Days 3/4

OK. A change.

I’ve decided to publish on Mo/Wed/Fri/Sun, otherwise it will be a bit boring.
Diet seems to be going well, night time is the hardest as I just want to eat crap and it’s always at night I feel
Like this. That’s probably why I’m not looking forward to night shift this weekend. Been using this wee image I got from the fabulous model and athlete Samantha Ann Leete as a guide to how much I should have on my plate!

Eating as boring and bland as it is, IS where abs and fat loss is done, abs are made in the kitchen so they say! For me, so far so good. My fitness pal as a motivator always works and as you can see seems to be hitting the spots.

My intention is to post a weeks cumulative pic of the pie chart and
Macronutrient list every Sunday.

TRAINING.

Well, Wednesdays plan for BJJ was almost scuppered by going to court on my day off, so I had to plan to take my kit and hope that I’d be away from
Court in time for class. As it was I was away by 11.35 and made class by the skin of my teeth at 12:00!
Not much of a workout as it usually is as there was very little fighting or rolling/live training as they like to call it until the last 6 mins. Of course that sort of suited as I’m well behind the fitness curve now!

Today(Thursday) was a wee lazy day, I was awake at 7:50am, but stayed in bed til 11:30. I justified this to myself since I’ve only had one day off this week thanks to court. Regardless, when the wife got back from
The gym, at 11:30, I got up, had something to eat, picked up my at daughter at 11:55, returned and then at 12:30 did 12x100m hill sprints on the aptly named (by me!) C*nt hill. A beauty of a hill, at least 13~14% gradient!

The last 25m on this feel like running on quick sand. I haven’t missed it!
After that I ran home, so the wife could go to work at 13:00. Had I got out of bed earlier, it wouldn’t have been a rush, but hey. I put in the Insanity Asylum strength DVD and rocked that for 47mins.
The asylum isn’t as lung burstingly challenging as Insanity, but three workouts stand out in the pack, •strength.
•back to core and
•relief.

Relief being a 30min stretch DVD!
Once a week I’ll alternate between strength and back to core with my other body weight workouts. As I said in the opening blogg post, no gym is needed. A few dumbells, a pull up bar and a prison cell worth of space is all you need at home to lose weight.

Til tomorrow,
Peace to the O-U-T.

Mens Sana in corpore sano.

Day 2. Run and bodyweight workout

Firstly. Apologies. Yesterday’s never published until today for some reason. Hmmmm.

Ok. So, slept like a baby, ZMA did it’s trick. Up at 06:00 for work. Diet was again, as yesterday, with the same food and timings. I find it’s easy to prep the same meals for two days, it’s boring and bland but it means I look forward to the evening meal since it’s got flavour and variety!
Evening meal tonight was pasta bake with cheese.

Today’s workout was an anaerobic run and a body weight workout. I usually do 3miles at that heart rate zone, today I managed 2.5 miles before the lactate took over and killed my calfs!
Heart rate was 167 BPM, time 19:30(disgrace!) and 301 kcals.

Straight after I had a drink of water and my pre workout drink. I find the pre-workout revs me up the coming workout, which is it’s intention!

After that kicked in it was:
4 sets hammer grip pull ups to exhaustion, superset with 10 reps of deadlifts using a 25k power bag.
Then 4 sets wide grip pull ups to exhaustion, superset with squats, 10 sets 25k powerbag.
Then 2X20 press ups incline,
2×20 press ups decline.
Then this abs workout:

Then I did a 16-1 workout, meaning I did 16 press ups, with one row with the powerbag. That then turns to 15 press ups, 2 rows and so on until it’s a 1-16. This gives a a total of 146 reps for the press ups(or 226 in total) and 146 for the rows.

A quick stretch, post workout recovery drink and then dinner two hours later.
Managed to burn 365 kcals for that workout and kept the heart in the fat burning zone of 143 BPM.

These are my zones:

Food for today:
Note my fitness pal can record your calorie expenditure, but I’m electing not to put it in due to using a BMR calculator.

ZMA and aminos at night again!
Might start using sleep recordings now to see if sleep pattern inproves(as much as it can with shifts).

Mens Sana in compore sano.

Day one, “dieting” starts again.

A diet.

A world of misconception.

A diet is a way of eating. Halal is a diet.
Eating “clean” is a diet. Gluten free is a diet.

5:2, slim fast and juicing et al are not diets they are fads. A fad that fades out and is unsustainable. The problem with most “diets” is that, essentially they cut calories, whilst having a macronutrient deficiency. You tend to lose weight, but in the form of muscle. Whilst the fat remains, since you body eats the muscle as a readily available food source. The fat covers more if your body per pound per inch than your muscle. It burns less calories
Per pound also.

So, although you “lose weight”, as soon as you stop the “diet” and begin to eat normally again, the weight/fat piles on as there is less muscle to burn calories. So, the calories you needed to sustain your weight at a certain weight have now dropped.

This is known as you BMR, or basal metabolic rate. Find out more about calculating your BMR here:

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

So, what to eat?

As stated I won’t be doing any fad diets on here. I’ll eat sensibly and often, if I want a cake or a Choc bar. I’ll have one. Below is a snap shot of what I’ll have eaten today. Up to my main
meal.
.

From left to right:
A wee oats so simple, with a multi vitamin and cod liver oil, then almonds and a protein shot, next to that is rice, chicken and a tablespoon of sweet and sour sauce, then rice and sliced chicken, a shot of pre-workout drink, a post workout drink. My main meal will be a family meal, which at all times will be what ever the family are having, obviously this is missing from the picture. At night I will have the amino acids pictured with ZMA and a wee cheeky anti inflamitory!

Timings as for meals as follows:

06:20 oats so simple.
10:00 almonds and upbeat
12:00 chicken and rice.
15:30 chicken and sliced chicken
17:30 preworkout shot
18:00 BJJ workout
19:00 post workout drink.
19:30 family meal. Trying to still eat reasonably sensibly!
22:00 amino drink, ZMA and anti inflamitory.

Try to eat, small and often every 2-3 hours.

The upbeat protein shots are great. 20g of protein, about about £1 from the co-op. ZMA(zinc, magnesium and b vitamins) the best supplement you can buy. Aids sleep and recovery.
NB the sleep is very deep and you may feel groggy in the morning, but it soon passes!

First session of BJJ:

Well. It sucked. In went after work to the 6-7 class which I hate. I hate it because it’s too busy. The dojo usually has about 40 people on the Matt. Tonight with the post Christmas rush there was even more. The warm up was a nightmare. Struggled for space, but it still got the heart pumping. A few practice sessions of new techniques, then it was straight Ito live training for the last 15 mins. That’s the bit I like and probably burns the most calories! BJJ and judo are probably 90% anaerobic and 10% aerobic. The muscle burn over your body is intense and isn’t helped by being off the matt for so long.

Straight home to a family dinner, which was Kiev, jalapeño and mozzarella strippers and some veg.
Bedtime was amino acids and ZMA.

All ready for tomorrow’s day again.

Managed to keep largely in my zones, according to my BMR and activity rate, I should be consuming 2700 kcal a day. So not to bad!

Weight, measurements and cheating.

So, here we are. Weigh in day.

Weight: 198.5lbs
Resting Heart rate: 70
Blood pressure: 168/132
Body fat%: 19.2
Water%: 59.1
Muscle%: 76.4

Any difference?

Yop.

Weights up by a good 20lbs, my resting heart rate by 16 beats per minute. Annoying considering for my age 54 was “athlete”.
My BP is also up, from 150/120.
Body fat up, best part of 6.5%
Water down, which isn’t great. From
About 65%
Muscle also down, 4%.

I’m glad at these times, I’m
sad enough to keep a diary of my measurements and training runs. Knew it would come in handy.

What do I really expect from this experiment?

Well, I expect not to have lost to much strength. I am an blend of mesomorph/endomorph by body type. I store fat easily, I gain muscle easily. I find running difficult. I am built for fetch and carry apparently. I can’t really disagree with this. It’s very true for me and sadly a Scottish Olympic/commonwealth runner did once describe me as a “pack horse”!
I know I’ll never carve a six pack due to this. It bothers me not. Look at cruiser and heavyweight boxers MMA types. They still have wee tyres round their midriffs.
Find out more about body types here:

http://www.mensfitness.co.uk/exercises/exercises-body-part/3272/which-body-shape-are-you/page/0/2

Of course, this is for male body types!
I expect that my strength will probably be back to normal within 2 weeks, three at a push. I think, my body will return after about 8ish. There’s definitely no way will running will. I know that will take until at least the end if March, with lots of blood sweat and tears. But tears are just fat crying……

I know that I can’t wait for this sluggish horrible general “malaise” to leave me. I can’t be bothered doing anything and I want to sleep all the time. Probably an iron deficiency right enough! Conversely, at night I’m not sleeping as
well as I did. So, I’m going to use a sleep monitor for that too. Pictures to follow.

So.
Cheating.
Alright. I cheated. I took those measurements this morning.
Then I ran this afternoon when I got in.
I admit it. I started a day early.

So the run.
The first run.
The run of death.

Fuck.

A nice aerobic 5 mile run. Fuck me light.
I’m a big fan of heart rate training. Or I was prior to leaving. No awkward pace. Just pure heart rate based running. An aerobic run should be slow, some people, even find that at this pace they need to walk to maintain the heart rate. You shouldn’t bother about this. If need be walk. Ignore the aerobic based run at your peril. The majority of your run time should be in this zone, to develop heart strength and a good basic fitness level.
For me, I need to be running at 147-161 beats per minute to be aerobic. Checking the diary, prior to leaving I was doing 150BPM, easily. No spiking. About 9:45 per mile.

That run was a disgrace. Bouncing HR, but managed to steady it in the last 2 miles, but before that it was poking up into the anaerobic zone. It averaged out at 157 eventually. Total time was nearly 7mins more, at 56:44.
Still the same calorie burn though at 700cal.
Remember that prior to running you should invest in a decent pair of runners. I like brooks. GTS14, I’ve had them since GTS10( surprisingly GTS11 was 2011 and so on).
Buy what suits you and go to a running shop to do so. Don’t buy off the shelf!!!

Let’s see where this journey takes us. Speaking of journeys, here’s a recruiting advert that’s top notch.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aY3RtSSZi-0

Btw as soon as I figure out how to make this look more “pretty” I will. But doing it on IOS at the moment is the only option!

Mens Sana in corpore sano.

Disgusting fat body!

Eurgh. I look at those photos and I’m disgusted that I’ve managed I do that to myself in the period of two months!

But let’s go back to the start.
Who am I?-
I am (was!!!!) a relatively fit mid service police constable, married with two kids aged 7 and 4. My wife, also a police officer, works the opposite shift from me. I walk in, she walks out the door. (Sounds like a bad Thunder song!!!).
What am I?-
I am a PTI with the reserve forces, the army reserve to be more precise. I am a public order responder with plod, a plod medic and a CBRN responder also. Meaning I need to be fit.

How have I managed to get like this?-
By eating and drinking far too much shite.

Why have I done this?-

Aha, the crux of the matter. Recently returned from Afghanistan, I went out there rather fit. I maintained that fitness out here, but, coming back I felt rather deflated. Keeping that fitness level had (mostly) been a pride thing, but it’s easy to lose interest when you return to policing and the reserves and see the same old unfit people getting the same payment and respect you do, by doing less. Some even advance quicker. Now, back tracking a tad.
Deflation.
Yes.
I took a week off to spend time with the wife and kids when I got back. That week turned into two. I pottered about for two weeks after that, doing enough to keep me ticking over, but not eating the same way I did and certainly not training for improvement.
Now, on going back to the unit(reserve), two things occurred:

1) on a brain storming session, I ventured that, having worked with the regular PTIs and regular soldiers in AFG that our fitness, as a unit, was pretty low and could do with some beefing up. Well, that wasn’t very well received. Apparently, some people are “afraid of fitness”. Which is frankly bollocks. I think some people are afraid of putting effort in, which is why the same people are absent every-time PT is on the menu and the same ones fail the PFT every year. With the same old excuses trotted out every year. I’ll cover that later.

2) I was informed that we were getting 4-5 new starts at the unit who had failed a risk reduction run of 1.5 miles 14:00mins, which is frankly, rediculous. Especially, given, by the nature of the unit, in a few months, these people will be “leading” me. However, this was a chance to “install fitness as a construct” into new starts minds. And hope that it wasn’t corrupted when the see the old guard not bothering and getting away with it.

SO
WHAT DO I WANT TO ACHIEVE.

My plan that evening, was to let myself go. Not in a frozen way, but in a fitness way. I would cast off the shackles of my crossed swords and red belt. I would eat shite, I would drink piss. I wouldn’t run. I wouldn’t do any gym work.
Up until Monday 5th Jan 2015 where I would start again. A 12 week plan up until the 31st March.
Yes.
I’d destroy my cardiovascular system.
I would dystrophy my muscular system.
I’d put on weight.
All to prove a point.

The point being:

You can take yourself over that edge and come back. And I’d done it before that Katie Hopkins had the idea!
You see, I’d be that PTI. The one they hate.
Not the one the unit needed, but the one it deserves. So I’d hunt myself back to fitness. Because I could take it. I’d be the silent guardian. A watchful protector of the units fitness. (Shameless batman quote).

But, HOW will I do it?

Simples. With eating less and moving more. Sorry Katie H, I did steal that from
you. But you stole my idea! X

No fad diets like 5 to 2, quarter past three or what ever it is! No fads at all.
I’m going to run, walk and home gym myself back to fighting weight. In 12 weeks.

And I’m going to do it against a back drop of:
A-working shifts(nights, earlies, lates),
B-having cancelled days off,(common)
C-going to court, (common)
D-having the wife at work whilst I’ve got the kids,(very common)
E-not getting meal breaks at work due to work! (very, very common).

All in all, I’m
Going to prove that the excuses at the unit and all TA/army reserve units are shite an anyone can be PFT fit in three months. A PFT being a timed/measured 1.5mile run in an allotted
time varied by age and gender and then as many press ups in two minutes and as many sit ups in two minutes, again varied by age and gender.

Join me tomorrow, when I’ll post my measurements. Weight, arms etc.
All ready for the big push on Monday.

Men’s Sana in capore sano.