A lot can change in two weeks, if you want it to...

I started this diet 13 days ago and for the first week it was very hard, I don’t know about everyone else but during the week days I find it quite easy to diet whilst being in the routine of work and the gym. What I find challenging is the weekends, no chocolate, alcohol, bread or crisps. This can be quite daunting when you have a lot of time on your hands with not much else to do, especially as I’m saving towards buying my first house.  

The weekdays of the first week were challenging at night because I’d get back from the gym, eat a balanced evening meal and then feel the need to snack around 22.00. Unfortunately I did this every night during the first 7 days and although my meals were very well planned and balanced, I’d feel like I’d let myself down being so close to the finish line every day. You will always hear people say that it is easier to gain weight compared to losing it, this is something I’d agree with on a mental level.

I believe that dieting can be largely attributed to your mental state, during my first week I was slightly worried about the visit to my knee consultant but after getting good news that there is an 80 percent chance physiotherapy will cure my problem I suddenly found the concept of getting fit much more acceptable and easier to abide by.

I started on 240 lbs, I am now 231 and feel much more energetic already. What I find strange is that I have managed to get better results whilst weight lifting, achieving results literally in weeks compared to months of half arsed attempts. If you’re really up for a diet then you should do it properly, I understand why people constantly say ‘I need to go on a diet’ or ‘I wish I could lose a bit of weight’, what I can’t understand is why they don’t do anything about it and run away from it. I don’t really see any excuse for not doing something that you want to (unless it’s illegal etc), you only get one shot at life so why not give it your best shot and achieve as much as you can, this logic makes sense to me.

Diet wise this is what I will eat on daily basis, I chop and change a few parts but generally the timings and staples of the diet remain the same throughout the week.

8.00 – Porridge, soya mil and natural honey.

10.30 – Apple.

12.00 – Handful of sunflower seeds.

12.45 – Lettuce leaves and marinated chicken.

15.00 – Sunflower seeds again!

16.45 – Banana.

17.30 – Protein shake.

19.00 – Protein shake with recover carbs.

19.30 – Pasta sauce, small amount of pasta, chicken breast, mushrooms and broccoli.

20.00 – Orange or two.

I try not to eat any more after this, for two reasons. Firstly, I’ve had enough and secondly because it is not that good to eat just before sleep unless you’re trying to bulk up, something I am not interested in right now.

If anyone is interested in what types of workouts I do, then just message me or leave and comment and I’ll draw up a plan of what I do weekly involving cardio and weights.

Key facts:

Weight: 231.4 lbs.

Height 6ft 5” – This stayed the same for some reason.

Waist: 38.5”

Biceps: 15.5”

Chest: 44”

Inner thigh: 26”

Remember I’ve set up a JUST GIVING account, I don’t expect anyone to donate but anything received will be donated to the Alive and Kicking foundation. Wish me luck and will keep you all posted! If there is anything you want to know then you can e-mail me at daniel_vill@hotmail.co.uk or twitter me @danjel8.

Doing it for the kids.

Only 107 Calories!

Just Giving.

Big day for me, I have just looked back through my camera at some photos I took of myself a while back. I don’t know what has happened to me but since picking up injuries at the end of last year I have just eaten and eaten, I’d estimate this eating has equated to putting on about 18 pounds. On the day of writing this I am 17 Stone 2 lbs, a total of 240 lbs. Way too high, I know this and have known this for a long time. I have decided to try and raise some money for charity, unfortunately I’m not a footballer or multi-million entrepreneur. However, I can do something and help out others, I can lose weight, once my knee is fixed I will be able to run and I am lucky enough to be blessed with decent health and outstanding facilities available to me that are provided by our government.

So for those of you that don’t know me, my name is Dan, 25 years old, I’m 6ft 5 inches tall and currently packing a few pounds that I don’t need (probably 28-30!). Something needs to change in my life, career wise I am happy for now, love the job I do and it is the only profession I have wanted to be involved in for several years since leaving university with no idea or direction. I’m relatively happy being single and have a good home environment living with my parents, sister and brother whilst I try and save up for a deposit on a house. I thought about keeping a track of this on video a while back but I just don’t feel comfortable with it. In all honestly I feel very uncomfortable about posting photos of myself, but I can make a difference to other people’s lives and change mine in the process.

For some of you, a challenge or conflict can make you feel uncomfortable. This is understandable. I am however useless without a challenge or competition, it’s what gets the blood flowing through my veins and makes me tick, I need it, I crave it and embrace it. Right now I need a challenge to make a change in my life, so I am setting myself a target of losing weight and getting into shape. Whilst I aim to do this, I also hope to generate a donation of £100 for Alive and Kicking a charity based in Africa  that aims for every child to play with a real ball, where thousands of jobs are sustained in the production of balls, and where sport contributes to the eradication of deadly disease.

In the photo you can see my waist line is 41.5”, I need this to be nearer 37” so I aim to lose 4 inches from my waist, I keep a lot of lard here so this will either be quite easy (as there is most fat there) or it will be very hard (due to the fat there being stubborn). I am also keen to shed the lbs, (don’t worry I understand a smaller waistline will only occur with this!) my target is to go from 240 to a much healthier 210 lbs.

By the 31 August I hope to have achieved all of my goals, during that time I will be giving up alchohol, chocolate, crisps, bread and dairy products... five things I love very much. I will be cutting down on the nasty carbs and increasing my protein, replacing saturated fats with healthy natural fats such as sunflower seeds and olive oil. As I go I will update my diet plans and weekly gym work outs so that firstly I have a diary of what I’ve been through, which will inspire me when I’m down and secondly, if anyone feels the way I do, they have a guide of how to help them get started and do something about it rather than just sitting on your arse!

I’ve also set up a JUST GIVING account, I don’t expect anyone to donate but anything received will be donated to the Alive and Kicking foundation. Wish me luck and will keep you all posted! If there is anything you want to know then you can e-mail me at daniel_vill@hotmail.co.uk or twitter me @danjel8.

Key facts:

Weight: 240 lbs.

Height 6ft 5”

Waist: 41.5”

Biceps: 15.5”

Chest: 44”

Inner thigh: 27”

How I lost my student loan in one day (2 hours, 45 minutes).

I write this as I watch Real Madrid v Barcelona, quite tempted to have a bet. Thing is I’ve just had the weekend from hell (gambling wise) and it took the shine off what could have been a good time. Shame.

Gambling is the topic for this blog, it’s a funny old game and one that I’ve never really been afraid to embrace... as most of my close friends will acknowledge. They probably don’t know anyone who has staked as much as me in single rounds of betting. Thing is, as attractive as the risk is to me, there is only ever one winner and that is the house or people in the know (yes it does happen, no matter what anyone would have you believe).

So I guess it is best to start where it all began for me. 16 years old, my friend showed me the flashing lights which are more commonly known as a fruit machine. Being a football lover, weekend accumulators soon followed and the worst thing that can ever happen to a newbie gambler happened... I kept winning. See, once you’ve got that buzz for the win and belief that you can beat the system it already has you. So between the ages of 16 and 19, I would waste most of my time in Stanley Racing with my best friend, whilst my girlfriend at the time got very annoyed at me and understandably so.  So I stopped for a while and noticed I always had a lot more money, happier and more focus.

It wasn’t until I was about 21 that things got really interesting with gambling, by this point I’d learned how to play poker online and loved the risk and challenge that came with battling against other people. I played quite a lot of low level tournaments and would often make the money, I had focus and a skill to read people but most importantly I had the fear factor. A gambler without fear is like a drunk who has just been given 4 litres of vodka, pretty soon it is going tits up!

I’d play quite a bit of poker and one night me and my best mate went out in Birmingham, had a class night and when we got back in there was an advert on TV. Student ‘Interpoker’ Challenge, I said to him, ‘I’m going to get on that’. 3 months later, I’m in the Queen Of Hearts in Manchester watching myself on Challenge TV with my University mates around me.  Crazy experience and one I’ll never forget, shame that I got cocky and when I get cocky, I lose focus and make mistakes. I didn’t win anything but how many people can say that they have played poker on TV?

After this I started to learn more about the maths side of poker, I’ve always loved odds, fractions and percentages. The maths side of gambling really interests me, you could get lost in it if you understood it! During my second year at university, I manager to win £1000 playing blind drunk every night for a week after some great nights out in 5^th Ave. I was loving it, but of course, it took losing £300 of this to make me cash out. Sadly this is a trait that has followed me.

When you start dealing with sums like £1000 and losing £300 here and there, it is quite easy for these figures to become acceptable betting sums, in my first every live (in a casino) poker tournament I won £700 and I’d often come close betting on the football to winning triple figure sums. I’ve had some crazy bets, £300 double on Argentina and England to win their opening World Cup games (thanks Rob Green), £200 on Brazil to win the World Cup and perhaps the craziest of all was the mysterious add I got on MSN.

I woke up one day and someone had added me on MSN, specialbet@hotmail.com. I did the usual and asked who it was and got talking to this guy, claimed he was from Croatia and knew information about sporting events. I listened to him and he said that in return for his tips, he wanted 10% of the profit. Seemed like a fair deal, but naturally I never had any intention of paying up. So I bargained that he gave me 4 tips and on the 5^th I would pay up, first three all win. So I wake up on Sunday morning about 10.30 and log on, he is there. ‘Quickly, bet on Las Palmas. You should be able to get them at 3/1’ I don’t think I’ve ever ran down to William Hill as fast as that in my life, get the bet on and proceed to shit myself for the next 90 minutes of my life. Sure enough they won, pure madness!

Next match was Leicester v Plymouth, info comes through to bet on Plymouth... sure enough it... well it loses. So I’m still £600 up and decide to cash in and delete him of MSN, oddly he had already deleted me and then it clicks! Derren Brown had done a show on pyramid betting and with enough people you can keep the confidence there over a long enough time by selecting one event and the multiple outcomes. Had I been conned?  I’ll never know for sure but if I had he wasn’t very good as I was £600 up and hadn’t given him any money. Out of the £600, I decided to buy a PS3... another story there.

What I’m trying to say is that a gambler will always believe that they are smarter than the system, what I’ve learned is that you never are. Roulette is a fine example, the man who invented it killed himself because he could not figure out a way to crack his own invention. So when a 23 year old lad gets £1,200 of student loan deposited in his bank account and hasn’t let loose for a while, believe me, it spells trouble. I’ll never forget that day, £200 on Racing Demon, £200 on Colchester and Bolton, £100 on some donkey and the rest went on online Roulette. Least we went out on the night and got drunk as only we knew how (Vodka + Frosty Jacks = Frosty Death).

I’ve recently been working on a project and although I still believe it would work, I discovered that I am incapable of maintaining self control with my money when faced with multiple methods of making money quickly. I believe that my desire and passion to succeed is a great part of my personality but I realise it is a massive contributor towards gambling. Frustrated by lack of opportunities to start my own business and do well for myself, I turn towards a system that I know and understand to try and generate more cash.

Gambling is a dangerous vice, I’m quite surprised by the exposure the public have and that it is permitted by the government. Alcohol awareness is quite a big thing, smoking is banned in bars and smoking adverts are restricted and if you fancy a bit of coke you can always talk to Frank. Shame the government don’t support and restrict gambling in the ways they do other addictions. Must be a nice earner for them, another case of the house winning.