So as the title says apologies for all of you who were eagerly awaiting the next blog instalment... granted thats maybe only 3 people but still... I was away again and neglected to post up prior to my trip.. In my defence it was somewhat last minute...I've also been really slacking with my workouts over the past 2 or so weeks and to say I did intermittent cardio would be generous. Still, back at home now, diets back on track and lets see what impact my slack has had on my weight etc.
Good points so far this week are:
-Starting my driving lessons on Friday, going to be hitting this hard and aiming to be driving by xmas!!!
-Diet is on track and still remains really easy,
Bad points:
-Had a bad couple of weeks where diet / workouts weren't fully stuck to.
I also went for my first run in a long time today and did 1,500 meters in just over 11 minutes which isn't that great but I have 2 more runs planned for later in the week where i'll get this down and track progress next week i'll run further and track that over the three runs etc etc.
Weight wise this week i'm currently at 213.4lb's which considering my lack of workout over the past few weeks is only a 2 lb gain... it'll be off very quickly mark my words!
Monday, 18 November 2013
Monday, 28 October 2013
Week 5 with new measurements and food pics!
Hello to you the followers of my nerd does fitness blog and let me start off this post by simply thanking you for taking the time to keep track of my progress with me. Your support means a lot and is helping keep me on track.
So this week i've got lots of stuff to share, a couple of sample dinners i've had this week... I don't really have a recipe I can share with you for any of this but it's pretty straight forward in terms of what's on the plates, the sauces are loosely based on the links from last weeks blog.
So I have had a few people ask me recently what I eat and how much and when i tell them they simply don't believe me, so I decided to provide some proof, enjoy!
Baby sweetcorn, broccoli, carrot and steak with a homemade tomato and piquante pepper sauce.
Another dinner example. Baby corn, asparagus tips, broccoli, cauliflower and chicken breast with home made almond butter and bramley apple satay style sauce.
Waist: 42inch
Hip: 44inch
Waist to hip ratio of 0.95
Body fat %: 26.14
BMI: 29.86
Waist: 40inch
Hip: 41inch
Waist to hip ratio of 0.98
Body fat %: 25.37
BMI: 27.37
So this week i've got lots of stuff to share, a couple of sample dinners i've had this week... I don't really have a recipe I can share with you for any of this but it's pretty straight forward in terms of what's on the plates, the sauces are loosely based on the links from last weeks blog.
So I have had a few people ask me recently what I eat and how much and when i tell them they simply don't believe me, so I decided to provide some proof, enjoy!
Baby sweetcorn, broccoli, carrot and steak with a homemade tomato and piquante pepper sauce.
Another dinner example. Baby corn, asparagus tips, broccoli, cauliflower and chicken breast with home made almond butter and bramley apple satay style sauce.
On to my new measurements... now i wont go into major details here because to be honest my initial blog entry was quite detailed, but i'll cover the important ones.... i'm quite interested to see if there's a noticeable difference even though my weight has dropped a fair bit.
Day 1 stats
Height: 6.2 ft
Wt: 232.6lb (16.6 stone)Waist: 42inch
Hip: 44inch
Waist to hip ratio of 0.95
Body fat %: 26.14
BMI: 29.86
Stats today
Height: 6.2 ft
Wt: 213.2 (15.2 stone)Waist: 40inch
Hip: 41inch
Waist to hip ratio of 0.98
Body fat %: 25.37
BMI: 27.37
So what do I take from this? First of all i'm no-where near my end target in terms of bodyfat percentage but on the plus side it is now down to a more healthier level, same with my BMI, i've lost a lot of weight thus far and I am proud of that but I need to put in more of an effort and certainly more effort into the cardio aspects of my fitness program. I had already decided to start following the NHS 5k in 9 weeks program, but this has given me significantly more drive to make sure I do it now, I also hope to raise money for Save our Hedgehogs in the new year to help build a new hedgehog facility so keep your ears peeled.
All in all i'm 'ok' with my updated stats, i'm not where I need to be / was expecting to be but then I dont know if my expectations were realistic. i'm meeting my goals in terms of loosing weight but not in terms of slimming down... saying that I have managed to loose 3 inches off my hips which isnt all bad. knuckling down now, it's not that long till xmas now!
Seems i've already given you my weigh in stats for this week, i'm down to 213.2lb's which is another drop from last weeks 215.8. Starting to see more 'healthier drops in weight now rather than the big chunk of weight loss that i saw early on... perhaps my body needs to adjust properly still.... More to follow next week!
Monday, 21 October 2013
Technically week 6 treating as week 4!
Hello to you followers of my blog!
This weeks update brings you Asparagus, Thai no peanut sauce and more good news!!
So yeah, asparagus is delicious! Who knew... don't get me wrong I might be eating more veg these days and I still get some chicken, beef or fish in my meals so I'm not full veggie but these little gems steamed are amazing! On the subject of steaming, why did I not have one of these before, take note students..... meat and veg in the steamer for 15 minutes, cheap and quick food and all you have to do is cut the veg up and set a timer!!! I'm still not convinced by green tea, but I cant really have traditional teas / coffee's so it'll keep me going for now. Picked up a recipe from Sarah Fragoso's blog over at http://everydaypaleo.com/everyday-paleo-thai-no-peanut-sauce/ I think I used a bit too much garlic in it but for a first effort it was really good!
Another tasty number I was trying out this week was a tomato and pepper sauce by Jessica Komoroski on http://gasstovegirl.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/red-pepper-tomato-meat-sauce-over.html I will be making more of this as it was for sure the favourite of the 2.... if you come across any other paleo sauces you think I might like then please do let me know!
Good points;
-Discovered asparagus tips,
-fitted out my kitchen with my own gear including my own blender to make smoothies / sauces with.
Bad points;
-Sleeping is as good as I'd like but trying to get to bed at a reasonable hour doesn't help when your body wont shut down for a few hours or so... must get back into reading again,
-Turned up nearly 4 hours early to uni,
This week's weigh in is......... 215.8lb's (15.4 stone or 97.9kg depending on which flavour you prefer) which is another drop from the previous week of 220.4lb's. Quite happy with this another drop of 4.6lb's or 2.1kg's. Getting considerably closer to that initial goal of 211.6lb's or 17% bodyfat. I am still aiming for 204.6lb's to hit the 14% bodyfat mark though!!! I'm thinking of remeasuring at the end of the month as all the new clothes i got for uni now seem to be hanging off me somewhat... Good news in some ways but sigh more shopping incoming!
So that's all for this week, if there's anything further you think I should be looking to include in the blog please let me know or if you have any general questions about what I'm doing or my motivations etc then again just drop me a line. More to follow next week!
This weeks update brings you Asparagus, Thai no peanut sauce and more good news!!
So yeah, asparagus is delicious! Who knew... don't get me wrong I might be eating more veg these days and I still get some chicken, beef or fish in my meals so I'm not full veggie but these little gems steamed are amazing! On the subject of steaming, why did I not have one of these before, take note students..... meat and veg in the steamer for 15 minutes, cheap and quick food and all you have to do is cut the veg up and set a timer!!! I'm still not convinced by green tea, but I cant really have traditional teas / coffee's so it'll keep me going for now. Picked up a recipe from Sarah Fragoso's blog over at http://everydaypaleo.com/everyday-paleo-thai-no-peanut-sauce/ I think I used a bit too much garlic in it but for a first effort it was really good!
Another tasty number I was trying out this week was a tomato and pepper sauce by Jessica Komoroski on http://gasstovegirl.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/red-pepper-tomato-meat-sauce-over.html I will be making more of this as it was for sure the favourite of the 2.... if you come across any other paleo sauces you think I might like then please do let me know!
Good points;
-Discovered asparagus tips,
-fitted out my kitchen with my own gear including my own blender to make smoothies / sauces with.
Bad points;
-Sleeping is as good as I'd like but trying to get to bed at a reasonable hour doesn't help when your body wont shut down for a few hours or so... must get back into reading again,
-Turned up nearly 4 hours early to uni,
This week's weigh in is......... 215.8lb's (15.4 stone or 97.9kg depending on which flavour you prefer) which is another drop from the previous week of 220.4lb's. Quite happy with this another drop of 4.6lb's or 2.1kg's. Getting considerably closer to that initial goal of 211.6lb's or 17% bodyfat. I am still aiming for 204.6lb's to hit the 14% bodyfat mark though!!! I'm thinking of remeasuring at the end of the month as all the new clothes i got for uni now seem to be hanging off me somewhat... Good news in some ways but sigh more shopping incoming!
So that's all for this week, if there's anything further you think I should be looking to include in the blog please let me know or if you have any general questions about what I'm doing or my motivations etc then again just drop me a line. More to follow next week!
Monday, 14 October 2013
Slight absence but with good reason!
So i'm back from my just under 2 week trip down to visit the lady of my life and there might have been some celebrating with it being her birthday... and I proposed... and she said yes! so things might of slipped a bit but i'm back and i've upped my weights to make up for it. i'm not too concerned if i've put some weight on again as I was already at my 6 week target weight 2 weeks in so remaining strict and sticking to it now till xmas should see me back on track in no time.
New things this week are sauces! No more plain meat / veg, i'm starting to experiment with Paleo sauces / marinades for my food to add some flavour to my meals, i'll do some experimenting and update you all next week with how it's gone.
Good points;
-for the most part I stuck to the diet but it was more of a 70/30 paleo / non paleo,
-got engaged!
Bad points;
-didn't stick to the workouts while I was away, still managed a fair bit of cardio though. ;)
-had cake, dairy and some alcohol while I was away so diet wasn't as solid as my first two weeks,
Only a quick post this week but my weigh in is: 220.4lb's actually a lot better than I was expecting considering my lack of sticking to diet these past 10 days or so.... stay tuned for more updates!
New things this week are sauces! No more plain meat / veg, i'm starting to experiment with Paleo sauces / marinades for my food to add some flavour to my meals, i'll do some experimenting and update you all next week with how it's gone.
Good points;
-for the most part I stuck to the diet but it was more of a 70/30 paleo / non paleo,
-got engaged!
Bad points;
-didn't stick to the workouts while I was away, still managed a fair bit of cardio though. ;)
-had cake, dairy and some alcohol while I was away so diet wasn't as solid as my first two weeks,
Only a quick post this week but my weigh in is: 220.4lb's actually a lot better than I was expecting considering my lack of sticking to diet these past 10 days or so.... stay tuned for more updates!
Monday, 30 September 2013
Week 2 - Achievement unlocked
Another week down and still going strong. After the initial big hit last week of losing 9.6 pounds or 4.4 kilos to those people who prefer things that way I wasn't expecting as big a drop, if any this week but scroll down and you'll see what actually happened for yourself!
What's gone on this week I hear you cry (I used that little voice inside of my head to imitate the masses of people reading this)? Well, stuck rigorously to the workout schedule, things are seemingly easier the more you do them so some weight increases are due soon. Also had my first official week of uni which i must say is a very different experience to college, while I can see some correlation between some of the things we were taught in terms of how to make games, were actually now learning techniques that help to increase your audience and how to actually make games in the real world. I'm already a week ahead with my Flash production, hoping to buy some extra time if I need it when it comes to making the game having never used actionscript 3.0 before.
ANYWAY!!! I digress, I wasn't calorie counting this week as I was happy maintaining the rough portion size I was using last week and that seems to have gone well. Good points and bad for this week to follow.
Good;
-Sticking to the workouts,
-Diet is ongoing and i've not even had to 80 / 20! hello my names John and i'm a primaloholic! (it sounded comical in my head!!!),
-Ahead on uni workload,
Bad;
-Turns out eating half a pack of dried apricots doesn't sit well in your stomach,
-Managed an average of 6 and a half hours sleep per night this week which is below the recommended 8 per night,
Weigh in this week was 219lb's or 15.6 stone (99.3kilos) that's a loss from last week of 4lb's BUT i've officially lost a stone already in the space of 2 weeks. I'd put a picture of myself up on the screen and high five it.... but i'm not that sad.... well actually there was that one time but I was too drunk to remember it so it technically never happened!
I'm well chuffed with how i'm doing and i'm well on track to losing 2 stone before my 3 month initial target.
That's it for me this week if you have any questions drop me a message or reply below and i'll try my best to get back to you. Thanks again for your support and encouragement it really means a lot!
What's gone on this week I hear you cry (I used that little voice inside of my head to imitate the masses of people reading this)? Well, stuck rigorously to the workout schedule, things are seemingly easier the more you do them so some weight increases are due soon. Also had my first official week of uni which i must say is a very different experience to college, while I can see some correlation between some of the things we were taught in terms of how to make games, were actually now learning techniques that help to increase your audience and how to actually make games in the real world. I'm already a week ahead with my Flash production, hoping to buy some extra time if I need it when it comes to making the game having never used actionscript 3.0 before.
ANYWAY!!! I digress, I wasn't calorie counting this week as I was happy maintaining the rough portion size I was using last week and that seems to have gone well. Good points and bad for this week to follow.
Good;
-Sticking to the workouts,
-Diet is ongoing and i've not even had to 80 / 20! hello my names John and i'm a primaloholic! (it sounded comical in my head!!!),
-Ahead on uni workload,
Bad;
-Turns out eating half a pack of dried apricots doesn't sit well in your stomach,
-Managed an average of 6 and a half hours sleep per night this week which is below the recommended 8 per night,
Weigh in this week was 219lb's or 15.6 stone (99.3kilos) that's a loss from last week of 4lb's BUT i've officially lost a stone already in the space of 2 weeks. I'd put a picture of myself up on the screen and high five it.... but i'm not that sad.... well actually there was that one time but I was too drunk to remember it so it technically never happened!
I'm well chuffed with how i'm doing and i'm well on track to losing 2 stone before my 3 month initial target.
That's it for me this week if you have any questions drop me a message or reply below and i'll try my best to get back to you. Thanks again for your support and encouragement it really means a lot!
Monday, 23 September 2013
Week 1 - cold turkey, calorie intake and ouch
Hello to you if you are reading this, otherwise well it doesn't really matter...
Week one over and done with and I have to say it's not been 'easy' but it wasn't as difficult as I was anticipating.
Watched the dexter last ever episode today, had my first official learning day at uni and had my first weigh in since starting the nerd fitness program... suffice to say it's been an emotional day! Going to cover my good / bad points for the week and then my weight to give you a general feel for how i'm doing and not just yay he's lost xxx lb's or boo he's put on some weight. and some insight into my thoughts / goals for the coming week.
Good points:
-Managed to stick to every workout and do everything taking only the odd break in between certain moves.
-Went cold turkey on the Primal / Paleo diet, removed everything that I wasn't allowed to eat from the house and filled my fridge with fruit and veg, stuck to the protein portion size and piled my plate with veggies to fill me up.
-Generally felt a bit better, up earlier in the day with a bit more energy and i'd go as far as saying that i'm feeling more focused with my life, that might not just be down to the nerd fitness stuff but also a few other big things happening.
Bad Points:
-About half way through the week I decided to start tracking my calorie intake just for this week to see where I sat in terms of minimum intake etc and I managed to average around 1,200 calories per day which is a bit short of the minimum recommended amount of 1,800 I outlined in my initial blog. My concern here is that even though i've been filling up with veggies i'm not getting enough calories into my body and it might go into starvation mode meaning I start storing fat instead of burning it. I'm slightly apprehensive of my weigh in session due to this.
-Managed to develop a pain in my lower back after the first few days so either my forms completely off or i'm simply more out of shape than I thought I was, I skipped a day of weights and moved everything back one and didn't have a day off on Sunday to catch up. Hopefully this wont be an issue going forward.
So without further waiting my weight in for this week is (obligatory drum-roll on your desk / lap etc): 223.0lb's!!!! or 15.9 stone down from 232.6lb's or 16.6 stone. Achievement unlocked - under 16 stone!!
That's it for me this week if you have any questions drop me a message or reply below and i'll try my best to get back to you. Thanks again for your support and encouragement it really means a lot!
Monday, 16 September 2013
No excuses, just action!
So I've decided I want a change in my life. I'm 31 in January and while i've never what people would call overweight and have in the past managed to get into a routine of working out, namely with friends and such it's never been something i've stuck to fully. So why now?
There's lots of reasons I can site for wanting to lose weight but ultimately it's for selfish reasons. I want to look better for my other half (who by the way looks amazing without even trying so I want to return the favour), it's only going to stay the same if I don't do something about it and hell I might be a dad to a little rugrat one day and not being able to run around after him / her would literally devastate me. Ultimately though, I want to feel better about me and I think realising this has helped me come to terms with what needs to be done in order to fix this.
So lets get the boring blurb out of the way and cover the starting statistics.
Height: 6.2 ft
Wt: 232.6lb (16.6 stone)
Waist: 42inch
Hip: 44inch
Waist to hip ratio of 0.95
Body fat %: 26.14 meaning I have 60.5lb of bodyfat and 172.1lb of lean body mass. To get my bodyweight into the 'fitness level' of bodyfat % (14-17%) I will be looking at 204.6(14% bodyfat weight) - 211.6(17%bodyfat weight) or a loss of 21 - 28lb's (1.5 - 2 stone).
BMR: 2251
Daily calorie needs to maintain weight: 2701
Daily calorie intake to start loosing weight with exercise: 2201
Daily calorie intake to start loosing weight without exercise: 1800
BMI: 29.86
Reading between the lines my goal is to lose 2 stone in weight.
So now onto what i'm doing about it. I've joined the nerd fitness revolution and am eating what's known as a Paleo diet (hunter gatherer) usually I don't go for dieting but this i'm reliably informed accounts for 80% of the battle with weight loss. To summarise what the paleo diet is about think back to a time when we didn't have processed foods so meat, fish, eggs, fruit, veg and nuts. and I don't even have to really watch my portion size either as I can just pile more veggies on my plate and fill myself up that way.
So that's the exercise / diet bit out of the way what else is happening? Well i've started my final year at uni now so really have to focus on getting that nailed. Going back into the education system has been one of the major challenges in my life and i've invested far too much time in it now to not do well, anything less is simply letting myself down and really puts a dent in my plans for the future job wise at least. My goal by the time of finishing Uni is to not only have a degree but to also have established Prickly productions as a business and use that as a platform to create indie games for a living. so to try and address my general lack of time I find for things at the moment i'm going to self implement a 9-5 rule at home what this simply means is that between 9-5 Monday to Friday I make time to study, work on prickly productions, use this time to work out within the guidelines of the nerd fitness program, try to make something of the tartan hedgehog (my Scottish cottage bookbinding business) generally speaking use this like a job and not find myself wasting a whole day online or gaming and wondering why I can never get things done!!
I will be updating this blog on a weekly basis with a general overview of how i am doing each week and provide some thoughts / inspirations and generally anything else of note that happens to me during this time of change. Hopefully you'll find this interesting to some degree and if not well fine this blog is more a motivation tool for me than it is for you!!
There's lots of reasons I can site for wanting to lose weight but ultimately it's for selfish reasons. I want to look better for my other half (who by the way looks amazing without even trying so I want to return the favour), it's only going to stay the same if I don't do something about it and hell I might be a dad to a little rugrat one day and not being able to run around after him / her would literally devastate me. Ultimately though, I want to feel better about me and I think realising this has helped me come to terms with what needs to be done in order to fix this.
So lets get the boring blurb out of the way and cover the starting statistics.
Height: 6.2 ft
Wt: 232.6lb (16.6 stone)
Waist: 42inch
Hip: 44inch
Waist to hip ratio of 0.95
Body fat %: 26.14 meaning I have 60.5lb of bodyfat and 172.1lb of lean body mass. To get my bodyweight into the 'fitness level' of bodyfat % (14-17%) I will be looking at 204.6(14% bodyfat weight) - 211.6(17%bodyfat weight) or a loss of 21 - 28lb's (1.5 - 2 stone).
BMR: 2251
Daily calorie needs to maintain weight: 2701
Daily calorie intake to start loosing weight with exercise: 2201
Daily calorie intake to start loosing weight without exercise: 1800
BMI: 29.86
Reading between the lines my goal is to lose 2 stone in weight.
So now onto what i'm doing about it. I've joined the nerd fitness revolution and am eating what's known as a Paleo diet (hunter gatherer) usually I don't go for dieting but this i'm reliably informed accounts for 80% of the battle with weight loss. To summarise what the paleo diet is about think back to a time when we didn't have processed foods so meat, fish, eggs, fruit, veg and nuts. and I don't even have to really watch my portion size either as I can just pile more veggies on my plate and fill myself up that way.
So that's the exercise / diet bit out of the way what else is happening? Well i've started my final year at uni now so really have to focus on getting that nailed. Going back into the education system has been one of the major challenges in my life and i've invested far too much time in it now to not do well, anything less is simply letting myself down and really puts a dent in my plans for the future job wise at least. My goal by the time of finishing Uni is to not only have a degree but to also have established Prickly productions as a business and use that as a platform to create indie games for a living. so to try and address my general lack of time I find for things at the moment i'm going to self implement a 9-5 rule at home what this simply means is that between 9-5 Monday to Friday I make time to study, work on prickly productions, use this time to work out within the guidelines of the nerd fitness program, try to make something of the tartan hedgehog (my Scottish cottage bookbinding business) generally speaking use this like a job and not find myself wasting a whole day online or gaming and wondering why I can never get things done!!
I will be updating this blog on a weekly basis with a general overview of how i am doing each week and provide some thoughts / inspirations and generally anything else of note that happens to me during this time of change. Hopefully you'll find this interesting to some degree and if not well fine this blog is more a motivation tool for me than it is for you!!
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