Ah it's a new year and it's time for a new journal.
A little background:
I started my quest to get healthy, lose weight and slim down in late August 2008. It first came with changed to my eating habits. It was not a diet because diets themselves denote temporary changes in ones eating habits. It was instead a lifestyle change. Gone were the days of fast food, eating half a pizza at a time, candy, soda, excessive beer drinking, and eating out for lunch everyday at work. Now I was preparing wholesome home cooked meals with healthy foods geared towards helping me lose weight, keeping my muscle and getting healthy. Also incorporated in this change was my discontinuing the use of Prilosec OTC to treat my acid reflux as it has its own nasty side effects such as weight gain, headaches, ect.
I aimed to put myself into a caloric deficit of approximately 500 calories per day. Doing this alone I saw minimal weight loss but my body started to feel much better and my acid reflux became only an occasional occurrence. The lack of greasy foods greatly helped reduce my suffering from this.
About 1.5 months into my lifestyle change I restarted my gym membership. I started into a weightlifting regimen based on my college rowing days. I started off with weights that were fairly easy to lift but still presented a challenge and left me sore a day or 2 later. I didn't want to over do it and cause injury and set myself back and slowly worked myself back into weight ranges that I was near while I was rowing in college. This was a Full Body Workout.
I also started to incorporate cardio work into my workouts. I planted myself on the stationary bike usually for 30-40 minutes of HIIT or 45 min of steady state cardio. I also ran a few races through the fall, including a 5k in September and a 5 miler on Thanksgiving day to earn my Turkey dinner.:animal3:
After about 2 months of lifting I switched my routine to heavier weights, with less reps. I was lifting 6-8 reps of a heavy weight for my major muscle groups (chest, legs, back) and doing higher reps at a still challenging weight for other stabilizer muscle groups.
I continued this routine for about 3 weeks, then changed over to primarily cardio workouts, specifically running.
My initial goal was to reach 180 lbs, down from 196 pounds by 12/29 (first day of vacation), but I failed to reach this goal. I want to attribute some of the failure of reaching this weight to combined muscles gain and fat-loss (doubters will cry foul) and to the holidays doing what they tend to do to people. I thought I was eating properly and maintaining portion control but I was apparently wrong. I had reached 185 pounds at one point but as of 12/29 I was 190 lbs, in the morning after to peeing.
MY NEW GOALS:
Some of you may know from reading another thread of mine, that I have decided to run the this coming May. This will be a big challenge for me. This is my MAIN goal which I hope will help me move towards me other goal of meeting a specific weight.
I would like to reach my college weight of 165 pounds. This is a hefty goal as well but I believe by properly training and keeping my diet in check for the next 4 months that I will be able to reach this goal. It's 25 pounds of weight loss, in 17 weeks. 1.5 pounds per week is a reasonable goal for me.
I plan to continue my weight training, though it will not be as heavy as it previously was, and will continue my running and building up to my marathon on May 3rd. This will likely mean double workouts on some days or working out 6 days a week (3 running, 3 lifting + other cardio (rowing machine or bike). I am a busy guy so this will likely be altered as I find out what works best for me. I can tell you that early morning runs are going to be difficult as I like my sleep and my immune system doesn't respond well if I don't get enough hours in each night. Lifting in the AM is also difficult because the gym does not open until 6:00 and I generally get to work between 7:00 and 7:30.
Issues I will face:
I have had my share of issues with my calves in the last year. Both have been injured at one point or another, and more recently my left calf has been the main problem with what I call a sharp and inconsistent pain through the center of the back of my calf near the attachment to the Achilles tendon. This bothered me consistently for 2 weeks and then went away and returned again after a short hiatus. I have not found a pattern as to the cause yet, aside from running a distance I have yet to run (5 miler...). Theories on the injury were shin splints (most likely), compartment syndrome (unlikely), or tearing of the Achilles (even less likely). I started to do some shin splint exercises that were recommended by a long term shin splint sufferer and things have improved.
I ran 4 out of the 7 days I was on vacation this past week and to my surprise suffered from no calf pain. My left knee was slightly sore, but the combination of running and excessive walking around the theme parks in Disney World probably brought it on and now it seems to have passed.
Hopefully this signifies the end of my calf issues as long as I keep my mileage in check each week and keep to my exercises and stretching routines.
Help I am looking for:
-Further refinement of my diet: I am looking for help with determining the best meals to eat, the best routine to follow in regards to eating and also the best way to determine my BMR to help myself find my a very well defined caloric intake. I will post later with more information regarding my current diet through each day
-Running routine, mileage, injury prevention: Help from those of you who are marathoners and IM. Just looking for tips and pointers beyond increase 10% per week and "stretch". I have a base of between 12 and 15 miles per week. So I have a ways to go to work up to a nominal MPW avg. What is your recomendation for my max MPW prior to the marathon and when I should hit it?
-Encouragement: This is going to be a long road and I am going to need encouragement along the way. I don't anticipate any problems beyond the calf issue but you never know what can pop up. I'm hoping my fellow forum goers can pop in and give encouraging words and advice as you all see fit.
I will be logging my daily workouts so anyone who's interested may keep track. Will post more later with daily diet, current running info and the like.
Current Diet:
Current Running:
I am currently running 3 or 4 times a week. Mileage per run varies between 3 and 4 miles with the exception of this past week where runs were around 2-3 miles each (closed loops and i got tired of saying hi to the same people...haha "HAVE A MAGICAL DAY!")
My running has been on the treadmill, with the exception of last week as I was in Florida and made use of the not freezing weather. I have been on the treadmill for 2 reasons. First I've found that I am less likely to get calf pain both due to running technique differences between outdoors and treadmill and temperature control and its affects on my leg muscles and second its been cold and the sidewalks have been icy.
My pace has been around 10:00 min/mi and 9:13 min/mi on the treadmill I ran last week outdoors and my phones GPS was telling me I was running anywhere between an 8:30 min/mi and 7:30 min/mi. It's usually pretty accurate but can be skewed if the GPS signal is interrupted. On a warmer day this week I will try to get a good time trial on a known length run.
A little background:
I started my quest to get healthy, lose weight and slim down in late August 2008. It first came with changed to my eating habits. It was not a diet because diets themselves denote temporary changes in ones eating habits. It was instead a lifestyle change. Gone were the days of fast food, eating half a pizza at a time, candy, soda, excessive beer drinking, and eating out for lunch everyday at work. Now I was preparing wholesome home cooked meals with healthy foods geared towards helping me lose weight, keeping my muscle and getting healthy. Also incorporated in this change was my discontinuing the use of Prilosec OTC to treat my acid reflux as it has its own nasty side effects such as weight gain, headaches, ect.
I aimed to put myself into a caloric deficit of approximately 500 calories per day. Doing this alone I saw minimal weight loss but my body started to feel much better and my acid reflux became only an occasional occurrence. The lack of greasy foods greatly helped reduce my suffering from this.
About 1.5 months into my lifestyle change I restarted my gym membership. I started into a weightlifting regimen based on my college rowing days. I started off with weights that were fairly easy to lift but still presented a challenge and left me sore a day or 2 later. I didn't want to over do it and cause injury and set myself back and slowly worked myself back into weight ranges that I was near while I was rowing in college. This was a Full Body Workout.
I also started to incorporate cardio work into my workouts. I planted myself on the stationary bike usually for 30-40 minutes of HIIT or 45 min of steady state cardio. I also ran a few races through the fall, including a 5k in September and a 5 miler on Thanksgiving day to earn my Turkey dinner.:animal3:
After about 2 months of lifting I switched my routine to heavier weights, with less reps. I was lifting 6-8 reps of a heavy weight for my major muscle groups (chest, legs, back) and doing higher reps at a still challenging weight for other stabilizer muscle groups.
I continued this routine for about 3 weeks, then changed over to primarily cardio workouts, specifically running.
My initial goal was to reach 180 lbs, down from 196 pounds by 12/29 (first day of vacation), but I failed to reach this goal. I want to attribute some of the failure of reaching this weight to combined muscles gain and fat-loss (doubters will cry foul) and to the holidays doing what they tend to do to people. I thought I was eating properly and maintaining portion control but I was apparently wrong. I had reached 185 pounds at one point but as of 12/29 I was 190 lbs, in the morning after to peeing.
MY NEW GOALS:
Some of you may know from reading another thread of mine, that I have decided to run the this coming May. This will be a big challenge for me. This is my MAIN goal which I hope will help me move towards me other goal of meeting a specific weight.
I would like to reach my college weight of 165 pounds. This is a hefty goal as well but I believe by properly training and keeping my diet in check for the next 4 months that I will be able to reach this goal. It's 25 pounds of weight loss, in 17 weeks. 1.5 pounds per week is a reasonable goal for me.
I plan to continue my weight training, though it will not be as heavy as it previously was, and will continue my running and building up to my marathon on May 3rd. This will likely mean double workouts on some days or working out 6 days a week (3 running, 3 lifting + other cardio (rowing machine or bike). I am a busy guy so this will likely be altered as I find out what works best for me. I can tell you that early morning runs are going to be difficult as I like my sleep and my immune system doesn't respond well if I don't get enough hours in each night. Lifting in the AM is also difficult because the gym does not open until 6:00 and I generally get to work between 7:00 and 7:30.
Issues I will face:
I have had my share of issues with my calves in the last year. Both have been injured at one point or another, and more recently my left calf has been the main problem with what I call a sharp and inconsistent pain through the center of the back of my calf near the attachment to the Achilles tendon. This bothered me consistently for 2 weeks and then went away and returned again after a short hiatus. I have not found a pattern as to the cause yet, aside from running a distance I have yet to run (5 miler...). Theories on the injury were shin splints (most likely), compartment syndrome (unlikely), or tearing of the Achilles (even less likely). I started to do some shin splint exercises that were recommended by a long term shin splint sufferer and things have improved.
I ran 4 out of the 7 days I was on vacation this past week and to my surprise suffered from no calf pain. My left knee was slightly sore, but the combination of running and excessive walking around the theme parks in Disney World probably brought it on and now it seems to have passed.
Hopefully this signifies the end of my calf issues as long as I keep my mileage in check each week and keep to my exercises and stretching routines.
Help I am looking for:
-Further refinement of my diet: I am looking for help with determining the best meals to eat, the best routine to follow in regards to eating and also the best way to determine my BMR to help myself find my a very well defined caloric intake. I will post later with more information regarding my current diet through each day
-Running routine, mileage, injury prevention: Help from those of you who are marathoners and IM. Just looking for tips and pointers beyond increase 10% per week and "stretch". I have a base of between 12 and 15 miles per week. So I have a ways to go to work up to a nominal MPW avg. What is your recomendation for my max MPW prior to the marathon and when I should hit it?
-Encouragement: This is going to be a long road and I am going to need encouragement along the way. I don't anticipate any problems beyond the calf issue but you never know what can pop up. I'm hoping my fellow forum goers can pop in and give encouraging words and advice as you all see fit.
I will be logging my daily workouts so anyone who's interested may keep track. Will post more later with daily diet, current running info and the like.
Current Diet:
- Breakfast 7:30 AM
-Varies between 1 Bowl of Kashii Cereal with nonfat milk, 3 or 4 eggs with peppers and low-fat cheese, 2 Kashii Eggos or a bagel (fridays); 2 cups of coffee - AM Snack 9:30 AM, 11:00 AM
-First snack: Stonyfield Farm yogurt (fat free or low fat)
-Second Snack: Banana, granola bar, or a few pieces of beef jerky - Lunch 12:30 PM
-PB&J (Nat) on WW bread, ham or turkey on WW w/Olive Oil Mayo, some kind of wrap, or left over dinner from the night before; Apple; 2 Low-fat Cheese sticks - Snack 2:30 PM; 3:30 or 4:00 PM
-First Snack: Beef Jerky
-Second Snack: Kashii Granola Bar - Preworkout
-3 TBSP Low-fat Cottage Cheese w/Pineapple (appx 30 min prior) - Post Workout
-1 or 2 scoops Nitrean Protein Powder in 1 or 2 cups non-fat milk (sometimes with a banana) - Dinner
-Salmon steak, beef steak, chicken breast, or ground turkey meat, with fresh or frozen veggies and whole grain rice - Snack
-Either a cheese stick or 2 spoonfuls of cottage cheese
Current Running:
I am currently running 3 or 4 times a week. Mileage per run varies between 3 and 4 miles with the exception of this past week where runs were around 2-3 miles each (closed loops and i got tired of saying hi to the same people...haha "HAVE A MAGICAL DAY!")
My running has been on the treadmill, with the exception of last week as I was in Florida and made use of the not freezing weather. I have been on the treadmill for 2 reasons. First I've found that I am less likely to get calf pain both due to running technique differences between outdoors and treadmill and temperature control and its affects on my leg muscles and second its been cold and the sidewalks have been icy.
My pace has been around 10:00 min/mi and 9:13 min/mi on the treadmill I ran last week outdoors and my phones GPS was telling me I was running anywhere between an 8:30 min/mi and 7:30 min/mi. It's usually pretty accurate but can be skewed if the GPS signal is interrupted. On a warmer day this week I will try to get a good time trial on a known length run.
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