Day 79 – Where Did the Fat Go?

My boys are really great about PCP – as much as they can they understand what it is and why I’m doing it. My wife and I encourage them to ask questions of anyone, regardless of their age and authority – this I believe sets them up to be able to function socially and effectively now and when they are older. So they ask all sorts of questions about what I do. Sometimes I have no answer for their questions(but we agree to look it up) and sometimes their very questions make me realize what I’m doing is not very good(“Dada, why do you like pop so much”).

So In making them comfortable enough to question everything and everyone respectfully, they have become an extended conscience for me and If I want to do right by them I better be able to give them the right answer by doing the right thing.

I am often amazed at how their sense of justice and fairness is as mature as I believe it is – perhaps a little parental pride, but If the future is to be better, if people are to become healthier, if the world is to become better – then teach your child to do what is right, confront ideas and articulate concerns. If they sit by idly while something wrong is happening then we are all worse off.

Its also funny how my eldest slaps my belly now and asks where did the fat go? I enjoy telling him where it went quite a bit.

See you soon.

Day 77 – Treat Day!

Today I ate the normal PCP diet until dinner…

For dinner I made some great hamburgers for my family and some friends. The burgers were big, about 10 onces each – lean ground beef about 80% beef, 20% fat. The burgers themselves were about 700 calories plus the whole wheat bun, lettuce tomato, mustard and onions - which would have topped it out at about 1000 calories.

It really tasted great! Although looking at the burger, if I changed the proportions arounde, it would have been close to what I would be eating on the PCP anyway, just not so much meat.

I love a good burger and barbecue them often during the summer. I like this book, not so much for the recipes but because the author does a great job of writing about burgers, some of his lines read like poetry:



Less than two weeks left and here are my critical stats:

BMI: 25.7
Fat Percentage: 16.1%
Height: 160cm
Weight: 93.6 kgs
Arm: 39 cm
Chest: 115cm
Waist: 93cm
Hips: 95cm
Thigh: 61.5cm
Resting Heart Rate: 54 bpm

Not too bad. I’ve got to get that fat percentage down – its coming slowly and I always question whether its accurate.

Here I am:




See you soon.

Day 76 - I'm not a caveman?

I often think how much better life would be if we lived in simpler times. No TVs, cell phones, email, 70 hour work weeks, deadlines, etc., etc. I believe we as humans are doing the best we can to cope with stresses but stresses that we did not evolve specifically to handle.

If I get stopped by a police officer, evolutionary behaviour kicks in and I want to either fight or flee. But something else happens before I punch the policeman in the mouth. I think about the consequences and do the right thing that society dictates fighting generations of evolution.

When it comes to our lifestyles, we are constantly bombarded with images and choices - most of which are bad – and more choice can actually be a problem to choosing the right thing for ourselves.

I guess what I’m trying to get at here is that if I was living one hundred years ago, or a million, there would likely be no need for the PCP. But I’m here today and so I'll just have to take all the good things we have with the bad.

What I really want to do is not let go of all the things that made life better for our ancestors, like more time with family, simpler eating and so forth so that my life is more basic and I can really enjoy the essence of things.

Things are going well. Tomorrow I am designating as my treat day and I am looking forward to it!

See you then.

Day 74 – This Is Why You’re Fat

I'm amazed with what companies come up with to satisfy the consumer’s cravings. I am even more amazed that people eat them. Take Burger King – they came out with Enormous Omelette Sandwich and they state: “Wake up to a mouthful of breakfast with the Enormous Omelette Sandwich. Two slices of melted cheese, two fluffy eggs, three crispy strips of bacon, and a sizzling sausage patty, piled high on a toasted bun. The Enormous Omelette Sandwich from BURGER KING®. So big, breakfast will never be the same.” And if you eat this regularly, you too will be enormous and never the same.

I ran across this website – this is why you’re fat, with a name that speaks for itself. At first I thought that all the foods on the site were made by individuals to create the most unhealthy food possibly, but then I realized that most of these were in fact meals prepared by companies/restaurants and consumed regularly by patrons.

My favorite has to be the bacon crust pizza, with (burp) bacon!



I also like the pork brains in milk gravy.



As if Swine Flu wasn’t enough, now pigs have to deal with the aftermath of this website!

If you’re ever craving something fattening and unhealthy, take a look at this site and you’ll probably run to your garden for some organic celery!

As for me I have an real queasy feeling from just looking at the site.

See you soon!

Day 73 - Failure is only an option

I spoke to a friend of mine who is a trainer. He had a lady client that started his program overweight and out of shape. He weighed and measured her and then did all the standard tests. At the end of one month he tested her again. She went from no pushups to 12, from no pull-ups to 1 and 11 situps to 25. The problem was that while her proportions changed, she did not loose any weight. This lady promptly quit the program.

If anyone is to blame, who would that be? Far be it from me to tell this experienced and certified personal trainer what to do. I have found during the course of the PCP that you need to see progress, and if no progress comes, then your initial goals have to be cultivated and motivation must be increased.

One aspect missing from this trainers program was a systematic nutrition program. Rather then telling people that they need to eat better, I believe people need a specific guide, at least to start, of what to eat and what not to eat. One of the things I found very enjoyable about the PCP when starting was that the portion weight was right there, all I had to do was find the right protein, carbs and vegetables and mix them together. It was and still is a lot of fun putting these combinations together.

This lady that gave up was likely unaware that what she was eating was the real problem – she may even have been rewarding herself with high calories after a great workout. I find that most people believe that if they would only start working out, they will get into shape and they don’t need to change their high calorie diet.

There are so many factors that can stall or derail a program like this. If one of the crucial elements is not in place, it makes it easy or inevitable that a person will give up.

I’m glad I found this program.

See you soon!

Day 72 - French Fit

I love France. I love the food, the culture, the people, even when they seem a little rude, I love that about them.

So I was a little intrigued when I saw this OECD report on cultural and social trends. What the article boils down to is that the French spend more time sleeping than all other researched countries and also devote more time to eating.

Time Spent Sleeping


Time Spent Eating


This may be an indication of why France is known for having one of the lowest rates of obesity in developed countries(10% obesity).

According to the report, the French spend on average nearly 9 hours a day in bed and more than 2 hours a day eating and drinking — nearly twice as much time at the table as Americans, Canadians or Mexicans.

But there are certainly inconsistencies: Americans, with one of the highest rates of obesity, get almost as much sleep as the French; Koreans and Japanese, with less obesity, are at the lower end of the sleep scale.
So although obesity may well be a “symptom” of a society that does not take enough time to eat and sleep - the relationship is unlikely to be that straightforward.

I do know that when I eat great food more slowly and get more sleep, I feel better and I’m overall healthier.

My abs are killing me today. Did the exercises to complete failure and now feel the aftermath!

See you soon!

Day 71 – 3 Weeks left

The PCP has been and amazing ride for me and its now down to the final stretch!

The past week was not a great one for me, I missed a couple of work outs and on two days my diet was crap. No excuses, I just let myself down. So I have to work extra hard in the next few weeks to accomplish some of my major goals:

1. Do 100 pushups in a row
2. Increase my flexibility and ranges of motion
3. Improve core strength
4. Reduce body fat below 15%
5. Increase leg strength and stamina
6. Actually see my abdominal muscles

While some of these are vague, I gauge them against running, especially hills, and where I want to be at Peak Condition. Some of these goals are newly formed during the program and others have been my goals for a very long time.

It all comes down to the next 3 weeks.

Here are my critical stats

BMI: 25.9
Fat Percentage: 16.5%
Height: 160cm
Weight: 94.3kgs
Arm: 38.5cm
Chest: 114cm
Waist: 94cm
Hips: 95cm
Thigh: 61cm
Resting Heart Rate: 57 bpm



Not much change from last week but If this is a plateau, I’ve got to get through it. Wish me luck!

See you soon.