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Sunday, June 18, 2017

How to Lose a Belly When You're 42 (part 29)

Monday
10st 6lbs
It's less than 7 weeks before I'll be on the beach.
This is a scary thought because, at the moment, my stomach looks like a pale, hairy blancmange stuck on the front of me. The plan is to lose a pound of flab each week before my toes touch the sand...

I cycled in to work in the drizzle. In the first lesson, I had brought some sweets in for the students to enjoy and I ended up having 5 fruit gums myself! This did not bode well for the rest of my training!
I scoffed my sandwiches at work but they didn't seem to touch the sides. When I got home (by cycling in some sort of hurricane!) I was unbelievably hungry so I raided the fridge.
After my usual healthy Monday night dinner of vegetables, scrambled eggs and spuds, I did a weight training session. I have decided to use lighter weights for a while and gradually bring them back up to my usual weight. I have an injured right arm at the moment (a martial arts, pad work related strain) and I'm trying to gently get it back to fitness.
After my weights session, I found myself on the couch watching cycling while eating not one, but two choc-ices!


Food
2 crumpets with peanut butter
Glass of juice
3 cups of redbush tea
5 fruit gums (from the packet which I was sharing with my students.)
Apple
2 chicken and salad sandwiches.
Scotch egg
Cheese and ham
Mexican Scrambled Eggs (with peppers, mushrooms, onions and homemade potato wedges)
2 choc-ices!

Alcohol
None


Tuesday
10st 5lbs
I lost a pound yesterday! By eating choc ices?
Anyway, I had to drive to work and back today. In the evening, Lucy and I went to the pub to watch England beat New Zealand at cricket (ICC ODI.) I found Timothy Taylor's Landlord on tap!
Lucy made a very healthy fish dinner and then I did another weights session (slightly heavier than yesterday's.)

Food
2 crumpets with peanut butter
Glass of juice
2 cups of redbush tea
1 cup of Earl Grey
Ham and salad wraps
Handful of peanuts
Plaice fillet with green beans, broccoli and rice.

Alcohol
2 pints of real ale


Wednesday
10st 6lbs
Another day of driving instead of cycling.

Exercise
None

Food
2 wholemeal toast with peanut butter
Glass of juice
Cup of redbush tea
Apple
2 homemade chicken salad sandwiches
Banana
2 vegetable burgers with green beans and noodles

Alcohol
None


Thursday
After a long day at work, I cycled home and did some more weight lifting but kept the weights the same as on Tuesday.
No booze, no junkfood

Friday
The martial arts lesson tonight was a very technical kumite session with Sensei Ronnie Christopher. I was way out of my depth, especially when partnered with Sensei Ronnie, but I'll keep at it and hopefully my confidence will increase.
We did Kata for about 2 minutes (literally) which made me feel good - we did Heian Yondan and I finished first with what felt like good power and technique.
No booze, no junkfood.

Saturday
I ran a 10K today. I did it in just under 64 minutes but it didn't make me feel good at all -I was bright red and feeling very tight in the chest.
It took a Scotch egg and a glass of milk to set me straight. After that, Lucy, Martha and I went to the open house and Solihull College and then shopping at Morrison's.
In the afternoon, I enjoyed a few beers while watching the cricket and then put my new saddle on my bike.


10K done.

No junkfood.


Sunday
Jonnie and I headed down to Wilmcote via the Honiley Route. I found myself needing to make some adjustments to my new saddle before we set off (it was a bit wobbly - don't do bike fettling after a few beers!) It was dry but rather windy. We had to ride into a headwind for most of the route down to Wilmcote. However, after 24 miles we arrived at Wilmcote with a very respectable 15.4mph average.
Jonnie was absolutely flying today, even in the wind. He did more on the front than he usually does and he found himself having to wait for me a couple of times. I was quick to use yesterday's 10K run as an excuse for aching in my legs, but the fact remains that Jonnie seems to be getting fitter and I'm not keeping up.
After refuelling with homemade chocolate cake, we headed back out with the wind behind us this time!
Happily, we managed to increase our average speed to 15.5mph for the entire 40 mile ride. There was no hiding the difference in fitness, however. Jonnie was having to slow right down to wait for me at several points during the ride back. At Tom Hill, he even managed to stay in the big ring Contador style until halfway up. I didn't have a hope of catching him.
He destroyed me in the sprint back to his place, too.
After our exertions, we found a few ales were in order and ended up having a mini-session for a couple of hours! I rode the 0.8 miles home very carefully!
Booze and junkfood.


Last thing: according to this website, Cycling at 15mph burns exactly the same amount of calories per hour as my running pace of 6mph. So now you know.


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