I don't think there's a real reason I decided to go on a diet starting this Monday just past. Perhaps I was feeling a bit fat. Or it may have been that I needed a short term goal to focus on. Whatever the reason, Monday just gone I started dieting, with the goal to 5 kilograms by Christmas. I thought it might also be interesting to give an example of the foods I'm eating (I am eating the same food each day) so anyone interested can see what may work for them.
I should give some context to the diet and that context is me, my body type and what I do in a typical day.
A few years ago, starting January 1st 2008, my wife and I started the CSIRO diet, following the books exactly. When I started, I was 108kg and when I finished, three months later I was 89kg. Back then I was weight training (as I have been since I was 14) and but not cycling. I was pretty much getting much less cardio, with a walk/run on the treadmill for 20mins after every workout.
Following the formal end of the diet, we maintained healthy eating habits, loosely following what we had learnt in from the CSIRO diet. Though now with more kids, following the diet tightly proved a real challenge, both because the kids need lots of carbs and we don't have as much time or energy to prepare the food.
I stayed at about 91-93 until the start of 2010 when I hit the gym hard and while I still pretty comfortably fit into the same shorts I did when I was 89, I do notice I'm they are a little tighter and the next belt buckle up is more comfortable.
I'm 5'10, and as of Monday, 95.6kg. I'm not fat, I'm big boned. Nah, I weight train 3 to 4 days a week (if you're new to this blog).
I'm a software developer (again, if you're new to this blog) so I sit down for at least 8 hours a day, although I also sit down on my PC for a few hours each night.
I also like to cycle (again, if you're new to this blog), putting in 2 to 3 rides a week of between 30 and 40km each day. Amounts to about 1300 C for that day of cycling.
I hit the gym for between an forty-five and sixty minutes each session, going pretty hard. I used my Garmin's heart rate monitor to measure my calories intake for a typical session and it's about 700 C, with heart rate averaging 140 bpm.
I'm also using Daily Burn to track how many calories I'm eating. Being an analytic guy, being more precise with the calories going in and out helps me stay motivated. I can focus on making sure the numbers are right.
Daily Burn tells me I need to eat 2710 C to maintain mass homeostasis, which is a fancy way of saying I need 2710 C to maintain my body weight if I was completely sedentary.
My plan was to replicate the CSIRO diet as best I could. That meant cutting out carbs and stopping my daily Ice Breaks for lunch, along with 100g packets of chips a few times a week, and Subway or other takeout at least once a week for lunch. It means stopping eating all takeout / junk food until Christmas.
Breakfast
|
|
Eaten at either 5:20 am on ride days or 6:20 am on non ride days.
- Two weetbix
- 150ml of Trim Milk
- Glass of 100% Orange Juice
- Black double espresso (not pictured).
That's similar to what I had been eating, except half as much weetbix and no sultanas. I probably should increase that to three weetbix, or maybe through on some toast or eggs or both.
|
Morning Snack
 |
My mid morning eaten at 10:00 am.
The fruit contents varies from day to day. This photo includes
- 1 Banana
- Bunch of grapes
- 1 Apple
Today I've got watermelon, rockmelon, banana, grapes. Tomorrow it might be a 1 Orange, 1 Apple, 1 banana etc. The point being it's not just 1 piece of fruit, it's a few. Don't be scared though, there's still less calories than two large biscuits or a piece of cake. Heaps less in fact! I think around 150 C according to Daily Burn.
|
Lunch
 |
Lunch is a greenish salad with Tuna.
- Spinach leaves
- Corn kernels
- Beetroot
- Fetta Cheese
- Tomato
- Onion
- 95g Tuna (springwater drained)
All washed down with a Pepsi max (1 calorie)
|
Mid Afternoon Snack
I'm getting pretty hungry by mid-afternoon and down a protein shake in water with 38.4g of protein and about 110 C. That's enough to keep me going until dinner.
Dinner
Dinner does actually vary from salad and steak, to grilled onion + capscicum + carrots + broccoli + cauliflower and steak, and even pasta, yes pasta of some variety. Tuesday night was pasta back, and last night was rice with chicken and vegetables. Washed down with a Pespi Max.
Post Dinner
At about 9:00pm I go for a skinny cow ice cream in a cup , about 130 C and another protein shake, ending my day with more like 1600 C.
So with my body needing about 3500 to 4000 calories a day, 1600 calories isn't a whole lot and I've been finding myself pretty weak in the afternoons. Gym workouts haven't really suffered but once I stop doing stuff I feel like going to sleep or feel a bit wonky. Cycling is definitely more difficult though.
