Day 49: Back home in Tokyo

Flew back into Tokyo this morning from Glasgow via London. Heathrow a nightmare as always. Now see how difficult it is to coordinate date lines, food on the plane and exercise. Woke up early to skip and do ab work and then voila before you know it there is no time in the airline lounge to do the rest of your workout. So that was a washout. But I stayed true to PCP form combining stuff to eat from the plane as well as loads I veggies I had brought on board with me. But then I wondered if I should have religiously stayed on UK time re eating patterns or should I have adjusted. Anyway I decided to stick with a rigid UK timing.

On arrival at home, as always, cannot stay awake so went to bed. Will eat "breakfast" (?) at 8pm after doing my skipping, or perhaps go through to "kunch" and cut carbs. Ready to go back to bed soon after that. Was thinking about doing my skipping before I went to bed, however the raging winds and driving rain kind of put me off. Skipping in a typhoon... should be fun.

Just read Patrick's Day 49 e-mail and have already blown my indulgence, or at least that is the way that I am going to look at it. I reckon 5 glasses of wine (largish ones) equates to about 500-700 calories. I can already tell you the results of this indulgence. NOT GOOD. Don't do it. Maybe it was just my body reacting badly, but the way I reacted to the wine was definitely not worth it. I wonder if that means that I have converted into a 1-2 glasses of wine girl only.

I was quite excited to see my scales again. Hopped on after the flight and had a major emotional setback. I am down only 2kg from the start of PCP. After my sleep however, I was down another kilo. Made me feel marginally better. Must be doing something wrong though as the weight seems to be dropping off everyone else. It's strange because I feel a lot lighter and slimmer and even my tummy is starting to go down. Even tried my bikini on and was pleasantly surprised when my 10-year old daughter (my harshest critic) told me that I looked good and that she had never seen me in a bikini.

Day 47: A spectacular swan dive off a cliff

The good news: the rain stayed off (more or less) and we had a great BBQ. Loads of kids running around the garden.

The bad news: I had 5 glasses of white wine. Retribution however as I was very, very, very ill later on in the evening and it has taken me until now (about 6pm the following day) to feel anything that resembles a human being. My fault and I certainly paid for it. Wasn't abel to move, so no exercises yet today. May just have to do ab work and hope the nausea stays away.

Day 46: Rain and shine, out there puffing my puffs

No crying today, which is good. Despite hopping out of bed (a major improvement to having to stretch first before I even got out of bed yesterday) and going right at it, it did go a lot more smoothly today.

Too scared to watch Kevin's skipping video in case it demoralises me. Skipping still pants, and slow. Alternate legs 3x each to a tune of doodeedoodeedoo in my head. Got my iPod but no holder and my exercise shorts are too big to stick them into as they are starting to fall off. I can live with that though so tuneless singing will continue until I find m holder. Thigh muscles very sore in both pistol squats and squats, but at least I can do them (with some help for balance on the ps). Chest dips a joke. Have gone back to mm dips. As we all know though, these are not for mere women and I think I must prove that one. Dropped my whole body on the patio during one. For the first time ever I got through all the bicycle moves without having to wave my legs in the air to release the tension. But it hurts. Oh man it hurts, and that is good. On my way to achieving what I set out to do.

Trying to envisage what size I will be in 45 days yesterday was hard. Bikinis on sale for about 12 pounds sounded like a deal too good to miss. Especially when there is no way that I will ever find a bikini to fit in Tokyo. Will just have to see how it all pans out. They may never see the light of day. It was fun shopping though, and hoping.

BBQ today may be OK. It is spitting then sun. Glasgow can't make up its mind. May have to go to the chippy and get some fried Mars bars if it rains.

Day 45: Halfway!!

Wow, who would have thought that we are already halfway there. Yes, there have been tears and lots and lots of pain, but it doesn't feel like 45 whole days. The difference so far is amazing, not just in changing body shape and musculature, but also in how we think and move through life now.

Woke up this morning and thought, JFD the first thing in the morning skipping. Had to do some stretching in bed before I could even get out of bed. Then more stretching before the skipping. Interesting how sluggish I was, but did manage to warm up halfway through. Lots of stumbling. LOTS. Went straight into exercises due to time constraints later today, but again interesting that whilst I was moving a lot slower in my mind and also in body, my body was sweating a lot more than usual. Complete and utter muscle failure every day for the last 4 days. Everywhere. I hope that is a good thing.

Glasgow is looking at another beautiful day. Amazing. Hope that it lasts at least past tomorrow when we have a BBQ at Fraser's sisters house.

Well done fellow PCPers...... let's keep at it, and hope that those of us with injuries and still feeling sick get better very, very soon.

Day 44: It is a beautiful sunny day in Glasgow

What a surprise, a beautiful warm and sunny day in Uddingston near Glasgow today when it has been quite cool in the last week or so. Caught me off guard as I ended up doing my exercises in the blazing sun. Nothing like Tokyo, so I didn't feel too bad, but the naysayers all saying don't exercise between 12 and 3. Interesting how I still meet naysayers who surprise me by saying not to overdo it and think that PCP is all a bit fanatical and excessive. I would say that the way I feel (other than the pain) and how I look (much, much better) is testament to what I am doing on PCP and the food etc that I eat is actually healthy compared to what I see others around me eating.

Skipping for me has fallen off a cliff backwards. I have switched to stationary skipping in advance of my trip to Bali as I cannot foresee distance skipping there. I think I will have to find a shady tree to skip under. So there is an awful lot of stumbling. Am trying to skip faster, but with all my stumbling in the past 2 days have only managed to do 800-850 skips per 7 x 2 min session. Am more exhausted than I was before but not doing as much. But I am assuming that each stumble is still a jump, so not much I can do about it other than persevere.

Day 43: Need to keep this in mind

Skipping along the lanes in Scotland (start), a photo by peakconditionconny@yahoo.com on Flickr.

Not very motivated this morning Have been awake for 3 hours trying not to think of having to go skipping. Know that I need to go now, but so weak and wimpy may now need to eat first!

(40 minutes later).....
Then I read Patrick's e-mail and thought GREAT.... only 7 x 2 minutes = 14 minutes, 10 minutes less than I have been skipping, but then motivation fizzled out quickly as I stood up and nearly collapsed from weakness. So, now feeling thoroughly disappointed with myself. Missed my cue to burn more fat, realised that I should be slightly less fanatical and take life a bit more as it comes. Decided to have breakfast and for the first time was uninspired by my brown rice and veggies with a boiled egg. Even adding strawberry balsamic vinegar to my rice/veg concoction to give it more taste didn't help much. Looking forward to my snack now. Will exercise later this evening before dinner and just go with the flow today. Was so tired from 5 hours of shopping in Glasgow yesterday that my whole body hurt this morning more than it usually does.

Am a bit afraid that eating as much veg as I want will mean that I don't eat enough. Not sure if sticking to my previous quantities and then adding more if I am hungry is the way to go, or just reduce if that is what I think I am interpreting my body wants.

Day 42: Done and dusted for the day

Was hungry when I went to bed, so getting up and skipping before I ate was quite difficult. Lots of JFD's under my breath. Skipping in front of Scottish old age pensioners who just shake their head is quite difficult mentally. But I just stare at the ground or nod at them depending on how much of a lunatic I gauge them to be labelling me.

36 x 4 creeps yesterday left me nearly crying again. Having trouble with the bicycle ab work so when the legs give out I just sit there for the remainder with my legs in the air.

Shopping in Glasgow today. Will take the weighing scales.