M-22

Yesterday's Training:
Weight: 227.5 lbs.
Run: 4.5 miles Intervals, morning
Run: 4.5 miles @ 9:30 pace, Early Evening, Very Tired
Strength Training: Abs 30 min. evening

Weekly run total: 27 miles

Last Week's Total: 42.3 miles
This morning's weight: 229 lbs.

I was sleepy all day yesterday. I don't think I am getting enough sleep.

M-23

Yesterday's Training:
Weight: 226.5 lbs.
Run: 6.2 miles @ 9:41 pace, morning
Run: 5 miles @ 11:40 pace, late afternoon with daughter
Strength Training: Chest & Legs 50 min. evening

Weekly run total: 18 miles

Last Week's Total: 42.3 miles
This morning's weight: 227.5 lbs.

Hiking and Happiness

I have felt much pain, shame, and anger over my weight. I could make plenty of lists about all the terrible things associated obesity. I used to think how unfair that the world is biased. I used to think how horrible that seat belts, amusement park rides, and furniture wasn't made for fat people. I used to think how cruel it was that world didn't find me beautiful because of my extra ton-age.

I used to dream that I would slim down to a nice svelte physique, comfortably fit in an airplane seat, and never wonder if I would cause an elevator to go past its weight capacity. I used to dream of being athletic. I used to dream of women swooning over me. I used to dream about how much easier and wonderful life would be once I hit that magic number on the scale.

Somewhere along the way, I gave all those things up. Somehow, I figured out that my happiness in life would never change no matter what number was on the scale. I discovered I had used my obesity as an excuse, a "whipping boy," the reason for all my problems. I think that I gave up a lot of dreams and hid behind the fat.

I walked on this path of fitness for a short time in the grand scheme of things, but I have a long way to go. I am not taking about weight loss, but about straightening out my thinking, creating a positive outlook, and enjoying life as it is right now. I do not walk this path in order to get into designer jeans, to ride on that special roller coaster, or have the ladies check me out. I walk this path because of what God has given me right now.

1. I have all my parts in working order.
2. I am intelligent (just don't ask my wife)
3. I have a good sense of humor.
4. I have a great smile.
5. I am caring.
6. I have many talents including music, writing, and performing.
7. I have a loving devoted wife
8. I have wonderful children who are full of life.
9. I have a strong faith rooted in history with factual evidence.
10. I live in a beautiful part of this planet.
11. I live in a country that values freedom and has an ethic that cares for those in need.
12. I have a job and a relative life of ease
13. I have riches far beyond what my modest paycheck could ever purchase.
14. I have some good friends.

How can I not be happy right now with a list like that? Notice, there is not a single reference to my weight on that list. In fact, the list is not dependent on whether I am 500 lbs. or 150 lbs. This list is also list of reasons to continue to walk the path of fitness. Because I have all these great things going for me, I want to make the most of them. As I walk this path, I enjoy these things all the more. It's like walking through the woods. A quick jaunt into the woods doesn't reveal much. A drive through reveals even less. However, take a nice long stroll through the woods and you will start to notice the smells, the sounds, the movements, the colors, the mosses and ferns, the critters, the bugs, the sun, the different trees, and all the wonder and splendor of the surrounding world. Take a long walk through the woods, and the world around you becomes more vibrant. So it is with the path of fitness. The longer you walk that path, the more vibrant your world becomes. All those wonderful things are there in the woods regardless, but the longer you walk the path, the better they all become.

Just some thoughts.

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

M-24

Yesterday's Training:
Weight: 228 lbs.
Run: 4 miles @ 9:52 pace, morning chilly
Run: 5 miles @ 9:52 pace, late afternoon warm and muggy
Strength Training: Abs 30 min.

Weekly run total: 9 miles

Last Week's Total: 42.3 miles
This morning's weight: 226.5 lbs.

Week 113 Weigh-In & M-25

Last Week's Weight: 232 lbs.
Today's Weight: 228 lbs. (-4.0)
Total Lost: 152 lbs.

Fat Ratio: 19.0% (-0.5)
Lean Mass: 184.7 lbs. (-2.1)
Fat Mass: 43.3 lbs. (-1.9)
Waist: 43.0 inches (-0.5)

Thus ends my calorie restriction. I lost a total of 9 lbs. I suspect I will still lose weight during my training. I doubt I will lose another 13 lbs. which would bring me to my original goal weight for the marathon. I can't complain. 9 lbs. in a month is quite a bit, and every pound lost is that much less pounding my body must take.

M-25

Yesterday's Training:
Calories In: 2000
Weight: 228.5
Weight Training: None
Run: None
Yesterday was a rest day.

Weekly run total: 0 miles

Last Week's Total: 42.3 miles
This morning's weight: 228 lbs.

This week's running goals are Monday-9, Tuesday-9, Wednesday-9, Thursday-3, Friday-20, Saturday-3, Total=53

On my trip last week, I had the opportunity to indulge in a couple of cigars. I am starting to develop a taste for ACID cigars. At first, I wasn't too sure about its sweetness, but now I like it.

"If I had taken my doctor's advice and quit smoking when he advised me to, I wouldn't have lived to go to his funeral." George Burns

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

M-26

Yesterday's Training:
Calories In: 2000
Weight: unknown
Weight Training: None
Run: 3.3 miles @ 11:47 min/mile pace, ran with daughter in race, stayed with her. It was cold and up and down the fairways of a golf course.
Run: 0.5 miles with 2nd daughter in a fun run

Weekly run total: 42.3 miles

Last Week's Total: 37 miles
This morning's weight: 228.5 lbs.

M-27

Yesterday's Training:
Calories In: 2000
Weight: unknown
Weight Training: None
Run: 12 miles @ 11:34 min/mile pace, early morning, cold out, just took it nice and easy, was beautiful out in the northern Michigan woods.


Weekly run total: 38.5 miles

Last Week's Total: 37 miles
This morning's weight: unknown

M-28

Yesterday's Training:
Calories In: 2000
Weight: unknown
Weight Training: None
Run: 6 miles @ 10 min/mile pace, early morning, cold out, felt lethargic
Run: 3 miles @ 9:13 pace, afternoon, much warmer, ran in shorts and t-shirt, felt great

Weekly run total: 26.5 miles

Last Week's Total: 37 miles
This morning's weight: unknown

M-29

Yesterday's Training:
Calories In: 2000
Weight: 231 lbs.
Weight Training: None
Run: 4 Miles, 2 with girls, 2 on my own, early morning

Weekly run total: 17.5 miles

Last Week's Total: 37 miles
This morning's weight: unknown

M-30

Yesterday's Training:
Calories In: 2000
Weight: 231.5 lbs.
Weight Training: Back and Triceps 45 min. Morning
Bike: 30 min. @ 90 RPM (Indoor Trainer)Morning
Run: 4.5 mile Intervals=10 min jog, (2 min sprint, 1.5 min walk, 0.5 min jog) x 6, 13 min jog (outdoors, cold, I felt lethargic) late afternoon
Weekly run total: 13.5 miles

Last Week's Total: 37 miles
This morning's weight: 231 lbs.

I just started this, but I will be out of town for a few days without internet access, so I won't be able to update until the beginning of next week.

Daily Report on Marathon Training M-31

I decided to write down what I was doing each day until the marathon for my own benefit.

Yesterday's Training:
Calories In: 2000
Weight: 232 lbs.
Weight Training: Chest and Legs 45 min. Morning
Run: 6 mile run @ 10 min. pace (cold, rainy, windy)Morning
Run: 3 mile run @ 11-12 min pace (indoors training kids) Evening
Weekly run total: 9 miles

Last Week's Total: 37 miles
This morning's weight: 231.5 lbs.

Week 112 Weigh-In

Last Week's Weight: 232 lbs.
Today's Weight: 232 lbs. (+/-0)
Total Lost: 148 lbs.

Fat Ratio: 19.5% (-1.2)
Lean Mass: 186.8 lbs. (+2.8)
Fat Mass: 45.2 lbs. (-2.8)
Waist: 43.5 inches (-1.0)

I was disappointed to see the scale number. My disappointment isn't with myself. I exercised. I ate healthy. I stuck to my training plan. My disappointment is simply in that I really wanted to be much lighter for my marathon. I am scheduled to be finished with the calorie restriction after this week. I don't want to be working on an energy deficit as I approach the race. I guess I should have started to the calorie restriction thing a month earlier. Oh well...coulda, shoulda, woulda.

On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised at some of the other numbers. If my measurements were accurate, My fat ratio went down. I gained lean mass. I lost fat mass. I lost an entire inch off my waist. That is all huge in my book and I am very happy with that.

Perhaps the next week, I will continue to lose fat, but not gain any lean. That's my hope at least.

We had some great weather here at the end of last week. It got up to 70. I can't wait until we have that weather all the time. This week is starting off bad. Rain today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. Wednesday's rain is supposed to be mixed with snow (Boo!). However, I must ratchet up my miles this week, so I am doomed to run in the cold rain. I don't mind warm and rainy, but cold and rainy is simply miserable. I don't know how they do it in Oregon and Washington. I just hope that I don't get sick.

"Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right."--Henry Ford

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Week 111 Weigh-In

Last Week's Weight: 232 lbs.
Today's Weight: 232 lbs. (+/-0)
Total Lost: 148 lbs.

Fat Ratio: 20.7%
Lean Mass: 184 lbs.
Fat Mass: 48 lbs.
Waist: 44.5 inches

Things might have been better, but I overindulged on Sunday. We had a big breakfast at church, but I did fine there. For dinner, we went to a brunch at the local hotel where I went overboard. Plus, I had some candy. Anyhow, that was then, this is now. Those things happen, but fitness doesn't. You must work at it, and so I do.

"Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."--Oliver Goldsmith

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Little Bit Frustrated

The scale has not budged this week except for this morning when it went up a half pound. I know that it doesn't really count until my Monday weigh-in, but it's still frustrating. Psychologically, I want to cut my calories back. Logically, that doesn't make sense. In fact, I wonder if I restricted my calories too much to begin with and now I am feeling the effects of screwing around with my metabolism. On the other hand, I have been putting in the exercise. 1-2+ of cardio every day. Weight lifting 3 days a week. In the end, it's not really about the scale number. It's about being as ready as I possibly can be for this marathon. The less weight I am lugging for 26.2 miles, the better off I will be.

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

How Not To Diet

Throughout my life, I have been on many diets. I sort of thought of myself as a dieting expert. Funny, I was about 380 lbs. and thought of myself as a dieting expert. In one sense, I did know what to do. I knew what healthy foods were. I knew about portion control. I knew about having a well balanced diet. I knew about avoiding restaurants, highly refined and processed foods such as sugar, white flour, pepperoni, hot dogs, etc... I knew to avoid high fat foods. I knew that it needed to be a lifestyle. I knew all that, but there I was 380 lbs.

In truth, I didn't think of changing my lifestyle, but making temporary changes to achieve a certain weight at which point, I wouldn't feel guilty for eating all those terrible foods. When you are thin and eat horrible, people look at you as a role model, an example of what they want, and of course someone to envy. Therefore, my goal was always to get to a certain, to look thin, to appear healthy and fit so that I could eat unhealthy.

When I started this journey of fitness, I did start with a weight goal. I wanted to lose half my body weight. However, there was a bigger goal in mind. I was going through a lot of stress at the time (and still am). I have seen a lot of people end with nervous breakdowns, panic attacks, heart attacks, and even death because they weren't fit. All things bringing so much stress in my life couldn't be dealt with if I was sick, in the hospital, incapacitated, or dead. I knew that I had start living fit or I was going to bring a lot of hardship on myself and the people around me because I was refusing to take care of my health. So the weight loss was only a sub-goal in the grander scheme of things. Though I think it was more important to me at the beginning than it is now. Anyhow, fitness is the grand goal.

Having fitness as my goal is a wonderful goal. It's not some far off, pie in the sky dream like reaching a certain weight on the scale always seems to be. I can achieve fitness every day. Each day, I can eat healthy. Each day I can be active by exercising, playing with my kids, going for a walk, or just getting my butt up and doing something. Weighing less does play a part in living fit. The closer to a healthy weight I get, the more active I can be. The closer I get, the more opportunities I have. For example, could you imagine a 380 lb. person trying to go up a rock climbing wall, competing in a triathlon, or even fitting in a single seat with no extender on an airplane? When all is said and done, I can live fit every day.

Living fit each day, doesn't mean perfection. It doesn't mean I won't eat a cookie, or skip some exercise or just veg out on the couch. It doesn't mean that I will always eat the best things at a potluck or at a restaurant. I doesn't mean that I will lose weight every week until I am at a healthy weight.

Living fit means making making a pattern of eating healthy and staying active. It means accepting that you will not be perfect, but not using that as an excuse to live unhealthy. Before, I lived unhealthy with a few healthy aberrations thrown into the mix. Now, I live healthy with a few realistic, less-healthy moments thrown into the mix. Living fit means living in a different world. It means living in the same world, but with a different world-view/paradigm/outlook/model (not sure which word fits best).

Therefore, I do not consider myself to be on a diet (with the exception of my current calorie restriction for the purpose of preparing for the marathon). For me the word diet means a temporary way of eating. Diet are what you go on. Normal eating is how you live. Therefore, I believe that diets are not the answer for long term fitness and health. Making a new normal is the key. With fitness as a goal, the scale numbers will follow as a bonus. The numbers may not be high or dramatic or quick, but they will be real.

WebMD had an interesting article on how not to diet. They say to avoid the five following dieting techniques:

1) Diets which focus on particular foods or food groups like the cabbage soup diet, some of the low-carb diets, or any diet that forbids a particular food. On one hand, they can be unhealthy because of what you miss out from certain foods or food groups. On the other hand, having something restricted can cause us to crave those foods leading to binging.

2) Detox diets are simply hokum. The body is well equipped with any toxins in the body.

3) Diets with "miracle" foods or supplements don't cause weight loss.

4) Fasting and very low-calorie diets will slow down your metabolism causing you to gain weight on fewer calories. This is the culprit behind the "yo-yo" dieting.

5) Diets that sound too good to be true ARE. This is where those slime balls on TV tell you about some secret to weight loss that the government, food industry, farmers, or aliens are trying to keep you from knowing so that they can have control over your life and make more money. They tell you that shoving a dozen donuts in your pie hole every day and eating a bucket of fries as a snack isn't cause of your weight gain. No, it's some evil organization that is making you fat. the truth is that it is these charlatans are the ones who are trying to make money off of us being fat.

My conclusions: 1) All of these diets probably show results at first, but I suspect that they are not sustainable over the long haul at best and may hurt your health at worst. 2) The only way to lose weight is if the calories you take in are less than the calories you use. So instead of finding some gimmick to achieve this, we should find a way to make healthy eating habits with slightly less calories than needed coupled with expending more calories with increasing our daily activity. This, in my opinion, has the best chances of being sustained for the long haul. 3) There are psychological factors that will aren't addressed by any diet that need to be addressed to make healthy living a lifestyle. 4) As I said earlier, fitness is a better goal than the number on the scale.

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Week 110 Weigh-In

Last Week's Weight: 237 lbs.
Today's Weight: 232 lbs. (-5)
Total Lost: 148 lbs.

Fat Ratio: 20.7%
Lean Mass: 184 lbs.
Fat Mass: 48 lbs.
Waist: 44.5 inches

The biggest problem I have had with calorie restriction is dealing with hunger and weakness. I have been adjusting and adding calories each week has helped. Today, I can eat 1800 calories. Woohoo! Anyhow, the way I have dealt with the hunger is drink coffee and tea. Coffee during the day and no-caffeine tea at night. Plus, I have kept in mind my training. In training, you must do what is hard, uncomfortable, and even painful. For now, this includes suffering through hunger pains.

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Back on Target

Wow, my last post was a real downer. I am doing much, much better. I think that I do have some form of S.A.D. Anyhow, I didn't eat quite as healthy during that time. I kept up my running, but was not enthused. If I hadn't signed up for the marathon, I might have stopped running. I think it all fed off each other in a downward spiral of feeling down, poorer eating, and less exercise. I did gain a little bit of weight which also played into the whole mix.

I think I am back on track now. Again, I have signing up for the marathon to thank. I looked at how little time between now and Memorial Day weekend there was to get ready. I thought about how best to use the little time left to get ready especially in light of my flagging enthusiasm for running. I came to the conclusion that losing as much weight as possible by the end of April would be the best thing I could do. Less weight means less wear and tear on the body. In turn, that means more endurance.

In order to lose the weight fast (not my normal modus opeerandi), I have done what I refused to do from the beginning of my journey of fitness; I am counting calories. The first week, I ate 1200 calories a day. The second week which ends today, I have eaten 1500 calories a day. The next 2 weeks will be 1800 calories. The final week will be 2000 calories a day.

In addition, I will make sure that I do 1-2 hours of cardio each day. Also, I started lifting weights again. On March 30, I weighed 237. This morning I weighed 231. I am shooting to weigh 215 by marathon day.

The reason I am not restricting my calories in May is because I don't want to risk losing muscle during my hardest training days. I don't plan to go wild. I will just eat sensible as I have most of the time during my journey of fitness.

I am not sure if my plan makes any sense, but there it is. I guess time will only tell if it works.

Thanks everyone for your encouraging words.

"If you don't know where you are going,
you'll end up someplace else."
Yogi Berra

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!