Alternatives to Potatoes ?

Potatoes are a healthy part of any diet, so long as you don’t use them to bulk up your meal.  As I have said before, I am not following a specific diet, it’s a case of reducing your portion sizes and this goes for the amount of potatoes you eat.  So for example, instead of eating potatoes with every meal, I have been eating alternatives, such as cous cous, rice, noodles, pasta and spaghetti.  I’ve also eaten sweet potatoes, which are less of a carbohydrate than normal potatoes, such as maris pipers and they also taste absolutely amazing. 

Other alternatives to potatoes that I haven’t yet tried are butternut squash and turnip.  Although I must admit to enjoying butternut squash soup and roasted butternut squash with a good roast dinner.  I can’t say that I have specifically thought of replacing potatoes with butternut squash, although I am happy to give it a go. 

I’ll look to try over the next few weeks and report back on my opinion.

To summarise, potatoes are a healthy part of any diet, so long as you eat a balanced meal.  Don’t fill your plate with potatoes.  Make sure that you have enough vegetables and meat.  After all it is about portion size and this is where you should concentrate your effort.  You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to cut down on the amount you eat and if you still crave a snack in the evening then cut up a raw carrott or eat a piece of fruit – these are far better alternatives to a packet of crisps or chocolate !

Journey so far !

Well my journey started on the 30th September 2009, with my first game of squash for over six months and previous to that I hadn’t played squash for over 6 years.  This is what happens when your busy at work and have a young family.  Well it is what you use as an excuse.  In fact there is no real excuse, since if I had really wanted to play squash, go swimming and generally keep fit, I am sure that I could have found the time.

Anyway, I kicked myself up the backside on 30th Sept and decided to take the plunge to play squash with my new found squash partner – thank you www.gumtree.com.  So this was the start of my journey back in to the world of fitness and as ever, once I start this journey I get really engrossed and then look at what I can do to improve and positively look forward to every element of my fitness regime.

So, after a few games of squash, I decided that I shouldn’t really be solely using this as a mechanism to fit.  So this is where the swimming comes in.  Initially I could only manage a couple of lengths, however, I have built up over the weeks to 20 lengths then 30 lengths and finally 40 lengths.  I then jumped from 40 lengths to 64 lengths, since I was keen to be able to swim a mile.  So I am now able to swim a mile of the pool in around 45 minutes.  Not bad considering that I only started swimming on 2nd November and only swim once a week.

I also only started to concentrate on the ABS / CORE muscles or indeed Six Pack around the end of October.  So not long really and I am already starting to develop the six pack.

As I posted on twitter the other day, I have lost over a stone in weight since I started out on my fitness / six pack journey – not bad for such a short space of time.

I put it down to making sure that I exercise when I plan, carry out cardiovascular work, ensure I have a rest day between six pack exercises.  Eat sensibly, healthily and don’t pig out on snacks in an evening.  Rather than reaching for the packet of crisps, do what I did only last night and eat raw carrott instead.  I’m also eating a lot more fruit, drinking plenty water and have considerably cut down on my portion sizes.

So I wonder what my “Journey so far !” update will be in another 9 weeks time.  What will I weigh, how will my six pack have developed and how many lengths will I be swimming ??!!

Journey begins !

Ok, so my journey began around mid September, since my last IT contract concluded and I saw this as a good time to use this renewed freedom to set myself a new challenge and to regain that six pack, whilst looking for my next contract opportunity.

Since, mid September I have restarted playing squash and taken up swimming.  As one of the keys for me is to increase my level of fitness, however, you also need to ensure that you partake in cardiovascular activity, as this is one of the quickest ways to reduce that level of fat that’s hiding the six pack !

So, I started off by going swimming to my local pool.  I remember my first attempt was really poor, as I could only swim two lengths of the pool doing breast stroke, without the need to stop and catch my breath.  This was a real shock to me and showed how slow this journey was going to be !  I always have a view that anything is possible and see being able to swim more lengths as being achievable – however, I had a much higher expectation in terms of how many lengths I would be able to swim.  I have to say that I was extremely shell shocked when I realised that I was only able to swim two lengths without having to stop for a breather !!

Squash was something that I used to play a number of years ago and is an extremely energetic and challenging sport.  My first challenge was to locate players within my local area and after a number of searches on google, I came across gumtree, which had a couple of entries for individuals looking for squash players within my area – what a result !!!  I immediately contacted them and looked forward to my first games of squash for quite some time.  My first game was exhilerating and extremely tiring at the same time, however, I was immediately hooked !!

So, I now swim once a week and play squash twice a week.  Oh and have also increased my social life through the playing of squash.  Who said that exercise can’t be fun !