a few more things and also go out to get some of Rich's suggested whole wheat muffins or something so I can mix up the carb content. Two meals a day every day of brown rice is going to get old eventually.

Day Ten: "Manic Mondays"

"....But I can't be late
'Cause then I guess I just won't get paid
These are the days
When you wish your bed was already made "

Terrible song, but one of those catchy ones that gets stuck in your head. It was a scramble to get everything done after my sick Sunday as I didn't get the prep work done like I wanted. So my meal was quite simple. Gave the new steamer a try. Pretty handy and simple to use, but again, I will need some work on sorting out the recipes.

Exercises are fine. Dare I say they are on the easy side except for the jump-rope and the last couple of push-ups require a bit of extra effort, perhaps. The lunges are monotonous and thus my lease favorite, but overall okay. I think the resistance band I am using though is perhaps a bit too strong for a couple of the exercises.

Day Nine: "Survival"

At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I survived Day Nine. Woke up around 8:30am and had my PCP breakfast. Things were fine until about 11:30am when I was headed to Ginza with my sister to do a bit of shopping before she left that afternoon. Then, food poisoning--or something like it. I was shivering and freezing from head to toe, and that never happens to me in Tokyo. I was going to drive to the airport, but couldn't muster it. I put on three shirts, thick wool socks, and climbed into bed. I was still freezing cold. Laid in bed all day and still ate the prescribed meals, albeit everything was pushed back a few hours. Slept some more and finally got up at 8pm feeling a little better but still weak.

I went and did the exercises. I wasn't going to skip so easily, though trying to jump rope when you have food poisoning and are drained of energy took a pretty large effort. I think a cold or even a fever I could have dealt with easier. I think this was probably partly my body trying to get used to a new diet and partly something I ate. I don't know what. Anyway, if I can get through and survive a day like this one, I am pretty sure that come hell or high water I can stick to the plan for the duration.

After that ordeal, I found myself sitting there at 930pm on a Sunday having not been able to prep food for the start of this week as I had planned. I also hadn't been able to log on to post a new entry here or comment on other people's posts. Sorry about that, everyone, I will get back into commenting from tomorrow (right now I am playing catch up on my posts). I managed to steam veggies and chicken for Monday's meals to take to work and climbed into bed around midnight. Long day...survival day.

Oh, and the obligatory Week 2 photos (Day Nine)
Added in a few more angles this time so it will be easier to compare down the road.

Day Eight: "Ain't it Great?"

This is a photo taken last June in the Amazon rainforest of Brasil. We were a good two hour hike plus two hour kayak plus two hour drive from the nearest city (Manaus). Toughest conditions I have endured, and I have been to a lot of places from the Sahara to the Andes to -40 in the Canadian north. In the foreground is a rather large leaf. In fact, it is several times taller than I am. On Day Eight of the PCP, we turned a rather large leaf.

The expression "to turn over a new leaf" comes from books, of course, and in many instances pages are still referred to as "leaves." As we shifted from "eat what you normally eat, only half" to the real PCP diet, it really felt like a new beginning. As I had already been preparing my own food for the first seven days and never really indulged, the transition to this diet was a little smoother than I thought.

The two main issues I identify at this early stage are finding the time to weigh my food until I am able to eyeball how much chicken = 120 grams or does one apple = 180 grams of fruit, and finding the time to creatively prep dishes to keep myself happy eating them for 80 days. Normally I enjoy cooking as I have mentioned in previous posts, but I never measure anything, ever, when I do. It's all approximations and creative inspirations and things turn out just fine with taste tests. Put it another way, I've never been one to measure and bake...I don't have the patience for it. Now that I am weighing everything, I am not cooking, if that makes any sense. I wind up with x grams of steamed veggies, x grams of steamed chicken, x grams of brown rice, each in its own little ziploc bag--no harmony or binding theme among them. As a foodie, this just won't do in the long-term, though in the beginning stages it is good to think about what I am eating in each grouping. As I get more used to the amounts and eyeballing things instead of weighing everything, I am hopeful that I can have the time to get more creative again. Right now, given my work schedule, I just don't have the time to be doing that.

Speaking of weighing things, my first day on the proper PCP diet coincided with a rare visit by my sister from Canada. It must be about three years since she last stayed in Tokyo and she wanted to eat something good she couldn't get back home so we went out to eat yakiniku (Japanese style Korean BBQ). Yup, I went to a yakiniku place on my first day. Now, before you all think I cheated, I most certainly did not.

I packed a ziploc with brown rice measured to my allotment and also another bag of cut kiwi fruit for my evening snack. I also took my scale.  I ordered veggie sticks and grilled some green pepper, butternut squash (kabocha), and carrot for my veggie content. I had two shrimp, some scallops, squid, and chicken for my protein. I ordered everything without salt or sauce, just natural. Great thing about seafood, especially, is how it's naturally a bit salty so it still tastes good. And things taste better grilled than fried anyway. The prawns and scallops, in particular, were excellent. So, mission accomplished. Got to go out with my sister for some yakiniku, I stuck to the program and it was all good. We went to the NY Bar afterwards (the bar in Lost in Translation where the main characters meet for those who don't live in Tokyo) as my sister had not been there before, listened to some jazz and enjoyed the view. Apple martini for her, black coffee for me. It was a great way to wrap up the first day of the new leaf. The photo below is my sister at the yakiniku place...my meal in the foreground, while my sister enjoyed the beef. Honestly, I wasn't even tempted to go for the marinated beef!



Day Seven: "Say goodbye to Hollywood"

This was my last meal. A simple bowl of brown and mixed grain rice with vinegar, ikura, Hokkaido scallop, and salmon flakes. The ikura is homemade by my mom and has some salt, as does the salmon, but aside from this last meal I have pretty much managed to eliminate added salt in my diet. Since I've already been preparing every single meal at home in week one, controlling my salt and sugar intake that way, I did not want to deviate from that plan and go out and have an indulgent "last meal." I love wine, but have been off it all week so left that alone.  Now the real challenge begins.

The five hundred jump-rope was tougher than I thought. The first 250 went by fine, but after that, my arms wouldn't go around at the pace I wanted them to and the last half I was lucky to get ten in a row. Oh well, a lot on my mind tonight and a lot more to do from tomorrow. My sister from Canada is coming to visit for one day on Saturday so am going to have to figure some way of taking her out for a good meal while I eat my own thing.

Day Six: "The Sun also Rises"

It has been a rough couple of days for me personally. I've felt kicked in the gut and down and spent a lot of time worrying about water under the bridge.. PCP is helping me keep my chin up. I am going to rock on through the remaining days and achieve the fitness goals that I've always wanted but had only dreamed about.

Just when I needed a small sign that things are going to be okay, I found my missing house key (good), and I learned how to jump-rope (better).  I don't know what happened exactly, but in order to keep my heart rate and breathing from going up too much, I broke things into 25-20-25 =70 jump sets with 10 second breathers in between. All of a sudden, I could jump no problem. Fast and without wasting too much energy, just jumping lightly off the ground on my toes. By my last set of 70, I was able to get through without looking at my feet or rope once. Progress! Really needed that, and it felt good. I felt like doing a few hand-springs like I did on the pristine white sand of the Lencois Maranhenses below.   Weighed in at 68.8kg (down 2.6kg from six days ago).

Since we are going to be switching up our diets soon, just wanted to pass along a thought. I know we don't need to eat "organic" per se, but if we are thinking about what we put in our bodies, we might as well consider that option, too. For those of us who are busy with work/live alone/don't have a supermarket near where we live or work and just don't have time to get groceries regularly, why not try an organic grocery delivery service? I think it is a lot easier to find organic foods in North America or the U.K. than in Japan, and the organic sections in Japanese supermarkets tend to be tiny and obscenely expensive. There are online delivery services, however, and prices, though not cheap, are far more reasonable than in the stores. Organic free-range chicken and organic strawberries are two of my favourite items so far. For someone who gets home around 8pm-ish and lives alone like me, this service is fantastic. The site I use has a 5-day wait to receive the items though, so I will just need to sort out my list of what I need each weekend and order enough for the next week. Some websites can remember what you ordered as well so you can just top up with the click of a button. Pretty darn useful. I am not going to advertise for one place over another on a blog, so if you are in Japan and want a link to the site I'm using, please send me an email. 

Day Seven tomorrow then on to a new diet!

Day Five: "Balancing Act"

So much has been made about the "work-life balance" issue these days that it has become something of a cliche. Nonetheless, we can't deny that if we are working from 7am until 7pm on weekdays, we are spending 3,120 hours annually at work, or the equivalent of 130, 24-hour days in the office. Add in some PCP training and food prep to that, and it's a delicate balancing act. It's a slippery slope if you skip a day in there so the key is to just keep powering through.

I am not a morning person. I can work late, etc., but it seems like I can go to bed at 6pm or midnight and still have the same issues getting out of bed in the morning. I knew today was going to be a busy day at work and I also have a regularly scheduled gym session on Wednesday nights so I pushed myself to get my exercises done this morning at 6am. I am not sure if it was better for me to do in the morning. I think it's still too early for me. I was more useless than usual with the jump-rope, and we were up to 70 each set. Since I had done my day four exercises around 9pm the previous night, it wasn't ideal to step it up a notch. Back to the evening for me tomorrow, I think. I can't wait for the weekend when we can do the exercises mid-day when we're awake and more warmed up, but not tired from a full day's work.

Day Four: "Baby Steps"

Tonight, I am going to focus on small victories. Just for a little while I am going to forget the fact that the jump rope was painful today, that I took more than twice as long to get through it as yesterday, that my rhythm is still off and I am jumping much too high and exerting far too much energy with each hop, that as a consequence of jumping so high my heart rate and breathing were much higher than they were supposed to be, or that my ears were extremely painful from the elevated heart rate in cold weather.

Instead, I am going to focus on one number: 69.05kg. Yesterday I doubted my eyes when I saw 69.45kg, after all only three days ago I was either of 71.4kg or 70.4kg, depending on which scale I went by, but I don't think I can doubt that I am dropping some weight somewhere now (even though I haven't a clue where).

Exhausted and have a big day at work tomorrow so off to bed.

Day Three: "Framing"

Ten jumps extra per set. Just 20% more than the last two days' exercises. It's all a matter of perception, how you frame it. Nonetheless, with the cold weather, icy wind and my inadequate jumping skills, it was a bit of an ordeal. Sometimes, my ears start to hurt when I exercise in cold weather and get my heart rate up. Today was one of those times. For the push-ups as well, I put my arms much further apart as Patrick pointed out and it was a little more difficult, in a good way.

It is not only the exercises where perception is important. With respect to food as well, the way we look at things is vital. Eating only half-sized portions, throwing away food, sitting at your desk at work and trying to figure out what to eat--this isn't necessarily easy. What I've done so far that seems to help: cook or prepare all your meals the night before and take your lunch with you to work; make what you would normally make for yourself and immediately split it into two portions and store one in the fridge; frame your meals in a manner that makes you feel more full. What exactly do I mean?

Yesterday for dinner I made Indian curry using only natural spices, veggies and chicken. Since the spices were all natural and weren't from a typical curry mix I know there was no salt or sugar added anywhere in my meal. I cooked genmai brown rice with various grains mixed in. I can imagine down the line we may not even be allowed these types of carbs at dinner. I served myself a small plate (will explain below) and put the rest in the fridge. I took one small tupperware container to work today for my lunch, half-filled.

Tonight I boiled some chicken, cut some bell peppers, tomatoes and lettuce and took a boiled egg white and made a salad. I took one chicken breast and cut it in two, used just one egg, half a tomato, etc. One half, I put in a container for lunch tomorrow, and the other half on my plate. Just a dribble of non-oil dressing, but I am going to have to find a healthier alternative for dressing. That's high on the priority list to figure out.

With the half-portion issue and the lunch issue covered, the next question is how to make yourself feel full after your meal, and this is where we get back to framing. I find it's all about making your plate seem big. With the curry, I took a very small salad plate and filled it up. It was still half the size of what I would normally pile on a dinner plate, but it looked very full. I felt like I had eaten a lot of food and didn't go to bed hungry.

With the chicken salad, I laid out all the lettuce flat (I only used three leaves) so it covered the whole plate and made it look full. I deliberately chose bell peppers and tomatoes to add color to the meal and make it seem less bland and more vibrant. It may seem hard to believe, but what's in the tupperware in the photo above is the same amount as what's on the plate below.

I weighed in today after my workout, admittedly at a different time of day (evening this time), 69.45kg. We'll see tomorrow if this is a blip or if the process is beginning already. But with little tricks with presentation to dupe my mind into thinking I am eating a lot, I am hopeful that it will be easier to deal with consuming less food.

Day Two: "Tools of the Trade"

"To become a better player, you have to take care of your equipment. The same thing applies to a chef (and his knives). You're a professional. You earn money with a profession therefore you respect the tools you use to earn the money."-- Ichiro Suzuki, MLB player in reference to his bats [Source: ESPN]

It would be just a little bit of a stretch to call ourselves "professionals" of the PCP--okay, it would be a monumental reach--nonetheless, I'm already finding that the tools we choose to use are important. As Patrick says, our jump rope is going to be our best friend for the next 89 days. In choosing the right one(s), I intend to respect my rope and treat it well, and I hope it reciprocates in the form of helping me achieve my goals by the end of the program.

Until I began the PCP it hadn't really occurred to me to think about different types of jump rope. However, there are clearly many kinds. Rubber, plastic and other synthetics, traditional rope, and even leather. Until yesterday, I had a plastic/synthetic one that my kick-boxing trainer obtained for me a couple of years ago. That's the green one depicted below. Yesterday, I also picked up one more plastic one at a shop in Jimbocho for 1300 yen and another one--good old fashioned rope--at a different shop for 945yen, also in the photo. Having tried both now, I can say unequivocally that for me, the heavier rope is better. It's easier to keep a rhythm and the jumping that I struggled with so mightily yesterday went by a lot easier today thanks to the weighting. I am still totally out of cardio shape so I was struggling by the end, but it was my own fitness and not the tools I was using that was the issue.

I also picked up a new scale. Weighed in at 70.35kg, at the same time of day as yesterday. My old scale was still showing 71.4kg. I think the old one is way off, since the scale at the gym is more like 70.5kg as well. So I am going to go with the new one for the purposes of this program. At the very least, it is more precise as it measures down to 50gram increments instead of 200gram increments. So I am not quite the heaviest I've ever been, but close enough.

Tomorrow, the real challenge begins as we need to balance our work schedules with our training. With the right tools of the trade, instead of wrestling with a rope that isn't right for you or becoming frustrated by a steamer that doesn't work, it should be easier to have a more enjoyable experience and that might turn out to be one of the keys to making it through the program successfully.

"Great Expectations"

Now, I return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is, that he has great expectations.-- [Dickens, Great Expectations]

It is with palpable anticipation and a touch of anxiety that I turn a new leaf today. I have managed to get through a grueling three-month training process in the past for a triathlon so I should possess the will power to have a successful Project as well. Be that as it may, I am three years older, my metabolism slower, my work schedule busier, and I have commitments I must make to my girlfriend as well. Three years ago I had a cleaner slate and more free time.

I also cannot say that I eased into Day One, either. My last two dinners were spent eating unhealthy, salty, fatty food. I say good-bye to cordon bleu and churrasco and hello to chicken breast, veggies, and egg whites, I suspect. I know that during Week One, we can eat what we want, just half portions of what we normally eat, but I don't intend to eat out this coming week. Actually, final two dinners out aside, I usually try to eat at home and when I do cook at home, I do eat healthy foods. I use no sugar, very little salt. Perhaps a bit too much olive oil, and I don't cut out carbs at night. Cooking is one of my passions. It will be tricky and exciting to try new healthy recipes at home. The biggest challenge I think will be lunch. Lunch-times are busy at work, so it's usually a bento or bowl of noodles. I guess pre-prep the night before will be essential.

I slept in this morning before having a half-sized organic bowl of muesli. Though it is all organic, they use organic sugar in there so I am going to have to find a different source for grains, assuming we are still able to eat them. I then went outside my building about 1pm to do the jump rope. I knew this would be the toughest part. I used to do some kick-boxing on a once-a-week basis and that involved some jump rope warm up. I am an incompetent jump-roper. I jump way too high and have poor rhythm, making the effort involved much greater than it needs to be. Sure enough, that was the case again today. The first two-and-a-half sets were easy enough, but the combination of the cold air I was breathing in, my poor conditioning and my jumping too high made the second half quite tough. With my heart rate elevated, I did the rest of the exercises back inside and did the high end of the requirement for each. 15 reps for the squats and sit-ups per set and eight push ups per set. The sit-ups were tougher than I expected even though I normally do that much or more when I go to the gym once a week. Again, I believe this was due to the elevated heart-rate, ie., the whole thing together with only short breaks makes it an overall cardio circuit that is fairly tough by the end. A question for Patrick on the sit-ups if he happens to read this. Are we doing crunches or full sit-ups where we come right up to our knees? I did proper crunches and felt plenty of burn. Finished it all and came back to weigh myself and take my Day One photo.

I need a new digital scale. Mine is all over the place. I weighed myself three times and had three different read-outs that were up to 600grams apart. I've known this scale to have issues in the past. Is a digital scale the way to go or is an analog one more accurate? Anyone have suggestions? Anyway, for now I am going to split the difference and assume myself to be 71.2kg with shorts on, or thereabouts. Call it 71kg. This is the heaviest I've been, I think. Four or five years ago, I got up to 70kg, but I started to lose weight, then did the triathlon training from a base of 66kg three years ago. I dropped down to 60kg, which was way, too skinny, and now I have slowly gone back up from a combination of hitting the gym and lifting weights and adding a fair dose of fat as well. Although the idea was to add muscle so I would burn more fat as I went, without daily cardio I was adding as much fat as I was muscle. Three years ago, my method may have produced some results, but my metabolism is clearly slowing and I am going to have to work harder to get that fit body I want.

All in all, it's an exciting time and I can't wait for the 90 days to end and to hopefully see good results. I have great expectations.