What with work keeping me up late at night, exercise becoming very limited and a seemingly impenetrable weight barrier of 18x pounds, I’m starting to get depressed. I’m still eating really well, but the results are slooooow to materialize. I struggle to wake up early and then I have to get straight to work. At least Andrea and I managed to get onto the Tennis court today – and then it began to rain!

I just need to go for a nice, long run. Maybe tomorrow…

Lots of work again today, not much exercise; depressing.

I’ve been really busy with work this week, so I’m only catching up on my “hobby” now. One thing I’m starting to realise is how seriously stress plays a role in poor eating habits. Work pressures or personal issues so often lead to “comfort eating”. I never thought that I had that problem, but now that I’m making a conscious effort not to give in to cravings, I’ve realized that I’m not immune! Maybe that’s another reason why it was so easy to stay in shape back in High School, when stress levels were hovering around zero. As this mad world goes crazier, we’re exposed to ever-increasing degrees of paranoia. Is this a key element to the global obesity crisis? Are we just gonna get fatter and fatter as the pace of life gets more hectic?

Probably.

When I’m really struggling with something and I feel that only a chocolate could save me, turning to a handful of carrots is not gonna cut it! Does anyone have any ideas on what to stock the cupboards with when I’m in crisis mode?

Stupid carrots.

The Good:

• avoided almost all sugars
• drank whisky instead of beer
• went for a 3 mile run on Saturday morning

The Bad:

• ate healthily, but still too much
• carbs, oh so many carbs

The Ugly:

• 2 slices of Pizza! 

I know, I know! But it was my first “Good Times Pizza”; this is stuff of legend. The struggle continues.

This stuff tastes like cardboard. In fact, just to make sure, I ate a little cardboard and honestly, if I was cardboard, I would file against Kellogg’s for “Taste Infringement”.

However, a bowl of this stuff in the morning is worth only 50 calories! How scientists managed that is beyond me. And, it’s obviously loaded with fiber, which is why I chose this as my only “meal” during my fast. Although I’m not a professional in the area, I’m fairly sure this aided the flushing of my system, if you know what I mean!

The back of the box encourages some sort of “10-day challenge” – quitters! I’ll be All-Bran-ning my mornings for the next 27 days.

It’s a decent scorer on my new favourite website, too: nutritiondata.com

TIP: cardboard + a few slices of banana = bearable/borderline tasty.

Day 3 was another really busy one and so I wasn’t able to get a run in. However, I downloaded a pretty neat home muscle routine from Men’s Health, thanks Konrad! Feeling the burn today!

So far, I think I’m on track. I feel much better this morning and already I’m starting to crave sugar less and fresh food stuffs more. The fast was easier to accomplish than I suspected, I may try it again next week. However, I think 3 days is the limit for anyone who still has real-world responsibilities. You have to keep a clear head, or at least remain conscious, to get any real work done especially if you’re expected at business meetings or operating heavy machinery!

The other good news? At this morning’s daily weigh-in, the needle stopped at just 184. Ah, the sweet smell of success!

Hopefully I’ll be able to stay up later tonight, I’m watching The Kooks in NYC!

As our guru, Jason Hough, once told me, the more muscle mass you have, the higher your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), enabling your body to burn more calories per day. Which makes a lot of sense, if you think about it: When I was a teen, I could eat pretty much anything I wanted because I was so active and had a much higher percentage of muscle mass. As you get older, and less active, your body-fat increases and muscle mass decreases. I really don’t want to eat less, rather, I want to get my body back into calorie-devouring shape. I want to boost my own metabolism.

The method: Stage 1) 3-day fast/detox. Stage 2) Muscle-time!

The 3-day fast/detox has two main benefits: 1) cleanse/flush my system from all the junk I’ve been consuming, and 2) *hopefully* accelerate initial weight-loss. Because true fasting can have a pretty radical effect on one’s body I’m trying to do it as sensibly as possible. For three days my diet will consist solely of: a single bowl of Kellogg’s All Bran Extra Fiber, 2 soft-boiled eggs, a LOT of water, green tea and cranberry juice. Thereafter, I simply plan on eating healthier foods, in smaller portions for the remaining 24 days. I’ll try to eat 6 smaller meals throughout the day, focusing on some of the renowned muscle building foods. My wife has always cooked healthy and delicious meals, so for dinner, I’ll eat the way we usually do, just earlier at night and, again, in smaller portions. Hopefully, this eating plan in conjunction with an intensified training program will help me achieve my goal.

Now, I’m off for a run!

There is a long list of excellent reasons to compliment your healthy diet with green tea; besides, it’s delicious! But how exactly does it promote weight-loss?

Well, green tea has been proven to activate the body’s thermogenic fat-burning activity. In simple terms, it stimulates the body to “heat up” and process fat cells. The active ingredient in green tea is catechin. Catechins help elevate the body’s primary fat-burning hormone, norepinephrine, which, in turn, speeds up weight loss! Awesome. Add to that the fact that green tea contains a respectable amount of caffeine – the last of the legal performance enhancers – and the result is one deadly weapon of mass reduction! And just when you think it couldn’t get any better than that, according to the British Journal of Nutrition, the interaction between the catechins (in particular EGCG) and the caffeine actually increases your resting metabolic rate. So the more green tea you drink, the more efficient your body will become at burning fat even when at rest.

I can recommend Twinings of London’s Pure & Natural Green Tea. Hint: if weight-loss is your goal, be sure to avoid the decaffeinated green tea or else you won’t get the full benefits of the reaction between the caffeine and the catechins! Method: bring water (almost) to boil, and pour over tea bag. Allow to steep for 1-2 minutes and enjoy!

Some people even take theirs cold… freaks!