So far so good on WW weight loss.

Weight Watchers

I have been doing WW the way it is supposed to be done now for three full days.  I can feel the positive momentum building up and the negative habits slowly but surely losing ground to a healthy life.  I have not really went off the tracks to bad but I have definitely allowed some bad eating habits to emerge once again.  I am so thankful for all the encouragement and help that I receive from the readers.  I weighed the same at my weight watchers meeting last night basically and the momentum has not had a chance to really take “weight loss effect” yet.  In another week or so things should be rolling pretty good.

Running

My running is progressing along just fine.  I did my speed-work last night and although it was difficult it was manageable even only two weeks after the 50 miler.  I have another hard run tonight and then a day off.  After that I am thrust into a HUGE running weekend.  I feel like my weight is impacting my running negatively.  I don’t weigh much more than I have in the past but even 8-10 lbs is a lot to carry for 26+ miles.  I can’t wait until I lose this weight again.

Emotions

I feel like I am on an upswing in the emotional area.  I am starting to be more positive again.  I have my doubts about being able to lose my 10-15 pounds, but I am trying not to dwell on those.  Rather, I am trying very hard to stay positive and believe that all things are possible through Him who strengthens me.  I have a major tendency to get depressed and when I do things tend to fall apart for WW.  I get a bit hopeless without logical reason.  I am working through this.

WW is going alright.

Well, this morning I am just checking in to let you all know that my WW journey over the last couple of days has been going well.  Not perfect, but good.  Mainly, I have not been eating donuts and pepperoni after work.  THis is a major downfall of mine and it is the basic root cause of my slowly inclining weight.  I still weigh within my WW range but I am going to go at least 8 more pounds down.  I don’t feel that good at this weight.  I am not as defined muscularly, I don’t feel as “light” on my feet, and it just plain makes me paranoid. 

All of this is good motivation though and unfortunately on maintenance you have to gain to stay the same.  I am still getting used to this strategy as it is much easier for me to “just lose”.s

Weight watchers weigh-in. Whew!

I had my weigh-in last night and although this is an old picture, it is the exact place and attire of the evening.  The meeting was about dealing with vacation in a healthy way in order to maintain or lose while on it.  This is possible.  I have heard countless testimonies at my meetings of people losing on vacations.

I ended up losing 3 pounds exactly.  I was very happy as you could imagine.  I thought I would lose but you just never REALLY know.  Basically, I just did the WW program for the week.  I was not perfect BY A LONG SHOT but I did a much better job than on previous weeks.  This has boosted my confidence in my knowledge of the program and the belief that I can get back to the weight where I feel most comfortable.  I don’t feel comfortable at my current weigh even if it is lower than the WW goal for my height.

This week I will keep on keeping on.

P.S.- Meepa, I did a new post. HAHAHAHA

Being honest about yourself.

I need to be honest about who I am.  This is basic stuff that is easily forgotten.  I can try and convince myself that I am like someone else or that I have more “will power” than I actually do or that I am in perfect control but this gets me nowhere.  Being honest with myself will get me “somewhere” much closer to where I am trying to go.  This post is a spin off of yesterdays post. 

Let me give you a “word picture” of what it looks like when I am NOT honest with myself.  In my mind I start to think that I can do what I want with minimal consequences.  I mean shoot, lots of other people do it.  I say people eat whatever they want and stay think all the time and since I am NOW thin I can do the same.  I run a lot too so I have even more fudge room.  Anyway, so I start doing this and it works out for a little bit.  I start to become confident in my bodies ability fight off fat and not gain.  A week or two goes by and I have a gain but I blame it on a marathon or a long run.  This allows me to remain dishonest with my true personality.

Now let me give you what it looks like when I AM honest with myself.  I count what I eat because I know that weight loss, maintenance, and gain are all just dictated by a basic formula.  I even count the points that I eat during long runs and keep counting my points for the rest of the day after a maraton.  I may go a little hog wild but the next meal is right on track.  I never weigh myself because I can look at my numbers and know how I am doing because I have been honest with what I have consumed and burned.  I realize that it is not complicated to keep it off as long as I stay away from the junk that send me into the deep end.  To this end, I stay away from those things regardless of what I want or how much activity I have done.

Are you honest with yourself or do you believe your own little deceptions.  I believe the heck out of myself I tell ya.  Here are some basic statements that bring me back to reality.

• I am pre-disposed to being addictive with food that have a high abuse potential.
• I try and feel better by eating these foods but don’t end up accomplishing it.
• I am a happier person when I am more rigid and experience success.
• Junk food develops an addictive cycle in my life.
• I need scheduled and organized grocery shopping outings.
• I love to eat large quantities so I need to eat really healthy stuff so that I can.  Junky food or not, I am going to eat larger amounts.  I like bulk.
• I never really missed the junk food that I am eating now when I was not eating it.  I wanted it in the “bad” moments but 15 minutes later the temptation was gone.

What about you guys?  Do you know yourself as a person and develop your eating and healthy living routine around the truth?

Lingering effects.

I went golfing yesterday.  I did ok and it was a great easy cross-training activity to ease my legs back into moving around.  My legs are not sore at all anymore but there are always lingering effects that exists after such long distances.  So although my legs are not sore, they tire easily.  So after playing golf for 13 holes using a golf cart, I was totally wiped out.  I did not want to play anymore but I finished the course of 18 holes.  I had a great time to and it was a different activity to spice my life up a bit.  I was happy I did it.

Many of you read my post yesterday about “ultra’ questions.  Well, my wonderful and awesome coach gave my some scientific support demonstrating the “HIGH MILEAGE” is not the best and most efficient way to prepare for a marathon nor an ultra.  Basically the journal article discussed the use of high quality workouts like track and hill work coupled with a long run every three to four weeks.  This approach caused better improvements in the factors that contribute to faster races at all distances.  The greatest part about this is that one does not have to run  for 14 hours a week or a 100 miles a week to finish longer distance ultras.  High mileage for a few short weeks has proved beneficial but over a longer period of time it proved injurious.  More on this later.  I want to write it out just to get a better handle on it.

I also got four hazardous trees removed yesterday from my yard and the visual effect of not having those trees is DRAMATIC!!.  I could not believe it.  One tree made a previously shade area completely open.  I think it will be better actually and it will most certainly be safer.  The great part is that now I get to start planting my foundation beds and get them finished prior to the heat of the summer.

Weight watchers tonight but no weigh-in for me!!

Tonight I am going to go to weight watchers but I am not going to weigh in.  I feel no need to see or know my weight after an ultra-marathon.  I have as a tradition always gained weight after such events so I am going to spare myself unneeded disappointment.  Even though I have always gained and things always even out later, I still know myself enough to know I will not like to “SEE” the gain.  I really don’t know exactly why I or anyone else would gain after running 40 miles but it is a reality.  Maybe it is swelling and water retention.  Maybe it is just plain stress reaction to the effort.  Who knows!!

After the meeting I of course am going to eat and watch the biggest loser with my sister.  Hopefully if time allows, I will post about my reaction to the final show before the finals in the morning.

Other than that, I am feeling much better muscle wise today.  My soreness will be completely gone by tomorrow and I am hoping that my stomach issues will be done by then too.  My wife says that my stomach always bothers me after ultr-marathons but I don’t recall it myself.  I guess that is why I keep doing them in the first place, I just don’t tend to remember the pain and suffering. HAHAHAHAHA

Tired! Tired! Tired!

I am tired.  My legs are tired and a bit sore and they have remained that way since Saturday.  It is not a big deal but my body is definitely talking to me.  Last night I did 14×400’s at 5K pace.  What a great workout it was and I hit my pace very well for each rep, but I was tired.  I made the best out of a bad running day.  I accomplished much with the workout.  However, there were no good feelings, no runner’s high, no euphoric revelations, no sun, no scenery…………..

I still finished it up though and that is where character building comes into a persons running program.  You make the best out of a bad running day.

I have also woke up late for the last two days now.  I hate it when I wake up late.  I pack a crappy unplanned lunch, hurry out the door, and just tend to have an overall unorganized work day.  I think my tiredness is normal and it is coming from the cumulative effects of my training over the last four months.  I had a very good 4 months of running and now it is time to taper off until the big race.  I am glad to be in taper mode and I will be taking today off completely even though I have an easy 6 miler on the schedule.  It won’t hurt me and I need the rest.  I just need it.  I know I need it and my body knows I need it.  Taking today off I have 4 more runs before the race.  A 6 mile tempo run, two easy 3 mile runs, and a 1o miler at race pace.  Then I will have 3 or 4 days off completely from exercise.

Here’s to getting some rest.  See you later.

Weekend was ok

Hello everyone.  Reporting in after a long weekend.  I had Saturday off and that was awesome.  🙂  Saturday was off from running and I got lots and lots of yard work done.  I did not eat all day pretty much but had a hefty dinner of salmon and potatos and peanuts for dinner.  Did not count the points in it because I had so many points left over to use.  I also had a good workout in the yard because I am still sore from it today. HAHAHA

Sunday I had my taper long run 15 miles and I finished it with a constant average pace of 8:53 miles.  During the run at one point I was just laughing becuase it for some odd reason dawned on my that I was just running, running, running for like 15 miles.  No stopping or anything.  It just seemed like crazyness at the time.  I ate very good on Sunday except for a small portion or Orange chicken from panda express.  That was not the best choice but it was tasty.  Not sure how this weeks weigh in will go but for the last couple of days my body looks leaner in the mirror and I think it is because of the “resistance” exercise that I have been doing in the yard.

See you later.

Tiny post about two huge weeks!

Well, I posted about my two huge weeks of running coming about a while back.  I have successfully accomplished the running needed for my two weeks.  It is time to move into taper mode and ease back a little bit until my 40 mile race.  I just now finished a 20 miler and it was pretty hard.  I am also eating a high fiber burrito with chicken and cheese and risoto.

I did it again! No bueno on the weight watchers program

I did good during the day but blew up at night again.  I did not eat totally horrible or binge on junk, but I did not count my points.  For dinner I ate a large handful of peanuts, three pieces of 1 point turkey sticks, and some Calzone.  It was a yummy dinner but I have no idea how many points I ate and if you don’t know how many points you have eaten then you are not on program.  I was not on program.  The guilt hit me pretty good for a while.  I was feeling pretty bad because I could have just counted my points and all would have been well.  This means I have not been doing great on weight watchers now for about 5 days.

I did have a great hill workout last night though.  Things went well but it was just as hard as the last time I dabbled in the hills.  I did a lot better this time and was able to keep up my pace at around 6:30-40 miles for about .35 miles each rep.  This was a big improvement over the last episode of hills.  Man was it hard though.  My legs just burned like mad and I was breathing up a storm.  HAHAHA

Good on one aspect of health and not so good on the other.  So goes the journey for jason.

Big weight loss journey success.

Skinny guy with the fat mind

I finally got to run again last night.  It felt so good.  I did 6 miles with three hill at 5K pace.  It was kind of a combination of Wednesdays and Thursdays workouts.  I did not want to push it to hard yesterday because of my foot but the foot felt fine for the whole run.  It also felt fine after the run all night but I do feel it a little this morning.  Not injury like but just feel that I have a foot.  Normally you don’t notice that you have a foot, it is just there.  Well, today I feel that I have a foot.  So the run went great, I lifted my spirits a lot, and I ended up doing it at around an 8:40 pace.

My eating was also very very good.  I woke up late yesterday so I did not have time to prepare my normal daily work food.  I just through my “healthy fast foods” into a bag an took off.  The good thing is that this left me with 20 points for my dinner.  I ate 15 points in the evening so that put me at consuming my 35 maintenance points for the day.  I did not touch my weeklies or my AP’s.  I was happy with that.  I earned 6 points on my run so it did not necessitate that I eat any of my AP’s (I only force myself to eat AP’s when I get 8 or more in one day.

Before my run, I went to the rock place and hand picked some rock.  I got 6 small boulders (300 pounds) to finish the fire pit and an 8 pound piece of ledge stone that is of the same sort that my flagstone path is made of.  This will be a base for the step to my cross sculpture.  It is a piece of stone.  It has lots of lichen on it and lots of colors.  If I don’t have to work tomorrow I will be getting my fire pit, patio, and cross sculpture are finished this weekend.  If all goes well with my wife. HAHAHA

Blah!

I don’t have to much to say today.  Just not feeling bloggy.  I did pretty good last night on weight watchers.  I stuck to my points just fine.  I felt full and satisfied.  I ate two homemade burritos, veggies, and popcorn.   It was actually a lot of food.

I skipped running because of my foot/ankle.  It was the best thing for it as it is on the edge of being all the way better.  One more day helped it a lot I am sure and today it is feeling pretty much 100%.  I will do my 6 miles tonight after work.

I also dug up the fire pit.  I really don’t know what I am going to do with it now.  My wife wants it to be a totally different way than I want it.  Her way is very difficult and time consuming and I might have to hire someone to do it.  My way is more nature/camp site like which is my goal for the area in general.  She just doesn’t like it.  I am totally confused at this point and want to just say F it.

Pretty good weekend.

This weekend was completely full of anxiety and stress for me.  I was depressed for most of it but it still was a pretty good weekend.  I did pretty good with my food and I exercised a whole lot.  I worked for 9 hours in the yard on Saturday and got a ton of landscaping finished.  I also ran 18 miles yesterday.  That run went really well except my foot/ankle is hurting a lot now and even more right after the run.  I will be taking it easy today and tomorrow.  I hope that this will be enough time to get my foot well.  I have two huge weeks of running coming up before I slow it down for my race on May 2nd.  I will post my running schedule in the morning.

Overall I feel pretty healthy and strong.  Oh yeah, the stone company fixed their machine and they are going to move my stone table today hopefully.  If they do, you will get to see the after pics of my fire pit area.  I can’t wait for you all to see them.  I am soooo exited about this part of my landscaping journey.

My hardest workout EVER!!!!

This is the Strolling Jim 40 miler course profile

As you can see, my 40 miler ultra-marthon in May is going to have a lot of hills.  It is notorious for its hills actually.  So on to my hardest workout ever.  Last night I had on my running schedule a hill workout.  These workouts are done a 5K pace on a hill that is a half mile long.  The point is to run up hill for a half mile at 5K pace and then run back down the hill.  Repeat this 5 times and do some slow running afterwards and my 6 mile hill workout is finish. Well…………………

To my surprise, this workout kicked my butt royally.  My lungs were burning, my legs pretty much could not do anymore, and I almost puked.  It took more mental gusto to finish the 5 reps than it took me to finish the 50 miler that I did.  I got my first hill rep at pretty close to the right pace but the rest of them were one minute per mile slower.  I just could not do it.  I am not saying that I did not want to do it, I actually could not do it.  I am strong in the mental game and can really push myself but this was just impossible.  Even at one minute per mile slower I was having an extremely hard time about 3/4 up the hill.

I talked it over with my coach and he said that this was OK because I had never done this before and it was completely new to my body.  We shortened up the rep from 800 meters to 600 meters but are keeping the pace at my 5k speed.  That is going up a big hill at 6:33 miles.  I have another hill workout next week on Tuesday and I am hoping that it will be a little easier.  I am sure it will get easier as I get more experience in this type of training.

Also, last night my WW program went perfectly smooth.  No bumps and no problems.  I ate right on program.

Good eats with no treats!

image credit: http://www.thevancouverite

Oh thank goodness for mistakes that move into the past tense.  So so much easier to talk about something that you aren’t doing anymore. HAHAHA  So I had a blowout with donuts but that is over.

Yesterday I ate really well for my weight watchers program. I also ate a bunch of really healthy food and not much snacky foods.  After work I ran for about 4 miles nice and easy as a recovery run.  I am going to take it pretty calmly this week since I did run harder than I ever had.  However, I will still be able to get a fair amount of running in.  The run was very beautiful since the weather was just superb.  Sunny, warm, and no rain.  I wore lots of clothes to begin somewhat heat training myself for my 40 miler.  Although it was warm out, I wore gloves, hat, long sleeved shirt, and a coat for the run.  It was nice.

Once I got home I snacked on some salsa before I went out to plant some more trees.  I got three more done and two of them were of the largest group.  They are around 12 feet tall so the holes had to be really big and the trees themselves are heavy also.  It was well worth the effort though and my wife liked it too so that made it really worth the effort.  My wonderful wife made me some whole wheat noodles, chicken, and veggies for dinner.  What a great WW day it was.

Above is a picture of Pamela Anderson chowing down.  We all gotta get our eats!!

See other celebrities eating here.

Weight loss blunder again!! Went hog wild.

Last night as you know I skipped my WW meeting to get some work done at home with my landscape plan.  I planted 8 trees actually which is pretty good since they are huge and my ground is spongy clay. HAHA  Anyway, without even thinking about it, I went hog wild on the way home from work.  

As I left the building, I walked right up to the red van that sells homemade donuts out of the back.  I bought 4 regular but very sugar coats donuts.  2 bucks.  As I was driving to my next stop about 8 miles away I chowed those down without hesitation.  Next, I stopped at circle K to buy some more food.  I got 3 sticks of pepperoni and a bag of chips.  Well, that should last me a while right?  bwa ha ha ha ha!!!

On my way home from there, about 5 miles, I ate all of the new snacks.  I finished off the last bite of chips and pep. just as I opened my truck door to get out at home.  Then I walk inside, took a big drink of water, and finished off half of a tube thing of Ritz Crackers.  How about that!!  Freakin crazy.  And I am serious that I did it without hesitating.  It was like it was automatic for me.  The old self took over and my car went on auto-pilot.  What to do now?

I am holding up ok for now though.  I am not letting the guilt kill me although I do feel ashamed about it.  That is why I am telling you all right now.  Might happen tomorrow if I don’t but since I did it won’t for sure.  My WW week starts over tomorrow also.  That is one thing I was thinking about while I was eating.  I will admit that much.

So my life goes on.  Hopefully I burnt off some of the 1000″s of calories I ate while planting trees.  We’ll see how weigh in goes next week I guess.

UPDATE:

I also ate three south beach bars and two pieces of toast with massive amounts of honey and butter.  This topped my night off around 9 pm.  Dang it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another odd thing that is happening with this little episode is that I have no desire to keep on eating bad.  It is weird.  Normally I would still be tempted to keep eating like this but I am not this time.  It is like I took a short break.  I resting period.  And now I am up and walking again heading towards my goal not looking back.  HAHAHA  Now that is something kind of new for me.

I did not do good last night

I have written a post about what I ate yesterday after work.  I did not do good at all.  The guilt did not hit me until I was driving to work this morning with a food hangover.  Everything will be ok but I need to regroup today for sure.  You will see what I ate in my next post today.  I am feeling bad about what I did.  I just went off without any self-control or care.

Anybody else have a “not so good” day or evening of healthy eating?

Eat and sleep. Eat and sleep. Eat and sleep.

So goes the cycle of my days.  I get home, I eat, and then I sleep.  Last night I added a cycle to it.  I got home, I ate, I slept, I got up at 12 am, I ate, I got up at 2am, I ate, and the I got up at 4 to go to work.   Not sure why I was up in the midnight hours eating but I am pretty sure it was not that I was hungry.  I am thinking I was thirsty but I am not sure.

Other than that my eating and exercise went really good yesterday.  I even got to have a Venti, Skinny Vanilla Latte from Starbucks (4.5 pts.)  It was great.  I love them.  I counted it and it brought me down to 8 points left over for dinner but I made due without problem.  I ate some tilapia, noodles, veggies, 3 sugar-free Popsicle’s, a one point popcorn and a pudding.  That was actually 9 points so I went over one.

I did my second tempo run yesterday too.  This is where I easy for a mile, then I run at 10K pace for 2.5 miles, and then I slow it down for .5 miles to the finish.  What a great run it was too.  Very windy but i kept up the pace as designed.  I was so proud of that run.

Here I am (# 278)  finishing my 1st Strolling Jim 40 miler.  7 hours and 42 minutes

Went to the doctor today.

I just got back from a visit with the doctor.  He has finally admitted that I most certainly do not need to lose anymore weight and that what he said about me weighing 155 was not correct.  I think it was probably just hard for him to know seeing me at 300 lbs how fit I would be at 185.  So he was very happy with my weight loss and weight maintenance.  I am going to get labs done on my blood to see what progress has been made in this area.  He always wants to check out liver function because he says that people who lose a lot of weight sometimes have issues with live and gall bladder and fat intake.  I have had not issues when I eat high fat.  Except the normal issue of thinking it is absolutely yummy for my tummy.

Blood pressure: 110 over 64

BMI: proper range

I also talked to him about getting my stomach removed.  It was a nice conversation and he referred me to the proper people to take care of this.  I will make an appointment with them to see what they have to say about it.  He did not give to much info. on this subject because it is not his specialty.  Which was nice.  It is good to know that he does not advise on issues that he is not extreme keen on.  I will keep you updated on the blood tests and cosmetic surgery.

Keep tabs on my medical issues progress by subscribing to my blog.

Glad I was fat. Learning to live healthy

It may shock you that I am glad that I was over weight and obese.  Where would I be today if I never had been fat.  I would be a skinny sick person who was living an unhealthy lifestyle.  Not to say that all naturally thin people live like this, but I know that I would have.  If I just had the natural metabolism to keep me looking thin I would be eating much less healthy food and other stuff like that. 

I think that being in the position that I would die if I didn’t lose the weight really turned my life around health wise.  My cholesterol went from 305 or so to 151 in just one year.  I never would have changed that if I didn’t have to lose weight.  I never would have finished a marathon if I didn’t first start running to burn some calories.  Who knows, if I was thin I wouldn’t have even thought it necessary to burn a few extra calories.

So maybe all the horror and sadness that went with being obese helped me out in a way.  Now I am on my way to living so much healthier in all aspects of life.  I am in great shape now.  I am looking lean.  The doctor says everything is A-OK.  The chewing thing is becoming a thing of the past.  I don’t drink anymore.  I exercise regularly and make it a part of my life that I partake with my wife.

So for today at least, I am looking at my past as a blessing in disguise.