Final week!

Final week of February is underway, and I have to deem the diet a success regardless. Although, I may actually miss both of my original goals (210 lbs, >100grams of carbs), I feel better and have really changed my eating habits.

I'm still getting to eat great food, check out the picture of the tuna steaks I made this past weekend for my wife and I to enjoy while the kids were away! It was pretty easy too, a little ground cumin, and some freshly ground salt and pepper pressed into the fish and then I seared it in my cast iron skillet. I got the recipe from here, a great source from good Paleo recipes.

Unfortunately, I managed to burn my finger when I splashed myself with hot oil, but that is irrelevant to our current discussion!

I have certainly lost weight, and probably more importantly I'm in better shape. I've lost close to 2 inches off my waist, and close to four if you go back as far as late summer. My weight is between 212 and 214 now, so I won't make it to less that 210, but I am creeping closer! Plus, I'm stronger by far, (I did 8 straight dead hang pullups last week, my deadlift and bench press max have gone up) and I recover better. We played football a week ago and I had no leftover soreness the following two days like I have in the past.

The key test from a fitness perspective will come on Saturday when I'm hoping to run the Colchester 1/2 Marathon. I haven't done any specific running training, and so I'm really anxious to see how Crossfit is going to translate for me. It's a tough, hilly course that I've run a few years ago in 2hrs and 17mins. Finishing strong and feeling good will be a decent validation of my work, I don't really even need to beat that time to feel good about progress.

While the end of February will be the end of my personal challenge, I'm not really anticipating going right back to my old eating habits. I don't really crave sweets and sugar as much as I did before anyone, and I would like to keep up the progress that I'm making.

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Midpoint

It's been 2 weeks since I started my Paleo diet challenge and although I haven't been 100% compliant, I would say it's worked very well for me so far. This morning I weighed in at 212 lbs, but more importantly, I feel really good.

I did make an adjustment and added a protein and carb shake right after my workouts which seems to have helped me recover a bit better. I'm taking about 26 grams of carbohydrates and 60 grams of protein which may still be a bit light on the carbs but I don't want to lose the weight loss goal. My next focus is going to be on upping my water intake, I'm usually drinking coffee all day long and I'd like to switch that to water. I do take it black, so I'm not getting a lot of calories, but from a hydration perspective I think I would do better with more calories. I have noticed a tendency to cramp a bit more and I suspect that adding water would help since I don't have as much other fluids in my diet anymore.

The best part really is that I can feel my tastes changing! Sugar and sweets don't have the same pull, and my urge to snack is totally different. I do have craving for nuts which I need to be careful about since they are so addictive and add up fast in terms of calories!

It's definitely a different mindset for me, and I'm convinced that it's entirely due to the fact that I'm recording it all since I imagine hundreds of people are following along and I don't want to let them down!

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Week 1 continued reflections

I'm meeting my goals, averaging 95.6 grams of carbohydrate and I've weighed in at 214 pounds! The one negative is that I'm starting to feel that my workouts are suffering a bit. I have two thoughts, either I don't have enough carbs to fuel ahead of time, or my diet isn't supporting recovery well enough.

I felt a bit flat on Thursday at Racquetball, and then Friday's workout really hurt. My shoulders do not feel like they have recovered since, and really bothered me again this morning. Of course, I helped move some heavy logs for my brother on Saturday and then played Racquetball for 2 hours on Sunday, so perhaps I need a rest day!

We'll see how I feel tonight, I may take tomorrow off, although I think it's unlikely at this point.

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Week 1

My food intake for the week so far, the averages are off a bit since it's for 5 and 1/2 days, I may update this after I finish my meals for today. I'm guessing I will be around 2500 calories and right at 100 grams of carbs, maybe higher. This week has really taught me that keeping carbs down is a really tough chore, but it clearly works for weight loss. I'm down to 214 already, which is about 4 pounds for the week without really feeling hungry. A pound or two of that is probably normal fluctuation, but it's still feels pretty good to see that number on the scale.

The true test will be the rest of the weekend, tougher to eat strictly for me with 2 nights with friends planned. If I can come of out the weekend in good shape I'll be really happy with the progress I've made and excited for the weeks to come.

Calories Eaten (Jan 31, 2010 - Feb 06, 2010)

Week

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2 Weeks

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4 Weeks

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This Month

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2 Months

Grams Calories %-Cals Calories 2,012 Fat 112.9 992 50 % Saturated 28.4 252 13 % Polyunsaturated 20.9 183 9 % Monounsaturated 52.9 463 23 % Carbohydrate 81.4 308 15 % Dietary Fiber 21.6 Protein 169.5 692 35 % Alcohol 0.0 0 0 % Fat ( 50 %) Carbs ( 15 %) Protein ( 35 %) Alcohol ( 0 %) From my Fitday Log

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Interesting Paleo observation #1

Staying under 100 grams of Carbs is tough!

I feel like I'm getting enough protein, but obviously with low carbs, my fat totals are over 50% of the diet. On further review of my Primal Blueprint book and Paleo Diet information that seems well in line with what I should expect.

Other observation is that I feel great already... probably a bit early to correlate too much, but it's encouraging.

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February is Paleo Month!

I've spent a lot of time researching diet lately and have really gotten to the point where it's become crystal clear that diet is much more critical than exercise in terms of health and weight management. My thinking has evolved a bit in the last few years, and the Paleolithic Diet is really matching what feels right and has worked for me. It's ultimately based on eating what our long ago ancestors ate and thus what we've evolved to eat. Meats and vegetables in plentiful quantities, but holding the processed foods including grains and sugars. There's lots of info on the web on the diet, so if you're interested you can check it out or let me know and I can tell you what I've learned.

I've applied the principles or varieties of them for the last few months and have felt good, but I needed to focus a bit better and track what I'm eating in order to truly see if this works for me. So, in February I've decided to focus on eating Paleo, and to track it by keeping a log at FitDay.com. I've made the log public, so you can cruise over and check it out any time by clicking the link above and certainly you should feel free to give me static if I'm not doing well.

My intention is not to be 100% strict, so I want to be a bit more explicit on my goals.

• I'm not removing Dairy from my diet although it's not strictly Paleo, but I will try and cut down, specifically on cheese which is where most of my consumption comes from.
• This isn't specifically a low-carb diet, you can have as many carbs as you want from veggie sources, but as I would like to continue with my weight loss goal I want to average under 100 grams of carbs per day for the duration of the month. This should keep me on average in the fat-burning zone.
• Lastly, February is four weeks and to keep up the weight loss progress, I'm going to aim for just over 1.5 lbs per week which is another 8 pounds, putting me at the 210 threshold.

A couple other thoughts, I may play around with a day or two of intermittent fasting, more to see how it feels and whether it will work for me. I suspect it will be difficult with a morning workout, but it's probably worth a try. The key of course is to make I'm consistently getting enough protein to ensure that I'm not losing muscle mass on those days.

Over the last few months, I've noticed a trend of eating well throughout the day but really being hungry after dinner and eating a bunch of food then. I've tried to keep it relatively healthy snacks, but I'm probably eating too much. My suspicion is that I didn't have enough protein in my diet, so that will be another factor that I will be monitoring closely.

Ultimately, at the end of the month I hope to have a better feel for what works for me and to better understand how my actual diet matches the perception I have of how well I'm really eating.

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Hell Week and "finally" a breakthrough...

Quick blurbs...

One month of Crossfit Relentless training, and I've been feeling great. We started Hell Week yesterday which is Merle and Glen's attempt to kill us...

It's actually been kind of fun, they've taken metcon style wods and make us go longer. This morning we did 20 rounds of 5 knees to elbows, 10 sit ups and then 5 burpees, for time... It took me close to 30 minutes to finish and I was pretty drained. The situps were really tough, my abs were killing me by the time we got done. Highly recommended!

Holidays are over, and I've not gained weight! Actually, here's the breakthrough... I'm finally under 220, at 218 for two weeks in a row. It's been a bit of a mental plateau for me, so it feels pretty good to me. I've probably added quite a bit of muscle too, especially upper body since that's been mostly neglected for the last few years....

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Holiday Eating

Thanksgiving is typically about 2 things, being grateful for what you have and eating! The eating part didn't come at a great time for me with my new diet focus, but as I mentioned previously, I've been more interested in habit changes rather than fast progress. The immediate drop was tremendously gratifying, but it hasn't lasted. The good news is that even with the holiday I've been able to maintain some focus and keep my weight right were it was before.

I'm still at around 220-222 lbs, even with a bit more cheating as a result of Turkey day. I've been consistent with getting to Crossfit Relentless for a morning workout and have stayed pretty true to a Paleo type diet. Essentially, this means lots of protein and veggies and stay away from sugar and processed food or refined carbohydrates that turn into sugar. I've done a lot of reading on diet and have found some really good information at:

http://robbwolf.com/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

and

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/

Its worth some time reading in my opinion, ultimately it's not about a "diet", it's about eating better food and using it as fuel for your body.

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Diet Update

I'm sure you've all been waiting... so, here's my promised update.

Down to 220 lbs, a loss of 3 lbs from last week! I feel good too, and it's been getting easier. I think my eating habits have just fundamentally changed, and I'm pretty happy about it. It hasn't even really become a sacrifice anymore which is pretty nice.

I've not even been real strict, allowing myself an occasional cheat but making sure that it doesn't snowball. Really looking forward to more progress in the next few weeks!

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New Diet...

Well, this isn't a particularly new theme for me... In fact, it seems to be pretty much an annual event where I set a goal of trying to lose some more weight. So, what's different this time? Well, I'm not sure exactly yet but things are definitely headed in the right direction.

A little background: I was 29 years old and Christmas was right around the corner in the Fall of 2002. I was staring at my 30th birthday in April and realizing that something needed to change... Fast approaching 300 lbs and feeling it every time I walked up the stairs. I distinctly remember walking out of my office building, and heading up the walkway which has 4 flights of 5 stairs to get to the parking lot and feeling totally out of breath. I'm not sure how or why I thought the Atkins diet would work, but I realized that I needed to try something. As I recall, it wasn't really all that hard after the first week or so... the removal of carbs from my diet totally killed the cravings. It really gave me a kick-start, and then my wife bought me a mountain bike for my birthday and I realized how much fun it was to start riding. About 50lbs later and a lot of triathlons, running races and biking and my diet had sort of stabilized of the last 6 years. I really didn't follow Atkins strictly after the first couple months, it was more the principles of removing carbs and sugar. Since then, I've fluctuated from 235 to as low as 208 (the morning after my Ironman!) but haven't really gotten to where I'd like to be.

For some reason this fall, I decided that I need to make a significant change again in order to bust through this plateau. Having read a lot of information about Atkins, South Beach, Zone, etc., I decided that cutting sugar was really the way for me to go. I remember the change in cravings after a week on Atkins and I decided that I needed to make the same sort of shift to kick-start my approach again.

It's now 2 weeks into my attempt to remove sugar from my diet. It's been a relatively positive experience so far with a couple slips (Hey, Halloween was smack in the middle of those 2 weeks!) At any rate, I've really seen a difference in cravings again, and have managed to change my diet significantly. Something has clearly clicked, and I'm just more interested in better food. As I've discussed with my wife, it's not a "diet" for me, more a change in mindset and realizing the impact to me when I put sugar into my body. I still have a craving to eat a lot of food, but it's not a danish or cookie! My next step is to start tuning the quantity, but I'm not really worried about that yet, just want to focus on more protein and better choices.

Results so far have been great, I'm at 223 lbs... probably down between 8 and 10 pounds from where I started, but more importantly I feel good. This morning when sitting at my kitchen table and bending over to tie my shoes I realized there wasn't as much pressure on my midsection (translation: my gut is smaller :). I've also kept up the weightlifting because I've enjoyed it and I think that I'm adding muscle while losing fat which is why I'm trying not to be fixated on the scale as much. I have to admit that I am a bit focused on the weight though, my goal is to get under 200 lbs by February. That's a little more than 5 lbs a month, and it will clearly be difficult over the holidays but for some reason I'm much more mentally into this time than I've been before.

Ideally, this will be my "secret" weapon going into next years triathlon season. What is the impact of carrying 25-30 less pounds up hills on my bike and run... I would think significant!

I'm going to try and hold myself accountable by posting every Thursday after a weigh in at the gym in the morning. Just one more reason to keep my motivation a bit higher...

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Ruts

I haven't been feeling to well for the last couple of weeks, my workouts are starting to drag and I'm just not feeling energetic. I think the brief change in my diet was helping but then I yoyo-ed back to poor eating habits. Spring is coming, and with it a lot of hopes for feeling better, riding and running faster and looking slimmer. Unfortunately, the hopes haven't yet turned into actions, but I'm once again going to try and restart my motivation.

Other news, I ordered a rear wheel that is disc-compatible, but it will be a week or two until I get it. I'm going to try and do the front brake this weekend anyway... take it in steps. I'm also hoping to get out in the canoe in preparation for the Scantic Splash. Take a look at some pictures or here from last year... it was a blast then, hope it's even better this year.

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Off season

Well, I've been feeling the off-season blahs already, even though it's hard to say it's really over. I had considered the Nutmeg 1/2 Iron, but when I hurt my shoulder I had a pretty good excuse to not do it. It turned out to be a pretty tough race, so maybe I'm not that sorry I missed it :)

I did get to go out and watch over the weekend as my brother and uncle were racing, and I got a little bit re-energized. I'm about ready to start working on my off-season plan and figuring out what I want to do next year. I have some more broad goals that correspond to events but it won't be a strictly triathlon year I think.

Things on the list TODO:
Mountain bike race, maybe 24 hours or just a regular
More overnight backpacking trips
Volleyball league
Road bike event - Century or two maybe
Running road races, maybe a marathon

Triathlons to do:
Winding Trails - Duh, I have a free pass for the whole year!!
Mooseman 1/2 Iron, always a good weekend!
1 or 2 others, Olympic or 1/2 Iron distance.

Things I won't do next year:
Full Ironman distance - I promised my wife :)

Other goals:
Get under 200 lbs

The big one is the last one, breaking the 200 pound barrier. I'm not going to race any more in the Clydesdale division, and I want to "earn" that right next year. I need to lose 25 pounds to make sure I consistently stay under 200 with a little bit of fluctuation. I'm going to be doing a little bit of posting and planning to figure out how to meet this goal, since it's clearly going to be hard for me to do. I've had generic lose weight goals in the past and have had mixed results so I'm going to need to focus and build a plan. I'm targeting May 1, which requires roughly 4 pounds a month, or 1 pound a week. My initial thoughts include exercise, better diet and I'm going to try a more consistent weight lifting plan this year to build my metabolism. I'm also thinking of commuting to work a couple times a week for as long as I can go until the snow arrives.... all preliminary thoughts so far though, more details to come.

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Clydesdales!

Yeah... I'm a clyde. I've been competing in the "fat guys" division for a while now... but I'm hoping to not qualify next year.

The debate about whether it's fair to have a weight class rages on...
http://podcast.tri-talk.com/play.aspx?item_id=2EDF8C1A281140978D26DC304449203C

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Very good read

One of my favorite posters over at Slowtwitch and the owner of Bikesport Michigan, a triathlon store wrote a pretty good editorial. It's about a kid who was overweight and struggled with self-confidence through school before going on to become a prolific endurance athlete and successful business man. Although the ending becomes obvious (he's the kid in the story) it's well written and in general a feel-good story.
http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/editorials/0000104.shtml

It has a lot of parallels for me in my life, although my low wasn't quite so low and my high was quite so high, at least in terms of sports. Struggling with weight and my body image was ALWAYS an issue for me, and in fact it still is. I've certainly improved a great deal over the last few years and I don't let my weight define me as much as I used to, but there are still many days when it has an impact on how I feel. I remember being very self-conscious and shy as a kid and I think it took me a few years to break out of that shell. I contribute a lot of that to my (now) wife who really helped me become much more self-confident.

In any case, it's good to read about how teachers or others can help a kid overcome some of those problems.

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Weighty question

I got asked an interesting question today by a co-worker, "If running 100 miles doesn't help take off the weight, what will?" So I decided to do a little check on some trends and built this chart based on the data I've collected over the last few years. The chart doesn't start at my highest weight, I wasn't using the spreadsheet at that point, I had dropped close to 35 pounds in the 6 months before this chart starts. Interesting that the rate of loss slowed dramatically since I started tracking, not sure what that means.

What I was trying to determine was if there was a correlation between running and weight loss or total workout time and weight loss. The 3 peaks in running do have a corresponding lowering in weight, but the trend isn't as clear cut as I was hoping. Extra miles on the bike also seem to have an effect, so I suspect it's a clearer relationship between total workout time and weight loss. In any case, interesting data.

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