Food
My last few days have followed a similar pattern as others as far as food is concerned..
Breakfasts involving 2 or 3 eggs, with either some banana (and on one morning a banana and strawberry panlette - nice!) or bacon / veg.
Lunches involving a decent size piece of meat (usually chicken) supplemented with salad and or cold veg (but broccoli soup on one day).
Dinners, as lunches, only hot (and usually bigger). Over the last few days these have included slow cooked beef casserole, and a chilli, in which I substituted beans for chunks of carrot and courgette and served with cauliflower rice- really good!)
Snacks have been fruit and nuts and coconut. Coffee has been consumed 2 or 3 times per day.
Training
Sunday - hill sprints
Monday - rest day
Tuesday - 7am CrossFit class; 8pm squash match - win (& team - win!!)
Weds - 12pm CrossFit Class
Thurs - 12pm Weightlifting class (snatches); 6pm Ferino's Fab Abs.
I've been happy with my performance at all of the above, particularly hills, Wednesday's WOD and the snatches on Thursday.
Reflections.
This challenge really did appear seemingly out of nowhere at just the right time for me. Sometime in September (I don't remember when) I'd had a good whinge to both Sam and Mike about not knowing which direction I wanted to go in with my training and about the fact that I hadn't lost any weight (in terms of the numbers I see on the scales) in 6 months of training at the box. The suggestion was that I was doing the right training.... Maybe I needed to look at my diet?
I thought I was doing things right. I thought I ate healthily. I definitely did eat a lot of 'healthy' food - big salads for lunch, cottage cheese, chicken. Rice cakes. You know, all the healthy stuff.
What this month has really shown me is that amongst all the 'good' stuff, I hid an awful lot of crap! And that some of the things that I considered to be healthy may not be doing me any favours. I've learned that being prepared is key and I'm now thinking ahead a bit more about where I'll be and what food I'll need and what I need to buy from the shops. One of the best things about this is that I shop better. I spend less time in shops and supermarkets, as I'm not nipping in to the local (crap) little Sainbury's Local around the corner. This in itself steers me away from a world of absolute shite food that I get sucked into far too often. And having a plan makes it much harder to justify eating crap.
Moving Onwards
I don't intend to stick to as strict a regime as I have done over the 30 days. In fact I'll be having a beer as soon as I've finished this blog. But a few beers this weekend will be all I add into my diet this week (I'm away in Lincoln at my Mum's this weekend). I'll try and keep all grains out, but I'll be having a slice of black pudding in the morning (my mum's got some sausages in that are 97% pork shoulder - get in!!).
From next weekend, I'll experiment with a bit of dairy. I'm hoping to continue to change my body composition and, hopefully, this will involve losing a few more pounds (maybe another 7-10), but over time.
I don't intend to eat bread or pasta. I'll try and keep out rice and oats for quite a bit longer, but will be more relaxed about small quantities of grains as ingredients in other things, as long as there's no unpronounceable, fucked up shit in them (I really believe cutting out all the processed stuff has been a big part of my progress).
I will do my absolute best to cut out all added sugars whenever possible.
Thanks
This month wouldn't have happened some awesome people...
Kelly Dixon - thanks for kick-starting this whole thing. You started it off and it was perfect timing for me.
Mike - thanks for the calliper encounters and for being on hand for advice on tweaks when I was finding it tough to keep training in week 2.
All my fellow 30 day challengers and everyone else at the box - the support generated through a group of people all doing this together has been phenomenal and, as is the CrossFit Leeds way, has made me feel included, helped along and, most importantly, part of something brilliant and inspiring. I've spoken to people I'd not really spoken to before about all sorts of challenge related stuff, shared more than I would normally feel comfortable and I wouldn't have been able to keep going without you all. Biggest shouts, however, have to go to Mel, Simon and Wully, who have motivated me more than they know.
And my wife, Donna, who has not only put up with my being really pernickety and controlling over food for the last 30 days, but has embraced it herself to quite a degree, eaten whatever I've cooked, told me when there's been less of me and where and been completely supportive the whole way through.
The Results... Weights and Measures.
Mike had his callipers on me immediately before and after the challenge
Before After Change
Bicep 9mm 6mm -3mm
Tricep 12mm 8mm -4mm
Hip 26mm 16mm -10mm
Back 20mm 16mm -4mm
Total 67mm 46mm -21mm
Body Fat: 29% 23% -6%
Weight: 105.6kg 99.3kg -6.3kg
(16st 8lb) (15st 8lb) (1 stone!)
Before pics After pics
A work in progress. It's not the end of the challenge for me, but a transition to the next part of a journey, but I've learned so much I feel confident that I can take things much further. Watch this space. Sporadic updates may well appear.......!