A Weight loss blog

How to burn 5 kilos of fat in 15 minutes...

2006-12-04T12:11:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine, after reading my blog, made this fun comic... i hope you enjoy it as much as i did :)

The Last Diet Pill - End of Games.

2006-11-29T09:14:00.000+01:00

This is probably my last post, i've lowered my weight to 94.3 kilos in about 40 days, so i've lost about 4 kilos. (about 8.8 pounds).

A good result considering that...

I'm not been hungry at all

I've done some excercises, but no more than 10 minutes daily

I've eaten normally

So the most interesting result of Proshape pills is that they killed the hunger, allowing me to eat a lot less.

Providing i could continue for six months, the weight loss would be substantial! And that's good because in order to last, those losses have to be gradual! Proof is that i've started enduring the "parent's meal", a real food fiesta!

In the end this is what i recommend:

Have healthy meals: get yourself a good amount of uncooked vegetables. A salad with tomatoes and a bit of olive oil and vinegar is tasty and healthy. Add some beans and mozzarella cheese to the mix and it become a killer meal

Be more active: walk instead of using cars of public trasportation. Your objective is within a mile ? Use your legs!

Keep track of your weight losses, it will keep you motivated

Enjoy life! All these efforts would be wasted if you don't enjoy life with your friends.

That's it! If you want to receive future updates of this blog, put your email on the left sidebar and you will receive a message with the updated contents.

Take care!

Gareth

Jumping Geek Flash!

2006-11-25T21:17:00.000+01:00

...Or, what happens when geekdom meet fitness.

Fact: i'm really fond of the new Battlestar Galactica Serie.

Fact: During the third season, Lee Adama seriously overweight, gain back his form with jumping rope training.

Fact: i'm so in love with these people, that i decide to start doing rope jumping myself.
...but i have not got a rope, so i search something similar... ropeish. I'm a tech, so inside a drawer i find...

yes, exactly, 10 feet of network cable!
IT WORKS!

I've been jumping a lot during the last week! I usually do 15 minutes of jumps, and i've been increasing my jump serie.
A serie is an uninterrupted sequence of jumps! (this is my own personal definition).

At the moment my top serie is a flawless 26 jumps but i'm sure that with time and rhythm i could rise that number to 50.

By the way if you decide to do some fitness, do not forget to do some stretching!! It will relieve or prevent some muscle pain!

Now i've got to go, do not forget to try my free excel diet logger!

The healthfit counter, your personal train in a pocket

2006-11-24T11:22:00.000+01:00

Let's start with interesting news: i've dropped under 95kgs... that's a major victory for a no-brainer diet. During the last days i had not time to do any physical activy beside walking to my customers! (i'm a seo specialist by the way).

The fact is that i've become quite careful about food intakes... I don't gorge myself anymore with random food. Indeed, i was careful even before starting this experiment, but if possible i've raised my attention levels!

In the end calories monitoring is the key to an healthy weight loss. Excercises help a lot to look GOOD, but in order to kill fat you need to eat healhty.

I've also found an interesting gizmo: a pocket device dedicated to calories measurement! It could be useful if you travel a lot and want to keep your calories under control!

The Carbcounter

Free Diet logger spreadsheet

2006-11-17T14:14:00.000+01:00

Hello there!
I've decided to share the excel document that i'm using to monitor my diet, for free!
I think that's it not THAT complex so, please use it and if you find it useful, spreak the link so that this blog may be found useful by other people.

It has been created with excel 2003, so if you need older versions, leave me a comment here and i'll see what i can do.

Download from here

And if you are wondering about my current weight, i've been quite lazy lately, so i was at 95.8 kilos this morning.

How to check your weight !

2006-11-13T16:41:00.000+01:00

I'm at 95.3 kg.

I never thought i would drop down under 95 Kilos during this test and i'm happy to be surprised by the results.

And i've got an interesting advice for you that are reading this blog: get a bathroom scale with digital numbers. It will help your monitoring your weight, because most of them show fraction of kilos, and even losing 0.6 Kg (1.3 pounds!) raise your morale

Keep in mind some guidelines

Check the weight with the same clothes or better yet with only your underwear. Naked would be better, but winter is coming, and getting naked is making me unconfortable.
Check the weight during the same time-frame. For example at morning after you just wake up, but before breakfast.

But most of all, be confident that your body need time to get used to the loss of fat.
During the last "parent day" i was eating quite a lot, i've returned at my flat, and the following morning my weight was nearly the same again.

This is good, it means that proshape pills have been slowly helped my body to use those excess fat and this is mostly good because "fast diets won't last". I'm not trying to get into years old trousers, i want to get a decent figure.

Before lunch i was so hiper that i took out my cheap gym mat, got 3 meters of network cable and started jumping the rope with it! Can you imagine ? I could not go longer than 6 jumps, no matter how hard i tried but i keep on jumping an breathing for about 15 minutes.
It was tiring but fun, i quitted rope jumping while i was probably 13, because i found it boring and i was too clumsy.
I've spent another 15 minutes to get a shower ( i never thought i would sweated in mid november) and then i did my lunch.
Suprisingly enough, i've eaten quite slowly, probably one the most interesting effect of the Proshape pills: your hunger is under control and you can eat with method instead of wolfing down food.

How to have fun while doing fitness

This excercise was funnier than crunches or sit-ups. Why ?Because there is a personal challenge: doing better on the jump count. When there is "game factor" every sport looks better: think about soccer, baseball, basketball.

And now that i feel lighter, my morale is soaring high... so let's see what will happen.

Day ... lost my count... hell! 35 pills left and Upgrade.

2006-11-08T16:08:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, i was extremely busy with work and fun (after the "Slow Food festival" i went to the biggest comic fair in italy).

Today i've checked my weight and i was at 95.7 Kg, not bad considering that i had not time to do fitness!
Actually i did "non ortodox" fitness: during the comic festival i walked a LOT and i've eaten only chunks of food and some ramen. During the 3 days of festival, i had only 2 decent suppers!
I never thought that skipping meals was so funny :)

As a matter of fact i wasn't always able to take the proshape pills, so i've still got 35 left. (see photo on the right, along with my old nokia cell phone )

So, basicaly, i've still got Twelve days of pills, we will see how much lighter i will be at the end of the story.

Oh by the way, there is an insurgence of malevolent spyware and adware softwares, which are causing great troubles.
Watch this video and take appropriate countermeasure. "Claim your privacy now!"

Day 19 - 96 kg and gastronomical suicide

2006-10-29T18:13:00.000+01:00

Back in shape
Hello again, i was quite busy during the last days.
I survived quite well the "route to home" this time, i was at 97KG during friday and continued losing weight again.
If i can eat less while at parent's home, i can probably maintain my weight steady and decrease during the rest of the week.

Pat on the back

I've bought myself a little gift: a bottle of Guaranà syrup. The guararà is a plant from Brasil, the syrup is to be diluted in water, is quite sweet and has some extraordinary features:
1) it will give you a boost of energy, like a coffee
2) it will reduce your hunger.
3) it's nice to drink, it also made into a good cocktail called "Guaranito".

Good Food!

Finally, today, i've decided to go at the "Slow food festival" in Torino. That's a meeting with people (cooks!) from many parts of the world, cooking amazing foods and giving free samples. I will probably go crazy and wolf down everything... but hey... it happens only every 2 years! I deserve a little reward for my hard working :)

Have a look!
http://www.salonedelgusto.com/welcome_eng.lasso

Day 15 - 95.7 kilos

2006-10-25T10:05:00.000+02:00

Good! It seems my weight is stabilized.
I have to say that i've now got a slight hunger, but the proshape pills keep it under control.
So far so good, but since i don't want to eat too much, i've been getting my "breakfast" pill in order to prevent "fridge-raiding" :)
The hard part will be tomorrow, when i go home for the usual meeting with parents.
This time i'm gonna get my pills in my bag... i don't want to gain back my weight!

I think that this hunger-stopping power of the diet pills, is due to a plant called Hoodia Gordonii.

What is that?

It's a cactus from Kalahari desert (south Africa)! For hundreds of years the Kalahari tribesmen have been eating Hoodia to keep hunger at bay during long hunting voyages and in times of drought. And now millions of people living in industrialized countries are about to join them, as Hoodia-based pills are made available in the USA. However, for all the wonderful promise of a better tomorrow, Hoodia is still somewhat of a problem. First, no official scientific tests have been conducted on humans to check the effects of this plant. We know it works for the tribesmen, but will it work for everybody just as well and without side effects?

From Hollywood stars to the common man, everybody is willing to overlook the lack of official reserches and have a go at Hoodia. Many people have been fighting excess of fat all their lives and are interested in anything that promises fast and effective weight loss.

As far as i can say on myself, there are no side effects during this first two weeks of test!

day 13 - 95.5 kg! (and sit-ups exercises)

2006-10-23T11:31:00.000+02:00

Hi again, this morning i'm at 95.5 kilos, i've finally broken the psychological barrier of the 96 kgs!

Recently i've been adding some sit-up sessions on my daily routine.

Fitness made simple

Getting up in the morning and going straight to work can be be boring. There are days when one simply don't want to get out of your bed. And this is where exercising can actually help you with a kick start. A quick workout at the beginning of the day can do wonders for your health, especially if you’re also trying to lose some weight. As i've previously said, the ProShaperx pills need to be taken 30 minutes before meals, so you have enough time before breakfast to exercise a bit.

Sit-ups are one of those basic exercises that can be performed at your place.

- To perform sit-ups you need to lie on your back on the floor and bend your knees at 90 degrees.
- Then, you have to sit up without moving your legs at all.

It is very important not to use your leg muscles to balance the body, compensate or supplement the effort made by the abdominal muscles or you will get no benefit from this exercise.

Don't press too much on your back and get a workout mat or pad! they are quite cheap and will prevent some aching on the lower back bones.

If you experience lower back pain, you should stop executing sit-ups and settle for crunches or other exercises that do not involve lower back movement.

If all goes well, in a matter of months i could sport a nice looking six-pack belly too!

day 11 - evening

2006-10-18T23:15:00.000+02:00

Today it was great, i saw Pixar and ILM productions and backstages.
I love computer graphics and this day was awesome, in particular because we saw the production of the visual effects of Pirates of the caribbean 2 !

It was less awesome on the diet side, because i had to get lunch near the conference place and i eat 2 slices of pizza and drunk some soda. Of course i forgot the pills at home!

Tonight at 8.00 pm i was starving so i've started cooking a plate of pasta (farfalle type) with some tuna and tomato sauce. It was good.
I've also checked my weight some moments ago (it was 11.00 pm) and i'm at 97.2.

Ok that's not bad, this probably means that i was lighter today and my body is not getting back the fat so fast! Proshape pills are working!

Day 10 - still at 96.5

2006-10-17T16:02:00.000+02:00

This morning i've checked my weight and i was still at 96.5, the main difference is that my arms ached a bit, because yesterday i've overdid myself while doing the push-ups!

Instead of 2 x 10 push-ups, i've tried 2 x 15. Sometimes my body remind me that i'm 35 and that i need more patience ;)

So today i'm lazing out, and tomorrow, time permitting, i'll do again the push-ups.
i said "time permitting" because i will attende a meeting called virtuality conference, a particular meeting dedicated to advanced graphics!
I'll probably have to do the excercises before dinner!

Speaking about the diet, i've tried skipping my lunch pill today... it was a disaster, up to half an hour ago i was roaming the kitchen in order to find some food. I had to get the "missing pill" in order to shut down my hunger!

Day 9

2006-10-16T11:04:00.000+02:00

9.00 am

So it starts another day... sometimes i hate mondays.

Oh, my weight, i'm at 96.5 this morning and i've still go to do some excercises. I was thinking about some push ups.

Push ups are a good training that can be done anywhere. The basic push up is performed lying face down on the floor and then raising and lowering your body mass using just the arms. Push ups are meant to strengthen the pectorals, triceps and, to some extent, the deltoids, but are also good as core body strength exercises.

I don't want to stress my body too much, so i'm going to start slowly, probably 2 series of 10. I'll try to do them before lunch, so i'm gonna earn myself a good plate of pasta!

Day 6-7-8

2006-10-15T11:49:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the lack of updates!

Staying there the time of 3 meals at home was a disaster... when i returned at my apartment friday afternoon and i checked my weight i was at 98.5 kilos.
Woah. :)
That's like i said, your parents aren't happy until you're full of food :)

Fortunately yesterday i was on my own and i could balance my own food. Today, just after leaving the bed at 11.25 am, i'm at 97.0 Kilos! Back in track!

Of course i'm not gonna have breakfast, because it's quite late, so i'm gonna start cooking my lunch in a matter of one hour, so i've took the proshape pill as suggested by the instructions.

On a funny note, have a look at this video i've realized yesterday :)
If you like it, could you please Digg it ? (digg is social bookmarking service, it's useful, interesting and it's free to register).

day 5 - meet my parents

2006-10-12T20:53:00.000+02:00

Thursday is almost always a particular day. It's the "parent day" where i move from the big city of Torino to the small city of "Golden Rivers" at 35 km (about 20 miles).

(ok that's not really called "Golden rivers", the true name is a latin synonimus)

This action (which require me to get a train in order to reach "Golden Rivers") is due every week because:
- My parents like to get in touch with me
- I don't have a washing machine and there is no automatic laundry near my block!
- My clothes stink.

So, my parents enjoy a common pastime: feeding their offsprings (yes, i'm 35, but you never really grow for them).

This morning i was at 96.8 kilos. Yes, only 0.2 kilos less than the last noon.
I guess it's normal: it's easy to drop a few kilos at the beginning, but considering that it has been a lazy way to loose them i'm quite content.

During lunch time i was at home and i forgot to take my pill.

Proshape instructions on the bottle recommend to take it about 30 minutes before the relative meal.

Up to this moment those pills have worked really well: my appetite was under control during the last days. This afternoon i found myself scavenging for snacks! bad body baaaad! You're not supposed to be feed until dinner!

Well i've got my pill before dinner and i'm feeling quite full even though there was only some zucchini and cheese. I feel just a bit more thirsty than usual, but i've got my faithful bottle of water on my desk.
You'll have to wait until friday in the afternoon for more measurement: we don't have a precise scale here, so i may end up weighing 30 to 150 kilos.

If you want more info on the product, follow this link.

Day 3 and 4 - Balancing

2006-10-11T09:22:00.000+02:00

Yesterday i was very busy, so i wasn't able to update!

Darn under-paid programming work! :-(

On an interesting note yesterday i've got 3 pills.

One at breakfast (which i skipped entirely) to hold off the hunger
One at lunch, which was at 1.30 pm
One at dinner, which was at 9.00 pm.

I wasn't very careful yesterday about food, so after dinner i was at 98.4 kilos.
Yet, now and it's 9.00 am of day 4, i'm at 97.0 !!

I've lost 1.4 kilos during sleep ? (that's about 3 pounds for you non-metrical guys and girls ;) )

I think that this incredible outcome, beside the pills, is due to abundance of rice in my food yesterday. I've eaten an half plate of rice both during lunch and dinner; i'm not a nutritionist but i've heard that rice has a lower amount of starch compared to pasta or bread.
Of course i don't eat bread if i eat pasta or rice, that would double the amount of starch ingested!

No-carbs foolishness

And yet i'm not one of those fools obsessed with a no-carbohydrates diet! Morons, carbohydrates are the fuel of your body! I agree that we need to lower the amount of starch ingested, but i'm sure there are lots of people avoiding completely pasta or bread only to wolf down munchies in order to quench their burning hunger.
Munchies are made of corn or potatoes, so you're ingesting a bad form of carbohidrates, one that's dripping fats in various quantities.

Do i hate tortilla chips ? No at all, i love them (as i love mexican food) but i don't eat them each day, maybe only once a week.

Day 1 and 2

2006-10-10T09:44:00.000+02:00

That was yesterday!

Wake up at 9.30 am, weight recorded 98.6 kilos

Got my first pill around 11.30. At the 1.45 PM I had to go to the post office (which is about 1 km by foot, see the route on google map ) only to discover they closed at 2.00 pm, so when i get there it was already closing. Darn :(

The pill functioned, i missed my usual lunch time (which is around 13) without feeling any particular urge to eat.

At 4.00 pm i decided that i needed a small appetizer, so i eat 3 pieces of sliced bread then i jumped on the scale again and i was already lighter: 97.7 kilos.

Serving Size

The suggested serving size should be one pill 30 minutes before each main meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) in order to suppress hunger and reduce absorption of fat and starchy calories.

I've just realized that there are 90 capsules in a bottle and since i don't usually do breakfast, i can manage around 45 meals, which means 45 days of blogging!

The evening

Yesterday i decided NOT take the pill before dinner. There were many reasons:

I had to do my weekly spending rampage at the local cheap mart (called "LIDL"). When i'm hungry i can "smell" better and i usually buy things of higher quality. Quite strange isn't it ? Well i had to walk 1.2 km to get to the mart and during the return (another 1.2 km) i had to carry a bag with the food

I craved a huge salad and i wanted to taste it to the last bit. In the end i made it with one can of red kidney beans, one small onion, a big tomato, a mozzarella cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar of Modena, pepper, salt and some other spices. And 3 more slices of bread.

So yesterday i enjoyed my big salad and i don't even weighed myself.

Day 2

I Wake up again at 9.30 (don't be surprised, i usually work at my computer till 1,00 or 2.00 am) and my first action was to challenge the scale.

97.6 kilos!?
Good, it means that the mart-raiding and the sleep, counterbalanced the dinner. (i haven't done any sport activity during this time, tonight i watched the first episode of Battlestar Galactica 2004, third season)

Today i could be hungry again so i took a pill. Now some coding work on some webpages and then another go for the package i had to send to a friend in quebec.