nanako

18ck, have you decided yet? 

A good day yesterday food-wise.

Makros: 1884 kcals fat 100 carbs 80 prot 118

Ok, the carbs are still not under 50 - I had two apples at the office because I was too lazy to go out and get another egg.

But other than that I'm back on track. 

Prepared my breakfast and lunch for today so it won't happen again. 

EDIT: Weight is down to 74.5kg - mostly water I know, but going the right direction. Still thirsty, fat burning mode.

I really really need to FOCUS on weight loss (paleo)  this challenge!

I've been letting this slip for far too long. 

Wondering if I should join the adventurers for this one. But I like you scouts way too much ...

Syren sounds like we got a common theme here? 

Yesterday was not great food-wise, I ate clean but not low-carb nor low-cal.

I started making mistakes early:

-didn't have breakfast but had nuts at desk

-brought carb-rich falafels into work as lunch - leftovers from yesterday!

-went to the bonfire with the kids and had an ale and a burger (with bun) as well as some leftover hot chocolate (hmmmm!) 

Makros: kcal 2060, fat 78, carbs 175, prot 97.

Not sure if this would count as a low-fat carb-refeed day - but that would be stretching it really!

I really have to get my plan back on track.

On the positive side, my kids said it was the best night ever and I agree.

Also I am being SO nice and calm and friendly. Is it really just the gluten that gives me those irrational rages? Or the blood sugar fluctuations?

I should do a proper exposure test, see if it's gluten, yeast or something more complex. 

Anyway it has to do with nutrition because I recognize that happy calm state from the last time I ate really clean. 

Really happy. Keep it that way. 

Lovely evening yesterday - but no way staying under 50! But I'm not beating myself up, I'll use this as my 'cheat' day. 

Makros: kcal 2150 109 fat  134 carbs 116 prot.

Still in 'keto' mode - and I've lost a kilo of water that I had gained yesterday. Not much of a success but the right direction. 

Waking up at 3.30 again - that was my 6yo this time, but again I couldn't go back to sleep right away, read a novel for an hour. 

Oh the nights of uninterrupted sleep ... 

Lots of great ideas here - just one more thing, if you're overweight now, you don't even have to exercise to lose weight in the first place. 

I love exercising and I don't see why anybody wouldn't want to do it; and it's good for you and everything, lots of health benefits, especially strength training.

But if you're overweight you'll get lots of benefits from just losing weight. Weight loss is 80% diet really.

Give paleo a go, or if you eat a lot of junk now, just cut out sugar, or grains. Make small changes - these will have a big effect.

You sound like a very competitive person, so you might enjoy exercise more once you've lost a bit of weight.

1 down, 49 to go!

First day went well. I had my usual eggs with kale,pumpkin, and bacon, then skipped a meal (yay! Hey, that's me skipping a meal!), then for dinner I had the rest of the Keema.

One minor glitch - we went to see the fireworks and we each got a mini-hotdog which I ate before I remembered I was on lo-carb paleo. Oops. 

So my makros were:

Kcal 1841 - fat 106 - carbs 83 - protein 100.

Today is tricky - we're having friends over for dinner and I have to be careful what I eat. Don't want to spoil the party but I don't want to go overboard.

Other than that it's going well - I'm in keto mode, as thirsty as a goat. So I guess that means I've started burning fat, yay!

Woke up tonight at 3 and couldn't go back to sleep for an hour. Was that the hot-dog bun?

I do get nightmares when I eat the "wrong" thins. Very Windsor McKaye. 

Good thing I have this log now so I can examine some correlations. 

I'm crying hot tears right now reading up on my first challenge wrapup, end of May. 
I'd lost 4.5kgs in 4 weeks, carbs averaging at 83g/day, and calories at 1850. It's so easy! How, oh how could I gain it all back?

Well I have one excuse explanation which is a change in my BC - that one explains 2kgs. Had to be done though so no crying over spilt milk.

The other 2.5kgs is just eating carbs vs not eating carbs. Simple as that! 

At least I can still fit into my 28" jeans. As of last week. I have feeling the weight creep back on since the end of the holidays (when my injury happened) but have been in denial since ... Glad I managed to turn a corner here. But I have re-gained inches: that's a 75.5cm waist and a 78cm tummy (at belly-button) at this point. 

Whatever. I did well all week last week.

I get three extra points for

• not having rice when were having Keema
• encouraging my husband to munch his way through a whole bag of salt-and-vinegar crips alone
• not going overboard on my cheat day on Thursday (Halloween (!!!) and I only had one mini half bar of choc)

Last week's makros average is: 100 fat -86 carbs -138 prot with a 1916 kcal average.  

Not too bad in a getting-back-on-the-wagon kind of way but we need some fine tuning.

Hiya rebels,

I figured I should start one of these to help me with my weight loss.

I am starting at a whopping 75kg (164lbs) and ideally would want to get down to my old 62kgs/135lbs in the long run. However my main goal is to lose fat, not muscle so If you're asking, I would be most content with a few kilos less and 2-3 dress sizes lost.  

Moderate paleo works well for me although I have to stay under 50-60 grams of carbs a day to actually lose numbers on the scale. 

"Moderate" for me means strict no-grains, no legumes, but allow for a little bit of dairy (my daily latte!!!). Also I'm not going wild on the oil and condiment side, so if I feel something I am cooking needs a bit of soy sauce, I'll use it. Also I get to have a glass of wine a day or two. I do eat some fruit but have to limit it due to the sugar/carbs.

I am allowing for one cheat day a week where cheat means bread and a bit of cake or chocolate - just enough to keep me sane and on track. We buy our fresh (artisan) bread on Thursdays, so that would be an obvious choice. I don't want to binge on cheat days because I know the consequences (brain fog, rages and depression for me - very nice!). Still, I don't want to go completely off gluten (yet?) because I have heard that your reactions to exposure worsen if you avoid it completely. So the weekly dose should have a homeopathic value. We never buy processed foods or anything anyway, so it's not too much of a change ... (well we do for the kids but I honestly, never eat them. My nemesis is bread. And pasta. And rice. And beer ... hmmm.... you get the picture )

This is basically the set-up - very boring, I know, I'm sorry!

This daily log should get me to Christmas - 50 days - and then I'll wrap up and see how I've done.

I'm a bit anxious because I have never gone through with anything like that for longer than 3 weeks!

Fifty days seems an eternity ... at the same time, all the time,  my life just seems to be rushing by - blink of an eye and another month is over. So it should be possible to cheat oneself into it, right? 

Like they say, it's only an effort until it's routine ....

I'm not putting down any workout goals here because I quite enjoy them and I don't have to force myself too much to do them, really... 

I have been in denial about this over the last half year - I've improved my fitness, telling myself how well I was doing, and have allowed myself to totally relax on the food thing. If I'd been stricter I would be at my goal weight now, hah! Instead I have gained back what I had already lost (about 3kgs) when taking a break after an injury. 

So the part I really need a kick in the pants is the food bit, and I need to remind myself that weight loss really is 80 percent diet and exercise, no matter how much I enjoy it, is just the cherry on top.

I'll put down my measurements and weight every week and report everyday. This will help me keep the mindset - you know how you think, Oh, I'll post sth tomorrow ... and then it slips and everything falls apart.

My makros goal is something like 100g fat, 50g carbs, and 110g protein - plus the wine, which has no makros, only calories, in my tracker -  that should get me to under 1800 kcals a day. There will be a 7 pm kitchen curfew - or, making it sound more professional: my eating window will be from 7am to 7pm with a 12 hour wine-drinking and sleeping fasting period in between.

Should be easy enough!

A couple of extra things:

One, I found it's easiest for me to have a giant monster salad once a day as suggested by Mark (MDA). That's one meal sorted and it's really easy to throw together. 

Two, I want to try and have at least one handful of green leafy veg with each meal. 

TLDR; This log covers fifty days paleo under 50g carbs for weight loss (duh!).

Sorry guys, totally failed this challenge! 

I set my goal to low, reached it within one week and then just lost interest. Hmpf. 

Have to say I'm finally eating 95% paleo again now - have been for a week. So glad I managed to come back to it.

See you in a couple of weeks - I hope I can keep up the clean eating. Should be able to shed a few pounds until then.

Happy Paleoeen everyone. I'm waiting by the door with some packs of bacon as treats for all the local children who come calling.

Isn't that just so much nicer than This: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2480257/Woman-hand-fat-letters-overweight-children-instead-candy-Halloween.html

Well done all over ! I like the meditation and the speed training.

Funny how with meditation you can go from too agitated - too many thoughts to too little thoughts (sleeping) - innit ? Sometimes that happens to me in one session ! Just goes to show how this is all ku.

I totally hear you on the Facebook thing ! It's good for some things, like keeping contact with friends abroad, but it just eats up so  much time, it's insane.

Keep on rocking it.

I sometimes get that double/triple whammy too.  My wife will ask if I want anything from the store and will say the normal paleo stuff, then she gets something good (but non-paleo) and when I eat some of it complain that I shouldn't eat much of it since she bought it for herself.  Then goes the second serving...  Definitely not trying to be mean intentionally but that is how it looks.

 

I really liked your goal from last challenge, I think it will definitely help you stay positive and more on track with it.

Hah ! Not  your fault ! They should be supporting you guys and not get anything non-paleo ... or hide it better. Or eat it faster.

When my family goes shopping they come back and do like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqL7jyrXhLs

So all have to do is to restrain myself for 14 seconds and then there'll be nothing left.

So first week recap is good:

I nailed the speed goal and did some body weight exercises. 

A bit guilty because I achieved the goals without actually doing all the work - only did three runs last week. So I think it's a B.

The food goal didn't go too well but that was due to budget issues, so paleo was off the menue - even Jamie is scrimping these days innit! At least I fed the family on healthy carbs - homemade pies with salad and all. I'm giving myself a B because I almost always stopped eating at 7pm (that's 6/7 days I did).

Anyway I could have done worse! On, on, as the harriers say.

He's back ! Very relieved ... came back this morning at 4 am but wouldn't tell where he'd been !

Sometimes I just hate life - now our cat's gone missing.

It's not like him to disappear like that. He is very small too ... I'm seriously worried ... 

Hope he comes back very soon. 

It was, yes! Oh and when we passed Fulham Football Club some drunk fans started singing "Row, row, row your boat" at us. - *rolls eyes*

Nice. Did you remember to scream when you saw a crocodile ?

You can do chin ups but not push ups - that's just weird!

That's right Dr 18ck, I also thought this was odd. The 'down' part of the push up is ok, but when I go up the pinch in my back is quite painful - It feels like this particular vertebra is carrying all the weight, and I am terrified of breaking my back and then becoming paraplegic and all. With the chin up it feels more like stretching a tense muscle, not nearly as painful and not as terrifying. 

Thanks Matt! I feel the same way. So far I'm 3 out 4 days doing Insanity this week. A great, unexpected, side benefit is that my kitchen is wayyyyyyy cleaner. It's like I have all this newfound energy (because of food/exercise/sleep) and time (because of less internet) to do the dishes and tidy up. My ex-wife is in Paris for 8 days so I have my 9-year-old full-time and it's going well, I'm making a different meal each night, nice variety in lunches for us both too! I have him going to bed earlier and waking up earlier too, and we even made it to church for Mass at 7 am this morning.

Hehe, same here since I turned the web-blocker on for 23.5 of 24h a  day. Kitchen looks much better.  

Well done one the challenge !

Damn you, you're making me consider the Academy.  

Yeah, they should hire you to do the advertising.  

Glad it's working out so well for you ! 

Aaaaaw bad luck on the email desaster.

Yay amazon voucher! That's a goodly amount! Shame about the email daemons getting in the way, but glad to har you can still be there & row. The medals & glory will be yours one day!

This.  

Muarharhar I just got my official result and it is 28:58. Which means I can pack in now, goal achieved in my first week of the challenge. See you in a few weeks guys ! 

Ok I guess I'll have to adjust my goals and aim a bit higher. So I guess I'll have to inch myself up minute by minute ... let's say under 28 mins is up next. That's going to be tough, it means a 8.55 min/mile pace all over. Today I ran the first mile in 8.55 but slowed down quite a bit over the next two laps. I guess that will be a tougher nut to crack. 

In other amazing news, I went to the park with the kids again today and managed 4x3 chin-ups so 1) my back doesn't hurt as much (@PB thanks for your good wishes :*) and 2) I haven't lost all my skills.

I have been discouraged lately about my lack of progress.  I have only lost 4 lbs in the last 10 weeks of no running.  In fact, lately it has felt like I'm more "squishy" than I had been.  Aargh!  So, this morning I broke out the tape measure to see just how bad it is.  I have lost 1 inch off my waist, 2 inches off my "belly", 1/2 inch off my hip, and 1 inch off my upper arm (no change in thigh measurement...odd) all in the last 10 weeks. 

 

Whaaaaat?!?!  anaskdhopqweh;asjdngpaouiehtpuiowhyp quioewhrpriohaspduio hqpweuihtpighpaisughfpqwiehtpiqwuehpiwufhwuehwi uhpiuhfipewuh;adslknt;kh v;dkfng;awkehtohg;kndf;gklha;ioyu

 

Just goes to show how distorted perception can be.  (And how important other measurements than weight are.)

That is just so amazing ! 

Well done PB. Excellent work. That should teach you.

Thanks for the support guys ! :-)

Threw in another 12 incline push ups and 10 dumbbell deadlifts. No proper push ups (flat on the floor) possible yet however. 

It's not that it hurts that much I'm just terrified of breaking something.

Yay! I ran a new PB today - 29:00:9 - which finally lifts me up above the 50% threshold in the age grading. Hurray ! 

Feels really good to be at least nominally very slightly faster than most. After all, what's the point of running all the time if you don't end up being faster than others? 

Feel only sightly guilty about achieving this time on the flat. It's not that much better than my last PB on the hilly course - that was 30:17 or something. So I probably didn't really improve that much but hey, no one will ever know.  

Will spend the rest of the day feeling right chuffed and complacent.  

Seems like the sub-29 5K is right within reach.