The chicken at KFC is not suitable for vegetarians (Day 3)
The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is weigh myself on the scales and get a break down of my Body Fat, Body Water and Body Muscle readings. From day one to day two I went down only 0.1kg from 69.9kg to 69.8kg. From day two to day three I stayed at 69.8kg, and no I did not convert fat to muscle. From day one to day two my Body Fat, Body Water and Body Muscle stayed constant at BF: 18.8%, BW: 55.8%, BM: 42.3%. From day two to day three my weight stayed the same at 69.8kg but my Body Fat went up to 19.5%, my Body Water went down to 55.3% and my Body Muscle went down to 41.9%! This is despite all the exercise and cutting out many things from my diet. I thought of a few reasons this could be happening: 1) I’m consuming too many fat and carbohydrate calories (e.g. Cheddar Cheese and Quinoa); 2) The reading might have detected more fat due to The Body Shop strawberry butter I put on my body after coming out of the shower the night before; 3) My two hour training on an empty stomach in the morning is forcing my body into starvation mode and it’s starting to burn my muscle as a form of fuel, rather than just fat and carbohydrates.
Whatever is going on something is not working! These thoughts were going around in the back of my mind most of the day.
Anyway, back to the morning gym session I did on an empty stomach again. My resistance training generally improved with an increase in reps in most sets from yesterday’s session. However, my 2 laps around the park were slower by 41 seconds. I completed my 10 minutes on the cross trainer as usual.
When I got home I had a double lime with two teaspoons of honey mixed with hot water drink, a fresh mango, a protein shake with milk and flaxseed oil and two toasts with peanut butter. The hot water is supposed to boost the “kick-starting the metabolism” effect.
Despite the attempt at refuelling I was once again quite exhausted after my work out for the rest of the morning/afternoon.
For lunch I had quinoa with the last of the vegetable curry. Through the day I snacked on nuts to try and boost my energy and give me a continuous source of protein.
Me eating a bowl of fruit in the smoking area of Tiger Tiger in Piccadilly Circus, London
A couple of my friends had been in touch asking me to join them for a night out. I wasn’t sure if I’d be up for it due to low energy. However by the time it was evening I was feeling normal energy levels again and decided to go out with them. We ended up at Tiger Tiger in Piccadilly Circus – I would not recommend it, not on a Saturday night anyway. There were lots of fat unattractive people on Stag and Hen dos trying to unconvincingly dance to crappy 80’s music. It was hot, the air conditioning was broken and leaking and thus there were lots of sweaty smelly people everywhere. Yuck. Definitely not my kind of scene. Though it’s possible I felt like that because I was completely sober. No alcohol. No drugs. No tobacco. Just almonds. Which, mistakenly I left in the cloakroom. At one point I got the munchies and so we went on the hunt for something I could eat. Luckily across the road from the club was a Spar. There was a large variety of foods on offer. I would have loved a wholemeal salad sandwich. No chance. The vegetarian sandwiches they did have, like, the Ploughman’s Lunch, though in wholemeal bread, contained mayonnaise, and mayonnaise contains egg – which is a no, no. The only foods that suited my detox regime was a bowl of salad which was £2.89 or a small bowl of fruit which was £1.69. So I went for the fruit. I ended up bringing back the bowl of fruit and eating it outside the club in the smokers’ area. Yes that’s right, I’m taking this detox thing hardcore! And when I was inside all I was drinking was water with a slice of lemon. Lovely. After completing my midnight munch I reluctantly went back inside with the boys.
Despite the shitty venue, there were however, two great things that came out of the night. 1) I got to meet up with a couple of my friends who I hadn’t seen in a while – always good to see them. 2) I was inspired by a Chippendale-looking shot-serving guy who had his top off and had an extremely well carved body. I looked at him and then thought back to the photos I’d taken of myself over the last couple of days (I’m taking photos of myself every day to track my progress) and thought, man! I need to get my act together and stop looking like a pregnant man (really). I looked at him and contemplated how I was not getting any results the last few days and thought I really would like to share my before and after pics with you guys at the end of the 40 days. In order for that to be possible I must get results. The only way I could show you topless photos of me now is if I have something impressive to show for this 40 day detox and I have to at least have a flat belly by the end of it. So I decided I would up the detox regime. I will start looking into how to train and fuel myself properly. Sure, these last few days I have proved to myself that I can eat incredibly delicious meals without the crap and dead animals I would normally eat. However I need to realise that my body is a biochemical machine and food is its fuel. I must treat food as fuel. I make the commitment to myself to understand what I need to eat, when to eat it and abide by the rules I will soon discover.
The chicken at KFC is not suitable for vegetarians
At the end of the night I went on the hunt for munchies again. When I asked the lady working in KFC if they had anything vegetarian she simply said “What? Here?! No”. McDonald’s salads all seemed to have meat in them. McDonald’s Spicy Veggie though delicious comes in white bread, which meant no. Finally I sourced a Subway. There you can choose exactly which bread and exactly which fillings you desire. Perfect! After finding out their veggie patty had potato in it (no potatoes allowed) I bought and consumed a 6 inch salad sandwich in wholemeal bread with no sauce. It was delicious and only £1.99.
On my way home on the night bus I started Googling how to burn fat while keeping muscle and read through a few articles on bodybuilding.com. All I will say for now is that as a result of my preliminary research, when I got home I ate the rest of the cottage cheese we had left in the fridge before I went to bed. And while I slept, my body was busy working away at rebuilding my muscles…