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

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

Nutrition - Minerals

So, minerals helps our bodies to function on a daily basis. Although they don't provide energy, they help to unlock the energy that is in our diet. Minerals are mostly in the skeletal system and account for around 4% of ours body mass. If we have a varied diet, we can ingest minerals as plants extract them from soil. There are 7 macrominerals that are needed in bigger amounts. These are as follows: Calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and sulphur.

Calcium is found in dairy products, green leafy vegetables and fish like salmon with soft bones.

Chloride is found in coconut flesh and natural unprocessed sea salt.

Magnesium is found in fish, dairy produce, nuts and natural unprocessed sea salt.

Phosphorus is found in animal produce, nuts/legumes and whole grains.

Potassium is found in nuts, vegetables and natural unprocessed sea salt.

Sodium is found in zucchini, meat broths and natural unprocessed sea salt.

Sulphur is found in eggs, cruciferous veg and dairy products.

Now for the purposes...

Calcium helps muscle contractions, bone growth and also regulates the acid-alkali balance.

Chloride regulates fluid balance as well as acid-alkali balance. It also helps carbohydrate/protein digestion.

Magnesium helps to form bones, absorb other minerals, nerve transmission, metabolism of carbs and tooth enamel.

Phosphorus helps kidneys to function, and also helps bones and cells to grow.

Potassium helps cellular chemistry and fluid balance.

Sodium helps to stimulate nerves, water balance and cellular fluid distribution.

Sulphur helps to protect from infection, form cartilage/skin and also helps to protect against pollution and radiation.

Lastly, there are 20 trace minerals. These are also necessary to help the body function but they are needed in much smaller amounts. These are boron, iron, nickel, copper, cobalt, zinc, silicon, selenium, manganese, iodine, molybdenum and chromium.

Next up I'll be talking about Phytochemicals!

Nutrition - Hydrogenation, Trans Fats and Cholesterol

Hydrogenation and trans fats is where amounts of vegetable oils (unsaturated) are made into more solid fats e.g. margarine and shortening. The formation of saturated fatty acids occurs when the heating, catalysing and the pumping of hydrogen happens. Single bonds replace the double bonds which are again full of hydrogen. A very waxy hard substance is made when vegetable oil is fully hydrogenated. Although there are some amounts of vegetable oil that still contain unsaturated double bonds, they will have been converted into trans fatty acids.

The following foods contain trans fats - pies and pastries, cakes, crackers, biscuits, margarine (many), pre-prepared food, low fat processed foods (many) and take away foods.

Cancer, diabetes, obesity, birth defects and low birth weight babies, sterility, lactation difficulties, atherosclerosis, difficulties with tendons and bones and also decreased visual acuity are diseases that have been linked in with the consumption of hydrogenated fats. It can also affect blood lipid levels as well as decreasing healthier HDL cholesterol and increasing LDL cholesterol. The effect is double that of saturated fat. Lastly, it has been shown that 30,000 premature CHD deaths per year could be linked in to the consumption of trans fatty acids.

Cholesterol has no calories, it can't be used as energy in the body and it is a large lipid molecule though it is used in the tissues. This is for essential functions and structure.

Cholesterol produces steroid hormones, is the synthesis of vitamin D and bile acids whilst being an essential part of cell membranes.

75-80% of the body's own supply of cholesterol is synthesised by the liver though dietary cholesterol plays only a small part of meeting a persons daily needs. The amount the body synthesises increases when dietary cholesterol intake is low. Cholesterol production falls as the dietary intake increases.

What the next few posts will be about...

Hello, just a quick update!

I've decided the next few posts are going to be about "Nutrition". The reason for this is because I'm working towards something where my memory needs to be refreshed - it also helps when working on my own diet plans which will be posted on my website when I get it sorted!

Keep eating healthily everyone and see you all tomorrow! ;)