Day 53: Indulgence #2

The intended indulgence: chocolate mousse

The experience: Lots of mental preparation. Chocolate mousse is one of my most favourite things in the world. And I haven't had it for more than a year. Many restaurants just don't have it on the menu. Thanks to a recommendation from Tracey the scene was set. La Gargote in Azabu Juban. Wow was it good. Fabulously relaxed atmosphere. Charismatic owner (who it turns out knows my husband). Great staff and really yummy food.... much of it PCP compliant. A French yakitori cum izakaya style place (Japanese pub style with skewers). So it was possible to have half a scallop, 2 small shrimp, a small piece of beef carpaccio, a sliver of foie gras. Also lots of veggies on the menu, as sides, starters and skewers (aubergine on skewers particularly good). So I was set. I was in heaven. Each dish was great. There were four of us which meant we could try a lot of things.

The actual indulgence: Complimentary small glass of champagne to start, sliver of foie gras, green beans (sauteed in butter and garlic), the c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e m-o-u-s-s-e (which was everything that I thought it would be and much, much more). Unbelievably good. And it was just such a pleasure to be there with good friends in a lovely setting with such fabulous food. After the champagne I stuck to water.

Post indulgence: Not sure if it was the sliver of foie gras or the cream in the chocolate mousse (possibly even the chocolate). I was not feeling so hot afterwards. Slight sweat, major stomach cramps and then the after effects of the cramps. Now there is some background to this and not sure if that is the reason, or just that we are not used to these different types of food. I have been off all dairy products (excluding eggs) since last November. This has meant that I can no longer have Starbucks non-fat cafe latte's //(*_*)\\ which was a huge change in my life. I have had to switch to black coffee.  Hence not being able to have the milk in the PCP diet. But the aftereffects of my indulgence were very dramatic and not something I care to repeat soon.

I will definitely go back to the restaurant as it was truly good and if I was able to have a dessert would have their delicious tart tartin--lots of apple and only a small sliver of pastry (something to look forward to).

Thoughts: Are these indulgences to show us that our bodies don't need/want what we crave? That they can't handle them? This body definitely not good with the dairy.

Day 52: Very productive

Well, there is one thing that jet lag is good for..... if you can't sleep you do all the things you have been putting off for a long time! Went to sleep at midnight, woke up at 2.30am, couldn't get back to sleep, finished my book, and then decided I was too wide awake so I sorted through all my clothes. I have gone from a size XL to an M. Tried on all sorts of clothes and just laughed. They will be making their way out the front door today. Amazing how good it feels. So whilst I haven't lost that much in kilogrammes, there is a huge difference in how I look and the size that I am. My husband is still convinced I must have lost about 10kg since starting PCP. Now it is actually 4kg as I reweighed this morning post all the effects of long haul flights. It is very cathartic to throw out clothes that remind you of what you used to be. I have enough better fitting clothes that I can now wear without feeling self conscious. I also have clothes I have been "saving" for the past 10 years and they also now fit. Oh happy days.

One negative thing about jet lag though, daughter #1 who slept 14 hours yesterday slept not at all last night so when I emerged from cleaning out my closet at 5.30am she bounced out of her room and since then has acted like she is on speed. Wow, I am exhausted listening to her.

Another good thing is that by 6.15am I had finished skipping and also had done my kung fu sit ups. Had to skip to a local park (with daughter waking up all the neighbours with her chatter) to find a monkey bar for the kung fu's. Wasn't able to do them in Scotland as there was absolutely nothing near me which would work. So this was a laugh. I liked Patrick's instructions that if you can't get your legs up just do a 90 degree lift. Ha! That's a joke, I couldn't even get to 90 degrees..... more like 85. But then again I have an incredibly weak core.... none at all it feels like. So keeping my legs up for one breath was totally out of the question.

7 x 9 incline pull ups. OMG!!!! that was hard. Nearly fell off the chairs on the last set of elevated tricep dips. It was good until then. Made myself some funky laminated flashcards to count the different sets. That was the only thing that helped me get through the incline pull ups.

Typhoon induced rain seems to have gone for good now and looks to be a lovely day in Tokyo. Wonderfully cool still.

I do want to know though when the cellulite on the back of my legs will disappear completely. That would be manna from heaven. That and the gut diminishing even more.  It is slowly reducing. Slowly being the operative word.

Have been thinking seriously about what my indulgence will be (now that Kevin has clarified via Patrick that hitting the bottle last week doesn't count). On Tracey's recommendation, my husband and I are off on a hot date tonight to a lovely restaurant in Azabu Juban. The indulgence will be chocolate mousse. I am so excited, but also a little afraid in case I get ill as that seems to be the norm with chocolate. No mention of indulgence having to be before sundown, so looking forward very much to my dinner. Thank you Tracey.

Day 51: New lease

Am totally whacked by jet lag. I hate travelling to Europe every year for this very reason. I try to avoid giving in to it, but it never works. Daughter #1 slept 14 hours, and daughter #2 close to that. No wonder I fell asleep again after I had breakfast, read some blogs and did some stuff. I think we must all have needed it. None of it was sleeping pill aided either. Usually we are all awake at 4am. Weird.

It was hard to jump up out of bed for the second time today to face skipping. But I put together a funky playlist, factoring in mainly time of song and whether I really, really liked it. Some of you are going to laugh, but it really is a revelation and makes the skipping much easier. Also my pace is up and my rhythm has improved. 3rd set a little less fluid as I was already exhausted by then. Until now I have relied on scenery.

Workout still to be done later this afternoon after a visit to the orthodontist and a major veggie shop. Took a peek and saw that there was no leg work today. Don't think that is going to make it any easier!

Day 50: Another milestone

Day 50 has a big emotional impact on me. I don't think I'm ready to race through the next 40 days if they pass as quickly as the last 50. I may not be ready to stop PCP..... or is that part of the plan?

Major jetlag. Nevertheless, I slept 11 hours last night so must have been very, very, very tired. Luckily my children are old enough to fend for themselves. Went to bed at midnight as was too tired to keep my eyes open and my 10-year old was still wide awake. So left her watching TV. They didn't sleep 11 hours unfortunately, but before you think that they went hungry and unnoticed for all of that time, we do have a helper who caters to their needs. So heaven for me. Woke up incredibly hungry as had slept so much in the afternoon too that I only had time during my waking hours for lunch plus one fruit snack and egg white. Breakfast was delicious. I really missed my Japanese brown rice. And steamed carrots. Hard to steam veggies if you don't have a metal sieve or steamer... may need to take one to Bali with me to avoid that problem again.

Not sure if it is the major jetlag, incredible change in humidity or the after effects of my foray into wine, but the workout today was hard, very hard. Sweated buckets, but tried not to drink. Gave up after the pistol squats as I nearly keeled over in a faint. Not sure how much "not too much" water is when you are sweating buckets. By the time I got to the V-sits I was actually thinking to myself that I actually liked them. Maybe it is because I absolutely detest the plank. I think my core is improving, but every time I do the plank I can only do it for a max of 20 seconds, and at the end only 10 seconds. Doesn't bode well now that we have to do 60 second planks. They make me cry every time.

One thing that helped my workout after listening to the Black Eyed Peas and Katy Perry for my skipping (which gratifyingly resulted in a major increase in reps) was to switch to Vivaldi. The boom-boom music was just not working fro me. Have never worked out to classical music in my life. What am I becoming? A totally different person!

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.