4th week

Charity, thanks for the additional avo advice, i am becomong quite adept with them now.
Tracey, i just through the pull up bar in the bin. Also, re yogurt. wont be buying any more.

not much to report. bought a mint plant which a wee beastie attacked.
the people in my local coffee shop keep giving me free coffee. hmm???
my junior told me i'd lost weight. not really who i was hoping to get a compliment from, he is just back from his wedding. but take em where i can get em.

Not What it Said on the Can

Noel,  thanks for the avocado tips, i am really getting into them. i even incorporated one into my dinner last night. can avos be addictive?

Conny, thanks for skipping advice. i hope weather is good for you.   as for the skipping, big improvement. happened when i got up late for work one day, take luck where you can get it eh! now this morning i even did my first 'crossover" skip. wasnt in my allotted jumps but i thought i would give it a go when i finished. first attempt, bingo. could only do one of course. couldnt do another one consecutively. wasnt even an OMG moment, more a Bill & Ted's "yeah" moment.  i realise we are not talkin a moon landing here but it's something i've had in the back of mind and wanted to do since i started PCP. so, probably more what Bill Clinton felt like the first time he "didnt" with Monica. it was exciting. "do it again, do it again" shouted the voice in my head. probably much like Clinton as he ambled to the restroom not to clean himself up after  he didnt. so five attempts later i managed another crossover. "quit while you're ahead" the voice in my head said, so that's what i did. 

 first attempt at pull ups. bar broke and i landed flat on my back. even alone at 5.30 am i still had a look about to check nobody was looking. I live in HK and i bought this at my local Dept store. Before anybody asks, it was made in Taiwan. made me wonder why the chinese want taiwan back if this is representative of their manufacturing industry. i hope they are a bit better with microchips.

wondered into a local supermarket to buy some natural yogurt. there it was on the shelf. i bought it, thinking "job done". but no. when i got it home and tasted it, i thought something was amiss. lets be honest, plain natural yogurt tastes like puke but this was ok. surprised, i checked the label.   

Ingredients;  water, milk solid, emulsifyer, live lactic culture

maybe i am being a tad pedantic here. and maybe i am completely wrong but this doesnt seem to be "natural plain yogurt", which is what is said on the tub. now i havent spoken to my lawyer, so i dont know my legal position and i dont want to get sued by the manufacturer. so, i wont name the the company responsible.

shame on you NESTLE.

motor skills,

firstly, thanks Helen, hope you are right.

i started off quite well with the jump rope and seemed to be making progress. however i seem to have regressed. yesterday i conldnt do more that 20 jumps without screwing it up. what should take me 6min took 13. frustrating. i put this down to tiredness but today (after a longer sleep), after looking at some skipping instruction on youtube i wast much better. i think this is my feet as i dont think i am changing the speed of the rope. now, over the years i have come to accept that some of my extremities may not do as my brain might want. but so far this situation hadnt manifested itself with my feet. i got pissed off and took off my trainers (i dont know why). oddly this seemed to help. Hmmm! answers on a postcard.

also, big up to whomever's idea it was to use the avocado in the morning. before this program i wasnt for the avocado and i wasnt against the avocado. i was avocado agnostic. now i am definitely for the "avo", as i have affectionately started referring to the lil critters. this morning i had avo/tomato  & sliced red onion on toast with some black pepper. it was delicious.  so whoever (assuming it's one person) thought this one up take a proverbial high five from me. and if there is more than one person involved in this brainwave then high five to each of you. no need to share 'fives', plenty to go around. while we are on the subject, is there anyone out there with more avo experience, who can explain a  less messy way of getting the skin off? your average avo is a messy lil bugga. btw, the skin is quite heavy so weigh once peeled.

According to wikipedia the avo is from the same plant family as cinnamon. who would have thought! but i suppose when i think of some of my family it's not such a stretch.

starting pcp proper

so, day 9.  changing the diet is quite a shock.  it's taking a lot of sourcing/prep/cook time to be able to stick to this. so far have done ok. brown rice tastes like ass but the brown pasta is ok if you overcook it. quite surprising how these basic food stuffs are not so easily available. for a lot of this stuff you have to go to the upper end supermarkets (well in HK at least). i need to regiment and stystemise this so as not to devote all my time and energy to this. i want to have a "normal" life for as long as possible on this program. i think this will help me when there are challenging days ahead. for instance, last night i popped to the pub for an hour. didnt drink but felt like i had been out for a bit and managed to catch up with some friends. when the point comes when i'm wondering whether this is worth it (and it probably will), i dont want to be telling myself i have been effectively living like a hermit. i want to feel i have had a relatively normal social life and what is to come is for a limited time and it will be normal again (if it ever was)

so the the exercises are a bit tougher. not so much hard per se but it takes a bit of getting used to (meaning every day). trying to do them before work which means getting up @ 5.30am. will see how tat pans out as the exercise regime gets longer.  i dont have the stiffness in the limbs i had last week so i guess my body is adapting a bit. i do feel tired at the moment though and someone else has told me they feel the same. i am wondering whether this is common o PCPers.  so far so good i guess. lookin forward to the w'end for a rest. weighed myself on the 6th june. 73kg.

First Few Days

Well not the most auspicious start. missed my exercises on the first day. so did 2 days worth on 2nd day. was real suprised how sore the leg exercises left my glutes, thighs and hamstrings especially as i do this stuff in training.  i had a kbox session with my trainer on Sat morning and when i woke i thought i would have to cancel as my legs were so stiff. i spent 45minss stretching out before i went.  does anybody have any good tips for dealing with lactic acid (and please dont suggest stretching down, i do that already)? always suffered from this since my mid 20's. so i did my session and my trainer couldnt figure why i was so unfit. am gonna put this down to my stiffness. i think i was going too deep on the sqats and lunges.

i took the tip about not skipping on a hard surface v seriously as i had my MCL sewn back together 18mnths ago and then i had a serious flare up last november and had to rest for another 3mnths. am hoping it holds together for the duration. to this end the tip about not overdoing it was useful. am sure it will get tough quick enough. anyways i am now doing the skipping in my  apartment on a couple of exercise mats. also cuts down noise so the people down stairs wont wanna kill me.