Lovely being able to exercise outside in the fresh air in the garden here - not part of hong kong lifestyle! So the daily regime is turning out to be fun on holiday.
While I was skipping today I watched a man sending his tame monkey up the palm trees outside our villa to pick the coconuts. We also found a snake in the seat by the pool yesterday - eeeek! And last night a frog came to say goodnight to us in our bedroom. Amazing!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Day 16 - very virtuous!
Exercises went well today as new found skipping momentum has been maintained and is quite inspiring to go on to do the sets well.
James and I were very virtuous and had separate lunch today of steamed chicken, veggies and brown rice - following Patrick's advice and avoiding sauces on our food. Garnished with super hot Thai chilli though!
Enjoying our holiday with friends very much so far. W have 5 little boys between us, who are having a whale of a time together and that's really what it's all about, right?!
James and I were very virtuous and had separate lunch today of steamed chicken, veggies and brown rice - following Patrick's advice and avoiding sauces on our food. Garnished with super hot Thai chilli though!
Enjoying our holiday with friends very much so far. W have 5 little boys between us, who are having a whale of a time together and that's really what it's all about, right?!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
PCP Thai style
Haven't blogged for a few days as we have been preparing to go to and arriving in THailand for a family holiday with friends. But overall PCP has been going well...
Managed to squeeze in my exercises before jumping on the plane yesterday, which I was surprisingly pleased with.
As for today: SKIPPING BREAKTHROUGH!!! I don't need to do double hops anymore and did my 800 jumps in about a third of the usual time :-)). I need to give my incredibly coordinated friend, Jen, credit. She's on holiday with us and can skip like a boxer. I watched and watched her and cracked it. Also borrowed her leather skipping rope, which seems to move through the air a lot better. Thanks Jen!
Food wise, we brought our scales and are keeping to our allowed amounts. Carbs and veg are easy to be good with. But we are not cooking our protein separately to everyone else, so, while choosing as much as possible without sauces, we are probably not being as strict as we would ideally like on salt in particular. But all in all not bad.
Hope everyone else is feeling like they are progressing too!
Managed to squeeze in my exercises before jumping on the plane yesterday, which I was surprisingly pleased with.
As for today: SKIPPING BREAKTHROUGH!!! I don't need to do double hops anymore and did my 800 jumps in about a third of the usual time :-)). I need to give my incredibly coordinated friend, Jen, credit. She's on holiday with us and can skip like a boxer. I watched and watched her and cracked it. Also borrowed her leather skipping rope, which seems to move through the air a lot better. Thanks Jen!
Food wise, we brought our scales and are keeping to our allowed amounts. Carbs and veg are easy to be good with. But we are not cooking our protein separately to everyone else, so, while choosing as much as possible without sauces, we are probably not being as strict as we would ideally like on salt in particular. But all in all not bad.
Hope everyone else is feeling like they are progressing too!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Day 12 - PCP lesson 3
PCP lesson 3 is don't have celery for your breakfast veg: you will get hungry! My clever husband pointed out that having something with a bit more to it might help and he was right. Just switched to carrots today, nothing special, but made a big difference.
Skipping improved again today, so will just keep practicing and hope my skills gradually get better.
Skipping improved again today, so will just keep practicing and hope my skills gradually get better.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Day 11 - hunger strikes
I'm hungry! I woke up hungry and I stayed hungry all day. Thanks for the food questions video today Patrick - really helpful - but rather disappointing to find out we need to "dampen" our porridge oats before weighing. Decided to just grit my teeth and give up oats too as I really don't know how to work that one out properly.
Found a great recipe for avocado bruschetta. Mash the avocado with a little lime juice and some fresh chopped parsley before spreading on your toast. Yum!
My exercises were much quicker today as the skipping went much better. Thank goodness!
Found a great recipe for avocado bruschetta. Mash the avocado with a little lime juice and some fresh chopped parsley before spreading on your toast. Yum!
My exercises were much quicker today as the skipping went much better. Thank goodness!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Day 10 - defenestration off the cards for now...
Thanks guys for all the input re skipping! And guess what, I suddenly realised today at jump 400 and starting over for what seemed to be the 200th time that if I look at the rope hitting the floor I can time my jumps brilliantly. Well maybe not brilliantly, but it's all relative... Perhaps the threat of death by frustration makes your brain find solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems. Or perhaps praying works.
That said, I'm obviously still not a skipping genius, and Sean, the video is definitely useful!
As for food - still ok. I was going to say that I wouldn't mind a bigger supper allowance but somehow I don't think that's going to happen so I'll not start down that road.
That said, I'm obviously still not a skipping genius, and Sean, the video is definitely useful!
As for food - still ok. I was going to say that I wouldn't mind a bigger supper allowance but somehow I don't think that's going to happen so I'll not start down that road.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Day 9 - my skipping rope and I aren't friends....yet?!
I nearly threw my skipping rope out of the window today. Then I nearly threw myself out the window. Then I decided that 600 jumps can't be THAT hard and kept going... but I did cry a bit. I've been absolutely abysmal at skipping the past two days. I don't mind doing the physical work but it is beyond frustrating having to keep starting over again and again. But I'm telling myself that I felt like last week was pretty good for me so maybe I'm due a couple of bad days. Please God, though, give me skipping skills soon!
Not minding the food at all. There's loads of it! Glad James and I are doing this together - it makes meal planning a lot easier.
Here's my day 9 photo.
Not minding the food at all. There's loads of it! Glad James and I are doing this together - it makes meal planning a lot easier.
Here's my day 9 photo.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Bye bye carrot cake!
I had my last piece of carrot cake tonight. It's one of my favorites and i shall miss it like a good friend for the next few weeks but quite excited about the new diet and exercise plans from Patrick today. James and I are on a mission for a load of plastic food storage containers tomorrow!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Day 6 - vaguely on track
Too busy to post yesterday and out for a girls' night, which was fun. Stuck to half portions and resisted several different kinds of cake for dessert and stuck to a few blueberries and raspberries instead. The exercises must have been fine because I can't really remember much about them.
Rubbish day for eating today. After oatmeal breakfast I didn't get time to eat anything until I got hold of a piece of carrot cake in the playground at 3.30 this afternoon. Ridiculous. I shared some of it with #1 son, so still feel like I did the half portion thing (a bit) but don't feel too bad anyway given that it was basically lunch.
Exercises were ok. I'm getting some bursts of finding a rhythm with the jump rope, which is encouraging. I'm enjoying the sets - I actually quite like the burn!
Rubbish day for eating today. After oatmeal breakfast I didn't get time to eat anything until I got hold of a piece of carrot cake in the playground at 3.30 this afternoon. Ridiculous. I shared some of it with #1 son, so still feel like I did the half portion thing (a bit) but don't feel too bad anyway given that it was basically lunch.
Exercises were ok. I'm getting some bursts of finding a rhythm with the jump rope, which is encouraging. I'm enjoying the sets - I actually quite like the burn!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Day 4 - grumpy but glad to have fellow PCPers!
Well I was grumpy as hell by the time I finished my exercises today. I do them at lunchtime while the kids are napping as it's the only time in the day I have to myself. But the whole half portion meal thing means that I'm trying to get through a full morning of playschool/errands/kids lunches/etc. and PCP exercises., fuelled only by a measly half bowl of oatmeal at 8am. Then suddenly it's 2pm and I'm stuffing half a sandwich in my mouth while getting the children up and trying not to either scream at someone or pass out! I've decided I must snack late morning to avoid tears. Does this mean I should make my "lunch" smaller?
Thanks guys for the tips and sympathy re being attacked by my own skipping rope...Glad I'm not the only one!
Thanks guys for the tips and sympathy re being attacked by my own skipping rope...Glad I'm not the only one!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Day 3 - I only strangled myself twice with the skipping rope today!
...But I did manage to get my ponytail caught in it - not sure how. That said, I found the exercises easier today - maybe I'm just getting in to the swing of things a bit more.
The half portions thing means I think I actually ate more than usual today. Normally I just pick up something that's lying around while I'm in between doing stuff and rarely have regular meals during the day. Now I am paying attention to "portions" I found myself sitting down to 3 meals today, which is not the norm for me. But cutting out kids leftovers I think has made a big difference to the total volume intake!
The half portions thing means I think I actually ate more than usual today. Normally I just pick up something that's lying around while I'm in between doing stuff and rarely have regular meals during the day. Now I am paying attention to "portions" I found myself sitting down to 3 meals today, which is not the norm for me. But cutting out kids leftovers I think has made a big difference to the total volume intake!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Day 2 blog and Day 1 photo
Day 1 photo up and published - MORTIFYING!! But the whole reason for doing PCP is so that I'm not too embarrassed to take my kids to swimming class or spend the day with friends at the pool, so I'm glad I've taken the leap.
As for Day 2, well I'm still rubbish at skipping but I liked doing the lunges. Primarily because they felt like they were making my butt work, which I'm guessing is good. The food part isn't really bothering me...yet?! And I've resisted finishing up any of my kids leftovers.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
This is my first ever blog. And I'm finding it weird. I freely admit that I am far from Internet savvy but i have always rather thought that blogs were basically the means by which agoraphobes or sufferers of Social Anxiety Disorder shouted about themselves in to space in the hope that someone somewhere might notice. And this has always struck me as a bit desperate, probably rather futile and at the very least unlikely to attract the kind of attention that said lonely blogger might really be after. So I guess I have learnt my first PCP lesson - blogging's alright.
My second PCP lesson today was that skipping with a rope is harder than you think - or at least harder than I remembered it to be 30 years ago. Honestly I was rubbish at it today and am hoping very much that it gets easier with practice.
The half portion thing isn't a problem so far. My eldest son happily steals half of anything I'm eating and running around after him and his younger brother means that I quite often forget either to start or finish at least one meal a day anyway.
I will post my day one photo tomorrow.
My second PCP lesson today was that skipping with a rope is harder than you think - or at least harder than I remembered it to be 30 years ago. Honestly I was rubbish at it today and am hoping very much that it gets easier with practice.
The half portion thing isn't a problem so far. My eldest son happily steals half of anything I'm eating and running around after him and his younger brother means that I quite often forget either to start or finish at least one meal a day anyway.
I will post my day one photo tomorrow.
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