Hit My Running Target Weight :-)
Hit my marathon goal weight today, so all phases of my weight-loss journey seem complete now. To celebrate, I'm re-posting (below) my blog entry from February 29th that recaps most of the story. The rest since then has been hard miles, building muscle and flexibility, and shedding the pesky last 5 lbs or so in the process.Â
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My Annual Report (next one in 2016!)
My weight-loss, nutrition and fitness journey started at the end of February last year, so this is my personal annual report. Lots of people have encouraged and motivated me along the way and have asked how much Iâve lost or why I started or what I did differently. I didnât really answer many questions because I didnât feel I was âdoneâ yet or the answers sounded self-important. Itâs been a year, so I decided to write about everything ONCE to share and get it out of my system, and then not bug anyone about it again (or at least for awhile!)
I decided to change my diet and begin exercising the day after the Superbowl last year. I remember the greasy/queasy feeling in my stomach the next morning following a predictable big-event food and beerfest. I stepped on the scale, which mocked me by displaying a new lifetime high weight. So I did some research on general nutrition and exercise, made a shopping list of better foods and vowed to join the local gym. That was pretty much it, though it sounds kinda boring as a motivation. No sob storyâŠno life-changing event, no doctorâs orders, no nightmare or strange dreams, no trip to the desert to find my life or connect with my inner soul, and no jarring epiphany.  Sorry!
By the end of February I had started eating better and less. I finally did join the local gym (Retro Fitness!) and I dragged myself there every day and left huffing and puffing, but still ticking. The goals of my âdietâ were to lose around a Âœ to 1 pound a week with a balanced diet and anything more could come from exercise. The nutrition breakdown I shot for was 55% carbs, 25% fat and 20% protein, which was well within the guidelines of the government, all health organizations, and most sane nutrition âexpertsâ on the interwebs. I also tried to add enough fiber to be within the 28-34g per day recommended for men and stay under 2300g of sodium. I started exercising with VERY slow cardio on the treadmill and told myself that Iâd graduate to the elliptical if the treadmill didnât kill me first. I also planned to add weight lifting if the elliptical didnât do me in (and if the treadmill take me before the elliptical!)
Fast forward six months to the end of July. The nutrition part of the diet went exactly as planned. I ate well and balanced and less. I still indulged in âbadâ foods when I felt like it, but made better choices overall. I became a gym/cardio slave and pretty much went 7-days a week from the end of February to the end of July. I dropped the treadmill out of boredom and took up the Elliptical machine. Sticking with the gym was a shock, but direct tv and flat panel monitors on every piece of equipment aided in the process. My daily exercise during that period averaged a 980 calorie expenditure. This activity combined with my nutritional changes resulted in weight loss of around 90 lbs by the end of July. The good news is that Iâve kept up the loss and nutrition and have only gone up and down by 2-3 lbs since then. Still fascinated by my newfound fitness and energy, I decided to take up running since the Elliptical was getting boring.
On July 27th, a few days after my 44th birthday, my then 11-year old daughter and I headed out the door for the first walk/run in our couch-to-5K training program. This seemed like a nice slow start to my new running adventure, it involved geeky gadgetry (C25K phone app), and she was intrigued enough to come along for the journey. There were a few road bumps of slight pains, cramps, huffs, puffs and general blahs, but we made it through every single workout in the 8-week program.
We entered and completed our first 5K in September and then went on to do five more of them together. Our favorite was the Girls on the Run 5K. My daughterâs school didnât have a fall program (they do it in the spring), but we ended up training and running ourselves, complete with pink spray-painted hair with yellow highlights and neon eye-blocking tape :-) I went on to finish a 10-week 10K training program and raced in my first 10K race in October. I then started a 12-week half-marathon training program and will race a 20K next week and a half-marathon in April.
If youâre still reading this far (and I completely understand why most wouldnât have made it to this point!) then you probably know that my borderline obsessive/compulsive personality loves stats and over-analysis. So the following is the âdataâ section of my annual report. Lots-o-numbers but heyâŠthatâs what I do :)
Over the last 12 months I âŠ.
Went from 240 or so lbs to 150 or so lbs.
Logged EVERY food and exercise in LoseIt! phone app and website
Averaged 980 calories in exercise per day from Feb through July
Averaged 420 calories in exercise per day from August through today.
Nutrition breakdown: 55.1% carbs, 26.1% fat, 18.8% protein.
TOTAL calories burned: 244,448 or around 70 lbs!!!!!
Went out walking 378 times
Strapped myself to the elliptical machine 186 times
Ran 131 times for a total of 420 miles
Coached softball 37 times and coached wrestling 15 times
Favorite foods ⊠coffee on 392 days (obviously didnât give that up!)
Ate Chobani Greek yogurt on 330 days. My #1 ânew dietâ staple
Had butter on 204 days (didnât give up either, but usually fat-free)
Ate Fiber One cereal on 198 days (another new food item)
Had some sort of protein or fiber bar (Clif/Nature Valley/Kashi) 444 times.
Ate a slice of wheat/higher fiber/protein bread with breakfast 148 times.
Enjoyed bagels 48 times, potato chips 31 & pretzels 27 times (weaknesses!)
Pigged out on birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, NYE & SuperBowl!
Weekly running mileage up to 30 miles & long runs up to 14 miles!
Resting heart rate dropped from 81 beats per minute to 40 beats per minute!
So whatâs next? I have always had one far-fetched athletic goal in the back of my head that seemed impossible, and especially from the couch or behind a computer, but still a nice distant fantasy. I also want to do more in local community volunteerism and charity in general. I might as well combine the two and dedicate 2012 to running further and raising money for charity along the way. I am starting the year by volunteering and helping to organize a few local charity races and have plans to organize a few more in the summer and fall. OhâŠ.the âfar fetchedâ goal? I registered this morning for the 2012 New York City Marathon (11/4/12) and will run the race for cancer charities.
Thanks for reading (if there is anyone out there who stuck with this drivel) and I couldnât have done it without the support of family and friends, including the hundreds of new ones from online communities like LoseIt! and DailyMile. The good news is that since I posted this today you are spared another overly-long annual report until the next leap day in 2016 :-)
EDIT:Â I am running the 2012 ING NYC MARATHON with Fredâs Team to raise funds for critical cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Please consider donating to support my run and THANK YOU! Here is the link to donate:Â http://ht.ly/arn7g
