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My apologies for the delay in posting, with me going away for a week I had one very very very busy week. I have so many things I want to post about this week that I will have to split it into several posts.

So to start, my exercise regime was very up and down last week which reflected in my measurements - only 1 cm of my waist and 1/2 a cm of my chest - that was all. This week has started with a renewed sense of get up and go, so hopefully combining this with some dietary changes will be a winner. I analysed my diet over the last week and came up with some interesting things that I didn’t realise I was doing. My main problem is over eating, I don’t eat badly, but I eat too much of a good thing, I also don’t take time to eat, I often skip breakfast so by the time lunch comes around I could eat a horse, and then I go out and try - to eat a horse that is, this leaves me overfull unsatisfied and tired and then another 7-8 hours later  I repeat the process. As a result of not taking the time to eat I often find that I am in a dreadful hurry to eat, this leads to me not really chewing my food properly as I gulp my way through my meals. Consequently the result is poor digestion and impaired uptake of nutrients and a feeling of yuk (a grand scientific word).

So what to do…well I have decided that my change of dietry habits like my exercise regime is going to be done at a more resonable pace I am not going to start cutting out food groups but I’m going to make some small changes every week and see how that goes. I have started this week by taking the time to sit down for every meal and chew properly - these two small changes mean I have already drastically cut down the amount of food I am consuming and its only been two days!!!

So over the next couple of weeks it will be small changes every week..wish me luck!

PS Thanks for the wake up call spike!

Well my holiday was fantastic, having only a week off was a bit of a tease, but it was still amazing to have a week off with my family for the first time since our son was born. Our three year old’s excitement at things we take for granted, like a ferry ride or seeing a monorail for the first time was infectious and a joy to behold and made a short and hectic holiday with them all the more special.

I figured out what was wrong with the camera (needed a new memory card) so I have included his favourite photo of the holiday. I guess this means I have no excuse not to upload some photos of myself in the next week or so for some before and after comparison.

I did my interval training on the hotel bike and it was far better than the sprinting, I was able to 13 continuous minutes of 8/12 second intervals. It was an incredibly exhausting experience, but far more satisfying than the sprinting on the street, I didn’t feel as exhausted in the lungs but had a greater amount of leg fatigue without the calf cramps or shin pain.

This does leave me in a conundrum as I don’t really want to go and join a gym just cycle for 20 minutes three times a week, but it might be worth it. The other downside was the not so pleasant sensation I felt below the belt, I got off the bike and walked away like John Wayne, not only were my legs wobbly from the exertion but I’m also definitely lacking in some testicular fortitude!!!I am a bit disappointed by my weigh in over the week, I measured my self at the beginning of the week and had gone down 1 cm / 0.4 inch everywhere and today had only lost another 1 cm / 0.4 inch of my waist. Although as I write this I realise I shouldn’t be too disappointed as I certainly didn’t watch my diet over the week and the results are going in the right direction - down!This reminds me that my first 7 weeks is nearly up and a change is due, I decided when I started planning for this that every seven weeks I would make a change as this will hopefully circumvents the body’s need to plateau every 8 weeks. So the next change is going to be dietary. I have decided I am not going on a diet per se, I am going to make a few changes here and there and make sure I am eating healthily i.e. getting all of my nutrients and not making myself suffer by taking whole food groups away.

I have tried every diet under the sun and have failed miserably at all of them in the end as they all tend to take away a food group or involve counting or weighing. In the end this becomes untenable and the ensuing failure leads to putting on the weight lost plus interest. I am determined not to fall into this trap again. So I am going to use good nutrition, common sense and as many tips and tricks as I can to make sure I am eating well, with having a well balanced nutritional diet being the aim.

To help with this I am going to start taking a food diary to see what food’s I am eating and what patterns I can see, in other words what food groups am I abusing and what ones I am not eating enough of.Any way now I am off for a lovely walk in the rain - just what I felt like after a nice relaxing holiday.

It is my informed and considered opinion that interval training is hell on earth!!! I think that all up I have probably achieved at maximum 5-6 minutes of 8 second/12 second intervals and it is tough, I think it is probably the toughest thing I have done physically since my teens or early twenty’s when I used to push it really hard during pre season training. I am shocked though at how tough that five minutes has been, not only because of my weight and stress on the joints but mainly as I feel as though I have been sprinting for an hour after only a minute or two. In fact it takes so much out of me that a guy standing in his yard inquired as to my health, I couldn’t really hear him due to my heavy breathing and my ipod blearing in my ears, so I turned my ipod off and still couldn’t hear him through my heavy breathing. The only response I could give was a small wave to show that I was indeed in control of some part of my body!!! Maybe he thought I was being chased by an angry mob that had heard me singing earlier.

I must say though I feel really fresh and alive afterward though. As we are going to stay at a hotel for the next couple for days I will give the stationary bike a go at the hotel gym and see what difference that makes to how I feel during the workout, one of the problems I am having is that my calves and shins are giving me hell during this little experiment, I know it will go in time but walking home with a limp is never fun. I did find however if you limp while listening to some hip hop say some 50 cent “in da club” you feel like you’re limping like you’re in the hood and have survived maybe 15 or 16 shootings. Of course in reality I just looked fat, white and lame!!! But ain’t ones imagination grand.

Well it’s been a huge week, I go on holiday next week for a week, so work has been absolutely crazy!!! It was a strange week were I did more short power walks than longer walks, I am curious if these faster paced but shorter walks will be as effective. Next week while I’m have some R and R I am going to give interval training a go, I will measure my self again on Monday and do 4 interval training workouts during the week then re measure on the following Monday. It will be interesting to see if there is a change in measurement ratio’s, over the last month I have lost the most size of my chest followed by my hips and lastly my waist.

One of the interesting comments made by one of the research scientist’s who worked on the interval training study was that they think this may be a way to target specific problem areas (spot reducing). There were no specifics given on how this would be achieved but it will be something I will keep looking out for, because as far as I’m aware there has never before been a study that has been able to demonstrate that spot reduction of a problem area of fat actually works.

I have posted before on the dangers of singing along with ones ipod, well it seems the universe has spoken! I was passing a major intersection and started singing along to Cody Chesnutt’s “I look good in leather” when the lights went out!!! Yep thats right the street lights went out as did the traffic lights, now the question is was it the thought of me dressed in leather or my singing that made the lights go out??? I’ll let you decide!!!

Now for my measurements for the week and again they went in the right direction - down.

• Chest went from - 136.5 cm / 53.5 inches to 134 cm / 52.7 inches
• Waist went from - 146 cm / 57.4 inches to 145 cm / 57.1 inches
• Hips went from - 145 cm / 57.1 inches to 143 cm / 56.3 inches

So the first month is finished and I have survived!!! Over all I have lost 16 cm or 6.2 inches. Unfortunately no weight measurement yet, but it is very close the scales now flashe between overload and a really big scary number but at least its thinking of a number now! I will probably get a few more posts in next week - how exciting - I think

Research has been released that has shown that a specific style of interval training can burn three times as much weight as regular aerobic exercise.

45 overweight women were studied over 15 weeks, using a stationary bike they cycled for 20 minutes, sprinting for 8 seconds followed by 12 seconds of slower cycling, this was repeated for the whole 20 minutes. Besides increasing the amount fat loss compared to walking the other upside was a decrease in insulin resistance of 32%, this is probably more significant if you suffer from insulin resistance, adult onset diabetes or syndrome x.

Interval training is a sudden increase of speed followed by a sudden decrease in speed, it first came into popularity in the 70’s and was used by cross country runners to increase stamina and strength, it was known as Fartlek training. Fartlek is a Swedish word and translates to “speed play” in English. As its benefits are wide ranging for athletes it has been developed, expanded and used in almost every sport. I still have some not so fond memories of doing interval training around a 400 metre running track for Soccer training – often until we vomited!!!

Using interval training for weight loss is not new, body builders have been doing it for years. Due to their large size and need to retain muscle they have used interval training to strip fat especially pre competition. It has the advantage of needing less time to perform and can be performed on equipment that is kind on the joints, such as elliptical trainers and step machines. Even though the study was performed using a cycling machine it can be done on a rowing machine, while running, swimming, or on various aerobic machinery like a step machine.

What separates this study from other similar ones is that the researchers believe they have hit the holy grail of interval training by decreasing the time between intervals. Most interval training is done using a 30 second or greater cycle e.g. 30 seconds of sprinting followed by 30 seconds of slow work whereas in this study the cycle was 8 seconds of sprinting followed by 12 seconds of slow cycling. The shorting of the interval cycle increased weight loss dramatically, at this moment the researchers believe this is due to an increase of catecholamines. Catecholamines are a group of chemicals that include dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine (which used to be called adrenalin). Epinephrine is the most interesting one in this group as on of the things it facilitates is the release of fatty acids from fat cells, this makes fat available for energy = fat loss!

This really could be the Holy Grail but unfortunately there will need to be a few more studies to see if it pans out, of course the Researchers at the University of NSW and the Garvan Institute who did this study have already started on the next one in the series that will include diet thrown into the mix as well. Of course some anecdotal evidence wouldn’t go astray either. So at some point in the next couple of weeks I will give it a shot for a couple of weeks and see it makes a difference to my measurements, by no means is me doing it sound science but it will be interesting none the less.

You can check out the researchers website at http://medicalsciences.med.unsw.edu.au/SOMSWeb.nsf/page/Exercise+Reactivity+and+Health

If you have any questions regarding this post on interval training leave it in the feedback section and I will reply as soon as I’m able. I will try and do as many of these article style posts as time permits.

First up I would like to thank panchi and Desi for their comments, with out trying to sound mushy, it really does make me fell that this process is so worthwhile when I get feedback like that. Also I have to agree with panchi, I too find I sleep better after walking at night. I am finding that I am losing my battle to do morning walks, but I am succeeding at night – I think I’m hard wired that way. I can also sympathise with your child’s “innocent” comments, they are strangely inspiring but wrong all at the same time.

I would also like to thank everyone else for their comments including maddo and natasha who I haven’t thanked previously. I had a crisis at work this week and missed one of my walks. There wasn’t anyway around it and although I survived my crisis at work with my dignity, integrity and most importantly my temper in tact, I felt really down about missing my walk. I have to say that the comments posted by all of you over the last month really helped me over this crisis.

Although to some people it wouldn’t be a crisis, to me and to others who have tried to change habits in the past and failed this was a dangerous cross road. It is often at the first hurdle that we fail and I happily passed. I got out at my next scheduled walk and powered on and you guys get a lot of the credit - so thank you. As I am finding out inspiration is a two way street!!!

I thought I would give some interval training (I will get my post online about interval training Sunday night – I promise) a go tonight. I had been walking for about ten minutes and I arrived at the only smooth and flat pavement in my walk so I figured it was a good place to start. The plan was 8-10 seconds of sprinting followed by 12-15 seconds of walking. At this point I have to mention its been a while since I did anything close to a run let alone a sprint, I’m pretty sure doing funny baboon runs to entertain a 3 year old don’t count.

It all started out ok, but I feel very self-conscious to start with as I was doing this along a major highway but after the third set I actually felt very light and athletic like a gazelle or cheetah – yes graceful even! But to hide my self-consciousness I was running with my head down to make sure no one recognised me. After about the sixth set I started to fatigue, I had just started my seventh sprint when I decided to look up and there in front of me was a 20 something woman staring at me with a look on her face of horror and confusion as I sprinted toward her. To add to her alarm and to take away my illusions of swiftness and grace I got a cramp in my right shin and started to list toward her in slow motion like a charging elephant that’s been shot with a sedative. I managed to avoid crashing into her and stop listing before the traffic, I then cursed endlessly for the next ten minutes until the cramp went a way as I “walked” it out.

I must say though that the sprinting really got the heart going and I feel great now, but I will investigate a safer option for next time and let you all know.

Now for the great news, my weigh in was a success again;

• Chest went from - 138.5 cm / 54.5 inches to 136.5 cm / 53.5 inches
• Waist went from - 147 cm / 57.8 inches to 146 cm / 57.4 inches
• Hips went from - 146 cm / 57.5 inches to 145 cm / 57.1 inches

Losing most of the size of my chest so far was a bit of a surprise, but it is fantastic – man boobs be gone!!!

I actually wrote this post on Friday and thought I had published it, but due to user error (that would be me!) it  had been made “private” meaning only I could see it, so funnily enough I thought it was up! My apologies for the huge stuff up.

After watching an article on the news last night about interval training being superior to other training for fat loss (I will write a post on what interval training is and what it does in the next couple of days) I felt inspired to push myself for my walk. I was feeling pretty good, my knee had settled down although it took the use of an anti inflammatory to get it right (I wouldn’t usually do this but I am determined to push through these little niggles!!!).

I took my usual route and went in the direction I find the most challenging as this direction has more up hill components, as I got to the first hill I pushed myself - power walking up it, I then took it easy for the next and then power walked up the next, as I repeated this for the last set of hills my right calf and shin started really complaining, so I stopped, stretched and then pushed on and then the pain came back so I stopped, stretched and pushed on…this continued a few more times and then I was on the home stretch.

The problem was that the spasm had caused my legs ability to walk normally to be greatly diminished. I was in fact walking like a drunk, sadly at the same time as walking like a drunk my underwear was doing odd things, so I was now walking like a drunk with his hand down his pants (I was trying fix my undies…honest), it wasn’t the most pleasant of walks.

BUT…I kicked butt on the speed of my walk, I got around my course 8 or 9 minutes quicker than the last time, in fact I am now doing in 30 minutes what used to take 45 minutes, I’m pretty damn excited about this.

Tomorrow I will try a new route that I have in my head and see how if it works out to be about 45 minutes or maybe a bit longer, and I must remember to take my magnesium to stop those leg cramps. I will try and post tomorrow.

First up apologies for taking a while to post, I had a few technical difficulties during my last attempt. Also a big thank you to MyssC, Nesse and Spike for their comments I really appreciate it!

Damn it, I am lame again, I had a sore knee all yesterday and it was still sore this morning. Since it stopped me from going out this morning I am hoping that it won’t this evening - fingers crossed.

Thursday’s walk was a bit of a bludge (my first one - bludge that is!), I was just so tired from watching the bloody tennis and then working a couple of 12 hour days that I felt more like stroll than a power walk!

For the first time I was actually looking forward to my Saturday walk, I really felt quite excited about it and I did my usual route in a good time and felt great during most of it. Maybe I will yet change to a mad bastard that screams out of bed in the morning with a lust for my morning constitutional or maybe not!

I have been chomping at the bit all day to do this post, I did my weigh in and measurements and although I still can’t get a weight out of the scales I did get a very positive result from my measurements;

• chest went from - 142 cm / 55.9 inches to 138.5 cm / 54.5 inches
• waist went from - 148 cm / 58.2 inches to 147 cm / 57.8 inches
• hips went from - 148 cm / 58.2 inches to 146 cm / 57.5 inches

So in total I lost 6.5 cm / 2.5 inches in one week and I am over the moon! I didn’t realise how effective exercise alone could be especially when I am only doing it every other day. In the past I haven’t taken such a slow and deliberate approach, I would try and achieve in 6 weeks what I plan to do in 21 with this plan.

I am hoping that this slower approach continues to work, it is a complete change of my usual habits when it comes to exercise and dieting (In the past I have done the Hero thing and done everything at once) and as I have been a miserable failure at reaching my fitness goals in the last 10 years I am guessing that a change in tactic might be the answer. In fact I am sitting here wondering why the hell I didn’t think of that before, I mean really lets do the same thing over and over again for ten years - fail and think that if i do the same thing again I might get a different result…what a f…ing idiot, I mean seriously what was I thinking!!!

OK calm down, enough self flagellation, If the plan continues to work then I can continue to rant another time. I must say I have felt really good the last couple of days and have had plenty of energy and I was really positive I would get a good result today, it all just felt right. So fingers crossed for the next wee while and all should be good in the world.

Thanks for the encouragement Spike!, I certainly felt a bit more energetic on my off day yesterday, and I can empathise with the extra heart activity!

On Sunday and Today I managed to avoid walking in the morning and ended up doing night time walks. I don’t think I can win whether its night or morning. At night I give myself the creeps because we live in a dark and leafy suburb and so I am constantly paranoid about having a spider of enormous proportions drop on my head, and in the mornings…well I just hate them, mornings that is!!! Ooh well enough whining and more walking.

Kelly’s comment about being an example to my son really hit the mark, if I am honest with myself he is the reason I started this process. I have plenty of motivation from many aspects of my life to do this, but he has been the catalyst. I don’t want to sound morbid but being around while he grows up is a real motivator in getting off my arse and getting out there, as is having the energy to keep up with him. On a lighter side, he is motivating in other ways too.

We were sitting next to each other the other day when I asked him if he was hungry, he replied that he was. He then said “Daddy you can’t be hungry your belly is sooo big and full” the worst part of this is him making this comment while rubbing my belly and looking up at it like he was the first person to look up and really notice how big Everest is, it was a very disconcerting feeling.

Tomorrow is weigh in day, so I’ll let you all know how I go sometime tomorrow.