July 2010 mid month fitness update

May and June saw me take my exercising to the next level with a lot of cardio pushing the recorded calories to 11k and 13k respectively. This exercise combined with a more regimented nutrition approach began to rip the fat of my body and provide the beginnings of visible muscle tone.

July started slowly with the first few days without exercise due to oversees travel, however since then I've recorded over 8k in calories burnt. If I average 300 kcal for each of the remaining 11 days this month then I'll hit my target of 12k albeit at a lower number of calories per day exercised.

Average kcals burnt per day of exercise

• May = 611 kcal/day
• June = 590 kcal/day
• July = 461 kcal/day (projected based on an average of 300kcal for the remaining 11 days)

However these figures can be misleading as in June I've begun adding more weights and other exercising to the schedule and in July I've begun to take my first few tentative steps into the world of P90X. July may also see me surpass an average of 300kcal for the remaining 11 days so we'll see what happens.

What is clear though is that my stamina has noticeable increased, my weight has noticeably decreased and there is a significant reduction in visible body fat. I'm still only part way through my journey however I'm ~50% towards reaching my goal with only 77 days of exercise over 5 months.

My upper body is still very weak, I can only do 1 pull-up and 10 press-ups. My target is 20 pull-ups and 50 push-ups before the end of the year.

In terms of sacrifices made, there have not been too many and none that I'd say have negatively impacted my happiness in life.

• Investing time in my health. My shorter commute to the office (10 minutes a day rather than 120 minutes) means that I now have 'spare' time available in which to exercise that I didn't have before. In terms of eating my diet has changed to some degree. 
• Alcohol has been cut out, however once I am below 75kg I'll go to 1 glass of wine with a meal when eating out. To replace the wine I'm drinking carbonated water when eating out and it has not felt a burden or chore at all. The money saved in cutting out the alcohol covers a significant amount (if not all) of the cost for the additional gym equipment I'm purchasing.
• Eating out - we're still eating out as much as we used to, I'm just much more considerate of portion size and willing to leave food on the plate if I am feeling full. In terms of selecting what to eat I typically go for fish however the odd steak is still selected. The food tastes good, I like fish so once again no burden. Typically appetisers are skipped (or are a salad), and desserts are left to my wife to eat!
• Pizza and other fast food - we no longer have these. The odd slice of pizza would be ok, but trying to get one slice of pizza delivered is not easy!
• Grocery Shopping - we never bought much processed food (e.g. instant/ready meals) so this hasn't changed too much. There is a bit more vegetables and fruit, a little less sweet potato fries, and quite a lot more All-Bran and Shredded Wheat.

The main point is that, depending on how bad your existing diet is, you can still enjoy eating out and not feeling hungry while losing weight and getting fit. When exercising it is important however to push yourself hard and get the heart rate up if you want to see results quicker, however above all be patient. I spent 4 years putting on 15kg of fat, I'm unlikely to be able to lose it in 4 weeks! My target is 8 months which keeps me at an average of 2kg a month that is sustainable and a healthy weight loss rate. If you go too extreme then statistically you're likely to put the weight back on again within a year and also stuff up your metabolism.