That does seem like a lot of fat in the chicken breast though...exactly what kind did you buy? Still much better than previous days, so great job.

If its not too much money, I would advise getting a ton of different no calorie seasonings(don't get sauces, they are almost all heavy in calories) and experiment with them on your chicken and fish. It'll keep things fresh and interesting.

Is bread something you just can't give up? It really is giving you NOTHING nutritionally...just gonna make it harder to lose weight. Obviously today's small amount was much better than previous days.

I'm going to have to check up on the chicken - I just used the default values in fitday. I didn't manage to get so much protein the next day. Its going to take time to work things out. I almost felt over-faced by so much meat. Its probably just psychological - being told the right portion size was much less. This feels more like having two main meals (but without the staple carbs in one of them - rice, pasta, potatoes, whatever). I am definitely making progress though. I need to do something to make sure the chicken stays tasty. Actually I made a mistake yesterday. I tried some pork for the sake of variation - but it did not meet my nutrition goals, and tasted of nothing. I had some herbs and stuff on my grilled chicken. I can totally see how its possible to get down to really low calories.

Bread is something I long assumed to be essential and important. I am cutting it way down now. I can avoid it, if I have the kind of chicken/broccoli model. It is useful for some dishes. For example, poached egg on toast for breakfast. The bread makes it, and I'm only using a small bit.

I still haven't decided how I am going to deal with a packed lunch, which I will need some days. That may involve bread for the sake of ease. Or perhaps I will find a way of just taking cold meat with salad in a tub without the bread or something.

OK This isn't as bad as it looks. I did a session of fixed weights as well as my daily walk so my calorie count is likely fine. I am probably not gaining a huge amount of muscle as I don't really know what I am doing, but its a start. When my SS video comes I shall see if I can incorporate that. I also have to convert pounds to kilograms.



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I didn't get as much protein as yesterday, but I am learning all the time. Its going to take time, but I know much better the trick to satiety now.

That's a huge step, actually. I have been fiddling around with my calorie count to try and find what works best for me, but I am still learning too. Some days I eat nonstop and I am still hungry, other days, like today, I don't need a lot of calories. Having enough protein definitely helps a lot, I am starting to learn. Junk food burns really quickly and doesn't keep me full.

I totally agree. I think the broccoli might be helping there as well. I fully intended to have high protein again today. Had chicken for two meals. However I was tricked by the portion size - I have just simply had less than two days ago. I guess I need to learn to just pile it high.....

Junk food - well, its no secret that its bad if you want to lose weight. By counting calories you can include some, but better not to make it a regular thing I think. Better to get to the point where you simply don't want it. I am there now, but I expect I will get cravings at some point.

Chocolate is your friend. When the "junk" craving hits, I reach for Dagoba Xocolatl. A whole bar is 260 cal, but I only eat about 1/3 of a bar at a time. It has chilies and caoco nibs in it, a little goes a long way.

This **** is the nuts, and unless you have an unusually high tolerance for hot spicy foods, you cant eat that much of it in one sitting.

OK. If I get cravings later on I'll consider it. At the moment strangely I have a slight craving for beer - like one bottle here and there. I am resisting at the moment on the whole.

What kind of pork did you have that wasn't good? Some cuts that are decent are center cut chops and tenderloin. It's not as good for you as chicken breasts, but I find it delicious and still acceptable for a healthy diet.

Another lean protein source I eat often (although not recently for some reason) is a nice firm white fish (cod, haddock) poached and served with vegetables. I usually use half water and half white wine for the poaching liquid. Toss a few cloves of garlic or a slice of ginger in the poaching liquid if you like. Also sometimes squeeze lemon juice on it before serving.

White tuna packed in water served over greens with balsamic vinaigrette is also another good one.

They were mini pork fillets. I still have a couple left, I may find a way of making them edible. I reckon I over-grilled them which doesn't help.

I'm not sure about the availability of white fish, I'll take a look (I'm away from Newcastle at the moment in a land-locked country ). The tuna meal sounds like a very healthy one, if its tasty enough. Tuna can be a bit dry on its own I think.

I do have salmon from time to time.

I made a mistake yesterday. I calculated everything and had quite a low calorie count. I then had some toast at night thinking that with such a low count, and lack of protein, I would stay awake (bad thinking, when I didn't feel hungry). After the snack I realized I had entered the wrong quantity of chicken, and had forgotten about an apple and a banana. Crazy stuff.



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I had the kale crisps/chips. Very nice, now the trick is to see if I can do it with hardly any oil. Maybe I should get some oil spray.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/m...ipe/index.html

Yeah overcooked pork tenderloin is not good. It is also very easy to overcook. It is ok to eat medium rare if you are in a first world country.

Thanks - and yes I am in a developed country.

I had some again today and turned it into curry, which tasted fine. Grilling breast of chicken was a revelation. In the past I have (over)cooked it in the oven and found it quite horrible, so I switched to chicken thigh. Grilled, not much beyond the point it is cooked through, I have found it to be suprisingly succulent.

I managed to get some Hake. I wonder about the process when frozen. I am sure I have had white fish as a package in the past and boiled it straight from frozen. I am wondering if I have to defrost the Hake naturally from the freezer....

Good spot - the figures were way off! It must be a glitch in FitDay. I've been cheating myself by hundreds of calories each day lol.

I'm in a good mood today, as I now realize I have been over-logging the calories and fat in chicken breast. It means most days I've had 100+ calories less than reported. I created my own food for FitDay based on the figures on the packet and fat and calories are lol lower.



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Yesterday I was intending to go to the gym, but the pain in my left elbow (and to some extent right) when I woke up was such I didn't think I was going to be able to straighten my arm. On the whole I had started sensibly with the fixed weights but I'm afraid at a couple of stations my ego got the better of me. Its my own fault, I'll have to stick to my walk for a couple more days. Its much improved today.

I recalculated for the day before yesterday in light of the change in values for chicken breast, and the total has gone down from 2296 to 2055!

If you're going to poach it definitely defrost it in the fridge first. Usually one day in the fridge will do it. Avoid the microwave if at all possible for defrosting fish since it starts to cook it around the edges and makes it rubbery.

Almost forgot...



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Not the best day before weigh-in. I upped my carbs because I was getting tired. I also had a middle of the night snack.



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Week two weigh-in September 15 2012

Start weight: 228 pounds
Last week: 226 pounds
Current weight: 224 pounds

Weight loss this week: 2 pounds
Total weight loss: 4 pounds

I'm happy enough with that. I can't help thinking it will be harder to achieve next week. My deficit including the exercise seems to be 800 calories or so. I want to try some days with more greens next week, and also soup. I had assumed that the grilled chicken + broccoli stopped me from getting hungry because of the high protein content, but perhaps it also had a lot to do with the broccoli.

I am going to be busy next week so if I get too tired I may need to rethink things.

As well as my walk I did some exercises at home yesterday. According to the book my endurance is good (for my age), strength average and flexibility poor. I should probably do some flexibility work. I heard somewhere that it is bad now to do stretches as a warm up - would I be better doing walking/whatever cardio before rather than after such exercises?



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Static stretching is bad for warming up. It doesn't really do anything for you and it increases the chances of hurting a muscle by stretching cold. Instead, try warming up a little bit with some walking and then doing some active stretching routines. These are pretty easy and will improve your range of motion in a more practical and useful way. Some examples of active stretching include walking high knees, lunges, walking on your heels, walking on your toes, and slow jogging butt kicks. They might cause a little muscle soreness the next day if you do them too aggressively the first few times you try them, but they will help you to increase flexibility more safely and in way that benefits your exercise a little bit more.

Thanks I'll need to do some research on this and find some good active stretches for me.

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1 hour ten minute walk.

you should try a bunch of different stuff and see what you like best;
personally, i like

brief foam rolling, lax ball
then
400-500m jog/row/airdyne,
good mornings, pull aparts, side steps, and dislocates all with a medium tension band,
then some down dog/cobra stretch, supermans, walking sampson stretch
then ill usually do, like 8-10 shoulder press, 8-10 PP, 8-10 good mornings, 5 backsquats bouncing around at bottom, 5 OH squat all with 45lb bar;

then get in to whatever i'm doing that day; this warm up probably a little excessive but helps avoid injuries imo; i definitely take my time on all of this stuff too

editl; if you're not doing barbell lifting this is probably def excessive, but will still help with flexibility and really can't hurt;

Thanks I'll look into those things. At some point I need to look at the whole exercise side of things as I feel ready for a bit more intensity.