9 lbs, 25 days, 3 Peaks.

A quick pint to keep me going

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:56:16 -0700

Today's a 2 pint day. #beetroot #redloo

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Mackeral, Marrowfat Peas, and a touch of chillie

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:06:00 -0700

... because I'm worth it.

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Hahahahaaaaa take that skinny boy.

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 05:16:59 -0700

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A tenner

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 05:16:49 -0700

Help. I lost ten pounds. Where is it? If every rider I'm the 3 peaks loses a kilogram in September, that is almost a tonne of fat gone missing. Uurgh.

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It begins with 12

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 02:19:06 -0700

Well that's sort of it really. I've started to feel a bit more spring in my step the last couple of days and it's probably related to the gaunt faced man I seem to have turned myself into during this annual project. My weekly weigh in this morning meant that at 12st 13lbs I'm where I wanted to be. It's not much fun having to lose weight in a rush but hopefully, with the race still a week away, I've taken the pressure off myself now. I've lost what's approaching half of the weight of the bike I'll be carrying and riding next weekend. Whilst this is a good thing looking back, it's a necessity. Job done. Will check in again to this blog in the next few days to report ion any feelings running up to the race.

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It's red, it's fluid, but it's not beetroot juice

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 05:18:37 -0700

Almost as if nature had intended me to consume blood-red goods as part of this blog, today, I'm writing about another fantastic recovery drink for the bulk-minded fitness person: Tomato Juice. Another one you either love or hate, but it floats my boat. In a nutshell:

Very satisfying and 'filling' feeling from it somehow
Drink as much as you want - only 16 calories per 100ml - so a full pint of it is roughly same calories as about one digestive biscuit
Salt is normally added. Not a good thing for lots of people but generally a good thing for those of us who have sweated for a good training session.
Good, high levels of potassium - essential for those of us fighting malaise and wanting strength / muscle building
Good, high levels of Vitamin C, meaning boosts to immunity.

Okay - advert over... suffice to say that I love it, and can wolf it down without feeling guilty.

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The sleep. Did I tell you about the sleep?

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:27:00 -0700

This is the third September in a row that I've given up drinking. (Well... not all September - just until about 1:30ish on the last Sunday of the month). It's a psychological thing to me; where the diet thing is physically about weight, giving up alcohol is a lifestyle sacrifice. Like most British males, I'm partial to a good booze-up once in a while... I'm sure we can all live with that and cycling folklore is rife with tales of top riders who occasionally get sh**faced. I'm sure the body can handle the pressure-valve stuff occasionally like that. With me though, it's that ebbing-away home drinking that has turned into a bit of a crutch in recent years. Hard day at work and nothing beats a glass of red. Okay then - another glass. Or a Rum & Coke at not quite reached six o'clock on a Friday... it's become a bit more regular than I'm 100% comfortable with, so an annual ride on the wagon is a good thing.

What happens each year about ten days or so into the abstinence, is an amazing upturn in the quality of sleep. It's a familiar lag of ten days or so now each September... but the last two or three nights have been just amazing, deep, semi-comatose sleeps. It's as if all the nasty toxins have cleared away and the body goes into some respite or something (I'm sure that's not happening, but my layman's take on it will have to do) - and deep, quality sleeps become the norm.

Of course, it might also be that this period in September does coincide with some heavier than normal training, but I'm sure the alcohol thing has something to do with it. Won't be long now until crisp-dry mouth interiors wake me up again, as normal 'just a medicinal one' service resumes after the Three Peaks, but maybe... just maybe... I'll set myself a few stricter rules on midweek drinking in particular after the Three Peaks is done for another year.

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Out, Damn Snickers Flapjack

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:15:14 -0700

This little blighter got me earlier. Was walking near to (not even past) the cupboard that had the (cover your eyes:) "biscuit tin" in it. Rainy day, tired, busy as heck with work, and in an almost reflex reaction, 167 crunchy, lovable, tasty, but ultimately pointless calories had slipped down my gizzard. Now have to train twice tomorrow... in the rain.

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Follow me and lose loads of weight*

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 13:02:00 -0700

Have seen a massive upsurge in Twitter followers from 'Weightloss' people. They obviously seem to have picked up on certain keywords I've been tweeting, put two and two together, and come up with 7.Still... it amused me really. This blog (in case you hadn't noticed) is meant to be fairly tongue-in-cheek. Yes - I have to lose weight pretty quickly, but it's aimed at cycling people with a touch of guilt who've all been here (or similar). Still - the new Twitter followers are very welcome (well - not really - I just blocked them all on Tweetdeck). I even wrote a blog post about the whole thing on my work blog about it... http://www.reversedelta.co.uk/blog/marketing/selling-the-dream-weight-loss-cycling-whatever/

(* Conditions apply)

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Back of the net

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 01:41:14 -0700

Saturday weigh in and a week of heads down punishment on the food, drink and exercise front means another 2lbs lost. Just and so on target for racing weight on the 26th without any adverse affects. Waif-topia is visible on the horizon.

Dave Haygarth
Tel 08000 199 737

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Something Fishy.... or is it just the new bacon?

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:59:06 -0700

Rest day today again. Need to be extra careful about any unrequired foods. Especially after finding a few too many leftovers from Lily's birthday cake yesterday.

One of the ace things about being a home-based worker is access to a fully stocked kitchen, where all the food is yours, and the fridge requires no 'hands off this' type post-its. It's both a help and a hinderance in my current state though, and as I've posted before on this blog, if you don't prepare, you increase your chances of failing.

Today's treat is a substitution for a favourite. Somewhere between 10:00 and 11:00 on most days, I pop downstairs and get a bacon butty together. It sounds like a bit of an exuberant thing to do (every day) but when you're a Haygarth, you take great pleasure in food. (or indeed a Catlow - it runs in my Mum's side of the family, too).

The simple crab stick, (now, sadly 'seafood stick' 'crab flavour stick') is a great little snack if you want the taste of animal to satisfy your need, but don't want to be the girth of the bacon's original host. Heartily recommended. Preparation time: 5 - 10 seconds. Satisfaction-rating: medium to high. Calorie-rating (as if you needed to ask): Naff all.

... and (as seems to be a worrying trend on my blog posts here) they're very inexpensive. Yay!.

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All hail the mighty red endurance juice

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 05:50:22 -0700

Just come back from what was (for me) a long bike ride round the Ribble Valley and Bowland (here). The first ride over three hours I've been lucky enough to do in quite a while, and no doubt helpful in keeping the calories burnt. For the record, I had my normal breakfast (bowl of porridge), normal coffee (for general sanity) then on the ride 750ml of SiS Go and 750ml of SiS PSP22. Then a cheese butty and a banana on the move.

Recovery was this little beauty below. Beetroot helped me lots last year in the three peaks as an endurance aid (or as a placebo - you make your mind up), but what's ace about it from a weight-obsessive's point of view is it's one of those magic foods with lots of benefits, including making you feel full, but also hardly any calories. Win win. (Unless you hate beetroot.)

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Training staples for weight-concerned: Cheapo Pulses.

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:14:00 -0700

One of my now- famous foods that make other people generally feel ill: today is another day for Sardines. Marrowfat Peas and dried chilli flakes

Tasty as heck, nutritious, pretty filling, salty (good for us sweaty sports types), and pretty low in starchy calories. The chillies make it a bit easier to ensure that you're shedding all the weight you can regularly, too.

I've really come to love marrowfat peas in recent years. Having grown up on 'garden' (posh name for frozen) peas, the discovery of sprouting peas (incl black peas but mainly green marrowfat peas) has been a great journey. In their mushy variety they're a cliche in some ways, but they do have some great nutritional benefits (as do other sprouting pulses such as aduki, chickpeas, and whole lentils).

The biggest advantage of all (and this is just a Dave thing) is that they're cheap as (or indeed cheaper than-) chips and prepared in a couple of mins in the microwave, meaning more time to train, blog about losing weight, or whatever takes your fancy.

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... and lead us not into... oh, sod it.

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:17:39 -0700

It's (my daughter) Lily's 8th birthday tomorrow and when you're trying to keep an eye on your weight, that means just one thing: Picky foods. Picky foods are invented by Satan and he regularly uses them. They are impossible to keep track of, but impossible to avoid. Did I eat ten cheese puffs or 50? Was that bit of cake that Elsie left on her plate technically eaten by me or just 'tidied up' ? One thing's for sure, tomorrow's going to be one of those days I'll have to manually brush under the carpet on Tuesday and Wednesday with some slightly harder training and mild starvation.

Pah. Humbug.

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One pair of Bontrager Race X Lite wheels lost

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:03:48 -0700

Well - not lost, really - I've got two pairs of these and still have two pairs, but the 3.5 lbs I've lost since last Saturday's weigh-in is just a shade more than the 1520 grammes that these lightweight and reliable wheels. I love Race X Lites, they're one of the lightest and most reliable sets of clincher wheels and have been for some time, but I won't miss the pair of virtual ones I've lost in weight this week. Get in.

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Yang and more yang

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:30:00 -0700

Its been a good day for weightloss discipline... Cyclocross hill reps in the sun for dinnertime

Beetroot with chilli flakes for a snack

(Thanks to Alan Dorrington for the Hill Reps piccie)

But now it's Friday night, two hours past Beer o'clock and I'm on the wagon. Ho hum. At least Katie's helping by not drinking. What do I do on a dry Friday night?? Make something beetrooty for tomorrow, I guess.

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Day off blues

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:35:14 -0700

Not really the blues - that's possibly overstating things, but today I'm on a planned day off from exercise. A recover day. I'm due it... legs are a bit tired and the hip's a bit sore (don't ask - it's an age thing) so there's no harm in a bit of rest.

I like rest days from exercise in a strange way - you definitely get the benefit from them, just like you get the benefit from high intensity training or long miles on the bike, but when trying to shed weight they seem a bit of an oxymoron. TYhe very fact that you're resting makes you a bit bored... gives you a bit more time on your hands, and the devil finds fridges for idle hands.

Concerted effort to stay on the rails means good planning. So here's the strategy for days like this:

Work. Luckily it's a work day and I've loads to do. Mind occupied is a good thing.
Plan. Fail to plan, plan to fail. Don't plan to eat flan. Get the house rammed to the nines with healthy stuff you like. Mine's Beetroot. I know some people don't like it, but I love it, and it's blumming healthy.
Don't write about it. If you're hungry and not burning carbs exercising, don't be an utter numpty and sit there writing about it. What a tit you'd have to be to do that. Grrrrr.....

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Waitrose food delivery van arrives.

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:20:54 -0700

Day one, start as I mean to go on.

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Water and Lemon.

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:39:55 -0700

A small but significant win. The smell of lemon got me for a sec but all okay.

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Okay. Not the best of starts.

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:44:58 -0700

But I've got TWO training sessions today.

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