This morning I completed the first week of the Couch to 5K program. The first week alternates 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for 25 minutes. The workouts are three times a week, which with my schedule this week was Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday, but I'll probably start doing Mon-Wend-Fri in the weeks ahead. The first day I was able to finish with no problems, the second day I struggled a little but still finished. This morning I wasn't so lucky. I was sore before I even got started, I tried to stretch out really well since I thought I might not be stretching good enough but it didn't help. I struggled just to finish the 60 seconds of jogging. After 4 cycles of walking and jogging I had to stop and just walk the remaining time. At 290 pounds I really don't want to turn sore into injured.. my body is not used to this. I will probably repeat the week one cycles next week before I move on. How can I jog 90 seconds if I can't finish 60 seconds?
May 15th I will be doing the Greek Festival 5K here in Winston Salem, which will be about halfway through the training (Week 5) so hopefully that will help me monitor my progress. If I can jog even half the race and improve on my Lillie's Friends 5K time then I will be doing good.
July 17th, which will be about 3 weeks after I finish the program and will then just be training, will be my first competitive race. The Beat the Heat 5K in Winston Salem is a US Track and Field certified course and is the site of the NC 5K Championships. This is a real race with awards and prize money rather than a charity walk (not that I have anything against the charity run/walks, I love them). My plan for this race is to run the whole distance. Do I expect to win? Heck No.. do I expect to even finish top 50? Probably not, but if I can run the whole distance and post a time in say the 25 minute range (About an 8 minute per mile pace) then I will be doing good.
My friend Amanda, who started her own running craze and has inspired mine, is planning on running the 2011 Disney Full Marathon (she has completed two Half's). My long term goal is to join her in 2012. I will run the Half while she runs the Full. After that I may eventually run the full, but I just really cannot wrap my head around going from 345 pounds to running a half marathon in 2 years, so if I can do it that will be amazing.
My training today did not go well, but I'm not giving up!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Smart Option Low Fat Ice Cream and Baked Lays
I realized I had somewhat strayed from my original intent for this blog which was to give reviews and suggestions for low fat/healthy foods that still taste good. Well here is a few I have discovered recently.
Smart Option Low Fat Ice Cream:
Smart Option is a Food Lion private label brand, so apologies if you don't live in the Southeast, but most stores probably have a similar product. This ice cream is even lower in fat than the Kroger ice cream I reviewed as one of my first blogs. I've seen it in Vanilla, Chocolate and Neapolitan flavors. It also only costs 1.99 for 1.75 quarts.
For a serving of a half cup, this ice cream contains 100 calories, 1.5g fat (1g sat.) 19g carbs, 14 g sugar and 2g protein. I know when I make a bowl of ice cream, it's probably 3 servings, but the serving to serving comparison is still helpful. Compared to a normal ice cream which might have 10-12g fat per serving.. or a premium which would probably be much higher. Also, this ice cream has a slight grainy or icy texture, but you're going to lose that creaminess as you remove the fat. There's not a lot you can do about that. Flavor-wise it tastes just like normal ice cream, and on a hot day (like the 90s we've had recently here in North Carolina) nothing is better than ice cream.
One interesting thing I noticed when I was reading the label. On the front of the box it says "artificially flavored Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry flavored low fat ice cream" and yes, "artificial flavors" is listed in the ingredients, but so is Chocolate Base, Strawberry Puree and Natural Strawberry flavor. So it's not all artificial. I guess one artificial flavor and it has to be labeled as "Artificially flavored"
Baked Lays:
I love potato chips.. they have always been one of my weaknesses. For me "can't eat just one" is not a single Lays chip.. it's can't eat one.. bag. I take a small bag of chips with me to work on the days I make a sandwich, but I try not to sit at the TV eating from the bag since that's when you hit the bottom of the bag without realizing you just ate the whole thing.
Recently our young cousins (quadruplets) came over for a visit before Easter and they brought with them some snacks. Ironically along with the fudge rounds, oreos and Spongebob push pops, they also had a bag of baked Lays. I like normal chips and I'm not a big fan of the "shaped chips" that are made from potato flakes or powder. I've never likes pringles or Lays Stax or anything like that. I figured I would give them a try, and while they don't taste anything like a normal chip.. they aren't half bad and they don't taste "fake". They also don't use fat substitutes like Olestra, which is a very good thing.
I got a bag and I've been taking them to work instead of my normal chips and they aren't too bad. They give me something to eat along side my sandwich and satisfied that "crunchy-salty" craving.
The good news? For a 1 oz serving you get 120 cal, 2g fat (0 sat/0 trans), 180 mg sodium, 23g carbs, 2g fiber, 2g sugar, 2g protein. They compare that to 10g fat for normal chips, so that's 80% less fat. Not too bad for something that still slightly resembles a potato chip (Pringles are just weird). I have it on a good source (my wife) that Baked Cheetos are basically styrofoam (not good) but Baked Doritos are awesome. I don't like Doritos, but if you do give them a try.
Smart Option Low Fat Ice Cream:
Smart Option is a Food Lion private label brand, so apologies if you don't live in the Southeast, but most stores probably have a similar product. This ice cream is even lower in fat than the Kroger ice cream I reviewed as one of my first blogs. I've seen it in Vanilla, Chocolate and Neapolitan flavors. It also only costs 1.99 for 1.75 quarts.
For a serving of a half cup, this ice cream contains 100 calories, 1.5g fat (1g sat.) 19g carbs, 14 g sugar and 2g protein. I know when I make a bowl of ice cream, it's probably 3 servings, but the serving to serving comparison is still helpful. Compared to a normal ice cream which might have 10-12g fat per serving.. or a premium which would probably be much higher. Also, this ice cream has a slight grainy or icy texture, but you're going to lose that creaminess as you remove the fat. There's not a lot you can do about that. Flavor-wise it tastes just like normal ice cream, and on a hot day (like the 90s we've had recently here in North Carolina) nothing is better than ice cream.
One interesting thing I noticed when I was reading the label. On the front of the box it says "artificially flavored Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry flavored low fat ice cream" and yes, "artificial flavors" is listed in the ingredients, but so is Chocolate Base, Strawberry Puree and Natural Strawberry flavor. So it's not all artificial. I guess one artificial flavor and it has to be labeled as "Artificially flavored"
Baked Lays:
I love potato chips.. they have always been one of my weaknesses. For me "can't eat just one" is not a single Lays chip.. it's can't eat one.. bag. I take a small bag of chips with me to work on the days I make a sandwich, but I try not to sit at the TV eating from the bag since that's when you hit the bottom of the bag without realizing you just ate the whole thing.
Recently our young cousins (quadruplets) came over for a visit before Easter and they brought with them some snacks. Ironically along with the fudge rounds, oreos and Spongebob push pops, they also had a bag of baked Lays. I like normal chips and I'm not a big fan of the "shaped chips" that are made from potato flakes or powder. I've never likes pringles or Lays Stax or anything like that. I figured I would give them a try, and while they don't taste anything like a normal chip.. they aren't half bad and they don't taste "fake". They also don't use fat substitutes like Olestra, which is a very good thing.
I got a bag and I've been taking them to work instead of my normal chips and they aren't too bad. They give me something to eat along side my sandwich and satisfied that "crunchy-salty" craving.
The good news? For a 1 oz serving you get 120 cal, 2g fat (0 sat/0 trans), 180 mg sodium, 23g carbs, 2g fiber, 2g sugar, 2g protein. They compare that to 10g fat for normal chips, so that's 80% less fat. Not too bad for something that still slightly resembles a potato chip (Pringles are just weird). I have it on a good source (my wife) that Baked Cheetos are basically styrofoam (not good) but Baked Doritos are awesome. I don't like Doritos, but if you do give them a try.
Friday, April 9, 2010
A brick wall and a milestone.
A couple of weeks ago I hit a brick wall. Shows like Biggest Loser talk about this as a plateau, a section where the weight loss doesn't come easy and you have to fight through it. I was eating better, exercising more even walk/jogged a 5K and nothing made that needle move on the scale. Well I finally got it to drop this week and so I hope the plateau is over and I can keep on moving down.
The last 4 weeks have been terrible number wise. 304, 301, 300 and then 300 again (I put 299 in my record since the needle did dip below, but it wasn't totally conclusive). Well this week it finally started sinking. I haven't had my official Sunday morning weigh in yet, but I checked on Wednesday and it was 297 and then this morning was 295. Well enough below 300 that I could count it and not just a dip of the needle. I try not to weigh myself too often since I know it can fluctuate and you don't want to get yourself caught up in chasing 1 pound up, 1 pound down etc, but I couldn't help but check to see if I was under 300.
300 is a big hurdle for me.. I've been over 300 for a long time and at 295 I am now the lightest I've been since my freshman year in College in 1998. That's 12 years. Clothes I've been wearing for a long time are finally too big for me.
295 is also a big milestone because that means from the time I started keeping track in October of 2009 (345 pounds) I have lost 50 pounds! I had an interesting experience today at work, which I have read several places in the past. I had to get some ingredients to bring to the lab and so I went to the warehouse, tossed the 50 pound bag up on my shoulder and carried it halfway across the plant back to the lab. It was rough by the time I got up the stairs into the lab. That's the same 50 pounds I used to be carrying around my waist. Insane. I recommend you do this. Even if you haven't lost 50 pounds yet, see what it would feel like if you gained 10 or 20 or however much you can carry.
I posted a picture from my race in the last post, but when I looked at it compared to the picture of me at Disney World, (my profile pic) I wanted to post them again side by side as a comparison.
This picture is from May 2009, and I don't know how much I weighed here, but probably close to 340.
And this picture is from April 2010. Quite a difference in a year eh?
The last 4 weeks have been terrible number wise. 304, 301, 300 and then 300 again (I put 299 in my record since the needle did dip below, but it wasn't totally conclusive). Well this week it finally started sinking. I haven't had my official Sunday morning weigh in yet, but I checked on Wednesday and it was 297 and then this morning was 295. Well enough below 300 that I could count it and not just a dip of the needle. I try not to weigh myself too often since I know it can fluctuate and you don't want to get yourself caught up in chasing 1 pound up, 1 pound down etc, but I couldn't help but check to see if I was under 300.
300 is a big hurdle for me.. I've been over 300 for a long time and at 295 I am now the lightest I've been since my freshman year in College in 1998. That's 12 years. Clothes I've been wearing for a long time are finally too big for me.
295 is also a big milestone because that means from the time I started keeping track in October of 2009 (345 pounds) I have lost 50 pounds! I had an interesting experience today at work, which I have read several places in the past. I had to get some ingredients to bring to the lab and so I went to the warehouse, tossed the 50 pound bag up on my shoulder and carried it halfway across the plant back to the lab. It was rough by the time I got up the stairs into the lab. That's the same 50 pounds I used to be carrying around my waist. Insane. I recommend you do this. Even if you haven't lost 50 pounds yet, see what it would feel like if you gained 10 or 20 or however much you can carry.
I posted a picture from my race in the last post, but when I looked at it compared to the picture of me at Disney World, (my profile pic) I wanted to post them again side by side as a comparison.
This picture is from May 2009, and I don't know how much I weighed here, but probably close to 340.
And this picture is from April 2010. Quite a difference in a year eh?
Monday, April 5, 2010
Lillie's Friend's Got Friends 5K
On Saturday I participated in my first 5K of the year. The Lillie's Friend's Got Friends 5K for Neural Blastoma at Tanglewood Park here in Clemmons, NC.
I've been able to jog a little on my walks around the neighborhood, so I wanted to really try to jog some. I think I walk faster in a "race" situation then around the neighborhood, even though I'm not really racing.. yet.
My wife came with me to this race, which made me very happy and also made it possible for me to get some pictures. We got there with literally moments to spare as I got checked in and got my number about 2 minutes before the race started.
I walked the first half all the way to the turnaround and water station, which included a wicked uphill stretch. However after the turnaround, I was able to jog down that stretch which was now downhill. After slowing back down to a walk, i was able to jog two more small stretches, one at about 2.5 miles and also from the 3 mile marker to the finish.
When I saw the time clock I was amazed.. the clock said 48 minutes which really helped me push the last 100 yards or so. My previous fastest time was 57 minutes, so the stretches of jogging really ate away at my time.
As I crossed the finish line, I looked over at the clock.. 49 minutes and 24 seconds! A new personal record by almost 10 minutes. I hope to shave another couple of minutes off my next race by jogging longer. Before long I'll be actually running the races.
I am very pleased with my performance despite the fact that, according to my wife, I "got beat by a three year old".
I've been able to jog a little on my walks around the neighborhood, so I wanted to really try to jog some. I think I walk faster in a "race" situation then around the neighborhood, even though I'm not really racing.. yet.
My wife came with me to this race, which made me very happy and also made it possible for me to get some pictures. We got there with literally moments to spare as I got checked in and got my number about 2 minutes before the race started.
I walked the first half all the way to the turnaround and water station, which included a wicked uphill stretch. However after the turnaround, I was able to jog down that stretch which was now downhill. After slowing back down to a walk, i was able to jog two more small stretches, one at about 2.5 miles and also from the 3 mile marker to the finish.
When I saw the time clock I was amazed.. the clock said 48 minutes which really helped me push the last 100 yards or so. My previous fastest time was 57 minutes, so the stretches of jogging really ate away at my time.
As I crossed the finish line, I looked over at the clock.. 49 minutes and 24 seconds! A new personal record by almost 10 minutes. I hope to shave another couple of minutes off my next race by jogging longer. Before long I'll be actually running the races.
I am very pleased with my performance despite the fact that, according to my wife, I "got beat by a three year old".
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