Day 90 – “Dear Athletes”

As some of you may know, my inspirational figure for PCP was “Triathlon Guy” … And I am pleased to announce that it is official ...  I AM a TRIATHLETE! 

Last week I enrolled in the HKFC Triathlon Club and today I received my first email from the Club Capitan and it was addressed to ME as  …“Dear Athlete(s)”… My inspiration is now a reality … I am an ATHLETE and that happened without me taking a single step onto the Triathlon course.  But in many ways I have taken what is probably the most difficult step ... I have prepared by mind and body … and I have signed on to become “Triathlon Guy”.

The PCP journey has been great.  To be honest, it has not been as hard as I might have imagined.  The trick to completing PCP is being consistent, having a routine and each and every day taking small steps towards the end goal.  Sounds a bit like life?

PR and Chen (wherever you are) you have created an amazing programme and, while it does take discipline to follow, its simple and gets great results.  Well done man and thank you.  Thanks to Team Might Mouse for their support. Marcus and Brent – thanks for giving us some color on the science behind PCP and have fun beating the shit out of each other … Meg, you look awesome and I loved the honesty of your blogs.  Fergus and Terri it was great to see how a couple of dedicated foodies could get thru PCP – well done.  Mini and Kos I look forward to catching up after PCP and hearing more about your PCP experiences.  Lastly, and mostly, Harumi and Jay – thanks for putting up with my PCP “bullshit” and emotional highs and lows – most particularly on our holiday road trip when you lovingly prepared my PCP portions and carried around my veggies and boiled eggs.  Thanks sweetheart! 

Being the last day of PCP I went down to the gym and terminated by gym membership. Conway Gym is the place for me.   Before I terminated the membership I did my monthly body composition analysis, which was supervised by the usual beefy, muscle bound trainer.  He was absolutely flabbergasted that I had been able to achieve the results I had while not pumping blobs of iron.  The overall score for my Body Composition was 90 – which, apparently, according to Beefy Trainer is “Elite Status”. Progress over PCP is set out below:

	Day 1	Day 20	Day 60	Day 90	Chg
Weight (kg)	93.7	87.7	80.9	80.1	↓13.6
Body Fat (kg)	22.0	17.0	12.2	10.4	↓11.6
Body Fat (%)	23.5	19.4	15.1	12.9	↓10.6
Visceral Fat Area	124.8	109.4	60.5	34.4	↓90.4 !!

So overall I lost 13.6kg and my body fat percentage went from 23.5% to 12.9%.  The best change for me was in the Visceral Fat Area.  Visceral fat, also known as organ fat or intra-abdominal fat, is located inside the peritoneal cavity, packed in between internal organs and torso. High levels of visceral fat are statistically associated with a higher risk of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.  As predicted by PR this fat was the hardest to lose but dropped like a stone in the last few weeks of PCP.  My VFA has fallen from 124.8 to 34.4 which gives me the body of 20 year old!

I am little bummed by the overall weight on my final day.  Not sure why my weight jumped to 80.1kg on the last day.  I swear for the last week it has been hovering around the 77-78kg but who gives a rats … I agree with PR it’s not about the scales its how you look and feel, and I feel pretty good.

And now for the final pics: 

Cooling down at gym Conway after my final work out.

Before and after shots (Yikes – who is that guy on the left!)

So … see you on the Tri Course.  It’s also probably time for a hair cut – which has remained unkempt during the entire PCP program.

Day 86 - The 70s Baby...

I really thought those Boogie Woogie Nights were over for me ... But ... the 70s are back and I am consistently seeing 77-78 kg on the scales in the morning.  That is down 14-15 kg from the start of PCP.   I know the PCP culture is not to have tunnel vision and focus too much on our weight but I have not weighed that much since University.  My goal, when I started PCP, was 85 kg and to find that I have blitzed my with goal is amazing.   Thanks PR.   So as an ode to 70s here is some Boogie Woogie disco baby ...  See you at that other end in 5 days time.

Day 84 – Or whatever… Return of the Prodigal PCPer

Finally back to Hong Kong after 3 weeks of travel around Australia and Japan.  I managed to squeeze one blog rushing between flights at Chitose airport in Hokkaido where I set out my PCP “Confessions”.    

Amazingly, in the 3 weeks away I managed to do almost all of my daily exercises and followed my diet except for a few (entirely explainable) indiscretions.  Highlights of the trip where; Fishing off Western Heads in Sydney, Kutchan Potato Festival, Mount Yotei Climb,  Furano Lavender Fields, Shiretoko National Park (all in Hokkaido Japan) and Noto Summer Festival (Kanazawa, Japan).   My only regret I was not taking some pics of my skipping rope in some of these locations … but here is a couple of sample pics.

One PCP relevant highlight was that I was able to power thru the 6 hour Mount Yotei climb, and particularly on the way down, I felt like Superman – thanks to those Pistol Squats my knees have never felt so strong. 

One lowlight was that I managed to get out of sync with my calendar and on the last leg of my trip, I thought Saturday was Wednesday and sent PR a desperate email demanding my new diet and exercise only to realise I had another 3 days before the end of the week!

Anyway new profile pics up … and looking good at 78kg!  Down about 14kg from the start of PCP.

Day 77 - Confessions

Dear Lord (and PR and TMM), It has been nearly 3 weeks since my last PCP blog and I have sinned.... But Not as much as could have or would have thought. Since my last blog, I have skipped my exercises twice and had only 2 non compliant boozy nights. Not bad considering I have been on the road for over 2 weeks. My trip started in Australia (Melbourne and sydney) and then to Hokkaido in Japan. Pleased to report that one non PCP compliant day was in Sydney where I was I up at 430am on friday for fishing off western heads ... the way I saw it ... Balancing on a the deck of a rocking of the boat for 4 hours would burn more calories than 20 mins of skipping and pulling in 30lb snapper all day was at least equivalent to 5 sets of 20 curls ... However, I did not quite work out how to do those Kung fu's ... Anyway great day out ... Except for the gorging on half box of cheddar crackers and having to get rescued by sydney water police.