Day 16: Tortilla Tower

Garlic grilled shrimp, ginger steamed chicken, broccoli, radish, cucumber, pumpkin wrapped in whole wheat tortilla (x4). Best lunch so far, and probably will do the same every day until I'm sick of it, which I'm guessing won't be for a loooooong time...

Day 15: More on (moron?) jump rope

After a few posts and comments about jump rope regression, today I seemed to turn back onto the path. Still had a few trips, but felt much more smoooooth. Many deviations from the norm: outside on a warm, sunny, breezy day, in a park on a soft gravelly surface, wearing my old broken-in running shoes (instead of the new indoor futsal shoes).

Diet: finally secured the whole wheat tortillas, grilled chicken/shrimp/fish and assorted veggie wraps are the way forward...

Day 14: Carb Jenga

My carb allocation every morning, and I'm probably pulling up at least 1 slice short!

Day 13: Switcharoo

Nobody's fault but my own....for lunch I accidentally took someone else's bento (Japanese packed lunch) out of the fridge. The outside wrapping looked very similar, the inside could not have been any different: fatty pork, salty pickled radish and cucumber, salty dried fish, sweet red beans and white rice. It was strange, given that the wife is fully on board with PCP and this lunch pretty much broke every single rule of the diet. Unfortunately in the time it took for the email exchange to go back and forth (me: is there pork in the bento? wife: no pork, fish. me: this really looks/tastes like pork (with picture attached). wife: whose bento is that? because its not YOURS! I hope you didn't eat it!), I had eaten it. DOH! Needless to say my colleague enjoyed my herb fish, grilled shrimp, broccoli, pumpkin and brown rice bento a lot more than I enjoyed his crappy Japanese bento....

The rest of the day went well:

Workout: woke up early and jumped rope before work, definitely gave me a nice energy boost to start the day.

Dinner: my first full meal out since starting PCP, Andy's, Izakaya, arranged a special PCP course: grilled asparagus and mushrooms (straight, NOT drowning in butter as usual....mmmmm butter....), sashimi (just a dab of soy sauce), snow crab, yaki udon (stir fried light w/ cabbage and black pepper, NOT pork and soy sauce as usual), gindara (black cod, the only real divergence from the path), and the kicker, ulong cha, NOT fresh grapefruit and shochu sour......

Day 12: side effects

OK, we've been PCP compatriots and blog buddies for long enough that I feel comfortable bearing my soul: I don't know if it is the volume of food or something specific that I am eating a lot more of than usual, (hard boiled eggs, grain rice, etc) but I have been incredibly gassy for the past few days. And the jig is up, I can only blame it on the baby so many times.....

Day 11: Lotsa stuff

All 3 meals today were all about lotsa stuff mixed together.

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with onions, eggplant and tomatoes, raisin wheat toast.

Lunch (no pic): grain rice mixed with leftover grilled fish, herb chicken, asparagus, radish, tomatoes, cucumber and onion salad on the side.

Dinner: pasta with shrimp, broccoli, eggplant, garlic and cayenne pepper.

Workout: really felt the burn on the triceps dip, forward shoulder raise and the leg-up (holding 1 inch above the floor for 5 seconds at the end of each set), but seem to have regressed on the jump rope, tripped at least 10 times.....

Day 10: Omiamaeri

Workout, breakfast and lunch were the side show today, the main event was Jessie's Omiamaeri, a Japanese Shinto Ceremony to thank the local God for the safe delivery and future health of your baby. This is usually done on the 32nd day after birth for girls (31st for boys), but we took some liberties....Jessie is just over 14 weeks, exactly 100 days, SOOOO....

...we doubled down with the Okuizome, a ceremony held on the 100th, 110th or 120th day, where the baby eats (or pretends to eat) her first hard food, to symbolize and pray that the baby does not go hungry.

As with all cultures and religions, food and eating play a major role in most Japanese ceremonies. There are certain foods you eat in general, and very specific foods you eat for the Okuizome. Osekihan is sticky rice with red beans (azuki), osuimono is a clear soup with large (expensive) clams (hamaguri), snapper (tai, or "omedetai") is served either cooked (pictured) or as sashimi.

Initially I thought that this would be the first major test of the

diet, but aside from everyone mocking me and my scale, it was a piece of cake! Red sticky rice, cucumber and onion salad, grilled snapper, assorted sashimi (with a drop of low salt soy sauce) and clam soup.

And no, I did not have a piece of cake, apple crumble to be exact...THAT was the first major test! And I passed with flying colors!

Day 9: Lots to report

First, food. Not sure, has anyone else noticed/mentioned that its a lot of food? Jeesh!

Breakfast: broccoli, pumpkin, tomato, cabbage and hardboiled egg on raisin wheat bread sandwiches. I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of "lots of stuff jammed between bread/into a tortilla sandwhiches/wraps".

Lunch (no pic): boiled chicken, broccoli, pumpkin, whole grain rice and a couple more slices of raisin wheat bread.

Dinner: grilled herb chicken, asparagus, pumpkin, tomato, radish, whole grain rice, and no raisin wheat bread.

Next, workout. Weekly visit to the Deathstar, one-on-one w/ Patrick. Definitely keeps you honest working out with someone else. Did the 600 jumps with just 2 trips, at 314 and 530, pretty happy about that. Muscles and brain are getting in sync.

Next, stats. Good numbers up, bad numbers down, not much else to say but so far, so good.

Quote of the Day

"Don't suffer in silence, blog it out!"- Patrick

Day 8 Work Out

Check out the sweet MacGyver pull-up bar. Jumping rope is tough, trying to bang out sets of 150 (have not made it thru one clean yet), getting pretty winded and my feet are getting sore towards the end. The upside is my wife said my chicken legs are already looking a little more muscular...

Day 7: The Last (1/2) Supper

Following Patrick's instructions strictly to the letter, went balls out with 1/2 a pizza (spicy chicken and sausage from Salvatore) and a Longboard Island Lager (reckon I would normally have 2, so 1/2 = 1). Oooooooh yeah.......

Day 5: jump rope

Patrick shortened my jump rope on Sat, and after 2 days of being a complete spaz I'm already getting used to it, was able to get thru 4 sets of 70 squeaky clean (1st set had a couple of minor trip-ups). According to the Jedi Master: standing on the jump rope, the handles should come up to your nipples (give or take), the arc should be relatively tight, minimal movement in your arms, which should stay straight/down, most of the movement in your wrists...

1/2 diet going well, but get reeeeally hungry late afternoon, 4-5 ish...

Day 4: hello muscles

Ohisashiburi (long time no see)! Went to the driving range and holy chest and abs! And my quads are on fire when I do the squats and lunges. I guess that means I'm doing the exercises right...

Day 3: Celebrity PCP

Went to the Yoga Garden for a one-on-one session with PCP Jedi Master Patrick, and who was there but none other than PCP Legend Kaz! We did the Day 3 workout together, topped off with 8-minute abs for dessert. BOO YA!

Week 1 (Day 3) Stats:

Weight: 73.1kg

Body Fat: 24.8%

Visceral Fat: 8.0%

Basal Metabolism: 1647

Muscle Mass: 31.7

Subcutaneous Fat: 15.1%

BMI: 23.3

Body Age: 42

Day 2: hungry

Already feeling the effects of 1/2, a bit hungry and light headed all day (1/2 banana for breakfast, 1/2 chicken/hummus wrap for lunch). But the toughest part was going to a Jamaican restaurant for dinner and rationing the jerk chicken, jerk pork, spicy wings, peppered shrimp, fish soup, festival and red stripe while everyone else around was gorging themselves....

Moral to the story: the social aspect of PCP will be just as challenging as the physical.

Day 1 Lunch

HALF chicken sandwich, mustard NO MAYO, NO FRIES, NO SWEAT!

Day 1

Oh, we've got a situation right here!

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