Exercise & Diet Vlog #1

Hi all, this is my first 'Exercise & Diet Vlog'. I talk briefly about my background and why I'm doing these before giving you an insight into my new exercise program and also my dietary plans. This is a good way for me to track my progress and to give me that extra bit of motivation to keep at it! Would be great to hear your stories too! :)

Juice Plus has started! (weekly progress)

Hello everyone!

Well I finished my detox after 12 days in as this package arrived >>>

Above, you can see that it was a months supply of Juice Plus supplements! The box on top contains lots of capsules! The capsules that have 27 different nutrients in from veg, fruit and berries. I take 2 of each per day and have been doing so for the last 4 days. The packages below are full of powder which I make smoothies with. I'll talk more about that later.

I'd done so well with not cheating on my detox so I had to treat myself (treats are important!) with something very naughty...

2 10 inch pizzas which (at the time) were lovely. It was a little experiment too, I wanted to see how my body would react to this food after the previous 12 days of detoxing. I felt TERRIBLE! I felt sick, bloated and actually put on 0.2% of body fat which didn't go till a few days later! I did used to have 3 of the pizzas so at least I only had 2! (I had a mars bar too!)

Before showing you a few snacks and meals I've been having, I'm going to show you the latest results of my PROGRESS. Still no pics but they are saved for a later date!

In the last post, my latest results were:

6th May:
13 stone 8.6
18.9% body fat.

Today (15th May) my results are:
13 stone 5.8
18.7% body fat.

I'm happy with the amount of weight lost as it isn't too much. However, I'm a little disappointed that I've only dropped 0.2% body fat. 0.4% if you include the pizzas!!!

I'm happy with my diet so exercise is the next thing I really need to focus on. I have made slow progress with that but it's hard when you have a chronic illness that debilitates you. The last couple of mornings I woke up with very heavy pains all over so exercise would not have been a good idea. I'm working my way up slowly and I'm sticking to pure body weight. To get more out of the exercise, I will perform each exercise slower so that the muscles are under tension for that bit longer. Here are the exercises:

Press-ups (normal position)
Press -ups (close position)
Pull-ups
Plank
Squats
Calf raises

There's a bit of everything in there. I will perform 8 repetitions of 1 set. Any more and I start to go light-headed and fatigued so it really is slow progress. If I'm up to doing any more later in the day then I will perform the exercises again. I'd love to be doing much more but it's just not possible. I started Juice Plus to strip the fat and feel healthier, I don't want to get carried away and send myself into a relapse.

Since I've started the SHAKES it's been such a relief for me as I don't have to worry about making breakfast or lunch. It gives me that extra freedom during the day. I'll give you an example of what my diet is like now... I like sticking to the same foods and then will change something once in a while:

This was the first day I started on the shakes. I have a soup maker which blends the smoothies for me. There's chocolate and vanilla flavours and I like to mix it in with strawberries, banana and soya milk. It also shows the capsules too.

This is my lunch (1 of my 2 snacks). 3 rice cakes topped with feta cheese. Tastes good!

Mid-afternoon I will have my other shake, here's the vanilla one mixed with strawberries and banana. Usually though I will have both shakes the same flavour in a day as I can make them both at the same time.

Here's a picture from my last post hence the reason it's smaller. This is my tea. Still my favourite. Chicken, sweet potato, mixed veg and tomato with seasonings.

Here's my last snack of the day. I'll sometimes have greek yogurt with frozen raspberries but here is a nakd bar (delicious and very good, lots of flavours too) with a little box of raisins. Perfect to line my stomach up before bed time.

Lastly, I'm going to show you a pic of a soup I made last week:

It had butternut squash and sweet potato in. I had oat biscuits to dip into the soup too. A bit watery but I'll know next time to put less water in!

And just thought I'd share with you my neat presentation of a days worth of shakes:

DELICIOUS!!!




Thanks for reading and see you all next week!

Barry x

Week 1 results of detox inc pics of food!

Hello everyone! This is the seventh day of my DETOX!

I decided to stop taking pictures of my food today until I try out some new recipes!

I'm actually quite enjoying it, I've not craved naughty things too much.

I've just been offered a FREE sandwich at Costa and I kindly declined. That's just an example of the willpower I have!!!

First of all, here is a picture of my whiteboard and my scribblings out of my weight as you can see. There's a slight update today, I've still 13 stone 8.6 but I've dropped to 18.9% body fat.




So, let's compare my results so far between 30th April and 6th May (today):

30th April: 13 stone 12.6 = 88.2kg
19.7%

6th May: 13 stone 8.6 = 86.4kg
18.9%

I've dropped 4 pounds and 0.8% body fat which is progress.

Now here's my mathematical side showing... If you read my last post then you'll know I really don't want to lose weight, I just want to lose fat! But to lose the fat I need to lose the weight... Now at the very low end I'd maybe go down to 12 and a half stone which will have me looking pretty slim. That's a little under a stone what I am now. There's 14 pounds in a stone. Let's times 0.8% body fat (what I've dropped so far) by 3 (which takes us up to 12 pounds, only a couple of pounds away from a stone) With me? That takes us up to 2.4% body fat. Now let's minus 2.4% body fat from 18.9% body fat. This equals 16.5% body fat.

Basically, the above means that based on this weeks results, if I go down to 12 stone 9.6 then I will go down to 16.5% body fat. In fact let's say I drop another 4 pounds to 12 stone 5.6 then I will go down to 15.7% body fat. Hopefully I'll lose a bit more percent in fat but I'm being realistic. Once I'd gone down to that weight I'd start to add the weight back on gradually with minimal body fat. I would like to go in cycles like that until I reach a weight and body fat percent I'm happy with.

So there's all the math for you! Let's have a look at the food starting from Friday 1st May: (I won't post the same food twice so I don't bombard you with too many pictures)

Banana and  porridge oats with soya milk

Flavoured green tea

Fresh carrot juice

Banana, egg, honey and soya milk

Greek yoghurt and frozen raspberries

Green tea

Apple

Chicken, sweet potato,spinach, tomato with seasonings

Flavoured green tea

So the above is showing you exactly everything I've had within that day. I do sometimes like to eat the same things each day so now (to save being repetitive) I will post other meals/snacks I've had during the week:

I had a couple of spare turkey fillets so I mixed them in with tomato, red onion, egg and seasonings (I think that's everything)

I know I've posted this before but I felt I had to post it again as it's so nice and also I added hummus and mixed veg into it!

Here is porridge (which I've had for breakfast every morning for goodness knows how many years) but this time I added chopped apple on top instead of banana

Here are some banana, eggs, honey and soya milk again. I couldn't be bothered to squash the banana as you can see, tastes good but better mushed

Here are the green teas I have when indoors. Apple and pear is my favourite but orange and lotus flower is nice too

There was an afternoon where I didn't feel too hungry and a bit sick so I just had a tin of tuna mixed in with tomato

I discovered these. Dates, figs and walnuts! No added ingredients and great for a little snack

Another lovely snack, strawberries and banana!

I got some oat cakes too. Don't taste of much but great to snack on, will add feta cheese to a few at some point!

Ok, so this was meant to be a soup but I didn't have a blender, it's butternut squash mixed in with sweet potato, celery, carrot and red onion

Another meal here consisting and chicken, tomatoes, brown rice (which is allowed) and peas

My aim now is to get a proper exercise routine put in place to start toning my body up. I'm sticking to body weight for the time being as weights aren't compatible with me at the moment!

I'll be back soon with another update,

Thanks for reading x

The New Diet: Day 1 Detox

Hello everyone!

I've been inspired to start posting a lot more regularly here as I feel now is the time for me to really make an effort with my diet.

I've jumped onto the JUICE PLUS bandwagon!!!

I've previously been skeptical about this but I've done more research into the whole thing and I decided it was worth ago despite being on the pricey side. This is mainly for health reasons. I've spoken to a few people who suffer with the same illness with me and they say that this diet has really helped them. I've learned a lot too.

Firstly, it's recommended to do a 2 week detox though this is optional. I've decided to do it until my package arrives through the post. It's going through today so it should be in between a 1-2 week period which gives my body time to return to optimal function. This is so I get the best results from the diet.

I've always been very against losing a lot of weight as I've previously been very into my muscle building and eating lots of high protein foods. However, I'm at the stage now where I need to get rid of excess fat whatever weight I am. It's impossible to lose fat and not lose weight. It's also possible to muscle build with juice plus and that's what I'm going to do after I've completed the diet.

I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of juice plus as I'm very new to it and I'm here to keep track of my daily diet. I'll also write a post when my actual package has arrived so I can show you what's involved. In short it's capsules, juices and shakes. I do eat meals on top of that though so I'm not starving myself! The main principles here are cutting out caffeine, wheat, dairy, gluten... most things!

I have also taken a picture of myself so I can compare it to later pictures. I'm taking pictures in the same places each time, no complimentary lighting and different angles, it's all going to be 100% real.

My stats are as follows (more or less). I don't have the best equipment in the world but it's accurate in a way that I'll be using the exact same ways each time.

Height: 191cm (you don't really need to know that but there you go) Did you know you can actually shrink up to a couple of cm during the course of the day? All the pressure on your spine of course. I've researched this!

Weight: 88.2kg (I had plans a couple of years ago to get to 100kg of pure muscle, how times have changed!) I'd like to stay at this weight but with very little fat of course.

Body fat: 19.7% (Not brilliant considering I used to be very into my fitness before I fell ill, I'd ideally like to be between 10%-15% long term)

Of course all the above stats are recorded in the morning before any food or water has been consumed. This is best way to make sure you're getting a true reading... throughout the day different foods will add weight and give you fluctuating numbers.

So let's start with DAY 1 DETOX 

First of all, I'm sticking to my porridge for breakfast as it's easy, with banana. The only change I've made is that I'm starting to have it with soya milk which actually tastes good. Normal milk in supermarkets have stuff added to them to preserve shelf life so that's something I wasn't aware of before... Soya milk is expensive so I'm going to shop round a bit and see if I can get it cheaper elsewhere.

Then I decided to take Katy (the dog) to the park whilst I did some work on the resistance machines there. Weights are a big no for me at the moment. Last time I attempted I was as good as bed bound for a few days. I'm listening to my body so I got around 10 minutes done with no real strain, taking it easy at the minute but every little helps!

When I got back I made myself some fresh carrot juice and although I'm used to eating large quantities, my appetite has never been brilliant. I had around half of this so saved the rest for today.








A little later on I was a little stuck with what to have for lunch as I usually have whole wheat pasta which of course isn't allowed in this diet. I thought I'd be a little adventurous and try a banana omelet. It consisted of soya milk, honey, eggs and banana... it ended up more like scrambled egg but it tasted good. I could've eaten it all but decided not to as it was a big portion with 4 eggs in there. Maybe a little less honey next time too.

There was actually quite a big gap between lunch and this drink because I'd fallen asleep for a few hours. I think everything had caught up with me a little so I crashed but I got up and out and despite the Costa cup, I actually wasn't in Costa. This is a peppermint green tea as I'm not allowed caffeine. It tasted nice but coffee is the one thing I will really miss being on this diet.

Then tea time which actually got very late but then all my meals seem to be at odd times. Here's my favourite which I really enjoyed and have been having for a while now. Chicken, sweet potatoes and mixed veg. Very tasty!

Shortly after I had another green tea, this time I tried an apple flavoured one which is very nice. A new favourite I think!

Lastly, here is a 2 litre bottle of water from Tesco costing 17p. I haven't got a water filter jug yet and tap water isn't great so I got 4 of these to keep me going for a few days.














So there we go! I'll be back soon to keep you all updated with my progress!

Have a great day all! :D

I have some tasty new foods to try...

Hello everyone, it's been a while!

I'll be posting on here more often though this is just a very short post. My diet has wavered recently and it's been difficult for me health wise. I discovered a website called muscle foods which I've heard good reviews about.

I decided that I'd try some new foods to make my diet seem less bland. I will post an update soon and let you know how it's all going. I'm looking forward to trying it all!

See you all very soon!

Barry

I passed!

Looks like my hard work over the past few days have been worthwhile...

I'm currently thinking of ideas for a website I'm going to be setting up but in the mean time, I need some time to recover!

Thanks for reading my posts x

Weight management - adipose tissue

Individual fat cells/adipocytes store excess dietary fat and energy (triglycerides) in the adipose tissue. Adipocytes and triglycerides are unloaded when lipoprotein lipase on lipid (containing lipoproteins) is sent out from the liver and into the adipose tissue. Circulating lipoproteins also transport lipids in the blood stream. Adipose tissue can also store excess energy, this comes from an over consumption of carbs. Body fat will increase when this happens for several days. Glucose will enter the adipose tissue where it is under the influence of insulin. Then it is stored as triglycerides when synthesised into fat. However, this is more likely when insulin levels are increased. Most glucose is taken into the tissues which is used as fuel and then the glucose will enter the adipose tissue and contribute to the storage of fat. The distribution of the adipose tissue can be influenced by gender, genetics and also hormonal dominance.

Right... that's it!

Seriously, I'm achy all over and done ridiculous amounts of revision which has made my M.E. worse - just hope I can function in the morning. Apologies for the frequent posting, it will now stop!

Good night all x