After Lent, I had a bit of a rebellious reaction to diet. I more or less followed what I should be doing. But wine came back into the picture. The weekends got a bit involved. And also spending some Saturdays with people from easterly areas means vodka consumption. It could worse of course.

So, I set myself some rules in May. They are an amendment of my post-Lent rules.

  • At most 3 mugs of coffee a day. One black tea (Earl Grey, Hot) in the afternoon.
  • Two meals day, low carb except for a cheat day usually on Saturday.
  • Also, I’m allowed porridge with a banana for a pre-gym breakfast.
  • No snacking.
  • Avoid seed oils - cook in tallow, butter and olive oil.
  • Measure calories and macros.
  • At least 2 litres of water a day.
  • One bottle of wine per week (ha, ha, ha).
  • Gym three times a week (Legs, Upper Body, Supplemental).
  • Exercise bike three times a week.
  • Two daily dog walks.

And so how did I get on? Well ignoring bank holiday and starting on Tuesday, reasonably well. I have two key problems:

  1. Sticking to one bottle of wine a week is non-trivial. That’s three nights with 1 large glass. At I type this, I’m breaking the rule.
  2. I eat too much butter. I’ve measured my calories and macros every day this week. I eat a surprising amount even though I have only two meals a day.

On a one meal a day diet you can almost eat as much as you want within reason. In Lent I was bulking my calories with cheese and nuts. Once you double the number of meals, it becomes harder to keep the calories down.

Not that my calories are a disaster. I’m averaging 2458 calories a day (including wine), with averages of 161g of protein and 137g of fat. I’m getting enough protein. So instead of a cheese omelette, I’m having a plain one. I’m eating lots of green vegetables.

I missed a gym session last week. It was unavoidable. But this week I’m back on the horse. So, let’s ride the thing and see where we go.