So, the 16th of March. Back in 2005 I'd fallen into bad habits. I was seriously overweight and spent most of my time watching TV, playing computer games and eating takeaways. Although I had a bike it only got used once or twice a month. However change was in the air. In January 2005 I bought a Sony PS2 and GTA San Andreas. As part of the game you ( Read more... )

A couple of weeks ago it was revealed that Maggie was following a special diet that was heavy on eggs, grapefruit and various other things. It’s a diet that I’m actually quite familiar with and which calls itself the “Mayo Clinic Diet”. Unfortunately it has two minor drawbacks: 

1. It has nothing to do with the Mayo Clinic, which is a respected ( Read more... )

One of the first ever diet plans was written by William Banting in 1863. There's a downloadable version of it here. The first hint of what lay ahead with my diet plan was in a comment to this journal entry. It's flocked so here's a few extracts:
...one of my new year's resolutions [is] to lose a load of weight and improve my fitness to enter a Thai ( Read more... )

Definitely on track with the pre-xmas weight loss. Tonight on the scales I was 85.8 kg or 13 stone 6 lbs, being a total loss of 48 kgs or 7 stone 8 lbs over a bit less than 3 years and the last stone in the last 6 weeks. Just one more kilo to go and that's it. As I'm very close to my final target I thought it was about time for a new photo, as well ( Read more... )

87.8 kg on the scales at the beginning of tonight's session at the gym which is the lowest it's ever been, and let's say it was 85.9 at the end (it was near enough). This is despite picking up a stinking cold and spending most of the last few days Winehousing on menthol, eucalyptus, and hot curries and chillies (Discovery's 2stage hot chilli sauce ( Read more... )

Right, so, the weight thing then. A few weeks ago my weight start creeping up and 2 weeks ago it hit 91 - 92 kg. Not the way it's supposed to be going so I decided to arrest it. Certainly not for want of training. Since I started training at Leeds Cage at the end of October I've been down the gym almost every night, and 19 times altogether in the ( Read more... )

Ages since the last really long update. I think I've just got out of the habit of sitting down and writing long posts. Conversely I do a lot of status updates on Facebook or even Twitter because it's easier to write a single sentence or even just a fragment of one. Written English is not like spoken English and I refrain from using chavvy txtspk in ( Read more... )

First of the photos from today. I'll have more but I'm a bit too tired to do anything with them.

April 200530th May 2009
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With 2 days to go until my fight I finally got confirmation that I've been matched and that it's going ahead. Over the last few weeks I've been working hard to make weight for it through the traditional way of eating carefully and getting plenty of exercise, and I think I've had enough pasta and lean chicken to keep me going a very long time. Over ( Read more... )

This time next Saturday I'll be the other side of the weigh in and just waiting for my fight to begin. After 4 years training I've finally got to competition level. It might be the lowest possible level but it's a start. I've got an idea of where I'd like to take things but first I want to see how this goes. Since my interclub in February I've been ( Read more... )