Day 29

Starting tomorrow, I have decided to start running. Starting off at 2 minutes a day, increasing until I can't manage things anymore. I'll break the running into two pieces when the time gets long, in the morning and the evening. That sort of thing. Also, starting a "days since xxx" record.

xxx will include: bread, coke, KFC/McDonalds, Muffin Break etc.

The big thing is I'm thinking that maybe I won't reach my deadline - mid December. So I want to propose to my girlfriend then, so I think maybe I'll have to even though I haven't finished my diet. This probably doesn't sound much to a lot of people but to me, this is a bad thing.

Day 28

Another bad day, how can things get worse? I don't know.

Day 27

Well, today didn't go that well either. That's because after yesterdays problems, today I just couldn't be bothered. Yes, it's bad, and I've been thinking lots of thoughts about the whole thing. Maybe I need to start exercising. So starting soon, running will be part of my programme.

Day 26: diet blowout

Today went ok, but I drank some coke. Generally, this has a bad effect on me, but I do enjoy it. Things were going fine, but then I had a bit of a 'blowout'. Cravings induced by the coke now doubt. So here's what I ate:

Total energy ????
Whey powder 500
Carrots 422
Apples 832
Cheese slice 271
Banana 667
Veges 756
Coke 600ml 1098
Can of coke 639

Then the bad things happened. I had a small burger at KFC. Totally unexpected, and bad of course. Got home, had 2 bread rolls that my girlfriend had left, that sort of thing. Bad, bad, bad.

Day 25

Today has just been another day for me - trying to control what I eat, that sort of thing. I had a craving for sugar during the day, which is pretty unusual. Maybe I have acclimatised myself to having a reasonable supply of sugar, so going without is putting my brain through a bit of change.

Total energy 5603kj
Whey powder 1000
Carrot 573
Apple 1133
Veges 720
Zone protein bar 878
Biscuits, about 400
Milk 510
Pear 387

Hunger was relatively low, I will try to go down to about 5000kj tomorrow and see what effect that has on me. Lowest weight in 10 days.

Day 24

First, I don't want this to be seen as a 'pity party' (thanks to Jennifer Aniston for that phrase). Looking back at the graph for my weight over the years, one thing can be immediately seen. It is rarely constant. Up down up down up up up down. So my weight is naturally unstable - I lose weight, then I lose the motivation for keeping it off, suddenly I realise that I've gained 5-10 kg and I'm in trouble. What to do? Well, I have devised my 'secret weapon'. I won't divulge what it is, but it is simple and hopefully effective.

Today I ate a bit more than yesterday, still getting to understand counting kilojoules and how much or little I can eat without getting tired. Here's what I ate:

Total energy 5733kj
Apple 309
Cheese slice 271
Veges 688
Hot chocolate 400
Zone protein bars 3514
Coffee 200
Biscuits, about 350

Today I ate 4 protein bars, that was fine but I'm not able to do that for much longer as they are expensie and only come with the whey powder for free.

Day 23: reward meal

Today I am allowed a reward meal, because I've lost a kilogram. Some people would see that as counter productive, and it is to some degree, but I don't think that I can go 3 months without nice food. So I had a nice coffee and slice. Of course. Looking at the graph above, you may notice something. The green line (where I should be) has been moved upwards by about 3kg. That's not good. Yes, really not good. I decided that I needed to acknowledge that it would take some time to lose that amount, and I might as well shift the line. Of course, if I am to finish in December, the slope of the line from now to then has been steepened. That's not good either. So that's 3kg of wasted time, effort, and all other bad things that I can think about.

Enough negativity. Today I ate:

Total energy 9361kj
Apples 917
Cheese slice 271
Banana 816
Veges 720
Zone protein bars 2635
Coffee and slice (est) 4000

So anyway, it's carry on with it all, and see how things go. By the way: I am estimating my chance of success ie 66kg by end of the year. I'd say 75%. Fingers crossed...

Day 22: 1kg down

Yesterday went well counting energy, but today I started to feel the full effect of going without food. No one said that dieting was easy! Here is what I've eaten:

Total energy 5638kj
Whey powder 1000
Carrots 486
Apples 1222
Cheese slices 542
Banana 389
Veges 760
Hot chocolate 400
Zone protein bar 836

I ate a bit more than yesterday, which was not my intention, but when you're hungry, you're hungry. Tomorrow I am allowed reward food for going over a kg boundary, so I might consider having more protein than normal in two days time. Also, today I went to a health store where I buy the whey powder, and a woman who I know vaguely who works there part-time said hello. I don't know why, but I felt unattractive and fat, even though I am definitely not fat. Maybe it's because she was slim and attractive. Yes, even men feel this way, even when they are in a stable relationship. Also, I am losing weight. Current weight: 81.6kg.

Day 21: counting kilojoules

Today I decided that I'd try to count the energy value of everything that I ate, this is written below:

Total energy 4905 kj

Whey powder 1500
Tim Tam biscuit 400
Carrot 171
Apples 693
Cheese slice 271
Banana 326
Sweets 640
Chocolate 183
Veges 720

So I did reasonably well today, the total energy was less than 5000kj. However, I stuffed up by eating a chocolate biscuit in the morning, a few sweets in the evening, and a small piece of chocolate in the evening.

I remember now how when you count kilojoules, you are thinking of food almost all of the time, which does make you hungrier than if you didn't. There isn't much that I can do about that, so I'll have to grin and bear it. Only about 85 days until I finish this, so I can handle this I think.

Day 19: slow recovery

It is hard to understand why I put on so much weight in such a short time. My only reasonable conclusion is that the scales are telling me a number that is wrong to some extent. That is a pain, but I can't calibrate them right now due to lack of a working car. I will just have to assume that the situation will get better, which is what is happening, the yellow dots on the graph are moving towards the green line at a reasonable rate I think.

So far my girlfriend seems to be ok with my losing weight. That will change in time I think, but for the moment I will wait until the negative comments start. There are two choices about why she doesn't want me to lose most of my excess fat: first she isn't going to be attracted to me at my desired weight, second she doesn't like me to be successful with weight loss when she isn't (she wants to lose weight, and isn't being successful at the moment). Time will tell which it is. It's most likely that it's the latter, but you never know, do you?

Those protein bars (actually, 6g fat, 15g protein, 22g carbohydrates) are excellent. They really suppress my appetite. That's the good news. The bad news is that I've gone through about half of the box in a few days, I will be finished by mid next week. That means that I'll just have to do what I planned anyway: whey powder and fruit, plus veges.

Punishment continues: writing what I eat

Breakfast: protein bar

11am another protein bar.

12 noon can of coke

2pm one more protein bar

4pm 600ml bottle of coke

Fruit: 2 apples, 2 pears, 2 bananas eaten throughout the day

5pm one protein bar

8pm another can of coke

9pm one more protein bar

a few small biscuits after that.

Day 18: a bit of control

Things I have eaten today:
Morning: Zone protein bar, 600ml bottle of coke*
Lunch: coffee and slice*
Dinner: cookie*, small bottle of milk, Zone protein bar
Evening: Zone protein bar

Yes, I have my whey powder again, and it comes with some Zone protein bars. At the rate I'm having them, they won't be around for long, I guess.

The graph doesn't look great, but I'm more motivated now I suppose.
* = bad food.

Day 17: diet blowout

Have a look at the above graph. Notice anything? You should notice that there is a big gap in readings after day 11. Also, day 15 is way too high. That's because I haven't been losing weight the way I should be. Time for some punishment: I now have to record my eating. I'll do that until I am back on the green line.