Fitocracy and RunKeeper - cool apps

I've been to the gym every day for this whole week since Tuesday. I wonder if I can also make it this Saturday and Sunday?

I've been experimenting with Fitocracy. There's an app for my iphone and it links up to a website when you join. It's free and it's kind of fun trying to level up. The site seems to be in it's infancy because there are so many things that they NEED to improve. The descriptions need to be updated and the machines that I work on, I'm still trying to find an alternate name.

The site is quite difficult to navigate and the "quests", "achievements" and "challenges" really need to be clarified as to what they are because the name mean the same thing. I think what's worse is that I can see the different achievements, but none of them is part of my routine workout so I'm not getting any of them. I can see none of the quests so I don't know how to complete them..... and I have no idea what the challenges are because I can't click it to see what's in there......... I seem to be complaining about this site a bit, but it is kind of keeping track of my workout which is it's only saving grace at the moment. I also joined runkeeper and linked it to fitocracy so when I walk around ..... and maybe run later, it'll automatically update some details in there.

Runkeeper is pretty good. I've noticed that sometimes it loses the GPS connection and I suddenly jump to a new spot and my pace shoots up BUT, I can correct the route when I upload it. The best bit for me is it gives a lot of details that I would not be able to get. I'm going to continue trying to play with this app.

I've got a feeling that I might use fitocracy rather then this blog because they are geared towards my weight and exercise BUT they really need to improve it. For one thing, how to I add friends to let them see, or some other random stuff.

If you want to follow me, my username is swan5354. I'm contemplating weather or not I should link it up to my facebook account, but I may level up a bit more before I expose it to my friends.

Now, back to my workout. I'm no longer feeling the aching after the exercise any more. Am I getting used to it? I tried increasing my bike ride time from 8 minutes to 10 minutes..... I know it's not much, but I wanted to see if it would make any difference. I think I'll need to increase the workout a little more.

I'm not able to complete my reverse crunches properly. I'm not sure if I'm doing them incorrectly, or that I'm pushing too hard or if it's because of the roll of fat around my stomach is in the way and just won't let me do them. The spazuming really hurts if I go too far and I'm finding it hard to stop them other then relaxing my whole body...... and not being able to get up from the floor because I need my abs to tense to get up.

I think the first time I had a full aching body was more likely because of riding my bike home that one day. It was also the first real day that I tried out the induction routine.

My weight doesn't seem to have changed, so I need to start looking my diet. I started eating a little less, but I should also cook less. I'm wondering what I should eat in the morning before my workout. At the moment, it consists of a bagel with hummus.

Back to the gym

I need to make a habit of going to the gym so that it'll become part of my life. I'm thinking of going in the morning so that I still have the rest of the day to do stuff......not really sure what, but stuff.

Anyway, I went for my workout today and looking at the timing, I might need to speed something up. I left home a little before 10am and arrived at the gym about 10:40. I didn't see what time I finished the workout, but I arrived back home just before 13:00. I did go to Sainsbury to pick up lunch, but it's on the way and I didn't spend that much time there. I'm guessing that my workout was about 1 hour long and the walk back takes about 40 minutes, so it kind of does make sense.

My weight has dropped to 84.5kg, yeah!!!! It's already showing results.... or it could just be wishful thinking.

I've been entering my exercise routine via my computer instead of my iphone and there seems to be more details that I should put in, like the total distance I rode my bike and other stuff. I really need to get the details so that I can level up faster.... and complete some of the quests.

ok, I'm going to skip the day numbering

I really don't know what day it is anymore.

Today, I unexpectedly went into London. It wasn't my plan, but I went anyway. I then walked around hunting for eggs again. I started from about 9am and ended about 4pm so about 6 and a half to 7 hours walking around given that I did have a little break to get something to eat.

I haven't driven in London for a very long time and it's a nightmare. People walk across the road, even when it's a green light for me. I even saw this one guy who just crossed the road without looking because he was on his mobile phone. I had to slow down for him because he didn't even know I was there. Is my car that slient?

What's up with Waterloo bridge? Why are there so many people on the bridge that they spill over onto the road and force the bus to go into the car lane and almost cause crashes?

Anyway, I kind of did some exercise because of the constant walking.

Day 3 again?

I haven't gone to the gym today. It's not because my legs hurt and I have trouble going down stairs, it's because I'm going to be driving up to Oxford and I don't think I can do a work out walk around with no trouble.

Anyway, I've found an app called fitocracy for my iphone. It allows me to keep track of the exercises I've done and I can "level up" and complete achievements. It looks like they've done a revamp recently, so a few things aren't working fully and quite a bit of information is missing. I've input the details in for the last 2 days while I was at the gym, but it's not exactly intuitive as to what I'm meant to put in. Anyway, I've gotten up to level 3 with no problems and I've got a really easy quest "Consistency Is Key". I've gone onto their site and checked out my own stuff, but it's quite difficult to navigate and I can't seem to find the "quests"..... I think it's actually the "achievements". The terminology is really confusing, they really need to sort it out. I'll stick with it and see how far I can get with the levels. It's a nice motivation.

Hopefully, my next session at the gym would be Sunday.

Day 2 again

Nice. I'm back at the gym and I've finally had a chance to look at the card that the fitness instructor was scribbling on to see what it was all about. I've got a work out plan. On first inspection, it looks like it's very simple but then again, I'm obese so I may struggle with this.

Here's how my fitness routine should go:
warm up
cross trainer (elliptical trainer?) for 4 minutes, quick-start and keep the pace at 90-100spm

stretches
1,2,3,4,5,8,9 and 10
hmm, I'll get the names of the stretches later when I get my card back

Cardiovascular exercises
treadmill for 10 minutes where I alternate between 1 minute 5.5kph and 1minute 7.5kph
bike for 8 minutes at level 3-4 and keep it up to 70rpm
rower 1000m level 4-5 at about 300rpm

Resistance
vertical traction 15 reps 2 sets at 28.5kg
pectoral 15 reps 2 sets at 15-20kg
leg press 15 reps 2 sets at 30-50kg

Functional training
rotary torso 15-20 reps 2 sets
sit-ups 15-20 reps 2 sets
reverse crunch 15-20 2 sets

Cool down
cross trainer 4 minutes quick-start at 80spm

stretches 1,2,3,4,5,8,10,12

and that's the end of my routine.

I managed to complete the whole routine in about an hours time. What it hasn't taken into account is that I rode my bike to the gym so I pretty much did a warm up..... and I have to ride my bike back home so it's like a cool down....... My legs are aching. My legs were already a little achy from the light workout from the day before, but after the bike ride, I didn't feel much, but after the sun went down, the pain started to come on.

All in all, I think it's a good workout. I've been pushed a little and I'm out of breath, but I think I can go further. I think the idea behind this workout is to keep the heart rate up for a longer period of time. It's not a hard and fast go right overboard for the first 5 minutes and then not be able to do anything else.

Reset back to Day 1 again

Ok, after a short break from the last project, I've had to start again because I really haven't been doing much exercise except for walking around London hunting down eggs and I've managed to reset my weight all the way back to the beginning again....... or the scales is wrong.

This time round, I've paid to join a gym in Crystal Palace Park, which technically means that if I don't go, I'm wasting my own money which I really don't feel like doing.

I paid for an induction and it's very different from the stuff they do in HK. In HK, the induction would just be to show you around the gym and give an explanation of the equipment. At least, that's what I usually see, and there are so many people in the gym that it feels that it's not possible that anyone would help out with personal training. Then again, I was going to a cheaper gym.

Ok, I was quite pleased about the induction. The guy wasn't paying much attention to me, but he kind of figured out that I knew what I was doing.....which I hope I was, because I've read the instructions and seen a number of videos on youtube so I hope I have the right technique when I'm using the equipment. He did correct me a few times so I still have room for improvement.

Here's how it went down for the instructor to evaluate me. He put me up on a cross trainer for 2 minutes for a quick warm up, then some light stretches. Then it was onto the treadmill, where I walked for 1 minute and then had a light jog for the next minute and it alternated like that for 6 minutes. I then went onto the bike for 4 minutes. After all these exercises I felt fine and I didn't feel pushed at all. I think I just about broke a very light sweat, but I wasn't even out of breath. I found out that he wasn't pushing me on purpose because he wasn't happy with me eating cereal in the morning and thought that I might no have enough energy to do a full workout.

Anyway, I then went onto some resistance machines. One was called a vertical traction, another called a pectoral and the last one was the leg press. They were set to next to the lightest setting and I only did one set of 15 reps.

Next, I went onto functional training with a rotary torso, sit-ups and reverse crunch. The rotary torso machine was weird and I had some trouble trying to figure out how to use it, but it should be fine the next time I try to use it again. The reverse crunches were a little scary. My "six pack" started to spasm right after I finished and tried to sit up and it almost felt like it was trying to go into a cramp, but didn't know how and was just individually tensing up. I might need to do a little more research to see if I'm doing the form correctly..... or see if I've got a problem with my stomach muscles.

Finally, I went back on the cross trainer for another 2 minutes then did some stretches and that was the end of my induction.

What I didn't know what was happening was that aside from evaluating me, he was also building a program for me to continue my goal of losing weight. I won't know what's written down, until I come back round tomorrow and see the card. I'm guessing that it's going to be an extension of what I've done today.

Well, my weight right now is 86.5kg. now that I've joined the gym, what is going to happen? Will the pounds start falling off, or will it all be just money down the drain.

Is there an app to try and keep track of what I'm doing?

Day unknown

I haven't had a chance to update this blog because I've been working in a way that I don't really have time to rest and do anything else.

There was a slight surprise to the outcome of this week. I ended up losing weight for some reason. Was it because I was constantly moving from 10am to 1am and then sleep and start the day again? or was it because of the food I was getting fed at the set times. The food was really bad. It was cooked by someone who's lost his taste buds to smoking and I wanted to vomit a few times.

It ended up that my weight is now 83.4kg. I lost about 2 kg over the week.

Day 22

Had a cereal for breakfast. Had a roast beef and horseradish sandwich and for dinner I had a burger with chips.

Again, I was walking around London but this time, it was only for about 5 hours. After getting home, I tried out some upper body exercise with some weights. My arms are a little sore now and trembling. I'm stretching, but I'm a little worried about my back even though I wasn't doing much to exercise that part.

Day 21

Hmmm, what happened today? Why can't I remember the days events, it was only yesterday, what did I do?

I seem to remember eating some sort of fried rice dish that was a left over from the takeaway, but the box was a little too much. Come dinner, I seem to remember trying to make macaroni cheese but again, it seemed a little too much, mainly because I had 2 bowls when 1 was fine.

....... what was I doing all day? didn't I do any exercise?

Day 20

An eventful day, I met up with a friend in London to have lunch and then walked for about 6 hours from Bayswater going down Oxford Street through to Covent Garden and then an aimless wandering. The day ended after dinner at Golden Day just outside China Town.

Day 19

Something strange again, my body isn't sore anymore. There's no tenderness in my legs. Does this mean that I haven't pushed myself enough? So how far should I push myself beyond the pain barrier? Or maybe the barrier I'm thinking of is nothing and everyone usually just breezes pass it.

So what did I eat today? In the morning for breakfast/lunch, a wrap with duck then for dinner, home made chilli con carne with rice.

Next to no exercise again. I started doing some burpees when I was making the chilli con carne, but stopped to finish off making dinner because I forgot about making the rice. I kind of need to walk a lot tomorrow, so I decided I'd better not overwork myself today

Day 18

I'm back on the exercise, and it hurts. The temperature has warmed up slightly (above 4 degrees) so doing exercise in shorts isn't so cold anymore. I'm still only up to about 2 sets and a bit but everything is connected. My leg muscles are sore. Thinking more about the M100, it really focuses on the lower body. There isn't much for the upper body to do.... so do people alternate between upper body and lower body? Then again, I've got all the time in the world, I can do both and really kill my body and see what happens. I wonder if it'll be possible for me to do?

I'm not sure what I ate but if I'm right, for breakfast and lunch, I ate toast with butter and pate and then for dinner, I had some chow mein which had too much chilli oil mixed in.

Day 17

I've been looking into what it is that I'm motivated by and what really will motive me. From what I've been thinking about myself, I usually push myself because of work. When ever I'm put to a task at work, I better myself to the point of being able to master whatever the task is. So.... how can I translate it to when I'm now out of work? I'm not the type to help myself.

Again, uneventful day.
Ended up having toast for breakfast with scrambled eggs. burger and chips with a coke for lunch and a steak with rice and peas for dinner.

Exercise wise, I didn't do much except for walk around Croydon. The trams are having a overhaul of the rails in town, so it only went up to East Croydon and the rest of the walking was done by me. I started off doing burpees but was distracted by cooking dinner. After dinner, I was too full to do anything even to late at night. I really need to eat a little lighter to allow me to try and exercise.

Day 16

Another Monday, another day. Today's usual schedule was changed. I managed to stay home all day and was just studying.

For breakfast and lunch, I had the same thing, chow mein with prawn curry. It was left overs from the takeaway. For dinner, I had a chinese style meal with rice and 2-3 dishes that happens every week with the family.

Day 15

Another uneventful day.

I had a cereal breakfast, but missed lunch. I was a little consumed with my IT course and kind of forgot to eat. I had another steak for dinner with mash potato and peas. Yes, steak again because it was there in the fridge.

I don't think the exercise I did really counts. I was cooking in the kitchen and once in a while (when I can let the pots and pans sit there) I would get down and do 10 reps. What's worrying is that not much hurt....... and technically, I completed the whole M100 over the period of myself cooking dinner and also making honeycombs.

This has really proven that I'm meant to do all 100 reps in one go to have the full effect and tire myself out completely. At least I did some exercise.

Tomorrow, I'm not going to get a chance to do anything and I was kind of hoping to push myself before my compulsory rest day.

Day 14

Hmmmm, a big fail on doing exercise. I've been a little busy trying to sort out a few cakes for valentine's day. I am slightly worried about yesterday's exercise. There's very little to no soreness in my muscles that were hurting the day before. I remember other exercise regimes which have gotten me really sore.

I'm not sure why, but I was kind of in a daze today. I'm really not sure what was happening. I've been thinking about making these cakes for some time to try out some new techniques to see if they will really work.... but it hasn't really worked out properly yet. They're all in the fridge cooling down.

Anyway, let's see, what did I have for breakfast? A bowl of cereal and for lunch, some toast with pate. Finally for dinner, steak with rice and a soft boiled egg. Thinking about it now, maybe it was a good idea to have a light breakfast and lunch so that when I pigged out on dinner, it levelled out better.

The most amount of exercise I did today was to walk around in the freezing cold for about an hour and have a bag full of groceries and take it home.

Day 13 - Some Real Exercise

I haven't been taking pictures for some time because there really hasn't been any sort of change in my weight or of what I look like....... that could start changing now because I'm finally doing something.

My weight is at 86.1kg!!  YEAH! I've got a feeling it's because I'm not wearing jeans while on the scales, but it's still a good sign that I've dropped under 86.5kg. I wonder how much I'm meant to lose in a week. I wonder if I can lose 1 kg in a week? I've got a feeling that it's a bit ambitious.

 A side profile..... and it's quite shocking to see myself like this. I didn't know my stomach stuck out like that. Also, the fat on my upper arms is the wobbly stuff that shakes when I wave, it's not a big bicep.

A front view. As you can see I'm not happy. It's not just because I'm fat, but it's also because it's quite cold...... really cold. The temperature out side is meant to be about -1 degree centigrade. The heaters haven't come on yet and the whole house is pretty cold.

After procrastinating for some time, I've finally had a taste (and really, only just a taste) of some real exercise. I am really really out of shape. I'm aiming for the M100 still. but it's only really been able to reach about 60 of so. The first 6 reps of burpees was easy...... and then the pain suddenly hit on. I decided to skip the press up that I was also doing within the burpee. Even though it was painful, I still carried on. Onto the mountain climber, again, the first 6 reps were relatively easy, and then I found it hard to bring my legs up, so I had to widen my stance and bring them up from the sides. The next 10 reps of squat jumps were fine, even if I was trying to aim to squat as low as possible. It was the second set of squat jumps that the pain hit on pretty hard and I could barely stand back up. I managed to just about finish the 2 sets, and started on the 3rd set, but I couldn't really continue. I was really out of breath and the pain was hitting on a little bit too much for my liking. Right now, walking around is just about fine, but going up and down stairs my legs tend to give way. It's a bit like when the first time I went to ride my bike for a long distance. I'm a little bit worried because I'm out of breath and feeling kind of weak.

The M100 is meant to be done 3-5 times a week, so it's about every other day. This is to give time for the micro damage done to the muscles to have time to repair themselves the next day and use up the fat while it's at it. However, I don't feel as though I've done enough for the damage to be significant enough..... we'll see tomorrow if my whole body is aching.

And time for what I've eaten. For breakfast, toast with pate. Lunch, a simple bowl of noodles and dinner was burger and chips. I know I know, it's really unhealthy, but I keep cooking everyday, I'd like a day where I'm not cooking for once.

Anyway, my next aim is to be able to complete the M100 as planed. To be able to do the full 3 sets and the extra set of burpes. I'm going to slow the tempo down just a tad so that I can complete it properly. The guys on YouTube doing it were really fast and I really don't think I can get up to that pace right away.

Day 12

Yeah, I'm getting better at doing the M100. I've at least managed to complete 1 set. It feels it's getting easier, but there's a slight pain in my chest. I don't think it's too much of a problem, but I'd better keep an eye on it. I really must learn how to do proper squat jumps and mountain climbers. The mountain climber, I can feel the burn close to the 10th rep. The squat jumps are really really easy..... I must be doing something wrong.

For breakfast, I had toast with a chicken liver pate. For lunch, I had leftover lamb stew wrap. For dinner, I had pasta with cabbage and some bacon in a white sauce.

I've been reading more into the after burn effect. It's main aim is not cardio. The best for it is to do weight training to break your muscles with micro damage and then the next day is to allow your body to repair it using the fat in your body to process it. I read a study that alternated between upper body and lower body exercises every 2 days to allow the maximum time for the repairs to the body..... I didn't get all the way through the study.

Day 11

No change in weight..... probably even heavier right now because of the late dinner.

Not so eventful today. A slight pain in my chest and in my abs. Doing burpees is more challenging then I initially thought. Because I have a spare tire around my waist, it does hurt a bit. I only really did manage to do about 8.... ish before I had to stop. I also tried out the mountain climber, but was really knackered. The squat jump felt really easy because the burpees were a lot tougher..... but I've got a feeling that doing the way I was doing the squat jumps may not have been fully correct.

For breakfast, a bowl of cereal. Lunch was some pasta with the remaining two cheese meatballs. For dinner was rice with a sort of lamb stew.

My next aim is to at least complete a full set. It sounds really lame, but at the rate I'm going, it's probably the most realistic.

Day 10 - The Real Beginning

Today, I actually tried to do some real exercise. I tried to follow the M100 program of doing 3 sets of burpies, mountain climber and squat jumps and one more set of burpies to complete 100 repetitions. I got to the 6th burpie of the first set and I think I pulled something or something poked me in my stomach. I really shouldn't have been wearing jeans with a belt while doing exercise. Note to self - wear something more appropriate for exercising.

Eating wise - Breakfast I had a bowl or cereal. Lunch, I had meatballs with pasta and tomato sauce. Dinner, was pretty much the same as lunch but with these 2 really big meatballs with cheese in the middle.

I really do hope I haven't pulled something. It's the first little bit of workout I've done in a really long time and it's not a good start. I'll have to see if this pain continues tomorrow.

Day 9

Another day not used. The main problem is that Mondays are really out of my control

I managed to miss breakfast and only had a roast pork bun for lunch and dinner was rice, fish and duck neck. What was a little strange was that I didn't even feel hungry.

Something a little shocking happened. A picture of what I looked like when I was younger popped up on FB and I was so much thinner. My friends have seen it and I really want to get back to that state...... because they also mentioned that I was more hansom back then too. I wonder if those girls will go out with me if I lose all this weight.... I can only hope.

Day 8

I might as well not have started so soon with the blog. However, one good thing that has come out of the blog is that, I've forced myself to research about losing weight and it's come up with some interesting things which I can follow...... but still need to get to it.

Weight... unknown, but I'm assuming I'm going to be pretty heavy. I've just come back from a chinese school dinner and they had many courses.

Anyway, for breakfast I had a McChicken sandwich meal with a diet coke and no ice.... I went out early and there wasn't much open to eat.

For lunch, I had a 6 inch Meatball Marinara from subway...... again, I'm out and about all alone, there's not much I can choose from to eat healthy.... I'm also kind of on a budget. It's strange that Greggs don't open on Sundays when there are so many people walking around looking for food.

For dinner, it was a long chinese feast with a number of different courses. it was nice and all, but it was pretty much sitting there for a couple of hours waiting to eat.

Exercise wise, I was walking for about 5-6 hours non-stop other then to eat. It was difficult walking with snow and ice on the ground. I had to keep making sure that I kept my balance.

Day 7

No change in weight again.

Yeah..... M100...... I haven't done it and I really should. My shoulders have been troubling me lately. They're aching since I played Just Dance 3. The pain/tension has moved towards my neck and it's giving me a headache and it's lasted all day. Should I be worried that a little exercise (if I can call it that) has given me pain that's not going away. I should really do more stretching.

Breakfast - Toast with 2 fried eggs and some smoked salmon

Lunch - A bowl of pasta with tomato sauce and 4 meatballs.

Dinner - Lamb steak with rice.

Exercise - Zero. Not the best start at all.

Day 6

Weight is 86.4kg. I've discovered something about the new digital scales that we've bought. Never take the first reading from the scales to be accurate. When I stepped on the scales, it told me I was weighing in at 87.4kg and the first thought through my head was "what the hell am I eating to gain so much weight in such a short amount of time?". I stepped on 4 more times and the next weigh ins came out as 86.4kg so I am losing weight...... ish.

Wow, this morning, my shoulders were aching when I woke up. I'm assuming that this is meant to be a good thing. It means that my body is trying to repair itself and using energy..... hopefully the fat. My only problem is that the pain was only in my shoulders.

For breakfast I had a bowl of crunchy nut cereal with milk. It's not much, but it feels a little healthier then a cooked breakfast.

For lunch and dinner, I had the same thing. I made pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs. I made quite a bit for lunch so there was still some left for dinner...... and there's still a little left. It is quite difficult to cook for one.

Exercise wise, I was playing with Just Dance 3 again and it was quite painful. My shoulders and back are now more painful. This time round, I lasted about an hour before it was getting too much and I had to rest.

I've been introduced to this new workout regime called M100 which stands for Mandatory 100. The actual workout is 10 burpees, 10 mountain climber and 10 squat jumps. All of this done 3 times and then one more set of 10 burpees. So this is where the 100 repetitions come from. I'll need to do this 3-5 times a week..... I've got to try this tomorrow.

Day 5

My weight hasn't changed

I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast

For lunch, I had a pork chop wrap made from a wrap, diced pork chop and onion. It was very simple, and I have no idea how to calculate the calories.

For dinner..... more pork chop with onion and rice. If you're wondering why I seem to be eating so many pork chops, it's because we bought a family pack of pork chops..... and I haven't frozen them so I ate them. Anyway, they're finished so it's ok.

I had a very fun exercise regime today. I was trying out some games on my Wii and ended up dancing around for about 3 hours playing Just Dance 3. It's surprisingly fun and I was sweating. The only problem I could see with me playing it is that there isn't enough space for me to plant my feet and move around properly because of what's on the floor. I ended up with sore arms, my right arm more then my left because the only sensor was the Wii controller. I have no idea how to calculate the calories I worked off with this, but it's probably the most exercise I've done for a while.

On a more serious note, I have purchased some magazines which I'm going through to build a workout program. It's quite a read to figure out what I really have to do. There's also something that I've found called P90X which has a full schedule all ready made..... I'm wondering if I could just follow that.

Day 4

Weight: 85.1kg
I lost weight for no apparent reason?!? Then again, I have been walking around all day in the freezing cold. From the picture, no change whatsoever, but then again, I don't really expect any with the minimal amount of exercise.

Okay, so I haven't done much in the way of trying to lose this body fat, and just by looking at my weight, it looks like I'm gaining instead of losing.

For breakfast I had a muffin with 2 slices of ham and 2 almost hard boiled eggs

For lunch I was out and about so I got myself a hoi sin duck wrap from Tesco with a bottle of diet cola and a packet of Quavers.

For dinner some sort of pasta with a tomato sauce. Pork chop with cabbage. Trying to work out the calorie count for this is going to be quite difficult.

Hmmm.... this has only bee a few days, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I have however gone and bought myself some magazines to look at fat burning and home workouts. The easiest thing would be that they have a workout program ready there and I just have to follow it. I've only skimmed through it, but what I don't understand fully is the rest days. I'm assuming it's to do with the afterburn effect that I've been reading about...... but I thought it was just a new FAD that kept popping up in the search.

Day 3

Weight is 86.7 ...... I'm getting heavier..... or it's because I've just eaten. I've got to standardise when I take my weight. I've read some sites which tell me that the weight taken at different times of the day give different results..... but I see that as being obvious because of what and when you eat. I've got a feeling that they are talking about something else though. Anyway, I've got to take my weight the same time every day.... I'm thinking just before I write this blog at night. I'll do the same with the picture.

How do people do it? How do people know what the calorie count is of every food item. I like to cook my own food, so I'm really not going to be able to have a handy number to look at from the packet. There's got to be some sort of iphone app that I can use to find the calorie count easily and probably also recommend what exercises to use to lose weight.

Breakfast
A little later in the day, but toast

Lunch
Noodles
random meet

Dinner
turkey escalope
fish sticks
can of baked beans

Exercise wise, playing around with 20kg weights. They are way too heavy for me, I pretty much got 20 slow lifts before I had to stop for the time being and let my arms ache and stretch out. I moved onto sit ups. I didn't know that my tummy is so large that it actually feels in the way and I can't do a proper crunch, and it hurts a little. Hmmm, I forgot to count, but I'm assuming about 20 because I was a little distracted by some other stuff.

Day 2

Weight: 86.5kg - no change

For the picture, I might as well use the same one as yesterday's because I haven't done anything significant yet.

Maybe yesterday wasn't a good day to start. My Mondays are occupied by having to help out with my parents so I haven't been able to look into anything or do an exercise properly.

For breakfast
Eggs Benedict that I was experimenting on. Overall, I failed to make the hollandaise sauce so I've got to improve that, but that's not the point. How many calories is it? I had 2
muffin - 155cal
poached egg - 71cal
ham - 22cal x2 for 2 slices
sauce - it was a failure, but it had a load of butter in it and I only had a table spoon.

For lunch:
I went to Ikea and had fish and chips with peas and a glass of sparkling apple juice.
Ikea fish and chips - 732kcal

For dinner:
I've got a feeling that this is going to be a challenge to get the calorie count. I had 2 bowls of rice, some fish, some green vegetables and something on the line of a Chinese salty beef jerky.

What exercise have I done today?
I've been playing around on this resistive stretchy band thing, which I really need to find the name for. I also need to get a work out plan. I'm really fat so I don't feel comfortable going to the gym to let everyone see the fat swing.

Wow, I've done 14 and a half press ups. I never used to have this much trouble doing press ups. It was also after dinner while I was pretty full and couldn't really move. I've got a feeling I'm not meant to workout right after eating.

There's got to be an easier way to get the calorie information off of something. After reading a number of different sites, there are answers saying that kcal and cal mean the same thing - calories. This is so damn confusing. So if the calories are printed on packaging these days, why can't they be standardised to use just the one.

Day 1 - The Beginning

This is me. I'm 5 foot 4 inches tall (163cm) and weighing in at 86.5kg (13.6 stones). According to the NHS height/weight chart, I'm not just overweight, I'm obese. I'm comfortable with my body, but I am fat. There's no doubt about that and sooner or later, it's really going to affect my health.

According to calculator.net my ideal healthy weight should be approximately 107.8lbs (48.8kg) to 145.6lbs (66kg). There are other calculations which seem to be adding weight per inch over 5 feet. The range is from 129.4lbs (58.7kg) to 136.3lbs (61.8kg) so I'm going to average it out and say that my aim is to reach 60kg. (I'm going to stick with kg because that's what my scales give me). That makes me 26.5kg over weight.

What I also need is a safe time scale. I've seen on TV and heard that losing weight too fast is not a good thing. It could bounce right because of how the body reacts to starving yourself of what it needs. I'll need to do a little more research before I can label this.

So here's my plan. It's about self discovery and hopefully applying all I've learnt previously and during this process. I hope to be able quantify everything I do and eat so that I can really keep track of what I'm doing. This won't just be trying to do something, but more on the line of changing habits.

So, to start things off, what have I eaten today?
Breakfast - Kit-kat chunky with a can of coke (sorry, I was in a rush for the train)
Lunch - Burger King Rodeo meal with a coke no ice. (damn eating out alone)
Dinner - Home made spaghetti sauce with pasta and a turkey escalope.

The recommended calorie intake for a man is meant to be 2550 calories, but it should vary with what you're doing during the day. I believe that there's meant to be things about fat content and salt intake but I'll need to do more research to figure out how they will affect me. The norm is to calculate everything with calories, so lets see what I've gone and done.

kit-kat chunky - 280cal
can of coke - 141.9kcal (is this right? this is from the side of the can) - 97 from a website.
BK Rodeo burger - 380cal
BK regular fries - 360cal
BK coke no ice - 200cal
turkey escalope - 341cal
pasta - 221cal
spaghetti sauce - 120cal (kinda guessed with this one because it's home made)

Which gives me a total of 1999cal..... which doesn't seem quite right. I'm pretty sure dinner should have been under estimated and I may have had a number of chocolate biscuits somewhere.

I really need to find a good website with good references to calories. I'm using this one at the moment but it's a bit annoying with the pop-ups and I'm not even sure if it's right.

What is the kcal number's relation to cal? The kcal number can now be found on food products but if that's right, then that would mean thousand of cal and the numbers just don't like right. It would be really useful if I can use this somehow, because it'll be much more useful to just pick that number from what I eat. I'll need to do more research to figure out what it really means.

Anyway, exercise wise....... walking for about 4.5 hours. About 238cal per hour for normal working. Which works out that I've done about 1071cal of exercise...... which falls well under the low estimate of what I've eaten....... oh dear.

So, what's my next step...... I've got to do more research, but the general idea from just looking at the above is to do more exercise.... but what exercises? I might need to buy a Men's Health magazine to figure this out.