Yesterday I learnt how to peel a hard-boiled egg. I managed to peel it in about five seconds. Given that I eat a lot of hard boiled eggs, in salads, on toast, or on their own, I figured I had just saved myself a huge amount of time. I decided to bank all that time that I had saved and do a two-hour road bike ride.
It was warm and sunny and the roads were quiet. I had mixed emotions. I was happy that my weight had dropped again but felt a bit frustrated on the bike. It is because I have split my training time up with biking, running and to some extent, swimming. Had I concentrated only on cycling, I would be flying on the bike by now.
I had an email from a friend that asked if I was training for the Tour de France. Whilst I would love to be young and fit enough to do that, I am afraid it is impossible. It is impossible in the same way that licking your elbow is impossible (go on try it). No matter how much I train I would not be at the level required to ride the Tour de France. Yet alone win it. The oldest person ever to win was a chap called Firmin Lambot, aged 36 and that was way back in 1922.
All this exercise had has an impact on my appetite. I do find that I am hungry and that my desire for certain foods has increased, whilst others have faded away. I woke up this morning and the first thing I wanted was a tuna sandwich. Quite odd. Last night it was watermellon that was on my mind, which I suspect was due to being slightly dehydrated.
The body is a funny thing. It tries to keep a level of fat, to resist becoming lean. Work out hard and the brian thinks “good grief, if that happens again tomorrow I’ll be starved, better put in a request for a double helping”. Cut calories too much and the body reacts, saying ‘hmmmmm…that isn’t enough food, better slow the metabolism right down to hold onto the fat stores I have…” Other authors refer to this as the ‘famine response’. The trick to weight loss, from what I can see, is to avoid going the way of massive calories deficits, which would trigger this famine response, instead it is better to have just a relatively small calorie deficit each day, thereby losing weight gradually.
I am certainly losing it gradually. On the weight loss side I am now down to 72.3KG. In the last thirty-one days I have managed to lose 2.7KG. This is, by all accounts, a healthy rate of weight loss and can be attributed to a reasaonable daily calorie deficit combined with an increase in exercise.
I leave you with how to peel a hard-boiled egg. You can, like I did yesterday, bank all that time saved and go for a two hour bike ride 🙂
Eduardo's road to fitness 