The moment of truth

I faced the scales when I returned from the Christmas holidays expecting bad news, but not quite as bad as it was - 1 stone gained since I last weighed myself at the beginning of December, tipping the scales at 16 stone 2 lb!

The good news is that I have lost 10lbs by doing the Cambridge diet for 3 days this week. I have gone back on food this morning - Porridge, bananas and apples which tasted delicious after 3 days of cambridge bars.

I will be carefully counting my calories over the next few weeks to try and drop another stone.

Black Rocks, Cromford

I drove out to Cromford this morning and went to the top of the Black Rocks which has a good view over the village. I then walked along some of the woodland trails around the rocks before heading down to Cromford via the canal. A link HERE to a short video explaining why they are called the Black Rocks

I've been on the diet for a week now and have lost an amazing 11 lbs, so I tip the scales at 14 st 11 lbs now. I intend to stay on the diet for a couple more weeks, if I have the willpower to stay on it that long.

Mini diet

I have been back on the diet this week as my weight had gone back up to 15 st 8 lb. Today is day 5 and I'm back down to 15 st. I will try and stay on the diet now for a few weeks to get back to somewhere near my 13 st ideal which I reached at the beginning of the year. One of the biggest things I miss is tea which isn't the same without a drop of milk - unfortunately milk will effect the fat burning process so is a no-no.

Back on food today

In the last 8 days I have lost a stone! A pretty incredible weight loss which puts me back where I want to be, so I have gone back onto food, refocused on not letting the portion sizes creep up and the bad things creep in to my diet.

Breakfast was porridge with Pomegranate and raisins and a Canteloupe Melon.

Back on the Diet

I had a weigh in yesterday as I was aware that my weight has been creeping back up - 14 st 12 lbs (94 kg) which is where I was at the beginning of October last year. So I am back on the bars/shakes for a couple of weeks.

Weigh in, jog, brick shifting

15th Weigh in - Day 197 - 13st 8lbs - 86 kgs

I had a weigh in as I was meeting my Cambridge Diet Counsellor to fill in some blanks on my application form. it's two months since my last weigh in and I've lost a couple more pounds so I am happy with that.

I jogged (albeit at a very geriatric pace) all the way there which I am pleased with, as it is the first decent sized run I have done since starting to lose the weight - approximately 4 miles each way. I intended to get the bus back but got impatient waiting for one so jogged most of the way back as well - as far as the city centre which was a bit too busy with the lunch crowds for me to jog through.

I spent the afternoon shifting bricks into my back garden as some twerps threw one through someones car window the other night. I had already stacked up most of the loose bricks in my car port. The police called out a Council work team and having got the insurance companies ok I let them take some of the smaller lumps of bricks and a couple of wheelie bins that I had filled with the useless broken bricks and rubble. I then moved the ones I'd stacked up into my back garden.

A day's food

Inspired by the tv show "you are what you eat" where they put the persons weekly food intake on a groaning table, I thought I'd put together my food intake for today, ignoring the dozen or so cups of tea/coffee.

The real ales are a leftover from the book I've just finished - Bar None by Tim Lebbon after a plague five survivors are holed up in a mansion with a cellar full of beer. Their small patch of Wales is peaceful while the rest of the surviving population are eating each other. As their supplies dwindle, a passing stranger tells them about Bar None in Cornwall where there's plenty of beer so off they go on a road trip through the nightmarish countryside. The author titled each chapter after a real ale. As I normally stick to lager I thought I'd try a few as I read the book. I might have been converted.

The Road

It's a couple of years since I read the Road and I have been eagerly awaiting the film, which was completed ages ago but has only just reached the screens.

I saw the film last night and it is very good and as bleak as the book.

I am reading The Suicide Collectors by David Oppegard at the moment. For 5 years "The Despair" has been causing people to commit suicide. There are only the last 10% of the population left in the crumbling civilization and they are disappearing fast. The mysterious collectors appear after each suicide to take the dead bodies.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I've dropped a size since my New York shopathon and now fit into 30" waist jeans, so I couldn't resist getting a pair in the sales. My weight has been hovering at just above 13 stone for the last couple of months.

Weight Gain

14th Weigh in - Day 145 - 13st 13 lbs - 88kg

My weight loss has plateaued the last couple of weeks. I had an evening weigh in yesterday (I tend to be several pounds heavier in the evenings). I also felt bloated as I had just had a big dinner by adding a whole tin of butter beans with my chicken, pasta and carrots and thai curry paste so I am not unduly concerned by the weight gain this weigh in.

I bought a supply of bars in case I want to have one a day over the christmas period, but I will probably stop the diet within the next few days and see how I get on over christmas on a healthy diet.

I am trying to incorporate low GI foods into my diet - slow energy release carbohydrates such as lentils, beans, granary bread and brown pasta/rice - hence the butter beans yesterday.

I have received the application forms for becoming a cambridge diet counsellor - but they have given no indication of prices, without which I have no way of working out if it is worth my while doing it.

Back at the Gym

I went back to the gym yesterday for the first time since my holiday - I have found it hard getting myself back into the gym routine. I did an hour on the bike but didn't break into much of a sweat as I was reading the gruesome exploits of Hauptsturmfuhrer Maximilian Aue as I pedalled.

I decided to have a go on the running machine and was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it is for me to run now. I managed to do 20 minutes, raising a good sweat, and have done the same this evening. Hopefully I can keep it up.

I have reduced the diet bars to one a day now and will probably come off them completely in the next couple of weeks.

Purple Book Award 2009

13th Weigh in - Day 134 - 13st 10lbs - 87kg

Notwithstanding that I have yet to finish it, with another 350 pages still to read,I can announce that the inaugural winner of the Purple Book Award goes to The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell. It is hands down the best book I have read this year. I bought this and started reading it when the hardback came out in April. I got about half way through its 1,000 pages before I decided to put it to one side as I had a big stack of Library books that I wanted to read. Its the wartime memoirs of the ficitious SS Officer, Maximilian Aue who is currently taking a tour of the death camps researching how to maximise output for the war effort.

I have a couple of other cheery books on the go, a non fiction from the library - White Cargo by Don Jordan and Michael Welsh - "The Forgotten History of Britains white slaves in America" and I Spied a Pale Horse by Mark Timlin yet another novel set in an empty, post pandemic UK. Nice and Christmassy.

Another 3 lbs lost since the last weigh in, not bad at all as I had a night on the town at the weekend. Consuming 6.5 pints of beer which works out at about 1500 extra calories.

Back to work, ugh

12th Weigh in - Day 124 - 13st 13lbs - 88kg

Lost an amazing 6lbs while on holiday - all that walking round the big apple eating salad sandwiches and big (genetically modified)apples has paid off. Will stay on 2 bars a day plus food for a couple more weeks and then I'll probably reduce or stop the diet bars.

Also took my measurements - arms chest and thighs are the same as last measurement 5 weeks ago, but another inch has gone from the waist and inch and a half off the hips.