Final post

Dear PCPeers and visitors,

It's almost a slap in the face to be posting this nearly a month overdue. But better late than never. So, Patrick, PCPeers, please excuse me for such inexcusable tardiness.

Recycling wasted bodies

I started PCP because I had some general intuitions about changes that needed to be made in my life:

1. There was the vain aspiration to look good, but mostly a latent feeling of indebtedness to myself.
2. I had abandoned good habits like exercising and eating relatively well as early as I entered college. This was like the 'big bang' of bad habits. I started smoking and drinking like it's customary among college students. I gave up sports and opted to combine intellectual interests with a new social universe (nothing bad about this).
3. This went on for the five years it took me to obtain my undergraduate and graduate degrees. Then came work and with work came independence. My own apartment, my own money, my own excesses. Not being accountable to anyone but myself made me a mostly responsible man, except I spent too much money eating out and never rally took care of my own health. I guess it's a time when you still feel like you're 18 years old.
4. But my late 20s began to show around my stomach. I got married, my wife became pregnant, I quit smoking, my son was born, we started balancing the imbalances and really becoming adults, but still, we led a life of overeating and overworking.
5. So, once again, love of my wife, love of my family and love of myself triggered change; hence the perennial photo in the banner of this blog.

New body, new mind, new path

So we all look great and have witnessed a deep transformation that goes well beyond our initial expectations. This is true and just browsing through the blogs provides evidence enough! My own summary:

1. I eat well now and intend to keep this new habit for the rest of my life.
2. After PCP I ride my bicycle every day and do muscle training three or four times a week.
3. I have decided to balance life-work and I feel I'm doing so successfully. It's not juts a time-management issue, but a mental state. I stopped wearing ties unless it's called for.
4. I think I have a better point of view about life in general as my judgement is more coherent with my lifestyle. My life is active, I spend a lot of my free time outdoors and have picked an interest in outdoor activities that I'm only beginning to explore. The recent Safari in northern Kenya was like a huge breath of air after being trapped inside an elevator for a day.
5. I weighted 77-78 kilos the morning I started the PCP. Today I have a six-pack, it's a delight to wear clothes and look good in them, I've gone down from size 34-35 to size 32 (pants) that still look very loose. I weight 65 kilos, never really measured the body fat percentage but I feel my skin wrapped tightly around my muscles. I can do 6 sets of 8 pull ups properly done. My legs are strong. I'll be 30 next August and I know I look better, stronger, fitter and healthier than ever.

Change propels more change

1. My experience also changed my immediate environment. My wife is thinner just as a consequence of eating well. Relatives and friends who followed my PCP also made some changes themselves.
2. I feel peaceful, relaxed, in a very good mood (so I guess I'm better company). I never overeat now and have decided to keep some PCP rules: no salt, low-fat, lots of vegetables and fruits, the PCP breakfast, very little to no alcohol, occasional indulgences in a moderate way, jumping rope, sitting and standing straight, no processed foods, and eating at home the food we cook ourselves leaving restaurants as occasional venues. All changes that affect my home in a good way.

Final thoughts about what PCP really is

1. In a nutshell: Big, deep and definitive transformation!
2. PCP got me to a a physical condition I didn't dream possible, a mental state that proved me I can be disciplined and adhere to strict habits and routines and that finishing what you start is one of the most rewarding emotions.
3. The physical and the mental combined, made me a stronger individual, more in tune with nature, more in tune with my own body.
4. I'm almost stress-free and very efficient at work, certainly a better husband and father, more sensitive about culture, it's good things and it's pitfalls, more aware about ecological and environmental issues but without obsessing, simply more interest about the consequences of inhabiting this planet one way or the other.
5. I feel now generally more conscious and willing to make small adjustments and experiments with and to my daily life.
6. For example, today I took a long road to the office trying to find some slopes and fixing my bike on the hardest gear to see if I could make it (of course I could).
7. I try to spend a lot of money on food and it's a great investment. There's always something good to eat or to prepare and still I end up with considerable extra money in my pocket at the end of the month.

What's the trick?

Well I could go on and on simply to say over and over that PCP is a transformative experience. It fixed me, it made me better, stronger, healthier and happier. And there's really nothing to it: eat food and jump rope every day, more or less, this is the trick. So, thank you Patrick for the great contribution your work represents, thanks PCPeers for sticking together and staying strong all the way to the end (100% finish is also a collective victory).

Take care!

Juan

Day 90 +

Hello. I'm very sorry but I haven't had access to Internet until now. Safari in northern Kenya is going well with lots of animals spotted and long active days. A longer post will follow. I couldn't be happier to have completed PCP. Many thoughts, final thoughts, have crossed my mind as I stand among strong Samburu warriors and take photos of lion, elephants, villages, etc. I'm eating healthy, working out almost every single day. Today I'm about to go mountain biking through herds of zebra. Stay strong everybody!

Patrick, I could say a lot to you but I prefer to simply say what you do saves lives. I'm a renewed human being, eager to live differently. PCP transformed so many aspects of my life. This was a deeply transformative experience that will last fir years to come. I look forward to KFB! Thank you!

J

Day 89

It's been some time since my last entry. PCP also taught me that making up for such absences with lengthy posts might be guilt-cleansing for the author but utterly boring for the audience.

Of the past 5 days I've spent 2/5 flying to Nairobi and 3/5 in a conference room. The work meeting ended successfully and tomorrow I travel with my wife and father in law to northern Kenya for the next 7 days.

I didn't jump or workout in the airplane but I'm sure eventually a PCPeer will find a way to do it. I would have as indeed I think I found a way to. Chest dips seemed nearly possible except the lady sitting in front of me only had the back of her sit in the upright position for taking off and landing. Creeps would have been possible in the long aisles of the cabin and perhaps even floor jumps. I had an aisle sit and could have done the triceps dips except the person sitting on the other side of the aisle would have seriously objected me placing my feet on his lap. Pull ups and Kung Fu abs using the curtain bar that separated me from business class would have worked in the 1950s, but today's A340 jets have no such bars, just some kind of discrete rails. All other abs were doable but it was rather dark I was afraid of fat passengers walking half asleep to the restrooms stepping on me while enduring through my planks or worse. Lunges are no longer in the repertoire for some reason. I tried pistol squats in the sort of open area around the emergency exit but the flight attendant was really concerned about me using the hatch as support. Fair enough. I asked for a banana before trying all these stunts but was refused the egg white afterwards and all they offer is cream bags when you ask for milk. All the band work can be effectively done but somehow the crew is also paranoid that you are gonna hurt somebody if you let go one end of the band.

OK, so I didn't even try any of this. Honestly, I'm a little shy to do such a thing in front of a crowd without having a scape route available for the next 11 hours. Otherwise, PCP routines can be done above 10,000 feet.

Food wise commercial flights are a disaster. All seems so toxic. I ate tons of fruit before boarding each plane, and accepted the bread, coffee and tea, water, cheese, one banana and then another one, but the rest I simply couldn't swallow.

All these restraints and limits faded in the nice hotel where the conference just took place. I've done my best to stick very strictly to diet although I've had to eye-ball every meal and snack. And I'm writing this after taking a long bath after completing the Day 89 routine!

In anticipation of the end, I want to really thank you PCPeers. It's been a true joy sharing this transformative adventure with all of you. I regret not commenting more on your posts but I did read through them as often as I could following your ups and downs, victories, confessions, conquests and hard work as we are about to stick a flag with a sign that says COMPLETE across our names at the peak of Mount PCP.

We are on our own now and I'm happy to say we couldn't possibly be in better hands. Nobody knows how to take care of us better than we do. When it comes to wellness, we certainly are well ahead of the game.

I will thank you Patrick, but let me do that on Day 91.

Day 85

WiFi on the plane compensates for airplane food.
My journey to Kenya is now ongoing. I will be arriving tomorrow night in Nairobi. My rope is packed right on top, waiting for me to catch up.
Wish you all a glorious final week. I'll keep my posts short and few from here till day 90 as internet access won't always be possible where I'm going. But I shall put a lot of thought and conciseness into my day 90 post and I'll look forward to sharing our victory. Stay strong!

Day 81

I wished the last days of the PCP could unfold quietly at home. Next Saturday I will take a long flight to Nairobi, where I have a three-day work meeting. The big reward will be a subsequent week-long safari with my wife and father in law which will be fantastic.

As many of you have had similar challenges along the way, I gladly welcome any advice to ameliorate the 20 hour flight, not counting stops and time difference, how to eat on the plane, etc.

Otherwise, working hard, making every rep count, keeping a close watch on grams, trying to sleep well and keep the sudden floods of thoughts about the future on hold to concentrate on each day without anxiety.

Day 77: one PCP cycle a year, but what to do in between?

Aren't we all close to feeling a deep burn in the brain? I feel about PCP as my left leg on rep 7 of the final set of pistol squats this week. Deep muscle burn sends a dual signal to my head, a) a great and pleasurable satisfaction, b) a great and painful yearn to put an end to it. To be honest, this is seldom the case for planks, which send only capital "B" signals.

PCP coming to an end raises so many questions. Certainly keeping the muscles stimulated 4 or 5 times a week with a mild routine that I pray Patrick will gift-wrap for as as a graduation present, will be useful. The hard part will be sticking to it. While PCP has proven me that I can finish what I start, rigurously sticking to the plan and observing strict rules and parameters, it has also proven to me the value of being obedient and accountable to a regimen. Two things that will fade right after Day 90 when the trainer no longer sends instructions and the PCPeers go on with their lives. All there will be left will be our-selves against powerful and antagonising enemies like restaurants and butter, as well as dwellers of our brains like temptation and other propensities to take the short way to satisfaction, gradually undermining and deviating from longer term goals. I confess I have this fear. As much as I feel physically strong, I believe the real test of self discipline is about to start, not to end, as 90 days is nothing compared to the aspiration of life-long commitment to wellness.

Today's question time video was ambiguous. Patrick talked about cycles and gave the example of a professional athlete: three months of intensive training, maintenance, competition, rest and recovery, back to intensive training. This sort of virtuous cycle allows the body to break through barriers and push limits; something that cannot be achieved if we kept on going without some rest. It is comforting to know that we can keep growing our condition if we kind of follow this cycle. Right after I finished watching the video, my initial thought was "good news! It will be easy keeping the muscle I've built". A few minutes later, while I was typing up a report in my office, the thought assaulted my mind "(...) but to keep in peak condition and grow from there, a yearly PCP cycle is inevitable".

And then I thought: Competition is the main difference from us, "normal" people (not so normal anymore, thank god!) and athletes. So, in absence of this incentive, I'm thinking I'll need to seriously pick up a sport, which is not so easy to fit in my routine though also not impossible, or to explore more individual alternatives: I'm thinking Kung Fu Body in three months (?). And then, right after Christmas, do a PCP cycle every year.

Thinking about this made my brain feel like my arms and upper body, specially my back, during those 20 seconds of micro-rest before the next set of pull ups!

The beauty of looking ahead of Day 90 as finishing part of a cycle that I will come back to instead of void, is that it reaffirms the value of PCP, dissipates my fear of the future and let's me know that stopping for "20 seconds" is necessary to keep going. Now the deal is to decipher how to go about the rest of the cycle.

Day 74

Too tired last night to workout. I did next Friday's jumps instead and will get back on track today. Adjusting to diet changes has been hard and even painful. My weight in the morning is 66 kilos and goes up as far as 68 before I go to bed. I know all this is normal and expected, and the reasons and explanations behind it are well understood. New photo up. This time the lighting and quality is worse than ever. You may believe me or not but when I see myself in the mirror, I can definitely see more muscle tone and definition. I was toying around with a photo editting app that has some cool effects and a lot of not-at-all cool ones. But, the one to your left is certainly more accurate than the "real" one on the right. Back to work.

Day 70: Shawshank Redemption

PCP, the experiment is about to yield it's final results. Proof of it is that even Patrick refers to the next 20 days kind of in the past tense.

Today's question time video was most illuminating as many of my fears were dissipated: we do get to keep our new selves! The coming weeks are also about "returning" to normalcy before we "reintegrate" to life so that we are able to accept dinner invitations without freaking everybody else as we open a lunch box containing a chopped apple, a boiled egg mysteriously devoid of it's yolk, on top of which we dare ask the host if they happen to have fat-reduced milk in the fridge. I think I'll miss being a bit of an outcast but certainly appreciate that our stomachs cannot stay fist-sized forever.

All these feelings are like watching the Shawshank Redemption; inmates so accustomed to life behind bars that the outside world no longer seems appealing. Except for Tim Robins and Morgan Freeman, whose plan all along was to do great inside while strategising their redemption. To be honest, right now I sympathyse more with the guy whose crow dies, goes out to work packing groceries and hangs himself.

I think readjusting to life after PCP will be traumatic to some extent because even though we will be able to have confidence in our new physiques, so many things about the world will look bleak, grotesque, degraded. If I'm allowed a dose of humour here, I think for example that I will tend to agree with initiatives to update airline policies so that obese passengers are charged extra. Of course, we can all mostly say that we are tolerant, non-discriminatory people. But honestly, who buys that! After PCP it will be inevitable to not only use our new bodies but also our new minds to relate to the world.

OK, I doubt it will be a depressing experience. Getting back to making real sense, I think life will be of better quality from here on. It will just be a bit sad to see that however our own transformation, the outside world remains in big trouble! In Colombia, where I live, a study was recently published with some alarming results: 58% of the population is overweight, almost everybody dislikes vegetables, women eat more fruit than men, but the ones who eat more fruit only do it three times a week and, get this, 78% of the sample affirmed to do some kind of exercise on a regular basis. Yeah right! The study could skip all results and jump directly to concluding that at least 78% of the population is hypocritical.

What I can say for sure is that micro-geographically speaking, things around me have changed. At home, my wife started to dislike too salty falvours. My brother in law is currently doing the PCP. The three people who sit next to me in the office eat bananas like monkeys. People who at some point mocked me for what I was doing now see the results: some keeping their mouths shut but their faces full, others praising how good I look.

I hope sometime in the future civilization will look back to our days and wonder why people were fat much in the same way we look back 150 years ago and wonder why people's heads were cut off with a guillotine in a public square. I guess it will take a revolution for things to change. I'm leading my own private one quietly, just trying to lead by example. I'll follow Patrick's advice and continue to be Zen about PCP.

Here's to Day 70!

Day 69

Tough days. Last night I was drained and couldn't bring myself to jumping. Did the rest though, successfully.I have been doing the elevated push ups since some time now and I really think chest exercises are my strongest point. Legs, v-seats, abs in general except for planks, and arms come next (seeing your veins and so much definition of biceps and triceps is so cool), and back and shoulder exercises remain very challenging but I'm keeping up.

I won't lie to myself: I could say that all the cycling yesterday made up for skipping the jump rope. If I thought this was true, either I would stop riding the bicycle home-work-home(lunch)-work-home, or I would stop the jumping. Not a chance!

The new diet is messing with my mind. I feel very hungry just half an hour after lunch. The afternoon tea (yogurt and egg white) hardly satiate or ameliorate the starving sensation. So by the time I start the workout (7pm) I feel I have no energy. Then dinner fills me up more than I'd like, partly because of the carbs and partly because I'm having to add the post workout egg white and yogurt to my dinner; otherwise I'd simply never go to bed. And finally, my favourite meal of the day apart from breakfast, the evening snack. So I end up going to bed at around 11, which is not bad, but since the carbs were re-introduced the quality of my sleep has been affected. Last night was perhaps the first exception of the week.

I suppose this is all part of readjusting to what our diets from here on should be like. But somehow I miss the days when dinner was just an apple, an egg white and a glass of milk.

Aside from all the above, I wanted to say that I'm past the point of feeling good about being able to tell how much weight I've lost or how much I've trimmed my body by the size of my clothes. None of my pants fit right anymore since the past three weeks. My shirts look as if they were passed on from an older brother (which is impossible considering I'm the older one), my boxers are good for dressing up like a clown in haloween and my belts are ornamental at most. My wife likes this baggy appearance and I have said to myself that new clothes should be a kind of troffe I shouldn't get my hands on until the game is over. I guess this is part of the grim enthusiasm, so I'll wait.

Day 67

There's no correlation between the frequency of my latest posts and PCP performance. If anything, the opposite is true. Not that I'm working out so much I don't find time to drop a few lines in here -in fact I'm managing to do my workout sessions in under an hour. But office work, running again to the hospital with our son who had a high fever last week (he's all better now), and just trying to fully unplug and get a good rest over the weekend, altogether delayed this entry.

Last night the pull ups and the KF abs were all done right for the first time. I felt a very satisfying tension in my back as the muscles contracted that I had never experienced before in my life. Changes are starting to surface in my back and lower abs. Perhaps it's more the feel and the awareness of inner strength and muscle than the looks, but it feels fantastic.

I'm committed to the bicycle as my new means of transport. No more using the car or taking taxis. The distance between home and my office is 3 kilometres, roughly. And while I used to walk several times a week, I'm discouraged by the constant raining and the fact that it takes up more time than I care to spend. The bicycle ride is 10 minutes, sometimes less, and I now have this cool raincoat that folds into a pocket size bag and a cycling backpack that comes with a dry sac you can put over it if it's raining. So, no matter the weather, I'm keeping this good habit. It makes sense on so many other levels like being the most eco-friendly way to move around town, etc. I usually go home at noon, have lunch and come back to work, so it's 4 x 3 kilometres a day, which is not bad!

Carbs, I'm sure if the dose was upped there is good reason for it. However, I notice I was sleeping better before and I'm wondering if instead of having the 50g of carbs at dinner, I could add those to the evening snack or add them to my lunch (that perhaps is too much at once). But having carbs at dinner somehow is not making me happier.

I have yet to have this week's photo taken and uploaded. Will do this tonight and upload it tomorrow.

On to read your posts, go have some lunch and try to stay focus on a couple of reports that must go out by COB today. Oh dear! Office work, can there be a more degrading way to spend a day? My wife came up with a thought the other day that was as liberating as it was frustrating: there should be a machine that transcribes what you are thinking directly into the final draft. Not to sound lazy, but I do think the brain is mightier than the pen (and therefore mightier than the sword).

Day 63

There's this sense of nervousness growing inside my head as we approach the last days of the PCP. What will life be like afterwards? OK, perhaps that sounded overly existentialist, but since by now I'm sure things won't, cannot and must not go back to be what they used to, and since I'm now habituated to PCP days, diet, routines and a big pay off of wellness, I seem to be taking an interest in the future and not just on focusing on each day as it comes.

Some parameters I'm trying to coin in my left brain:

- Once something ends, don't return, move on
- Treasure changes, mental and physical
- Moving on denotes a continuum, not an ending
- 90 days is the time it takes to see results, from then onwards, focus on habits

Enjoy de weekend,

J

Day 60

Busy week, but doing well.
I'm trying to focus on total workout times. Since day 50 I noticed I wasn't hitting the one-hour target, often spending as much as an hour and a half. But since Saturday this is starting to change. Last night it took me 58 minutes, including the rope jumps. Things are getting tough but results speak for themselves: relatives, friends and colleagues are thrown by how lean and healthy I'm looking. Today, despite the ever changing weather of Bogota, I decided to start using my bicycle again. It was so full of dust and rust and the tires were low on air. Still I kind of cleaned it and rode to a bicycle shop near my office for maintenance. New and lighter tires for city streets are excellent, rims straightened, breaks and transmission working as good as new. I was amazed at how strong my legs felt. It's been years since I last rode but I do remember feeling some soreness after just a little pedalling. Today it was a different story, I mostly rode using the hardest gear for speed and it felt fantastic, as if suddenly I had superpowers. I guess I'm gonna start experimenting more because the basis for tracking progress has so far been the PCP workouts. Putting to test this new body will be quite an adventure. I had been thinking so much about getting a motorcycle. I won't deny I still want one and find riding incredibly fun, but the bicycle makes so much more sense!

Day 56

Another week down as we approach 60% of the PCP.

I'm flipping through the news on the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and came across a chronicle of families who went out to public parks and squares with their survival bags all neat, no panic or histeria, and just sat on the benches to wait. Amazing! This is the most outstanding demonstration that discipline, individual and social, pay off in the face of catastrophe. Strict building rules minimised damages, people's awareness minimised the massive loss of lives (300 or so is the death toll, sad indeed, very sad, but nothing compared to Haiti or Pakistan). Trains in Tokio are starting to work again and the ice skating world cup will take place on 20th March (not the slightest crack on the stadium building). So, bad news but great example. I'm not a fan of generalization myself and therefore tend to disregard expressions starting with "Society must understand..." or "Throughout history, mankind...", which epitomise the rhetoric of politicians that make the crowds believe crowds are intelligent and rational. But I do acknowledge there are exemplary social behaviours and social results that are inevitably linked to individuals not each doing only what's best for themselves, but also sticking to rules and norms, which is the best course of action to being effectively compassionate.

Millions of things combined in specific ways are needed to achieve such advanced societies. But if I may extrapolate to my own personal experience, I have realised by way of doing the PCP, which requires great discipline and commitment, that changing eating habits and exercising triggered a myriad of positive changes in almost all other aspects of my life. So maybe it isn't necessary to tackle all problems or pursue all goals at once, but simply to do one thing right to trigger a cascade of changes, behavioural and spiritual, that might just do the trick of making life all better. I have also learned over the past 56 days that adherence to the programme is only possible if you understand why and what you're doing.

So, back to those Japanese families: they didn't rush out yelling histerically and propagating panic, but knew what and why they had to do. In fact, the people most scared in the streets were almost all expats, awed by the apparent lack of expression among the faces of the Japanese crowd.

It's also amazing to observe how chain reactions or "macro-behaviours" sudenly roll out. It takes just one person, not necessarily characterised by being a leader, to do something sensible and visible for others to follow. People seating around me in the office now give me money almost every day at 11am when I'm about to go downstairs to the organic market to buy my morning snack. I come back with fruit which they seem/pretend to prefer over croissants. I don't blame them for not wanting to eat their fruit with an egg on the side (I like it quite a lot). One of my colleagues even said she found eggs disgusting and dangerous (allergens, cholesterol, etc).

OK, perhaps I went too far. There is no real connection between an earthquake in Japan and our PCP individual experiences. I just made these connections inevitably, hoping Patrick and his loved ones are all safe and well. But, somehow I think I'm not that far off the path to a round thought. I didn't go to the shrink or get a gastric bypass to be happier and lean, and therefore stronger, younger and capable of taking care of myself throughot life. All I did was jumping rope every day and eating food.

Have a good weekend!

Day 55: indulgence 2

I looked up the word "indulgence" in wikipeadia only to conrfirm I did indeed fell prey of a faith-related trap. Wanna a know what wikipedia says? "Indulgence: In Catholic theology, an indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due to sins which have already been forgiven."

I had pizza margherita (left one slice out of 8 on the plate) and a glass of white wine. Half way through savouring the mozarella, tomato and basil blend melt softly in my mouth, I was attacked by the image of a chopped apple, two egg whites and a glass of milk. Suddenly the pizza started to taste bleak. My indulgence, the satiation of my long desire for pizza, became a punishment. I felt like an idiot, not sure if my inability to enjoy a perfectly delicious pizza was worse than deliberately straying off the path just to see what happens. Like I didn't know already! #"!%$#"&(%)(/=/(&()&%/&!

Of course, there's no noticeable damage done to my body on the outside. But yesterday I walked 6 kilometers on top of the rope jumping and the workout, not because I wanted to consciously compensate or because I thought I deserved extra self-inflicted punishment, but simply because my body asked for it. It's been raining non-stop the past two days, but still I opted to walk to work and back home.

On PCP-related matters, I'm thrilled to finally starting to master the V-seats.

Day 53: new photo up and time for indulgence 2

So I finally put up the photo. I'm happy to see results starting to show. Who was that chubby guy in the Day 1 picture?

Tonight I shall make use of the right to indulgence number 2. My wife and I will be going to one of our favorite restaurants in Bogota, a traditional Italian called Di Lucca. Not sure yet what I'll have. It will be hard making a choice from the menu now that it is impossible for me to suppress the cumulus of PCP knowledge and ignore definitive changes of which I seem to be hyper aware. I will come back tomorrow for a full brief on operation "dinner out"! (I just remembered this from Spy Games, cool movie).

Days 50-52: list of definitive changes and list of changes underway

I keep thinking about how profound an experiment PCP really is. When writing about the changes I'm experiencing, I've always been a bit hesitant, doubting that perhaps the PCP effect will fade sometime after day 90. This thought, far from pessimistic, is a way to tricking myself into reflecting on what I'm doing and therefore be able to put a pin on changes that I think are more definitive while keeping track of others that are possibly still not as well rooted. So here's a list of A) things that have changed for good and a list of B) things that are still changing:

A) DEFINITIVE CHANGES:

- No more salt. If I'm invited to have dinner by friends or family, I won't be a pain in the ass. But at home, I'll make it rule to cook salt-free food.

- Eat food. Perhaps this should be in the first place, but I'm making the list as it comes to mind. I'm enjoying so much eating food that I just don't want to ever eat anything else. Again, life puts us in all sorts of situations but as much as it is possible, I choose to say no to processed foods.

- Vegetables (a lot), protein (enough) and carbs (a little). That's how I want my plate to look like from now on.

- Fruit. I can't say I won't indulge on occasion with a small piece of fine chocolate or a delicious dessert, but only if they're worth it and only every once in a while. Otherwise, I will always prefer fruit for snack and I'll eat fruit every day.

- Whole and complex carbs. As much as I can. Specially when it comes to bread. This is a habit I have since before PCP (whole grain bread) and I intend to keep it.

- Fat-free cooking. I don't miss butter at all. A bit of olive oil is enough. I'll try to avoid excesses of fat in all their forms.

- I want to eat cheese again. But I want to know how to approach this more thoughtfully.

- Milk, yogurt and egg whites. I just love these.

- Eating 5-6 times a day. My body is asking for this like clockwork now. I won't starve it.

- The rope! Excellent habit. I never thought I could be able to exercise 10 days in the row, much less 52. Now 90 doesn't seem difficult. I'm not going to do strength training workouts every day like we are doing right now, but I don't mind jumping every day. I know Patrick has this covered for us.

- Teaching our son how to take care of himself. He is only one years old. For now, my wife and I are making his choices. But we will make sure he eats food and cultivate in him (and his brother/sister whenever that happens) healthy habits. We'll make sure he understands the reasons behind leading a healthy life.

- Exercise and active lifestyle. No need to say more. Except perhaps that I feel confident about this being a definitive change because I've learned how to do it. Exercising without knowing how is not only hazardous but also boring and autistic. Boredom leads to desertion and deserting leads to a myriad of frustrations. So I will exercise but I will mostly also lead an active lifestyle.

- In line with the above, I'm determined to keep a juvenile attitude towards life. I'm kind of an old person in the body of a young man. Always too serious, wearing a tie and growing a belly at fancy restaurants. PCP made me change this. I want to stay young forever and nobody can tell me otherwise. I've seen those pictures of elderly people in Osaka climbing trees and showing off their 100-year old muscles and find no reason why that can't be me. Being too 'serious', too 'adult' and too 'corporate'-looking, will only drive me away from the type of life I want to lead and the type of person I like being most. PCP has shown me that I can do my work even better, not just because I'm eating well and taking care of my body through exercise, but also because training shoes and outdoors clothing are far more comfortable than a suit, a tie and wooden-sole shoes. Those are for very special occasions. Otherwise, I will take advantage of the fact that I can afford dressing comfortably where I work, and that what matters is what I say, write and do, an not so much that the knot of my tie is perfect. Just standing straight and being lean is doing so much more for my image than looking fat, tired and wearing a grey suit. It projects strength, energy and confidence, kindness and well-being,and people seem to react better to this than to the usual burocrats they must deal with.

- Eating in. Restaurants, good or bad, are an enjoyable experience if it happens every once in a while and for a reason. My first indulgence was having lunch out with my wife as if on a date. This was so cool. Making restaurants a first choice or a predominant habit is unhealthy, expensive as hell and takes all the magic away from eating out (I know this because this was the trail I was following before PCP). Plus, for some antiquated reason I'm still convinced that one of the things that makes a family a family, is that father, mother and children seat together at the dinner table together.

B) CHANGES UNDERWAY

- Alcohol. I don't know what will happen after 90 days of no alcohol. I've never been a drunk, but before PCP there always were cold beers in the fridge and wine and spirits in the bar cabinet. Good wine with food, a glass of whisky in a cold night and good talk, a cold beer in the afternoon... What's not to love about that? But I also have to say that as pleasant as that is, I haven't missed it once. In fact, I feel so good to not have a hangover the next day and to be naturally satisfied, without crutches. So I guess I won't drink alcoholic beverages as I used to (without thinking twice about it), but as much as I find it rational not to drink, a beer or a glass of wine or fine whisky do lubricate social events much better than water. And that is also important.

- I'm considering applying for the Fung Fu Body later this year. But I'm still not totally sure. From an individual point of view, PCP has been great. But like all if you, I don't live by myself. There are some good side-effects at the family level of following a strict training programme such as this one. My wife, for instance, has become sensitive to too much salt and likes eating egg whites perhaps more than I do. But working out every day takes a lot of time and dedication. Sometimes there's a conflict of schedules (not really an excuse), sometimes it would be great just to eat the same food without restrictions. I could think of many more examples, but ultimately what I want to say is that maybe it is easier family-wise if we are all relaxed and spontaneous instead of rigorous and stuck to some regimen. So, if I choose to do the KFB and if I am really to commit to a life of activity, exercise and healthy food, I need to make some sacrifices like waking up early and finding a time and a method that I still haven't established (even after 52 days of doing it) which does not conflict with family life. Living better shouldn't make people around you miserable.

- Perhaps getting up earlier in the morning... Mmm? This is tough for me. Not that I'm lazy or that I wake up late. I just find it difficult to get up at a fixed time. Our son is still not sleeping through the night (not really an excuse), and waking up and getting up earlier for me means getting out of bed at 6am instead of 7am. I'll try.

- Finally, changing without obsessing. I must admit I'm of the obsessive kind. PCP is one of the most rewarding things I have done with and in my life. Results are so encouraging that they feed my obsession to keep things right. But it is also important to be able to lead a healthy life without having to obsess about it. Obsessions are not as sustainable as reasons. Reasons are not as sharp as obsessions. Being obsessed is in a way easier because you are hyper aware of what you're doing all the time. Obsessions are, if you wish, more visible and loud inside your head. Yet, obsessions tend to be ephemeral (I'm still talking about myself). It happens to me when playing the piano. I work hard until I'm finally able to play a given piece. Then I tend to over relax and sadly, I end up often forgetting how to play it. So, all that hard work for what? Reasons are quieter in my mind, I'm not always seeing my reasons as much as I see my obsessions. But whenever I'm needing to clear my head and put my ideas in order and set out to do something new or differently, I resort to finding my reasons and revisiting them. So let me recap. PCP has made me also reflect about my behavior and about how my mind works. This is something I knew but hadn't really wanted to address. I must invert the order: reasons first, obsessions later. It will take me farther and at a steadier and smoother pace.

- Ok. One more. I'll try flossing every day!

Days 47-49

I'll say these past three days were PPCPDs (perfect PCP days), as Patrick would put it.
There's some pain in my right pectoral, so it's good that yesterday the focus was on the arms and today is just the rope jumping. By the way, I'm doing better with the timed jumping (because I'm also counting), therefore not loosing my concentration. 8 2-minutes sets are about 1,850 jumps! Kung Fu abs were really tough because my bar is anchored to a very narrow door frame. Not sure I did those right. Yesterday, upon the news of now being time for indulgence 2, I realised I'm quite happy with my diet as it is. So, again, instead of thinking of something like a chocolate cake, I think I'll opt for dinner out with my wife to a nice restaurant. I know lunch would be best, but this is something we haven't done since our son was born (13 months ago). My weight is hovering around 69-70 kilos, but I'm starting to actually feel dense and heavy muscle-wise, so I'm looking forward to the remainig PCP days to consolidate results. Sorry I didn't put up the weekly photo. The one I took was accidentally deleted when transferring from the flash card to the computer. 60-seconds planks are exponentially harder, don't you think? Those 10 seconds increments are a torture technique. I must confess I'm not doing the 8-minutes abs. I just hate the music and find the guy annoying. The real reason, though, is that I feel I'm having enough with the daily PCP quota. I know I could be missing an opportunity to have better-looking muscles, but the truth is I end up very tired and worn out after the workouts, so maybe I'll consider doing those after PCP is over. I'll be happy to know if those of you who are doing these are seeing enhanced results that could incline me to reconsider. Wish all of you a happy weekend!

Days 43 - 46: catching up

Back from a long weekend away and unplugged from work. If I wanted I could have had access to my blog on the go but, to be honest, I just felt like taking a rest from fluorescent computer screens and enjoy the break. I will put up a couple of photos later this week, including the weekly photo.

I'm finding the new diet plan interesting. Having as much of the vegetables portion as I want at lunch feels like training for the post PCP life, when we will have to make choices and eyeball our rations without crutches like the food scale or the diet plan prescribed in advance.

I will make a few confessions:

- I couldn't have animal protein for breakfast, which I replaced with egg whites. Is this OK?
- On Monday we went for a long walk that involved some climbing and trekking. On the way back, I carried my son (he is all better, thank you Molly) on my back hanging from a backpack seat for babies (I will post a photo of this too). When we got back home to our friend's house where we were staying, I was too tired and didn't feel like working out on top of the long day's walk. Skipped the skipping and did half the workout. It felt like enough from a physical point of view, but I still feel like I betrayed myself a bit.
- I'm having mixed feelings about the timed version of the rope jumping. In my case, counting helped me concentrate and have an idea of how much was behind and ahead at any given point. I tried setting the stopwatch on my phone to two minutes but at some point I began to have doubts: how much more do I have to go? Did I press the start button? Will 2 minutes be equivalent to 200-250 jumps? And as I thought about this, I lost my concentration and started to trip systematically, which by now we all know is one of the most frustrating sensations. So, I went back to counting and I'm still doing 6 sets of 250 jumps. I'll try switching to the new method, but the transition won't be as easy.
- The friends we went with are former PCPeers, so it was great food-wise. On Monday, however, we had to buy some braised chicken which we ate by the river upon arrival to our spot (a fantastic hut in the middle of nowhere next to a clean river flowing through a warm, almost desert-like valley). It was too high on salt and a bit oily. I honestly didn't enjoy it very much and noticed right away how hard it was to actually know what it tasted like with so much salt in it. One of our friends became food poisoned and threw up many times after that meal. Not sure it was the chicken though, but I'm glad I didn't eat that much.
- There was a lot of alcohol available during the whole trip. I couldn't resist having a tiny sip of cold beer when we arrived in the hut. Otherwise, I had none and it was weird being around merrier people enjoying cold rum, beer and wine. But then again, it feels excellent to see them hungover and weak the next morning while you are all perky and ready to go.
- The morning egg snack was tricky. In the past four days there was a lot of moving around and driving involved, so in fact only once I did have it as prescribed. The other times, I replaced that egg at breakfast.
- Schedule-wise the trip was a scramble. Worked out twice in the mornings and the rest of the days very late at night. Not easy or smart, because I could feel my body feeling confused, wanting to move in the mornings and wanting to rest at night, but forced to do the opposite. So now I need to get back to a regular routine to feel less tired and more in control.
- I'm doing well except for the side crunches. But I'll keep trying.
- This morning I my weight was 69 kilos. Yes, I know numbers aren't important, but it is great knowing I've lost 8 kilos so far and also that despite the salty and oily chicken and the rather disorganised schedule of the past days, my weight was stable.

When is the next indulgence?

Day 42

Friday, at last!

42 days ago 250 jumps almost killed me. Today 1500 went by in 10 minutes followed by the most rewarding bagle and egg sanwich with a leaf of Japanese basil, steamed organic baby carrots, tomato chunks, all topped with broccoli sprouts. I find it hard to imagine my future without PCP breakfasts. Back in those early days the notion of defying gravity every morning, eating half and then withdrawing salt, sugar, alcohol, processed foods, butter, etc., sounded a little too monastic for my taste. I now know that going back is not an option, what scares me is not knowing how to go on just yet.

Day 40: big pants and slow beat

This picture reflects how I'm feeling this morning. It's not nostalgia for gone fat or embarrassment of the way old trousers fit. Evidently I need new pants as I'm sure most of you do too now that we start to look bagged rather than dressed. Results are encouraging, however subtle they might be. This morning I noticed my skin was tighter over my ribs, which are begining to really show on the sides of my torso. This is so cool. It reminds me of how I looked 15 years ago when I was in high school. Pelvic bones are also popping out and I'm seeing some muscle lines in my upper legs that are proof of the intense leg exercises we've been doing. So, big pants, no problem! The problem is that this week I'm not feeling the same energy thrust propelling me through the days. I feel in fact weak and not really in a good mood. I'm having to split the workout (jump before breakfast and workout before dinner). Before, I used to have enough battery life to do the whole routine at once. I'm curious to know whether any of you are feeling similarly. I notice the frequency of posting is slighly decreased. Certainly doing more with less carbs must tax our energy levels somewhat. But I'm not feeling hungry at all. Maybe I would like to be explained why apples for dinner and not any other fruit (I'm beginning to get bored with just apples), but other than that, portions are OK. Before I look anywhere else for an explanation, I want to make sure I understand the side effects of changes introduced this week in our diet plans and workout routines.

OK, done with the whining for the day. Put on a scale, results weigh far more than these occasional discomforts. I will have a mini-break this weekend. Leaving Friday night with the family and coming back on Tuesday night.

Day 38

Not much to say. Feeling well and happy to know about the jumping-before-breakfast tip. I've been doing the jumping and workout almost every morning before ingesting any food. On Sunday I woke up feeling weak. Twice before that I had to do my routine in the evening. Same thing today. Otherwise, I've tried to keep the habit of waking up, putting on some socks and training shoes, stretch a bit and start skipping.

I really hated PCP food on Sunday. I had the most devilish thoughts invade my head. I felt a giant pizza covering my cortex. It really sucked. But after working out in the evening, I ascetically appreciated my dinner and slowly went back to PCP mode. On Saturday I was wondering whether my mental and physical changes were only momentary or if they could be definitive. Pizza cravings and the foul mood on Sunday confirmed that sticking to the plan is by no means a guarantee that after day 90 things will have changed forever. This, instead of being a pessimistic thought, was kind of humbling. It made me realize that we are not enrolled into a magical programme but that working hard, every day, is an aspiration that if anything will only begin to grow on day 90.

What has changed is my awareness and understanding of my body. I'm beginning to understand the whole "listening to your body" metaphor. I feel that before starting PCP my life-style was quietly suicidal. I think by now I know this much; I can discern a healthy lifestyle from a sedentary and lazy illusion of wellbeing. I am beginning to dispassionately appreciate my capacity to be a self-disciplined individual. I don't want my own words hunting me in the future, so take my word when I tell you that I'm not exaggerating one bit in what I'm saying right now. Yes, there are tough days. But now that a good chunk of the project is behind us, I can say that I count mostly good days.

I guess I had something to say after all.

Day 34: bonsai-shoulders' paranoia

I have one band with which I do all the band work. It seems to have just the right resistance for most of the exercises. The one arm biceps, for instance, are quite demanding but doable. Just the kind of combination that I enjoy the most. Rowing is easy, but by now we all know the explanation behind that. Shoulder exercises and the double katanas are, however, very difficult. I must confess I usually cannot finish all reps required and it's frustrating that muscle failure happens so quickly into the set. I was tempted a couple of weeks ago to buy a less resistant band to do these, but thought that perhaps with time I would improve my strength and therefore it would be a mistake to get in the habit of making things easier on myself. In other words, I thought this would be a cheat. But today I'm not so sure anymore. I don't know if I will get better results by doing less (but harder) reps than I should or rather do them all, however easier, to also have more control of each motion. Many of you are also talking about this with regards to other exercises such as pull ups and push ups. In my case, pull ups are one where I see a lot of progress and I'm confident that very soon I'll be able to do the required quota. But the front shoulder rise, the da vincis (not always), and the double katanas remain a source of frustration. I was even stressed this morning thinking that at this rate I will develop a deformed body, with strong legs, back and chest, all hanging from weak tiny shoulders. Think of your body as a strong tree but with bonsai-sized branches. Monstrous!

Day 33

I'm about to go home for the day. Part B of today's workout still ahead. I really hate it when I have to split my workout in two, but today I'm not exactly in a good mood and in a way I'm pleased to have some workout ahead to release some tension and untangle whatever is tangled in my head. Domestic dramas can be so intense and put off your mental balance in a way I find degrading. Having to replace a babysitter or put up with colleagues not doing their jobs should hardly have any affect whatsoever in my core state of mind. But somehow it does trigger an emotional response: frustration, anger, stress. If it wasn't for PCP, I'm sure I would have unconsciously compensated my mood by having a couple of beers and a large unhealthy meal like a pepperoni and cheese pizza. Instead, chest dips, planks, milk, egg white squats and creeps. Don't I deserve a standing ovation?

PS. I propose a poll to all of you who like me have o work at an office: count how many people are fit and divide that number by the size of the staff. I did this today in my head, guess what, the percentage of fit people in my office (including myself) is 0.95%, or 2/21. Three or four colleagues seem in fairly good shape, most are clearly overweight and three or four are really obese. Talk about Patricks staff hiring hypothesis hah!

Days 29-32

I never thought I'd be happy eating an egg white, one apple, one banana and a glass of milk for dinner. But I'm liking it. Particularly because I was getting a bit tired of eating animal protein twice a day every day. This is so much more digestible and conducive to sweet and deep dreams than meat, chicken or fish. I feel I'm starting to sleep better and I wake up feeling lighter and stronger than the day before -as opposed to a bit heavy and tired-.

Last night was tough. I try to do the whole workout in the mornings but yesterday I didn't have the time. Such emphasis on leg and arm work tortured me. When is this gonna end? I thought. There are so many reps ahead and it is almost 10pm. A warm bath afterwards was restoring and I slept like a rock, literally like a rock. I felt my muscles sinking in the mattress and I barely moved during the night.

This morning I woke up sore but still decided to go back to the healthy habit of working out in the morning.

Today I celebrated my biggest breakthrough since Day 1: I could do 7 pull ups in the row, then 5, then 4 and then 6. I could do all the da vincis for the first time. And I really nailed it with today's breakfast: bagel and egg sandwich with a green beans and tomato salad topped with soy sprouts. It really was yummy.

I just went through the blogs of my PCPeers, glad to see you all doing great. By the way, I was meaning to ask if any of you would dare recommend very good training shoes. I have a relatively new pair of running shoes that I bought last year, but I feel they don't provide a firm grip and support to my feet. I've had an annoying pain on the top/right side of my right foot and I'm wondering if it's to do with the shoes.

Day 28

Couldn't do the jumps this morning because of an early work meeting. It will be done tonight after work. I'm amazed a month went by already and I was intrigued this morning by Patrick's video forecasting tougher exercises. The pull-ups continue to be my biggest frustration as I can only do three in the row.

Old jeans and clothes started to fit nicely again last week. This week I'm facing the opposite wardrobe problem as even those old jeans are starting to look big around my waist and gut. Same thing with my belts. Before starting PCP I used the penultimate notch. Since two weeks ago I've been using the last notch. Today I'm having to slide the buckle back to the centre because the belt is beginning to orbit my pants without me noticing. My wedding band also feels loose, so does my watch, my God, I'm all of the sudden occupying less space in the universe.

I hope, as I had mentioned a few days back, that a post PCP maintenance guide will be part of PCP.

Indulgence 1

Just got back from lunch. We went to a restaurant called WOK (analogue to Wagamame). My choice was to indulge myself with a "normal" meal. I had Pad Thai with prawns. Not very salty, which was good, but a bit too sweet because of the tamarind and the palm sugar. I thought it was a healthy choice, it wasn't oily at all, though a bit lacking on the vegetables front and a bit too excessive on carbs. Rice noodles, however (or at least I hope), aren't  too unhealthy. Maria had the same out of sheer solidarity.

For dessert Maria and I shared a dough-free chocolate cake. We simply couldn't finish it.  Below some pictures taken from the menu:

What worked and what didn't work?

What worked was first and foremost that I enjoyed having lunch out for the first time in 26 days with my wife. It was what I expected: a moment of rest, a late anniversary celebration and basically a treat to ourselves. I think it helped me specially in realeasing tension and stress caused by too much work, little sleep and our son's gastroenteritis. I was happy to eat a meal I didn't cook, to be served a nice looking plate and to overcome the fear of not knowing what it weighted. I also know that I don't need to eat like this on a regular basis and that the food I've been eating over the past 25 days is tasty and good. The feeling that I'm not missing on much immediately encouraged me to appreciate even more PCP approved food. This is as far as the Pad Thai goes. By the way, a few days before starting PCP, I cooked Pad Thai at home and invited some friends. Not to brag about my cooking skills, but that one was so much better.

What didn't work: chocolate cake. I had just a few spoons of it and felt over-cloyed and ultimately palled by it. I feel regret and frustration. Had I known what was ahead of this, I'd had used this chance differently. Maybe next time I'll just have a glass of very good wine. Or, why not, a small piece of fine chocolate.

As I had anticipated in a comment to Molly's entry, the theory on the very low marginal utility of chocolate was confirmed.

Some additional thoughts

In the end, this (indulgence 1) was a very positive experience. I learned to appreciate even more what I'm doing and gained extra strength to not deviate from the long term objective by falling pray of short term pleasures and temptations. One other thing that was very important about my experience was realising that eating is not something you should do on your own. Eating together, sharing a table, sharing the same food and using this time to connect with others (in this case I was in the best possible company), is perhaps as important if not more important than the food itself. Why make of eating just an action when it can be an occasion 6 times a day? I'll try to show more reverence and pay more attention to the ritual of eating from now on. Not that I'm not generally aware of this; it is simply that thinking so much about food has heightened its importance diet-wise and perhaps bleaked its social implications.

In Spansih the word for home is "hogar", which comes from "hoguera" or fire-place. Home is were you come together to eat. "Home" is the word in my banner describing my special activity, which has also made me reflect on the importance of better fitting PCP into my normal life.

Days 25 and 26: indulgence and drop of water sitting on top of a lotus flower

It appears Patrick has even calibrated the times when PCP gets really hard. The message informing it's time for an indulgence, as well as the one about people reacting to what we are doing with negative feedback, came both at exactly the right time.

Over the past two days a desire, not necessarily for chocolate or some oily food, but simply for a 'normal' meal, has been creeping my mind so strongly that it's thrown my mental balance repeatedly throughout the day. Such mental turbulence is leading to some bad feelings, like a ferocious hatred towards my digital food scale and an urge to scream "$,&@#%^*{}~<>€|^{#<>|%#+¥[_]}{|~" so loudly that the decibels and pitch would make that little machine blow into a million pieces.

But, like all turbulences, I just fasten my mental seatbelt, grab on to the handles, breath and regain some control of myself. The truth is I really like my food scale. Yet I know this isn't OK, it cannot be! Just a few days ago I was feeling so balanced, happy, calm, so effortlessly well... What's happening?

And then came Patrick's email asking us to have cheesecake or some wine, or just whatever we choose so long as it is really a choice, flashed our mailboxes like a divine revelation.

The message itself was mentally therapeutic. It helped me turn down the chocolate cake last night during our son's first birthday, at which moment I thought "don't be stupid man, you can have something better than that".

So, although I still have to decide what I'll have, I've already decided to ask my wife on a date. We will go out today for lunch to one of my favourite restaurants, one called WOK, which is comparable to Wagamama, which surely most of you know. In the end, I didn't have any wine last week when celebrating our fourth anniversary, nor the cake (which looked yummy) last night.

I hope this indulgence will be more than ingesting some forbidden food. I hope the moment alone with Maria will restore that blissful balance I had reached last week. I hope this will get me going for another month. I will let you know how it goes.

With regard to negative feedback I have to report our family came over last night for dinner (you know, to sing the happy birthday song and rejoice to see their first grandson on both sides of the family turning one). A very happy time to be honest. All very generous and loving with their gifts and good vibe.

Except for just a moment when somebody asked how was my "diet" going, adding I was looking a bit thin. And so I started the exegesis from the start, excited to brief all of them about what PCP is, who invented it, who are my peers, what the workouts are like and what restrictions and rules I must to observe. There was a positive comment congratulating me on my choice to lead a healthier life and admiring my self discipline and will power to stick so strictly to the rules.

But then there were other comments, one too many other thoughtless, negative and mocking remarks for my taste: "that sounds exactly like the kind of thing I would never do in my life", "no point in doing all that just to live 15 minutes longer", "I disagree with the diet, be careful, you will fall sick if you keep on doing this. You need at least 60% of carbs in your diet and far more lipids", "the last thing on my mind is exposing myself shirtless on the Internet for everyone to see", "well, it's amazing you've gone this far, but do you really expect you'll be able to finish", "and then what, what will happen after day 90" (fair question, I must say), but the tone wasn't well intended.

So I kept quiet, went to the kitchen and helped serve the capelleti with pomodoro sauce, the focaccia and the wine, which they all enjoyed very much. Guess what: no one had seconds! They all looked at my plate and I could detect in their eyes shame and guilt for judging me, conferring my plate an unexpected theatrical value on which I capitalised by very slowly chewing on my salt free meat balls and a colourful salad.

One thing surprised me. When I walked in the kitchen my mother in law was cutting the bread and out of the blue she asked me if I had ever seen a drop of water sitting on top of a lotus flower. She added that it looked as if the droplet weren't touching the leaf at all. That, she said, is how you should go about your more personal and cherished habits. To keep them pure you must keep them to yourself, and you will be able to enjoy the presence of others without having to put up with anybody having a say or an opinion about what you do. She is right. I think I have done as instructed telling a good amount of people about what I'm doing. But at this point, I can on without most of them. So next time they ask, no matter what will be going on internally by then (as Patrick so often says), I'll just say it's going on splendidly well.

Day 24

I didn't have time to do the whole workout this morning, only the 1100 jumps. I woke up with a bit of a stomach ache and feeling weak. This weekend was rather gloomy. My wife and I had to guard two on one our son's illness. Antonio isn't fully recovered but thankfully looking better. This sucked all my energy and for the first time in 24 days I'm feeling physically tired; very, very tired. Tonight, after work, I'll do the rest of the routine. If it works well I might just start doing this to gain some time in the mornings and be able to start the day earlier.

I thank all of you for the kind messages wishing the soon recovery of our son!

Over and out for now.

Day 21

Last week the Peak Condition Project involved eating so much I thought PCP stood for Pig Condition Project.

Today new diets and routines came in and, oh dear, they seem so hard that PCP this week will be Panic Control Project, or Pain Control Project to judge from the planks and creeps and pull-ups.

We'll see how it goes. Today's 1000 jumps were hard because my right foot hurt a little. I can't imagine what 1300 will be like in 7 days and a simple progssion would indicate that by the end of the project we will either be able to jump twice as fast or spend the entire morning skipping.

I guess it's best to take a day at a time and enjoy a tasty sandwich tonight. As of tomorrow, 0 carbs at dinner.

Good luck, good rest and good weekend to you all!

The mind-body debate

WARNING: this is a looooonger than usual post

PCP is the second very serious thing I've done "online". The other was a course on philosophy of the mind at the University of Oxford. And somehow I'm thinking there's an intangible and subconscious link. 

PCP with Patrick Reynolds might as well be a correlate of Philosophy of the Mind with professor Rachel Payne. The course dealt with an introduction to classic and contemporary readings that covered the history of the mind-body debate from ancient Greeks to Descartes to neurophysiology. That is, from the extreme dualist views to the extreme monist views. The former are certainly more mystical and inspiring, almost poetic, while the most recent cut to chase and simply 'prove' that, as much as there's a myriad of mysteries unsolved, the mind is clearly a brain function. 

Descartes' method of introspection is a great mental experiment to ultimately knowing the self. Hence the classic conclusion "cogito ergo sum". His critics say that as far as a method for generalisation goes, introspection is to knowledge as useful as salt to a PCPeer. I don't think that's true, but then again, I'm not a critic of Descartes and have much more interest in observing my mind than the mind of others. I see no problem in assuming others have similar minds. Proof of that is we -usually- understand each other through language.

Linguists, for that matter, are also entangled with the problem of whether it is possible to think without words -or without a language-. All very interesting, no?

And even though in the end I became convinced -or rather more credulous- of the most scientific points of view, I was thinking today, reflecting on the past twenty days, that when we think of ourselves we tend to neglect thinking about our bodies. 

We think about who we are, about the self, about more mystical issues like the soul and its passions, and about qualities of our character and personality that define us. It is as if, put in the words of Sir Ken Robinson (another splendid speaker you can find at TED Talks), we thought of our bodies as a means of transportation, as a necessary vehicle to get our heads to meetings. Funny remark, right? But to judge from the average physique of our fellow humans these days, more than a joke this is a lucid synthesis of how messed up are our priorities in society today. Let me be honest: I was such a fellow human just 20 days ago and so were most of you for what I've read.

So at least in this more cultural aspect, the debate about dualism seems to me to still have validity and relevance. We are accustomed to pop phrases like "you are what you eat". Sure (though not exclusively), but it is not until now that such a sentence bares real meaning. Specially since so much cooking is involved in the PCP. 

That's why I so much like the video I posted in which Heribert Watzke concludes "coquo ergo sum", "I cook therefore I am". Aside from a clever twist of Descartes' conclusion, what Watzke does is to explain to the general public some basic facts that have been known by scientists for a while about the workings of our gut, about the surprising variety of neurone cells that regulate hormones -signals- inside the layers of our intestines. His definition of man as an animal who cooks his own food transcends beyond humour. 

(Watzke has no excuse for being that fat, also proving that understanding and doing are two separate things and that the first does not necessarily lead to the other. In fact, I often find that understanding complex things is like playing Russian roulette: it's a rush of adrenaline until you are no more (that's why I've never tried it... the Russian roulette that is).)

I want to say that PCP is indeed a mental experiment, much like Descartes' famous Second Meditation. Specially when you look at the mirror after the shower and see a different body, a transforming body, that wasn't there the day before. Suddenly you wonder, "is this real?". Is PCP a dream we are going to wake up from in 70 days to find our fat bodies still carrying our heads to board meetings and depressing brown-bag lunches with the automatas we so carelessly call "colleagues"*?

* People who invest their lives in some extraneous cause and whose terms of reference require that their energy be consumed sitting in a chair in front of a computer screen right up to the point in their lives when it's time to become old.

I certainly hope not. There was one good thing I miss from my days as a smoker, which was to get up from my chair, go out the street, light a cigarette and put my mind at ease for a few minutes before plugging myself back to the routine. I am getting a better effect with fructose than with nicotine. The morning snack is my excuse to go down the Amrit (an organic market near my office) and buy the 180g of fruit. By the way, fruit is so cheap where I live. I wonder what would happen to the price of fruit and vegetables if a significant percentage of the population decided to do the PCP.

Let me wind back. I must say I learned much from Descartes. In fact every now and then I try repeating the mental experiment (Second Meditation) and it's always a superb method to keep track of mental changes. 

But now it seems that such practice will never be enough again. Training and awareness of what I cook and what I eat are now sticked to my mind in such a way that encourages me to rather think about the famous Second Meditation as the Meditation to the Second Power. I find it weird reading my own words. I've just realised that as much as I continue to define my point of view on the mind-body debate as monist, PCP is proving that I'm actually an integrationist. Yes, the mind is a brain function. But how much are we using such beautiful and mysterious instrument to think about the rest of our bodies? Furthermore, why only use your head for thinking when you can think also with, for example, your sore calfs?

No wonder the world is increasingly populated by fat and brutal individuals. If intellectuals, or anyone who thinks for that matter, not only rubbed their chins with their index and thumb in that ridiculous and falsely elegant way before coming up with some astute remark, but also skipped a rope 1000 times before opening their mouths, I'd bet ideas would also look leaner and communication among humans would be low-fat.

OK, I'm starting to sound dogmatic and eventually my words will hunt me in the future. I certainly hope they do if I happen to start forgetting to eat my vegetables and move my body. 

Aside from the tone, please also excuse each and every possible scholarly inconsistency in my words. In the end, this is a blog entry, not an essay. And no, I'm not structuring my intellect exclusively by paying attention to TED Talks, but as you might have noticed, this is one of my favourite pastimes. 

I'm just thrilled that my body feels awake and that feeling made me think if this affirmation made sense to a monist. And the answer is yes, more than ever -which is another way of saying 'for the first time'-.

Don't you think?

Days 18-20

Busy week at work, on top of which our son fell sick with a very aggressive gastroenteritis on Tuesday night. Zero sleep for the three of us. Yesterday night we spent four hours in the clinic with Antonio plugged to a serum bag. He slept through the night and so did we. He should be getting better in the coming two days or so.

Despite these little dramas life throws at you without due notice, I'm stuck to training and diet like a leech. I had barely any energy yesterday morning but still decided to put my mind focused on the workout. We had no idea whether we were going to have to spend the night at the clinic, so at around 8pm I left the room for ten minutes and bought fresh leafs (lettuce, arugula, I don't know what else), whole wheat bread buns and, guess what, it's impossible to find cooked salt-free animal protein. I thought about canned tuna, but the first time I tried it during PCP it tasted too processed, so no. I tried maybe the deli again for turkey breast, but no, too salty. So I hope not to have made a mistake, but I preferred simply some sugar free yogurt.

Tonight Maria and I celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary, so I'll be cooking a very special PCP-compliant meal at home. I'd love to have a cold glass of white wine or a cold beer, but I also really want to stick to the rules. Specially now that I'm starting to feel stronger everyday and that muscle tone is increasingly and quite pleasantly visible.

What I think, hoping not to be simply rationalising, is that if I was strong enough to stick to training and diet in the toughest time so far since Antonio was borne, I can also be strong enough to stick to proper and yet moderate celebration when life calls for it, even if it means taking a small step back in my diet.

Your thoughts are all welcome.

Oh, two more things: flickr account set up (sorry Patrick for the delay), and take a look if you want and have the time to the video I posted the other day, not the Jamie Oliver one, but the one called "the brain in our gut". I love the re-formulation of Descartes' well known conclusion "cogito ergo sum" for "coquo ergo sum". That is, instead of "I think therefore I am", "I cook therefore I am". Really cool!

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food | Video on TED.com

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food | Video on TED.com

Heribert Watzke: The brain in your gut | Video on TED.com

Heribert Watzke: The brain in your gut | Video on TED.com

Days 15 - 17

On Saturday we went to the wedding ceremony/party I had mentioned Friday night: awful diet-wise I must report. The rites and chants went on and on for nearly 5 hours. Therefore, I skipped the morning snack and had a very laaate lunch and a very loooong headache. I had a chicken sandwich I brought to the wedding in my lunchbox and opted for the veggies served at the wedding. I have to say it was all delicious. Just to remind you, it was a vegetarian menu prepared by class A cooks. I know there was some salt in what I ate, but not too much. And there was perhaps more olive oil than I wanted, specially bacause I have almost given up using oil since starting the PCP. What amazed me was my heightened palate, a kind of superpower to differentiate ingredients and flavours with every bite in a way that most probably resembles what babies go through when they are introduced to solids. I say this based on the faces of disgust, repulsion, delight and extasis that our baby boy Antonio makes when he tries something new.

I'm feeling better and lighter with the adjusted diet for week 3. These are meals I can actually finish and it feels good to know you are not completely full but satisfied.

I'll say something about the week 3 photo, perhaps connecting things that aren't so directly interconnected: this morning when I uploaded the weekly photo I noticed physical changes starting to show (less fat, muscles starting to surface -despite to not too favourable light-, pointier cheekbones). But most of all I noticed a radical change in posture and a different attitude in my facial expression. I've tried to make the same face every week, but somehow the lens is also capturing how this new expression unswathes and reveals a more relaxed, less tense, not tired, better looking and stronger person. I am projecting here, of course, but I'm also surprised that some of this can be captured by a plain photo.

On to the workouts: I'm becoming more and more efficient in keeping the times right. Da vicncis are beginning to become possible and today's pull-ups were utterly frustrating. So I decided that from now on every time I enter and every time I leave the bathroom (the bar is anchored to the bathroom's door), I will do one pull-up. I hope this will help me gain some extra strength to soon be able to do the sets as required. This morning I just could't. I could do two and then fell to the ground. So I opted for the inclined pull-ups, which are more doable but still very hard. As far as "burning muscles" goes, the feeling is present with almost all exercises with the sad exception of the rowing. Something most of you are also reporting. So I tried sitting as far back as possible from the vertice of the band and to do the motion as slowly as I could. It was certainly harder but still too easy. Next time I'll try doing more reps and if that doesn't work, I will consider getting myself a harder band just for this.

I'll finish the already long post by sharing with you that my parents came over for lunch yesterday. Dad, a physisician specialised in diabetes and naturally curious to check the scientific validity of the PCP, was blown by the whole thing. He praised the PCP approach to nutrition, was surprised that in less than two weeks I was able to go from the Day 1 workout to the Day 16 workout. He read some of Patrick's e-mails explaining things about diet, the three statages of muscle growth, etc, and was really excited. So Patrick, who knows, maybe there is a future "customer". OK, I know this might sound irrelevant to you. I certainly don't need my dad's approval since I was a boy and none of you really care whether a doctor endorses what we are doing. But the truth is he did give me a very simple explanation about type 2 diabetes and said that if one wanted to understand the biology behind eating, there was one hormone everyone should know all about: insulin. I will just say one enticing fact to encourage you all to make your own inquiries: insulin is, as opposed to all other hormones, is a hormone in charge of preserving energy. Knowing how this works made me appreciate even more the benefits of the PCP diet and exercises. If there comes a moment of doubt along the 90 days (it hasn't so far), I'll try to remember my dad's explanation about insulin and diabetes, among other important stuff we have all been learning from Patrick and ourselves.

Day 14

So I stopped by the deli a couple of hours ago, thinking that perhaps I'd find salt-free, smoked turkey breast. I asked the lady to give me a thin slice to taste it and I was shocked! It was like putting a spoonful of salt in my mouth. Of course, I didn't buy it. Good for me and not too good for my friends coming over for some PCP sandwiches tonight.

Tomorrow my wife and I are attending a wedding. The couple are vegetarians, but still I'm trying to come up with a sneaky way of taking along my lunchbox. The thin slice of turkey breast (really, it wasn't thicker than 2 mm) has made me scared of salt. I'm not saying I will commit to a salt-free life, but this little experiment made me realize how much things have changed in my body chemistry over the past two weeks.

I'll toss a question about salt in the weekly question threat. And if I may suggest so, go ahead and put a few grains of salt in your tong, you'll see what I mean.

It is unlikely that I will be posting anything this weekend. My wife will most certainly take the weekly picture before heading off to the wedding party. I'll upload it on Monday and say more about how it goes with the new diet.

Wish you all a good weekend!

Day 13

Week two coming to an end. I take pride in my self discipline because to be honest it's been a decade or more since I worked out two weeks in the row and kept a healthy and consisten diet. More than pride, I feel I'm enjoying myself. So far the hardest part has been squeezing in all the cooking in my routine. I haven't really felt tempted to eat any sweets or add any salt. A cold beer would be fantastic, but so far coffee, tea and water are enough. The feeling that meals are enormous remains and I have to report a zero weight loss since week one was over.

This morning I kept a close watch on breaks during the workout. I did feel a lot more burning in the muscles than in previous days.

As far as stimulus, growth and rest goes, I'd say that having a 1-year old in the house makes it difficult to guarantee long and deep sleep. But it's very good to feel the contrast: before PCP started, I used to wake up exhausted. I'm not necessarily sleeping more now than I did before, but thanks to the exercise and diet I'm waking up with a lot of energy that usually lasts through the day.

If I had time, I would definitely have a nap after lunch... I'll make time.

Day 12

I feel I'm eating so much that it occured to me today during lunch, as I chewed my vegetables, that PCP secretly stands for Pig Condition Project. The thought vanished less than an hour later as the bloating sensation faded and Patrick's note on muscle stimulus raised the flag in my mind that I'm not being as rigorous as perhaps I should in keeping track of the rest times during workouts. Good to have a license to curse from now on.

Fine tuning the rope

I was thinking this morning, as my rope slapped the floor passing under my feet, that this is actually a one-string musical instrument.

Day 11

I could do 150 jumps without stopping. My record so far. I hope I can do 250 by the end of next week. The da vincis are painful and few. It takes me a lot of time to complete them, as well as the front shoulder extensions. Other than that, I was very satisfied with the workout this morning. It seems to be flowing more efficiently as the days go by. The diet is also improving. However, yesterday's lunch was really depressing. I had a tasteless fish, a vomit-textured polenta and a dense jungle of vegetables. However, I took a look at Patrick's own blog when he did the PCP for the first time, I took note of the many recipes reported by members of the team and paid careful attention to today's question time video. All very helpful and inspiring to get better and more efficient at cooking, as well as to make the cooking and eating an enjoyable activity. I'm being careful with the amounts and even though after each meal I feel tired and about to burst, the sensation goes away quickly. I hope this means that the metabolic system is doing its job as it should because otherwise I'm intrigued to know how loosing weight is feasible at this eating rate. I went through all of your posts yesterday (praxis team) and was very happy to notice that we are all going through very similar experiences and overall doing well.

Wish you all a good night's sleep.

Day 8-10

Big changes this weekend, wouldn't you agree? Sure we are not supposed to take any pride in the pounds we've lost during week one, but it is certainly encouraging to see everybody reporting they occupy less space in the universe. I myself lost two kilos. The weekly photo somehow fails to reflect this big change I report subjectively, but accurately shows a mild shrinkage of my chest and a mildly thiner face.

That said, I think today (day10) I understood why Patrick said not to take any pride in the lost weight of the first week. I feel that if last week there wasn't much problem eating half, this week I'm starting to find it very hard to eat the prescribed amounts. It's like eating twice what I ate before starting the PCP! And of course, that vertiginous, counter clockwise trajectory of the needle of the bathroom scale halted! I'm steady on 75, which means I'm not putting up weight. I find it weird to eat that amount of vegetables for breakfast. This morning I felt a little nauseous and couldn't clear the plate. The workouts are coming along, except for the inclined pull ups and the da vincis. I can do sets of 3 or 4 inclined pull ups, which means that instead of doing three sets, I have to do four in order to finish. And I cannot do 10 da vincis in a row (only 6 or 7), which means an extra set right there as well.

The jumps are coming along fine. A former PCPr, Sean, commented on my previous post that I should share any advise as he remembered that rope jumping was often frustrating for him and might be for some of you. That was very flattering but I am by no means proficient (neither at rope jumping nor at giving advise). I can tell you that it is useful to keep your wrists always at the same height from the ground and distance from your body. I also think that as you get tired, the rope trips down in your feet, which I compensate by looking at a fixed point and keeping my chin up. The length of the rope is also very important. Mine is a bit longer than it should. I was told by a friend that you should step on the rope and bring up the hadles up all the way to your sternum. Above that point, the rope will be too long for you.

My wife and I are having fun cooking a lot. Yesterday we put some whole peppers, eggplants and red onions directly on the BBQ until they were black. Then we peeled them and the taste was fantastic. This is a great tip for cooking a lot of veggies all at once without loosing their flavour and then conveniently store them in the refrigerator. So go ahead and try it! The eggplants almost become like a natural butter spread.

Last but not least, another psychological trick I'm determined to try. Yesterday I said to myself, OK, since you were never in the army, you are going to do the PCP as if you were in your own military service. You will not question authority and you will be obedient to not get in trouble. Maybe that's being too hard on myself, but for those of you who are prone to self endulgement like I am, giving yourself a categoric command might do the trick to keep you away from a cold beer and stuck in your chair until you finish your PCP meal.

Day 7: 500 jumps not hard at all

Good morning guys. So instead of bragging about finishing the 500 jumps this morning without difficulties (in the end 5 sets of 100 is almost the same as 5 sets of 70), I want to tell you about last night's dinner party.

Our guests: to safeguard their identities Mr. P and his wife Ms. L. Ms. L is a former PCPeer and the one to blame for triggering my curiosity about this program in the first place.

That said, the menu: vermicelli with a rather dry sauce of black truffles (tartufo neri), half an onion, one clove of garlic and a couple of grounded veal sausages, all topped with shaves of Parmesan cheese. Quite a delicacy, right? I must confess I felt disquieted to see half an already modest portion served before me while I saw Mr. P, Ms. L, and my wife, dipping deep into the depths of the pot, as if on an archeological mission, to bring to the surface every last bit of truffle. Half a glass of wine did not seem to bother me.

So I thought that if I was going to eat half, a good idea was to eat twice as slow as the rest. The trick worked and we finished more or less at the same time. Except for Mr. P, whose plate was enormous. When he was done, he said to me, "see how solidarious I was with you?"' "how's that?" said I, to which he very humorously and cynically replied, "well, I usually take seconds, but since you're eating half, I opted to serve myself what I would eat all at once".

There was some left over after our guests left. And as I was storing it in a plastic container, I could almost hear the truffle bits whispering "eat us, eat us, don't leave us freezing to death in that cold cage full of vegetables".

I showed no mercy to the pasta left overs and went to bed. DAY 6 COMPLETE!

Back to this morning, the 500 jumps were actually not as easy as I said in the beginning. But they were doable and I know that if Day 8 calls for another 500 + more demanding workout, I'll be able to pull through.

Good day to all of you, and do check out this TED talk by an 11-year old boy on the food system. It is moving how stronger and educating a message becomes when it isn't conveyed by an adult.

Birke Baehr: What's wrong with our food system | Video on TED.com

Birke Baehr: What's wrong with our food system | Video on TED.com

Day 6: backwards induction

Here's a game I learnt back in college from a professor of economics. It's called 'race to 20' and should be played between two contenders. The idea is to take turns counting the digits from 1 to 20. The one who gets to 20 first, wins the game. There is one simple rule: when it is your turn to count, you can advance one or two digits. So for example, if I say "one"' you can say "two" or "two, three". If you apply a very simple formula, you will realise that if you want to win the game, the winning digits are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20. In other words, by reasoning backwards, you can win the game well before it ends by making sure you call the right digits as early in the game as possible. This came to my mind when thinking about PCP as a 'race to 90'. Not sure if this thought is useful or if I'm just boring you. But it helps me to visualise 'victory', as well as to understand the meaning of every day's training.

Today rope jumping felt more like a mantra than just plain excersise.
Today there was no salt or oil added to my meals and food tasted different but delicious.
Today Maria said she would jump with me every morning and do some leg ups.
And today I felt the mind (which I think is just a brain function) taking over!

Day 5

No sore muscles or pain today! And I know that big changes don't happen over night, but I can report without shed of doubt that I feel charged with a kind and quantity of energy I hadn't experienced in years. I'm also quite certain that some fat was melted off over the past five days. Nothing that should be noticeable in the upcoming week-2 photo, but enough to know that big and rewarding changes are ahead. One interesting thing is that although diet instructions for week one state that we should eat what we eat, except half of what we normally eat, I am finding myself eating healthier foods and not just less food.

Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish | Video on TED.com

Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish | Video on TED.com

Days 3 and 4

The slight increase of 10 jumps makes a huge difference. After day 2 I was worried, very worried, about my cardiovascular condition. I thought I wasn't going to be able to complete the day 3 routine and, to my own surprise, not only was I able to finish but I also felt my heart and lungs were more resistant. I was also feeling a lot of pain in my feet and my leg muscles, but after the workout I felt the tension eased almost completely. This morning, however, I woke up in pain again. I saw the 1 extra set of pushups and felt happy since this is so far my favourite. This morning I felt I gained speed at the rope! After jumping, the tension in my legs went away. I couldn't do the lunges without breaks and the last pushup took all my energy and strength. Abs were less painful.

Food-wise I'm also quite impressed to see the experiment working. So far I've had no problem with eating half what I used to. I know Patrick's prediction that after day four things get more demanding in this regard, will surely hit me. But by today I feel ready to accept and overcome this mental challenge.

I do want to know more about coffee, tea and water. I usually have a large cup of black coffee without sugar every morning, and then during the day, I'm served water and tea in my desk. Should I also cut this in half?

By the way, I quite like Praxis as the name of our team, but of course I'm also looking forward to a democratic call on this one.

I wish you all a good week!