One a Day Day 12 – Lazy Post

Not much to report today, its 11.15pm and i am in pretty shitty form.

Liverpool losing again has not helped.  We needed the three points.

On the plus I made a lovely curry for tea tonight and all free on my slimming world plan.

Chicken Curry

1 chicken breast cut into big chunks

1 onion in chunky pieces

1 inch piece of ginger peeled and grated

2 garlic cloves crushed

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp cumin, coriander, cinnamon, paprika

1/2 tsp tumeric

can chopped tomatoes

1/2 pint chicken stock

handful fresh coriander

2 green chilli chopped into pieces

 

1) fry off onions till soft with fry-light, add ginger and garlic

2) add spices and cook off for 2 mins

3) add chicken and cook till sealed

4) add tomatoes and stock, bring to boil and simmer for 40 – 45 mins

5) stir in fresh coriander

6. serve and garnish with chilli pieces

One a Day : Day 11 – Down Time

Today has been a wishy washy day, nothing great but at the same time nothing bad about it.  I have loads of leave, way too much  (28 days leave left) and it all has to be used up by the end of this month.  It is not going to happen, I have to help organise 6 conferences between now and the end of march  eek!  So today, after a meeting in Belfast, I took a half day.

It was so good being off, I had a lovely lunch in the Mourne Seafood Bar.  I went for the beautiful Queen Scallop Risotto, washed down with a glass of the bar’s very own Oyster Stout. I came away feeling smug with myself, turns out my own attempts at Risotto are none too shabby if that was anything to go by.

Then I took myself to the Victoria Square – its Belfast’s premier shopping centre.  Called into Geek Heaven otherwise known as the Apple Store and killed a good half an hour trying various Apple products.  I oohed at the thinness of the Mac Air, I aahed at the new nanos and  virtually shot my load over the Ipad.  WANT!

Next was a trip into the Hollister store, I just had to see if it was as bad as I imagined it would be.  It was my worst nightmare realised, the music in the store was too loud, the faux decoration of the shop left me bewildered.  Do not get me started on the lighting, there really isnt any lighting worth talking about.  I found myself looking at a top and I could not actually determine was is brown or purple?

Realising I only had an hour left before catching a lift home from the brother in law, I decided to sample a local pub for some of that famous Belfast Craic.  Unfortunately, craic was sparse on the ground, the tragic murder of Michaela Harte on her honeymoon was the subject de jour.

Still all was not lost, I spied a beer on draft I had never tried before.  An American craft beer called Blue Moon.  Subsequent research tells me it is part of the Coors family.  This is an American beer modelled very much on a Belgian Wheat beer. Cloudy and slghtly sweet but very drinkable.  I have taken a note to go back to the bar on another trip to Belfast, the array of Irish Whisky was very impressive.

Since Belfast I have been to the gym and had a good workout and a nice swim.  Think I will watch the Hangover before bed.

 

One a Day :Day 10 – Slimmer of the Week!

I kind of knew I had been heading for a good weight loss this week, stuck to the plan the majority of the week (cough far too many office chocolates ). I had been to the gym 5 times and had been out running 4 days on the trot.  But I had a great weekend, no alcohol and stayed rigidly on plan.

Nothing could have made me think it would be that good – I lost a total of 9.5lb this week!

I stayed for group, knowing it would be quite a hefty weight loss for anyone to beat that.  Though someone came close with 8.75lb.  I got the slimmer of the week for the 4th time.

Going through the goodie bag, January is clearly a lean month.  All i got was 2 apples, a banana and a kiwi fruit and a sachet of porridge.   The last time I was slimmer of the week there was nearly £10 worth of stuff inside.

So Im setting the bar for next week – my goal is a minimum of 5lb.

Right I have the long overdue external hard drive from Amazon to set up before Biggest Loser UK.  Yes the hard drive finally arrived today – from Amazon not so prime.

One a Day Day 9 – Return of the King

It is just a quick post today.

Have to head out for the massive walk I always go go the night before weigh in at slimming world. Not looking forward on going for the walk given how cold it is outside but hey ho.

So the result at Man U did not follow the Hollywood script with Kenny returning.  It should have been a victory, but Man u had their 12 man on the pitch – Howard Webb deserved Man of the Match for his performance in his United colours.  It just was not to be.  Success will not come over night but, I believe with Kenny at the helm until the end of the season, the team will be galvanised.

The ipod is now fully charged, the podcasts I want to listen to are synced over and the fat lady is about to sing in a tribute to Kenny’s return.

Fields of Anfield Road

Outside the Shankly Gates ,
I heard a Kopite calling,
Shankly they have taken you away ,
But you left a great eleven,
Before you went to heaven ,
Now it’s glory round the Fields of Anfield Road.

All round the Fields of Anfield Road,
Where once we watched the King Kenny play,
We had Heighway on the wing,
We had dreams and songs to sing ,
Of the glory round the Fields of Anfield Road.

Outside the Paisley Gates,
I heard a Kopite calling,
Paisley they have taken you away,
You led the great 11,
Back in Rome in 77,
And the redmen they are still playing the same way.

All round the Fields of Anfield Road,
Where once we watched the King Kenny play,
We had Heighway on the wing ,
We had dreams and songs to sing,
Of the glory round the Fields of Anfield Road.

One a Day Day 8 – the Recipe Post – Tom Yam Gai

Saturdays are the day when I let my culinary desires go wild and try new recipes.  Unfortunately I have to try to keep it healthy, no point undoing all the good work of during the week.

I made lovely scrambled egg with smoked Salmon for Breakfast.  Lunch was some Lamb Kofta style kebabs and a beautiful rainbow salad.  So for tea I decided to have a go at making a nice cleansing and at the same time invigorating thai soup called Tom Yam Gai.

Tom Yam Gai

This recipe will serve 2 people

 

Ingredients

1 chicken breast without skin

1 litre of chicken stock

4 scallions (spring onions)

2 cloves of garlic fine chopped

1 stalk of lemon grass (bashed and chopped into 2 cm pieces)

3 chillis thinly sliced (i deseeded mine )

10 lime leaves

Table spoon of thai fish sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon lime juice (fresh or from a squeezy)

some chopped coriander leaves

1) Put the chicken breast into a saucepan and add the stock, bring to the boil then simmer for ten mins or until the chicken is cooked.

2) Remove the chicken and cut into thin pieces and set aside for now.

3) Add the garlic, lemon grass, scallions, chilli and limeleaves to the stock and simmer for ten minutes.

4) Add the fish sauce, sugar and return the chicken to the saucepan and simmer for a further 3 -4 minutes

5) Stir in the lime juice then taste for seasoning, add salt if necessary.

6) Stir in the coriander at point of serving

One a Day : Day 7 – Gym Tosser

Every village has an idiot, and tonight I found my town’s.

There is a  bloke who comes into the gym. He’s about five foot tall. He has big biceps, big shoulders , looks toned till you see he has a massive belly. And a big fat head.

He does the same machines every time, and hogs them for ages. In fact, when the place is quiet, he tries to hog two machines at once. He does a set of shoulder presses and then goes over to the lat pulldown machine. But if someone has a go on either of these vacant machines, he sometimes stops and says ‘Hey mate I’m still using that one.’

No you aren’t, f**kwit you are on the other machine now. I always just say to him ‘I’m just doing a set of ten’ and then take my time.

But that’s not even the annoying thing. The real annoying thing is that the whole time he is exercising HE TALKS REALLY LOUDLY INTO A STUPID BLUE TOOTH HEADSET BEHIND HIS EAR.

He never stops. He talks self-important crap about various business dealings he is negotiating with some unnamed person. Maybe he is some sort of drug dealer, he certainly looks like one of our local thuggish organised criminals (Paramilitary) with his stupid gold chain and ugly tattoos.

His conversations go something like this:

‘Yeah, tell Billy to bring it over…no look I told him that already, it was all arranged….what….yeah but sure that was all sorted out…what….yeah of course that was all sorted out already….
Blah blah blah. Really loudly.

I suppose the reason why he has the big belly is because he only works on his arms. I sometimes wonder why he never looks in the mirror and thinks ‘Christ I look ridiculous.’ Because he does.

After I finish in the gym I like to go and relax in the steam room for half an hour. My bluetooth friend doesn’t usually frequent this area, but unfortunately tonight, I was sitting in the steam room when he walked in.

Bizarrely, he was fully dressed in his gym gear complete with jewellery. He had a newspaper with him. Bear in mind that in the steam room it’s very damp and with 90% humidity his paper soon started to fall apart.

But not before he had a chat to me about the contents. To my disgust, every time he finished a sentence he spat on the floor between his feet, like some weird nervous tic.

‘Look at that’ spit he said ‘he earns a million dollars an hour’ spit

‘What?’ I replied.

‘Advertising’ spit said Mr bulky dwarf. ‘a million dollars an hour. spit. I’d like to be him’ spit.

I was confused now. ‘Who does.’

‘Mr Google’ spit he said. ‘He gets a million dollars an hour from advertising.’spit

One a Day Day 6 – Amazon Not So Prime

I signed up to Amazon Prime in December,with the intention of canceling once the trial month is up; thinking any Christmas presents needed could be whisked here in no time ie their one day delivery service.

Great idea in theory, but in reality a whole different kettle of fish. I get to finally give my brother in law his official Christmas present tomorrow.

Ordered on the 20 December (when he finally decided on a few items I could choose from.) Inception and Goodfellas on Bluray.  Unfortunately for me the snow apparently caused havoc to their systems and followed up with Christmas meant the courier was not able to complete the delivery. The only winner out of this was my brother in law, as I felt I had to have something to open on Christmas day.  Fallout New Vegas, in case you wonder what I got him.

Now fingers crossed the 1TB external hard drive I ordered for myself on the 21st of December will arrive tomorrow.  I have a hard drive groaning with the amount of media on it that needs shifted to the new drive.

One a Day No 5:- Cocks on the rise

Last few weeks, it felt like I was seeing phallic symbols all the time.

During the snow I came out to my car to find some rascal had decided to decorate the car with a snow cock.

Then on Christmas Eve I found on my neighbours car, that it too had been targeted.

Since then, on visiting the local shop I came across the perfect school boy drawing of a cock with the obligatory 4 japs of Harry Monk.

I promise tomorrow’s entry will be better.

One a Day : Day 4 – Fighting the Fat

Losing weight has not been easy but it sure has been fun so far.

My doctor has been brilliant, he put me on medication for the first month to keep me on the straight and narrow.  Trust me those bloody tablets work – Xenical they automatically process 1/3 of any fat consumed into your waste.  Any hint of anything fatty and you get punished by seeing lovely globules of orange coloured fat staring up at you when you go to the loo.  That’s if you are lucky – however eat far too much fat and you get the runs and some high quality anal leakage along the way.

For the first month, I cut down on what I ate and gradually added some exercise, walking small distances and increasing how far each time.  I packed up the xbox as it was too much temptation to play rather than do some exercise.

In May I realised I was not watching SKY worth talking about so I cancelled my account and with the spare cash used it to join the gym across the road from my house. It was a revelation – exercise could be fun and I took to it like a duck to water.

You see while I was at school, I did my best to avoid sport.  I ditched rugby in 3rd form and went for swimming as it took most of the time to get to the local baths.  The snag with it was the teacher that took it asked some very inappropriate personal questions – (after we left the school he spent some time inside for interfering with pupils).Then I did community service in my final two years at school.

I found in June I was needing a bit of structure to the weight loss so decided to look into joining a slimming group.  I decided against Weight Watchers all that points counting seemed a real nightmare. That meant Slimming World and by jove their extra easy plan is just that.  I would never have been a supporter of slimming groups but seriously it has been great.  Yes at times it can be like the Little Britain sketches.  But they are a great bunch of people that go to my group.  The support has been great with texts checking if things are going ok.  I worried when I first went that I would be the only bloke but thankfully I was not. It is great while the women all chat before the session starts about there stuff, we talk about football, games and music.  More worryingly is how addictive it is acquiring your certificates for reaching weight goals let alone being the slimmer of the week / month.

At the end of November I was told by my doctor to come off the diet till the new year, the worry that Christmas etc could be a temptation and scupper my good work by feeling unable to go back if things slipped being the reason.

At my last meeting in November 2010 I weighed 16 Stone.

So tonight was my first week back at the group and yes I have a wee bit of weight on ( now weigh 16 Stone 8lbs)  So diet starts again tomorrow with gusto  – I am aiming to wipe out most if not all of the 8 lbs this week.

So as for the goal for achievement in 2011?  Reach the target weight – 13 Stone 7lb.  Ironically for my height i would still be classed as being overweight, but it is according to my doctor a more maintainable weight than the 12 stone 7lb I should be.

The second thing is to enter the local town’s 10km run in September.  I was able to do the couch to 5km running plan and got so far into the 10km plan before i stopped so should be wee buns to pick up where i left off.

One of the main things that has helped me is a great support system with my work colleagues.  If Someone is bringing cakes in, a healthy option is brought for me.  Also at lunch the chaps in the office all head out for a couple of miles walk.

My Tips for weight loss

1. Find a good support network, doesnt have to be a slimming group just people be it friends or family that can encourage you.

2. Exercise – start small and increase what you do each time.  Does not have to be a gym, arm yourself with a good playlist or lengthy podcasts, open your door and just keep walking.

3.  Accept there will be blips but be determined to get stuck in again and do not let it get you down.

4. Know your weakness – mine is 9pm if i am not occupied then, I will want to have a munch so I go for a walk or phone someone.

5. If you are hungry have a pint of water then see how hungry you are after it.  Likewise if after eating you still feel hungry wait twenty minutes as it takes about that long for the body to realise it is full.

6. Invest in good trainers – as expensive as you can afford, do not forget the average life for a trainer to be still beneficial is 6 months.

7. Plan some treats for when you get to certain weight targets.  eg if I lose a stone I can get something i want eg a tattoo.

8.  Its a cliche but buy some target clothes a size or two smaller than you are and try them on when you want to see how you are getting on.

9. Do not aim for a big weight loss target, set smaller targets along the way – it is less daunting.

10. Keep it fun – mix up your exercise.

One a Day – Day 3 – “You Fat Bastard”

This is the post in which I man up and talk about my weight problem – its not going to be easy writing let alone reading this but I think it is going to help me.  I am sticking some things in here only my family have known till now so be gentle :).

I went to the gym yesterday – the first cardio session since Christmas Eve (other than a few goes on EA Sports Fitness 2) it was not fun.  It was frightening to see just how much my fitness levels had dropped in just over a week.

Though I think I gave a good effort ,  40 minutes of interval running on the treadmill, 40 minutes on the cross trainer, 20 minutes on the rowing machine and 20 minutes on the exercise bike. Washed down by 20 lengths of the pool.  I felt fatigued and drained afterwards.  I can feel it in my bones I am going to ache tomorrow.

I am glad I did it though –  as the Neil of a year ago would not have been anywhere near a gym – the only exercise being leaving the sofa to go for a wee. You see, I had gave up on myself and was convinced I would always be a lard ass, I also did not think I could do it.

So what changed?

Going to the Doctors on 13 April 2010 was what happened –  as I was having problems sleeping and was feeling run down all the time.  The Doctor got me to hop on the scales and this was the first I had been weighed in years.  I knew it was not going to be a pretty reading.  At worst I thought the scales would say around 18 stone.  Oh hopeful me!

This is the first I have put down in such a public forum but I think it needs to be put out there.  The scales actually read 21 stone 4 Lbs.  Yip i also heard in my head what you are thinking now the dulcet tones of “You fat bastard” by the Macc Lads.

Next it was established I had frighteningly high blood pressure so was put on tablets immediately.

That was to be the least of my worries – blood and wee tests followed and a day later I was phoned at work and told to get back to the doctors that afternoon as the doctor needed to discuss my test results urgently.

If anything is going to make you dirty yourself it is the anxious wait till you see a doctor when they have asked to see you.  Knees quaking I entered the doctor’s surgery and thankfully which in hind sight was what i needed, I have a very candid doctor who does not sugar coat anything he has to tell you.

“You have Type 2 Diabetes and unless it is controlled and you lose a decent amount of the weight you are carrying, you will at best have a stroke if not die.”

Knowing that a lot of the problem has been self inflicted made it all the worse to take but that was the spark I needed.

How much do you know about blood sugar readings?  My test results showed a reading of 22, the recommended level is between 4-7.

This is a picture of me then

Roll forward 6 months to the 14 October 2010 and I can report that on that day I weighed 16 Stone 1lb.  I had lost 5 stone or 70lb.  More importantly my HBIAC test was showing a reading of 4.7 no where near the 22 it used to be and my blood pressure reading was normal.  Basically I have helped save my life from ending prematurely.

And this is a picture from October 2010

Tomorrows post I will explain how I achieved the weight loss and what has happened since the 14 October 2010 weigh in and what is going to happen in 2011.  Lets just say by the end of 2011 I will have done something I would never have imagined possible this time last year.