If they gave points for willpower...

Today has been tough  Started well, the weight is down to 11 st 10.1 lb. The scales teased me with 11 st 9.x before settling on 10.1, but that's fine.

As the day went on, however, the cravings started. A want / need for that which I can't have. Things reached a peak when I had to go food shopping. I know I wasn't hungry, as I'd recently had lunch, but everywhere I turned there were things I wanted. Things I *needed*!

After the supermarket I needed to head into town to look at a chair my wife wanted me to see; and as I walked through I passed bakeries, newsagents, olde sweet shops, and a burger van. All of this as I passed people enjoying the wares from the various places. It was torchure!

When I came home I had a pint and a half of water and some chewing gum to get my mind off things.

All was fine until I had to prepare my daughter's tea. After her usual bits of veg and tomato she wanted toast. Toast with jam. The smell! The mouth watering! It took absolutely every last bit of willpower not to eat half a slice. Especially when she left half a slice at the end. I had to carry that quickly to the bin. Out of sight, out of mind!

If you got rewards for willpower, I'd be 10st something tomorrow!

As it is, I'll be off for a little jog in a mo, then I have a 5km run tomorrow morning at a running meetup I've never been to. Should be an interesting start to the weekend!

Quick update

Oops, forgot to post today. Need to get back in the habit.

Weight down to 166.7 lb. So that's 11 st lots, but a little less than yesterday.

More tomorrow.

Another day, another weight drop

11 St 12.4 lb this morning. Nice.

I went for another 3 mile run last night, but may have over done things as a result. My calf muscles are in agony, and walking is an extremely painful experience! I may settle for a 1.2 miler tonight. Or even a night off! Makes me feel I should take up swimming or cycling as an alternative, but where's the time?

Anyway, another day, another set of protein meals. Fat free yogurt for breakfast, and I think half a roast chicken for lunch. Fancy something warm for a change. It'll be gruel for tea (oat bran and fat free fromage frais). Joy.

Update on progress and a ripping of bad reporting

So, first things first, today's weight: 12 st 0.4 lb. Down around 4 lb from yesterday. Good start. Should hit 11 st x tomorrow, and 10 st x the day after (I wish!)

I went for a "barefoot" run last night hoping to crack 2 miles, and managed 3.02 miles! Compared to the night before, where I attempted the same thing and gave up with major wheezing after around 1, this was great progress. Running "barefoot" (I'd stop with the quotes if I didn't think someone would deep-link here and get the wrong idea) is a completely different style focusing on landing on the ball of the foot with almost no impact on the heel. This puts extra strain on the calf muscles, and focuses you on staying "up" all the time (I tend to run on my ball anyway, so that wasn't really a change; but I "coast" on my heel which I can't do any more, so I have to run constantly). 3 miles is good, I was hoping to get there by the weekend, so managing it on Monday is great.

Diet is going well. Finished the last of the milk in the house yesterday, and changed the order so that we only have enough for my daughter now. Other than that I stuck easily enough to protein yesterday, and, apart from the oat bran with breakfast, am going protein only again today (and for the rest of the week). Keeping on top of the liquid intake too. 1.5 litres? Pffft 2, 2.5 easily!

I've been reviewing the salient points of the diet again, to refresh my memory. For those new here the diet I follow is the Dukan diet. The diet is low fat, low carb, and starts with a few days of pure protein (bar a table spoon of oat bran to keeps things moving); after the first few days you add in low starch veg every other day (or once in every three if you want greater weight loss). Throughout you drink water and exercise. The key difference between this and Atkins is the low fat aspect.

With all that in mind I was quite dismayed when I came across this article on the BBC website during lunch. Irrespective of my take on the diet, the article is rubbish. It is a long term diet, you are not meant to hit your goals in a week or 2, it is meant to change your eating habits and reduce your reliance on high carb meals, so to include 2 people who've only done the diet for 2 weeks is misleading. Now one of those people may continue on the diet, but another one stuck with it for 2 weeks, gave up, and then put the weight back on! Shock, horror! Someone tried something for 2 weeks, got bored, and saw no benefit! The other 2 participants have done the diet for reasonable time periods, and their experiences reflect mine; food's a bit boring, but other than that you lose weight, and feel fine. The side effects the other 2 list are only present in the first 3 or 4 days as your body transfers from burning to sugars to burning fats entering ketosis. If you only do the diet for 2 weeks these things might stay in your mind, but as they disappear by day 5 of a several month journey they are largely irrelevant.

The BBC then asks if there is too much salt or fat - high cholesterol. Has the researcher not researched the diet?! The diet specifically denies you salt and fat. The book goes as far as recommending you stay away from certain types of bottled water as they are a little high in sodium! As for fat, the whole diet is based on low carb, low fat food. You aren't allowed pork or lamb, carrots, potatoes, beetroot; no ham, no chicken wings, no chicken skin. No sauces, no mayonnaise. All this is in the first part of the book. Researchers, please research!

The poor woman from the British Nutrition Foundation has clearly been asked vague questions, or quoted out of context. However, her comments are fine (if irrelevant to the diet in question in some cases).

This sort of thing really annoys me as people read this sort of stuff, take it as fact, and then have pre-conceived ideas when they find out the diet I'm on. Surely it doesn't take that much more effort to get really representative people to question, and to ask questions that are relevant to the diet.

Ok, rant over. I know it's just a puff piece basically there because Dukan is in the news over a French libel case.

Right, another run this evening, another day on the diet, some more weight loss.

Blogging for I have found my voice!

It's been a while! (Feb 24th fact fans), but I haven't had a lot to say. The diet thing was done, the daily minutiae is on twitter, and the longform post was becoming stale. Time, I figured, to take a break.

Now, things are happening. The diet is bust (This morning on the scales: 12 st 4.3 lb), I have a new interest, and I have been feeling the need to write.

So, where did it all go wrong? Back on March the 16th I weighed 11:3.1. OK, but still an increase from 10:13 in November. To be honest, a 4 lb creep over Xmas, New Year, my daughter's birthday, and my birthday isn't bad! However, the gradual increase from there isn't OK. Once the idea of eating what you like takes hold, the slow increase is easily waved aside. The thought that I'll be good tomorrow is an easy one. Tomorrow never comes!

Be the end of April I was at the top end of 11 st, and the end of June saw me tick over into 12 st, and now 12 st 4.3 lb. Well, enough is enough. My new clothes are getting tight, my new suit is getting *very* tight, I'm not happy with my shape, and something has to give. Seems that's the way it goes. Slow steady increases get ignored, but one day the tipping point is reached, something snaps, and good intentions become good reality.

So that's it. A week of protein awaits, sugar free yogurts will once again be eaten. The sugary snacks, and high carb dishes are gone. Banished. Never to return (yeah, right). Let a downward trending graph be my reward!

As for my new interest, I have started running "barefoot". OK, not really; I am using a barefoot style running shoe called the Vivobarefoot Evo II which has a 4mm sole, and no padding or support. It's great! Much more to follow in a dedicated post, but it's made me run properly again;I can feel what I'm doing, I'm aware of my body, I'm aware of my exercise level.

That's it for now (don't want to burn out on day 1!), I have some other things to write about over the next few weeks / months, but needed to start somewhere. For now, I'm back...