Where I Stand

This week has not been a very good one for me in terms of staying on track with the exercise or the diet. I have had a much more difficult time waking up in the morning and staying within my calorie limit. I am hoping to turn over a new leaf again and get right back on top of this. I have a big announcement coming soon in terms of running but in the mean time I will tell you where I am at with the overall picture.

I weighed myself this morning at 177.5 pounds. A drop of 14.5 pounds since the Fourth of July. I am extremely proud of this and hope to take off another 14.5 pounds by the middle of next April (slow and steady in this race wins it for me). As my running mileage increases I fully expect to drop a decent amount of weight.

In the last few weeks I have set some personal records at various distances.
9:21 mile
18:08 3k
19:25 2 mile
30:00 5k
53:25 5 mile

I certainly have a long way to go to hit my goals by that is why this is a long term project.

I am still debating about running tomorrow morning's scheduled six miler because of this ache above my ankle. Maybe I will get it the weekend off. I will figure that out tomorrow morning. More later.

Monday walk and new Weight!

I forgot to post this last night. But E and I went out for a nice little evening walk to get some light exercise after work.



But there is happier news for this week. Two days in a row I have weighed in at 179. Thus I am even happier to say that I am officially under 180 pounds for the first time in a year. Actually, I honestly do not know when I went over 180 pounds I just know that sometime in the lead up of the November elections the stress, poor eating and poor exercise habits and I found myself over that weight. From there I continued to gain more with the April municipal elections and after losing those elections I spiraled out of control with my weight and lack of exercise. I soon reached 192 pounds on July 10th. Since then I have lost 13 pounds. Just 19 more to go but we will celebrate in small steps of reaching the under at 5 pound increments (174, 169, 164 and the goal weight of 160 or 159).

A messed up walk

Just another walk this morning but this time the Nike+ ended the workout early, in which I had to restart and that is the reason why you will see to charts below.





Nothing too special at all. My calories yesterday were spot on. I was even able to indulge in some ice cream! YAY!

Negative splitting a four miler

This morning called for a four mile run around the neighborhood. Once again though I felt a little sick to my stomach but I went away. Maybe I am just getting nervous about the run or something. But nonetheless, I finished and I actually am quite happy with the outcome.

Here it is on the Nike+



And on Runkeeper showing 4.1 miles ran while the Nike+ is actually at 4 miles exactly because I walked for roughly a quarter a mile to warm up.



According to Runkeeper my splits were:

1st Mile- 11:25
2nd Mile- 11:21
3rd Mile- 12:06
4th Mile- 10:15

Thus my 4.1 mile run I finished in a time of 46:10 for a 11:16 pace.

I am very happy with myself that I negatively split my last mile in just my second week of this training. Additionally, just since last Saturday when I did the first four mile training session I improved my overall pace by 46 seconds per mile. Quite a difference in just 6 days time!

So a nice pat on my own back and we will be returning to the four mile run on Saturday with hopefully another improvement. Maybe I can crack 45 minutes.

Yesterday I was spot on with my calories. I had nothing left at the end of the night but I had a major craving for ice cream or brownies. Typically, with nothing like that in the house I would hardly hesitate to go to the local store and purchase something to quell that craving. But I resisted and drank a diet Dr. Pepper instead. Oh, how I miss ice cream right now.

Quick walk

Just a simple 30 minute walk to get the morning started today.



Decent pace and some decent calories burned. I came home and did some extra cardio as well but stuff that would not make my legs any more tired than they already are. I have to save some for the running. Tomorrow is a four mile day (not the three that I mentioned yesterday).

Once again I came in under my allotted calories. Net 1,761 out of 2,066.

Tuesday's three

I was scheduled to head out for a three mile run this morning but was feeling a little sick. So I waited a while and decided to do it anyways. I have to say that may have been the toughest three miles I have run in quite some time. So I do not recommend running when you are not feeling the greatest.

My Nike+ still needs to be calibrated again as it says that I finished three miles when it was basically 3.2 according to the maps. You can see that below on the Runkeeper map.





I am not disappointed in the run given the circumstances. Actually, I am happy to have finished. I really think I am making some great progress just from a mental perspective. Not too long ago I would have said to forget the run but I didn't and I am proud of that. Instead, I ran 3.19 miles in 35:30 for an 11:08 per mile pace. Not the greatest time but its there for me to improve upon.

Happy to report that my net caloric intake yesterday was about 150 below my allotted amount. I am eating healthy and I am eating until I am full. I am not going hungry because I do not have enough calories left in the day. So chalk up two good things today.

Next run is another three miler on Thursday. I will try to come in under 11 minutes per mile.

Labor Day walk

I woke up this morning and wanted to go for a decent size walk. I was pleasantly surprised by how quite things were in the city. Seems everyone was either sleeping in or they are out of town. E and I found a nice little part of Roscoe Village that we had never noticed before. We may have to go over there for dinner sometime soon. Nothing special on this 3.6 mile walk. Running commences tomorrow with a three miler.



As for calories and my weight I was disappointed to see that in my weight in this morning I remain unchanged from a week ago. I still sit at 180 pounds despite the fact that I reached my goals and that I did a pretty job exercising. Once again I came in under my allotted calories yesterday. I guess I just keep plugging along and hopefully will see results shortly.

Four miler

Woke up and checked my to-do list. Had to do four miles today. I was a little nervous about doing it well but once E and I got started it just kind of happened. A half mile here and then suddenly we were done with a mile and then two. It wasn't difficult at all but just a pretty slow pace compared to where I want and need to be next spring. But that is what training is for - to reach your goals!

I need to calibrate my Nike+ sensor again! I just did it on Thursday and it was saying that I ran more than I actually did... now it is saying that I ran less than I actually did! So don't exactly believe the chart below. The time is roughly correct but I really ran 4.14 miles as you can see in the map below it.





A nice first long run in the training series for the beginning of fall. I am very happy with it and know that it will go a long way towards next weeks runs. As for yesterdays calories: We went out to a restaurant last night for a celebration and came just 9 calories under! WOOHOO! Tomorrow is an off day in which I will probably do some yoga and I will weight in. Hope to be at 179 even!

Walk off

I always dreamed about hitting a walk off home run to win a game when I was growing up. But my only home run came in little league at 11 when I caught the gap and ran as fast as my little legs would carry me... all the way home.

Today my legs just carried me around the neighborhood for a walk to burn some good old calories.



Not too shabby of a walk, especially now that the sensor is calibrated properly with my iPhone 3Gs.

Yesterday I did well on the calories once again as my net caloric intake was 250 less than my max of 2070. I am sure I will slip up sometimes, I mean its inevitable, I am human but I am happy with how I have done so far this week. Just need to keep plugging along.

Shock I tell you

This morning I set out to run a full three miles as the second run in the Nike+ 5k training. As you can see in the Nike+ chart below I walked the beginning part to warm up and then took off for the rest. It was quite a different feeling than my previous three mile runs. I had some side aches and I just felt that I was going at a snails pace. But I finished and I feel good now that it is over. :)



And here is the map from Runkeeper Pro:



As you can see the two are at different distances. Nike+ is longer because of the walking at the beginning as well as the fact that the calibration was off. My best guess is about three tenths of a mile because I recalibrated at .25 miles afterwards and it showed .28. Comes out to .36 over the course of three miles.

Oddly enough, Runkeeper Pro was off as well. But the nice thing about it is that you can adjust the map to be more accurate and it then changes the distance. On this morning's run it showed 2.98 and had me basically going through buildings on the run. With some slight good faith editing it now shows 3.15 miles in 35:14, a pace of 11:11. I can do better and I will show you over the course of the coming weeks!

Also, my net caloric intake (total calories minus calories burned from specific exercise) from yesterday was 100 under my allotted amount. I will keep it going today.

Just a walk

Walked for over three miles this morning. Just trying to burn the calories. Also added weights and crunches afterwards.



Yesterday I finished the day off being 474 calories below my allotted amount of 2070. The goal is to come in at the allotted amount or under to continue losing weight. Theoretically, I should lose a pound a week by hovering at or below my allotted amount as it is already 500 calories below my daily allowance to maintain my weight.

This week's training

After yesterday's disappointing 10k and only losing a half a pound it is pretty clear to me that I need to make some adjustments in my training. So this week (and probably the weeks ahead) I am going to focus on being really strong in smaller distances like one and two mile runs and getting faster in them as well. I am also going to increase the weight lifting regimen.

Today - 60-90 minute long walk, lots of stretching and crunches
Monday - 60 minute long walk, lots of stretching, crunches and weight lifting
Tuesday - One mile run - less than 10 minutes, weight lifting, stretching and 30 minutes of walking
Wednesday - One mile run in 10 minutes, weight lifting, crunches and 30 minutes of walking
Thursday - 60 minute long walk, crunches, weight lifting and lots of stretching
Friday - One mile run in 10 minutes, weight lifting and lots of stretching
Saturday - Two mile run in less than 21:55 plus weight lifting and lots of stretching.

I am also going to try to add more cardio or something as well.

Saturday's Calories and Sunday's Weigh In

For nine straight days I have been under my daily calorie budget by a total of about 1,600 calories. This is on top of the 500 extra that I have already taken out to reach my goal of losing one pound a week. But I didn't reach the goal... I weighed myself this morning and only lost a half a pound (I now have three less calories in my daily budget at 2,132). Not sure why this happened. I mean by this math I should have burned and extra 5,100 calories more than I took in.

It could be a factor a few things. One, I am drinking a lot more water than I normally did before this health kick and two, I am walking and running quite a bit so my body may be storing some of it.

I think over the next couple of weeks as things continue I should really start to drop some weight. No regular Pepsi or Coke and continued healthy eating below the calorie budget will begin helping me see my desired results.

As for yesterdays results I burned over 900 calories from the 10k some light walking. I took in just under 3000 calories with about 500 of them being from Gatorade (probably could have gone with 250 less but it tasted so good). So we are just going to keep it going and hit the goal of 160.

Wrap up from yesterday

Well, I failed miserably to post anything yesterday. I could have posted about my Friday calories and or my 10k run for Salute Inc. yesterday morning. But I didn't so here it all is in a nutshell.

I was once again under my calories for Friday by 287.

Here is my 10k run from the race yesterday.



I did not feel that great before the race and in the early going the running just did not feel right either. I know that I could have done a lot better. But it is what it is so I will just make the next goal for the next race and try to achieve that.

Thursday Calories

For the fifth straight day I ended up under my daily budget. I ate 2,280 calories and exercised with a 5k run yesterday that burned 443 calories. Overall I finished the day 1,897 (299 under).

I was definitely hungry at the end of the day closer to bedtime so I snacked on carrots. Much better than snacking on ice cream or something sweet. My next weigh in comes on Sunday. I can't wait to see the scale say something under 190. That will be exciting.

Wednesday's Calories

I continue to come in under my overall daily calorie budget. I took in 2,252 and burned just under 400 from the walk and some weight lifting.

I was 274 under and already this week I am 642 under (plus the 500 for each day that is already taken off to reach my goal of one pound per week). I am not feeling hungry at night and am certainly not starving myself. I am eating pretty healthy and exercising every day. That's what is proven to work and I am going to do what works.

Tuesday's Calories

Yesterday was another good day in terms of my overall calorie intake and exercise. I ate 2,245 calories but burned 440 or so in my 5k run, which I beat my personal record by 12 full seconds.

So I netted 1,802 calories, well over 300 calories below by budget. I weighed myself this morning (I want to stay as accurate as possible on my calorie intake and burning from exercise) and am at 190 still. Next weight in comes on Sunday morning.

Monday's Calories

The good news from yesterday is two fold - I finished under my calories again and I also went for a long walk. I ate 2,645 calories and burned 545 from exercise netting me 2,100 - just 36 under my daily total.

There are small things that I can do to help. I can wholly eliminate regular Pepsi and Coke (drinking those kinds of calories is just a waste). I can also eat more calories for breakfast and lunch and snack a little better.

It's a work in progress. So far so good. Just need to keep it going.

Weight Loss, Calories and Yesterday

I did well yesterday in terms of my net calories because I piled the exercise on with that long walk burning over 400 calories. Overall my intake was 2,539 calories. I could have had it lower if I did not drink regular coke. I exercised 542 calories and netted 1,997 on the day. 139 below my goal.

According to the Lose It! application I burned 639 more calories than I took in yesterday. That is a good Sunday. So we will see where today takes me.

Weight Loss Time

While I am loving the Nike+ system and my shoes and the overall experience of running it is time for me to get on a strict plan and lose this excess weight I am carrying. Ideally, I would like to weight between 160 and 165. As I jumped on the scale this morning I stood there staring at 190. Ugh.

I have a stomach that could certainly be smaller and I know that I could be more toned. Over the coming months the hope is to see a drop in 25-30 pounds, an increase in my overall running speed and hopefully more traffic on this blog.

The main tool that I will utilize in my efforts to lose weight is the tried and true method of counting calories and burning more than I eat in a give day. A nice free application called Lose It! for my iPhone. As you can see it does a nice job of tracking your calorie budget during the day. All you have to do is enter the item and how much of it you ate. It even helps you develop the calorie budget you need to reach your goals. Enter your weight, how much you would like to lose a week and it tells you a suggested daily calorie budget. You can also enter you weight as you go and watch it go down towards your goal weight. I entered my goal of 160 and my desire to lose a pound a week. It told me my daily calorie budget is 2,135.

You can also include your daily exercise and subtract those calories burned as well. For example, yesterday I ate 2,388 calories and burned an additionally 360 from exercise (some walking and a shortened run) for a net of 2,028 calories (107 under my daily budget). Not too bad. Now I just need to keep that going and I will see some positive results.