Day 31 - KNACKERED!

Just read Dominic's post and feel his pain. Everyone else feeling tired?

Freddie's temperature developed into a proper illness yesterday and through today, we'll need to make another trip to the Dr tomorrow, I'm just praying he sees some improvement soon. It has meant very little sleep for us this weekend.... not a great combo with the tapering diet and workouts - but no one said this would be easy.

On the positive side, I'm starting to feel that the visual changes are kicking in now... especially around the upper body and abs. Nath and I have just watched the 8 minute ab work out on YouTube - LOVED the music, we sat there giggling like school kids imagining how it might be interpreted if it was just audio (!!!!)

Off to bed for some much needed shut eye... fingers crossed we get it.

Broken record...

Just watching Patrick's (timely) week four video... OKAY OKAY I won't watch the stats, great timing Sarah D!

Day 30: Stats

As a reference point, I had some body fat calculations done when we arrived back in London from Hong Kong, at the start of PCP and then yesterday - plan to do it every four weeks.  These were derived from a set of four calliper measurements (stomach, thigh, arm and lovehandles.) On paper things are moving in the right direction:

April BF 22.02%, weight 64.8kgs
June BF 18.9%, weight 63.4kgs
July BF 15.4%, weight 62.2kgs

Between April and June the only influencing factor was exercise (running and weights in the gym), I didn't change my diet or stop drinking, and I was probably only exercising 4-5 times a week. It serves to highlight the benefits of the PCP routine, having had almost the same drop in BF in half the time. I'm still left feeling that the visual isn't quite as successful at this stage - Nath's just taken some pics and they look almost identical to previous pics (to me anyway), so I'm going to weight (hah!) until I see a little more change.

Day 29 - Heating up ... in more ways than one

Wow... the new workout format made an immediate impact with me, two sets of exercises focused on the same body region. I enjoyed it though (mad?) I did it in the gym with my trainer, who is relentlessly interested in the development of the project, to the point where he throws in little challenges to make it harder (holding a weight with the sit ups was not what I needed before the plank finale!)  I still struggle with the pull ups and 6 sets is a real challenge for me. However, he took some calliper measurements and thankfully they've all come in respectably since the start of PCP - will pop them up when I've got the body fat comparisons to go with.

Miss the protein (ex-whites) for dinner, but I'm sure that will improve. Nath mixed his egg white in with his stir-fried veg for dinner - looked like someone had vomited on his plate - but food is becoming increasingly functional so it wasn't too much of a distraction whilst I tucked into my salad with whites 'on the side'. How things are changing!!!!

On the downside, Freddie (the elder) has also now come down with a racing temperature so my day is finishing on a small downer - hate it when the kids are ill.

Hope everyone else managing ok with the new workouts/diets.

Classroom drop out AGAIN

Jeeeeeez I've been hungry today... no idea why, have been fine with the diet all week. Quite possibly watching my best mate devour some chocolate goodies this afternoon didn't help. Comically, she did ask my permission beforehand - this PCP mallarcky is having far-reaching consequences Patrick I hope you realise!

Was quite pleased I could work my way through the creep in the privacy of our garden yesterday - might have looked a little unusual in the gym! In fact I'm now wondering if it's on Friday's sheet, which we've yet to see, I'm doing that one with the trainer.... please say no Patrick!!!??? Mind you, I did the squat jump in the gym on Monday and noticed some rather concerned looking people move out the way rather quickly as I bounced my way down one of the main walkways. Is any of this going to end up on YouTube?

Nothing really new to report... skipping still going well, endurance improving and recovering faster. Unfortunately weight not shifting but do feel firmer. Grappling with the Vs a little - have suddenly become very aware of the small gap in my stomach muscles post childbirth, sure it wasn't quite so noticeable a few months back so going to get it checked by the GP on Friday.

CUE NATH -  just come up stairs and said "that creeps a bit weird' (he's a day behind) .....  it actually doesn't look too different to his desperate moments before visiting the loo after one too many to be fair!

And on that note, I shall depart.... not a thought you'd want to linger on.

Feeling a little deflated. Lost 2kgs steadily the first 2-3 weeks but have stagnated around 61kgs - which is the lowest I've been pretty much since I can remember (58 actually, but I was ill at the time so it didn't count.) I KNOW it's less about the weight and more about the shape, but my initial obvious improvements seem to have slowed/stagnated also.  SO I'm either not exercising thoroughly enough, not being strict enough with the food, or both - or possibly expecting too much too soon? Sounds silly saying all of this after a blog describing a non-compliant wedding (what should I expect?) but, aside from yesterday, I've been exceedingly good (honest gov!)  My trainer here in London will be checking my body fat this Friday - we agreed to do it at the end of each month - I'm hoping the changes are going on internally and my body fat has improved. We'll see. Anyone else comment on the rate of change/improvement they're noticing?

On the positive side, the skipping is going really well.... I break it down into blocks of 200 skips in an effort to moderate my heart rate and keep it south of 148bpm, and kick back in when it drops to the 125bpm mark. I'm feeling stronger and my heart is recovering much faster - when we started I couldn't go much beyond 70 skips without needing to slow it down. I've also noticed some of the strength exercises getting easier, although I do struggle with the pull ups. I've graduated onto straight leg "proper" push ups (as per the diagrams) but do need to drop to knees in the 3-4th set.... although today I raised my arms onto a shallow step up box and did all 4 sets straight legged (figured this was easier than the proper posture but still harder than dropping to knees.)

On the "odd" side, the old boobs seem to be disappearing.... a boob job might be in order once we finish this!!

time to CELEBRATE!

OK... so Rome wasn't built in a day and, if they were handing round drinks like they were at the wedding yesterday, I can totally see why.

The day started well - exercises done, PCP breakfast and lunch consumed, and off we trotted to our friends wedding believing that the wheels might come off, but not in a big way. And they didn't in a BIG way (the food wasn't too bad), but they wobbled at the first invite of a drink and became increasingly unreliable as the afternoon wore on. I'm glad to say they stayed put long enough for us to make it home without embarrassing ourselves, but that's as good as it got. Some pics attached.

We knew this wedding was coming and suspected it might present some unavoidable temptations (cakes, shelves of booze..... ) We have another coming up next month - a long, adult only weekend to Ibiza, waaaaaaaaaaay to much temptation there but I'll save the excuses until we've been. Right now, I'm glad to be firmly back on PCP soil and not at all envious of Nath's two day golf expedition.

Say CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE

Just a quick post: time for the weekly photo shoot and the boys couldn't help but get involved! Here we have Freddie demonstrating his best PCP poses and Harry laughing at us all.

Our pics are on Flickr... not sure we're seeing too many obvious changes yet, but definitely feeling a bit firmer in certain places.

This weeks been good: Harry's had a throat infection from which he's now recovering fortunately. More than this, it didn't spread to any of us which has been a godsend, not sure I could face the workouts with an illness

I'm enjoying the 'diets' (Nath grumbles about the carb portion!) but I do seem to be spending most of my waking day in the kitchen cooking. I've been good too, no foodie indiscretions yet (I'll let Nath explain himself.) Found some great recipes that don't involve much, if any non-compliant bits and pieces - will post these later today when I have more time.

We ordered some free weights this week - think both of us will prefer doing the upper body work with these. Off to do todays workout..... I hate proper pull ups!

Day 11 - Stomach and Stir Fry

Met up with my personal trainer today to run through the exercises. I'm seeing him once a week just to make sure I'm doing the exercises correctly and exploiting the full potential of Patrick's workouts. My stomach is killing me after all those leg raises (and sit ups from yesterday) - roll on the 8 minute ab workouts! Still, I think the old tummy is feeling flatter so I can't grumble, it's slowly being beaten into submission. Following on from the shoulder comment yesterday, I've definitely decided to buy some free weights.

Not really sure I've got much to add for the group's benefit  ...  although we did start stir frying our veg with water today (rather than olive oil) and have to report that it's just as tasty, especially if you load up on the chili. We binned all the nuts and dried fruit in our cupboards and reloaded with a truck load of fresh fruit and veg (I struggled to get the trolley to the car in the car park - hopefully by the end of this PCP I'll be running back to the car with our boat-load of shopping strapped to my back without even breaking a sweat.) Totally appreciate Mike D's comment about splitting time between the supermarket and kitchen, I'm amazed by the food we're getting through. Definitely recommend bulk cooking though Mike - it DOES reduce time in the kitchen in the long run.

Nath's just told me to stop boring everyone with my blog and come to bed..... he said something else, but I had better not blog that!

Night night all.....

Day 10

Enjoying the new 'diet'. Previously I was weighting my food towards the end of the day mainly due to time (kids during the day take up so much time) so I'm not grumbling about the larger breakfast/lunches. I'm thinking ahead when I cook and make sure there is a surplus of things to 'grab' in the fridge in case I'm short on time. I'm guessing the diet will change over the remaining 80 days - heard some weird and wonderful things about fruit and yoghurt at dinner time, followed by green salads at 10pm... interesting.

I'm also not minding the absence of sauces / condiments too much. I've always been a big fan of rice vinegar and that's pretty cool at giving things a kick, but I think the natural flavours are way more apparent now we've eliminated salty/processed foods. Also using lemon, pepper and chilli a lot for flavouring.

Like Nath, I've been dipping into a nut/dried fruit stash - saw Patrick's email and will be binning the rest.

Enjoying the workouts but might invest in some free weights - I find the shoulder raises with resistance bands a little tricky and did each arm singularly today give myself a little more slack (shoulders have always been a weak point for me.) Push ups are easier and I'm definitely noticing some toning to my chest, likewise my stomach with the sit ups and leg raises (but it's not that evident on the pics as yet.)

Really interested by some of the questions coming through on the question thread - ignore Nath on his sleep Qs though, always been a little precious in that regard, doubt it has anything to do with PCP! He's up there now no doubt priming his wax earplugs ....

Heart Rate Training

Hungry - mainly late morning - but doing ok on the food front. Snack on fruit and nuts if I need something. Coffee is a massive safety net for me, on both the eating and drinking front!

Great emails coming through from Patrick on the benefits of consistent, steady training - have agreed with all of this for some time and been training to that effect but, once I get going on the work outs as they are at the moment, I feel like I need/want to do more. I know this will change as the work outs get harder (can't imagine I'll be adding to the 75m work outs we've been warned to expect), but is there really any harm in doing a few extra sets of skipping provided I keep my heart rate lowish (zones 1/2) - Patrick?

Day 3 - Raspberries and FOUR Apples?

We both felt the hunger a little more today so, what did we do...... we took the boys raspberry picking at a local pick your own farm. There's nothing quite like throwing yourself in the midst of food and foodies when you're on a diet. Still, at least it was fruit and the basket was almost as full at the till as it had been in the field.

The work out went well. The skipping is flowing a little better and I'm looking forward to upping the pace a little, but perhaps when our food intake changes. We've just finished dinner and shared an apple ... a few minutes later Nath suggested another (I pointed out that we never used to share four apples.... slap on wrist!)

Roll on DAY FOUR.

DAY 2 - Greasy Spoon Envy

So we woke up to four or so emails from Patrick - all welcome! I went outside to do the workout 'le matin' as promised and it did set me up well for the day. It helped that the sun was shining.

Nath and I walked past our local greasy spoon ('Mags Cafe') en route to the station this morning, the al fresco tables were full of punters tucking into Full English.... the collective rumble was deafening - I think Nath started to cry actually, but don't tell him I told you! Trying to be creative with what I'm eating is helping deflect the hunger, and I'm trying to make as much of it homemade as possible - found a great little recipe for some rather hot guacamole if anyone is interested, was v. tasty with a small open chicken/tomato sandwich at lunchtime.

The day ended on a high as I watched Freddie copying Nath's workout, complete with questionable skipping..... hopefully by day 90 he'll have mastered it.

Patrick - shopping list complete.

Go on David Haye!

Skipping

Day One completed - sigh of relief!

Halving the portion sizes wasn't too big a deal not, I stress, because I usually eat gigantic sizes, but because the boys have kept me busy so the hunger pangs have fallen on deaf (toddler-abused) ears! I concede I may not be so deaf to it by day 3-4-5. It will be more interesting (harder) when I have to think about the food going into my mouth, rather than just the amount.

Just done the work out - all good. Can't imagine any mum would enjoy skipping quite as much as she did before she had kids, but it was still good to do. Note to self - will aim to do work outs in the morning rather than the evening (psychological high?) That said, having just done the work out in the evening with Nath, it was immensely enjoyable hearing him fight ferociously with the skipping rope whilst I did the squats/push & sit ups.... apparently the skipping rope is rubbish?! Ummmm.

Weighed in this morning at 63.6kg (for reference) and have a number of caliper measurements that I might not inflict on my blog until I have some comparisons.

All in all, a good start, relieved the kick off is gentle, slightly uneasy about ramp up later but no pain no gain right... especially with a rubbish skipping rope  (Nath!)