Day 89 - Radio in Japanese, report, athlete!

Radio in Japanese!

I am appearing as a guest on a local radio show this afternoon.
I haven't used much Japanese recently but I do eat lunch with my Japanese colleagues to keep my ears attuned. I am scared I won't understand the questions and look foolish.

But I'll do my best to be personable, friendly, and let the host and other guests do most of the talking. You won't be able to listen as it's a local and live radio show sadly. My PCP-ing 'just get on with it!' mentality, and the Toastmasters training will help me through!



Report for yesterday

Workout was solid. Gave my all. Enjoyed the supersets. Feel sick rather than failing on supersets. But if you feel like throwing up, I think you are excused. Jumped rope outside my office, wearing a little blue dress and earrings.

Food - all on the mark. Last PCP meal prepared at work. Last day of weighing, last microwaved eggs, last huuuge plate of veg? I'm not going to change much on Monday despite the running joke that I should have a peak-fat-project. I love this way of eating and want to continue. Except with fewer eggs, please.


Sleep
Hayden saw me online at midnight and sent a single text message. 'You should be asleep'. So I turned off the computer and got 5.30 hours sleep in bed, then just under an hour on trains. The superset really whacked me out. Caught up today! Huzzah!


Gym Field Trip: You're no athlete!


Yesterday I went to a gym, Tipness, near Ikebukuro station. I was reminded of the sense of guilt that used to besiege me when I went to the gym - typically at the end of a week or month to 'get my money's worth' and of course, this interfered with a workout. It's still hard to motivate myself to pick up workout bands and rope some days, and that's in the comfort of my own home! A lot of the selling factor of gyms is 'comfort and choice'. The lady showing me round did not really talk about how the machines worked except to say 'you can change the weight' but she did point out the jacuzzi, sauna, massage room. And of course, NUMBERS! I got a free trial of the 'machine-that-tells-you-if-you're-lardy'! Apparantly, I am 79 on the scale of 1 - 100 for athleticism. An athlete is an 80 and a pro is 90, so don't look for me at the London Olympics next year!

I'm so glad I have these numbers to tell me whether I am healthy or not and how I need to train in the future. I've been really lost the last 87 days without them.

FINAL SOLO WORKOUT JUST COMPLETED TODAY, SATURDAY!

Patrick, I'll see you tomorrow. I'm ready for whatever you've got on the final worksheet tomorrow! Serve it up with a cherry on top...

Day 75 - Oh happy day! Haiku

Scoff, quaff, pig-out, feast.
Indulgence three is here yo!
And ninety is nigh...

Indulgence of curry was followed by Hayden treating me to coffee in Starbucks. He had a doughnut-like sugary twist and a hot chocolate and I had two coffees with 'normal' milk because I had this puppy waiting for me at home...

Another fantastic cake from my beloved La Bess cake shop. I've never thought of myself as being a fan of cake until this project, but cakes with marron, dense cream cheese, matcha flavours, all really hit the spot. This one came from the end of the roll so it had a kind of crust that was almondy and had a hint of cocoa. I wanted to have an indulgence that had a kind of decadent evening at home feeling, so I ate this at about 1 am while watching 'I love you Philip Morris' and drinking ginger tea and it was heavenly.

It's so funny that during the PCP of all things, I have discovered a new pleasure in life! Cake! I used to think it was just for girls and old ladies eating scones and drinking tea. And yet, I'm happy to welcome this new taste into my life without fear of it taking over. Why? I've learnt to know when to say no to the thousand small temptations that will wreck my chances of eating well. 

Examples of pointless calorie consumption

1. Not having hot chocolate and choosing a straight coffee in Starbucks

2. Saying 'no thank you' to the tray of treats at work

3. Looking the other way and saying 'no thank you' when my boss waved a box of chocs under my nose 'Won't you just look at them?'

4. Not dumping a load of salad dressing onto vegetables.

And being honest about my weaknesses...

1. When I'm down my instinct is to hoover up salty and sweetened food. I need a plan of what to do instead of eating. 

2. I like to eat ALOT, to see a table and bowls, preferably two, of food. This is all fine, as long as it's veggies!

Going back to the indulgence, Patrick asked if there were any side effects. I did feel incredible happy. This is because of sugar. The first mouthful of the cake sent shivers of sugar down my legs, before I even started to chew it! Like a drug. And the best part of the curry was the texture of the cheese nan plus the slight bitterness of the spinach curry. Buttery and creamy. Although I spread out the curry and the dessert, the total creaminess of the evening made me a little queasy. 

One thing I am proud of is that I entertained the idea of some icecream (chocolate, Haagan Daz) to go with the cake, but I remembered how it felt when I had Indulgence 2, and decided against it. Knowing what to leave OUT so that I can taste and enjoy everything is a skill I'm going to work on. In fact, the curry would have been just perfect in itself last night, but I had an agenda...

Post PCP, I want to indulge responsibly, but with a sense of wanton abandon too! Giving myself to the pleasure, but without the feeling of hurry, as though it was my last meal!

Did you guys learn anything new? Or was it more a well-deserved treat?

Day 39 - Second PCP meal 'out'

Feeling a bit lost as I tried my second PCP meal out. The first, at Toshimaen onsen, was really good and they weighed everything for me. The second, at my local mom'n'pop sushi place, was less successful. They don't have scales they told me, so they advised me to just eyeball it. The 'mom' started looking at pictures of fish to find a 'low-calorie' one, but I told her sadly that weighing was everything. So had a mixture of squid, tuna, mackerel sashimi with shredded daikon (surprisingly heavy veg. as it has so much water), small amount of pickled cabbage and two pieces of tofu. (I know, I know).

I estimated the fish to be around 70 of my 100 allowance. This was a mixture of eyeballing and how my stomach felt. Not great. Then went straight out into the shotengai, and got 3 sticks of yakitoria (shitake/chicken, onion/chicken, straight chicken). The amount of meat was pretty small, and I was still feeling like this didn't match what I 'should' be having. So I asked for one more, got one as 'service', and obviously ate both.

Sometimes I wish I WAS on the banana/apple/egg thing in the evenings - no pesky weighing or guilting. (Is that a verb? It is now).

Moral of the story is...if you think that it's not worked out in a restaurant or other culinary establishment, then quit while you're behind. Put down the chopsticks, walk into a place that sells produce, buy it quickly, take it home and weigh a conservative guess on what you missed. This IS why I tend to cook more at home. Hey ho.

In other fails, I misjudged my fruit (don't ask how, it's my special secret) and forgot how many pullups I needed to do when I got to my 'bar' in the playground, so I did 40 in 4 sets. Now I check, I see that I was right, huzzah!

Today's highlight was a set of scarily fast jumps just after noon. Done in a wraparound dress under the sakura surrounded by salarymen and kids on their lunch break.