The New Plan - Day Nine

The countdown to the end, race to the finish etc... 8 days to go.

This is the 3 of 5 fasting days in the final week (just over a week).

Not much to add today - still in the mid 84's today not gaining or losing and while not eating loads, there are still carbs to keep the loss at bay. If I regressed to totally Raw then I'm sure I would be declining still.

However with all diets this is a long game not a lose every day game and patience is a virtue.

I have lost over 40 kilos to get here and that did not happen in a steady downward daily slope. In fact in many blog entries before today I suspect I had reached the dreaded plateau only to find myself progressing again as time wears on. Often I would gain a few kilos ( which is depressing, though it should not be ) before I started losing again.

A change is as good as a rest and sometime you have to let your body adjust to the new way of doing things, it has a mind of it's own, the metabolism.

However wait it out, just over a week to go.

Eyes on the prize blah blah blah.

Not that there's a prize at the end.

The New Plan - Day Eight

Countdown to the end of dieting day eight, nine to go.

Well I seem to have stalled, plateaued or whatever you want to call it - even though am steadily exercising and eating pretty well. It happens on a regular basis come the weekend - seemingly no matter what.

However over all am still in the 84 kilo range and have between 1 and 2 kilos to get to 82 and the upper end of my BMI range (depending on who you believe) which in itself is a bit arbitrary. According to the NHS site I should be 79.9 to be "within a healthy weight" and while I could make it there it seems too much to loose that much in 9 days. I could probably do that if I tried ADF (alternate day fasting) but that seems extreme and punishing, which I would not do. There's pushing yourself and then theres being obsessive about the goal. According to another site 82.6 was the upper range of healthy and BMI. Originally when I checked a few weeks ago on an app I downloaded it also said 75 kgs to 82 kgs is healthy for a man my height and age.

I'm not convinced of the scientific nature of any of these figures. I can see that BMI is calculated mathematically and that stats support the health benefits if you are in that range, but the link to that figure is associative not causative in what I have seen so far. And frankly if you are overweight then of course your health suffers.

Anyway - obviously the plateau has a psychological effect even for a few days - hence my obsession with the detail and reasoning now.

Stay the course and commit to the small change you can make now. It's worked for me so far and I'll be happy to get to my goal stated eight days ago.

82 something here I come.

Fasting day tomorrow and again on thursday so I know at least that my plateau will disappear shortly, but this time from a lower starting point.

The New Plan - Day Seven

10 days to go on the last of my diets - the "a bit of everything that worked" ...

Yesterday only 400 calories burned and 1400 consumed, however still dropping slowly towards the BMI range.

Went out to dinner but consumed nothing as my eight hour rule meant I had to finish eating before 6:30 rolled around.

Not too hard to do despite the fantastic smell of meat cooking on the BBQ - as with a Raw dinner I would not have been eating that anyway. The other advantage in going to someone's place, particularly someone not seen in a while - the overwhelmingly positive reception to the "new"  you is very positively reinforcing. The idea that you are not just "on a diet"  but have physically transformed yourself is ever present and people often answer their questions of "do you want...." with "oh, no thats right" and the job is done for you.

Efficient.

Middle of Easter and no chocolate consumed. Appropriate as I started this the first day after Easter last year and sealed the deal with a Cadbury Creme Egg which at the time I thought was way too sweet and  sickening anyway. I feel no desire for one now.

I could go some plain chocolate, but the desire is not huge, probably more driven by the occasional scent of the kids who seem bathed in it.

I did find some sugar-free chocolate milk mix, surprisingly tasty and very lo-cal. There's more calories in the Skim Milk I put it in. It's from Avalanche Coffee and I recommend it if you feel like a fix.

10 days to go. 84.4 Kilos - still on track.

The New Plan - Day Six

The Countdown to the end, Day Six 11 to go.

Day after a fasting day weight creeps up again, the trick is to not overeat. For the day I consumed about three quarters of the calories required by me on a daily basis and stuck as much as possible to the diet conglomeration. At 84.5 Kgs still on tack for the big picture of continual reduction towards BMI weight some 1.5 kilos to go in just under two weeks.

The thing that has surprised me, when it really should not, is how much sugar is in everything. I went though this a year ago and was shocked and amazed by the amount of food that has sugar in it. Today I was in the supermarket and checked the label of the food i had been eating and discovered I had not been as sugar free as I want to be. Working from memory on food I thought was ok was obviously a mistake.

It seemed like even the diet drinks were being hidden from me today and I searched high and low for food labels on everything.

Yesterday I had an omelettte for lunch with vegetables and chorizo in it. Fine except the chorizo had sugar in it. Tomorrow I'm making Pizza's for a family lunch and I could not find deli meats that did not have sugar in them. I had to go to a butcher and get the made on premises stuff and a verbal guarantee that there was only meat and spices (not one of which was sugar) in them.

I know it's only a small amount, but all those small amounts add up and dammit if I make a rule I am going to stick to it. It annoys me greatly to have to revise and replan because I have things in my diet that should not be there.

Salad for dinner is working well for me and having a decent protein based lunch, am not running out of energy or getting too hungry. Waiting until 10 or 11 for breakfast is a little harder especially with the 6:30 a.m. bike ride. However on 11 days to go and I feel like it's in reach to get to BMI or even lower.

The New Plan - Day Five

The New Plan Day Five, 12 days to go.

Second of 5 fasting days between the start of the new plan and the end of my year of dieting.

As always the day of fasting produces results but the issue is usually one of not overcompensating the next day. And not taking the inevitable weight gain in one day as indicative of a trend.

Yesterday my weight rose slightly because of the previous fast, today it dropped to a new low of 83.9.

Technically I am now one kilo off of my goal weight, but in reality it's more like 1.5 kilos as I will be eating a proper amount of food today. Albeit in sugar-free, low carb and other disciplines applied.

Keep up the double exercise and the diet disciplines is still relatively easy but does require some effort. It was certainly harder on the second fasting day compared to the first and compared to the month of it I did earlier.

I have been reading Michael Mosely's the Fast Diet for tips and some background science and theory on this diet and am finding it interesting.

As I plan to write a diet book myself it is good to see what else is out there. It is common to see a diet book filled with suggested dinner plans or recipes, not sure if this is just filler, expected or a good element to add for people who need help deciding what to eat. I also added a description and some keywords to my blog and made it so it can be found. Feels a bit weird to refer to myself as "as seen on TV" but hey there it is.

Anyway, yesterday burned 900 odd calories and consumed 600 or so.
Ate 2x Plums and an orange for breakfast.
2x pieces of Terakihi and a salad for lunch
2x Plums for dinner.

I like plums, they are filling.

The New Plan - Day Four

The New Plan Day Four - Thirteen Days to go.

Weight yo-yos on a regular basis - this is something I have learned even as I was shedding kilos and kilos at a time - on a day to day basis it does fluctuate.

It CAN be very disheartening and depressing - even if you are expecting it and understand that it is a part of dieting and your body adjusting. 

This is where daily weighing can cause problems - if it does then I guess it's best to focus on the week to week drops.

I am only 300 grams off yesterdays total at 85.1 and I am still just around 2 kilos from goal weight. Because Tuesday was a fasting day the balancing and body compensation from the day after fasting still have to be factored in. However - if you look at the drop from Monday to Wednesday it is still on the decline.

Today is the second fasting so am expecting another drop tomorrow and a resettling on the weekend.

Less than 2 weeks to go and weekends can be the hardest to get through as you face the temptation of a fridge and cupboards and food on demand with little distractio.

However I have a plan, bought a new games console (Wii U) and will be prepping the house for painting over the next 10 days so that will not only keep me busy and active, it will distract me with work to do.

Yesterday burned 900 cals and consumed around 900 cals. Sticking to the Raw Dinner, zero snacks and the 8 hour rule as well as completely sugar free. There's probably a few crossovers with other diets but still feeling on track.

Weight = 85.1 Kgs.

The New Plan - Day Three

Day Three of the Uber Diet

Another 14 days to go and my first day of Intermittent fasting in the mix - as such the largest daily drop I have seen for a while, but such is to be expected. The Issue is what to do/eat on the off days. As I am tryng to combine all the good parts of the diets into one effective and targeted plan it will be interesting to see if I can avoid the usual bounce back today.

Yesterday Consumed 573 Calories, Burned 928
Breakfast was fresh fruit.
Lunch was an Apple and Walnut Salad that compromised about 50% of my daily intake,
Rounded the day out with fruit and dried fruit for dinner.

Started yesterday at 86.2 started today at a new low of 84.8 in other words less than 2 kilos to go to BMI goal of 82.9 or less.

Because the time frame is really quite tight and the regime is strict I feel like I am actually making a real effort here, though without compromising health or food standards to get there.

Getting back to Fasting was harder than I remember it but it certainly helps when combined with the other disciplines.