Day 7

A few weeks back I had a business trip to the Continent followed by a week of volunteering in a neighboring country.  Here is the summary of those two weeks:

week 1, country 1 - Work silly hours, drink too much coffee in the office, eat the local cuisine in the evenings (carb heavy, cheese overload).  They like to eat seasonally, can anyone say, pumpkin risotto?

week 2, country 2 - Even crazier volunteer hours in a country that does not recognize vegetarians.  Food was provided, breakfast each day was 2 slices of bread with cheese.  Lunch and dinner always included potatoes.  The vegetarian main was something fried, like breaded soya.  One day there were apples for a snack, oh the excitement.  On the plus side, I had no alcohol for 5 days straight while I was on the clock for the volunteer gig, even though it was provided for free each night.

week 3 - Return to the UK and try to get back into a routine in the face of coming back to my awful job.  It was a bumpy landing that included a 'two for Tuesday' papa john's pizza night as I couldn't be bothered to cook for date night.  It also involved excessive wine and fizzy each evening.  As an added twist, I also started on vodka as I brought back a cheap bottle from country 2 where they specialize in it.

At the end of week 3 was my monthly stats at the gym.  It's not a gym requirement but I run them at the end of each month to keep track of progress over time.  As suspected, I was in the worst or second to worst rating for each of my numbers since I started tracking in Dec 2015.

**Fast forward**

I had one last Monday drinking (it still remains my Achilles heel of drinking nights due to the job) and went cold turkey on a Tuesday Sept 27th, no alcohol.

I started Wednesday on a strict diet, my personal one which seems to suit my body best historically, mainly:

• Vegan, but with egg whites and fish.  I have 1-2 friend egg whites in the morning, pre-gym.
• The fish is either tuna from a can or something fresh which I prepare as baked, not breaded, an actual fresh fish, nothing from a freezer or prepared by someone else.  Normally I sprinkle on some herbs and that's it.
• No dairy except for an occasional yogurt as a snack.
• No 'bready' carbs or 'no white carbs' as people like to say.  For me this means no rice, no bread.  I will add a light carb such as 2 ryvita crackers with a big salad for a meal or Japanese soya noodles in a stir fry.  I start each gym day with 50 grams of porridge (oatmeal) made with water.  

At the gym, my normal routine, one hour per day of a mix of cardio/high-intensity and weight training.  A new schedule was released last week at the gym so still figuring that one out, what to do on what day.

Results so far:

The 'warm up' activity of taking the weekdays off from alcohol in my prior weeks was a good thing.  I got through Tues-Thurs ok.  A few m&m's on Friday, while I don't eat candy normally I have seen in earlier weeks that taking away the wine sugar does have an impact.

In the past I've done Mon-Thurs nights or Tues-Fri with little issue.

Saturday was a massive crash and burn as I outlasted my normal routine.  Somehow it seems the body knows that it gets wine again at the weekend.  I soldiered on and OH made dinner.

I know many people say just to work on the alcohol and to eat whatever just to get past the days but the thing that has kept me going this week has been the weight loss, so it's been paying off to keep my diet in check along with the alcohol.

Tuesday 58.8 kilos.  During the prior week of decadence it was above 59.

I've been headed down since then and clocked in this morning at 57.8 kilos.  I don't expect it to go down each day, it can vary slightly but the point is that one week later I'm 1 kilo lighter.

My goal is to head in to the 56 kilo zone and then decide further.  I've noticed an improvement in my sporty performance this week so I'd like to see what another kilo does for me.  Tonight I brought back in a small serving of cheese pizza, I decided to have that as a small reward for lasting a week alcohol free.

In addition to the 56 criteria, at a minimum I plan to last until Sunday, when we have a dinner planned.  I don't necessarily plan to break the fast that day but I will make it through another Friday/Saturday to prove that I can do it.