Day 16 momentum

My routine is well and truly in place, the exercise is becoming easier to incorporate into an evening and the diet is a habit. I know its going to get tougher and I know I'll begin to crave more and more, but for the moment I'm enjoying myself!

The exercises are becoming easier but as the sets get larger its going to be seriously tough, I know, but the tougher it gets, the better I'll get (hopefully). I'm settling in well into my new school and homework is no longer a big problem so its all going smoothly!

Finally, team name suggestion, "nine to the finish line" a bit long but, its catchy, right?
Anyway, I hope everyones getting on well, keep it up!

day 15 a good day

I've had a few rough days with illness and homework, but today was an easy day. A half day at school, very little homework I feel much better and the exercise went well. I find the curls, squats and jumps easy enough, but the DaVinci's are a serious challenge. Howerver, short term pain, long term gain! I managed a personal best 900 jumps this afternoon, I was wrecked after it, but felt good.

On another subject, my inspirational figure (Cristiano Ronaldo) was in action last night for Real Madrid. It wasn't a vintage Ronaldo performance, but Madrid came away with a good 1-0 win against french side, Auxerre. He's a great player, but so far this season he hasn't been up to his best, but I'll enjoy watching him find his form this season!

I've taken a few photos of my food today, I forgot at dinner but I have some pictures of my delicious PCP breakfast!
Oatmeal (80g), brown bread (40g), one tomato, some grapes, an egg, 250mils of milk (most which is in the  oatmeal) and a cup of tea!

Hope everyone is getting on well in team "yet to have a permanent name" team... we'll get one!

Day 14 slogging through it

I've had a heavy cold over the last few days, and today it was no better. I hope its not anything worse, but its not stopping me!

My diet is going well, its become a great routine and I'm getting more self sufficient and I actually love the amounts. The fact that you can be so creative with your food and know when your eating it, its good for you!

The exercise was tough. I felt awful and strangely short of breath during the jumps, the strength work was ok. Looking forward to tomorrows workout/diet plan e-mail for the week...bring it on!

Keep it up team blue, we've got to get a better name!

Day 13 a short post, after a long day

Hi guys,

This will be brief, today has been a hectic day with homework, football training and feeling bad making everything a rush. The dieting went well as usual, but I simply didn't have enough time and I couldn't face a full workout feeling like I do. So I made an executive decision, I swapped todays longer, tougher workout with tomorrows simple (enough) 800 jumps and through in a few push ups and sit ups. It was frustating, but I'll make up for it tomorrow, I promise!

Hope everyones well, I'll get commenting tomorrow!

Day 12 my body is a strange thing

I very rarely get ill, but whenever I do pick someting up, it tends to be bad. However, since I began the diet, I've had a running cold for the last two weeks or so. Every few days it hits me harder and the only thing I can put it down to is my drastic change in diet. Also, I've been doing my jumprope outside, which could also be a factor. Its not serious or anything, but it doesn't help, especially when I'm so busy these days with school and exercise and unfortunately, it hit me the hardest on saturday so it effected my weekend a bit, but I enjoyed it all the same!

Apart from that, everything is going well from a PCP point of view, no problems so far with the training and I'm enjoying the amounts of food I'm being given to eat!

Hope everyones well, keep up the good work team blue!

Day 11 cup of tea...and a biscuit

The title of this post is a phase heard throughout the world. I've always noticed how people say "god i'd love something with this coffee/tea!". I for one have said it many times, and its true, biscuits, a slice of cake or a muffin all go so well with a hot cup o'. But this is the sort of mentality that has people eating 'badly' in the western world. We see tea or coffee as an excuse for a treat, a treat we wouldn't otherwise have had.

Its not a big deal, but I sight it as an example of our lack of awareness of what we're putting into ourselves and since I started the PCP diet, I am always thinking and looking at what I'm eating. A few times (especially when I'm bored at home) I've found myself just going to the fridge to get something and thinking, "why am I doing this, I'M NOT HUNGRY!!". And thats the key for me, eating when we aren't hungry is the norm for most yet if we don't feel hungry, it means we don't need food, simple as.

Let me know what you think, and keep enjoying the weekend!

Day 10 friday:)

Happy weekend!

Its been a tough week of homework and PCP dieting and excercise. The weekend is a chance to catch up on what foods I'll be needing for the coming weeks, and to relax!

I had a good workout today, I'm really getting used to the resistance bands and the jumprope. I did my 650 jumps today and only tripped 9 times, which is a major improvement for me! I'm doing them in quick time too which is really satisfying.

I hope everyone is still getting on well, and enjoy the weekend!

Day 9 a long, long day

Today was a long day to say the least. I got up at 7:30 and had my PCP inspired breakfast and set off to school. There are always days during the year where teachers are for what ever reason willing to give ALOT of homework. Well, my teachers have been having these days every day for the past two weeks. The work is piling up, and the PCP work out regime is getting tougher and longer, hence, my evenings seem to shrivel up into nothing but wondering,"what do I have to do next?".

Despite all of these things, I'm in high spirits and fitting in to my new school quite well and enjoying the PCP diet. I've had some delicious meals over the last two days (that being down to my mum) and I now realise how you can enjoy food without the added extra stuff that wrecks your health. For example, I had whole grain pasta and bolognese for dinner, we weighed out the meat for my protien, some onions, cauliflour and carrots as vegetables aswell as homemade low calorie zero additive tomatoe sauce, to die for!

I hope everyone is well, keep it up!

Day 8 day 1 of dieting

Hi everbody!

This morning when I woke up I expected a strict diet plan...and thats exactly what I got. But when I went to prepare for my day, I realised how very under prepared I was. But when I thought all was lost, one of the most dependable, efficient and helpful people I know stepped in, my mother! I was floundering trying to sort my self out for school and for my PCPing, she swooped in and got everything sorted on the food front in what seemed like a matter of minutes.

So far on my project, my mum has been the most encouraging to me as she is also keen on fitness and always cooks good food for us. Of course my whole family have been good, but my brother doesn't really get the whole system but he'll figure it out:)

As for dinner, a beautiful piece of fresh cod, some cauliflour and a potatoe, delicious! So day one of dieting has gone brilliantly.

I hope everyone else is going well and I'll see you tomorrow!

Day 7 tomorrow it begins for real

Hello everyone!

Hope everyone is well and enjoyed their 'final meal'. It has been a very tiring week and I was glad when I saw the excersise for the day was light compared to the previous days. I'm looking forward to seeing how I cope with a strict diet regime in place, I love food and I eat pretty much anything but I also possess self control, I just hope I possess enough to get through this.

Also something I thought I would do in this post is introduce my 'inspiration', Cristiano Ronaldo. I'm sure some of you have heard of him but for those who aren't familiar with him, he is arguably the greatest footballer(soccer) of his generation. I chose him for several reasons, one being he is in 'peak condition' and is a great professional when it comes to fitness. Another is the fact that he is a great player and used to play for my favourite team, Manchester United. He is a two-time world player of the year and scored 42 goals in a single season for United in 2008. So, I think hes a bit of an inspiration anyway other than his fitness!

Good luck to everyone on the diet!

Day 6 soccer training

Hello all, hope your PCP-ing is going well!

Today I had my daily 'football' training or soccer to any Americans(and Canadians) reading this. It went very well and we're really coming on as a team with our league starting up in October. I saw a big difference in my ability to get around the field with my PCP really kicking in in real life situations. I felt like I could run faster and for longer, I'd put this down to the lunges and squats that are a new part of my training regime. Soccer is as much about finess and strength as it is skill or talent, so the fitter I get, the better footballer I'll become.

Are first game is in a few weeks, so looking forward to that! See you all tomorrow!

Day 5 a wonderful thing called excersise

I love the feeling of excersise as I'm sure most people who do this project do aswell. Ever since I had my first 'workout' in a gym 18 months ago, its been a huge part of my life.

At the beginning of this project I decided that I would cut down but not neglect my love of a good run. So yesterday, I took on the challenge of a 6 kilometre run aswell as my daily PCP routine. It was tough, very tough, I ended up excersising for nearly two hours which was a great feeling I know there is no way I could keep that sort of training up on a regular basis unless I was a pro sportsman, but I aim to do that atleast once a week, probably on the weekend.

So far I'm loving the PCP experience and I hope everyone else is too, lets rip it up team blue!

Day 4 my favouite resturant

Yesterday evening we paid a visit to what I would without doubt say is the best pizza place certainly in Ireland and perhaps the world, no exaggeration! We only eat there once or twice a month, but when we do go, its special. So I knew this would be the first real test of my resolve. The pizza's are big, way to big, but unbelievably good and in fairness to the resturant not greasy and made with natural ingredients.

So I ordered my usual mozzarella, mushrooms, pepperoni and jalapeno pizza, to die for! So I sacrifice half of my pizza to the rest of my scavenger family ( we're all a bit like that!) and scoff the rest in less than five minutes and lo and behold, I was fine. I wasn't stuffed or full but satisfied! And I saw out the rest of the evening in comfort.

It really goes to show how we all eat far to much of what we "like" and I think I learned a lesson last night.

Hope everyone's getting on well, I'll see you all tomorrow!

Day 3 homework, homework, homework...

Everything about this project is new and exciting. I'm in a new school and making friends but one thing that will never ever change...is homework. I have what I would estimate as around 3 hours work to do and study on top of that, but its all worth it in the end...I hope anyway.

I'm over the worst of the dreaded common cold but short on time in which to excersise, but I'll fit it in somewhere. As for dieting, its going well, I left half a plate of chips, chicken nuggets and veggies in school today, it was tough but I know its worth it. A few people have asked me why I left so much food, so I took Patrick's advice and told them and they were very interested, most of the are big into weight lifting and are in good shape, but they'd eat around three times what I would eat normally, so this would be a major challenge for them if they ever tried this project.

In my new school they give personalised fitness (weights and rugby) regimes to the top players and it would be interesting to compare notes on the sort of diets they would be put on, I would imagine a very high protein diet for the rugby players, it seems to do the trick with most of them!

I'll be back tomorrow!

Day 2: not an ideal start

Yesterday I had a mild cold, nothing to worry about and I was ready to go. I got my excersise done and felt good.
I woke up this morning with what felt like a whole in my head, I can't believe that the first time in months that I get sick is day two of this project, but no matter, I can't feel sorry for myself and the diet is still on track. One piece of toast for breakfast instead of two, an average bowl of porridge and some raspberries, topped off with half a glass of orange juice.
And I don't feel hungry, although the lack of hunger is probably fueled by my cold, but even over the last day and a bit I've discovered how little you need to eat to get by in a day.

I hope everyone is getting on well, and I'll be back soon!

It's on!

Wow, I can't believe its already starting, I'm so excited! I've been thinking about this for so long and imagining what its going to be like, and for the first day anyway its been no diffeerent. I realise that it is going to get a lot tougher and little bit harder to cope with but I think I'm ready, infact, I know I am

Before I finish I'd like wish everyone doing the PCP at the same time as me the best of luck!

You Don't Know Jack!

Cause he's about to get RIPPED! Oh YEAH!