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.