What not to do?

This is part of the weight update series.. So lets say that last week I was doing great..! Was controlling my portions.. Burning more then what I was consuming.. Drinking plenty of water and eating fruits and vegetables...
I was a good boy.....!!! Then Sunday came along...

You know one of those Sundays when you have a BBQ, hell I was the one cooking to begin with..! So how you can stay away from the delicious food?? Specially if it is a BBQ..! that is my weak spot..!!! MEAT..! 

Come on..! Tell me you are not wishing you were there with me last Sunday? On top of all this yummy sausages and meat there was plenty of stuff to go around and snack on.. Cheese, pickles, chips/crisps and who knows what else... So by the time the food was actually ready you were snacking away about 1000 calories..! And now was lunch time..!!?? 

So I was almost full by the time the first piece of meat left my grill.. And the owners of the house never let my cup be half empty.. Every time I turned around someone was filling it with nice Spanish cold beer...

This means that I had at least another 1500 calories just from drinking beer..!!! Are you keeping track of the calories? Good..!!! I didn't..!

In a normal day I am suppose to eat no more then 1600 calories during the day in order to lose my 1 kilo a week.. I am not going to lie to you most of the time I am over that amount but I compensate by going for a walk or riding my bike.. so everything is in check..

But Sunday was a special day and when you are a guest at a party and the food is crazy good you can't be rude and say no.. You have to eat... Well you don't have to but I love to..!!!

Besides these meat is something I really love.. Argentinian Asado..!!!

So my wild guess is that I ate about a kilo or more of that beef.. and is another like 2500 calories.. So I was way over my budget for the day.. And to finish it up there was chocolate cake and other sweets followed by more beer and stronger stuff for the ones that like that sort of thing.. I had more beer..

To culminated today's report let me tell you that the scale said I was 97.9 kilos on Monday morning.. That was an increase of 1.5 kilos from the week before..!!! It only takes one day of eating out of control for me to gain what cost me so much to lose..

Now is time to restart (I did Monday already) the battle and cut back on all the good stuff to reach my goal of 90 kilos at some point in life..

Hope you enjoyed the what not to do post.. Share if you know someone struggling with this..

See you next week?

Pablo 

The Weekend Report Guy

My weight loss journey...

Remember a few months back I was posting about this journey and then I just stopped doing it... Why did I stop? Simple..! I got comfortable... I was happy..!! I got down to my so call normal weight of somewhere around 92 kilos...

So me at 92 kilos? Something like this...

Why the picture in a cycling kit? Various reasons.. #1 there is no place to hide..! The moment you accept that you are having a problem is easier to tackle it and start doing something about it..  So me at 92 kilos is not the image of a ballet dancer or anything close to it but at least I am light and able to move around easier...

Me at 99 kilos? This picture was taken yesterday by one of my cycling mates..

Well people tell me that I carry well my weight but that is not the point... After living with my body for 38 years I know signs that is time to start losing weight or at least try to do so..

Examples:

- When I am over weight I snore at night... This is a problem because not only I had problems resting... It makes my better half complain about it as well...
- Hard to get up the hills on the bike... And if you look around this blog you will realize that is a big part of what I do in my life.
- Is not healthy for my joins... Specially that right knee that got in an accident a while back.. Also is post about that in the blog if you like to know that story.

We could keep going all day naming all the issues that carrying extra weight in you r body brings and we all know that this change with each person since each body is different and reacts in different ways to carrying extra weight.

Eating a lot is something I love to do..! I really enjoy a big meal but we all know is not healthy for the body or the wallet either..! So it is time to start doing something about this again...

What do I do to try to keep this under control? How do I manage to lose weight? Or I better say how do I try to lose weight...

I am sure you read or hear about portion control before... Well this is what I do... Now how do you keep track of your meals? I have a partner to do this.. A virtual friend that with today technology is always with me... There is hundreds of them but I use +MyFitnessPal to keep and eye on what I eat and how many calories I burn.. The calories part I do with +Strava  and they are both linked so it is very easy.

So keep and eye on  My weight loss journey... as I will be posting updates with the journey numbers.. Remember I started at 99.1 kilos... Today I am at 98.8 kilos..!! this is after the first week..!

Thanks for reading and if you need some help losing weight join me in this journey..!

See you next week..!

Pablo 

The Weekend Report  "Fat" Guy

The Weight update

Last week I had a rough week.. Things in life are not going according to what I want or expected before I moved here so I got down a bit... Is normal, life will test you all the time and see how much you can handle...

Any how.... You are here to check how am I doing with the weight fight right? Let me tell you how I am doing.. No let me show you how I am doing..!

Can you see it? That is a report from the last 90 days.. This shot shows you at my heaviest point during the last 3 months.. And now I am down to 94 kilos..!!!

Yes all the sacrifice is paying off (finally) and the scale started to move down... Or to show numbers less scary..

Now you would like to know how I am doing this? Very easy..(on paper)

1- Find out how many calories you are suppose to eat a day..
2- Don't go over that amount of calories.
3- Exercise...!!
4- Drink lots of water..!! You will pee your fat away..!! And helps control anxiety.

That is very much it... I know is simple right..? But damn is a lot of work not to go over that damn number of calories a day... I can eat 1850 or so a day to lose 400 grams a week... and a lot of times I see myself close to this number after lunch.. I love to eat..!

Here is when I start exercising... And earn my snacks and extra meals.. Like today I was on the bike for 1 hour doing some hard work and earned another 1000 extra calories that I could eat.. So chicken and baked potato for dinner were delicious..!

I would recommend you to use +MyFitnessPal to track your calories intake and to track your physical activities I use +Strava  you can link this two together so no need to go and do manual writing there.. If you own an indoor bike I suggest you check #gozwift for motivation..

Well there you go friends prove that when you try hard and have some discipline you can do anything you want..!

See you next week for another update..!!

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

A B-Day Weekend..

No, not my B-Day... So hold your thoughts there for a minute, I didn't have the opportunity to go and ride a monster ride or an epic day on the saddle... But I had the pleasure of spending the whole weekend with some of the most important people in my life...

This is us

As the title says this was a b-day weekend.. The little man became 7 and we decided to do stuff that makes him happy... We looked around during the week for possible alternatives on what to do..
don't forget we live in Belfast, Northern Ireland so we decided for an indoor fun and active place..

On our way to this place we passed this:

You see this and think of? Belfast..!

Our option was at the end W5 and it was a great decision..! Glad we picked this place.. The kids and also us grown ups had a great time with the different games, experiments, facts, exploring and puzzles to mention a few of the activities..

Some climbing? Not sure how this is called..

We made some music..!!

We completed puzzles..!

We learned some physics laws..!

Made and watched hot air balloons rise..!

- First you filled them with hot air, then when they got full or reached the pressure needed they went up..!

Another view..!?

The little one enjoying some indoors climbing. (This looked really cool!! I wanted to go in!)

After a nice day out with the kids was time to come home and start cooking for the hungry family.. Katja and I decided to make an Argentinian BBQ for dinner for us and some friends that were coming... (salads, bread and other stuff too)

Here is a pic of the main dish... Obviously before grilling it... (Asado, Short ribs, beef)

The cook, having fun by the grill.. Noticed the matching clothes with the food? ;-)

In Argentinian tradition Asado and Vino goes together (BBQ and Wine)

And we found some tasty wine from back home.

And after 2 to 3 hours of slow cooking and drinking some German beer while doing it..

Dinner was ready..!!

We all sat together at the table, inside by this time since the weather got cold really quick when the sun started to go down..

We ate, we drunk, we sang happy b-day to Felix and had cake..(by the way the cake was made by Savannah from scratch.. Our daughter)

The B-Day boy had a great time and made it all worth it..!

The only problem with this is that I didn't ride the bike at all..! Ate a lot..! Drank a lot ! and gained some weight that I have to try to burn during the week..

Thanks for reading my blog.

Till next adventure.

Pablo Alves.