Chris is Still Too Fat

Nope, not dead yet, folks. Apologies for sudden silence. Still here licking wounds. Had disastrous Christmas from a project point of view and am deeply into regret mode. Abandoned my spreadsheet and this blog, as my dedicated fans will have noted.

To be specific, I just weighed in at a thumping 175 lbs and am seemingly cruising steadily in reverse gear on weight. Gotta be stopped. Now.

On exercise, I surprised myself by actually running on Christmas Day for 30 mins and then again similarly last Saturday. Otherwise been relatively inactive, encouraged by a round of visits to relatives and friends from time to time.

I also have a disruptive trip to the USA planned for next week.

Annoyed but not despondent. I will prevail yet.

Despite everything, I wish you all a Happy New Year in 2009 .

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Monday) :

Calories : 2307. Well .. I had steak and chips for the first time for ages and it made a right mess of the budget. Nice though !

Exercise : Nil. Another supermarket trolley dash for turkey etc. Car park full so had to think laterally. Went to M&S in evening. Unable to get parked there either. Gave up and came home. Trying again today but forgot car being serviced and am now without car. Be glad when it is January, I tell you.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Sunday) :

Calories : 2078 at least.

Exercise : 50 mins bike ride.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Saturday) :

Calories : 2118. Disappointment (to say the least ...) but Mrs CITF and I attended a buffet at an upmarket hotel at which various calorie-dense titbits were offered and .. well, you can guess the rest.

Exercise : 30 mins running.

ChrisITF

First, a brief summary of yesterday (Friday) :

Calories : 2008.

Exercise : Nil. Supermarket trolley dash in morning. Christmas card production line in afternoon. Never got out of first gear.

And on top of that, weighed in at 172 lbs this morning, folks. One pound gained in the course of the week; not very good. Woe is me, etc.

Another below par week but I am none too despondent. It is depths of winter .. well, darkness anyway. I am eating too much and it is not Christmas Week yet either. Never mind, I am looking forward to January for another blitz on these last few pounds to target.

Anyone been called up to the UKBioBank Project out there ? Epidemiological study being set up with 500,000 volunteers required and they selected myself and Mrs CITF to give blood etc., and be questioned, measured and sampled for posterity.

Most of my data was not a surprise, BP, BMI etc. But they included the novelties of lung function and bone density which I had not seen before. They also gave me a body fat percentage of 20.5, which, at the time, I did not know if bad or good as I had never had one before. Google says below 17 is preferable at my weight and age. So seems it is a tad excessive and no real surprise there and I am working on it. Other parameters largely rated 'good', so I was reassured, sort of. This data would cost a small fortune privately so it was mutually beneficial. No real discomfort in case you are approached to participate.

And so to Christmas. Most definitely amber light on for this week on the eating front. Just have to be a tad vigilant - and that goes for you lot out there also ! It is easier not to gain weight than to lose it once gained.

Bring on week 87 !

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Thursday) :

Calories : 2040.

Exercise : Nil. Another marathon shopping session executed in Reading with Mrs CITF. Arrived there before sunrise ! Told you she has stamina for shops. Finally got home shortly before sunset, having tramped miles, so was not entirely idle and I fell into bed at 2130 quite finished .. which probably explains why I am now up so early. Body clock confused. Think I will go back to bed for a couple of hours right now.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Wednesday) :

Calories : 1926. Bit better, not much.

Exercise : 90 mins running (well, includes 10 mins walking because route so flooded it was hazardous). Lasted so long out there that I got a mobile phone call from Mrs CITF wondering if I was dead in a ditch somewhere. Not quite.

ChrisITF

Although best forgotten, here comes yesterday's data (Tuesday) :

Calories : 2212. OOPS.

Exercise : 40 mins running, but hardly made up for the above.

Not been a good week so far. Christmas getting in the way a bit but mostly the consequences of my reduced vigilance. Right Jekyll and Hyde attitude I have at the mo' and I am pessimistic about weigh-in come Saturday. Whatever the damage, I am confident it will be temporary and I am not too disheartened. The family has been warned not to buy me chocolate or liquorice allsorts etc., but I half hope they will ignore me ! Life is not a penance as I keep reminding myself !

ChrisITF

OK start again - hopefully not for my creation to disappear again ...

Brief summary of yesterday (Monday) :

Calories : 1786. Getting better still.

Exercise : Nil. Not so good. Got dragged round shops for hours by Mrs CITF. She is in a stamina class of her own for such sorties. Thus I never got out in my running kit. 'Twas miserably gloomy out there anyway. Looks much the same this morning too.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Sunday) :

Calories : 1858. A little bit better.

Exercise : Nil. Just never got around to it.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Saturday) :

Calories : 2114. Thought it was not quite as bad as that, then I remembered that sweet, spotty banana ... Must regain my grip on this aspect of the project.

Exercise : 30 mins running in a gale with horizontal rain. Rain was like needles hitting me, pointy ends first. Paths all flooded. Got absolutely frozen, despite it being +6C. Running shorts and tee-shirt weather it was not. Barking mad, I tell you .. though I suspect you are probably ahead of me here.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Friday) first :

Calories : 2094.

Exercise : Nil.

Weighed in at 171 lbs this morning, folks. Serves me right, as I take this 1 lb increase as punishment for being most lax in curbing food intake this past week. But, as I have brazenly said before, am I bovvered ? Well, no, not too much. Though it is a warning and one that I am heeding for the coming week.

It looks like my trip to the USA has withered away. I just need to survive without instructions for departure in this next 6 hours or so and I will be in the clear for a guaranteed presence in the UK for Christmas ! So there's a bonus. Not that I am able to throw caution away, given the usual table-laden festive period. Quite the opposite in fact. There will be far too many things that I like just a hand-stretch away from my mouth. Ah, woe is me, sort of. But it's only once a year.

The new PC languishes on the dining table and here I punch the keys of the old one still. No one seems to be able to raise enthusiasm for transferring data across. But if this dire weather continues for the rest of the day, as seems likely, I can see this little task drifting my way. The football match has already been postponed, due to water-logged pitch, to which I had planned to go. So that is one excuse out of the window.

And still no debit against my credit card for the PC ...

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Thursday) :

Calories : 2197. Amber caution light comes on.

Exercise : 1 hour on bike.

New PC did turn up and sits, partly in bits but actually working, in t'other room. Still on the old noisy one but won't last long now. Nothing showing on credit card for new one.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Wednesday) :

Calories : 2045.

Exercise : 30+ mins running.

Allegedly, our gleaming new PC is being delivered today. Wonder if we will get one .. or two ? Or, more likely, none whatsoever. Will I still be able to blog tomorrow, I further wonder ? We shall indeed see.

ChrisITF

Quick summary of yesterday (Tuesday) first :

Calories : 2056.

Exercise : 30 mins running.

How's it going ? Well, not too good to be honest. Exercise is good, but just as well really. I admit I am not really trying on the food front and am satisfying the least tinge of hunger with something or other. Not out of control though, which would definitely provoke a ballooning disaster.

Am in the middle of a bit of a spat with the credit card company and have just received independent 'confirmation' that my new PC has been ordered twice ! Not amused, but my snout is not in the biscuit barrel yet. Too cross really right now.

So signing off now to do battle again.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Monday) :

Calories : 2020.

Exercise : Two sorties totalling 70 mins running; one in the morning and the other approaching dusk. Very cold though, for both of them.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Sunday) :

Calories : 1994.

Exercise : 1 hour on bike accompanied by number one son. Got tangled up with another 'organised' cross-country run with dozens of competitors, mostly running but some on bikes. Not a very warm day for it and it is frosty once again this morning as I write.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Saturday) :

Calories : 2087.

Exercise : 30 mins running. Very muddy. Very cold - but even colder today ... I am staying inside for a while.

ChrisITF

Yup, still marooned on 170 lbs, folks. Just not trying hard enough but not too fussed really.

Yesterday's data (Friday) went like this :

Calories : 2178 including family takeaway evening meal.

Exercise : 50 mins on bike. That makes two sorties without a blessed puncture; most pleasing.

I think I summed it all up adequately in the first paragraph above really. Exercise has been fairly good, though I eased off on the running a bit and, having mended the puncture, managed to get out on my bike a couple of times more towards the end of the week. Diet has been awful, by volume I mean. Just not disciplined enough to profit from the exercise aspect. But at least my weight is not increasing and that is a relief, especially now that it is winter.

My USA trip still grumbles on with no one able to give me more than an amber light for definite possible departure. If they ain't quick I will be digging in my heels on departure this side of Christmas. Really dunno where I am up to with this. Why can't people communicate properly ? But the real gremlin is the economic situation with difficulty getting credit left, right and centre. It has put a right brake on commerce. However, I am sure you know all this; just filling up bandwidth here - whatever that is. If I do not go to the USA at least it helps with continuity on my little project, if not my wallet.

So on with week 85.

ChrisITF

Brief and late summary of yesterday (Thursday) :

Calories : Dunno. 2000 ? Unusually, forgot to update spreadsheet during day.

Exercise : 50 mins on bike.

This has not been a good week.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Wednesday) :

Calories : 2129. Very naughty.

Exercise : 30+ mins running. That was one cold sortie at +1C.

ChrisITF

First, a brief summary of yesterday (Tuesday) :

Calories : 2029.

Exercise : Nil. I left it until late afternoon before my sortie, being frosty in the morning, and then, discouragingly, found my bike back tyre flat in the garage. So, faced with a cold, mucky job to mend it, I gave up.

Yesterday apart, progress has been so-so. Dunno whether it is the colder weather or what, but I am definitely eating more .. to keep warm ? So the daily calories count has been consistently disappointing.

Moreover, frosty mornings are hardly conducive to enthusiastic dashing around the countryside on bike or running but, in the main, I am managing to do something each day. So the exercise aspect, as usual, is the better component of my project.

But once again, just outside my window, everything is covered in frost. It is a mega-temptation to sit with a cup of coffee on the warm side of a double-glazed window and watch the birds emptying the seed feeder hanging from the apple tree rather than face the icy blast outside. But then what could I tell you lot tomorrow ?

I will leave it a while; it is still -2C out there. But I think I will go out for a run for a bit, later. I still cannot be bothered to struggle with mending a puncture in the cold garage.

Back tomorrow.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Monday) :

Calories : 1995.

Exercise (2 sorties) : Total 70 mins running. 40 mins in morning with Mrs CITF and 30 mins in afternoon by myself (a bit faster !). Only +2C yesterday but even colder this morning at -2C. Think I will wait until it warms up a bit before venturing out; still dark anyway.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Sunday) :

Calories : 2096. Frustrating day yesterday for various reasons and had some chocolate. Bad boy.

Exercise : 50 mins on bike. Rarely seen the woods so muddy.

ChrisITF