Tuesday 19 July 2011

Update #5 - Cheating and the 7 Deadly B's

Bliksem! It's difficult to comprehend what a powerful instrument your brain really is ... I'm referring back to that stupid McDonald's double quarter pounder I had last weekend and how one single innocent little burger totally mind-fucked me the whole of last week! Not only did I convince myself that I wasn't eating enough, I was actually convinced that I was in starvation mode and therefore needed to eat more!!! 

Luckily I didn't completely pig out during the week (although the Wacky Wednesday and Colonel Burger on Thursday might disagree) but once the weekend started I went totally overboard. Having scooted through to my weekend destination near Rust de Winter with a couple of friends, I decided there and then that I needed a break from 5 weeks of semi-religious dieting which leads to the first of the deadly B's - Biltong! No normal semi-starving human being can spend a reasonable amount of time on a game farm without giving into the heavenly temptation of biltong. (The problem is that my resistance only lasted a couple of minutes at most)

Which eventually leads to the second B of course ... being pretty salty, eating copious amounts of biltong can  lead to the Great Thirst and off course hanging out with the manne in the bushveld can only mean drinking Beer! ... lovely, and let's just rather leave it at that. 

Once again, being on a game farm and stoking a humongous bonfire goes hand in hand (like Julius Malema and bloody agents) which in turn led to Deadly B numbers three, four and five (and I hope you guessed correctly) - BraavleisBraaibroodjies and Boerewors - Oh my it was freaking awesome! OK, OK I lie, I wish we had steak and chops and wors and braaibroodjies, that was the plan anyway, but with everyone feeling slightly tipsy by that time it was decided it was easier to simply prepare some food in the kitchen (actually that's another fib, most of my friends were pretty wasted by this time so I'm quite confident that I could have gotten away with that little white lie ... in reality we had the most awesome fillet and paptert, which at the end of the day is another deadly combo I suppose ?)

So tummies full, feeling slightly tipsy and warming up next to the fire on a cold winters evening, there is simply nothing better on earth than to slowly enjoy a beautiful Brandewyn! (Brandy & Cola) or Richelieu and Coke Zero to be precise ... the more the better of course!!! Anyway, to make a long boring story a lit bit shorter let's just say that many, many hours, brandy's and Disprins later, nothing cures a hangover better than a slightly greasy Bacon! and scrambled egg breakfast. (being in the bush and not having a Red Bull and Bar One close by basically qualified anything else as the #1 cure) Not having had my absolute favourite food in the whole world for at least 5 weeks I naturally made up for lost time and all I can say is that it was GOOD! 

So ja, there you have it ... my couple of days of insanity to escape the diet madhouse which all started with a bloody Mickey Dee burger. I'm pretty glad I didn't have an opportunity to go weigh myself last weekend because looking at everything I ate it feels like I probably backtracked about 2 weeks in my journey, but on the other hand I can still feel it in my pants (quite literally) that I'm still way smaller than I was 5 weeks ago. Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself again that my feeding frenzy last week wasn't quite the fustercluck it really was but my next weigh in this coming weekend will probably reveal all. For those few supporters who actually do read this blog and is now sitting there in horror let me just finish off by saying that for some strange reason I don't feel nearly as confuckulated in the head as I did last week ... the past 2 days has been A for away as far as motivation was concerned and I've been eating exactly to plan so hopefully everything is back on track! 

Will keep you posted this coming weekend.


P.S Sorry about the delayed update ... my laptop hard drive decided to grind itself to pieces last week (which  was maybe another reason for me going off the reservation for a while) and I only received it back today ... not bad for something that was purchased with a next business day onsite warranty isn't it? Luckily this isn't the place nor the time to rant about shoddy South African service! 

Sunday 10 July 2011

Update #4 ... Eating Habits vs Swine Flu vs Mickey Dee

Let me start with saying that at least I don't have the dreaded H1N1 but it sure as hell feels like it. Started feeling a bit under the weather by Tuesday and by Wednesday it had developed into a full blown case of whatever flu is running rampant these days. Under the circumstances I think I did quite alright and didn't give into the temptation of feeling sorry for myself and go into a eating frenzy (which is usually the case whenever I feel sorry for myself) ... Not until today that is.

I feel like such an idiot but after 5 weeks of dieting and convincing myself that all the fruit and veggies in the world isn't good for surviving a bout of flu, today I fell into the temptation of a McDonald's double quarter pounder with cheese ... maybe it's a blessing in disguise because not only did it satisfy the craving I had slowly but surely been developing over the past week or two but once I finished the damn thing it made me realize how disgusting McDonald's actually is ... fuck, it actually makes me nauseous just thinking about it so believe me I definitely won't be having anything as drastic in the very near future!!! Maybe a choppie or two might sway my hard fought for convictions but I'll try my best.


Luckily my lapse in concentration also came in after my weigh in session yesterday which saw me pushing the scales just past 170kg ... 171.3kg to be exact. That would make my total weight loss 14.9 kg in 5 weeks (but having had the stupid McDees today probably wiped out everything I accomplished over the past week ... only time will tell) All of this does sound fantastic but I am slightly concerned that everything is going to fast. According to the guys over at Fat 2 Fit Radio, weight loss of up to 1% of body weight per week is acceptable for the massively obese (or up to 1kg per week for you normal skinny people) otherwise you stand a very good chance of not only losing fat or water mass, but muscle mass as well which is terrible for your metabolism in the long run. Looking at my starting weight this means I can safely loose 1.7 - 1.8 kg per week (or 9kg over 5 weeks which makes 15kg look a bit worrisome) Not only does muscle burn more calories than fat but loosing weight too quickly may also lead to your body switching to "starvation mode" which stops any weight loss that may be going on and also start the body to store anything consumed as "fat" just in case it doesn't get any food in the near future. All of this basically leads to the typical diet yo-yo effect. Anyway, enough of the scientific stuff, I'm not an expert ... if you need a more info head over to Fat 2 Fit Radio where they will explain everything in detail.

So, there you have it, this week's update. Just one last thing before signing off , I have calculated that my average daily intake is definitely below my BMR which isn't a good thing so over the coming weeks I'm going to try to tweak my diet a bit to contain a little more calories just so that I can keep my weight loss in the safe zone (obviously something else that one can to do to keep muscle mass stable is to start an exercise routine but honestly with the flu and winter and me being a lazy ass that won't happen very soon). Talking of exercise, I know walking around the block is a cheap and effective way to get started but let's say for arguments sake that I'm interested in buying aerobic equipment, be it a stationary bike, an elliptical trainer, a treadmill or even a rowing machine, they are all mostly designed for small people!!!! Bloody hell, all the locally manufactured (and affordable) Trojan equipment has a weight limit of 110-120kg which makes them pretty useless for really fat people. The imported, commercial exercise machines with maximum weight capacities in excess of 150kg all cost in the region of R20,000 - R30,000 ... please allow me to repeat, BLOODY HELL!!! Just another excuse for me not to start exercising!

This coming weekend I have plans to go away for the weekend (to a lovely bushveld retreat) so I won't really have a chance for a weigh in but I'll still try to do an update next week Sunday. (for what it's worth)

Cheers

Saturday 2 July 2011

Update #3 - Soup in Winter Rules ... OK?

Another week done and dusted and feeling better than ever ... having lost another 2.5 kilos during the week and clocking in at an almost aerodynamic 173kg this morning sure is reason to feel good (That makes it 13.2 kg lost in just under a month). Just a pity I have another 73kg's to go but I'm sure I'll eventually get there!

The reason for my title is a follow up from last week when I mentioned developing a craving for my parents weekly soup brew and me going to try and attempt something similar ... anyway, with my first attempt at making a pot of soup from scratch behind me I can successfully report back that it was mission accomplished. Having a nice hearty bowl of soup instead of a bland old skinless chicken breast with a heap of unappetizing veggies nearly brought a tear to my eye. OK, just kidding ... the soup was a nice change though, almost to such a degree that I was beginning to doubt whether it is allowed on my diet plan. Luckily after a quick chat with my dietician she re-assured me that soup was 100% acceptable as long as the weight of the protein / carb combo didn't exceed my meal allowance. Adding water to that doesn't alter the calorific value of the actual food. So ja, I was more than chuffed to say the least. 

Now onto 2 quick topics I've never ever seen being discussed or even mentioned as being an advantage of dieting. I'm not talking about all the well known reasons like you'll feel better about yourself, you'll be more attractive to the opposite sex, you'll perform better in bed, you won't die of a heart-attack at age 42, you won't develop type II diabetes and lose your legs due to bad blood circulation types reasons, oh no!  In my personal opinion what you are about to read is an exclusive world first so listen up ... 

#1 Doing the dishes becomes an absolute doddle (unless you’re doing the Atkins thing off course) ... basically going the fat free route means no more pots and pans and hours of elbow grease to get rid of the damn burnt oil or whatever tried to bond with the so-called non-stick Teflon surface (yeah right!) Anyway, I found myself turning more and more to plastic containers and microwave cooking than anything else and this makes doing the dishes nothing more than a quick rinse job every evening! Major Bonus! 

#2 You can wear 2 pairs of pants ... ok, ok, this really only works after a couple of weeks of weight-loss and in winter (unless you live in the Antarctic or Greenland)  ... having experienced a particularly cold snap last week and my office at work closely resembling an industrial fridge I was in the lucky position to wear a pair of sweat pants underneath my trousers to work without anybody noticing. Well it was either that or sit in my office with a blanky covering my legs ala granny style! Talking of trousers, I have to seriously start looking for some old pants in my closet since my current size 54’s is waaaayy to big for me!

So there you have it ... 2 absolutely unique Top Tips to get you going on your very own journey! Ok, maybe it wasn’t as earth shattering for you as it was for me but I simply hate doing dishes and I’m too much of a man’s man to show any sign of weakness. Maybe, just maybe you feel the same way and may find that kind of info useful in future.

Well that’s it for this week. Luckily the Stormers lost to the Crusaders today otherwise I may have been obliged to go out celebrating which in turn would have led to who knows what (nothing beats Bar One and Red Bull to cure a babbelas) So thank you boys for playing like your arses today, you have done me a huge favour!!! 

Cheers till next time!