crash

Posted on Sunday February 12 2012 · 4 Comments

Ok, so terrible things are going on in my life at the moment.  My brother-in-law is gravely ill, so we are all very tense and concerned.  Trying to do the best we can to help the situation, but most likely not doing a good job of it.  Say some prayers for him please.

Running is (miraculously) still chugging along.  My pace is now firmly below 9:00/mile, which is very encouraging.  These are morning runs, so they are even more impressive to me.   My legs feel tired quite often though.  My left calf is especially tight and sore.   I took Sunday off after my 9 mile run on Saturday and will likely rest tomorrow too.

This weekend the diet fell apart.  I just was not able to stay away from the fridge or the snacks.  Too much anxiety over family and work (yeah work is crazy too).   Bleh.  Not looking forward to weigh-in on Monday.  My weight hasn’t budged in weeks and this weekend will make it worse.

Writing is so-so.  I got some inspiration this week and churned out about three thousand words.  Looking back, I started this project last July, so I should be nearing the end at this point.  But I’m not.  I only have about 23,000 words, half of which should be cut, so I’m light years from being done.  I haven’t been able to pull the plot together yet, and some characters are nowhere near developed.  I’m still trying to decide on names!  If I have to change one more name, I might cry.  Seriously.

That all aside, I was tagged by Joy about a month ago.  Here are the questions and my answers:

What are your go-to excuses?
You mean like the best excuses I have?  Easy.  My foot hurts, I’m tired, its raining.
What’s your favorite WOD or running workout (distance/tempo/speedwork)?
Distance because I can’t do tempo runs correctly and speedwork HURTS
Do you track your dietary intake?
Yes.  I have an Excel spreadsheet with caloric values for every food I ever ate.  Psychotic.
What’s your favorite healthy meal?
  Chicken sandwich on wholewheat with Miracle Whip and tomato.
What’s your favorite cheat meal?
Instant mashed potatoes with bacon and cheddar cheese.
Any nagging injuries that worry you?
  My left calf and shin.  Grrrrrr.
What book would you recommend?
The DaVinci Code.
Have you ever been hospitalized?  If so, how were your nurses?
Yes in Jr. High School.  My nurse looked like Nurse Goodbody.  No complaints.
What look is more appealing to you?  Designer well put together chic or a fit body dressed in workout clothes?
Fit body.  The skinny waif look is not cool.  Jamie Eason?  Rocks.
What’s your resting heart rate?
63 pbm (just measured it)
If you had no financial/physical limitations whatsoever, what would you do?
Sleep in tomorrow, make truffles in the afternoon, and I might even go running before dinner.

 

Filed Under: Diet, Weight, and Exercise, Running

Kinda fell off the radar again

Posted on Saturday January 14 2012 · 3 Comments

Seems like I lost my posting momentum.  There’s lots of stuff going on right now, not all of which I can really talk about on the web.

But the good news is that, although I have not been posting my food, I have been tracking it.  I’ve been careful all during the week to make sure I am not adding extra at night.  The weekends are another challenge for me.  I tend not to eat regular meals, and sometimes find myself snacking.  I know that the meals I eat during the week will keep me on track, so this weekend my goal is to stay with the same meal plan that I have during the week.  I’m good so far today.

One other weekend challenge has been camping with the Boy Scouts.  When you are sleeping outside in the winter, you cannot be low on fuel.  Have to “feed the furnace” as they say.  So, low calorie diets really do not mix well with winter camping.  I know that I personally need a serious lunch and dinner on days that I am sleeping in the cold, or I will not stay warm.

So last weekend’s camp out in the woods did not help my diet much.  Also, when I go off my diet, I tend to just throw it all away.  I can’t seem to just stop at what I need.  Somehow the cookies speak very loudly.

Fortunately, my weight is still going down.  I’m down about 5 pounds now.  Its not too bad.  I was targeting about 2 pounds a week.  Monday is actually the official weigh-in day, do that’s why weekend eating is so important.  Don’t want my body to go back into storage mode for two days before I check my weight.

So the running has been good.  I’ve gotten out for 3 miles in the mornings, 3 days a week.  The pace sucks but oh well.  Today I need to do 5 miles.  Thursday morning we had our first big snowfall (4 inches), and I got the pleasure of running in that for the first time in a year.  I had forgotten how much harder it is to run in the snow.  I had YakTrax but it was still tough and my legs ached the next morning.  Friday’s are still rest days.

So that’s what’s up.  Haven’t been posting but I am staying on track more or less.

 

Filed Under: Diet, Weight, and Exercise, Food, Running

getting faster bit by bit

Posted on Friday January 06 2012 · 1 Comment

I ran 3 more miles today and I noticed that my finished times are slowly getting faster.  Not by a lot, but maybe 10-15 seconds each time, even though its getting later in the week.  I’m hoping this trend continues.  I haven’t done a good job of getting out the door early.  I’ve been getting to bed late and its making it hard to get up.

Also?  It was damn cold this morning:

Outdoor temps are on the bottom.  Cold.

I was going through my training plan and looking at an upcoming Half Marathon that I want to do.  The timing is a bit short (two weeks) but its not unreasonable.  While doing that I noticed that my training just happens to coincide with the precise plan I would need for the Vermont City Marathon.  A serious case of cart-before-the-horse, but still.

I’m having trouble with the food blogging.  I eat the same thing for breakfast everyday so the picture is of the same thing.  Is it copping out to just skip the breakfast or to just use the same picture over and over?   My camera takes very high resolution pictures and I have to scale them all down so I can upload them.  There may be a setting where this can be adjusted but I don’t have the patience to find it.

Here is breakfast for the last two days to make my point:

Today’s breakfast is on the bottom.  Not much difference.

And lunch is strikingly similar too:

Today’s lunch is on top.  Although I did forget to include the water and fish oil yesterday:

Dinner at least gets some variation.   For dinner last night I had a chicken sandwich (on very smooshed bread!)

Along with my Chobani yogurt and bran.

But tonight I was over at my parents’ house and mom had made pot roast.  I forgot to get a picture of my plate so I took a picture of the leftovers in the pot.  I really didn’t have very much.  I was being good.

And I had some yogurt for dessert:

And I also cheated a little bit with this:

It was just he beaters though.   Trust me, I wanted to DRINK the bowl of batter.  Although, as I write this and see all the food again, I’m getting hungry.  So I added one more snack to today.

This is Hormel turkey pepperoni and Cabot 75% reduced fat cheddar, with horseradish mustard on top.  Yum!  :)  Its a reasonably low number of calories, but enough to quiet my stomach.

Filed Under: Diet, Weight, and Exercise, Food, Running

Running and cake pops

Posted on Wednesday December 28 2011 · 3 Comments

So, I’ve run now two days in a row, which is a record for me of late.  I like think that two in a row is considered a trend.  :)

Just three miles and just under a 10 minute pace.  Trust me, this is a lot for me right now.  I’m watching the food intake again as well.  I was reading an article about a study they did in Australia about people losing weight and keeping it off.  They looked at certain hormone levels and such.  Basically, as soon as the obese people began the program, their bodies went into survival mode, increasing their hormones that increase appetite, and suppressing the hormones that cause satiety (sp?).  And it stayed that way for a year during the program, even after their eating went back up to normal levels.  Their bodies tried to make them fat again!

The net conclusion was that people who lose weight will ALWAYS have to work hard to keep it off, because their bodies will continue to try and make them obese again.  I guess thin people will never have this issue.  Sigh.

Speaking of losing weight, I did make something new recently.  I found a recipe for cake pops, although its not what I usually see for this desert.  You basically bake a cake, grind it up and blend it will a cup of butter cream frosting.  Then roll it into big balls, freeze it, and dip it in chocolate.  The centers are soft and a kinda gooey, but still taste like cake.  Here’s a pic of the results:

I do like how they look, even if they have  an odd consistency.

Filed Under: Diet, Weight, and Exercise, Food, Just chocolate

still not playing

Posted on Wednesday June 08 2011 · 2 Comments

I haven’t been on the game since I quit, so I am very proud of myself for that.

On the other hand, I have not run since last week, which is not so good.

I’ve decided I am disgusted with myself for letting the fat climb on me again, so I am dumping the sugar again and going back to my 1700 calories a day, without candy, bread, and sugary things.

Typical food for the day:

All-bran with 2 heaping tablespoons of ground flax seeds, skim milk
chicken with carrots, broccoli, and often some fat-free refried beans
whole wheat wrap (50 cal, 7 grams of fiber)
spinach salad with cukes, tomato, and green pepper
3 tablespoons of Italian dressing with extra virgin olive oil
large apple
100 calorie piece of 90% cacao dark chocolate (my one vice, don’t hate)
can of raspberry lime Polar Seltzer
2 cups of fat free cottage cheese

Actually everything, except the cottage cheese, I eat during the day.  This has been my typical diet for a couple years now.  Its the evening food that makes me gain weight.  If I’m watching my weight, I’m careful about what I eat at home.  If not, well, I end up stuffing in 1000 calories of other stuff, and there goes the weight gain again.

What I like about this plan is that I only have to modify one meal really, dinner/home food.  Which makes it easier for me to focus on ways to avoid junk.  If I can get working on a project it will take my mind off the junk food.  Its really only a few hours before bed, once I get home, so I don’t need to distract my cravings for very long.

But I do need to get out and run now.  I need to run and lift some weights.  I miss the weight training.  I looked into joining Planet Fitness.  The gym is cheap enough, I just don’t want to join and then not go.  Also, you have to let them do automatic withdrawal from your bank account, which I have a real problem with.  Thinking about it.

 

Filed Under: Diet, Weight, and Exercise, Food

Does sugar make you sad?

Posted on Friday March 04 2011 · 3 Comments

When I eat candy and sugary stuff, its first makes me feel happy (because I’m eating candy and sugary stuff), and then I feel sad.  And then the next day, I want MORE sugar.  I did so good this week, but then I ate some candy on Thursday, and then I was sad.  And now I can’t stop the sugar cravings again.

Filed Under: Diet, Weight, and Exercise, Food

5 miles

Posted on Saturday January 29 2011 · 2 Comments

I ran 5 miles this morning.  I really didn’t want to.  Well, I wanted to at 7:30 am when I got up, but then I had to check email.  Then I had to check Farcebook.  Then it was 9:30 and I had to go run or I’d miss my chance.  So I ran, and I finished.  I think this was supposed to be a pace run, and I was a little bit slower than target. :(

It was hard to run.  My legs are tired.  I haven’t run this much in a long time.  My legs are achy when I start running and it s a struggle.  Its my own fault.  I put on weight and let the training lapse.  I’m working on it.

Speaking of being fat, I still am.  I only ate 7 lifesavers yesterday at work.  Good job for me.  Then I can home and ate a pile of jelly beans, two pop tarts, a bag of popcorn, and other food within arm’s reach.  Bad job for me.  So, still fat.

Sugar is a very hard addiction to break.

Filed Under: Diet, Weight, and Exercise, Running

Back from frosty Ireland

Posted on Friday December 10 2010 · Leave a Comment

I spent the past week in Ireland for business again.  Last time was in June, this time it less green and much colder.  They got hit with a cold wave and snow.  Snow in Ireland has the same effect as snow in North Carolina.  Disaster.

None of these cars have snow tires (why would they?), so the treads are made for dealing with wet roads, not icy roads.  When they get on ice, they spin in funny little left-handed circles.  The daytime temps hovered around freezing, and at night it went below freezing.  The air was so humid that it felt much colder.  I seriously froze my butt off walking in Dublin.  Ofcourse, I left my gloves and hat at home.

The strangest thing was the frost on the trees.  Someone there referred to “frost-fog”, and I guess the humidity causes fog at night, but then it “dews” on the trees and covers everything with this frost.  It looks kinda cool actually:

I got a chance to drive for a while and it was very exciting.  Being on the wrong side of the road feels very strange.  I did hit the curb in town a couple times.  That might have led to our flat tire.  Sigh. This is a pic I took while driving, but managed not to hit anyone.

While someone else was driving, we managed to piss someone off in one of the rotaries.  He was thumbing his nose and pulled up next to us to yell at us and say he almost hit us.  We apologized but it didn’t seem to be what he was looking for.  He just kept saying over and over again that we almost hit him.  There must be some culturally correct reply that he was looking for.  Apparently, “We’re very sorry about that.” was not quite right.  Here he is, speeding away in disgust:

To be honest, he was driving very fast for such icy conditions.

I brought my Garmin with the newly downloaded maps for UK/Ireland.  I programmed in our hotel destination, but there’s a funny thing in Ireland.  No road names for addresses.  At least, none I could find.  So Karen (that’s Garmin’s name currently) could give us road names that we were on, but none of the street signs showed them.  And if you want to find some place, if its not something in Karen’s list, you will never find it, because there are no street addresses.  Just crazy!

Did I already talk about fixing the Garmin issues?  Well, the data I had is long gone.  Here is my apology letter from Garmin:

Dear Jon  ****,

Thank you for contacting Garmin International.


I’m very sorry for what happened, but if those favorites are gone, there is no way of getting them back. I am really sorry, but if the software update did do that there isn’t any thing we could do to get them back.

With Best Regards,

Joshua W.

Product Support Specialist

Garmin International

Thanks for the email.   Please fix your site so that all your other customers will know that updates to Garmin software will delete all your data.

I also needed to download the European maps, so I bought them online at Garmin’s site.  Sadly, my Nuvi comes with no memory.  Just enough to hold one map set.  You have to buy a separate mini-card to put in the side of it in order to extend the memory.  So, $20 later, I had my mini-card and was able to store the newly purchases maps in the Garmin.

I was searching through the options on the Garmin and found a selection for languages.  So you can change languages for both text and voices.  For example, if you want American English, you can select a male or female voice.  Strangely, there are Australian and British English voices too.  So picked an Australian English voice, named “Karen”.  The American English “Jill” was too robotic, and the British English “Emily” was too stuffy.  What I really wanted was the voice of Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Chapel on Star Trek but, more importantly, was the voice of the Star Trek computer in STNG.  Sadly, she left this world two years ago.  :(

So Karen took us around Ireland.  She did good the vast majority of the time, although she was horrendously lost in the Dublin Airport.  Too many turns and she was putting rotaries where there were none.  We switched her off and navigated the old fashioned way: by following signs.

I found myself having a hard time crossing the streets.  Still looking for traffic coming the wrong way.  In Dublin, they had handy little words painted on the road at the sidewalk’s edge, for foreigners like me. 

I wanted to buy gifts for folks again, but I couldn’t stand walking around in the cold in Dublin very long.  I managed to pick up a small trinket for my sister because I knew where the touristy store was.  I bought Mom and Dad some bread at a bakery in Mullingar where I had lunch.

I bought a fair amount of chocolate while I was there.  Among it all was a box of Lily O’Brien’s truffles.  Just a yummy truffle with a soft flowing center.  Fortunately, I took a picture before they were all gone.

By the way, sorry these picture are so big.  I don’t really have time today to go through and crop them all down.  Hopefully, the thumbs are big enough to see the picture well, without having to open them all.

I arrive home last night after a fairly uneventful flight.  I used US Airways this time, instead of Aer Lingus.  I think, US Airways is not as nice.  The plane was smaller, and people seemed crankier.  Although, it was nice to leave and return to the airport near my home, instead of Boston.  Nothing like coming home from a 7 hour flight, only to get in the car and drive for another 4.

My new shoes arrived while I was gone.  Asics Hyper XC spikeless.  I tried them on and walked around with the.  The toe pocket seems pretty roomy.  They are much stiffer than my Adizero PR’s.  A little heavier too.

After walking around, I decided I’m going to keep them and give them a run today.  I’m a little worried the stiffness will be a problem, but maybe it will be ok.  There are no removable spikes on these, but there are rubber nubs on the ball where spikes would be.   I can feel them while walking indoors, but its possible they will be fine on the road.  If not, I can cut them off without feeling badly about it.

So I will be going running today, the first time in about two weeks.  Life, weather, and darkenss has totally gotten in the way, and then travel completely obliterated my running.  I have gained about 1200 pounds now and am disgusted with myself.  Pants don’t fit well.  I need to get my fat butt back on the wagon.  I have today off from work, so its a good time to go running while I have daylight to do it.

Filed Under: Diet, Weight, and Exercise, Mindless musings, Running, Where is Jon?

8 pounds

Posted on Tuesday November 09 2010 · 5 Comments

I’ve gained 8 pounds since the marathon.

There is the cold hard truth.

Its not muscle.  Its not water.  Its fat.  (Ok, and the water/blood/etc that supports the extra fat.)

How did this happen?  Well, cutting back my activity level, eating like I was running 35 miles a week, and Halloween (i.e. sugar diet).  Very simple.

Despite the fact that I could easily buy pills and drinks that allow me to “melt away the pounds while I sleep”, I decided to go back to my original diet called “Stop Eating So Damn Much Crap, You Idiot”.  This special diet needs to be coupled with an appropriate exercise plan.  Mine is called “Get Your Fat Butt Off The Couch, You Lazy Jackass, And Stop Spending So Much Time On The Internets When You Should be Running”.   Still working on a shorter name for that one.

I’ve found the combination of these two strategies to be 100% effective for rapid sustained weight loss, increased stamina, reduced resting heart rate, better fitting clothes, and a reduction in tooth decay.

Filed Under: Diet, Weight, and Exercise