The end of the beginning.

Hi Everyone. The last post is coming up a bit late but i have still been grappling with the workouts and had a very busy week.

I think it is normal to start with Thank You's but I would like to start with apologies. Sorry Patrick for such a late Day 90 post. It got inevitably late. I wanted to really think hard about it and then got a bit lazy and then a bit busy. Honestly, I don't have much excuse to offer.

Compared to all my friends here doing the PCP, i think i had it a bit easy as my wife helped me out with almost all the cooking and without her it would have been almost impossible for me to get anywhere. Not just that, she made a lot of emotional adjustments. She was very encouraging and patient esp when i was throwing tantrums all over. That happened a lot when i was bordering on obsessiveness about the workout, about the diet, about everything and nothing. Trust me, I would have given up on myself. She has been a rock. I gave her a bit of a hard time even today. Sorry. I love you, Prachee :).

I am really glad that in the end it turned out to be an injury free 3 months. It would have been very difficult to cope up with injury or any other hiccups in between. E! overcame his knee and Melanie did so well to stick around. It was an honor to be doing the PCP in their company.

I can't thank Patrick and Chen enough. Just by way of stumbling upon PCP, all of us were looking to do something about our health and it might have taken more wandering, more wasted time and money if not for Patrick and Chen. The program was carried out very well and I looked forward to the daily emails from Patrick telling us something new about some exercise or about healthy eating or just cheering us on. Saturdays emails were of course a bit dreaded because of the new workout plan every week. :) Even now, after more than a week, I do open my email everyday hoping to see an email from Patrick.

Time for the pants shot :). I have dropped about 4 inches. I am yet to buy new clothes because this is not where i want to be. I am yet to get to Peak Condition as I was way off when i started but i will get there and my new clothes will have to wait a little while longer.


When I look back at what we have achieved, it does look immense but in reality all it took was consistency and discipline. It just goes on to show how consistent dogged small step every day can make such a huge difference. All the posts from fellow PCPers helped a lot in making sure that the small step was taken every day. There were off days but it was easier to get up when i stumbled because of the fact that there were people around encouraging each other every inch of the way. Also knowing that what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger helped during difficult days of workout.

Here are the Vital Stats from before and After.

	9-Aug-09	9-Nov-09
Weight	90.3	78.9
Fat %	26.8	20.2

I know i have some more distance to cover before i want to get to the maintenance stage. Things are a lot better since I embarked on PCP but I still have miles to go. Since I finished PCP, I have learned a few fancy tricks with the jump ropes. Running in Place and Single Leg jumps. It was quite fun and look forward to doing other things with the rope as well.

Things happen eventually but in the end it all depends on how desperately you want it. I was desperate before I started and PCP showed me what I could achieve and helped in fueling my hunger. (I hope not for food :))

To E!, Jessica, Mike and Amy. Thank You all for your support all through the PCP. Thanks Patrick & Chen. I will try and live up to what I learned through both of you.

Cheers to a great beginning !!

Till we meet again guys. Good Bye and Good Luck !!!

Day 89 Or Day 84. PCP Blues !!

Hey Everyone !! Just read E's entry for T-2. He is the Sean of our group. Am pretty excited for him and for everyone of us but i have done something which is pretty disappointing.

It might have something to do with the fear of what lies beyond PCP but it could just be a rationalization that my mind is coming up with. Here is what happened.

Last Friday after i measured my weight i was pretty excited. Sat was soccer day and was a bit tired after the game. Don't know why but i decided to take it easy that day. Sunday followed, went shopping and when i was trying a new pair of trousers I realized how much my waist had shrunk, I couldn't contain myself. Also i don't know but i felt i should make up for the three days of workout that i had missed during the last three months. That and a mixed feeling of what was to come post PCP brought me to stand still. Monday followed, just did the jump ropes. Tuesday, made up for Day 52. Today, just finished the Day 73.

I don't know why i am doing this. I do feel that i don't want my PCP to be over. The plan is to do my Day 76 tomorrow (that is when i make up for all the lost days) and then i start with my Day 85 onwards. So that extends my PCP by 5 days. Not enough. I am pretty sure it is not the super-sets that is scaring me.

I have been reading Patrick's PCP blog just to find something to hang on to. To get an idea of things to come and how to cope up with it. I really feel things would get tricky with no one over looking. Like i said, i am known to start off things in full steam and slowly give up. That is what scares me a bit and I know the object of PCP was to get all the right ideas into our brain and see them work so that it keeps us on the right track going forward and all that has happened but still .......

I am sorry to disappoint you guys but as you all will be crossing the finish line i would start my final lap, a lap which i wouldn't want to end. All the best to all of you. I will join you all shortly for the victory lap before we start running again.

Day 84. Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! O! What a feeling i weigh only 80 kilo !!

Just wanted to share this with all of you. I weighed myself today. I am only 80 now. So dropped more than 23 pounds since the start of the PCP.

Only a week to go. I need to wait before I celebrate :).

My routine got even crazier after the last blog. On Wednesday I finished my workout around 1 AM and so it was not a surprise that yesterday when i came home, no matter how much i pushed myself, i couldn't bring myself to start the workout. Slept early. Had a good sleep but i decided to make up for the lost day today.

This is something i have done for the first time in the last 84 days. I came home during lunch from work and i finished yesterday's workout and then when i got back from work today i did my workout for today. It is past midnight already and i finished around 20 minutes back. I couldn't believe what i saw when i stood on the weighing scale.

May be it was the two workouts that caused the weight to drop so much but whatever it was I am pretty happy about it and all charged up.

Bring it on. Last week ya !!

Have a great time everyone.

Day 82: Horrible Internet Connection & a Short Blog Update.

Hey, hope everyone is having a rocking time. 37th day for the newbies :). Not newbies really, all you guys are doing great. Mike, E, Jessica, Amy last few days, eh? I have been meaning to update the blog but the bad internet connection is not allowing me to do it.

This is what my routine has been lately. Infact for most of the PCP except for a bit of difference.

Get up 6:45 Leave for work 7:30 Come back 7:30-8:00 PM. The difference is that previously I used to come home and get started with the workout in 10-15 minutes but now with things getting difficult, it inevitably gets delayed. So I would start anytime between 10 - 11 PM and finish around mid-night and obviously you can't sleep right after that, it is like taking a caffeine shot. So I end up sleeping around 1 AM. Also, my wife has an exam end of this month, so I am trying to sit down with her and work through the sample tests. I should have been doing this for a few weeks now but a jerk that I am. Now with less than 10 days remaining (for both my PCP and her exam), I hope things turn out well.

Weekly Assessment: I dropped 200 gms week on week and the Body Fat dropped from 23% to 22.2%. Not Bad.

Achievement of the Week: Yesterday, I managed to jump ropes for 21 minutes non-stop without tripping. Only thing is my right calf muscle is hurting a little bit and I hope that doesn't cause any problems tonight.

Disappointment of the Week: In all, still missing 3 days of PCP workout. (3 out of 82) Have tried to make up for it but almost seems impossible. This weekend will be the last opportunity or otw my PCP would run to 93 days. Don't mind that honestly.

I will keep my entry short. My internet connection has been horrible but yes I could have written the blog anyways and updated when the connection was alright but a little bit of excuse never hurt anyone. Hopefully I can have more short but regular updates as we hit the final lap.

All the best to everyone.

Cheers !!

Day 73 - Can't think of much to write.

Had a pretty uneventful week. No bloodied paps, no broken bands. (but while doing the jump ropes today, i realized that the jump rope has worn out, and the metallic wire inside is getting exposed so i need to get a new one, i guess the guys down at the store know me pretty well now, managed to get a discount last time around and hard to believe but they gave me money back for my broken resistance band. I actually went there to get it exchanged as they had been kind enough last time but something got lost in translation and they returned me the money :). I did order the bands from amazon so that i am not left stranded if this one breaks.) Workouts went on schedule. Had a mid-week hiccup last Tuesday and i am still trying to make up for it. Now with the workouts getting really hard it is almost impossible to make up for a lost day until you get a holiday in between or have a quiet weekend. I hope to make up for it this weekend.

I have been slipping on the diet and i hate myself for that, especially on the weekends I have been letting up and last week I was eating a slice or two of bread in the evening. I try to justify it by saying that since we have to get back to normal life in a few week's time i might as well try getting used to it. On the other hand there will be enough time to get used to that life but now is the time to go for the kill. Everything that we have worked towards over the past 1o weeks will be a waste if I can't consolidate it. I don't want that to happen. I have come this far and if I let myself down now, I can't think of it ...

Here is the weekly assessment.

	4-Oct-09	12-Oct-09
Weight	82.9	82.4
Fat %	23.3	23

I think the diet is showing up here in the results. Am pretty sure it is. This week no compromises.

Hope everyone else is having a good time. E ! you have been rock solid. Jessica, Keep that horse running :). Mike you need to get back on track and I wonder where amy is? Hope she is keeping well.

Adios.

Day 66: Of Broken Band II, Bloodied Pap & Indian Sweets.

Hey ! Hope everyone is having a great time working out and taking care of their diets. A pretty eventful week this last one.

I snapped my resistance band again for the second time and this time I was at a total loss of which one to buy. HK sucks when it comes to getting these things. I found a few shops today and these guys were asking anything between 40$ to 80$. What the heck? I had the misconception that it was breaking because of the light tension level and without realizing i ended up getting one which was pretty heavy, heavy enough that i couldn't even do the standing ovations. Obviously a bit frustrated with the whole resistance band thing. The light one breaks apart and the heavy one, i can't lift. Obviously there are ones in between but HK sucks anyways. I came home and checked on amazon and realized i had paid 3 times more for the resistance band. I am thinking of ordering these. In the meantime, i will have to figure out how i manage my resistance band exercises. Some of them should still be do-able using these bands that i have. I will try to get this one changed to something lighter but will see if they give in to it.

After my soccer game on Saturday, I decided to get the jump-ropes done right away. I was already quite sweaty and didn't realize my vest flapping against my chest non-stop. When i finished my jump-ropes and looked myself in the mirror. Guess what i find. Two red spots in and around the pap. Well, i had just bloodied myself doing the jump ropes. :). It was scary at first and then a bit amusing.

Last week, we found out that a very good friend of ours is getting married. He came over with a box of Indian sweets. People need to try it to realize how sweet and rich these things are. Normally, i wouldn't have succumbed but it was a joyous occasion and I ate pretty heartily. I have had too many of these digressions lately. We also have this big Indian festival coming up on the 17th. That is one day when things would get tricky and if at all there has to be any digression between now and the end, i have to save it for the 17th. Hope nothing else happens in between.

Finally the weekly measurements were carried out and things look on track.

	27-Sep-09	4-Oct-09
Weight	83.7	82.9
Fat %	24.4	23.3

I know it is not just about these no.s but also about getting these principles ingrained in our lifestyle. Slowly but surely the metamorphosis is taking place. I will be uploading the photograph tomorrow.

Have a great final dash everyone and let us all cross the finishing line together and in peak condition.

Day: 58. Too many Digressions. Champagne, Red Wine, Gratin -- oh My !!

The usual weekly measurement.

	20-Sep-09	27-Sep-09
Weight	85.6	83.7
Fat %	24	24.4

Last week was full of digressions and was super challenging in terms of the diet. A few senior guys were in the office and inevitably went out for dinner twice on Tuesday and Wednesday and lunch on Friday. I was able to more or less avoid the non-pcp stuff but still it was dinner. Friday we had a dim-sum lunch and it wasn't too PCP-friendly. Yesterday night we were invited for dinner at a senior colleague's place and observing me over the past week i was particularly categorized as being very fussy and was asked yesterday to avoid being so finicky for once. I had to relent and the yummy food wasn't helping either. Here is the description of the assaule that followed :-

A glass of Champagne
A glass of red wine + Chicken Stew
Potato Gratin
Beef Curry
Just the smallest bit of pok choy you can imagine :). (This was the only PCP friendly stuff)
Cheese Cake (Generous Serving) + Dessert Wine

Even the PCP indulgence was not as bad as this one. My wife was nudging me to stop but i don't know what happened :). I did enjoy the food but the guilt came knocking right after.

Well one other thing that i have learned on PCP is that it is okay to make a mistake (I am not giving my self an excuse to keep committing them) but it is more important to get back on track. I finished my workout today on time and I plan to stick to the diet going forward. I just hope we don't have these office outings for some time to come.

Feeling a bit tired today so will keep it short for today. Hope everyone is having a good time. Happy Week 9.

DaY 51. Indulgence, Frustration & Relief.

Hi Everyone !. First of all welcome to the newbies :). Feels good to be saying that. I remember my Day one when I was quite excited about this whole project. It has been a tremendous journey full of ups and downs but I have never felt more frustrated as today when i climbed on the weighing machine but more on that later.

Last time i did not take my indulgence too seriously and i can't even remember what it was about really. I think it was PCP friendly in spite of being indulgence. This time around i decided to live upto it. We went to this Italian place. We decided to go for a penne lobster pasta but couldn't keep myself to it and so we ordered a pizza. I didn't exercise much restraint but kept my hands off the dessert and drinks. Felt pretty full after that and felt a bit guilty. I am sure i far exceeded the calories. My stomach didn't feel too good though an hour or so later was having a stomach ache but this could just be a result of gorging on the food rather than a reaction to the food.

I normally weigh myself on Sunday nights after the workout but i thought I will do it first thing in the morning and when i saw the results I was so frustrated that i couldn't even do my jumpropes properly ended up lashing it on the floor. I was seething with anger, took a few minutes break but i think it was the anger which helped me cream the jump ropes later. I measured myself again after the workout and i weighed a kilo less - that did help a little bit in cooling me down. Even without it i think it is a good time to just think about what i have been following the diet and the workout. Workouts have been very disciplined but diets there have been slips every now and then in terms of timing and quantity. I need to think about these things and may be re-evaluate. Good that it happened in the middle of the PCP. Hopefully it will help me put things in perspective. In the evening, i finished my Day 55 jump ropes and did my routine measurement as i should have done and this is how the results look like.

	13-Sep-09	20-Sep-09 (Mng)
Weight	84.8	85.9
Fat %	24.3	25

	20-Sep-09 (After Workout)	20-Sep-09 (After Evening Jumpropes)
Weight	84.9	85.6
Fat %	24.3	24

Seeing so much swing within a day I don't know what to make of it. I was able to fit into a jeans that I haven't worn in a year's time. I had lost 10 kgs last year before my marriage and it is good to see myself fit into those clothes again. It hasn't been a long time since then but i did put on a lot of weight.

Today morning when i was doing my Day 50 workout I thought Patrick had a made a mistake when i saw 5 sets of 18 for the floor jumps. I thought he meant 3 sets. Did you Patrick? :). I already know the answer but the leg exercises today were a killer and i know they won't get any easy in the future. Looking forward to it.

Hope the gang is having a good time with the workout and with everything else in Life. Happy Week 8!

Day 44. Broken Resistance Band, Fish and Planks !

Last week while doing the pull-down the handle of the resistance band came off. I would like to believe that my muscles are suddenly generating more power but that surely was not the case. I somehow got through the whole week using them and yesterday got them replaced. I was not expecting the shop to replace them because there wasn't any warranty but those guys were kind enough to give me a new one. God bless them.

After sticking to chicken for the first month it was natural to get fed up of it. I have been eating fish last two weeks and loving it. I have suddenly re-discovered my love for fish. I am used to eating fresh-water fish and was a bit apprehensive about eating fish in HK but i forget that these days you can get whatever food you want and where ever you want. It is just a matter of looking around and there is always a whole variety of them available.

Today, I was able to make up for the lost PCP day. After erring for the first time, it took me two weeks to get back on track. Yesterday after the soccer I did my Day 42 jump-ropes in the evening and today morning I did my Day 49 Jump-ropes and in the evening finished my Day 43 workout. I wanted to do Day 43 and Day 44 today so i am in sync but I was dreading the plank and the push-up (still !!) so much that i couldn't get myself to do it. I think the way the exercises have become intense now it will get very difficult to make up for a lost day. Obviously the idea is to not miss any workout but then sometimes things aren't just in control.

Finally, it was time to do the weekly measurement and things are looking right on track. Sometimes i want to guess what would these no.s look like at the end of the PCP but it is more exciting to see them change every week and feel motivated rather than get fixated on numbers.

	6-Sep-09	13-Sep-09
Weight	85.9	84.8
Fat %	24.8	24.3

Hope the rest of the gang is getting through the grind smoothly. Have a nice week 7 everyone.

Day 38: Weekly Assessment & Making up for lost time

Here is the result from the assessment yesterday.

	30-Aug-09	6-Sep-09
Weight	87.5	85.9
Fat %	25.1	24.8

Think it is alright. Just need to keep up the tempo. After Patrick's comment on the blog about not tweaking the schedule and not skipping the Jropes, I managed to make up for the lost time yesterday by doing the Day 36 workout in the morning and jumping ropes again in the evening. Jumpropes have become quite smooth and in the last three sessions I have managed a neat 1500 without tripping.

Well, ofcourse my calves are hurting and had to wear an anklet to work. The area between the calves and the foot on the back of my left leg has been hurting a little (courtsey: pistol) and yesterday while doing the pistol, i realized that my left leg is a bit weaker compared to right one. Surprise Surprise :). Well i thought my left wasn't too bad but anyways. I had to take support on both sides for doing the pistol squat for the left leg but today was even worse and i had to do that for both the legs.

Even after 5 weeks, push up was still a struggle after the third set. Had to resort to the knee support in the final set.

Hope everyone else is having a great time. It is becoming difficult every passing day and that is making me even more determined to see it through.

Day 36: Break, Tweaks and Jumpropes !!

Hope everyone is doing well. Have been a bit irregular on the blog. Will try and update the blog more regularly.

I had missed the workout last saturday and had thought of doing it twice sometime in the week and Friday seemed like a good day to do it because of a relatively easy day that it is. On thursday i only got started on the workout by 11 pm and then i just couldn't get myself to do the jump ropes friday morning. I am really scared of missing out because of injury or sickness and i didn't want to stretch myself too much. Friday evening i came back and did my regular work out for Thursday. So all in all i have missed a day of workout and which doesn't make me feel too good about it and if that wasn't enough i decided to take it easy today. We had gone for soccer early morning and the heat was merciless. We played for about 90 minutes and it was a good game. Pretty Intense.

So now i am thinking of tweaking the program a li'l bit. Just push everything out by a day. So my jumprope gets replaced by soccer on Saturday mornings and the week starts on Sunday for me. Patrick, does that work? I don't want to be a slacker but just think that soccer is a bit harsh on the legs and then doing jumpropes might push me over the edge. It might not for all i know but i don't want to take chances.

Last week was quite good. I could feel the change when it came to jumpropes. I did 1500 twice in the week without tripping or stopping at all in between. Today i felt much fitter and was tirelessly running around on the soccer ground. We play on a smaller 5-7 a side field. Real test would be getting through a full game on the standard field. Will get there for sure.

V-Sits and floor jumps have been challenging but they would get easier for sure but now we have the new devil in the form of pistol squat. Will get through this as well. :)

Have a nice week 6 everyone.

Day 30 - Induldgence, +Ve Result and a Missed Day.

First of all congratulations to everyone on their successful completion. I was looking through the pics and I could see a world of difference. Excellent work !!

The week was pretty hectic and had some relatives over for dinner on Thursday. I couldn't do my workout on Thursday but thank god that we have an easy day on Friday. I did the jump ropes for Friday in the morning and finished my Thursday's workout in the evening. After finishing the workout I realized that the skin on my toe had peeled off and was hanging loose. Thankfully, it was painless.

Saturday we headed off to Macau for the weekend. I had packed my jump ropes and resistance bands but could not get around to doing my workout. I had thought that would swim instead of the jump ropes. My calves were crying out and the loose skin was still hanging there. We went out for dinner to a Portuguese place - had steamed cod and boiled kale. Had egg pudding and if that wasn't enough forced my wife into having a double scoop of tiramisu gelato and happily volunteered to help her. Well good indulgence and that too for dinner.

Today I managed to swim for a short while in the morning and after coming back to HK finished my work-out. It was quite difficult but managed it somehow. I managed 1000 jump ropes in one stretch which made me quite happy and then did my usual weight and body fat measurement. Here it is.

	23-Aug-09	31-Aug-09
Weight	88.8	87.5
Fat %	26.3	25.1

I guess with the carbs disappearing from dinner the weight should hopefully look better with every passing week. Fat%, i am pretty sure the killer exercises will take care of. I will upload my photograph tomorrow.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week 5.

Day 25 - This is not going to get any easy !!

Just finished my workout and was probably my worst till date. This is seriously getting tough. I was trying to look up the right technique for the floor jump and I bumped into one of the PCPer's (Corry MacDonald) blog. Guess what i found. She was trying to compare her workout and diet towards the end with what they were doing in their sixth week. Read at your own peril. :)

Towards the end.

Jumprope : 4sets x 5 mins

Floorjump : 4 sets x 20 reps

Push Ups : 3 sets x 40 reps...I do these with my feet elevated on a chair and as of yesturday can do my full 40 reps per set! YAY! You can do it too if I can, I never did more than a few 'men's pushups' before the PCP.

Lawnmowers : 4 sets x 20 reps

One Arm Biceps Curl : 4 sets x 20 reps

Triceps Dip : 4 sets x 20 reps

Shoulder Press : 4 sets x 20 reps

V-sits : 5 sets x 50 reps


Week 6' s workout-

Jumprope 4 x 3mins

Floor Jumps 4 x 10

Push-ups 6 x 15

Triceps Dip 4 x 15

Biceps Curl 5 x 20

Forward Shoulder Raises 4 x 15

Standing Shoulder Fly 4 x 15

V-sits 4 x 20

Leg-Ups 4 x 20

Locust pose 4 x 30 seconds

what the f***? Will we be doing this. Well, I would definitely want to do all of this but going by the workout i had today, this looks almost impossible.

Need a lot of inspiration for what's coming. Nadal's poster, i thought was a laughing matter, I seriously need it. Here is another song/video i find quite inspiring.

Hope the rest of you had a great day.

Day 23: Sad Stats.

	9-Aug-09	16-Aug-09	23-Aug-09
Weight	90.3	88.3	88.8
Fat %	26.8	26.9	26.3

Well my fear regarding the weight was correct. The weight has actually gone up. So some thought needs to be given to that. Body Fat % has gone down which hopefully means that my muscle mass is increasing. If not for that i would have been pretty despondent. Well, i am sure i will have lots of questions for Patrick when i catch him online next. :)

Hope rest of you are having a good time and seeing some motivating results.

Day 21.

Hi Everyone ! Hope you all are having a good time. Haven't been able to update the blog regularly. Work has been hectic, don't get much time after the work and the workout. The past week went well in terms of exercise except for my struggle with the pull-ups. I tried doing it on our neighbour's massive door frame but there is not much space and am always a bit cautious that the door might open any time and it would be a pretty unpleasant site to see someone hanging from your door-frame. Don't want to imagine the expression on their faces. :)

Having a few problems with my diet mostly because of the timing. I wonder if you guys face the same problem. I do my workout in the evening after coming back from work so that is around 8-9ish and so by the time i finish my dinner, it is already 10 and then i would normally sleep by 11-12 if I have to get up at 630 as my work starts early. I am really bothered about the fact that i am not getting enough gap between my dinner and sleep and also the fact that I am not getting enough sleep. Sleep, I can manage over the weekends and even otherwise that doesn't bother me as much. That is just making me a bit anxious and i am getting a feeling that tomorrow when I measure my weight, things might not look good. I know the obsession with the weight is not right and results would show up eventually but it is good to see some change. Let us see what happens tomorrow. I do notice a few changes though. Went for the soccer today in the morning and i think i did pretty okay stamina-wise. Just that it was so hot and only 8 of us had turned up, we were knackered within 45 mins to 1 hour.

We had gone out for dinner to a Chinese place yesterday. Didn't want to explain as much as they were mostly senior ex-colleagues who left my company over the last two years to work else where. Veg rolls, Sea-food soup (was pretty salty but i hope it was natural salt), Deep Fried Prawns (I know, I know !!) and then pecking duck with pan-cakes. Except for the deep fried bit, i think it was okay. Hopefully. Dim-sums, noodles and dessert followed but i avoided them. It wasn't too difficult as i had snacked on some carrots before the dinner. I came back around 10:30 and then waited a while for the food to settle down and did my jump-ropes around mid-night :) and normally i would go over the top with the jump ropes but i just did my 1000.

Have you guys realized that we probably have the best possible schedule. It changes every Saturday and Friday is the jump-ropes day. It is like just before the weekend and you are already pretty tired after 5 days of work and you get a nice little (i think much needed as well :)) break. Sat when I have all the time in the world it is the start of a new week so easy to plan and motivate myself.

Digression. Today we have the semi-finals of the Cincinnati open. Nadal plays the Joker and I hope Nadal wins the semi-final. The other match would also be quite interesting as Murray plays Federer. Am pretty excited.

Happy Week 4 !!

Day 16: Seeing Some Results.

Here are my vital stats :)

	9-Aug-09	16-Aug-09
Weight	90.3	88.3
Fat %	26.8	26.9

That is not too bad. I am pretty excited about it and looking forward to all the exercises and diet. Was a bit taken back by the increase in Fat % (Even though i have less fat now because the weight has gone done but still obese) but i think it is just a matter of time before it starts to go down.

Still haven't been able to resolve my pull up problems. My fear from last week was not unfounded. The kitchen counter came off while doing the inclined pull up and it was a bit funny. It was good that it happened before i even started otherwise might have caused some minor injury. My wife took it with a smile, just that she is getting a bit skeptical about my installing the pull-up bar. She thinks I might bring the door down this time :). Well, if I lose a few kilos more she might relent otherwise will try to use our neighbour's door for the pull up. They have a big big door with a massive iron frame that could be used, possibly, will find out tomorrow.

Rest things are going well. I am trying to generate "the burn", it definitely makes a bit of difference by just being conscious about it. I am especially proud of the fact that even though we had friends over for lunch and dinner, I was able to stick to my diet. They had ice-cream for dessert and I wasn't even tempted. I wonder if that is really a good thing though :)

Hope everyone is having a great time. Results are showing up and it will only get better from here. Keep at it guys. Happy Week 3 !!

Day Eleven.

Hope everyone is having a good time out there. Weekdays are a bit hectic but I am glad that the exercises are going on smoothly except for a few hiccups here and there. Was pretty excited about using the push-up bars and the resistance bands after the weekend shopping. While I was barely managing the push-ups before, it was almost impossible to complete the four sets using the bar. Instead of doing 4x12, i had to do it 2x12 + 3x5 + 1x0 + 1x0 .... I just could not finish it. Jump ropes I am enjoying. Managed a neat set of 4x300 + 1x400 but I need to keep E's post in mind. Just want to make sure that i don't over-do it to the extent that I burn myself but it is just a way for me to compensate for the missed push-ups and my struggle to get the inclined pull up done. I tried doing it using the kitchen counter but was scared that the whole thing might come off. I will have to improvise tomorrow.

Diet has been alright for now. I just got an email from Patrick about chickpeas and green beans, so both of these are out for the rest of the project. So as you guys can see, diet hasn't been going great in the real sense. Making mistakes in food selection, stumbling but learning.

Mike, the ironman video was quite inspiring. E and Jessica, you both have a great sense of humour and excellent posts. Amy, we will get the rewards. Some of it would be psychological to start with as I am pretty sure that i will not be short of stamina in the soccer game this weekend but I am sure as time goes by we will see real change.

I am pretty sure most of us would have heard the following african proverb.

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start running.

Let us keep running !!

Day 9.

Well the past week was so hectic that I managed to do the shopping only today. Got the resistance band. Since I didn't have them yesterday, I tried improvising by holding two 2.5 liter water cans for the Da Vinci but today when i did the forward shoulder, I realized yesterday's improvisation was a sham. I tried pouring some water from a jug and my hands were shaking. While buying the bathroom scale got a bit excited and got myself something that measures body fat, muscle mass as well. The stats don't look too good but here they are:

Weight 90.3
Fat: 26.8%
Muscle Mass: Garbage#$@?

While trying to write the numbers, I realize there isn't much information and the muscle mass that i got, there is something wrong with it. I don't know why i have it as 62.7 . Need to check again. The only thing i realize while googling these stats is that i am obese. Well i don't have to google the stats for that, just need to look at myself. But I am going to get this down.

(To be continued .. )

Day Five & Six.

Did I by any chance say that i would do an extra set of push-ups because I missed one the other day. I was kidding :). I seriously tried doing it and it felt like my hands would just give in. So in spite of trying really hard I couldn't do it.
And while jumping ropes today. I kept on going and almost ended up doing 592 jumps without tripping at all. I have been doing a bit extra on the jump ropes because i felt I could go on. I know Patrick said not to over do it but it was done keeping in mind what was to come -- chilly crab. Didn't go to that super spicy chilly crab place yesterday because of the crazy rainfall in HK. Ended up going today and I couldn't resist. Feel bad but want to make up for it. Any thing that I could do, anyone?
Would keep the post short. Just been managing enough time to get the exercises done. Would need a good sleep over the weekend.
So we are coming to end of our first week. Hope everyone is having a great time. Happy Day 7.

Day Three & Four: I am the Highway !

As expected, had a very hectic start to the week and that is how things would be i guess. Managed to get the exercises done. Was feeling good about it until I read Mike's blog and realized i missed one entire set for the push-ups :). Arrrrgh. Never mind, will try to see if i can manage a 5th set tomorrow.

Diet has been going quite well too. Have been going to Starbucks with colleagues at least twice a day but still manage to return empty handed. So far so good but i will have to tough it out tomorrow when we plan to take my father-in-law (who is visiting us in HK) to "Under the Bridge" where you probably get the best chilly crabs in HK. Not like Singapore though which probably has the best chilly crabs in the world. Sorry guys, i know talking about chilly crabs and custard prawns doesn't help anyone here but those are the wonders that i would want to enjoy keeping myself in PC. Sometimes I wish I were Michael Phelps, that i could eat 12000 calories a day and still break world records. Who am I fooling? if not Michael Phelps, I just want to be in good health and someone who enjoys his food as well though not every day and every meal :)

I just thought i will share a video with you guys that i came across while I was reading about mountaineering. One thing led to another, mountaineering led to skiing and that led me to Doug Coombs. I don't know anything about skiing and i can't really relate to the video but it does inspire.



A bit of a disconnected post with my drifting towards the watch time and again. Hope you all had
a great Day3/Day4. Happy Day 5.

Day 2.

Soccer after a 4 week break and PCP activities did cause soreness. Why i fail to stretch, I don't understand. Need to work on it. Otherwise, I had a very relaxing and lazy day. Diet wasn't a problem especially since we didn't go out. Rarely does it happen that on a weekend we don't go out.
I have been reading "What I talk about when I talk about running" by Haruki Murakami. It is not his best work for sure. I like "Norwegian Wood" better but this is inspiring in its own way. Imagine a writer in his late 40s running a gruelling 62 mile ultramarathon in Japan. I didn't even know it gets as crazy as that. It is testing one's physical and mental limit. Murakami san actually ran it in 11hours and 42 minutes. It scares more than it inspires right now but there are other good things about the book how he bends philosophy, nostalgia and running. A good read.

Exercises went okay too inspite of the soreness. I think if its not a pain but just soreness exercise probably helps. Stretching probably helps even more and that is what i plan to do from today. I know it is already Day 3. I got up at 6 AM and I am sore so i thought instead of doing the exercises in the morning I will update my blog. (I normally do the exercises in the evening so not slacking off). I intend to get the exercises in morning starting week 2 that is why trying to get some practice of getting up early :). I must rush now as I have to get ready for work. This week would be quite hectic at work and home. No matter what, PCP will go on !!

Hope everyone had a good Day 2. Happy Day 3.

Day 1 - Contd.

First of all, i would like to congratulate and thank everyone of you for doing such a wonderful job. I was having my doubts about starting PCP this month and reading your blogs did help a lot in taking the plunge.

Just going through Mike's Blog and I realize I exactly went through the same confusion when it came to the diet. Weekdays have a certain pattern to it but weekends are so hap-hazard. Just had a banana before the game of soccer and by the time i came back it was already 12 and there was no time for breakfast. I though may be having half the diet means having half the no. of meals :) so as I am having no breakfast, may be i can have a normal lunch. Well, we all are so good at rationalizing, aren't we? I think in the end i managed okay, didn't stuff myself, avoided eating out and eating junk. Had dinner at 8:30 pm, i know it is a bit late but we had gone for a late night movie so by the time we came back was pretty late and there was enough gap between the dinner and when i hit the sack.

The activities went smoothly. Tripped a couple of times on the jump ropes but did alright in the end. Sit ups had me sweating a bit. Hong Kong's humid weather and all the fat that i have didn't help either. The only thing I am scared about while jumping ropes is shin-splints. I think i should be okay considering we are not doing a lot of it but normally when i would tend to run on the treadmill after a long break and after putting on a few extra pounds, i inevitably tend to get superexcited and over-do a little bit on day one and it would only cause my shin to hurt so much i end up taking a break. Guess that is the whole idea behind take it slow and easy.

Hope others had a good day one. Happy Day Two !!

Day 1.

Let the Journey towards PC Begin!! Haven't yet gone through Patrick's email. Just back from a game of soccer. Will update once I am done with the activities.

Cheerio.