Day 4: Oops… confession time
So last night didn’t go so good. Was doing fine all day with my awesome breakfast, and then a similar lunch, but after a really productive meeting with some potential clients, the good lady and I ended up in a pub in Ponteland and despite my best efforts I could find nothing on the menu which fitted the plan… the result was the best scampi I ever had! Thankfully I don’t think it’s set me back too far, and I’m still at the 202.5 lbs mark. Given that tomorrow is my designated ‘day off” (the book recommends one a week, to stop you going crazy and to kick start your metabolism) I think I’ll just take it easy tomorrow rather than going crazy, and eat a reasonably healthy ‘normal’ diet and hopefully we’ll be back on track right away.
One thing this will tell me, however, is how a midweek night off affects the rate of weight loss, so hey, maybe it’s not all bad.
Filed under: experiments, weight loss | Leave a Comment
Day 3 – An Epiphany
So far so good. Yesterday passed off without too much trouble. I got a crazy sweet tooth in the afternoon, so relented and had a sugar free Werthers Original, courtesy of my diabetic girlfriend, which seemed to do the trick. Sweeteners are a grey area on this programme, given that some can actually promote weight gain, according to a significant body of research.
So, onto day 3. Breakfast time. After two days, I was a little tired of my (albeit delicious) sausage casserole type thing, and really fancied some baked beans. Most beans are perfectly fine, but due to regular baked beans having more sugar than beans in them, they’re off the menu for the duration of the experiment. Never one to be defeated by such trivialities, I decided to make my own. Find out how after the jump.
Filed under: experiments, weight loss | Leave a Comment
Tags: baked beans, four hour body, slow carb diet, weight loss
Day 2 – Going Well
So I’m into Day 2 of the Rapid Fat Loss experiment, as detailed yesterday, and I’m pleased to say it’s going well. Dinner last night was a quick affair, just some bagged salad and some chopped chicken breast, with a sprinkling of black pepper and lemon juice. Basic, but really tasty. Tonight I’ve got my eye on a lovely steak though. Can’t wait.
If you’re not aware, the basic premise of the plan is similar to that of the infamous Atkins Diet, but with a few key changes – no dairy whatsoever, unsweetened tea and coffee is fine, you take a day off once a week and eat and drink what you like, and a glass or two of red wine is positively encouraged on an evening, as it aids fat loss apparently! That excuse will do for me. I very much enjoyed a glass of Turner Road Merlot last night, and I shall be doing the same tonight. It’s a hard life, eh?
On the progress side of things, my weight has dropped by 2.5 lbs this morning, which is probably due to natural fluctuations in the body, but hey, I’ll take it!
Update – Today’s Food So Far
Breakfast
Same as yesterday. Still delicious
Snack
Four slices of deli ham.
Lunch
Steak ‘Burrito Bowl’:
Slice up and fry some sandwich steak, and cook add peppers, onions, carrots, garlic, and seasonings of your choice. Boil some pinto beans and throw them in the pan as well, mix around to flavour everything then Stick it in a dish and eat it. Just make sure the pinto beans are cooked properly or they’ll taste rank!
Filed under: experiments, weight loss | Leave a Comment
Tags: fat loss, four hour body, slow carb diet, weight loss
I’m 29 years old. I’m 5’8″ tall and I currently weigh 205 lbs. This is too much. This makes me obese according to every physician (and mirror) on the planet. Time to do something about it. A good time to start experimenting then, no?
For this experiment I’ll be following the Slow Carb Diet, as popularised by Tim Ferriss in his book The Four Hour Body. So this is Day 1, and this is Experiment #1 – Rapid Fat Loss. The goal is to lose 14lbs (1 stone) of body fat before I head off to Tunisia on Easter Sunday. Tim suggests you can lose 20-30 lbs in 30 days, so my target shouldn’t be too difficult… time will tell though.
So, onto the food:
Breakfast
- 3 Jamie Oliver Italian Style Sausages
- Half a green pepper
- Half a white onion
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- Seasoning
Grill the sausages. Chop up the rest of the ingredients as you see fit and fry them in a little oil / Fry Light with some salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar to taste. When the sausages are cooked, chop them up and toss them in the frying pan to flavour everything. Serve up and enjoy. Delicious.
Update: Lunch
1/2 a baked chicken breast, a handful of rocket, four chopped cherry tomatoes, 1/2 a green pepper, dressed with a little balsamic vinegar (you’ll end up realising I LOVE balsamic vinegar!). Again delicious and filling, and there’s still the rest of the chicken to snack on, should I get peckish!
Filed under: experiments | Leave a Comment
Tags: fat loss, four hour body, slow carb diet, weight loss
Sleep is for the Week…
Given that I work a full time job during the day, and then do things like photograph bands and generally have a life late at night, it’s difficult for me to class myself as either a morning person or an evening person, but between the two, ‘nightowl’ would be my classification of choice, and it seems that Alice Wignall over at the Guardian feels the same way, in her piece ‘Morning Has Broken Me‘.
Having experimented with altered sleeping / working patterns a number of months ago, and even going so far as attempting to adopt a biphasic sleeping pattern in order to accomodate my most unsociable of working hours, I know all too well the stresses that competing sleep / work / play priorities can put on the body, and the mind. What I did discover though is that the body can manage with scarily little sleep – as low as 4.5 hours was the furthest I could go, and still feel functional, and I think that had I stuck with it, I could have kept it up, and turned it into a success. Sadly, however, it’s just not sociable. A 90 minute nap at 8pm does nothing to endear you to friends and family, who just don’t seem to understand.
Given that research released today suggests that the most creative time of day is 10:03pm, shouldn’t more people think about burning the midnight oil? Just think of what we could achieve… Mornings? Pah!
Filed under: ramblings | Leave a Comment
Tags: biphasic, guardian, sleep
