4 weeks later

In the last 4 weeks much has happened.

I have done a couple of home to Hutt rides, one of which was over 65km, both were on nice sunny days. I have also spent considerable time on the static bike after work, getting my legs used to the long spin cycle. I can't wait till we move the office and I can start commuting again, I really miss my morning rides.

At the end of Jan a whole lot of people pulled out of the radle, meaning that only a few of us were left behind. I was already in a blind panic about the length and difficulty of the daily schedules, so was slightly relieved when it was postponed (to spring?). I was wondering about cancelling my leave when I decided I would instead go and ride the Central Otago Rail Trail. I have been wanting to ride this for a few years, but never had the time or companions to do it with. Now I do have the time, just no companions, so I have decided to do it solo.

OK, yes, a diabetic doing a 150km ride in the 'outback' of Otago solo does seem a little mad, but the rail trail is well populated, and it's a cruise not a race, so I do not foresee any issues. Flights have been booked, accommodation sorted in Dunedin, Lauder and Waipiata, shuttles organised and now I just have to sort my packing and provisions and get going. I'm heading to Dunedin in just over a week and to Clyde on Monday morning. I'll leave Clyde at midday and arrive in Middlemarch on Wednesday afternoon. 3 days seems a nice pace, about 50km/day should allow plenty of sightseeing and visiting the various vineyards and taverns along the trail :)

My sugars have been consistently good recently, probably due to an improved diet, and I have lost a bit of weight. I'm still a fat bastard, but less fat than a month ago. I'm looking forward to my ride, and after a few test rides, I know I'll be capable at least. Plenty of photos to probably follow.

Getting into it

I'm into week #3 now. My week-day diet has been good, my blood sugars have been great, my exercise has been improving, and my excesses getting less but more concentrated.

After last weeks hill climb, I hooked up a decent bike to the indoor spinner and it's much more comfortable in the saddle when I can stretch my legs properly and not hit my knees on the handlebars! However, I was still only doing 40mins at a time and knew I had to get my time in the saddle up. If I'm going to be doing hundreds of km over sequential days, I need to be able to spend large amounts of time peddling. More saddle time required, so I'll be adding some this week - let's try for 60 minute sessions now and continue to build each week.

The weekend saw in influx of relatives, and a major influx of red wine. So, Saturday night was a late one, and while I was OK on Sunday it did make for 2 days of no exercise, and poor decisions.

Monday was a holiday, and despite the southerly blowing and grey skies I decided there were not enough excuses not to get my bike out and ride to Mums place along the river. It's about 35km with only about 6km of motorway exposure and mostly flat, or downhill. With bag packed I headed off, and by the time I was half way the skies were blue, the breeze was at my back, and I was feeling good.

This ride was a test case - I wanted to monitor my blood as I went, timing for when my sugars bombed, so I made several short stops to test, and managed to detect when they were dropping, and get them back up again. Unlike the last time I did this ride, I felt really good during it. In fact, I was at mums place in under 2 hours, so I was very happy indeed. Because it was sunny in the valley, I also got a bit sunburnt, not something that has happened on my bike for quite some time!

This weekend we're heading to Christchurch for Buskers Festival so I have no weekend plans for fitness. Maybe I should put in some extra hours on the bike this week instead? The weekend after might be a good time to have a crack at a long ride, something with more of a challenge in it. No sense if living in a false sense of ability and it's only 5ish weeks till the radle!

Off to a flying(?) start

It's been 10 days since I started back on the wagon.
It was off to a good start on Monday morning when I packed my lunchbox and jumped on my bike and headed off to work. However, after a few kilometres, I noticed my back tyre was too soft to be safe and I had to turn around and ride home again!
Over the next few days it was cold and wet, so I had plenty of excuses not to ride, but still took a good healthy lunch, and stayed off the booze too. Well, until Friday of course.
One massive change however has been my blood sugar readings. I had been waking up very high every morning, and was using a lot of insulin every day, but over the last 10 days, my use has been low and readings have been great!
The weekend was good food-wise, poor exercise-wise, and had a few wines in it too.
And then Monday rolled around again. Bad weather means more excuses not to ride, so after work I jumped on the static bike in the garage and did a 45 min ride. Then I did another 40 minutes yesterday. The bike is way too small and the seat is horrid, so today I decided to do a wee hill climb rather than a static ride, seeing as how it was sunny for once. A short ride, just 1.5km, but it's up a pretty steep hill (and then down again) and 7 minutes after I headed off, I was home again.
Man I am so unfit!
And now I'm in a panic as well - in 7(ish) weeks I have put my name down to ride in a radle. Sounds like fun, except it's 8 days of riding, and over 600km! Eek! I can't do 40km let alone several 100km days one after another!
So, more diet, more exercise, less weight and more fitness is on the cards. I'm not tempted to eat any crap in the near future, that's for sure!

A poor showing

Not a new years resolution, just a convenient time to test and compare to 2-3 years ago. Not looking great...

	Jan 2010	June 2010	Jan 2013
Weight (kg)	107.1	99.2	120.3
Guts (cm)	104	90	120
Pushups (1 min)	7	33	13
Squats (1 min)	31	53	41
Side to side (1 min)	67	143	120
Prone hold (to fail)	0:34	1:02	0:31
Wall sit (to fail)	0:33	0:53	0:26

So, the numbers are in and it's a mix of horror and surprise. My weight has blown way out. Over 13kg heavier now than when I started the 20 weeks challenge. Much more girth, which I was aware of as most of my pants don't fit any more. So, fat & heavy, no shocks there.

My strength stuff was where it gets weird, and horrific. I'm worse than I was at the end of the challenge, but I have done very little exercise in the last 30 months, although I have (on occasion) tried to re-engage. My muscles still seem to be hiding under the fat layers as my pushups, squats and side-to-side were better than before the challenge, but nowhere close to my best. The plank and wall sit however showed how that extra weight is counting against me big time!

But what made me the most worried was how exhausted I was after these few tests. Puffing, panting, sweating and aching after such a small effort.

Next step, an honest appraisal of my blood sugars. I have some blood tests lined up in the near future, so it would be good to get a before/after from them too - totally impartial.

Hitch your wagons

My last post was two and a half years ago, July 2010. Since then there have been a lot of things happening!

On September 4th we had a major earthquake which left plenty of damage, but no deaths, and changed lives of Christchurch residents dramatically. With closed businesses, aftershocks and other disruptions, life carried on.

Then 22nd Feb 2011 saw the life shattering earthquake which killed, destroyed buildings and altered the landscape permanently. Thankfully, myself and my family were safe. Our earthquake story is long and still not over, but not the point of this entry.

In the middle of 2011 I quit my good job with an awful company (or more specifically, management) and moved to Wellington, followed shortly after by my daughter, then the wife.

From that point on I have been hugely busy, and lazy. We have been looking for a house, fighting finances with a decrease in pay and renting in Wellington while owning in Christchurch, playing more employment games, school, accommodation and so on. My new job keeps my mind fully occupied and eats up all of my days, with the occasional road-trip north or south, and the occasional conference and presentation thrown in. Busy busy busy!

Now, 30ish months later, I have got fat again. Fatter than ever in fact. I have not been exercising, I have barely ridden my bike at all, I have eaten unwisely, drunk far too much and far too often and my health (and mood) is starting to be affected. I've been feeling depressed, uninvolved in life and over-involved in work, full of bah-humbug about Christmas and generally unsociable.

Time to kick-start this puppy! Get back on the wagon! Move my arse! Christmas is over, New Year is around the corner, and I'm not making a New Years Resolution because this is more than that. It's a need! I have to get back on track, back on the wagon (and bike) and get back to healthy again.

However, I am a creature of habit. I like routine. So I'm going to start when I go back to work. New year, new attitude. Or rather, back to the old attitude. I'm chilling out, working from home on a new edition of DineOut, being lazy, watching silly telly, but mindful of the changes to come. While the wife is away I shall do some measurements and publish them here. I'll also re-do my fitness tests from 3 years ago and see if I have regressed further than I hope I have, or maintained at least some fitness. Yep, a couple of days then the scales come out. Sigh.

Round two is about to begin!

Success?

Last night was awards night. We had spent 20 weeks training hard, being active, watching our food (in one way or another) and persevering, focusing on the goals we had set ourselves, either out loud or just inside our own heads. Wednesday night was the finale, the celebration, the awards!

Awards are a funny thing for me, because I really, really like winning, but I don't mind if I lose. I had hopes for a win in a category tonight, but I had been to these awards nights 3 times previously (as a spectator) and I have seen some success stories that were mind blowing. What these people did, with the help of their personal trainers, was absolutely awe inspiring. I knew tonight would be no different, but I wasn't sure I fit into that category. Had I done well enough? Had my personal trainer pushed me hard enough?

One of the categories I had entered was best change in abdominals. Now I know I had lost a lot of gut in the last 20 weeks, and my core fitness had improved, but I still wouldn't want to take my shirt off to show my tummy to people. Yes it still needs work, no there is no 6-pack, yes it has dramatically decreased, yes I will continue to work on it, but no, I do not think I will win in this category. On a good note tho, at my table were Sharon & Darrell from Tauranga. Their PT (Dan) had been 'mentored' in the 20 week challenge by Tracey Butler, my PT and Darrell won the best change in abs award! Darrell is a big advocate of boxing training, not necessarily the sport of it, more the fitness aspects of it, and it has kick-started his journey back to good health and great fitness. If I had to lose to someone in this category, I'm glad it was him.

The other category was Best Increase in Strength (male) and was the category I felt I was better suited to win. Not because I am super fit now, but because I am now so much better balanced and have so much extra upper body strength that my improvements seemed much greater. I have gone from an upper-body strength of 'well below average' to 'not too shabby' and still improving. When Matthew from Diamond Mine got up to present the award I was listening intently. He started mentioning some of the stats of the winner, and they were sounding familiar, especially the chin-ups! I realised that it was me. Yup, I was going to win. It was then I started listening to the people in the room as he mentioned my results and increases in strength. While they weren't leaping up in shocked amazement, they were genuinely impressed. Really? Squats, push-ups, chin-ups and sit-ups had all improved, but in this room full of people who had undertaken the same journey as I had, they could understand where I had come from, and how hard I must have worked to get to where I am now.

And that's the funny thing. Had Steve Gurney knocked on my door and said how well I had done, I'd be chuffed. He's a funny little super athlete who does all sorts of stuff I'd like to do. But the 120 people in that room that night had all started at similar, or worse levels than I did, and had all worked hard to improve, and really did understand what I had achieved. Their applause and congratulations really did mean a lot to me.

My name was called, I got my trophy, I said a few words and I sat back down. Sounds anti-climactic, but the real trophy for me is the memory of the murmuring of the crowd as my results were being read out. That made me feel real good.

Sharon and Jody, one of my hill walking buddies (human, not doggie) were both finalists in best overall body shape change so Tracey's haul was not to shabby for the evening really. I'm pretty proud of her and she deserves some praise for taking a rag-tag bunch of humans and making their lives better. She's not a twig-thin, blond, 18 year old fitness freak who's never been overweight a day of her life. She's been fat and lazy and has turned her own life around using a PT and the 20 week challenge and is now sharing her skills, compassion and training with others to make their lives better as well. If you are in Christchurch and looking for a trainer who will understand you're not trying to become a body builder, then I can fully recommend her. I once mentioned that a session with her was like being whipped by marshmallows, and while that was often true, sometimes it was a whip, so don't think you can get away with slacking about. But if the PT's in a gym scare you, physically or mentally, then give Tracey a call. She can come to you, burn fat, build muscle, improve health and fitness and make you a much better person.

Would I do it again? Yup. I'm carrying on the training with regular PT sessions in the park at lunchtimes and paying more attention to my upper body rather than just my cycling legs. As we push through winter and are targeting summer, I'm going to carry on losing my gut and extending my cardio fitness. I want to be able to ride up a hill, swim lengths of a pool or run for some distance without my lungs exploding. Here's to future challenges and training!

It's all over (or just beginning)

The final stage in my 20 week challenge was an ascent of Rapaki Track.

Last done almost 20 weeks ago, with dog in tow, we managed the somewhat unbelievable time of 30minutes exact. On that occasion the sun was shining, the skies were blue, and the dog pulled me up half the hill and I dragged him up the other half. We were overtaken by joggers, runners, cyclists and my heart rate was scarily high for the entire thing. It's just a hill right?

I've never been great at hills. Be it on foot or on a bike, lugging my weight up a hill has always been a tough mission. This was one of my challenges, to increase my cardio to make this sort of thing easier, and maybe even enjoyable.

Saturday dawned with grey skies, chilly temperatures and a sense of excitement. There were three of us heading up that hill - myself, Tracey and Amanda who was only just recovering from a strain and had just days before stepped on a nail, so was in perfect condition for a hill walk. We wandered up to the start point of the track, the top of Rodgers Track, and looked up into the gloom that was our destination. I'm not sure if it's easier to do a challenge where you can't see the finish line or not. Most of my MTB races have been long and on unknown territory, this is short and well known to me, the the low clouds, damp air and chill add another dimension to the endeavour.

With watches synchronised, we head off. My plan was a simple one - jog and walk. I know I couldn't do the entire hill at a jog, but I could probably do half of it. It's about 3km long and I know my shins blow out at under 4km of soft, flat ground. I'm a realist, I know I can beat my power-walk of last time if I jog any of it, but I don't want to have my shins explode before I get to the top, especially when I have to walk down again as well. I set off at a jog, not a sprint or a run, just a jog. There's a cyclist ahead of me spinning up the hill much like I do. I'm plodding away, watching my heart rate go up, trying to control my breathing, and all the while reminiscing about when I first started riding up this hill - walkers would overtake me! Then I realise that I'm catching the cyclist. Yes, a target!

I maintain a steady jog for a few minutes, catching the back wheel of the cyclist, then stop and walk for a bit. There's a plan here you see... I don't want to overtake the cyclist as I don't want them to know I'm there and using them. If I overtake them, they'll go faster, or stop, and that's no use to me. So I walk, catch my breath, lower my heart rate and think about my legs for a bit. On Friday I did my fitness test in the morning, then a PT session in the park at lunchtime which was a punishment session - txt challenges had been sent and not obeyed and the entire crew were to suffer, and suffer we did. The 20 minutes session on Friday seemed to take an hour and my legs and butt were aching. This bloody hill wasn't helping either!

I considered my legs. My calves were aching but my shins were fine. Physically I seemed to be doing OK. Admittedly I was less than a quarter of the way up the hill, but spirits were high. A slurp of water then back into a jog to catch that bike again.

After a few minutes I had their back wheel and slowed to a walk again. I was quietly smug about this. I had caught them twice now. But, as we were nearly at the top of the first hill before the flat section, I was pretty sure I'd be left well behind. Even an extremely slow cyclist can ride faster than I can jog when we're both on the flat! So I wandered until the flat started, then jogged to the gate in the middle of the track. A mental halfway point - you can see the finish line clearly from here, you can see the huge hill too. I check my watch and it's just slipped over 10 minutes. I dare to hope I can do this in 20 minutes. With that unrealistic goal set, I plod onwards.

On the flat section I break between walking and jogging. Rather than clock watch, I count my breaths. I jog for 60 breaths, walk for 30. I know I'm failing, my calves are getting tighter and tighter, but no real pain as such. My heart rate hasn't soared, maintaining 160-170. My challenge is mostly mental and controlling my breathing. As I start up the final hill section I feel defeat descend on me. This is my body trying to convince my brain to take a rest. It's not sore, but is all out of energy. With no ability to produce insulin, I can't get the sugars from my blood to my muscles, and they are running on empty right now. Push on, push on. It's a mental game, but trying to convince your legs to jog when you just want to sit down is a tough one, and I'm only just over half way! I check my watch, there's no way I'm going to make it in 20 minutes, so I plan to make it under 25 minutes, a more realistic goal.

As I ascend the final hill, the clouds lower, the visibility drops even further, and lethargy stops any jogging for a majority of the hill. I manage two short bursts, but instead focus on maintaining a fast walking pace. And then I'm at the last 'corner' which I know is about 400m from the top gate. I burst into a jog for about 15 seconds, then back to a walk, then when the gate comes into view, start jogging again, focussed on the gate and nothing else. I touch that metal bastard and check the time - 24:18.

The next few minutes are spend cooling down, which is not hard when it's this cold and damp and the southerly is blowing over the hill behind you. I monitor my heart rate which drops towards normal again and await Tracey and Amanda. Due to the gloom, I can barely see 100m down the track, so sit and wait and wish I had a hot coffee. The do emerge from the mist moments later, another victim of the hill touches the gate and swears blindly.

We chill on the hill, and before we freeze on the summit, we descend and chat and say hi to the hundreds of people who are restricted to using this one track in the bad weather. The rest of the weekend is spent indoors, hiding from the wet and cold, watching bad telly programs and moaning about my sore legs and butt.

What's next? Well, Tracey has done an awesome job of getting me fit and active, but there is still some work to be done. I will continue doing the 20 minutes group PT sessions in the park as they are just awesome, and I'll get back on my bike and have some wet and muddy fun too. In just over a week (7th July) is the awards night. Typically, I'm unsure if I'll win either of my categories, but there is hope. I'll be going along and supporting those who do win tho, it's pretty bloody inspirational listening to the winners on the podium - ordinary people, extraordinary results. Highly recommended. I'll report back, maybe with a trophy in hand?

A testing time

I'm all about numbers, so this morning I did the first stage of my testing, the main tests really. Strength and girths. I think I have done OK, I was surprised in some areas, and not actually disappointed in any, which is a bit of a shock.

	Time	Start	Today
Push Ups	1 min	7	33
Squats	1 min	31	53
Plank (prone hold)	to failure	34 sec	1 min 6 sec
Crunchies	1 min	22	49
Chin Ups	1 min or failure	0.75	15
Side-to-side	1 min	67	143
Wall Sit	to failure	33 sec	53 sec

Probably the biggest improvement was the chin ups. Going from almost being able to do one to being able to do 15 is pretty dramatic. Push ups rising from 7 in a minute to 33 was above the goal I set myself a few weeks ago (of 30) but I want to get that to 40 before I'm happy. My plank (prone hold) is still embarrassing, but I have doubled the time I can hold it so want to push for 2 minutes next. Gulp. In fact, looking over the results, the majority of my improvements have been about double what I had 20 weeks ago. Not too shabby.

My body fat has dropped 2.9% and my weight has dropped by 7.9KG. I have managed to lose a bit of my guts too - 6.5cm off my waist, 14.5cm off my abdomen and 5cm off my hips. My muscle measurements have seen my thighs drop a bit (they were over developed) and arms remain the same, but my chest has increased by 2.5cm. So my plan of balancing out my body seems to have worked. My arms are stronger, my thighs have reduced so my calf muscles can develop and I have better symmetry and balance.

On top of this, I'm even more flexible too! In a sitting hamstring test, I was 10cm away from my toes, now I can touch them! I have always had good shoulder flexibility, but this has improved even more! With one arm up and over, and the other down and under, I can grab my hands behind my back. I have always been able to do this, not just touch fingers, but actually perform a hearty handshake. I have improved this even further, I'm able to grab wrists!

Tomorrow morning I head up Rapaki to try and demolish my time of 30 mins. I'm thinking I'll go too hard and bomb before the top, but it's the last challenge I'll be doing for a wee while, so might as well leave it all on the park (or side of the hill) right?

Healed, fixed, ready?

Thankfully I am almost back to 100% fitness after a few days of disability. My final fitness tests will be tomorrow and Saturday, with Friday being the big one, the one I have been cramming and working hard towards. Saturday will be a re-run of the Rapaki hill to see if my cardio has improved enough to get me up there in under half an hour.

We're at the 99% mark now, and I know I could have done more, eaten smarter, tried harder, pushed further and so on. But this 20 weeks has been about more than just getting a result. Yes, I'm lighter, smaller and more muscular, but I wanted to improve myself in a sustainable way. The goal was to get some results, and be able to maintain those results with little or no adjustments to my life. Kinda like living the 20 week challenge full-time. That was my goal, and I have succeeded there I think.

Case in point - last weekend was a write-off for food, exercise and health in general. I weighed 101.5KG on Monday morning, and yet with a few days of managing my diet and staying active, I'm back down to 98.9 this morning. While I have been 105-110KG forever, I now intend to be in the 98-99 bracket and celebrate my double digits. I do not want to drop below 95KG, and with the muscles I'm putting on, I don't see that happening. The more my tummy goes away, the more my muscles pop out. I like that trade-off and weight has no relevance in that way.

This week my activity has been low, but not nil. I'm trying to convince myself that it's resting my body before the final push. Tuesday and Wednesday saw me doing the sessions in the park as per usual with the time passing extraordinary fast. Tomorrow will see me do a fitness test either at lunchtime instead of the PT session, or in the morning in the snug warmth of home. I will also have my 'after' photos and measurements taken. Tomorrow. Wow. 20 weeks sure did fly by!

All pain, no gain

What a weekend. We had visitors descend from the north and they stayed for several days and we ate food, drank wine (and limoncello) and did very little. OK, not quite true.

On Friday I still did the session in the park at lunchtime, dragging one of the visitors along for the ride. They enjoyed it, despite it being more than they had done for a long time. We followed that up with lunch out, which was only slightly naughty and dinner that night was roast chickens and cauli-rice, so nice and low carb. Dessert was a low-carb version of a fantastic French chocolate cake. Yummo. So food-wise it was not too bad at all, but the beer, wine and limoncello sure added a few carbs and other unnecessary calories. I did over-indulge but not to excess as I didn't want to be a wreck in the morning.

Saturday rolls around, and I'm up fairly early, even after a late night. Some of us decide to go for a walk in the hills, so a quick & easy breakfast is prepared - fruit salad and yoghurt. Sigh, not a low carb breakfast, but at least it's full of fibre and other goodies. We head off to the hills and spend about a hour admiring the views and chatting. On arrival home I whip up a quick frittata packed full of protein and yummie goodness. With a salad on the side it fills a gap and is a nice hunger buster until dinner. More wine and limoncello follows, I do a nice Asian chicken noodle soup for dinner which is chased down with a chocolate cake from the depths of hell! Another day of over indulging. Isn't it easy to fall off the wagon and just keep bouncing along? To be fair, I am trying my best with the food, but when everyone else wants to participate and provide, results become mixed and varied. Another late night, feeling seedy from the food and this is the first day of my pain that could be a horrific end to my 20 week challenge.

Sunday morning. Nothing planned today as people are heading home at various times and it's raining. My blood sugars are way high and get dealt with pretty quickly. I haven't had a high morning like that for weeks and weeks, so it felt like a hangover but was resolved with a glass of water and a decent dose of insulin. The real issue is a recurring 'injury' I have which has flared up during Saturday is is fully painful on Sunday. I won't describe it to you as it's not pleasant and if it's bad enough to stop me talking about it here, you really don't want the details. Suffice to say that any activity is exceedingly painful. Sunday is quiet, we slowly empty the house of people and dispose of the evidence of a weekend of excess. I begin to panic a bit.

This is the last week of the challenge and if I can't do my final fitness test at 100% then has it been a waste of my time? Obviously not, as once I'm better I'll still be stronger and fitter and so forth, but that's like knowing all the answers to the final exam the day after you take it! I have less than a week, 5 days total, including today, to get prepared. I'm going to take it real easy today, put my toe in the water tomorrow and see what happens, then re-evaluate from there. Hopefully things will be much better and I can look forward to the end of the week and the final exam. I know that even at 80% I'm still going to blow my previous results away, but it won't be the real results, and that'll piss me off.

Sigh.

Cramming hurts

Week 19 of 20 and I fully intend to almost do myself harm this week.

• Sunday - hell session, weights @ home
• Monday - even heller session, more weights @ home
• Tuesday - DropAndGiveMe20 session in the park, focus on upper body (ouchies)
• Wednesday - Bike to work (and back) + another session in the park, focussing on legs (more ouchies)

And in-between I have been sneaking in some dumbell raises before bed and when I get up, plus some chin-ups. I'll go for a run tomorrow, plus another home session, and another park session on Friday, then I have a weekend of laziness due to visitors descending on us from northern isles. Sigh, a weekend of sitting, talking and drinking limoncelo. Thankfully I'll be doing all the cooking so can limit the food-based damage so as not to have too large a hurdle for the last week.

Am I happy yet? Yes, not perfectly happy, still not as fit and trim as I'd like to be, but I'll need a lot more discipline to achieve that. Once the 20 weeks is up I can slow down, steady my pace and see what happens. If I can maintain and improve as the year goes on, I'll be a happy boy come summertime. 

Cramming has begun

On Saturday we started the last 2 weeks of the diet plan, meaning I could eat some dairy again, and have a glass of wine with dinner. I don't miss my potatoes, pasta, rice or bread, but it's often damn hard to snack without the carbs. Stupid convenience. We did some measurements and I'm still losing my tummy, which is good news, and my weight has remained under 100KG, which is also good news. My head cold is pretty much gone, and fitness levels are way up.

Sunday was supposed to be a hill walk/jog up Rapaki to compare to our times 18 weeks ago, but just as we were about to head out we got a phone call saying it was hailing and minutes later we received a downpour as well. So, we postponed. Instead, I asked Tracey to give me an upper/middle body workout. Her eyes lit up, she rubbed her hands together and made a weird cackling noise and slunk away to the exercise equipment. Moments later I was give a short circuit to do. Just 3 laps, 60 seconds on, 15 seconds off. I only have a hazy memory of the order of the activities, I was pretty busy sweating and swearing at the time. 15 seconds to collapse, recover and relocate is nowhere near enough time!

I started with mountain climbers, an exercise that is easy for 30 seconds, and not so easy from that moment on. Being that it's a prone hold with actions, I suck at it, but managed it for the full 60. From there we moved on to some kind of squatting, dumbbell swinging thing which wasn't too bad and allowed a bit of recovery time. Then a new one, push-up T's where you have a dumbbell in each hand, using them to do a push-up, and once up you lift one arm up into the air as far as you can, then back down again, alternating arms each time. This was tough. Then we have barbell raises/rows using a bar with a ton of weight on it. Again, 30 seconds is fairly easy, 60 is unbearable. Back down and doing more push ups, but this time raising the dumbbells to your chest after each one, left then right. My core was screaming at this point. Almost impossible... Explosive squats with dumbbells, ahhh, only mildly painful, almost peaceful. Then it was pull-downs, an exercise I find relaxing, until 45 seconds have rolled by, then I find it painful. Then the last exercise of the circuit, inclined push ups. With feet on the bench, hands on the ground, do push ups. Stupidest exercise ever. Despite it being actually impossible, I managed to do several, about 15, before I expired. 

Then I had to do it all again.

And again.

3 laps was deadly. My arms and guts knew I'd been working them hard, very hard, and were advising me they wanted to rest now. During the session I hated it, but afterwards I couldn't help thinking that it had been over pretty quickly (under 30 minutes)

Would I do it again? Yup. Tonight in fact. When I get home I'll be back on the floor sweating and swearing. I think a week of hard-out sessions like this, then a week of more gentle sessions should have me well prepared for the final weigh & measure. Hopefully I'll retain the use of my arms, time will tell!

It hurts so good

Wow, two weeks left. Much like when I was gaining my 'higher education' I think I may have left it too late to get a 100% pass mark. For the next two weeks I'm going to be cramming for my final exam!

The two categories I entered were Best Change in Abdominals and Best Increase in Strength. While I know I have improved (dramatically) in both these areas, I'm not sure I have done enough to warrant 'best change' or 'best increase' yet.

Strength: I have gone from zero chin-ups to 13, that's cool, and from 7 push-ups to 23, also cool. I know I have improved in other exercises too, but unsure of the numbers as I'm usually crying by the end of a session anyway. Unsure if my legs are stronger, but I can do more crunchies and sit-ups than I used to, so defiantly an increase. But best increase?? I'm not too sure... I'll have to really add some extra session in over the next 2 weeks.

Abdominals: Now here there has been a change. My gut has dropped drastically. I look back at my day zero photo and I know I see a different belly in the mirror now. The measuring tape will see me right there, but there's more to lose in that department still. Likewise, I need to really focus on crunchies and sit-ups, get my core strength up more. Maybe some more of those awful prone holds I hate so much. 

It's just two weeks, suck it up! Once I'm weighed and measured I can chill out for a bit, have a glass of wine and a custard square. Until then, pain and sweat and tears are in my future... Thank gawd I'm not on a low calorie or low fat diet! In fact, my average calorie intake this week has been 1,599 calories a day. With an average of 40g of carbs each day, this is good fat and protein power!

	5th June	6th June	7th June	8th June	9th June	10th June	Average
Calories:	1,614	2,207	1,192	1,571	1,560	1,448	1,599
Fat:	115	174	72	98	104	92	109
Carbohydrates:	25	35	29	60	46	45	40
Protein:	117	122	106	113	110	130	116
Fiber, total dietary:	3	6	7	10	8	8	7
Effective Carbs	21	29	22	51	39	37	33

Next week I go onto a less meat-focussed diet plan, hopefully meaning I can have poached eggs on a slice of grainy toast (yum) or yoghurt or a flat white. The last 4 weeks has changed the way I look at carbs, that's for sure. There are essential fats, essential proteins, but no essential carbohydrates. And, as a diabetic, carbs does not equal energy. But damn they taste so good!

Can you have too much of a good thing?

Nope.

Depending on what that good this is of course.

I only have two and a half weeks left of my 20 week challenge, and also my 6 week gut-buster diet plan. It seems like I've been doing this for ages... Well, that's not quite right. It feels like this is a habit that I have always had. It's not like I have been dragged kicking and screaming out of bed each day to climb on my bike and ride to work, or brave the cold/wet/wind/hail/sleet for my PT sessions in the park, or climb a hill on a frosty weekend morning. These things are just in my daily schedule and occur. My current diet has restrictions but it's not making me crave poor food choices, or go hungry, so is easily achieved if a small amount of planning is performed. It also occurred to me today that I haven't had a single beer or wine for over 3.5 weeks now, which is saying something as I was a regular 'bottle of wine in an evening' consumer.

When the 20 weeks is up, do I go back to custard squares, pinot noir, mashed potatoes and sloth? Probably not. I'll maintain my current activities as I enjoy them (yes, even in the hail! At least it hasn't snowed yet) and my diet will remain forever altered. You see, having discovered what I can achieve in 20 weeks, I'm wondering what I can achieve by my birthday. This year will be my last 30th birthday and after that it's all middle-age! When I turn 40 in 15ish months time, I want to be fitter and healthier than I am now. That's going to take some consistent effort.

When summer kicks in, I'm going to spend a month doing studies on food, exercise and blood sugars. That may sound boring as hell to you, but a month of rigorous testing and monitoring may mean many, many years of benefit to follow. I'll be testing various combinations of pre-exercise food, pre-exercise insulin, exercise intensity and post-exercise food. Like some kind of lab rat, I hope to find what is the best conditions for me to be able to have short intensive activities, and long, endurance ones. Sometimes being a diabetic means just not being able to do stuff, or in my case, trying stuff and failing my own expectations. I'm hoping this month-long test will help me decide what activities I am better suited for, and how best to prepare for them, and what to do during and afterwards. I'll write it up for anyone who's interested, but it sure ain't gonna be published in any medical journal. Sadly there is almost no information on type I diabetics and exercise out there, and what info there is tends to contradict other information. I shall ignore it all and just see what works by trial and error. If others find it useful, that's cool, but it's really all about me.

The sun is shining, I pong a wee bit after my lunchtime session and I am feeling full after my sausages and eggs for lunch. I may just have a cup of coffee and watch the last 20% of my download happen. Sigh, such is life.

Delicious, nutritious and it damn well works!

The week has been filled with many goings on, most of them have been good too!

Meat week #1 has passed pretty much without incident. We have consumed a truck-load of eggs, knocking off over 70 in a few days between the 3 of us. Lots of sausages, lamb chops, chicken every-which-way, bacon, mince, seafood and more. I likes me meats, so for me it has been a tasty and fun week. Thankfully the markets sell free range eggs by the tray for economical prices. I even stuck close to it when I spent a day in a training session and lunch was delivered. Typically it was sammies, mini-bagels, sausage rolls, pies, koftas, cakes and slices. My lunch that day consisted of koftas and the inside of a sausage roll. Would rather have eaten more, but I didn't need to in the end. Eating nothing but meat & eggs & veg not only keeps me full, but is satisfying too. As my carb input is below 50 grams per day, my insulin use has dropped dramatically too.

The better news is that I can drink coffee again! Not the same amount I was drinking a few weeks ago, just 2 (or sometimes 3) a day. As we're avoiding dairy during the 'meat weeks' it's regular plunger coffee, not flat whites, still wonderful though. I have missed my daytime coffees so it is very pleasing to have them back again.

My energy has been way up this week as well. It was instantly noticeable on Monday when riding to work has has been high all week, despite having a head cold. My normal solution for this sort of thing is regular doses of Nurofen cold & flu. However, I have to abstain from drugs, so couldn't do that. Some research pointed to using large doses of vitamin D instead. We grabbed a couple of bottles and I consumed 100,000 IU over 48 hours and the effects were dramatic. Yes, it was somewhat over the recommended dose but well short of a lethal one. And it worked! It's going to be my winter cure of choice now! I was sick as hell on Thursday, and by Friday lunchtime I was well enough to endure a DropAndGiveMe20 session in the park. On reflection I shouldn't have done it as it was a massive session and my thighs and butt still hurt today.

Yes, Friday's session in the park was a gruelling one. We arrived to see Tracey with her whiteboard looking contemplative. We had been set a challenge (and a half!) and as a team (of 4) for the next 20ish minutes, we did 50 bear crawl up/crab crawl down the hill, 100 burpees, 150 push ups, 200 squats, 150 step ups, over 100 lunges and 50 tricep dips. My heart was still pounding 10 minutes later and it took over an hour to cool down, despite the climate! I'm glad every session isn't like that!

And to further spit in the eye of every dietician I have spoken to, I have been using a bean-counter to monitor my carb, fat and protein inputs and seeing that 60-80% of my calorie intake each day (between 1,600 and 2,400) has come from fats. Here's yesterdays breakdown:

Orange: Fats 64.5% Green: Carbohydrates 6.2% Purple: Proteins 29.3%

Which brings me to my last point. I finally broke the 100KG barrier some days ago. I was dehydrated at the time so took it with a grain of salt. However, I have been under 100 for several days in a row now, and weighed in at 98.1KG this morning! Reduced fat? Nope, I have increased it actually. Low GI grains and cereals? Well, none except those from my veggies. Massive increase in protein? Well, an increase for sure, but not massive. And did I mention I'm feeling stronger and fitter than I have for years, even though I have the dregs of a head cold? This diet works for me. I have another meat week coming up, then I get my dairy back again. My weight has been of little consequence, but I can tell it's body fat I'm losing and it's not making me crazy with food cravings, weak with hunger, or creating funky blood sugars either. My BMI is 25 which is still overweight, however an even larger grain of salt is taken here as I'm not a fatty. Lets look at someone like Richie McCaw for example. He's 1.87m tall and 106KG so his BMI is 30.3 which makes him obese! Hence, BMI is bullshit for healthy/fit people because it's math, not mass. To be fair, I would only need to lose another 400g to drop from overweight to 'normal' weight, but if Tony Woodcock can get away with bordering on morbid obesity, then I can suffer on the fringes of overweightedness.

Roll on the next few weeks! Muscle tone is increasing, fitness increasing, tummy reducing, weight dropping, and all of it is bacon flavoured :)

Done shaking

Now we're bacon!

Yes, with a sigh and a heavy heart, on Saturday morning we pretty much ran out of the protein shake mix, and decided that rather than dashing out to buy a couple of days supply, we'd get a head-start on the 'meat weeks' instead. I was rather excited, as 'meat week' also means coffee is back. And the occasional glass of wine too! I did celebrate this news with a nice hot cup of coffee, my first in a dozen days, and enjoyed it immensely. I'm only allowed 2 a day, but I'm going to enjoy them both, that's for sure.

Exercise wise, we did a freezing cold session on Friday. While it wasn't as wet as the Tuesday or Wednesday sessions (nothing could have been as wet as Wednesday was!) it was very cold and windy. It was just a hard-core couple of us there braving the environment and Tracey kept us moving the whole time, mostly off the ground but focussing on keeping us warm while she barked orders. My hands almost froze off within 5 minutes, but were actually quite warm when we finished. Again, no excuses for not going out. You might regret going out and getting cold or wet for a wee while, but when summer rolls around again and you find that you've spent winter at your desk because you were too scared to go outdoors, you'll regret it. I'll have a head-start on the hibernators!

Back to the food! 'Meat week' is not just meat, but is a focus on protein and fat with low carbs and little dairy. So, we popped out to the Riccarton Markets on Sunday and grabbed a couple of trays of eggs and some fresh veges and planned a few days meals. Easy choices for lunches are cold roast chicken and boiled eggs (yum) which of course can be last nights dinner :)  Breakfasts are going to be egg based as they are quick and light and easy - omelettes, poached, scrambled, fried - and dinners nice and warming on these colder evenings. There's a nice meaty soup I want to make for lunches as well. Plus, still having plenty of veg to balance it all out (we're loving the mushroom & leeks at the moment) and plenty of dark greens sneaking in as well.

One other advantage of 'meat week' is that my energy seems to have improved. I had noticed in the last couple of weeks that I was not performing at 100%. I wasn't tired or lacklustre, just lagging behind what I thought I should be performing at. This was kind of to be expected, but was annoying. However, my energy levels are back now. I went for a jog around the block last night (2.3km) and this morning was riding hard, back to my previous speeds and fitness. I feel energised again, only downside is the sore throat I seem to be developing :( Damn bugs.

As the 20 week challenge has a 'sprint to the finish' challenge tossed in to the mix, I'm keeping a food diary, along with my insulin use and blood glucose readings. This will make for interesting reading by my doc and the diabetes centre next time. The diabetes centre will freak at my lack of carbohydrates, but be amazed at my decrease in insulin and of course, my control will be near-perfect as usual. With the amount of energy I have now, I'm almost convinced I convert fats to energy better than carbs. I even woke with a low score on my meter this morning, something that hasn't happened for a very  long time. Too early to celebrate, but fingers crossed for a fitter and leaner future with low insulin use and stable blood sugars!

Weight? Well, for the past week it has been stable. And by stable I mean I have ranged in weight from 100.0 to 100.6 kilos. Yup, Chris does it again, diets don't make me lose weight, and I'm not concerned about that in the least. Part of the move from shakes to 'meat week' was doing some measurements and that's where the real story is being told. Lots of decreases there and I can see my shape changing. I first noticed it a few days ago while brushing my teeth - shoulders more defined, ribs visible, spare tyre greatly reduced giving more straight lines down my sides, and the hanging over tummy is melting away. It's nice when you see the changes in yourself.

And the madness seems to be increasing. I'm about to head off and go for another jog in the park, about 3.8km. If I can do 3 sessions like this a day (commute + run or PT session + commute) then it's bound to do me some good. I want to build my running distance up substantially, but need to take it easy so as not to damage my shins, so will add a few hundred meters on each time, and stop when the pain starts, not when it reaches critical levels. Must remember to buy some new shoes too...

It's raining, it's pouring

The golden weather has well and truly come to an end this week:

• It's probably rained more in the last few days than it has for the entire year
• Temperatures are holding in the low teens, and sometimes struggling to achieve even that
• Sunrise and sunset seem to coincide with arriving at work and leaving work
• People are adding more layers
• Less people are seen out jogging or riding
• Moods darken

So, with a smile, my shorts, t-shirt and vest, I jumped onto my bike in the gloom and raced to the office. The traffic was busy, as expected, and I was thankful that my commute each day uses very little of the road, and where it does, it has a well defined cycle lane and less busy sections of the streets. I hate riding in the traffic.

In short order I was in the wide open cycle path, devoid of children and dogs. Odd really, as this is the perfect weather for them - puddles, leaves blowing around, worms, ducks, and water everywhere! A dream environment for a child or dog! Sadly, most parents will drive their kids to school, and the poor pooches will be left indoors for the day.

I arrived at the office, wet and happy. Riding in the rain is good fun and I don't understand why people dislike it so much. I got changed into dry clothes and sat at my depressing desk for a few hours, counting the minutes till I was heading out again!

Yup, rain, hail or shine, or snow, lightening, floods, earthquake or any number of disasters, natural or otherwise, there is no reason to postpone the DropAndGiveMe20 session in the park at lunchtime. I re-donned my cold, wet clothes and we trotted to the park feeling cold, and a little stupid. But after some running about, random ball games (ever tried shooting hoops with a medicine ball?) and not too much mud wallowing, the 20 minutes flew by and I was quite warm again.

Back to the office, another quick change to dry clothes and another boring few hours at the keyboard. When the end of the day arrived, I was hesitant, as this would be the second time I had to climb into cold, wet clothes. Urgh. I jumped on the bike and cycled off into the dark. Man, the paths are deserted when it's cold and wet. And it'll get quieter and quieter as the temperature drops. I love the cold, everyone else seems to hate it.

I arrived home, removed the leaves from my hairy legs and arms, dried off, changed into slouchy clothes and prepared for dinner. What a day.

When I look back on it, it was good. Because I went for a ride in the rain. Because I went for a PT session in the rain. Because I didn't just hibernate and grump. Because I did these things, my day was filled with laughter and success. If I didn't, it would be all spent grumpy in the car, grumpy at my desk, and arriving home grumpy. But, I'm in a good mood. Are you?

So, how do you spend a rainy day?

[UPDATE - the very next day]
OK, so while it was wet on Tuesday, Wednesday was a whole new ballgame. The session in the park was so wet, I gained 4KG. I was drenched through my jacket and holding a litre of water in my shoes. But you know what, it was still damn good fun!

The dark blue is torrential rain, the yellow is just heavy rain.

Weight a week and see

7 days of shakes and dinners and have I gone mad yet? Well, maybe... Depends on your definition I guess.

I have been attending the regular 20 minute sessions in the park, doing some weird and wonderful things, and continuing to commute every day (and it's getting colder and colder in the mornings too!) plus I went for another jog with Logan one evening. We picked a larger park with an almost 1km loop and managed to knock off a few laps before my shins gave way, but our technique is good and our pace is pretty even as well, which means we'll be able to build to the 19km required for the Hard Labour weekend in October. We have a couple of runs planned for this week, hopefully my shins don't give way on me and we can get more of those laps done in an evening. I still find it amazing that he can follow me around a field attached by a stretchy cord and know where we are after a lap, and be able to predict when we're going to be cornering again on subsequent laps. Blows my mind.

What I have noticed in the last week is weight loss. My tummy has finally started to shrink. Yup, flabby belly is now just jelly belly! I have lost about 5kg without starving myself, although I have been missing my coffee and red wine. The first week of this low-carb diet is dull as hell. Shakes are fun for a day, maybe two, but now I'm on day 8 they just plain suck. But, in less than a week I'll never have to have another one and I get to start on my fantasy fortnight - meat meat meat!! Oh yea, low carbs and meat flavoured. I'm gonna like those 2 weeks.

With my dropping weight, and increasing strength, my power to weight ratio is going up as well. On Friday we did 'crunchie club' in the 20 minute session, doing crunchies, prone holds and side raises, with (for me) a set of 5 chin-ups in between each loop. I managed 5 loops, which means 25 chin-ups as well. A good sign of improving upper-body strength.

I was back in the park on Sunday morning with Tracey and Jody doing a double-session instead of a walk up the hill. It was cold and wet, but I soon warmed up. A short jog, then Tabata intervals, followed by another short jog and then a random game of 'run up the hill and grab a cone and bring it down and do that exercise while the other person runs up the hill and back' - a game I seemed to suck at because I kept coming back with squat-based activities. I'm sure it was rigged. In hindsight, I should have checked the cones at the top of the hill rather than on the way back down! Squat-hold, twice, hurts.

My blood sugars have been sitting high off and on for the week, mostly because I'm having trouble guessing how much to account for when drinking these shakes. I have been getting better, but so long as it's pretty well controlled, I'll wait till the meat weeks before I start really knuckling down on it. It's not bad for me, but it would be bad for you, however I have had much worse weeks (or months) in the past and once my internals get sorted it'll be back to strict control again.

I'm off to fantasise about dunking biscuits in my coffee now. Enjoy your next cup of coffee, it'll be a week before I get to taste one again!

Liquid food and enforced laziness

I went for a night jog with Logan last week. We only did about 2.5km around a small park, but it was to try out a lead and follow approach, and see if I could run at his pace. While I didn't race away, I did hold a good pace and kept it up for the whole time, only being distracted by the blind bugger behind me potentially going off-course due to his following-by-ear. A new method required, which we will trial on Thursday. We need a safe and non-annoying method as we're going to be using it for hours as we traverse 19km of mountain roads. Thankfully we have a bit of time up our sleeves before it happens. After 2.5km on grass at a steady pace, I was starting to feel my shins, but it was a very manageable pain.

On Friday however, doing a short jog to my lunchtime torture session, my shins flared up real quick. Sadly, this was the day Tracey had decided to do running drills. 50m jaunts doing all manner of hop, skip, frog march, high knees, butt kicks and other weird walks straight from the Department of Silly Walks. About half way through my legs were in agony, but I pushed on. Why? Well, I need to know if they will explode, get even more sore, or just reach a point and hang there. I don;t want to find out half way up a mountain that the answer is explode! So I did the rest of the session, keeping up, but not rocketing along, and the pain held. It was sore, very sore, the worst my legs have been in fact, but it tells me that when I get to that stage of pain, it's not going to get a lot worse, nor is it going to snap my legs in half. It's an awful pain tho, and one I do not like. A combination of more training and some foot-doctor visits should help, hopefully.

The weekend was to be filled with activity, sailing, bike rides, hill walks and more. However, sailing was cancelled (despite the fantastic weather) and I spent most of the day being lazy instead. On Sunday Logan said he'd melt in the rain, and cancelled the ride. The hill walk was cancelled too, except it was replaced with a circuit session in the garage. Amanda, her 2 girls, me and my girl were under the instruction of Tracey for almost an hour. 10 stations, 45 seconds on, 10 seconds off. 2 loops, then a 'rest' session of squats, then another shorter loop. It was great to see how much fitter Amanda is getting and having a crowd of us laughing, crying and swearing in the garage and in the rain would have made for a rather unusual site to passers by I'm sure.

Monday was an off day, but the first day of the ultra-low-carb 2 weeks. Yep, protein shakes for breakfast and lunch, a yummy dinner (no stodge) and another shake before bed. Despite eating pretty much no carbs for the entire day, I didn't crave anything, but my blood sugars remained high. It is almost defiantly due to fat being converted to sugars, so time will tell... Weight has remained static since the challenge started, but this diet may well help, and probably do my blood and organs some good too.

Tuesday I woke with a headache. A detox-like hangover. Not a skull piercer, just an annoying one in my left temple. Another protein shake for breakfast and at lunchtime a session in the park again. As part of an ongoing fit-test, Tracey had us run a mile (literally, 1.6km) and then do push-ups, crunchies, squats, side-to-side jumping and chin-ups. None of it was fun, starting from 100m into the run when my headache doubled in size, and with about 400m to go, my shins started to groan. I still managed under 9 minutes which is an average of about 10.5kph, a speed I'm happy to maintain for a while. If I can hold a speed of 10kph for a distance of 20km, I'll be a very happy man! My crunchies and push-ups were on-par with the last test, but I managed 9 chin-ups when I wouldn't have been able to do 1 a matter of weeks ago! More time to work on that tho, more improvements to be made, here's hoping the diet, running, cycling and workouts combine to produce immediate results!

Steady as she goes

In the early weeks of this 20 week challenge I was being hit left, right and centre by new ideas, new food options, new schedules and new ways to do what I have already been doing. We're well past half way now, on the ragged downward slope to the finish line, and it seems that routine has started to set in. This is both a good and bad thing.

It's been over a week since I last updated, and I have done 5 more sessions in the park since then. Some have been pretty hard, involving repetition of an exercise to enable pain in targeting of a single area of your body, to running about and exercising to Hairy McLeary, to resistance exercises that have made my butt muscles ache, not to mention buckets of toys and trading exercises. So far there has not been a single session repeated, Tracey is doing damn well there, and none of the participants have been trying to find excuses to skip the sessions (so far).

I'm still enjoying these short bursts of activity, and while I don't notice it all the time, there have been a few occasions where I have seen some muscle popping out to say hi, or looking a little more defined than when I saw it last.  While I don't feel stronger yet, I know I am. I can do chin-ups now! I can do way more pushups in a minute than I have ever been able to do.

My cardio is still pretty bad and needs a lot more work. I find that I tend to slacken off once I start puffing and blowing. I need more mental training in this area, as I know my body will work harder than my mind is saying it will. For example, when riding up a hill, as I start to blow, my mind starts trying to convince me that I should slow, or stop, and soon! Sometimes I can get around this by asking questions of myself - "am I gasping for breath?" or "are my legs screaming with white-hot pain?" - if neither of these (usual causes) is a definite 'yes' then it's my brain not my body that wants to stop, and far too often it demands a reassessment and rest over and over again.

Tonight, I go for a jog. Yes, it's gonna hurt my shins, and when the pain is bad I will stop, but it's going to be a little different as I will be jogging with a companion. Tonight Logan and I go for a run to size each other up. He might be too fast, or get his second wind before I do, or want to do a lot more distance than I can, but either way, we'll both be jogging in the dark tonight. This is part of the training for the Twizel Hard Labour weekend in 5 months time. By then I'll have to be able to run 19km, in the hills, and follow it up with a 90km road ride, and follow that up with a 44km mountain bike ride. Gawd I hope I can learn to run.

So, what about the bad thing about being in a routine? Exercise wise it's fine. More fitness for not much extra time commitment, however my diet is shabby again. I blame Tracey (as you would) but my incidental junk-food consumption has built up to pre-20-weeks levels. Cupcakes, banana bread (with choc chips) and Belgium slice have all featured in my daily food diary over the past few weeks, more than once. My weight is still over 100kg and my tummy is still there, and diet is the only real fix for that. Alcohol consumption is way down, carb consumption is down below previous levels (despite the cakes) but both of these are still too high. I might have to do a very restrictive diet for a few weeks to knock a few kilos off and trim the gut, avoid all of my favourite ingestibles and see if there's improvement. If there's none, then it's back to cakes and pies as diet is obviously not the cause of my wobbly tummy :)

If you have 20 minutes, why not join me in the park one lunchtime?