Day Seven - 7 km and relapse...

7km run, 1 set sit ups

So today I had my first booze in a week, coupled with my first 3am McDonalds... Oh well, it's no big deal. My friend Rogier came over from Spain to enjoy watching the World Cup in Holland, we met up at 3pm and didn't stop. 

Well, how do you deal with something like that? Not worry about it at all and get on with the plan. I remind myself of the plan and stay on track. Muesli for breakfast, salad for lunch, and something healthy again for dinner. Tonight is the World Cup - not sure I can really watch it with no beer, but let's see what happens. 

Onward, ever onward.

Day Six - Tired but happy

20 mins rowing machine, 40 mins cycling, 1 set sit-ups

I conked out again this evening. My ex-colleagues at Canon were having a small get-together in Haarlem, a mere 30 minute scooter ride from home. But after a busy week of work and transformation, plus 28 degrees of heat and a rowing machine session, I just felt like, well, sitting.

Lucky me, I lay on the roof-terrace, read my Tony Parsons page-turner for 3 hours and watched the sun go down.

It is genuinely hard to remember the last Friday night I was stone-cold sobre. It might have been six years ago. That doesn't read right, does it? No wonder I'm struggling with weight.

Now, where were we? Oh, yes - vitamins and amino acids. Check the "How to quit..." site from Patrick Holford for more info, but the thrust of it is like this.

The brain naturally creates various chemicals which make you feel good, calm, excited, etc. Most people have heard of endorphins and adrenalin, but there are others such as Gabba (which calms you) and Dopamin (which excites you).

These chemicals are also released in greater quantities when stimulants - like alcohol (Gabba), cigarettes, caffeine (Dopamin) and drugs - are taken. So in the short term and in rare and small doses, this is great and harmless. But invariably people exceed the minimal amounts.

And here's the thing.

The brain gives up naturally producing the good-feeling chemicals when it thinks they are being over-stimulated.

Think about that. The natural production stops, leaving the body wanting more of the stimulant which the brain assumes is going to do the work.

Now what's also interesting is how these chemicals are created in the first place. There is a complicated explanation about neuro-sensors and dendrides and the like - but let's skip all that. Basically, the chemicals are created by amino acids - and amino acids are made by vitamins.

Then the double whammy of having a bad diet (leading to vitamin deficiency) and using stimulants is that the body could be massively unable to provide feel-good moments. That means that if you try to stop the stimulant without changing the diet, you'll be heavily at risk of relapse because life suddenly flatlines - not feeling so tired and not suffering hangovers or early morning coughing, but just bloody bored.

The only choice is to go for the whole hog - diet, stimulants and, in my view, exercise. 'Cos exercise is one of the ways to get the natural stimulants too.

And on that note, time for bed. Sobre sleep. Lovely.

Day Five - First Magic Trick

Run 6km, 1 set sit-ups

It's Day 5 of exercise, no booze and better diet, and I feel really good. In these last 4 working days, I made more progress with writing my book than in the last 2 weeks, plus the edge has definitely come off my stomach. One basic difference - I don't feel so incredibly FULL all the time. What a relief.

It means I am feeling the benefits already both physically and mentally. I've also come through two big tests - the first being Holland's semi-final win on Tuesday ( cue massive Amsterdam street party - 80,000 people in a park just a km away from my home could be heard 'til 2am). Normally I'd be boozing it up with the rest of them but I decided early in the day not to get involved. Yes, even I'm impressed.

The next test was this evening, a friend coming round wanting to work together on his website. Normally I would use it as an excuse to drink loads of beers, eat junk and stay out late (like i need an excuse. Sometimes my excuse is "no-one's coming round..."). Today I told him "I have some beer for you, water for me" so he knew what to expect. He wasn't impressed, but it's my body that's in trouble, not his.

But will-power is where it all becomes difficult and just trying hard is not enough. My Dad once said to me (when I was telling him some rubbish about how next year would be much better than this), "that's interesting son. And what are you going to change to make that happen?" Bloody hell, I thought, you mean I have to change something? I thought it would just get better, somehow, you know, by just, intending it to be better...

Now, I have a secret ingredient that helps make that change - and deal with the real source of being able to maintain any diet or change in your life.

It's all about vitamins and amino acids. Really.

Last year, I listened to a program called "How to quit without feeling s**t". The guy who wrote it, Patrick Holroyd, was the first person with a diet plan that made any sense to me, because he looked at what makes it difficult to maintain diets, rather than the contents of the diet itself.

In short, it's about understanding what affects our mood-swings and our needs, what makes us eat comfort food and how we can get out of that habit.

I'm gonna continue this tomorrow, to keep the postings short and to keep the suspense hanging....

Day Four - time to rest

45 mins cycling

Short entry today - 'cos a key element of getting fit is knowing when to rest.

After no exercise at all for around 2 months, my body is naturally a bit shocked after the last few days sudden burst of activity. When I was cycling home today, my blood-sugar must have dropped heavily as my legs turned to jelly.

I have been eating well and a fair amount - but it also proves that you have to eat enough to keep the body fueled when you're exercising. Just stopping eating or reducing a lot is not the right approach to losing weight.

And food is the subject of tomorrow's entry...

Day Three - The magic triangle

5km run, 1 hour cycling, 1 set sit ups

So today I increased my mileage by 25% - yes! Instead of running 4km, I ran 5. All I have to do now is increase it by a little over 800% and I’m at the end of the marathon finish line…

Obviously, it’s going to need some magic formula to enable me to train for and run a full marathon in just 15 weeks, when a run of 5km is my starting point. And indeed I have one.

It’s a simple and highly effective triangle of exercise, improved diet and weight loss. If I can reference Lance Armstrong (a hero of mine), he said;

"Cycling and fitness in general is all about decreasing weight and increasing power."

How? Simple - eat well and exercise regularly. (So easy to write this stuff on day 3 - the tests of willpower are still to come...)

My enemies are crap food and alcohol – both of which I love. Alcohol is simply a killer – half a dozen 330ml cans of beer contain around 800 calories – one third of a daily need for calories! A bottle of red wine holds a mere 500 calories in store for you.

Then if you have any penchant for Mickey D’s or the like, next time you sit down for a big Mac check the packaging – they have the nutritional values on the wrapper now (at least in Holland.)

My favourite is a Big Tasty with Bacon – which provides a massive 885 calories to burn up! Eat that with a medium portion of fries (330cal) and a medium milkshake (420cal) and it comes to over 1600 calories – more than half a day’s recommended intake! And I’ve been eating that late at night after a bucket of beer at the pub… If you want to find out the "nutritional value" (they really are the masters of irony) of your golden M fetish, check their website.

So what am I going to replace the junk with? That’s for the next posting… And by the way, there is one really secret ingredient to changing food and drink habits... and that's for a later posting too...

Day Two - revealing an insane goal

16 mins Rowing machine, 30 mins cycling, 1 set sit-ups, up and down my stairs 10 times

You might think that the last point of my exercise today is a clear case of kidding myself. But please bear in mind, I have 3 flights of stairs, one of which is a double. So, OK, it’s stretching things a bit but I still consider it to be a few steps (if you pardon the pun… oh well, never mind...) towards my goal. And they are Amsterdam Eiger-like stairs. And… and…

And what is that goal? Well, it could be considered just a tiny bit nuts.

One of my motivational-sign-ups a couple of months ago was for the Amsterdam Marathon on 17th October – now just 15 weeks away. Now obviously, like all my other attempts to force myself into action by paying money for events, this one had no effect whatsoever.

Week after week went by and I kidded myself it was still possible - “I can train for a marathon in five months/four mths & three weeks, 4 & a half mths…” Then with four months to go, I went for a run – and then carried on my low-value diet and high level of drinking/eating sweets as well as doing no exercise. Brilliant.

So I had totally given up on it, even yesterday as I wrote the first piece about my new commitment to fitness. But one of my principles is this (thanks to Lance Miller for instilling this in me);

"A good idea doesn’t care where it comes from"

And I believe the same is true about inspiration. I watched a stupid film last night called “Run FatBoy Run”, and the heart of the so-called plot was a guy trying to get his girl back by impressing her with a marathon run with just three weeks training.

And suddenly it dawned on me – if he can do it in three weeks, can’t I do it in three and a half months?

Now, you’re probably thinking “Hello?!? It was a filmmmm! Not reality!” and I want to assure you that I understand that. Really.

It’s just that, you know, that bloke was very unfit and managed to get round… Yes, I know he was a film character and he didn’t really get round, but… oh, I don’t know, I just felt inspired and want to give it a go! Alright?!?

So instead of binning my application for the Amsterdam marathon, I kept it and will go for it. Come what may, I am going to get round those 42 km.

Another co-incidence – it was 15 weeks since I got back and started to ruin my health. It’s also 15 weeks from the day I decided to get a grip until the marathon. It makes a nice symmetry that fits my idea of what’s meant to be.

I’m gonna do it.

Day One - 106 kilos and 4km is enough!

4km run, 1 set sit-ups

I came back from a world tour on 19th March 2010 (the book of the tour is available here). At that time, I was 96 kilos and relatively fit, thanks to plenty of walking and running on the way, helped by fellow traveler Nicki. She’s one of those people who needs to exercise at least every couple of days or she doesn’t feel good, so I was in good company to have a consistent exercise pattern for a long period.

In the subsequent 3 months, everything has gone to pot. My diet has been rubbish and my exercise regime virtually non-existent. But I have reached a point where I say “it’s enough now!”.

Why now? I am not sure. Maybe it’s the way that my stomach is bigger than I have ever seen it. Or maybe it’s the generally lethargic feeling I have most of the time.

Or even it might be that my body actually recognizes that I do need to get my arse in gear or it’s downhill from here on out. After all, I’m 43 (bloody hell, writing that number is a genuine surprise!) It’s not ever going to get easier to lose weight, so if I carry on like this, I’ll be in trouble.

Here’s the current reality. I weigh around 106 kilos, and have just come back from a 4km run which was the maximum I could do without damaging my exercise-starved limbs. My running tops are all too small for me to wear and the one I did stretch over my belly made me look what I am – a middle-aged fat bloke. When I put on my running shorts, the gentle tearing sound of a few stitches being de-stapled made me check whether I was pushing this particular envelope – the one surrounding my fat butt – a little too far.

It’s amazing how far downhill I’ve gone, even for me who has been responsible for it! 10 years ago, I began running again in earnest and in the following years managed to keep going reasonably regularly. I progressed from a couple of 10km runs to my first half-marathon in May 2004, followed by another four half's, the last of which was in May 2006. I also ran the Dam to Dam (16km) in September 2006 and 2007. Since then, I’ve signed up for various 10km runs and half-marathons – mostly intended to give me motivation to get moving - but completed only a couple of the 10Ks.

But that’s the past. One of my main principles is –

“It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from - what matters is where you’re going.” 

And where I’m going is back to fitness and health.

How am I going to do it? By exercising every day, with a goal in mind on October 17th. And by writing about it, to make it real and to put some virtual and actual pressure on myself. More about the goals and my recipe for regaining my fitness in the following postings…