February 8, 2010

My FebFast Journey Day 8

As stated in my previous post, for the month of February, I have joined FebFast and cut out alcohol in an attempt to have a bit of a detox.

I'm writing this post in day 8 or 9, depending on whether you count from February 1st, or January 31st, when I started.

Today's Weight: 80.4 kg
Waist: 89 cms/35"

Day one was easy up until I made dinner that night. A nice couple of pieces of fillet steak with some coleslaw mixed with fresh grated horseradish. Out of habit, I went to the fridge to get a glass of something nice to go with it, Preece Rose most likely, and had to stop myself. While I would normally classify myself as someone who "drinks occasionally" or "socially" I realised that I had become a more-than-occaisional drinker and needed to cut back a little anyway.

I also bought some of those metabolism boost tablets from the health food store in an attempt to doubly kick my body into doing something. The first couple of days, while battling with the want (or was it a need?!) to have a drink, I felt like my body was starting to take notice, and in one really weird instance, the scales told me one morning that I was 78.8 kg, and I felt that the muffin top had shunk ever so slightly. Amazing. Maybe.

As you can see from the stats above, my waist has remained the same and I've only lost 0.6 of a kg...! My weight does tend to fluctuate over the course of a normal working week and tend to find that I'm lighter/fitter on a weekend/Monday, and that the stresses of a working week seem to stall my metabolism a little. [Note to self: check I still have a metabolism.] The thing is, if I stand up properly, that waist line seems quite trim [Note to self: stop checking self out in mirror.]

What I do like about my metabolism, mostly, is that it seems to keep everything in balance, and if I'm a certain weight, the body will maintain that unless there is a significant change in circumstance. Up until October(ish) last year, I was about 78kg, again on that plateau. A sudden rush of work travel, with lots of work dinners, late work nights, lots of work-sponsored (amazing might I add) wine, saw me pop on about 2-3 kg. While it surprisingly didn't affect the waistline of my suits too much, I was conscious that it was an extra 2kg for my (delightful) Osteopath to have to lift! Regardless, it's going to be an uphill battle to try to get the body to work overtime to get rid of those extra kgs and start losing/adapting rather than gaining.

I consider my diet to be good, no junk foods, I avoid added sugar except in tea or instant coffee, I try to get a balance of salads and veges, as well as a good mix of protein during the week. Eating regularly is also important and try to graze during the day. I avoid pasta, fatty foods (except for bacon & eggs once a week), processed carbohydrates, sometimes like a bit of fruitcake or tiny bit of chocolate, although prefer to snack on savoury rather than sweet. In all, I would say my diet is good, but am hoping that after Feb, I will have seen some difference to things.

Maybe the answer is that my alcohol consumption, despite the rare bottle of bubbly that seems to disappear very easily, isn't making that much of an impact on the body, weight or waist wise, but cutting it out is obviously going to contribute to my healthy detox month.

Getting to day 8/9 now seems quite easy when I'm here. I have resisted temptation easily on a couple of occasions, supplementing a glass of wine with a glass of agrum or similar, although I am expecting some more occasions where I will stare longingly at the bottle in the fridge, only to remain strong. I will have to hide that unopened bottle of bubbly in the fridge and the sparkling shiraz at work, just in case.

Now to find a nice yoga class with good looking people hehe



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