FLD Resurrection. The Second Coming. Days 5,6, and 7.
"No way." I couldn’t believe what I saw when I stepped on the scale this morning.
"Maybe the floor is uneven." I moved the scale to a patch of ground I perceived to be more solid and stepped on again. As I rearranged the position of my feet to see if it would make a difference I began to grin.
"Hahaaaaa!" The read-out was reliable. I’ve lost 3kg in 6 days. I had to take a photo of the fatometer and zoom in to verify my findings. That became the illustration for this article.
Les than 48 hours ago I still weighed 74 kg, so the real magic happened over the weekend. What did I do and what did I eat?
On both days I woke up at 5 am, slightly earlier than usual. On both days I had breakfast in the form of a meal replacement shake, a coffee, and a large glass of water, then I left the house for work. On Saturday I wrote this:-
As it’s winter, and my alarm was set for 5 am, I woke up in the dark. My mobile phone/alarm clock was on the floor so I silenced it with my foot. I’d left my clothes for today underneath my phone, allowing me to easily get dressed in the dark. Then I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and washed in the dark. I didn’t want the light to disturb anybody, so I remained in darkness until I was downstairs in the kitchen.
I wanted to weigh myself to see exactly where I am, and I’m sure I can lose weight in the next 48 hours. Because I was already wearing jeans and a jacket, I hesitated. The heft of the clothes would have skewed the data. But I was determined, so I stripped to my tee shirt and underwear, and stepped on the scale. So far, I’ve lost 1kg on this fat loss journey.
I washed my drink mixer and poured in 250 ml of cold milk. The two boxes of meal replacement shakes on the top shelf of my cupboard are still shiny and new.
The office was relatively empty, so I chose a desk by the window. When I realized I’d neglected to pick up a second silver tube of meal replacement powder, I began thinking about burgers. I knew I had some in the fridge and the best before date was imminent. A colleague who is also trying to lose weight asked what I was going to do for lunch. "I feel like a burger." His eyes lit up and I made me think I’d lit a dangerous fuse. It had to be stamped out. "But I might wait until I get home."
Those words put me in the grip of an intense hunger, worse than anything else I’ve known all week. Cold Ribena and good music were my only distractions. I took a few gulps and put in my earphones.
As it turned out I left the office an hour earlier than intended. My wife and eldest daughter wanted to go shopping and my youngest wanted to stay indoors. I had to get home. Walking through the train station on my way back I noticed my hunger had disappeared.
I cooked when I got home. A beefburger with cheddar cheese, fried onions, ketchup and psycho sauce, and a fried egg. I also had a mini chocolate muffin and a strawberry flavoured mochi ball.
After weighing myself in the morning I’d persuaded myself that a kilogram of weight loss in five days really isn’t bad. For the rest of the day I did nothing.
Sunday started in the same vein as Saturday. A meal replacement shake, a coffee, and a large water. I didn’t take another sachet of the milkshake powder to the office with me. When I’d hit my target at work, with a couple of hours to spare I went to Flying Tiger and bought a 125-gram bag of banana chips to eat at my desk. The only other calories consumed came for a Pret a Manger latte, courtesy of my manager.
The last meal of the day was a couple of chocolate cookies my daughters had baked, the final pineapple tart, half a rump steak, half a beefburger (no bun), a handful of oven-baked sweet potato chips, a small Yorkshire pudding, peas and sweetcorn, and a fried egg.
I didn’t eat anything else. I probably walked three miles. One of my weekly tasks is doing squats and deadlifts. If I do that every week, I create a good probability of hitting my lifting goals by the end of the year. At 9 pm I went to the gym and did two sets of squats, a set of deadlifts, three sets of leg presses, and two sets of sit-ups. Restricting calories doesn’t make lifting weights impossible.
I’m surprised that my weight has reduced quiet drastically in just two days. I shouldn’t be though, it’s not unprecedented. From what I can tell, the closer I am to the Newcastle diet protocol, the faster my weight comes off.
On Friday my mother phoned and asked what I’d like her to cook for me on Monday. I told her not to cook anything, because I’d be dieting. But yesterday I phoned her back and said I’d changed my mind. She sent a tupperware box full of lamb and spinach, and a bigger box full of white rice. My sister and I ate the whole thing, I had most of it. In the evening I had a couple more home baked cookies and a coffee.
Sitting here typing this, I feel fat. Emotions influence our perceptions and it’s been a tough day emotionally. My mood should settle whilst I’m sleeping. That’s one thing I can usually count on.
