The first four weeks are over, and the measurements are in!
Waist - 114cm (Down 4cm if the first time was right)
Hip - 107cm (what?! Must have got it wrong the first time)
Arm - 37cm (Down 2cm if the first time was right)
Chest - 118cm (Down 2cm, woo! Hope the first time wasn't wrong!)
Thigh - 66cm (Down 1cm if the first time was right)
Neck - 44cm (no change)
There's not much to it, you only need to know a few things. Although if someone more knowledgeable wants to correct me, feel free!
1) Limit yourself to around 1500 calories a day, 2000 if you don't mind stretching it a little bit.
2) All the nutritional information is on the side of pretty much every food packet possible. It's mostly in Kj (in Metric countries, anyway), but you just divide the number by 4 to get the number of calories. So something with 400kj is roughly 100 calories, etc.
3) Keep track of it all, like I did above. Cereal has 1 cup per serving, and 1 cup is X amount of calories. Milk has X amount of calories per serve. The combined amount is your calorie count for that meal. Easy!
4) exercise! Half an hour's worth of jogging will - as far as I know, and I'm happy to "run" with it - burns about 300-400 calories.
Resisting temptation is a lot easier when you make sure you only stock the pantry with healthy stuff. Even if I wound up binge-eating, I'd only have apples and carrots and rice cakes to choose from! We've only got one car, so it's not like I can jump in the car and drive to the supermarket for a tub of ice-cream, because Fi's usually got the car at work (I work from home, so she takes the car during the day).
That said, we live next door to a 7-Eleven and the only thing I've bought since we started eating well was a Calippo and a Billabong ice-cream as a little treat. Compared to the rubbish I was buying there in the months leading up to Christmas, I'm doing pretty good on the self-control front!
Today's eating...
Brekky: Big bowl of Nutri-Grain and Skinny Milk (About 400-500 calories)
Nutri-Grain's about 100 calories per cup, and I probably have 3 cups in my bowl.
Skinny Milk is surprisingly calorific! About 100 calories per 250ml. I have about 400ml in my bowl, maybe a bit less.
Lunch: Two toasted sandwiches. Wholewheat bread, two slices of tomato on each sandwich, 1 slice of light cheese on each, and - my guilty pleasure that I need to cut down on - a bit of light mayonnaise. (About 400-550 calories all up)
Wholewheat bread is about 300 calories for 4 slices.
Light cheese is about 100 calories for two slices, maybe a bit less.
The 4 slices of tomato would be lucky to be more than 25 calories.
The mayonnaise is 60 calories for 2 sandwiches, roughly. 100 calories at most.
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So! Right now, by lunchtime, I'm about 1000 calories under what I could technically be eating, and I feel fine. Not hungry in the slightest. This means I can snack a little bit here and there later in the day, and a light dinner to top it off (could have more, but it being night, I wouldn't want to consume energy that would be going to waste).
Sweet!
It helps that Fi is always around. I had a burger at Hungry Jack's after a friend's birthday last week, and I felt pretty bad about it! I mean, I'm entitled to a burger here and there, but still.
So yeah, if Fi hadn't been there at my folks, I might have had that slice of birthday cake. It's not something I'd be regretting though, because like I said; the way I'm eating right now, I'm damn well entitled to the odd bit of junk here and there! That said, it felt great to knock it back and not mind at all, heh.
We visited my folks today, and it's the day after my sister's birthday so there was plenty of cake in the fridge. I could have had a slice if I wanted - in line with my decision to not be too hardcore about the diet side of things - but I didn't. Didn't feel the urge, really. It's a small thing, but it's important, ya know? To acknowledge that yeah, cake is delicious, but I'm pretty happy without it.
Same with soda. I haven't had any soda for 2 weeks now, and it's been easy! Admittedly I have cordial too often at the moment, but I'm not sure yet if that's such a bad thing. I drink a shedload of water every day, so I reckon the odd cordial here and there each day should be okay.
So, looks like I've started a fitness blog. That little animated jackass of a paperclip in MS Word even popped up and asked me if I'd like help writing it. Okay, I made that last bit up. I'm hoping this blog will help to further inspire me - and maybe anyone else who happens to stumble across it - to stick to my fitness and health regimen. There's nothing hardcore about it; I'm simply jogging a few laps of our local football ground every morning with my girlfriend, and cutting as much junk food and drinks out of my diet. That means results will come slower than a hardcore diet and fitness regimen, but it's a good permanent lifestyle change and it should mean that everything will fall into place on its own.
I'll post a more in-depth entry very soon!
Well, I guess this is Day 1!
Yesterday - well, last night - I went and did our food shopping. I spent about a hundred bucks (Aussie dollars), and bought as healthy as I could while also maintaining enough variety to stop me getting bored with the selection and wandering over to the local 7-11 (which, painfully, is right next door).
Can't remember what else, but basically it's all pretty good. I mean, a few things there aren't perfect, but I think it's important to not be too hardcore about it. I think that'd be too hard to maintain, so I'm trying to include some things that - while still pretty healthy - also add a bit of the greedy pleasure to the diet without being too hardcore.
So, today!
Today we had some Nutri-Grain for breakfast, with light milk (well, soy milk for Fiona, she's lactose intolerant), and a couple of hours later we went for a jog at a local grass-based athletics track. We want to do it every morning, before work, and I think we can do it. We'll have to manage our sleep better - I have a tendency to sit up drawing or chatting online until around 12am-1am. That's gonna have to stop!
We walked one brisk lap around the track, and then broke into a slow-medium and even jog. We did this for half a lap, and then walked briskly for another half. We continued this for only another 4 or 5 laps, which I guess shows that we've got a long way to go! In my defence, I did have a motorbike accident a couple of months ago that caused some bad rib bruising on my back, and some muscle soreness in my left knee which is still present, but - thankfully - slowly fading. It didn't bother me too much during the jogging though, so that's great.
And that's pretty much all we did! I want to expand on it a little, with some pushups and situps and squats and so forth, but we might give it a month before we start including that. I know we'd probably be better off doing it now, but hey... little steps!
Some stats:
Van: My current weight is about 102-105kg I believe, but I'll have to confirm. I'm 5'10"
MEASUREMENTS!
Mike:
waist - 118cm
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