Hitting 10% body fat – Kettle bells, kettle bells and more kettle bells

Published on: January 19, 2012 Comments Off

My quest for fitness took a little diversion over the Christmas period. Looming deadlines, holiday shopping, end of year gatherings, traveling around, etc all added up to very little exercise in the weeks leading up to the holidays and over the holidays themselves.

Still, I managed to stick to my slow carb diet right up until Christmas week, when I unleashed and enjoyed all the sugary, dairy and carb filled foods of the season, so the damage hasn’t been too bad.

Now, it’s a new year and a new six week exercise plan has been started. This next six weeks is all about kettle bells. I’m still looking for the most effective workout routine, and having found kettle bell swings to be very productive, I thought this six week stint would be a good time to try some other kettle bell based moves out.

The weekly plan is simple, short and only three weeks in, I’m already feeling the benefits. It breaks down as follows:

  • Monday – 200 crunches (can’t not do crunches) – Turkish get up (with a very light bell for now as I learn the movement which is harder than it looks) – kettle bell swings.
  • Tuesday – 200 crunches – 20 press ups – 5k run
  • Wednesday – 200 crunches – Turkish get up – kettle bell clean and press
  • Thursday – 200 crunches – 20 press ups – 5k run
  • Friday – 200 crunches – Turkish get up – kettle bell high pull

On the kettle bell days those swings, presses and pulls are all done with my heaviest bell (16kg) and are each done for a length of time dictated by rolling two dice and adding their values. The shortest time could be two minutes (1 and 1) and the longest time could be twelve minutes (6 and 6).

Whatever the length of time I try and do as many well formed sets of reps as possible, with rests where needed.

The idea is that by working for fixed but random lengths of time my workouts are varied over the weeks and hopefully there’ll be no plateaus in grains as I can up the weight / and number of reps per session.

Over time I should be able to do more reps with less rests in any given time frame. And the best part is that I’m not having to spend hours every day doing the workouts.

So far, my back and core are feeling stronger and my legs are feeling more powerful so it feels like it’s working well. We’ll see when the six weeks are up and my weight and body fat percentage numbers are in.

Fingers-crossed.

Dear cyclists of London

Published on: November 4, 2011 Comments Off

Dear cyclists of London,

I applaud your efforts. Riding in and amongst some of the busiest traffic in the country is a brave endeavour.

I salute your commitment to getting in some extra exercise, saving on your transport costs, reducing your carbon footprint, or whichever combination of these noble goals drove you to peddle our streets.

But, FFS get some lights if you intend to ride after it gets dark. One on the front as well as that little flashing red thing you wear on your back. I don’t care if it makes no difference to how well you can see, it makes all the difference to whether we pedestrians can see you coming.

Yours,

One “I’ve nearly been mown down by one too many of you light-less tw*ts” fellow Londoner.

PS, Here’s a handy link to a whole selection of bike lights that you can buy from Amazon. No excuses. Bike Lights at Amazon

Hitting 10% body fat – now with added burn

Published on: October 19, 2011 Comments Off

A few weeks ago I posted an update on my progress stating that I planned to take a week off to rest then crack on with another six weeks of the same workout routine but with the addition of some sprint training on a Wednesday.

The routine had been to do light weights and a 5km run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and spend Tuesdays and Thursdays sessions doing heavy weights.

I’m now in week two of the current six week period and I’ve not done any of that. Instead over my rest week I decided to try to get more running into the mix and focus on endurance rather than strength in this period.

So, my weekly routine now involves: Mondays and Fridays: doing a set of 200 crunches and 15 pressups followed by a 5km run. Tuesdays and Thursdays: doing a set of 200 crunches and 15 pressups followed by a 5km interval run. Wednesdays: a rest day.

Last week I just ran 5km on the four running nights to get back into running after a week off, so yesterday was my first go at the interval running. Wow. Did that burn.

I did a 1km warn up jog and then did a 250m sprint, 250m jog, 250m sprint, 250m jog over the second and third km. Then jogged the fourth km and repeated the 250m sprint / jog / sprint / jog for the fifth km.

Ideally I’d like to be doing 1km warm up, 3km of 250m sprint / jog intervals and a final 1km of warming down, but last night my lungs were burning so much after the third km that I swapped the fourth and fifth km around.

I’m hoping that tomorrow I can follow the 1-3-1km pattern. I’m not sure if the intervals will improve my overall 5km time (they certainly didn’t last night) but I do think they will improve my sprint times and help reduce my recovery time.

If you only watch one rugby match of this year’s World Cup watch this one

Published on: October 4, 2011 3 Comments »

If you follow World rugby you’ll have been following along with all the fun and drama of the pool stages in this year’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

But with all the games being played in the wee hours of the morning UK time if you’re more of a casual fan you may have shown no more than a passing interest, keeping up to date with developments on the pitch via online match reports or TV highlights. Or, thanks to a select few England players, you may have been more interested in the off the pitch activity than the games themselves.

That’s all about to change. This Saturday at 06:00 UK time Wales will take on Ireland in the first of the quarter finals of this year’s competition. If you are a hardcore rugby fan you will understand that with both Wales and Ireland playing some amazing, on-form rugby at the moment, this single game is certainly the most exciting prospect of the competition so far, and could prove to be one of the most epic games in the sport’s history.

If you’re not a hard core rugby fan, if you’ve only showed passing interest in the sport or the competition up until now, this is the game that will engage you, delight you and convert you.

This is the game to get everyone you know up early to watch. Don’t set Sky plus, don’t wait for the highlights, don’t miss the live broadcast.

This game will set the benchmark for the rest of the World Cup. If I was a betting man, I’d put good money on the winner of this match making the final.

I’m hoping it will be Wales. I’m confident that Wales have the skill, the depth in numbers and the belief to win. I’m also aware that Ireland have beaten Australia, won their pool and have the experience that Wales is lacking with their young team.

As a Wales fan, I’ve no doubt that Wales can win. But if Ireland take the game and knock Wales out of the competition, I’ll support them in the next round, the final, and hope to see them lift the Webb Ellis Cup. It would be a grand farewell for Ireland’s great elder statesmen of rugby.

But for now: COME ON WALES!

Hitting 10% body fat – Getting back on track

Published on: October 3, 2011 Comments Off

In my last update about my ongoing quest to hit 10% body fat by the time I turn 30 it had all gone wrong. I’d started out well but had then taken ill and been bed bound for the best part of 4 days.

After that set back and once I was feeling better, I gave myself about another 4-5 days off to fully recover and then kicked off another 6 weeks of what I referred to as my “burn workout plan”.

Quick weights; core, chest, back, arms, shoulders followed by a 5km run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, mixed with a heavy chest and back weights session on Tuesdays and an arm and legs session on Thursdays.

I’ve just finished that six weeks and things have gone pretty well. I started the six weeks with my body fat percentage at 22.1% and finished with a reading of 20.3% (using my new scales, after the old ones that gave lower readings stopped working).

My weight has gone from 98kg down to 94.1kg which I’m not so happy about (remember I’m not looking to loose weight, just fat) but it’s too bad.

But over the six week period both readings have fluctuated up and down a fair bit. I’m not sure why that’s been the case. The trend is still in the right direction but it’s not been a steady decline.

While the body fat percentage and weight readings are good, but not spectacular, the area I am blown away by is my running. When I first started running my 5km route at the beginning of August I was happy to finish in under 29 minutes. Over the past six weeks I’ve been able to bring my 5km time down to consistently under 26 and a half minutes and I’ve broken the 26 minute mark twice now to bring my PB to 25:57.

I had planned on doing sprint training instead of the 5km run on a Wednesday, but opted to stick with the distance running as I was enjoying it so much.

This week is now a rest week, I’m relaxing the diet to allow carbs and I’ll not be doing any proper exercise (I may do a couple of light 3km runs just to keep my legs going, but won’t be pushing it too much). Then next Monday I’ll start my next six week diet and exercise stint. This time I’ll be doing the sprint work on a Wednesday in the hope it will improve my distance time even further and also help in the fat burning stakes too.

Hitting 10% body fat – Knocked off track

Published on: August 19, 2011 Comments Off

Things started so well last week, the first of my next six week training stint. I felt pretty good doing my first run in 8 weeks or so. I was happy with how hard I’d been able to push myself in my first chest and legs focused weights session, and I had just enough hurt the next day to know I’d done some good. I couldn’t complete the full first week due to being away for a long weekend (I got three days in) but with it being the first of six I didn’t feel too guilty and thought it best to ease into the new routine anyhow.

Then over the weekend I got knocked for six by either some form of food poisoning, or some sort of tummy bug. I was bed-bound for the best part of four days.

I basically didn’t eat anything for the first two days of the sickness, and then could only manage some toast and chicken soup once I was eating again.

I’m all back to normal now, but four days of sickness has taken it’s toll. I’ve lost the best part of 3kgs in weight and dropped 1% body fat, which you would think would be a good thing. But it’s not. My goal has never been to loose weight, and while my body fat percentage dropped, not eating is not a healthy way of achieving it or loosing the weight.

I’ve taken the rest of this week off to recover and make sure I’m back up to full strength before pushing the exercise too much. Next week I’ll pick up the routine again, though I may hold back a little to give myself some time to get back into the swing of things. I’d prefer to be working at 60% capacity for a week and be able to continue training as normal the week after rather than going all out next week only to knock myself out again for the following couple of weeks.

It’s a good thing I’m targeting next May as my deadline, the set backs are starting to add up!

Hitting 10% body fat – The third six weeks starts now

Published on: August 8, 2011 Comments Off

Today is day 1 of week 1 of the next six week workout and diet plan. For this six weeks I’m going to be doing three things differently to the previous two six week stints that I’ve completed so far:

  1. Firstly I’m tweaking my diet slightly to include a daily low fat yoghurt, berry and protein powder smoothie. This will be had after my daily workout to boost my calcium, vitamin and protein intake. Both the yoghurt and the berries go against the slow carb diet, but I’m keen to experiment.
  2. The second change will be to mix cardio and heavy weight days to see if the mix will increase my strength while burning more fat. The plan is to follow a 5 day a week plan that sees me doing a quick weights session followed by a 5km run every Monday and Friday, a heavy chest and legs focussed weights session on a tuesday, a light weights session followed by a sprint session (or touch rugby match) on a wednesday and a heavy arms and core focused weights session on a Thursday. This week will have to be a warm up week as I’m away from Thursday evening so will only three days in this week, which is probably good as it lets me ease back into running after not doing it for over 6 weeks…
  3. The final change is that I’m going to start recording some additional body measurements to remove my over reliance on weight and body fat percentage readings. I will now also measure my biceps, waist, chest and thighs to see what change my plan has on my size and shape as well as composition. I should really have been doing this from the start, but I’d thought that the weight and body fat measurements would be good enough. They’re not.

Hitting 10% body fat: The second six weeks

Published on: August 4, 2011 Comments Off

The end of last week was the end of my second six week stint of experimenting with diet and exercise with the aim of getting my body fat percentage to 10% or under by May next year.

Despite my best efforts it wasn’t a great six weeks. To start with my scales broke which means that all my measurements taken since week three have been different and can’t really be compared with those taken before. So, I’m not entirely sure what my progress is.

Week five of the experiment also saw me start a new contract role at a legal publishing firm in Swiss Cottage. Being in a new office with it’s germ-harbouring-air-conditioning didn’t agree with me and I caught a summer cold that lasted most of week six too. Basically that meant that I couldn’t workout as hard as I would have liked in those last two weeks.

Now I’ve made my excuses, it’s time for the results. At the beginning of this six weeks (my second) my weight was 97.5KG and my body fat percentage was 17.6%.

At the end of the six weeks they were 96.8KG and 21.8%. Frustratingly, despite the lower weight (I’m not aiming to loose weight it’s just a by product of the experiment) my body fat percentage has gone up to higher than it was before I started the whole experiment.

I’m hoping that the jump is mainly down to the different scales, and to be fair to them they do have two settings: one for normal people (which I’m using) and one for athletes which if I use puts my body fat percentage down at around the 15% mark. I’m not entirely sure why there’s such a big difference. The instructions that come with the scales suggest only using the athlete mode if you exercise for more than 2 hours 4 or more times a week. I don’t. So I’m resisting using that mode.

I guess the lesson in all of this is that home scales, however nice looking or well recommended are probably not the best way of measuring your body fat percentage. As I get closer to the May 2012 deadline I may see if I can get a more accurate reading at my GP or at a sports clinic.

For now though, this week is a week off and next week I’ll start round three of a six week plan. The plan is to add running back into the exercise mix and to go back to the slow carb diet proper with a single exception: I’m going to add in a fruit, yoghurt and protein power smoothie every week day. I’m hoping that including some fruits like blueberries or raspberries in the smoothie will help fight off the germs in my new work environment and that the (low fat) yoghurt will give me a good calcium hit five days a week while topping up my protein intake.

I’m hoping that a full six weeks of using the same measuring device will result in the numbers going in the right direction, even if they are slightly higher than on the old scale.

Only time will tell.

Hitting 10% body fat – It’s all gone wrong

Published on: July 15, 2011 Comments Off

I’m sitting typing this post up as I cool down having just completed my final workout of the week. That’s week four of the second set of six now finished, tracked, and ready to be analysed. Only this week, I know I’m off course and further from rather than closer to achieving my 10% body fat goal.

Looking back to the start of this six week period, I was planning on trying something out, experimenting with the formula to see if a tweak here and there could improve upon my previous six weeks of intense workout plus slow carb diet success (I dropped 1.6% of my body fat without loosing too much weight in those first six weeks).

I wanted to see if introducing orange juice back into my diet along with dairy (low fat) could really inhibit me from loosing more fat. So for the past four weeks I’ve been having a glass of OJ with my eggs and spinach every morning and having a dash of semi-skimmed (1% fat) milk in my coffee now and then. I also changed my workout routine.

In the first six weeks I tried to run twice a week (5k a time) and complete a 30-40 minute workout routine 3-4 times a week. In this current six week set I decided to focus on building lean muscle and so dropped the running in favour of longer, harder weight sessions designed to be completed as circuits.

Over the first three weeks things were going okay. My body fat percentage was moving up slightly, but it wasn’t going up too much and a slight rise was to be expected given that I’d stopped running. I wasn’t burning as much fat, but I was feeling stronger, and after a few weeks of feeling like I was going to die by the end of my killer kettle-bell workout, I was adapting well to the workout.

But then, this week it all went wrong. My trusty scales, the seemingly magical device that I stand on every morning to see both my weight and my body fat percentage, my trusty digital friend died. Totally gave up the ghost on me.

No matter how hard I tried, it couldn’t be revived. So I had to make an emergency visit to my local John Lewis to get some new scales. Only, these new (very nice by the way) scales are not the same brand, or model and so when I read the instructions, set them up and got on to measure myself I wasn’t totally surprised to see that they give a different reading. I was, however, disappointed to see that they gave a significantly different reading. The last reading on the previous, original scales had been 18% body fat. These nice new scales showed 21.6%. Arse. (As an aside, they show my weight as being about 3kg lighter then the previous scales…)

As I said when I kicked this whole experiment off some two and bit months ago; home weighing scales are NOT the best way to measure your body fat percentage accurately. But, measuring with something is better than measuring with nothing at all, and as long as you stick to the same inaccurate measuring device, there should be an element of consistent inaccuracy. Alas, now I’m measuring with a different inaccuracy, and comparing my new readings with the old is like comparing apples with oranges.

So, as of week four of this second six week exercise and diet experiment I have learnt the important lesson of how faulty equipment can seriously screw up an experiment, that I should have been patient enough to source an exact replacement for the original scales and that not running (or maybe its the drinking orange juice / milk) does impact on how much fat I burn.

I’m going to continue with the next two weeks as planned (I’ve even invested in a bigger kettle-bell – 16kg – to make things a bit tougher) and continue to measure myself with the new scales. Then I’ll have the all important week off, and regroup for the next six week stint during which I plan on adding running back into the equation, perhaps even with a sprint training element in the hope of getting the new scales to show my body fat going in the right direction. Here’s hoping.

Hitting 10% body fat – the next six weeks

Published on: June 20, 2011 1 Comment »

Today is day one of the next six weeks of my experimenting with diet and exercise all with the aim of getting my body fat percentage to under 10% by the time I’m 30 next May.

In terms of diet, I’m sticking more or less to the slow carb diet that I was following over the first six week period of my experiment. I say more or less but this time I’m allowing myself to have 1 glass of orange juice with breakfast every morning (on a strict slow carb diet there’s no fruit or juice allowed). I’m also allowing myself low fat yoghurt and a splash of skimmed milk in my tea (again, the slow card diet bans milk and diary). I’m adding both of these back in for good reason; orange juice for the vitamin C hit it provides (and because I really missed a cold glass with breakfast every morning) and yoghurt / milk to make sure my calcium levels are maintained, as I’m really conscious that at 6 foot 5 inches tall I need strong bones to carry my weight.

My new – killer kettle-bell – workout

kettle-bell
Today is also the first day of my new workout routine. In fact, I’m sitting typing this having just finished my first workout. I say sitting, I’m being propped up by my chair… barely.

Having spent the past six weeks working on isolated movements, and getting to grips with my new kettle-bells, I figured this next six weeks I’d focus on more core movement, and build a high intensity workout that should help strip body fat and build muscle at the same time. And this is one heck of a high intensity workout.

Today I did three sets of the following:

  • 200 x clams
  • 25 x Kettle-bell swings
  • 15 x press ups
  • 20 x Kettle-bell bent over rows (10 x each arm, one at a time)
  • 20 x Kettle-bell curl and press (10 x each arm, one at a time)
  • 10 x Kettle-bell goblet squats

All the Kettle-bell reps were done with a 12kg Kettle-bell and I aimed to take no breaks between each exercise and have a 1 minute rest between each complete set.

On paper, that sounded like a good all round workout to me. In practice, I had to take a 2 minute break between the second and third set, and at least a minute break between each exercise in the final set. Then I needed to lay down.

This is not fore the fainthearted, or anyone who’s looking to start working out for the first time.

I had planned on attempting this workout 4 nights a week for the next six weeks, but after tonight’s effort, I think I may scale back to doing this twice a week, with two nights a week of a lighter routine and a run instead.

I hope to be able to complete this workout with just the one minute breaks between sets by the end of the six weeks. I’ll keep you posted as I go.

Kettle-bell image from Kettle-bell safety

Hitting 10% body fat – the first six weeks

Published on: June 13, 2011 1 Comment »

Yesterday was the final day of my first six week stint of diet and exercise experimentation. Six whole weeks of following the slow carb diet and sticking, or not as the case may be, to a weekly exercise plan. All in an effort to have my body fat percentage down to under 10% by the time I hit 30 next May.

The results are in

At the beginning of the six weeks my weight was 99.9kg and my body fat percentage was 19.2%. As of this morning my weight is now 97.5k and my body fat percentage is down to 17.6%. Overall I’m happy with that. The numbers are heading in the right direction. But…

Was it worth it?

After six weeks of avoiding white carbs, fruit and dairy for six out of every seven days was it worth it? I’m not 100% sold. My high protein, high veg diet has left me feeling very alert, awake and energetic. But I really missed being able to have a nice cold glass of orange juice in the morning and having a splash of milk in my tea and I’m not convinced that excluding those is justified by the gains that I made in six weeks. I don’t mind having to workout that little bit harder in order to be able to enjoy those little extras from day to day.

I already had a fairly low carb diet anyway, so I didn’t miss bread or potato, pasta, etc too much. And when I did eat those foods on my cheat days, I noticed a distinct lack of energy, and felt quite bloated until moving back to the no carb days.

The hardest bit about the diet aspect of the six weeks was trying to explain to friends and family what I was doing and why. Not everyone got it. And most people can’t work out what I actually eat if not their usual staples of bread, milk, cereal and potato.

For me it wasn’t too hard. I tend to plan ahead and work out what I’ll be eating breakfast, launch and dinner each week before hitting the supermarket anyway, so planning to eat slow carb friendly meals wasn’t much of a challenge. Even on nights out at restaurants, over the six weeks I didn’t find a single place that didn’t have a slow carb friendly option, and when something came with a potato or rice portion I politely asked for a veg side instead and not a single place refused.

And the exercise?

Well, that I didn’t manage to do so well with. For the first two weeks of the experiment I did manage to do my complete weekly plan. But in the third week I tweaked my calf muscle slightly so couldn’t run for the week (I still did my weights based workout that week though). Mid way through the fourth week I got a cold so only managed half a week’s workout and the fifth week I managed none. Week six (last week) I was back up and working out again though I didn’t run. So in total I managed about half of what I’d set out to do in the six week period. Not so good.

Having said that, I’m feeling a lot stronger than I was at the beginning of the six weeks, the extra protein in my diet has helped with that. I’m also impressed that despite my lack of exercise some weeks my weight and body fat percentage numbers still trended in the right direction, proving to some extend that the diet works.

What next?

Well, I’m still some way off hitting my less that 10% body fat target, but I’ve still got over 10 months to do it. I’m taking this week off, no exercise and eating what I want (fruit juice, milky tea and all!) and I’m planning to start my next six week experiment a week today. Though this time, I’m going to tweak my workout routine to be more circuit focused and tweak the diet plan to allow fruit juice and dairy to see if they really make too much of a difference overall.

Ultimately, I’m not looking to follow one particular, prescribed diet or workout regime, I’m more interested in finding something that works for me personally, and these six week long experiments are my way of finding that. As long as my body fat percentage is going in the right direction, I’ll keep on tweaking and personalising my routine. Here’s to the next six week stint.

Slow Carb Diet recipe idea: curried lentils

Published on: May 12, 2011 Comments Off

Here’s a quick and easy recipe for anyone who would like the follow the Slow Carb Diet:

Curried lentils

You will need:

  • 1 tin of green lentils
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 chilli pepper
  • 1 bag of ready to eat spinach
  • 1.5 teaspoons of cumin power
  • Half a finely chopped onion
  • Cooking oil

Method

Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a non-stick pan on a high heat.

Finely chop the chilli and garlic (leave the chilli seeds in if you like it hot) and add the cumin to the pan.

When the oil is sizzling drop in the chopped chilli and garlic and give it a good stir for a minute or so.

Add in the onion and stir again.

Open and mostly drain the tin of lentils, for best results keeping just a little of the water that they were soaked in.

Once the onion has turned translucent tip in the lentils and give them a good stir. The water you kept with them in the tin should help to keep the mixture moist.

Turn the heat down to low and add in the entire bag of spinach, stir gently and put a lid on the pan. Wait three to five minutes, or until the spinach has wilted and it’s ready to serve.

I like to serve it with steamed or stir fried veg and a tin of tuna or a grilled bit of fish / chicken / steak / etc, but these lentils work just as well cold on a salad or mixed into a stew.

Bonus recipe

Add finely diced carrots and celery at the same time as the onions, along with chopped up mushrooms and you have a great accompaniment to game or roast meats.

How I plan on getting my body fat percentage to under 10%

Published on: May 12, 2011 2 Comments »

At the beginning of last week I posted My 4 things to achieve before I’m 30 bucket list in which I set challenge number 1 to be getting my body fat percentage under 10% by the time I’m 30 (May next year).

I thought I’d share how I plan on doing it.

Step 1 – measure, measure, measure.

Before I do anything else I should explain that I’ve been measuring and recording my body fat percentage almost daily for over 12 months. Last year I wanted to loose some weight and get fitter, so in order to track my progress I bought a Hanson HFA Cellis Body Fat Analyser Monitor White (Amazon link) that can measure both my weight and my body fat percentage, used it every morning and recorded the results on my iPhone (See How my iPhone helped me loose 10kgs for more details).

Over the course of last year I lost about 10kg and got my body fat percentage down from over 25% to under 20% with 17.5% being the lowest I’ve hit so far.

I’m fully aware that the scales are not the most accurate way of taking these measurements, but I’m working on the basis that its better to have some readings than none and as long as I continue to use the same method of measurement at least it will be consistently less than accurate.

So, step 1 in the plan is to continue measuring and recording (daily) my weight and body fat percentage so I can track my progress and see where / if I slip up on the way.

Step 2 – diet.

Last year’s weight loss was down to three things; more exercise, better diet and the determination to stick to both of those things. For the better diet element of that trio I simply focused on two things:

  1. recording everything I ate and drank Monday – Friday
  2. eating more fruit, veg and less fat on those days

It worked. By recording what I was eating / drinking and my weight / body fat percentage at the same time I started to see patterns and correlations between my diet and my body’s reactions. If I had a bad day and ate something fatty I could see the results of my actions over the course of the following day’s readings.

But it only worked for so long. Over time as the weight dropped off and my body fat percentage came down with it, I started to plateau. Short of not eating or exercising for every waking moment (more on that in a bit) I couldn’t make any more gains. So I started to look at possible diets that could help.

Enter The Slow Carb diet. You can read all about it on Tim Ferriss’ blog or in his book The 4-Hour Body: An uncommon guide to rapid fat-loss, incredible sex and becoming superhuman: The Secrets and Science of Rapid Body Transformation. But it basically boils down to eating:

  • veg
  • lean, unprocessed protiens (eggs, steak, chicken, fish, etc)
  • legumes (lentils and beans).

Avoiding:

  • sugar
  • fruit
  • dairy
  • “white” carbs (bread, pasta, potato, etc).

You follow these rules for six days a week and then having one “cheat day” a week where you can eat and drink anything you like. And as much of it as you can physically stuff in.

That’s a VERY rough summary and I’d suggest reading the blog / book and other resources for more information if you’re interested in trying this out.

Slow carb diet fans make some bold claims about its ability to help loose body fat and weight, so I’m giving it a try. I’m just over a week and a half into the diet so can’t make any bold claims of my own just yet, but I have lost some weight and my body fat percentage has dropped too. Rest assured I’ll keep you posted once I have more numbers to share.

I’m still recording everything I eat and drink, even on cheat days, so I can again understand what may be effecting the numbers if they start to go the wrong way.

Step 3 – exercise, but more smartly

As well as changing my diet last year I significantly changed my exercise routine. Going from faffing around in the gym 3 days a week not really doing more than going through the motions to working out 4 nights a week and running 3k 3 times a week round Regents Park.

It worked, but again I feel like I could do better. So, for this new target of less than 10% body fat I needed a new workout plan. But, it needed to fit some important criteria:

  1. firstly, it couldn’t be an all consuming, 30 hour a week epic workout. I need to work and find time to relax as well as workout
  2. secondly, it had to be do-able without me having to join a gym.

So the new plan is to workout four nights a week, doing more targeted, compound exercises (squats and the like) with slower more controlled movements and fewer reps and to run 5k twice a week. (I’ll be writing more about the routine in the future).

I have some dumbbells and a set of kettle-bells to use at home for the weights aspect of the workout so I don’t need a gym membership and in total the running plus weights, plus warm down / etc is taking under 3 hours a week to do so far. So, no gym and no epically long workouts either. Win.

Putting it all together

So, to summarise my plan is to:

  • Measure, record and track everything I can that may effect my body fat percentage
  • Follow the slow carb diet to accelerate fat loss
  • Follow a workout plan that gets the maximum gains from the minimum input

I plan on following this plan for six weeks (I’m in week two at the moment) to test how effective it is for me. At the end of the six weeks I will analyst the progress and adapt and change the plan accordingly, and run with the updated plan for another six weeks. Rinse and repeat.

I’ve chosen a six week block to test at a time as I’ve found it’s about the right length of time for my body to adjust, adapt and bed in to a routine. As I have 11.5 months left to hit my target, as long as I’m moving in the right direction I’m happy for now.

For those who are interested: at the beginning of last week (day one of this experiment) my numbers were:

  • Weight: 99.9kg
  • Body fat percentage: 19.2%

My current numbers (as of this morning) are:

  • Weight: 97.8kg
  • Body fat percentage: 18%

The Final Hours of Portal 2 iPad app

Published on: May 10, 2011 3 Comments »

Do you have an iPad?

Are you a fan of the hugely popular game Portal? (If not, I’d guess you’ve not played it and should probably stop reading and get to it…)

Are you a fan of Portal 2?

If you answered yes to these three questions you may be interested to know that there’s now an iPad app that “takes you deep within the top-secret offices of Valve, creators of Half-Life, for an unvarnished look at the creative process behind the new video game Portal 2.”

Or you might not be.

Either way, you can find out more at: The Final Hours of Portal 2.

Or you can download the app from iTunes here:

Geoff Keighley Presents The Final Hours of Portal 2

For Sale: Nintendo DS Lite Black Handheld with extras + 15 games

Published on: May 9, 2011 Comments Off

I’ve finally given up hope of rekindling my love for my post-iPhone-neglected Nintendo DS. So I’m now selling it along with all the accessories and the 15 games I’d collected for it over the years. Hoping to find a new loving home for it all.

If you’d like to own this brilliant little gaming device, have a butchers at my ebay listing for it at:

eBay – Nintendo DS Lite Black Handheld with extras + 15 games

There’s over £300 worth of games alone.

If you win this auction you will get:

  • 1 Black Nintendo DS Lite with original black stylus (with original box, not shown in the photo)
  • 1 Black, padded, zip up 4Gamers case for carrying your DS
  • 1 Nintendo DS charger
  • 1 unbranded plastic (with internal padding) DS games case that holds up to 9 game cartridges in one go AND a spare grey stylus. This case also has space for the spare stylus and a original Nintendo stylus too
  • 2 Black plastic DS game cartridge cases, each of which can hold 2 games at a time (perfect for those short trips)

15 great games:

  • Zelda Phantom Hourglass (classic Nintendo, and worth owning a DS for)
  • Sega Casino
  • Geometry Wars Galaxies (awesome game)
  • New Super Mario Bros. (nothing beats Mario)
  • MicroMachines V4
  • Tetris DS (with 6 different game modes)
  • World Snooker Championship Season 2007-08
  • Yoshi Touch & Go (one of the best DS specific games made)
  • MarioKart DS (best version of the whole MarioKart series)
  • Metriod Prime Pinball (with DS rumble pack)
  • Meteos
  • Metriod Prime Hunters
  • Big Brain Academy
  • Electroplankton
  • Brain Training (original version)

Starting bid is 99p and the auction ends on Saturday (14 May). Good luck if you bid!