Day Of Reckoning

Can you believe how quick 2008 went by? Here and gone..
Well I believe 2009 will be a great year. I've been thinking how I'm going to plan this year and plan I will. I've always been a "fly by the seat of your pants kinda guy", but this year I'm going to try to be a better planner and to not procrastinate as much. I'm not perfect, so try I will. I've got my calendar next to me and I've already jotted stuff down for the year.
My first race of the year will be the Strawberry Plains 10K on Feb 14th, Knoxville 5K on March 29th, and Greenway 5K on April 5th and possibly the Country Music 1/2 marathon on April 25th. Not sure about the 1/2, but we'll see?
Besides the racing, I also have an early goal of 750 miles this year. My super-duper ultimate goal would be 1000 miles, but 750 for now. That should be doable. If my running goes well in the Spring, (barring the injury bug that seemed to hit every running soul this past year) I will sign up for more races and maybe another 1/2 marathon.
Now the Day of Reckoning!
On Andrew's blog the other day, he posted a weight loss challenge hosted by Robert . Since this year will be the year that I drop more poundage(I will, darn it!), this is just the motivation I need to get my butt moving or should I say stop feeding my face.
So glad the holidays are over! One of the tell-tale statistics that I noticed from my post the other day was the amount of calories I burned while running. 40 lbs worth! If I would've ate properly, I would be at least 20-30lbs lower than I am now. Right? Not upset because it was a good healthy year, and it really was in so many ways. I weighed in today for the 13 week challenge and am highly motivated. I actually turned down my mom's homemade potato salad and cookies today. hehe
Wish me Luck!!!!
This is going to be a good year guys!!
Peace

Dissapointment and Disgust

****WARNING****
*This is a b*tch session*
*Please cover your childrens eyes*
This is more for my motivation that anything, so ignore this post. If you can't then ,Reader Beware! This is not my normal demeanor, but I must open a can of "whoop a**" on myself..
Now that my weekend runners high has wore off and Monday is here. I have this overwhelming feeling of disgust and dissapointment in my weight.
I wonder how much I have really "learned" about my big weightloss when I find myself going back to the "old crappy eating routine." When I weighed myself today, I had a 1 lb weight loss from last week. Great right? Look deeper.. In the last 3 months, I have been averaging nearly 20miles a week of running. There is no excuse as to the reason why I should not be losing more weight! I have been at a 6 month plateau.. LOL, there is no such thing!! maybe 2 weeks, not 6 months! Stop eating garbage Dave!
I love running, it is my drug.. BUT, I have taken away too much attention from my intial plan which was weightloss. I've given myself the excuse that since I run I can eat whatever the hell I want to. (Can you tell that I am angry!!!?)
Do you know what my BMI is? 34! I am just a hair under the "excessively obese", and am currently in the "obese" category. If I lose 35 lbs I get upgraded to the humbling "overweight" division.
With my intial weightloss there was satisfaction, mucho compliments on my appearance, new clothes, new outlook. Now it just reality.. Long way to go.
This weightloss thing is such a daunting task. It takes my full attention, attention to detail. Yes pain, yes suffering, yes agony. Anyone tried to lose weight and not felt hunger pangs?
Am I setting myself up for failure again, dont know? But I will keep trying...

I feel motivated today to eat good. Today I will be a rock!

Weigh in and Grief

You can proably tell by the title that I wasn't too happy with my weigh-in on Wednesday. I put back on 12 lbs over the last few months. I haven't been eating too bad, but a few bad choices and my fear of the scale has caused it. I just need to weigh myself at least every 2 weeks and remember to be more diligent with my food choices. I'm glad that I have stopped the bleeding and have refocused my attention to my diet.
Weighed in this morning and have already lost 2 lbs. The early few pounds is usually water loss, but I don't care - I'll take it. I have never had a problem losing weight when I have been consicious of it, but gaining it back has been the problem. I love food - all kinds. You name it and I'll eat it. I think if I just remove the portion of my brain that likes food., I'll be alright.. hehe
I admire people that are able to stop eating when they fill that "full" sensation. One of my problems has been the inabitlity to stop when full. Our society encourages it. Look at all of the buffet restaraunts out there. 75% of the people at a buffett will say when done, "I shouldn't have ate that much."
Good run yesterday evening. My legs have felt light lately - hope it is a trend. Over the last few months I have been running for enjoyment with no set goals in mind and consequentily have gotten slower on my runs because of it. The running with "no pressure has been nice, but the dissapointment after the run due to lack of pace hasn't been. The last week was fun due to 2 days of "no pressure" easy runs and 3 days of goal oriented runs. I'm gonna stick with that plan.
I had 2 days off of running due to work obligations, so yesterday I decided to speed it up with intervals. Even though I was on my feet for 14 hours yesterday at the hospital, I ran rather speedy for me. I avg'd a 9:25 pace over 3.5 miles(33mins) with a warmup mile and a cooldown 1/2 mile with my fastest mile @ 8:36. I also did 3 strides of 30 seconds within the intervals/ no breaks though. Almost felt like I was in a race. I hope to do intervals at least once a week and throw in more strides from time to time. Enough for now..

Just 1 more cookie

Tomorrow starts with my new diet. I have already conquered the lifestyle change, but a decrease in my calorie intake starts tomorrow. Im looking for a 1-2 lb. per week loss. Starting @ a 500-700 calories a day drop from norm. I haven't officially weighed in yet, but I'm guessing I'm @ 252-255 lbs. (At least I hope.) It's been nearly 6 months since I have actively tried to lose "more" weight; Even though there has been a 30lb weight loss due to my activity(primarily running.) in that time.
Is anyone else afraid to weigh themselves for fear of what it is going to read? I've been exercising, but the scale still has power over me. That " fat" person still looks back at me in the mirror. That's a whole topic within itself.....
Goals:
First is to break 250 - intially done a few months back. Probably weigh more than that now?
2nd: 245
3rd - 230 something ( now that would be nice!)
4th -229.999 lbs ( just to say that I'm in the 220's) LOL !
These are short term goals. How long? Until Christmas or later if I can stick with it.
Maybe I can find something online to help keep me sticking with it?

Michael Phelps 8 golds His Diet and Mine

Need I say more!!

Yes, I do!

It is pretty awesome to say that I got to see with my own eyes the best Olympic athlete of our time. 8 golds 16 overall 7 World Records 1 Olympic Record. Phenominal!! If your eyes didn't "well up" after watching the medal ceremony there is something wrong with you. I'm proud to be an American. Go USA!!

I'm sure a few of you have heard about Phelps diet/ eating habits. It's been all over the news. Phelps says that he eats about 10,000 calories a day to maintain his 190 lb weight while training. He says he eats lots of pizza and pasta(carbs.) It doesn't sound like the stuff of champions. A few dieticians have analyzed what he eats and it is more like 6000 calories. "To consume 10,000 calories a day, he would need to be eating all day long." Anyway we all wish we could do that!

I am going to give my take on that. I use to run between 60-75 miles a week while I was in college and I would play basketball for at least another 12 - 15hours a week - sometimes as many as 6 hours straight .  I use to eat like crap, tons of junk food, supercarbs, fats, soda's and I estimate that I would eat 5000 calories a day. How much did I weigh?? 170 lbs on a 6'2" frame. I was lean and muscular. My body fat % was around 14. Not a problem then.  My eating like crap then is a direct result in the way I eat now (or at least over a year ago.) That's how I gained all of my weight. When the exercise stopped, my eating didn't! I went from a lean 170 to about 220 in 6 months.  Boy I wish I was a young lad again.. LOL!!