Archive for August, 2009

Weekly weigh-in: 526 lbs.
Loss: -10 lb.
Total loss: 106 lbs.
Emotion: happy

Alright, I’m back on track. Last week was a great week!

 

• Run/Walk at your own pace. Speed is not important. Remember the Tortoise and the Hare.
• Keep your eye on your goal (finish the half marathon)
• The 1st week you should walk/run 4-6 days, and you should walk 1/8 mile, then jog 1/8 mile until you have put in one mile. Then walk 1/4 mile to cool down.
• Rest at least one day! Don’t run 7 days a week!
• Shoes are ultra important. 95% of injuries can be prevented by having the correct shoes. If your shoes are older than three months, get new shoes. Also, get RUNNING shoes. It’s best to go to a store like The Track Shak. They will analyze your walk to determine the best shoes for you. Mention Danny’s program for a 10% discount at Track Shak.
• It’s always good to have a carrot for running. Our carrot was free beer/water. That’s our motivation.

Check out Danny Haralson’s blog at http://blog.rununiversity.com/ – Danny has run over 50 marathons and he is a certified running coach. He has an excellent program at http://www.rununiversity.com/

As we started the walk for our training, Danny told me that he’s gonna time my lap. I walked the entire 1/4 mile lap instead of alternating walking and jogging. I walked the 1/4 mile in 6 minutes, and put in another 6 minute 1/4 mile.

Danny told me to alternate my walking distances every day. For example, day one walk one mile, day two walk half a mile, day three walk 1.4 miles. This way my body won’t know what distance I’m gonna walk. It’ll be fooled into thinking that every walk’s gonna be a long walk. This will burn max calories per walk.

I’ll be walking every day and working out every day. (Of course I will have a rest day)

Everyone loves having the beer as the carrot for out group runs. Of course, I drink the water because I’ve got that big carrot in April next year. Do you have a carrot?

I had an incredible time at this morning’s Make-A-Wish 5k and Fun Run at Alabama Adventure. I helped setup the laptops for check-in and directed runners as they ran the course. There was a great turnout.

Here’s pics from today’s race:

I’m already looking forward to next year’s race, and just think, by then the races that I am going to walk in and the 300 lb challenge will have passed. I wonder what I’ll look like a year from now.

I was able to handle the standing very well, and if you were at today’s race reading this, I was hobbling around because my legs are sore from working out a couple days ago. I usually get around a little bit faster that what I did today.

There is a gala tonight for Make-A-Wish but I will not be going because I’m worn out. I have a one event limit per day.

Alabama Adventure was impressive. This was my first visit out there. Here’s their site: http://www.alabamaadventure.com/

I’m sore from yesterday’s workout, but it’s a good, temporary sore.

I look forward to volunteering at tomorrow’s Make-A-Wish 5k. I’ve never been to a race, so it’s gonna be neat to see how these races work. Also, the race is at Alabama Adventure, a water/theme park, and volunteers get a free pass to the park. So, I’ll take my swimming stuff just in case I want to go in the park, but I most likely won’t go. Also, I’m taking plenty of my powerade zero.

About the Powerade zero, that stuff is hard to find. Lately I’ve been buying it at Sam’s. All the stores in my area don’t carry very much Powerade, but they have a ton of Gatorade. Go figure.

I didn’t workout today, nor walk because my legs were sore. Tomorrow I’ll be standing for five hours and doing a bit of walking at the race. That’ll be enough exercise.

 

On to the next item: Wednesday afternoon I went over to the Trak Shak in Homewood, AL to help stuff swag bags for the Make-A-Wish 5k on Saturday. I will be a volunteer at Saturday’s race. The volunteer’s will be registering runners and performing other duties. Yes, I’ll be posting pics of the race.

I didn’t realize there was such a community of runners/walkers in Birmingham, and I think it’s awesome they have the Trak Shak to meet up at. The Trak Shak sells shoes, clothing, and accessories for runners and walkers. Also, it is the hang out. The best part is: (drum roll please) they have free low carb light beer for runners and walkers. (Before you fuss, no, I didn’t drink any beer. Honest.)

It was great to see a local independent business doing well in this economy.

I didn’t know that runners consume a ton of beer. I was even told that at most marathons, they give out beer on the last drinking station of the course. Who knew?

The Make-A-Wish Dream Team will be meeting this Sunday for our first training run/walk. It’s only thirty minutes, so it should be fun. And, again, the coach is going to provide water and beer. (wow) (I am easily impressed.)

If you haven’t visited Stages of Change, you need to check it out: http://stagesofchange.blogspot.com/ I spoke with the gentleman that posts this blog last weekend via phone, and he is incredible. I believe we are going to be able to help each other out because we are in similar situations. We are both in our late twenties, morbidly obese, and have struggled in the past to lose weight and maintain our weight loss.

Today I am going to add some of my thoughts to this post from Stages of Change: http://stagesofchange.blogspot.com/2009/08/ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.html

In his post he talks about change and never giving up.Here’s my favorite part:

“If change is possible, and can even be beautiful, then why haven’t I been able to keep the weight off? Well, here’s my thought: I changed the outside.

Successfully.

Over, and over, and over, and over.

But, I never changed inside.”

First, I agree with his entire post, but this statement above hit home. I am just changing the outside not the inside. So, what happens after all goals are achieved or when “life” strikes again, I revert back to my self-destructive behaviors. I believe the best way to fight these self destructive behaviors is to work on them daily. I have some fantastic books on depression, and they have great procedures to follow for irrational thoughts. It gets old writing that stuff out, but if it keeps me from being depressed and binging, then I must do it. I will keep that stuff private.

I tell you, one thing I am so thankful for is the people that read and comment on my blog. If it wasn’t for you, I would not have recovered so quickly from my recent emotional roller coaster.

 Aside from the irrational thoughts, there are other items that affect me emotionally:

• My body has to do more work to make it through the day versus a skinny person, thus I get tired earlier in the day than most folks. Also, sometimes for no reason I’ll get tired. I know sometimes it can be a spike in blood sugar, but sometimes that’s not the case.
• My hormones are out of whack. My body and mind are used to very low testosterone levels from not exercising, and when I start exercising, sometimes there can be some temporary negative effects from testosterone production. The reason I know this is my doc has prescribed testostirone gel in the past, and that stuff made me incredibly angry. While taking that stuff I had uncontrollable rage while driving. I mean punching the steering wheel, yelling, honking horn, etc. I have quit taking the gel but sometimes after I’ve worked out, I can feel a much less form of that anger.
• There are other hormones involved in this also because after working out consecutively for a few days, weeks, etc. I can really notice a difference on days that I don’t work out. I am cranky, tired, and sometimes depressed.

Right now my focus is on surviving all this crap (the emotional stuff) because I know the longer I sustain good nutritional and exercise habits, the less severe the above items will affect me.

Finally, I want to encourage you to make better connections with folks out in blog land. It was so awesome chatting with Stages of Change. Blogs, comments, followers, emails, twitter, and facebook are nice, but sometimes it’s nice to have a real interaction with someone. Face to face is the most preferred method but impossible because most folks are in other states. Phone calls are awesome, also I’m thinking about using Skype because of the video chat feature.

Stages of Change and I agreed that when we are thin enough to fly, we’ll get together.

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P.S. on a completely unrelated side note, will some of the writers that read this blog please help me with affect vs. effect. I have researched this before but I still have trouble with it. Thank you.

Walk Distance: 1 mile at the house
Time: 37 min
Speed: too slow

Notes: high humidity made it a tough walk this morning.

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

Below is a comment that was posted by Mr. Jack Sh*t, and after that is my response.

Jack Sh*t: “That’s a great loss, Stephen and I don’t want to sh*t all over your good day, but the math is beginning to work against you and your deadline. Six pounds a week may sound pretty doable to you right now, but I’d say that’s the razor’s edge of what’s possible in the time frame you’re looking at. That means you can’t afford any more bad weeks; you can scarcely afford a mediocre week. At your current weight, six pound losses aren’t unusual, but when you drop into the 200’s (and you’re going to drop into the 200’s, buddy… isn’t that fantastic to just think about), a six pound a week loss every week simply isn’t realistic. That means you need some big-time fireworks now so that you can afford some three and four lb loss weeks down the road.

I’ve got money in this game, so I’m watching that clock on the side.

Are you?”

My Response:

Yes Sir, my eye is on that clock for Talladega.

That’s why I decided to join the dream team. I know with the deadline of walking a half marathon in February, I can’t afford to screw up. I’m excited to see how close this half marathon will get me to the Talladega goal. We have our first training “run” (I’ll be walking) this Sun at 6pm. We’ll be meeting every week. So I am really working on my walking and my workouts during the week so I can participate in the weekend training.

Walking will be easier as I lose weight. That’s my motivation for eating right.

Thank you Jack Sh*t.

Walk Distance: 1 Mile
Time: 30 min
Speed: 2 mph

Notes:

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

Today’s weigh-in was 536, which is a 6 lb loss from last week. Now I’m moving in the correct direction.

Woke up early this morning and walked a mile by the house. I knocked out the mile in 32 min, which is great because there are a ton of hills.

Walk Distance: 1 Mile
Time: 32 min
Speed: 2 mph

Notes: good walk – legs are sore

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

I officially started my training today (cue the theme from Rocky). It feels great to be back on track.

I am so pumped about the upcoming half marathon.

I’ve got a lot of work to do from now until Feb.

Goodnight folks.

Walk Distance: 1 Mile
Location: Mall in Fairfield
Time: 30 min
Speed: 2 mph
Notes: Slower pace towards the end of the walk.

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

I had a great food day today, and I hope to post a complete entry tomorrow. I have some great things in the works.

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

View my exercise diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/svinson6