It was a really good week last week but from a diet & fitness perspective it was more mixed, and has probably put my loose shedule back by a week or 10 days.
I went into the 10 days off buoyed by my weight dropping to 12st 6.0lb, and after the most recent run felt like fitness was markedly returning.
The plan was to really compound this by eating well and getting in plenty of exercise through running, gym, hill walking and maybe even a couple of swims. In the event it didn't go entirely to plan but its interesting to note what did happen and what the results were.
In terms of exercise I wasn't far out. By the Wednesday (six days in) I'd been to the gym 6 times, walked once and ran twice. Whilst I didn't go to the gym in the last 4 days I did manage one run and went walking twice.
That's not too bad, though what it doesn't show is that I got out of the habit of doing the physio exercises and missed them on 5 of the 10 days. That may or may not be connected to one of the factors that prevented my exercising more in the last days - that my injury seemed rather more sore than it has been of late.
The other, bigger factor is how I've felt in the last few days and that may well link more to diet.
Again, the plan was to eat cleanly throughout the time off as I'd managed it for the best part of the previous 6 weeks, and to track my eating as normal.
I managed that goal fully on Good Friday but on Saturday and Sunday I didn't track what I'd eaten though I did eat cleanly. Monday and Tuesday were a return to tracked clean eating but after that the wheels fell off a bit!
On the Wednesday evening we went out for a meal and over ordered. I have a thing about not wanting to send uneaten food back - especially if I've really enjoyed it - which left me to eat my curry, pretty much all of the side dish, 2 nan breads and a good chunk of the large side salad. When I got in I followed that up with 2 slices of my mum's fruit/nut cake!
That evening I felt really bloated and felt the same way the next morning and through much of the day, though I did eat cleanly again (the nan breads and cake were both made with white flour).
Friday saw a return to clean eating for the most part. Pub food in the evening doesn't lend itself to clean eating principles though I did forsake chips for new potatoes, didn't use the butter, and only drank water.
Saturday was when it really went to pot. Through the day was ok again but this time at the pub I had salted nuts and J2O, a couple of crisps, dumplings with the casserole and a huge toffee ice cream for pudding. When we got in I had a craving for buttered toast and also opened a box of fancy chocolates. Sunday was similar, cleanish through the day but buttered toast in the evening (following a baked spud with butter and cheese and streaky bacon) and then onto the chocolates again. Last night I was very bloated again and feel the same this morning.
I'm not sure whether the bloating is from large meals or is a reaction to 'unclean' foods, but other symptoms over the last few days have been lethargy, extreme tiredness on an evening, difficulty in waking up and cravings. Lessons to be learned eh?
As well as learning lessons the other plus is that I didn't quite get out of control in the way I have done in the past.
As well as eating clean 90% of the break, I went to ASDA yesterday and whilst the idea of buying chocolate bars flashed across my mind it was immediately dismissed and I've had no doubt that as of today I will be back on track.
The scales say I've put on 4.6lb in 10 days and the body fat percentage has risen. However, I'm confident that the apparent gain is largely 'food in transit' and will disappear this week - mostly in the next couple of days.
Showing posts with label Clean eating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clean eating. Show all posts
Monday, 12 April 2010
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
I smell bacon
Yesterday I had a binge and this morning the tempting smell of other people's bacon cooking is wafting up from the kitchen.
Sounds terrible huh?
Its not so bad.
After 4 weeks of pretty much universally clean eating the bacon doesn't have too much effect on me and whilst last night I went overboard (a bowl of all bran, 2 wholewheat granary bagels and 2 bowls of granola, nuts, yoghurt and dried fruit) it wasn't anything like the chocolate and toast centred mini binges of the past. This morning's weigh in may be a bit on the high side due to 'food in transit' but by tomorrow it'll all be gone.
Weight loss wise things have slowed a little. Week one gave the huge loss of over half a stone, week two over 2lb, week three a fraction under 2lb and week four just over 1lb. I'm happy with that. I certainly look noticeably slimmer and clothes are looser. To some extent that's what its all about but I do want to lose 'weight' too - purely for the running times. I'm relaxed enough to feel I'm very much on the right track and it'll all happen in time though.
Running wise I've been sticking to the physio's limit of 5.5 miles, and no muddy trails but if anything I've been a little less frequent than her limits. I ran the day of the appointment on the 11th and 4 more times since. I'll also go out later today. The runs themselves have felt pretty good - no great advance in pace but I'm increasingly feeling comfortable with faster pace (if that makes sense?).
They don't seem to have caused any major pain either. I tend to be a bit sore afterwards but that has pretty much gone by the following day.
I've also been to the gym fairly regularly and have started to row again as a supplement to the cross trainer. I used to use the rowing machine a fair bit and actually owned a Concept 2 for a couple of years until 2005 but haven't done anything since. Again, it feels like progress - I'm doing something 'new' and pain free and its noticeably easier now than it was 10 days ago.
The physio's exercises have been mixed. There's one that I can't do - it requires a step I just don't have and there are a couple of others where I'm not certain that I'm doing them right as they feel strangely easy. I've missed 2 days where I should have done exercises but work/life got in the way - or more accurately I've allowed work or life to get in the way - but overall they have got easier and I've tried to add in elements of them to runs or walking (such as clenching glutes and core as I go) and doing some supplementary exercises I've found or have been told about on a few days. I feel like I'm a little stronger.
Its back to the physio tomorrow and I'll have a number of questions - what's the long term plan and prognosis, am I doing the exercises right, should I be feeling any pain during or post run, exactly when should I feel the correct muscles fire and does clenching them while active actually help? She's going to love treating me!
Lastly, we've also been walking in the Dales the last 3 Sundays. Nothing too arduous but enough to add a bit of variety to the exercise regime.
Last Sunday was climbing up Pen-y-ghent, which was surprisingly easy to climb (as in my legs felt no great challenge) but a bit hairy in the last bit when you literally climb on hands and feet up the last hundred metres of steep, wet, and occasionally loose stone with a significant drop behind you, all the time buffeted by quite a strong wind.
Sounds terrible huh?
Its not so bad.
After 4 weeks of pretty much universally clean eating the bacon doesn't have too much effect on me and whilst last night I went overboard (a bowl of all bran, 2 wholewheat granary bagels and 2 bowls of granola, nuts, yoghurt and dried fruit) it wasn't anything like the chocolate and toast centred mini binges of the past. This morning's weigh in may be a bit on the high side due to 'food in transit' but by tomorrow it'll all be gone.
Weight loss wise things have slowed a little. Week one gave the huge loss of over half a stone, week two over 2lb, week three a fraction under 2lb and week four just over 1lb. I'm happy with that. I certainly look noticeably slimmer and clothes are looser. To some extent that's what its all about but I do want to lose 'weight' too - purely for the running times. I'm relaxed enough to feel I'm very much on the right track and it'll all happen in time though.
Running wise I've been sticking to the physio's limit of 5.5 miles, and no muddy trails but if anything I've been a little less frequent than her limits. I ran the day of the appointment on the 11th and 4 more times since. I'll also go out later today. The runs themselves have felt pretty good - no great advance in pace but I'm increasingly feeling comfortable with faster pace (if that makes sense?).
They don't seem to have caused any major pain either. I tend to be a bit sore afterwards but that has pretty much gone by the following day.
I've also been to the gym fairly regularly and have started to row again as a supplement to the cross trainer. I used to use the rowing machine a fair bit and actually owned a Concept 2 for a couple of years until 2005 but haven't done anything since. Again, it feels like progress - I'm doing something 'new' and pain free and its noticeably easier now than it was 10 days ago.
The physio's exercises have been mixed. There's one that I can't do - it requires a step I just don't have and there are a couple of others where I'm not certain that I'm doing them right as they feel strangely easy. I've missed 2 days where I should have done exercises but work/life got in the way - or more accurately I've allowed work or life to get in the way - but overall they have got easier and I've tried to add in elements of them to runs or walking (such as clenching glutes and core as I go) and doing some supplementary exercises I've found or have been told about on a few days. I feel like I'm a little stronger.
Its back to the physio tomorrow and I'll have a number of questions - what's the long term plan and prognosis, am I doing the exercises right, should I be feeling any pain during or post run, exactly when should I feel the correct muscles fire and does clenching them while active actually help? She's going to love treating me!
Lastly, we've also been walking in the Dales the last 3 Sundays. Nothing too arduous but enough to add a bit of variety to the exercise regime.
Last Sunday was climbing up Pen-y-ghent, which was surprisingly easy to climb (as in my legs felt no great challenge) but a bit hairy in the last bit when you literally climb on hands and feet up the last hundred metres of steep, wet, and occasionally loose stone with a significant drop behind you, all the time buffeted by quite a strong wind.
Friday, 12 March 2010
The Mary Whitehouse philosophy AKA Keeping it clean
I said the weight loss was under way again and that I'd update soon didn't I?
Well, with my customary efficiency here's the update...er...several days later.
Without running to give me structure and discipline I'd been struggling not to gain weight again. Since October my weight had gone up through missing the expenditure of calories running gave and through the wallowing in chocolate fuelled self pity.
That maybe gives an insight into my character: one of all or nothing. Once running was off the agenda I went to pieces, and without some new philosophy to throw myself into I struggled to stick to doing the same old thing in terms of calorie control. Remember that, I'll return to it lower down.
I'd heard loosely about clean eating and was aware there were some adherents on weightlossresources.co.uk that had had some really impressive results - see JAG's blog from the followers list (I know, if I wasn't a Luddite and/or lazy I'd have linked to it) - but the wholesome white picket fences, bleached teeth and apple pie on Sundays American-ness of the presentation of cleaning eating websites put me off looking further.
Towards the end of February I decided to look a little more and on the back of that ordered a clean eating recipe book and 'Clean Eating for Men'. They weren't difficult books to read and the principles could probably have been covered in a few pages rather than being wrapped up within the schmaltzy overblown presentation present in the second book, though I recognise the author has a living to make and books will make far more than pamphlets.
However, the core principles were something that appealed and I decide to give it a go - if nothing else as a kick start for a few weeks.
I immediately loved it. The recipes proved to be really, really good and got me using some new ingredients as well as creating some interesting new dishes. The eating 6 smaller meals a day proved easier to accomplish than I'd expected and meant I never felt hungry; in fact I seemed to be permanently in a state of having either just finished a meal or was just about to start one.
As well as the regularity of eating changing there was also the requirement to increase the amount of protein eaten as well as an avoidance of processed foods wherever possible. This meant eating more fruit (dried and fresh) than I normally would, nuts and seeds, wholemeal granary bread and brown rice rather than their refined alternatives, lots of unadorned cereals, lots of lean meat, lots of peanut butter instead of spreads etc.
In fact one really surprising feature was that many of the clean, wholesome foods I've been eating lately are exactly the sorts of things I'd have previously avoided because their calorie count seemed too high: dried fruit, peanut butter, lean meat. Instead I'd have had low fat crisps, weight watchers 'cookies', diet pop and squash, awful tasting 'diet' spreads, lower calorie sweets etc, none of which offered much nutritional value or proved very satisfying.
Having been struggling to sleep for a few weeks I also dropped tea and coffee at the same time, so I'm caffeine free now.
So, for the last two and a half weeks I've eaten 95% clean, with the other 5% being a Horlicks light or Ovaltine light as a late evening snack most days.
The results have been impressive. Firstly its enthused me, second its got me feeling better, thirdly I'm sleeping better, fourth my overall health seems better, and finally I've lost weight well:
After a week I'd lost exactly 8lb and the body composition measurements told me virtually all of it was fat. Second week the loss dropped to 2.4lb, again virtually all fat, and after 3 days of this week its down another 0.4lb but I suspect I'll see a sudden drop over the next 2 days. Clothes are markedly looser and I look far slimmer.
Remember I said I was all or nothing, in terms of character? Well, far from a kick start I can see myself sticking to a clean eating philosophy permanently. There will doubtless be days where I won't or maybe can't stick to it entirely but I'll work round those but sweets, chocolate, biscuits and the like feel like things I can happily move to the 'no thanks, I don't' list just as I did with alcohol.
Well, with my customary efficiency here's the update...er...several days later.
Without running to give me structure and discipline I'd been struggling not to gain weight again. Since October my weight had gone up through missing the expenditure of calories running gave and through the wallowing in chocolate fuelled self pity.
That maybe gives an insight into my character: one of all or nothing. Once running was off the agenda I went to pieces, and without some new philosophy to throw myself into I struggled to stick to doing the same old thing in terms of calorie control. Remember that, I'll return to it lower down.
I'd heard loosely about clean eating and was aware there were some adherents on weightlossresources.co.uk that had had some really impressive results - see JAG's blog from the followers list (I know, if I wasn't a Luddite and/or lazy I'd have linked to it) - but the wholesome white picket fences, bleached teeth and apple pie on Sundays American-ness of the presentation of cleaning eating websites put me off looking further.
Towards the end of February I decided to look a little more and on the back of that ordered a clean eating recipe book and 'Clean Eating for Men'. They weren't difficult books to read and the principles could probably have been covered in a few pages rather than being wrapped up within the schmaltzy overblown presentation present in the second book, though I recognise the author has a living to make and books will make far more than pamphlets.
However, the core principles were something that appealed and I decide to give it a go - if nothing else as a kick start for a few weeks.
I immediately loved it. The recipes proved to be really, really good and got me using some new ingredients as well as creating some interesting new dishes. The eating 6 smaller meals a day proved easier to accomplish than I'd expected and meant I never felt hungry; in fact I seemed to be permanently in a state of having either just finished a meal or was just about to start one.
As well as the regularity of eating changing there was also the requirement to increase the amount of protein eaten as well as an avoidance of processed foods wherever possible. This meant eating more fruit (dried and fresh) than I normally would, nuts and seeds, wholemeal granary bread and brown rice rather than their refined alternatives, lots of unadorned cereals, lots of lean meat, lots of peanut butter instead of spreads etc.
In fact one really surprising feature was that many of the clean, wholesome foods I've been eating lately are exactly the sorts of things I'd have previously avoided because their calorie count seemed too high: dried fruit, peanut butter, lean meat. Instead I'd have had low fat crisps, weight watchers 'cookies', diet pop and squash, awful tasting 'diet' spreads, lower calorie sweets etc, none of which offered much nutritional value or proved very satisfying.
Having been struggling to sleep for a few weeks I also dropped tea and coffee at the same time, so I'm caffeine free now.
So, for the last two and a half weeks I've eaten 95% clean, with the other 5% being a Horlicks light or Ovaltine light as a late evening snack most days.
The results have been impressive. Firstly its enthused me, second its got me feeling better, thirdly I'm sleeping better, fourth my overall health seems better, and finally I've lost weight well:
After a week I'd lost exactly 8lb and the body composition measurements told me virtually all of it was fat. Second week the loss dropped to 2.4lb, again virtually all fat, and after 3 days of this week its down another 0.4lb but I suspect I'll see a sudden drop over the next 2 days. Clothes are markedly looser and I look far slimmer.
Remember I said I was all or nothing, in terms of character? Well, far from a kick start I can see myself sticking to a clean eating philosophy permanently. There will doubtless be days where I won't or maybe can't stick to it entirely but I'll work round those but sweets, chocolate, biscuits and the like feel like things I can happily move to the 'no thanks, I don't' list just as I did with alcohol.
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