Project Ripped

This morning we travelled from my Mums to Blackpool. We visited Blackpool Zoo and had a good walk all around and then checked in to the hotel late afternoon. In the evening we went for a walk around the Pleasure Beach area of Blackpool.

The weather has been pretty awful today and I had planned to try and go out and do a run.

I am finding being away from home extremely difficult to fit in the planned exercise and eating. Although I am enjoying the holiday I feel that I will be better able to continue with my fat loss transformation when at home.

This is the first Sunday where I haven’t done a proper “weigh-in”. It was impossible to do it where we were staying. There was no room and it was difficult to access the equipment we needed. I will have to have a bi-weekly weigh-in next Sunday – sorry!!

Today was a planned easy day where we drove from Nicola’s relative to stay with my Mum for a night. The drive took approx. 3 hours and when we got there we went to visit a local maize maze which was a lot bigger than I thought.

Throughout the day I ached and was tired. London had taken the last bit of energy out of me and I desparately needed a rest today. Not being at home it was difficult to find personal space to have a proper rest do I didn’t get any quality rest until bed time.

I have managed to have smoothies for breakfast almost every day of this holiday and I have managed to eat clean pretty well so far. I don’t expect to have lost any weight over the last week but I do expect to have not gained any either.

We decided to spend a day in London. We woke up relatively early and caught the 9:21 am train to London Pancreas station. The journey only took 50 minutes and then we got on the tube to get to our chosen locations.

We visited the London Eye which was absolutely spectacular. It took approx. 40 minutes to do a full revolution and at the top you can see all of London in splendid detail. I took some photographs and video at the top and our kids loved it.

After that we went to Madame Tusaudes Wax Works which was packed out with people. The wax models were great but the whole experience was spoiled by the sheer volume of people mingling around the wax works trying to have their photographs taken with them.

After that we visited Hamley’s toy shop and walked on down to Leicester Square. From here we took the tube to Green Park where we walked to Buckingham Palace and was amazed to see that they were preparing for the London 2012 Olympic Party happening tomorrow. We walked down The Mall to Trafalgar Square where we caught the tube and train back to our base.

The weather was extremely hot and we covered many miles of walking around London today. Whilst it was really enjoyable I was exhuasted and at about 9:30 pm I crashed out on the bed, was asleep before the kids and poor Nicola had to see to the kids without me.

We had another trip to Legoland today. The miles of walking are starting to take their toll on us all. Waking up in the morning our hips, ankles and feet are aching.

The weather today was excellent and Legoland was packed out. We got in early and enjoyed a few rides and the stunt show before calling it a day and headed back to stay at Nicola’s relatives house. They kindly loaned me a mountain bike so that I could get a little extra cycle practice in.

It was about 6:30pm before I got out and thought that I would have until about 8:00pm before the light started to fade enough to need lights. So I picked a route from a map down some country lanes that would take about an hour and set off. After an hour of cycling I realised that I wasn’t anywhere near where I started. I wouldn’t say I was lost but I had no clear idea of where I was. I used my sense of direction to take some turns towards where I thought I had set off and after a climb up a long hill saw some landmarks on the other side of the hill that gave me a better sense of direction. It took my 90 minutes in total to get back and at an estimated average of 12 mph I had cycled about 18 miles. These 18 miles felt quite good and I found that with my previous hill cycling that I had gone up the hills faster than I ever had before.

I am finding fitting in my regular exercise and diet difficult but today was the most succesful day on the holiday so far.

Today was another day similar to yesterday. After leaving our relatives house early this morning we drove down England to get to Legoland in Windsor. We spent the whole day there and didn’t get to our accomodation until 8:30 pm. After getting all of the gear out of the car and settling the kids down for bed it was time for us to go to bed too.

I am finding combining exercise with this type of holiday an impossible combination. I need to be happy with the miles of walking that I am doing each day.

I am keeping the diet clean and refuse to eat junk foods such as burgers, sweets, chocolates, ice creams, hot dogs and many of the other taste temptations that theme parks have on offer. I think that the worst we have had is some wraps and they are only bad as the bread in the wraps made our bellies swollen. I am still eating some raw chocolate, raw brownies, goji berries and fruit as snacks. If I can continue to do that I should be happy.

Tomorrow will be similar to today. Back to Legoland followed by a drive back up the country to the relatives again.

No photos now until Sunday at the earliest. I will be taking them but find it difficult to process them ‘on the road’.

A very brief post today.

We spent the day at Alton Towers theme park and then aftwards drove down to stay with a relative for the night. Upon arriving it was very late and there was little space or time to do any exercise. I am feeling a bit guilty about not following a program this week but I did get plenty of hidden exercise throughout the day.

I must have walked for miles around the park, most of the time with all our gear in a backpack and some of the time with my youngest daughter on my shoulders. So, perhaps I shouldn’t feel so guilty after all.

Absolutely no possibility of taking a photograph today. Will do so at the next opportunity. Off to Legoland tomorrow.

We were up at 5:30 am this morning in order to catch the boat.

The day has been quite long we have longed for our beds to catch up on the sleep. I have been quite stiff and sore today from the gardening yesterday and any exercise today was out of the question due to ‘gardening DOMS’.

We are off to a theme park tomorrow with lots of walking around and fun.

Photographs are a bit more difficult on the road but I will include them anyway. Avoided eating any bad foods today and was pleased to find a smoothie trailer at one of the retail parks we stopped off at on our journey.

It is the day before we go for a short holiday break.

I have spent most of the day in the garden pulling weeds, trimming plants and generally making sure that when I get back that the garden and the greenhouse are still relatively under control and manageable. I always have that saying at the back of my mind “One year of seed, seven years of weed”. Some of the weeds can grow from nowhere and go to flower in a matter of days at the moment so I have had to do my best to pull them all now.

It was also my oldest daughter’s sixth birthday today and she had a small party with some of her best friends. I made some balloon animals for them and they all had a great time. My wife Nicola was snacking on the party food but I had no inclination to do so. I was offered a slice of birthday cake and refused without a feeling of missing out. I have come to terms that we only eat cake on birthdays because we are socially conditioned to do so, it is not really out of choice.

The remainder of the day was spent packing and preparing for the trip. It was 11:00 pm by the time we had finished everything and there was no time for any exercise today. Having said that I had spent a lot of time doing low intensity physical work in the garden.

I have all of my raw snacks prepared for the boat trip tomorrow. We have to be up at about 5:30 am as the boat sails at 7:30 am. There are only two boats per day so we have little choice but to rise early. I have all of my healthy foods in a box ready to take with me and I will be buying lots of fresh foods from the local supermarkets wherever we are.

I will try my best to post over the coming week. I have prepared to do so but we will have to see how it all pans out. I think it will be difficult to lose more weight this week so I will be happy to retain my current stats come Sunday.

As I am now 2/3 of the way through Phase 1 I am hoping to see approximately 2/3 of the progress I might make by the time I finish my first 12 weeks. I have lost 3 lbs. of weight in the last week and I am hoping that this is fat loss and not muscle loss.

This week my key statistics are:

• Weight: 12 st. 9.5 lbs. (177.5 lbs.) – 3 lbs. lighter than last week
• Body fat chest pinch reduction of 5mm (23mm down to 18mm)
• Waist reduction of 1 inch from the navel area
• According to the body fat calculations a lean mass increase of 1 pound and a fat loss of 4 pounds

I think that the one thing that has made all the difference to me on this project is doing the weekly weigh-in properly. Weight is not a reliable metric. The tape and callipers are much better measure. I am over the moon when I see the body fat pinches reducing week on week. I can see, without doubt, that my fat is disappearing from some of my more fatty body parts. I have been careful with my diet and exercise not to lose muscle mass and so far so good.

I needed to go out for a long ride on the mountain bike today. I picked a nice long route that was about 1/3 off-road hilly climbs and 2/3 on-road, mostly hilly also. I covered 32 miles in a time of 3:02 hours. I would estimate that I would need to cycle for about 5.5 hours to complete the ‘End to End’ challenge in 4 weeks time and after the cycle today I don’t know if I had any more energy to go for another hour, never mind two. I will need to put in a few more long rides to see if I can help the endurance a little more over the coming weeks. As I am off on a holiday next week this may present a bit of a challenge.

My photos are showing pleasing progress at this point of the project. I ‘know’ I should be losing fat as I am eating and exercising well but it has been so long since I have actually lost fat that it is still difficult to believe that I actually am.

The view from the side is still showing the most amount of progress. I am not sure if my neck looks like it is growing longer!

I think that this week is the first time that the front view looks significantly different. My upper body is narrower and slightly more defined than Day 1.

When I wonder where some of the fat has been disappearing from when I see my big week-on-week losses I need only look at my upper back. The volume of fat sitting on my upper back has reduced dramatically.

I don’t know if raw chocolate has contributed to my progress so far but it certainly hasn’t harmed it. I have been eating raw chocolate (Cacao) on a regular basis. Cacao is meant to be really high in anti-oxidants and as we need plenty of them for good health then a little raw chocolate must help.

I have been having a bad day. We have had a full house since Monday with my Mum and niece and nephew staying over. It is great to see them all and it has been wonderful for our kids to play with my sister’s kids. Yesterday afternoon they set off to take the boat back to England. As nice as it was to see them, all of a sudden I think we all let out a sigh of relief to have our ‘space’ back and our bodies somehow threw the towel in.

It started with me forgetting to do my abdominal training yesterday evening. No big deal as I have done it today instead but it is an indication that things aren’t right. Our kids were getting upset at the slightest little things and were showing frequent signs of tiredness.

When I woke up this morning it was difficult to get out of bed. Neither my wife, nor I, wanted to do any of the things that we had planned for the day. We had a late breakfast and spent the day on menial tasks (I set up a youtube page for this website so I can post some videos soon). The demands of our children have been frustrating without the energy to satisfy their demands (poor things).

Thankfully  this has been a planned ‘off day’ for me exercise wise so the impact has not been too great and I have managed to eat clean throughout the day. I have developed a pain down the outside of my left ankle and it has been bothering me all day. I think it must be a slight strain from the run a couple of days ago. I don’t understand why I didn’t feel anything yesterday. I have also developed a painful lump on my eyelid. I used to get these about 10 years ago and the doctor told me the best thing to do is wash my eyes with baby shampoo to clear any blocked ducts on the eyelids. I have been doing this but it has been painful every time I blink.

It is my oldest daughter’s birthday on Monday and we are off on a short holiday to England after that so we don’t have a lot of time left to organise things for our trip. I am going to take my laptop, camera, running shoes, Nike+ and iPod with me to ensure I get some calorie burning exercise in. If I can find a gym then I will use it, if I can’t then I will do some body weight resistance exercises to keep the body ‘working’. I am hoping that I may be able to borrow a bicycle at least a couple of times and get some miles in too.

I will be glad when today is over and hope that tomorrow is a better day. We all have off days and I guess this is mine.

Today sees me reach 8 weeks into Phase 1, I am at the 2/3 stage. Four more weeks to go. Weigh-in in the morning.