Week 14 – Full appraisal

I have been at this diet now for several months and have seen some great success. I have noticed though, that over the last few weeks my weight loss hasn’t been as good as I would have hoped for. That being said I have had a few weeks which aren’t conducive to losing weight so I’m not overly concerned – I just feel it is now time to take stock and see where I am at so that I can give myself a new start – a reboot if you like – to push on and continue my journey with greater success.

Firstly my weigh in.

INITIAL WEIGH IN  17ST 0

LAST WEEK              16st 0.0lbs

TODAY………………..15st 12.5lbs

So a loss of 1.5lbs – incredible considering the week I have had. I was expecting a big gain!!!

I said last week my plan was to do 2 fast days, Tuesday and Thursday.

Tuesday went ok – We had carpet fitters round so I spent a lot of the day moving furniture and didn’t manage to hit the gym. It was a hot day so drank lots of water through the day and we had a BBQ for dinner – chicken kebabs, minted Lamb and salad.

Wednesday the carpet fitters came back to finish the job – so again lots of moving furniture and no gym. Ate well throughout the day with another BBQ for dinner.

Thursday was meant to be my 2nd fast day. I didn’t have breakfast and went to the gym for an insanity class. Really pushed myself knowing it was my only class of the week. Now, I have discussed how my wife is currently heavily pregnant. She was off work last week and our daughter was at nursery. I realised that this was going to be one of the last chances we would have to go out for lunch together with no kids in trail – just the two of us. She was a little surprised I wanted to break my fast day, however, I felt it important to treat her considering I was going away for the weekend. We went to a local Japanese restaurant (Momo – Staines) and had (amazing) dumplings and sushi. I also had dinner so a failed fast day but for the right reasons.

Friday Saturday and Sunday saw me away for my golf weekend. Myself and 9 mates left at 9am for the 3 1/2 hour drive to Ashbury Manor in Devon. This is a huge golf complex with 5 golf courses, accommodation blocks, full board and a bar – throw in a pool and other leisure facilities it can be a great weekend. You have to use golf buggies so not the usual 7-10 mile walk however the buggies need to remain on the buggy path so you are walking lots if you don’t hit you ball near said path!!! It is also very hilly and you may hit your shot and walk to the green instead of walking back to the buggy leaving your playing partner to drive – 3 rounds of golf probably meant 3-5 miles of walking per round so not too bad. The meals there are generally plentiful. Mostly it is help yourself and breakfast can be a full english (bacon eggs sausages etc. Or there are choices of cereal and fruit. Lunch is buffet style with salads, chips, ham, pate, loaded potato skins, spring rolls etc. Dinner is 3 course. The starter is buffet style similar to lunch, The main a few choices off the menu with pudding – cake, ice cream or cheese.

One thing I noticed is that i am making much better choices. For breakfast, instead of piling my plate high I just had scrambled egg on toast. Lunches I ate lots – always hungry after golf. For dinner I had the vegetarian option both nights. Several years ago I read “The Prison Diaries” trilogy by Jeffery Archer. This was his diary written at a time when in Jail – in there he said he became a VIP – a “vegetarian in prison”. The main meals are cooked en-masse so are generally poor in nature whereas if you require a specific dietary requirement the meals are cooked specially – thus greater care is given. I took this philosophy to my dinners during this weekend and was greatly rewarded – my mates had some horrible dry chicken on the first night whereas I had a fabulous vegetarian lasagna – so good that on the 2nd night I wasn’t the only one opting for the vegetarian option. Apparently a great philosophy of eating in many situations where food is cooked for a large number of people so conferences or long haul flights the same idea works.

On top of all this I drank a lot – my drink of choice in these settings is Guinness and had more than a few pints – followed by wine – followed by a few whiskeys – so my good choices on food counteracted by the booze!!!

Now for the golf – skip this part of it doesn’t interest you…. scroll to golf free zone

I play to an 18 handicap – I can hit the ball a long way but am not overly consistent. We played in teams of 5 match play. I played singles on days one and two and foursomes on day 3. The first days singles stableford score also went towards the individual trophy so we had to complete 18 holes regardless of how the match play score ended. This was good as I won 6&5 and eventually scored 34 points and won the individual trophy by a country mile.

On day two I played one of my best mates Will. I never beat him – he is very consistent and was playing off 16 so I only got two shots – not enough by my reckoning as he usually beats me by 5-10 shots. This time he didn’t and I won 5&4. I think it was a mixture of him not playing well and me playing better than usual – nice though that when it matters I came out on top – but I’ve promised not to mention it too much!!!

On day 3 I played foursomes with a 28 handicap player against two other high handicappers, I didn’t play as well today and the match came to the 18th. A 210 yard par 3 – they put their ball in the rough 100 yards right of the green whereas I put mine 5 ft short of the green straight at the pin. We won the game 1 up. So three games and three points helped my team to win the team trophy as well – I think it is likely my handicap may be cut for next year!!!.

golf free zone!!!!

After our 3 1/2 hour drive home I had Jacket potato and tuna for dinner.

Monday wasn’t meant to be a fast day but I woke up and decided I should give it a go, especially considering I failed my fast day on Thursday – it was a tiring weekend and I thought a fast day immediately would be too much but I managed to make it all day and just had our special salad for dinner. Our special salad consisted of roasted butternut, carrot and pumpkin (we often also add parsnips, beetroot, onion, garlic etc or any combination of them all) Basically cube everything up, drizzle in olive oil, balsamic or, on this occasion, a homemade Moroccan spice and roast in the oven. Once cooked pile high on a bed of rocket and add toasted pine nuts and raisins – delicious. In the past we would add feta cheese, however Brendas intolerance to dairy and my better choices now mean this isn’t added!

I didn’t gym on Monday – The weekend really took it out of me and felt the gym would be a step too far.

The week in total

2 fast days, 1 gym session, lots of furniture moving and a boys weekend. Really didn’t expect to lose weight, let alone 1.5lbs so really pleased and able to move forward with some purpose.

My full appraisal will start with body measurements.

DATE	19 Jan 2015	10 Feb 2015	24 Feb 2015	27 Mar 2015	22 Apr 2015
WEIGHT (KG)	108	104	102.5	101.3	100.9
WEIGHT (STONE)	17st 0.25 lbs	16st5.0lbs	16st 2.0lbs	16st 0.75	15st 12.5
NECK (inches)	16.25	16.00	15.8	15.8	15.8
CHEST (inches)	44	43.5	43	42.5	42.5
STERNUM (inches)	41	38.75	37.5	37	37
HIPS (inches)	44	43	42	41	41
WAIST (inches)	40	39.5	39.25	38.75	38.75

So no major changes – which is fine considering what the last 3 weeks have involved.

My full appraisal now will look at all the pics – I have taken new pics today so can see any changes.

Slight losses so good here.

Again – I think some minor changes in this latest pic – more so round the jaw line!!!

I’m not sure about this latest pic – but a decent marker going forward!!!

So that is where I am at – a few weeks of excess due birthdays and a boys weekend. Just under 9 weeks until the baby arrives and nothing else (planned) that should get in the way of me fasting and gyming as I want to!!!

Richard