25-30th

Erm, here goes:

25th: ended the night with raisins and Greek yoghurt. Pretty snazzy. I basically bought a pack of Crazy Jack Organic Raisins and mixed it with Tescos Greek yoghurt.

The next day, on the 26th, I travelled down to London. The best food at the Borough Market is as follows:

Cajun King Prawn Wrap. I ate most of the fish, avoided majority of the wrap, although to be honest I wasn't all that fussed. The wrap is a mix of various seafood; it's really fresh. They source their fish from Billingsgate.

Raclette - this is cheese, potatoes, and gherkins. The cheese was amazing.

Potted game.

Duck confit

This is kind of a "must have" as well.

Gluten free red velvet cupcake, beetroom brownie and caramel chocolate truffle cake. Wasn't keen on the red velvet - the icing was too sweet and the cake itself dry. Bean liked it, though, so I left it to him. The other two cakes were pretty good. I can't take too much sweet stuff anymore but I gotta say that they were moist and really chocolatey in a nice way. Not sickening, but definitely very filling.

Then at dinner, we went to a restaurant that served Nepalese cuisine - Yak and Yeti. It's a small chain; if you book through toptable you can get 40% off food, as long as each diner orders starters and dessert. It's pretty worth it - for three people, the price was about 36 pounds, and we had a three course meal, basically.

Tandoori lamb - really unusual, and it wasn't dry at all

Crab cake

The mains - aubergine curry, lentil dahl, and a chicken madras that was way too sweet.

Kulfi and Gulab jamin for dessert. Paleo out the window. I told myself I was carb loading for the next day.

Pre-marathon food -

Finished the marathon in 2:22:31. Not too shabby for a first timer. My knee gave in about 8 miles in, so I limp-jogged a third. I reckon I could get down to nearer 2 hours if I hadn't felt my knee grinding, as I felt fine stamina-wise; it was the pain that did me in - or rather the desire not to give myself pain. I've been limping around ever since. No other exercise because I'm trying to recover.

Need to get back to being stricter with paleo now; it's been 4 days of indulgence and I'm dining with a friend tomorrow who has kindly offered shepherd's pie and cake. Oops.

Paleo Out

Laulet

24-25th Oct

I've been systematically getting rid of what's in my fridge, and fighting off a cold. This, ironically, involves not doing any real fighting, but rather a lot of sleeping.

So, my meals for the past three days:

Wednesday:

6 sausages, and two eggs, cooked in the leftover sausage fat. Minimal pan use at its best. Also, chives. 

Thursday:

Roasted duck legs - I've realised that I got a pretty good deal on them in Tesco. I had three packs of Gressingham duck legs, and it was on a special offer - £10. So, I roasted 6 (ate one pack over the last weekend with Bean), and ate 5. If you want to be really exact, each duck leg is about £1.11 - so my meal cost less than six quid. Plus I've got a whole load of duck fat out of it, and my only seasoning was a lot of salt. Genius!

Finally, this morning, Friday:

This is literally everything I have left. Leftover duck poking out the top, then 2 shallots, some garlic, half a can of coconut milk, and two eggs. I used the duck fat saved from the previous day to cook it all up. It was a lot more filling than I anticipated!

Exercise:

Swam unknown lengths this morning. I've been winding down - the half-marathon, remember? Plus, I don't want to be ill. Lysine as per usual.

I've noticed; I have biceps. Whoa.

Cheers,

Laulet.

23rd Oct

I guess I'm a weekday paleo, weekend indulger. Let's see - that's about 70%, if I give myself the full weekend. Fortunately, even then, I don't go all out - it doesn't appeal to me that much to be honest. So the 80/20 rule? More or less.

Monday 22.10 meal:

Sausages, and roast broccoli. I placed the sausages on top of the broccoli so that the fat would drip down and soak into the veg, which sort of worked. I think next time I'll give it a bit of butter, too, as the broccoli was still a little dry.

23.10 - Tuesday

Two salmon fillets, two scrambled eggs with a shallot and garlic, plus the usual curry paste. In order to get the skin crispy, you've got to make sure your pan is as hot as possible before putting the salmon in. I always listen out for the sizzle of skin-on-hot-metal; that's when you know it's the right temperature. I only flip the salmon once the cooked colour has climbed halfway up the fillet - i.e. when it's turned from dark to light pink halfway. Before that, if you move the fillet around, it'll mess with the skin. Just use the time to chop the garlic and shallots. Once the fillets are done, toss the rest in, add the eggs, and bob's your uncle.

I take my salmon pretty rare - see that gorgeous pink?

What I do, to save me from instant temptations - shop when full. Don't buy snacks, but things that must be cooked or prepped in some way. As you can see, my weekly shop was a bit costly (the Bean required some things for the dishes he whipped up), so it was basically 62 pounds. However, a lot of that is things that I will use for a while - the oils, for example, and gluten-free soy sauce. Proper mustard. I try to buy Tesco's Finest and organic produce, even though it costs a little extra, I feel it's worth it. Most of this went during the weekend, as Bean and I cooked for a friend, and he was here for two days on top of that - we ate everything double quick, basically.

What I have left, after today's meal, is four eggs, two packs of duck legs (they come in threes now. I'm not complaining - more duck for me, but why? Are mutated ducks waddling around on three legs now? That's a scary thought!), a few shallots and garlic, and the oils. Two fillets of salmon, too. And one more pack of sausages. How to spread that out over the week? Well, I'm going home this weekend, and I am definitely stopping by Borough Market to get some fresh fish from Applebee's, and some meats (Ginger Pig collar bacon, YES, and Exquisite Deli cured meats). I'm also working this Friday, down at the local pub. Unfortunately I found out that we don't get free food; just a staff discount. They've also changed the menu, and I'm not that keen on it. I'm on the lookout for a better job, but it'll do in the meantime - I just won't be eating there!

Wednesday: roast duck legs

Thursday: 6 sausages (i.e. the entire pack, yes indeed)

Friday: the remaining salmon

I'm wondering whether I should keep it to zero-carb (thus kick myself as quickly as possible back into ketosis), or get myself some veg to go on the side. It's not strictly necessary, but I do feel better with some greens in my belly. 

Exercise: lifted yesterday; managed to squat about 50kg, and push-press 25kg. Slow but steady improvement. I also did a bit of breakdance training, though I'm got a stuffy nose, so I'm not overdoing anything.

I'll be doing Chinese Kickboxing tonight.

One thing I've noticed is that I don't feel the cold much this year - yet. I don't know whether this is because I've increased the amount of exercise I do, and every time I go outside I'm cooling down, or whether it's a dietary consequence, or a reaction to cold showers. I've been experimenting with taking cool showers, and I find them tolerable in short bursts. I can't take cold showers as of yet, but I'll get there. The timing isn't great, what with winter approaching, so I'm matching cold showers with cold weather, but maybe it'll help my tolerance more. I've never dealt with the cold well before; I'm usually the one in four layers and two pairs of gloves, who always needs to pee when it's cold. I'll keep the experiment going.

Cheers,

Laulet

19th Oct

Lyonnaise salad, a la Raymond Blanc. No tarragon or chervil in this though; our ingredients were as follows:

-2 baby gem lettuce 

-butter

-pancetta lardons

-chives

-3 pre-cooked beetroots

-quail eggs

Salad dressing:

-white wine vinegar

-mustard

-extra virgin rapeseed oil

-1 shallot

-one clove garlic

Recipe:

1) Heat 2 pans; filling one with water for the eggs, and the other to cook the lardons.

2) Whilst waiting for them to heat, wash and chop the lettuce, beetroot, garlic, and shallots

3) We did the eggs two ways - poached, and soft-boiled. The latter is much easier, as they require a short time in simmering water, but poaching is a little more complex. It's actually a little difficult with quail's eggs, as the ablumen (the egg white) is so miniscule that it doesn't really cover the egg yolk.

a) Soft-boiled: Once water simmers, drop the quails' eggs in for two minutes, and fish 'em out after.

b) Poached. Add vinegar to the simmering water (this helps the whites to coagulate), and stir gently in one direction. Crack the eggs into separate bowls, and, lowering each bowl as close to the surface as possible, drop the egg into the water, still stirring. Once the white has wrapped itself around the egg yolk, lift it out and place into a bowl of cold water, to prevent it from cooking further (you want the yolk to stay runny). This can be done with all sorts of eggs, of course.

4) Pan-fry the pancetta lardons in butter.

5) Put the garlic, shallots, about a tablespoon of mustard, a dash of vinegar, and whisk vigorously. Add the rapeseed oil in a slow trickle, still whisking. If you don't have a whisk, use two forks, and add a determined fury to your whisking. This is your salad dressing.

6) Remove lardons from your frying pan, and replace with the beetroot slices.

7) Put together - lettuce plus cooked eggs, pancetta and beetroot. Sprinkle some chives on top, and enjoy!

-

For dinner, we had a friend over and ate the food that Bean had purchased from Goldmine, a wonderful Chinese restaurant in Bayswater. Duck, Chinese crispy roast pork and bbq roast pork. How amazing does this look? Chinese crispy roast pork is just about the best kind of pork there is, and it's near impossible to reproduce at home - normal ovens don't get the heat required, and it needs to be hung afterwards, to keep it dry.

Beans made a mushroom and pak choi side to go with it. There was rice, too, which I declined. Delicious with or without.

Indulgence occured after dinner - banana fritters. Delish. The batter is made with white flour, egg, golden syrup and cold water. The bananas are dipped into it, then dropped into sizzling oil, as below.

If you're going to indulge, do it well - Haagen Dazs vanilla? Sure.

Crispy fried fritters.

The finished product - no paleo resistance from me. They were the bomb. 

Exercise: 90 mins of breakdance class, and random pushups throughout the day. Not that much, but not shabby either. I think I may be falling ill, so may dial it down over the next few days.

Paleo out

Laulet

18th Oct

I found this photo on my phone a while back. I've never really been a ketchup person (chips? Salt and vinegar, all the way), but I did like the sentiment behind it.

So on the 18th, I ate a proper mountain of stuff. These weiners were given to me by a friend who went on holiday to Munich, and bought these back as a present. Not the sort of thing I'd usually eat - in fact, I don't think I've ever had sausages from a tin before (unless unknowingly at some cheap restaurant or hotel). I struggled to drag up my rusty old language skills. Don't cook, say the instructions. Boil them in the brine, adding an equal amount of water.

I wasn't too sure about boiling sausages, but I did it anyway - here we go. I don't have a proper lid, as you can see; the lid belongs to a stock pot - one of two pans that I own. The circulon pan is a huge 28cm, as is the other pot. Minimal but easy to make multiple meals in.

I thought it would be a good idea to empty my fridge before Bean arrived, and sliced up both my remaining courgettes. They made a mini mountain. I actually had to pause to wonder if I could eat it all!

One of the sausages split whilst being boiled. It was a rather odd kind of sausage cocoon. It's hard to imagine any sort of butterfly emerging from that, though. A blobby flying pig, maybe.

The final result? As follows:

Five eggs, a dab of green curry paste, two courgettes and two sausages. It was incredibly filling. I actually had to stop in the middle, and rest for half an hour. It probably weighed at least half a kilo. Note to self - maybe one courgette is enough. I think it was slightly psychosomatic - it really looked like a lot, so I got fuller quicker. In fact, there was a recent question on paleohacks regarding hard-boiled vs scrambled eggs, which got me thinking.

I've been feeling tired lately; I suspect it's a combination of some pretty intense cardiovascular exercise almost daily and a horrible sleep pattern. I'm an early sleeper and riser (10-11pm/7am) type of person but ever since the fire alarm went off in my accommodation at 5am the other morning, I've been sleeping really lightly, and haven't felt very rested.

Exercise: two hours of kickboxing. I'm determined to grade and spar, but it's a pretty expensive endeavour to get all the gear. Well; better start adding more hours to my shift!

Lysine as usual, 3000mg per day.

Next time I'll give recipes - Bean is a much more competent cook than I, and whipped up some wonderful dishes during his visit. Not everything was paleo, but it was well worth it.

I've gained a fair bit of muscle tone over the past month. Although I haven't been running at all, I'm hoping that the constant exercise (more or less 6x a week, usually 90-120 mins) is a fair enough substitute.

17th Oct

Well, wouldja lookit that. It's a latte. Amaretto. Sugar-free syrup. Whipped cream - probably with sugar, but it was TASTY. I keep down to two cups of caffine a day - I have a very soft spot for Twinings Earl Grey (and the people who gave it to me gave me a lovely box of organic tea bags, bless their hearts), and I can't take straight filtered coffee because it I am a wuss.  Anyway, I was meeting with a friend, we had a good talk about academic life, and then off I popped.

This is how I pan-fry zucchini. Anyone, and really, I do mean anyone, can do this. Medium high-heat, a load of butter (this time it was the goat butter again, yum), and salt and pepper. Separate the thinly sliced pieces, and turn over once browned. Then take 'em out. You can lay them on a paper towel if they're too soggy, which will soak up some of the oil/fat. If you want crisp courgettes, then slice thinly, exactly the same, but sprinkle a baking tray liberally with olive oil, slat and pepper (plus any other seasoning you may desire, i.e. rosemary, thyme etc) and pop it in the oven at top temp for a few minutes. Keep an eye out to ensure they don't burn. The courgettes will be done in about 30 seconds at the right temperature.

Top tip? Have a good knife. I was given a really sharp zwilling knife; it's a basic chef's knife, but it cuts through just about everything. Including my fingers; I have had a few mishaps here and there, but let's gloss over that, shall we?

I fried half normally, and then fried the other half with three eggs and thai green curry paste. Dee-licious. 5-10g of paste max out, unless you want a fire in your belly and tears in your eyes. It's potent stuff.

See also three sausages from the local butcher's. I've kept to the template I laid out before, although I may or may not have eaten the salami... for breakfast...

In my defense, the fire alarm went off at 5am in the morning, and we had to trek out in pyjamas in heavy rain to stand on a field and shiver until the security checked everything out. Then somebody set it off again at 8am. The earlier I wake up, the earlier I get hungry, which makes sense. So the salami was sacrificed. Now I have five eggs, two courgettes and about five cans of coconut milk. I don't think I'll last 'til Friday, but lucky me, my partner is 'a visiting on Friday and bringing food. The true way to a man's heart. And in fact, mine. My pardner, let's call him Bean, is bringing duck. I repeat, duck. CHINESE ROAST DUCK. That is all. Thank you, and goodnight.

Exercise: usual situps, pushups. Have 2 hrs of breakdance comin' up. You know, considering the latest post by Mark Sisson - i.e. 4,000 calories as the upper limit per week of focused exercise, I wonder where this kind of sport fits in. Does breakdance count? Does kickboxing? If so, that's a good 12 hours or so every week, and how much does that burn? Not to mention any extra I get in through random swim sessions, lifting and anything else I decide to do. I'm not particularly worried, though. If I'm tired I push through it, if I'm exhausted, I rest. 

Lysine as per usual.

Paleo out

Laulet

16th Oct

So, this is what I started out with today. No thai curry paste - enough of that for a while. So you see the rest of my leftover spinach; maybe 200g or so. I can't remember how much minced beef I had either, but the heft of it was about 400g. The goat's butter that I mentioned in the previous post. Did you know, it tastes delicious on its own. What are they feeding those things? Rainbows? Salt and pepper, also organic doodah. They're probably scamming me for all I'm worth but the sea salt (Maldon's) is really good. I'm using Barts organic peppercorns too. I make sure that I buy organic free range eggs; I raved about pork last post, but chickens are treated pretty horrifically too. I once watched a video about it that made my housemate throw up, and go vegan. It was pretty raw though; throats slashed and whatnot. I don't feel an obligation to keep all  other animals alive - we're not natural vegetarians, and although conventional nutritional advice seems to stray into the land of vegetarianism-for-health, I'm not buying it. I do think we have the duty to see that the animals have a decent life and are raised healthily - even just for our own benefit. Healthy animals taste better, end of story. And, yes, I do think that if I'm benefiting from its dead flesh, then I should at least make sure it had a fairly happy life. Hard to judge the happiness of an animal, but I'm betting a battery farm isn't at all enjoyable. 

My pan is classy. Treat her with respect. She's a Circulon. She ain't no one-term stand; she's a classy little skillet. Oh yes. Incredibly easy to clean and cook with, so worth paying that bit extra, methinks.

So anyway, those ingredients magically transformed themselves into this. Two bowls of it, actually. As you can see I'm sticking to yesterday's outline - minced meat, spinach and two eggs. I'm still hungry though. I'm gonna wait until I've digested a little more, see if anything drops down the throat-hatch into the stomach-box and if I feel fuller, but if not I'll make myself a coconut drink. This will literally involve me taking some of that curry paste, microwaving a can of coconut milk (in a cup, not straight from the can, obviously), stirring in enough butter for my flatmates to express concern over my arteries (no, I don't try and put that right, just smile and shrug) and drink up. It's curry soup with no condiments basically. I always keep a few cans around for emergency hunger. Key is to not drink too much, and after a meal, otherwise it plays havoc with the bowels. Mine, anyway. Mulch Diggums, anyone?

Exercise: swam 2k with a friend around 8am, sprints and different strokes included. Took around an hour, with breaks. I could do more; a lot more if I'm pushed - I was working up to 5k before the summer break, but swimming's not my sport anymore. I used to do a lot of competitive swimming, so my technique's fair, but my time's still decreased. I found myself tiring quite quickly because I hadn't eaten since yesterday lunch, and my forearms were complaining, unusually. I theorised that it was because I was lifting yesterday. Will be doing kickboxing tonight, 2 hrs. Plus I've done the usual ab-tastic V-sits and have changed the leg lifts to leg rotations in order to keep the stomach muscles going, and to utilise the side abs more. 

Just procured a part-time job with a local pub. Floor staffing at the moment - serving people their wraps and burgers and chips. Actually it's probably the best food within a 5km radius though, and if I get free food I am having a steak. Oh yes. Minimum wage, but I enjoy people jobs and one of my possible career choices is hospitality. I love being inside the kitchen, seeing the meat on the grill, scooping peas. Even the table cleaning isn't too much of a chore. And it's interesting to be on the other side of the table, as it were. Been waiting to get a restaurant service job for a while. Anyway, it won't pay the rent; I don't intend to do anything more than say 20 hrs a week, but it'll help. Keep me in food and whatnot. Although the shirts they have at the moment are size XL; I can fit my head in one of the sleeves. Waiting for a new shipment. Also, am considering doing a food and hygiene course but I can't figure out why there's such a difference between City  & Guilds (famous for training up the LOGOC Olympic team this very year) and CIEH, which seems to be the officially reliable food hygiene cert. Any thoughts?

Current body comp: unconcerned.

Cheers,

Laulet

14-15th Oct

14th: These? They are this. Two pounds per pack of 6 sausages. Well worth it. Pork is the most 'dangerous' meat in terms of disease and our of the larger farming animals, it's the one that lives under some of the worst conditions in intensive farming, so if I'm skimping on one meat, I make sure it isn't pork. I don't eat much pork anyway; I'm British to the bone in that I eat copious amounts of beef and occasionally lamb. Also finished off some brilliant Speck from a stall in Borough Market. The fat on that stuff is amazing. Not so greatly, I also ate about 500g of natural Yeo Valley yoghurt. Moderation goes out the window for me when it comes to dairy. Cheese is currently verboten, so apart from this break in routine it's pretty much been full-fat milk in my morning tea and that's it.

Today, this was my main meal, around 11am after having done some lifting in the morning. Four slices of heart in butter, and 4 scrambled eggs with spinach. Again, I added the thai green curry paste. Maybe 500g or so of grapes, and some wild boar salami, from the same stall that I mentioned above. 

What's still in the fridge?  2/3 of the salami sausage, 4 pork sausages from the local butchers, about 300g of minced meat. And goat's butter. I just checked out the website; the goats are 'sheltered' and fed on a heavily grain/wheat/sugar diet so I may just go back to using Kerrygold after, but ya don't know til ya try, right? Plus the rest of the spinach, and a pack of three courgettes. I'm gonna try and live off that until Friday but I don't think it's possible. I have 10 organic eggs, but even then. Maybe if I try eating the minced meat tomorrow (Tuesday), along with two eggs and spinach, then the sausages on Wednesday, with three eggs and a courgette. Then on Thursday I can have three more eggs and a courgette, plus the wild boar salami? Starve on a semi-veg day on Friday: two eggs and a courgette.

So,
Tuesday: minced meat, two eggs, spinach
Weds: sausages, three eggs, courgette
Thurs: salami, three eggs, courgette
Fri: two eggs, courgette

Let's see if I can stick to that. It's gonna be hard. I've tried to match it up to the amount of activity I do - Tuesday I kickbox again, so I definitely want the biggest meal that day. I'm not gonna starve myself - if I get hungry, I will go and buy something to supplement my meals, but let's see how many days it takes. I could fast for 24+ hours I guess, but that's not really in line with my fitness goals at the moment. I can train fasted, but probably not after that long.

My meals are fairly repetitive but I don't really do much when I'm eating by myself. As you will have noticed by now I am perfectly happy eating offal and other cheap but nutritionally dense cuts. Might be signing up to a CSA box soon with a fellow paleo guy. Well, he's a Mark Sisson fan, so he goes by Primal, but the overall term still applies. CSA sounds rather fancy - community supported agriculture. It's local food, is what. Organic veg, grass-fed meat, or at least bordering on organic/free-range if now - the people haven't got back to me yet with specifics.

Exercise: the usual 60 V sit ups, leg lifts and 20 pushups both days. Went Chinese Kickboxing and breakdance on the Sunday, lifted this morning. Did a 5x5 routine, consisting of back squats, push press and deadlift, increasing weights each time. Backsquats around 35kg, 25 for pushpress, and 60 for deadlift. Then a measly attempt at two pullups (I know) and about 15 handstand pushups.

Body comp - can't really tell at the moment. I'd like to think I'm losing body fat and I certainly have some definition on my abdominals when I wake up in the morning, but that's mainly dehydration and the fact that I haven't eaten for about 12 hours. I would like abs, please and thank you.

Cheers,

Laulet

11-13th Oct

Going home for a day is definitely a cheat day. My family is assuredly non-paleo, and whilst we don't have a sweet tooth, we appreciate desserts. So there you have it.

The day before I headed off I'd made myself a thai green curry, with wild alaskan salmon rather than the traditional chicken. The salmon was from the frozen section of Tescos; comes in a bag of six vac-packed fillets. The annoying thing is that defrosting them means that they're really wet, so it's difficult to fry 'em up for a nice crispy skin. Hence the curri-fication of the food. The innocuously named 'Cock Brand' (their logo is a chicken, okay) thai green curry is really good - no preservatives or additives; just a good ol' blend of a million spices and suchlike. I use it in pretty much everything; it's great with scrambled eggs. Coconut oil or butter is the key. Using butter gives a slightly thicker, richer mouthfeel. I made a pretty huge batch - four fillets, two aubergines, and about 3 1/2 cans of coconut milk, give or take. This is my second day batch, beautifully aesthetic in a plastic container. Classy, that's me.

Then yesterday was proper, back on track, full-blown, paleo time. See those? Kidneys. Local market butcher. There must have been about 400g. Underneath are three curry scrambled eggs. It ain't pretty, but it sure is tasty. The key really is not to overcook them. It was a little watery because they weren't entirely defrosted, but still edible. Had some Spanish salami and yoghurt, too.

So the middle bit; eating with family. We went to quite a nice restaurant and I spotted duck confit on the menu. I'm a sucker for confits. I mean, come on, it's food cooked in full on fat. In the case, duck in duck fat. Duck is also a magnificent bird. I could probably live off duck for a week or two. A challenge that I am honestly willing to take on. Duck confit is ace. I think the place was called Cote Brasserie.

Here comes my downfall. Dessert. Creme brulee up top, chocolate mousse on the right, and dark chocolate topped with creme fraiche on the bottom left. But to be fair to myself, no gluten in there. It was incredibly filling. I wasn't eating all three, obviously - it was a shared 'do.

Exercise: I'm doing at least 60 V sit ups, 60 leg lifts and 20 pushups every morning. Training for the half-marathon is currently at 0 miles. Breakdance bruises have been achieved. The half-marathon is in two weeks. I'm gonna run it in a panda or a pikachu onesie. Take your pick.

Didn't have any lysine whilst at home, mainly because I forgot to take it with me. A lot of boxers and professional athletes seem to have 'carb-cycling' days though. I haven't read enough about the long-term effects of ketosis to know what to do so I'm still self-experimenting. I can either stick VLC (very low carb) as long as possible, cold turkey, or have one day a week where I eat rice/potatoes/etc. For now, all I have in the fridge is meat, spinach and yoghurt. And butter. I am never without butter.

I deliberately don't pretty up my food; I have and certainly can appreciate nice presentation and delicate flavours, but this is just me eating, alone, with minimal mess and washing up. If I can do it, most people can. I'm not spending yoinks of money; it's all done and over with in half an hour. Cheap and cheerful student life, really. If you're thinking about it, try it for two weeks. A week isn't long enough to adjust to the new things you're feeding your body. And don't give up. Some days I crave cake like crazy, even now. I should probably stop watching The Great British Bakeoff on BBC iPlayer. But other days I'm fine. And I feel full, and in control. That's the most important thing, feeling empowered over your own health (and weight I guess). I'm trying, basically, to get under 20% body fat. Might start taking pictures of body composition later on but the idea makes me feel a bit self-conscious at the moment.

Cheers!

9th Oct

Some call this gross, others, beauty. I call it food. One whole courgette, fried in Kerrygold butter. Three slices of ox heart. I pan-fry offal quickly, on high heat - I hate the chalky taste of overdone offal. It's pretty raw on the inside, but I haven't got sick so far.

Also, half a mooncake - non-paleo. My aunt made 'em. The egg yolk is the best part, really. If someone invented a pure egg yolk mooncake that would be the best dessert in the world.

3000mg lysine.

60 V situps, 30 leg lifts, 20 pushups, 1.5 hours ZSK kickboxing. Not super intense, but fun. I think my personal 'thing' (I refuse to say philosophy because it isn't. Saying it is: pretentious. Which I also am, a little, but not as much as calling my lifestyle a philosophy) is now: exercise for fitness and enjoyment. Emphasis on the latter. I used to do an awful lot or cycling and running in the gym. This year I've only signed up to the weights room.

This really needs to be more regular. I'm going to stick a post-it on my computer or something. It's because I actually also have a fancy-schmancy (not) Excel sheet which breaks this down into daily components, sans pictures, so it's easy to forget a blog. On the other hand, things like FitDay.com are way too involved. I'm interested in my food macro-nutrient breakdowns but I think it's also a slippery path into obsession and I don't have the time or inclination right now. If I start feeling I need to shake things up or feel any injuries/sicknesses coming on then that'll be when I go down to the very basics.

Paleo peace out. Hippie peace sign and all. Not hipster, though, thank yew.

5th Oct 2012

Self intro: paleo. student. countryside. meal and exercise records, and anything else that comes to mind. English student, so expect bouts of verbosity, but I'm keeping this as sparse as possible until an idea comes to mind.

Today.

Some lazy 20kg squats in the gym, first thing in the morning - but nothing overwhelming. I haven't lifted properly for a while and I need to get my form back. I've saving my strength for a breakdance class tonight, too. 40 V situps; again, not my limit (max reps managed between 60-70) but it was just to get me warmed up.

 I tried to arrange it in a face and failed.

Meal of the day, 11am: five slices of bacon sourced from the Ginger Pig in Borough Market, an entire courgette, and five kidney halves from good 'ol Tesco deli counter, all pan-fried in none other than Kerrygold butter. Note Tescos isn't my preferred place to get food, but I'm offally fond of offal and didn't have time to go to my local butchers - local meaning half an hour's walk away. Plus I am a cheapo student. Also, not pictured, a pear. Low-carb I may (try to) be but I do love my fruit.

I have lysine pills as I'm trying to get into ketosis - I take 3000mg a day, since I'm already ingesting a high amount of fat and protein. I haven't seen much fat loss, although on the upside I haven't gained weight either.

Exercise: 2x5 20kg backsquats, push press, 40 V sit ups and a few hours of bruising breakdance to be done later.


Highest Weight: 129/60kg
Lowest Weight: 119/54kg (3 biscuits and tea for breakfast every day, no lunch, restricted dinners. I'm not doing that again)
Current Weight: ??? I don't have a scale anymore. My goal is to get below 20% body fat and reach a few fitness goals. I'll outline them next time.

Cheers!