Day 8 - Bento Box Envy

Relief. My worst fears were not confirmed after all. This morning I was mobile - sort of. It took my 5 mins to stand up from my bed but once I was off and the momentum from my forward stumbling kicked in it wasn't so bad. 

My wake up time slipped back to 6:30am which is never going to work if I am supposed to COOK ALL THIS FOOD!! I'm going to have to set aside a couple of days a week to prep or I'll never pack a lunch every day. How do people manage this? While we don’t have a full time helper, we also don’t have kids. So at least I have that on my side as far as the time stakes go. I seriously don’t know how anyone could manage this with kids, a full time job and no help. Kudos to those that have made it through PCP with all of the above - you should seriously consider time management coaching as a career option.

I still can't manage a fluent set of skips so it took around 3 - 4 sets (and a lot of wailing) to get through this morning's allotment of 600. The exercises are oh-kaaay but those davinci's are a killer. I managed to bring my arms a little over 1/4 of the way up. Might swap my resistance band for a more flexible one for that exercise at least for a while. Sorry Patrick but I had to skip the pull ups today and swap it with tomorrow's rowing. I couldn't find anything that could work though I might go in search of a park railing or something tonight. I need to find something within practical weekday morning walking distance since my routine will need to be executed with military precision if I am ever going to get to work on time. Needless to say, this morning I was later than usual because it took forever to sit down and eat a complete meal. I felt completely nauseous. Last night, I got a head start on today's menu for Gilles and I (don't get used to it G!) by cooking up some veggies and salmon and cutting up some fruit. The salmon was good (pepper and Chinese 5 spice) but I'd like to know if white rice is on the big red cross list because of all the starch. And what about about cous cous? Is that ok or have we traversed over to brown rice, quinoa and millet land?

Going to work with my PCP hamper felt like the first day of school. Good thing my mum is here this week in case I need to run home crying…Anyway instead of a new pencil case it was a new packed lunch - in a crappy take away container (we have lots these which proves not only how much of a pack rat I am but also how much takeaway we order!). My beautiful new double tiered Japanese bento box somehow ended up with Gilles. How did the pretty flower pattern go down with the boys at the office? Hmph. I remember Patrick saying something about not going out and spending a tonne of money on exercise equipment but he didn’t say anything about food presentation so this weekend I plan to go out and buy the most fabulous, out of this world set of bento boxes money can buy. Maybe it will help me to get excited about my food.

Here is today's culinary montage.  I actually enjoyed most of it except the dinner. I was fine at first but suddenly I felt really nauseous at the prospect of having to eat all those tiny little prawns and I couldn't finish my plate. Bizarre and totally inexplicable reaction and one I have never had before. I usually love shrimp! I guess this is my body acting out.

1. Tomato on toast, bit of daikon and an egg and a cuppa tea. I sculled my milk earlier. Ick.
2. Morning snack
3. Panfried salmon with pepper and chinese 5 spice (no oil!) with rice, aparagus, spinach and daikon (cooked in dashi - is that cheating???).

4. Afternoon snack
5. Sauteed prawns with ginger, garlic and sugar snap peas on rice.
6. Denied an evening snack by Patrick. Boo.

Day 7 - A nasty surprise

Sweet baby jump rope I think my calves have petrified. The last time I felt like this was after hiking the 1000 steps and then it took a week before I could walk with straight legs. Those 500 jumps seemed simple enough on paper particularly without the dreaded push ups or lunges. But therein lay the trap - it was too simple, deadly simple. All I can say is thank god my chair at work has wheels because I'm not sure walking is going to be an option. I'm going to be rolling around between my desk, printer and kitchen like a roomba.

When Patrick's email arrived in my inbox today with our exercises for the next 7 days I freaked out. 600 - 800 jumps everyday with exercises. Now I am officially terrified.

Tonight's final meal was my ultimate comfort food - curry rice (mum's recipe) with a couple of glasses of wine. Sigh. I would have taken a photo but alas I inhaled it before I had time to blink which is probably a good thing because I probably would have blown it up to poster size and stuck it up it on my bedroom wall. The next few days should be interesting...Eating in controlled quantities is a completely different way of approaching for me. Tonight I went to the supermarket to load up on the gold star approved stuff. That was easy enough but the hard part will be finding (i) the time to cook 3 meals a day and (ii) interesting and tasty ways to cook it since I suffer culinary A.D.D and rarely ever cook the same thing twice. Once I get used to the portions I should be ok but I think I'm really going to struggle eating that much food in the morning. Speaking if which I have to go to bed. This getting up early routine has make me into an old timer. Not sure how I'm going to handle tomorrow night's 11pm conference call...

Good luck PCPers I think we're about to dive into deep waters...

Day 5 & 6 - Playground bullies

Gah!! I missed out on my blog post yesterday and felt a twinge of self-loathing but hey, I still hauled my butt out of bed on both mornings to do my exercises so that absolved the guilt pretty quickly. I'm pretty self-forgiving which explains why am in this unfit mess to begin with. Yesterday I decided to take my workout beyond the comfortable confines of my apartment building and headed off to the kids playground across the road loaded up with my various exercise props. I was really keen to try skipping on astro turf to see if it was any more forgiving on the knees. Unfortunately my efforts were thwarted by actual kids playing in the playground. Outrageous! I briefly considered chasing them off (this is my playground afterall) but in the end retreated. Not sure skipping ropes and kids mix. Hang on a second!! Of course they do. What I mean is that when I skip - the rope is a weapon such is my speed. Yeah right. What I actually mean is that I was scared the kids would wrestle me to the ground and rope jack me. So I took myself off to playground no. 2 down at Happy Valley racecourse (where I hear the astro turf is really awesome) only to be chased off again by more kinder. These ones looked really territorial so I didn't even bother hanging around. Weighing up my options I headed to the work out area at the other end of the inner playing fields at the racecourse. This place is PCP paradise - chin-up bars, benches and all sorts of apparatuses. It's a bit of a trek from my place for weekday mornings but genius for a crisp weekend morning. I should have thought of this before. Springing into a (slow) jog I made my way to the far end of the grounds feeling good but when the work out area came into view I couldn't believe my eyes. Inconceivable!! The whole place was roped off like a crime scene with the floor torn up like an excavation site.  Are you kidding me? I eyed the nearby carpark and decided it was as good a place as any especially after searching 40mins for a decent spot. This morning I gave playground no. 1 another try and it was deserted so I crept in and skipped to my heart's content on the glorious cushioned ground. It was like plump spring grass and I felt like breaking into song.

The diet has faced some setbacks. You see, my mum is in town and she's formidable when it comes to eating habits. When I was a kid she would threaten to take away my pocket money if I didn't eat. She would rather I stay home from school than leave before finishing my breakfast. As soon as she opened her suitcase decadent foodstuffs immediately starting flying out of it and straight into my mouth. Not to mention she also brought with her two editions of my favourite food mag 'Delicious' which I subscribed to last year. I like to leaf through food magazines, indulge in a but of armchair travel dining and try out new recipes. I'm not sure if just looking through food magazines for the next three months will actually help or make things worse. Though I did actually spy some healthy food ideas which could be put to good use. I'll just have to keep my eye out for those and ignore the articles on 101 cholesterol choking ways to enjoy pork belly.

This week's motivation to get through the diet and exercise will come from last night's experience. The HK Arts Festival is on at the moment and the New York City ballet is in town. I saw an incredible program of mainly Balanchine works and holy cow it was out of this world. I'm a big fan of Balanchine but have never seen the NYCB perform any of his works before. I wasn't disappointed. The athleticism, artistry and musicality of their dancers is incredible and they are FIT. The works were fast, lung busting and challenged the limits of any dancer's technical prowess but they were amazing. I'll stop there before this starts to sound a bit too black swan breakdown drama (as an aside I'm sorry to say Natalie's baby daddy didn't make the trip out. I guess he was busy at the Oscars...).

Ethereal perfection!! I'll be channeling this when I am trying to float through my 500 jumps tomorrow morning...

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Day 4 - Blog and run

It's just after 7:30pm on a Friday night so I only plan to make this a rapidos update. I admit I am feeling pretty damn good after 4 days of all this. The pain factor is ok so far which makes me absolutely convinced I am doing everything completely wrong. My skipping was complete mess resembling a poor uncoordinated soul hitting the dance floor in junior high for the first time. Stop. Start. Regroup. Stop. Start. Check if any of the neighbours are looking etc. but I eventually got through it.

I have to say though I am not loving the leg lifts. I did the whole butt grabbing lower back support thing and tried to really concentrate on my stomach muscles but my problem seemed to be with my right hip. It was clunking around like an old sandshoe in a clothes dryer. Literally! It wasn't painful but er, slightly distracting. Any tips?

I thought about missing tonight's post and making up for it with a manifesto tomorrow but Gilles has been annoyingly diligent in doing his blog posts in the morning before work so of course I have  to keep up - or lose face! Never!

Foodwise I'm on the hunt for a Thai green curry tonight and as tomorrow is the weekend there is no way I'll be up at 6am! Happy Friday!!!!

Day 3 - Sleep skippin'

My brain is playing cruel tricks on me. Today I woke up at 4am. Ugh. Being excited to get fit is one thing but this is ridiculous!! By the time 6am rolled around and I stumbled up to the roof I was half asleep yet somehow I managed to get into my skipping groove like an automaton. Maybe Patrick is onto something here - active meditation. Apart from the twinge in my calves I can kind of see myself getting into this (I just know I am going to regret writing that…). I’ve read on a few people’s blogs that they miss the skipping when they are done with the program. I’m not suggesting I will go all foetal and start rocking back and forth once the skipping cord is cut but I can see the appeal and crutch of the regular hypnotic rhythm of skipping. Or maybe that’s just the crazy talk of a sleep deprived woman. Hmm yes, that’s it.

This morning when I headed up to the roof it was drizzling which made me feel rather dedicated and hardcore. But let’s see what happens when our first typhoon of the season hits…I can already see myself getting whipped in the head with my skipping rope. I’d better think up a contingency plan unless I am planning to get all biblical and take on the elements.

We had an event at work this morning and there were loads of leftover starbucks mini muffins and other temptations. My work area  is usually the communal dumping ground for leftover food from events and the various snacks people bring back from overseas which explains why up until this point I have been constantly grazing on something. It’s a bad trap and I had to ask that they be left somewhere else making me sound completely neurotic. I don’t want to be the fussy food eater - no one invites her anywhere!! Anyway, I think they ended up in the kitchen which shows that everyone else already has way more discipline than me. Hmmm.

I think getting my workout out of the way in the morning will be key to getting through this. I know myself too well that if faced with having to do it before bed it will never happen. Hopefully in a fews days time my body will switch to auto pilot and I'll actually wake up mid-skip. Efficient. 

Still hanging in there with the half meals and tonight had a glass of wine which will be followed by another (I feel like I have to while can). 

Cheers!

Day 2 - Hello breakfast. Bye bye burger....

Aha! So now I know what all those early morning people are talking about when they say it's the best time of the day. I'm not really one for sunrises. Usually the only time I can catch one is either when I am (a) coming home from a big night out or (b) on holiday and up at the butt crack of dawn for what you hope will be a once in a lifetime experience at a unesco heritage world site or something. No, it's not an everyday occurrence for me. However this morning I am proud to say that by 6.15am I was up on the roof dutifuly skipping away. Getting up wasn't too much of a struggle though Gilles woke me up by turning on every light on the house. Cruel but effective. As for the sunrise, well this is Kong Kong afterall so it was hazy and grey but still!

I managed to get through my little circuit without too much of a struggle but can we just talk about the skipping for a minute? I know how to skip but are we supposed to be doing one jump per rotation or two i.e. one jump in between? Or is it meant to be that pro-boxer levitation thing (you know what I mean. I tried this and got hopelessly tangled up so I hope it ain't this!). I'm assuming we're not doing the running thing. And could there actually be a vernacular out there to articulate all this? Anyway I would be interested in what the other PCPers are doing jumpstyle-wise...

Another advantage of being up so early is that I actually had the chance to eat breakfast. This is usually a weekend only affair for me and even then it's brunch at the earliest. But today it was goodmorning cup of tea and bowl of cereal, banana and yoghurt (all HALF). Technically this could be viewed as overeating since I don't normally eat breakfast but I get that this program is all about changing bad habits. The last few days and the week in the lead up to the PCP kick off has been a last supper of sorts more recently a series of last suppers by halves. I have done everything humanly possible to cram as many social brunches, lunches, dinners and drinks to enjoy all my favourite food and get face time with my friends around food and drink before I plunge into the dieting abyss. Tonight I had a date with my final burger for a while. I obediently sawed the precious morsel in half then took Patrick's suggestion of explaining to my body why I didn't need to eat the whole thing but it ended up as a conversation between me and the burger. In fact it felt like a break up. 'It's not you, it's me'. 'I need to move on'. 'You've given me so much (around my waistline)'. Lord knows I would probably drunk dial it given half the chance except that I won't be drinking for the next 3 months!! Here is a pic of our tearful goodbye.



Now onwards to day 3!!

Day 1 - Patrick says 'jump'. We say 'how high??'

I'm on my way and now 89 days closer to PCP nirvana - I hope! Now I haven't owned a skipping rope since I was 10 years old and was never really one for skipping anyway. In fact I was usually the one relegated to turning the rope for the kids in the playground. I also bagged out riverdance - a lot. Now I eat my words. I bet the Lord of the Dance or whatever his name is can skip damn well with all that nimble footwork. Anyway, I see I am going to be spending a lot of time skipping so I had better learn to like it fast! I should also take my neighbours a big fruit basket because I am going to be jumping up and down on the roof every morning at 6am :)

Skipping aside, I am happy to say I got through today's workout without too much of a hitch. Good start!! The half meal regime isn't too bad but I was really hungry after lunch. Ravenous actually and my stomach wasn't quiet about it. I bought a tiny sandwich which when halved was absolutely minuscule. I admit I thought about super sizing but that would be cheating now wouldn't it? I got some added motivation to stick to things when I took my first photos. Ouch! As they say the camera never lies but what I would give for some serious airbrushing right now...

That's what a regular desk job will do to you (and yes perhaps a total lack of diet and exercise...). But all that is set to change! Now I wouldn't want to leave any of you with that slightly scary image so here is a photo of a very cute puppy to bring back nice fuzzy happy thoughts. Awwwww.

I'm already geared up for my 6am workout!! Good luck my fellow PCPers!