Randy Nelson and his team at Ohio State University in Columbus found that mice exposed to light at night weighed 10 per cent more at the end of the eight-week study than mice that had experienced a standard light/dark cycle, even though they ate the same total number of calories and did the same amount of exercise

Basically sit in the dark at night and you’ll lose weight. Here are 7 other tips [Link]

The first book I bought and read on my Kindle was Wheat Belly. It’s a book that talks about wheat, how it’s evolved and changed through time and how it’s really not good for you. The author at one point compares it to heroin and as a huge fan of bread myself I can completely understand why. I don’t know how accurate all the information in the book is but it was enough to convince me to try and stay away from wheat… at least for a short period of time to test it out.

According to the book wheat has a lot of negative effects on the human body and once you’re off it you should see positive results. Some of the advantages I’m looking forward to is the ability to focus better, less drowsiness and decreasing whatever fat I have left around my belly. So far I’ve been off wheat for just 48 hours and it hasn’t been that hard. My only concern actually is with my cheat days. Every Friday I usually stop eating healthy and go on a binge filling my stomach with burgers, pizza’s, pastas and lots of dessert. But now I have to stop all of that. No more Vertigo burgers, no more pizza’s and no more Dally’s Chocolate Pudding. I actually don’t know what dessert I can have now since all the desserts I love contain wheat!

Still, I’m curious to try this, not sure how obvious the results will be or if there will be any results but I’m going to try and last as long as possible without wheat and then post any findings here (if any).

I spotted the flyer above at the gym. If anyone is interested you can call them up on 22520407. If you don’t know what Core Fitness is click [Here]

Fahad just posted pictures of Core Fitness on his blog. If you’ve ever been curious to get an inside peek you can check out the pictures [Here]

Note: The picture above is of my kick ass personal trainer Dusty

I haven’t tried the Sidekick Academy fitness classes but I’ve got friends who did and they told me it’s pretty tough. These classes are for men and women who are interested in losing weight and getting in shape. The timings are:

Men’s Sidekick Academy Fitness (SAF) class
Every Saturday/Monday/Wednesday at 4:00
Daily from 18:30 to 19:15

Women’s Sidekick Academy Fitness (SAF) class
Every Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday at 4:00

For more information you can call them up on 99975562

Note: Updated men’s timing

Leila is my favorite Lebanese restaurant in Kuwait and I’m there usually on a daily basis for lunch since one of their locations is right next to my office. Last week they added a new “light” menu which includes some popular Lebanese dishes that are cooked in a healthier way for example their light taouk dish now uses a mustard based marination resulting in a final dish that contains only 430 calories. Yeah they actually have the calories listed next to the dishes, something I hadn’t seen at a Lebanese restaurant before.

They only have a few items on the light menu right now but they will be adding some more over time. The location I visit the most is the one next to Johnny Rockets outside Salhiya Complex but they have another one at The Avenues near the cinema as well.

As I’ve posted before I am now riding to and from my gym on my bicycle. The combined distance is around 16.5KM, it takes around 30 minutes each way and I end up burning around 600-700 calories in the process. Since I go to Core three times a week that means I’m basically burning around 2000 calories a week just by riding my bike to the gym.

The way I look at it is every time I ride to the gym that’s an extra 700 calories I’m burning which means I can have a burger that’s also around 700 calories and I would even out.

What this means is I now ride to eat. If anyone is looking for a way to burn calories I highly recommend riding. Even with this hot weather it’s not bad at all, it’s actually not that hot at night. Just park your car near Corniche Club on the Gulf Road and then ride to the Kuwait Towers and back. Easy as that.

I was having lunch at Leila when I noticed they had two new drinks on the menu and one of them was Diet Jellab. I love Jellab but haven’t been able to have it for ages since it was one of the things Fahad took off my diet along with my 5 spoons of sugar chai haleeb. But since this one is just 52 calories I’ll probably be sneaking a cup every now and then since it also tastes exactly the same as regular Jellab. Now someone needs to invent a diet quarter pounder with cheese.

Fahad just posted his extremely comprehensive ice cream post with his signature “Approved” and “Not Approved” rating system. You can check out his post [Here]

Last weekend I decided to try and walk home from work. The distance was around 12KM and took me 2 hours and 20 minutes. Today I decided to try and beat the time and try to get home in 2 hours or less. So I ran, and ran and ran. I don’t think I’ve ever ran as much or as far as I did. It wasn’t non stop running since I’m not that fit but I ran a lot more than I walked. To my surprise, I managed to cover the exact same distance but this time in 1 hour and 39 minutes! Not bad for a guy who can barely make it on a treadmill for 30 minutes. The above time is todays run while the below time is from last week.

So Thursday after work I decided to walk home as a bit of exercise. My office is located in Kuwait City near Muthana Complex and my apartment at the beginning of Salmiya. I estimated the distance would be around 15km and I wanted to try and make the trip in 3 hours or less. Well the whole trip turned out to be 12km and took me around 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete. I thought that was disappointing because my regular walks around Salmiya are 11km long and Kuwait City to Salmiya sounded a lot longer than that. I didn’t feel tired or exhausted and it really wasn’t challenging enough. What was even more depressing was when I got home and was checking Facebook I noticed pictures of a friend of mine who had just gotten back to Kuwait after participating at the Marathon des Sables… a 6 day long 243km endurance race. I guess I’m taking baby steps? On the bright side at least it’s something I can do more often now. I took some pictures during the walk and was uploading them to twitter but in case you missed it you can see them at the bottom of this post.

On a different note I measured my body fat percentage today and it’s 13%. That means I dropped down 1.6% since the beginning of the month (I was 14.6) and I lost 1.2kg of body weight and all of it was fat, no muscle loss. So not what I was hoping for but still better off from where I was earlier in the month.

This is going to be a bit of a long post and it will sound like an advertisement but I don’t care since it’s something that’s very important to me.

I’ve never thanked Fahad for changing my lifestyle and I figured the best way to do it is by dedicating a post to him. For those of you who’ve been checking the blog from the start you might remember the amount of junk food I used to eat. Just check these old posts [Click Here] and check the dates underneath those posts. That’s basically what I used to eat on a daily basis and it wasn’t just a phase, it was my lifestyle from the day I left to college up until over a year ago when I signed up to Fahad’s gym Core Fitness.

I remember when I found out I had acid reflux the Dr told me I had to change my eating habits and start exercising I literally laughed at him. Told him no way that was going to happen since I’m just too lazy. Then one day I decided to try this exercise thing, I had a home gym which I had only used once before and figured maybe if a trainer came over to my place and trained me at home I wouldn’t be too lazy about it. I posted on the blog asking people if they knew any trainers and that’s when Fahad emailed me. I had met him previously on an offroading trip and so I kinda knew who he was, he told me he had a gym and I could sign up there. I was replying back telling him thanks but no thanks when I decided to check his website and that’s where I read “20 minutes just 2 times a week”. 20 minutes? That’s nothing, no matter how busy I am with work and my blog, fitting 20 minutes into my day just twice a week would be doable. So I signed up and ever since I’ve changed into a completely new person.

I’m so into the Core Fitness lifestyle I’ve become a traveling salesman for them. Everyone I know who tells me “Mark you’ve lost a lot of weight, you look really fit” I shift into Core Fitness sales pitch mode. Their first excuse when I tell them to sign up at the gym is “I wish I could but I don’t have time”. I hit back with “dude it’s just 20 minutes twice a week!” And that grabs their attention just like it grabbed mine the first time I heard it.

Thing is you start off twice a week for 20 minutes but after awhile you end up wanting more. I’m not going to post Fahad’s secret to how he hooks you in (yes I’ve figured out the formula!) but lets just say it works really well. I went from a junk food addict who hadn’t done any kind of exercise for over a decade into the fitness/health obsessed freak I am today. I started with 20 minute sessions twice a week and then it became three times a week and then four. Now it’s 1 hour sessions three times a week and if I could fit in more sessions into my busy life I would. I’ve been going to the gym steady for nearly a year and a half now. I don’t miss sessions and if I do it’s usually because of an emergency or I’m stuck at work. Food wise I’m eating incredibly healthy now and I don’t even find it tough anymore when Fahad assigns a new routine for me. He could tell me to eat beans and spinach three times a day for a whole month and I would do it without any issues or complaints.

Now what made me want to write this post today is the following comment a reader left under the “My Bike Ride” post:

I have 30% body fat. I smoke like a chimney. I eat whatever I want. I drink like a fish. The most exercise I get is working the gas and brake pedals. I’m so happy with my lifestyle choice, not having to do crazy things like walking home to achieve a target.

It made me realize that I don’t have to eat healthy, I don’t have to exercise, I don’t have to hit 12% body fat and I don’t have to walk home. I WANT TO do all the above. I like doing them and I want to do more and the reason for this drastic lifestyle change was Fahad. So for this reason I want to say THANK YOU FAHAD. Thank you for changing my lifestyle and I hope you manage to change a lot more people as well. And of course a huge thank to all the trainers at the gym who kept pushing me even when I was begging them to be easy on me.

Make sure you guys visit Fahad’s blog [Here]
And here is a link to the Core Fitness [Website]