Meal 3

Heading out soon so thought if I eat just before I'll be too stuffed to binge. Makes sense in theory, we'll see what happens.

Lunch on day 2

It tasted a lot better than it looks. Chicken curry, okra and lentils. Loved it. Feeling full but need something to really round off my meals though. Toughie.

Breakfast - Test day 2

I feel so full!

Test Day 2 - 31 December 2010

Tricky stuff , seeing as it is new years eve and I will be out tomorrow night. Will do my best, but no guarantees of anything. That is the beauty of my 'Test' days, before I launch properly...on Saturday...new years day...with a binge day....


Anyway plan for Friday 31 December, test day 2:

• Wake up
• 2 glasses of ice cold water
• Breakfast: Omelette - couple of eggs, green onions, salsa, mushrooms
• Fitness bootcamp @ Strictly Bootcamp
• Brunch: Turkey rashers, green salad, refried beans
• Late lunch: Grilled prawns, guacamole, black beans, spinach
• Dinner: Tough one. I will do my best to stick to lean meats, salad and vegetables but I am out, don't know what I will be served and what the ingredients are. Hmmm.

4 Hour Body PAGG and CQ

Its not easy finding the right supplements from the right (and trusted places). The 4 hour body's detail on supplements is pretty new to me. PAGG/AGG and Cissus Quadrangularis - WTF??

PAGG and AGG

• Policosanol - 20-25mg, once a day, before bed
• Alpha lipoic acid - 100-300mg, before breakfast, lunch and dinner and before bed
• Green tea flavanols (decaff) - 325mg, before breakfast, lunch and dinner, before bed
• Garlic extract - 200mg, before breakfast, lunch and dinner, before bed

Taking these everyday - cheat day or not.

Cissus Quadrangularis


This is an ancient herb, used commonly in ayurveda for joint repair and ligament strengthening. Tim believes this has a synergistic fat burning effect when taken with PAGG on cheat days, 30 minutes prior to meals, up to 7.2g per day.

Tim based this amount on his lean body mass of 160lb, and as my lean mass is probably closer to 115lb, I'll probably cap myself at 4.5-5g on cheat days.

And I'll only be taking this on cheat days.

Sourcing the supplements
Policosanol - From Amazon.co.uk (Natures's Life)
Alpha lipoic acid - From Amazon.co.uk (Doctor's Best)
Green tea flavanols - from myprotein.com - £9.99 for 90
Garlic extract - from Power Body -£12.86 for 90
Cissus Qudrangularis - from myprotein.com - £19.49 for 90

Probably can find a lot of them cheaper if I look more but that is a procedure I can fine tune - although to be honest, I aim to be past the need for them by Summer so shouldnt need to order much more!!

Test Day 1 - Meal 4

Pretty simple meal of lentils, cottage cheese and okra/ladyfingers.

310 calories
44g carbs
30g protein
3g fat

Test day 1 - Meal 3

I know, not a proper meal but was out and didn't have time - so protein shake it is:

196 calories
44g protein
4g carbs
3g fat

Test day 1 - Meal 2

Spinach and kidney beans in tomato sauce with a generous helping of cottage cheese!

Calories: 545
Fat: 11g
Carbs: 76g
Protein: 38g

Meal plan for Week 1, w/c 1 Jan 2011

I know it is unusual to start a week with a Saturday, but first day of the month, first day of the year, seemed a logical starting point, right?


Anyway I have set out my intended meal plan for the next week below. What you need to know is that for religious reasons I don't eat meat, egg, etc 3 days a week - Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and I don't eat beef at all.


So basically I have got 3 "vegetarian" days, 3 "normal" days and 1 binge day in a week. So I think

Test day 1 - Meal 1

The jog didn't happen this morning - opted for a lie-in instead. But I did wake up with the resolve to at least stick to the eating plan!

Anyway, here is meal 1:
- 2 scoops of True Whey protein from myprotein.com
- 1 full aubergine grilled in 2 tbsp olive oil
- 150g lentil dahl

Total nutrition:
502 calories
19g fat
39g carbs
51g protein

Test Day 1 - 30 December 2010

The plan for my 1st test day:

• Wake up
• Go for a 30 minute jog
• Protein shake
• Cold shower

2 days of testing

I am going to use Thursday 30 December and Friday 31 December as sort of "test days" for my slow carb-ing plans. Both in terms of how I eat and also in how I share things on here.  Should be an interesting trial and my main experimentation stage to see how I get on with the eating plan generally.


Need guard up for Friday though - new years eve wont exactly be easy!

Shopping list for week 1, w/c 1 Jan 2011

I have done me a shopping list of the foods I will be indulging in over the next week (on the good days, not on the binge day, just to be clear!):

• Whey protein
• Cottage cheese
• Chicken thighs and breats
• Prawns
• Pork

So What Exactly Is The Plan?

The plan is to follow the nutritional and supplement guidelines set out by Tim Ferriss in his book, The 4 Hour Body:

The basic principle is to follow a "slow carb diet", with the following 5 basic rules:

1. No white carbohydrates - bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, sugar, and so on. They cause insulin spikes and fat gains/retention.
2. The same meals over and over again, broadly rotating the same 5 or 6 meals over and over again over the course of say, a week. Each meal should consist of

About Me

Like most, I have struggled with my weight and body image for years - all of my life in fact. 

Ok not exactly a 100% truth, but from childhood obesity, with my weight peaking at 19st 10lb (276 lb/125kg) in 2001, to a much lighter 10st 13lb (153lb/74kg) in July 2010 was a huge struggle, but I somehow got there. 

The thing is that despite losing a load of that weight, I managed to retain a heck of a lot of body fat just hanging there, with minimal muscle to support it - poor eating habits was the main cause of this. In fact clothes off, I probably look at least 30-35 pounds more than my actual weight!

So I am now on a mission to get myself ripped and happy with my physical state!

How am I doing this?

1. Training with one of the best personal trainers in London, if not in the UK, 3 times per week. 
2. Following a careful nutrition and supplementation plan as detailed in Tim Ferriss's The 4 Hour Body.
3. Tracking absolutely everything I eat on my iPhone with 2 things - The MyNetDiary app, tracking nutritional content, timing of food and calories and also taking a photo of everything I eat and drink before it goes in my mouth. 
4. Daily summaries of food, drink, exercise, and my own thoughts and ramblings will be posted here along with my measurements in inches and pounds to observe progress.