Most people would just assume I'm counting down the days until I can legally drink, but I really don't care much about that. But I'd have to say I care a hell of a lot more about reaching my goals. Twenty six days, that's 3 weeks and 5 days, or approximately 4 weeks. I can do this... Not much time left, but I can do this.
Friday, I had planned on attempting a 3.5 mile run, again. My previous attempt only got me to 2 miles, so after a late night workout at Dixon, Thursday night, I didn't have much confidence that day. However, some how, I managed to finish 3.5 miles. Phew, that was tough. And I felt great that I finished, albeit really sore legs for the next 24 hours. I ran it in 40 minutes, which isn't great, but once again, I really don't care about my pace. I just want to complete the distances that I set for myself for now. Once I hit 5 miles, I'll start working on pace more. Anyways, the first 15 minutes were fine, and then I started feeling like I wouldn't hit my goal for the day. But I kept pressing on, and tried to keep my mind preoccupied, so that I didn't think about how exhausted I was getting. By 25 minutes, I doubted I would make it, but once I hit 30, I knew I was so close, there wasn't a reason to stop. Then finished it, and now my next step is 4 miles. I might attempt 4 miles tomorrow, as I kept today's workout pretty light, but no promises. I will definitely be doing no less than 2.5 miles.
Saturday, saw The Avengers, and then went to a BBQ. Ended up being busy all day, so never got a chance to go to Dixon as I had hoped to in the evening. I was, however, able to go to Dixon today. So I kept it light, as I had mentioned, and just shot hoops for a bit, and then did 30 minutes on a bike. Still some good cardio, but wasn't much strain on my body. The great news though, is I weighed in at 210 pounds. Whew!
Remember, I originally weighed 255 pounds back in October, and was at 250 back in February when I started losing weight quickly. My original goal that I set back in February, was 220 pounds, and I easily crushed that. So I decided to set 210 as my realistic goal, and 200 as the ultimate challenge for myself, by June 15th. Well, with 26 days to go still, I hit my realistic goal of 210. Just 10 pounds in 26 days to go! It should be tough still, but it's nice knowing that it's a bit more realistic than say, two weeks ago when I was losing 2 pounds per week.
Well, that's all I have to say for now. Stay fancy.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Long Term Goals
So Sunday, I had finished my last 5k101 podcast run while in Lake Oswego, and then after a wonderful dinner, in honor of my brother's and aunt's birthdays, I went back to Corvallis. Monday, I wanted to do a 2 mile run, nothing special, but something to keep me active, since I knew I wouldn't be up to a long run. I started, and quickly realized that I was not going to do so well that day; I decided to quicken my pace and just go for 1 mile instead. I made it 2/3 of a mile and gave up. Was just too tired and couldn't manage anything else. Well, shucks. I made sure to do very little on Tuesday, in order to rest as much as possible. Wednesday rolls along, and I decide to go for my longest run yet, 3.5 miles, without walking (none of my runs from now on will involve walking, unless I can't manage to keep up my pace on a run, or if I'm purposefully doing intervals for more anaerobic training).
Three and a half miles, just keep a steady pace, and it shouldn't be a problem. First mile, perfect. Pretty decent pace. 1.5 miles in, starting to feel it, but still doing well. I noticed my pace slowed down a lot after my first mile, a little slower than I had hoped. And then I'm just a minute or two away from 2 miles, and I realize all my energy and strength has been depleted. So I finish up 2 miles, and walk the rest of the way home, saddened by the fact that I failed pretty badly at my attempt of 3.5 miles. Oh well. Friday then!
I wasn't planning on anything today (Thursday), but Nick asked me if I wanted to go to Dixon tonight. We weren't sure if we really wanted to go, but with my lazy Tuesday, I didn't really want to have another lazy day this week. So we ended up going. I spent 30 minutes on a bike, doing an "aerobic" workout as they call it (pre-set workout). But it was basically like doing hills. Was pretty good, although I wouldn't be surprised if my legs are too tired for a 3.5 mile attempt tomorrow... But who knows. I'll just have to try my best. We then took a bit of a break, in hopes to get a basketball and a basketball hoop, but we finally resorted to ping pong until something opened up. Then shot a few hoops, and we called it an evening. Minus the biking, was pretty relaxed. I weighed myself at 212, but I don't know how accurate it is, considering I've eaten today, it was at night, with clothes on, and after my workout. So we'll just have to wait until Sunday (busy Saturday, so will do my weigh in on Sunday morning instead) and see where I am. I think if I do a long run tomorrow, workout Saturday evening, and control what I eat pretty well, I could end up at 210 by Sunday, which would make 200 possible in ~4 weeks.
Whew, I expected to talk about my week much quicker than that. Nonetheless, my long term goals. So these last few months, I've been only focusing on losing weight. And the best way to do that is by minimal muscle gain, and lots of fat loss, since muscle weighs more than fat. But I want muscle. So ultimately, I want to weigh as low as my body can handle (basically a plateau), while still building up muscle. Now, most would think just do a combination of weight lifting, as well as cardio, and you'll achieve your goal. But the problem is that when you're gaining weight back with weight training, you don't see as much weight loss, which can be discouraging (even if your body is doing terrific), and it's hard to judge just how much muscle you're gaining, besides by doing regular body composition tests. So I want to focus solely on fat/weight loss first. This way, I can regularly keep track of my weight and see how well I am progressing, but also, if I have the motivation, and the momentum of losing so much weight, why not keep it up? If I were to start throwing in weight training, it'd deter me a bit, since I wouldn't lose as much, as fast as I am now. So I'm figuring that once I hit a comfortable point in my weight, I'll start transitioning over to weight training. Maybe gradually work into it by doing something like, 25% weight training, 75% cardio, then work to 50-50, then eventually up to 75% weight training, 25% cardio. Something like that.
However, that's not all the details. I've decided I'm first going to continue to run and workout, and eat healthy, until I plateau. And when I say that, I mean that I hit a point where just losing 1 pound is difficult. Where using my current plan, that losing weight seems nearly impossible. But once I hit this point (I'm guessing it'll be around the beginning of next school year, in the fall, but who knows), I will then increase my efforts in order to lose another 5-10 pounds (depending on where I plateau). This means I'd have to really pay attention to how much I eat, and be very strict, as well as doing a lot more cardio than I usually do, in order to burn more calories. I don't know any exact numbers, since it completely depends on when and where I plateau, but after I've lost just a bit more weight (and this could take months and months to do, who knows, just for 5-10 pounds), I then turn my attention to weight training. My goal will then to basically gain back the weight that I had just lost, but with muscle. I'll have to still be on a strict diet during the first little while, so that my weight gain is primarily through muscle, and not through fat gain. But I figure this way, I'll be at a point where my body is a comfortable weight, but with a low body fat percentage, plus I'll have the motivation to keep losing weight until I plateau, and then I can take my time to build up the muscle that I want.
So that's the basic idea behind my long term goals. If I were to give a hopefuly timeline, I'd say that I'm hoping that by the end of next school year, so about 12-13 months from now, I'll be at that point. But you never know, these are just estimates. And I could always change my thinking behind all of this. At least, these are my preliminary thoughts on how I'll accomplish my long term goals. Until Sunday, stay fancy. Then after Sunday, I don't care how fancy you stay.
Three and a half miles, just keep a steady pace, and it shouldn't be a problem. First mile, perfect. Pretty decent pace. 1.5 miles in, starting to feel it, but still doing well. I noticed my pace slowed down a lot after my first mile, a little slower than I had hoped. And then I'm just a minute or two away from 2 miles, and I realize all my energy and strength has been depleted. So I finish up 2 miles, and walk the rest of the way home, saddened by the fact that I failed pretty badly at my attempt of 3.5 miles. Oh well. Friday then!
I wasn't planning on anything today (Thursday), but Nick asked me if I wanted to go to Dixon tonight. We weren't sure if we really wanted to go, but with my lazy Tuesday, I didn't really want to have another lazy day this week. So we ended up going. I spent 30 minutes on a bike, doing an "aerobic" workout as they call it (pre-set workout). But it was basically like doing hills. Was pretty good, although I wouldn't be surprised if my legs are too tired for a 3.5 mile attempt tomorrow... But who knows. I'll just have to try my best. We then took a bit of a break, in hopes to get a basketball and a basketball hoop, but we finally resorted to ping pong until something opened up. Then shot a few hoops, and we called it an evening. Minus the biking, was pretty relaxed. I weighed myself at 212, but I don't know how accurate it is, considering I've eaten today, it was at night, with clothes on, and after my workout. So we'll just have to wait until Sunday (busy Saturday, so will do my weigh in on Sunday morning instead) and see where I am. I think if I do a long run tomorrow, workout Saturday evening, and control what I eat pretty well, I could end up at 210 by Sunday, which would make 200 possible in ~4 weeks.
Whew, I expected to talk about my week much quicker than that. Nonetheless, my long term goals. So these last few months, I've been only focusing on losing weight. And the best way to do that is by minimal muscle gain, and lots of fat loss, since muscle weighs more than fat. But I want muscle. So ultimately, I want to weigh as low as my body can handle (basically a plateau), while still building up muscle. Now, most would think just do a combination of weight lifting, as well as cardio, and you'll achieve your goal. But the problem is that when you're gaining weight back with weight training, you don't see as much weight loss, which can be discouraging (even if your body is doing terrific), and it's hard to judge just how much muscle you're gaining, besides by doing regular body composition tests. So I want to focus solely on fat/weight loss first. This way, I can regularly keep track of my weight and see how well I am progressing, but also, if I have the motivation, and the momentum of losing so much weight, why not keep it up? If I were to start throwing in weight training, it'd deter me a bit, since I wouldn't lose as much, as fast as I am now. So I'm figuring that once I hit a comfortable point in my weight, I'll start transitioning over to weight training. Maybe gradually work into it by doing something like, 25% weight training, 75% cardio, then work to 50-50, then eventually up to 75% weight training, 25% cardio. Something like that.
However, that's not all the details. I've decided I'm first going to continue to run and workout, and eat healthy, until I plateau. And when I say that, I mean that I hit a point where just losing 1 pound is difficult. Where using my current plan, that losing weight seems nearly impossible. But once I hit this point (I'm guessing it'll be around the beginning of next school year, in the fall, but who knows), I will then increase my efforts in order to lose another 5-10 pounds (depending on where I plateau). This means I'd have to really pay attention to how much I eat, and be very strict, as well as doing a lot more cardio than I usually do, in order to burn more calories. I don't know any exact numbers, since it completely depends on when and where I plateau, but after I've lost just a bit more weight (and this could take months and months to do, who knows, just for 5-10 pounds), I then turn my attention to weight training. My goal will then to basically gain back the weight that I had just lost, but with muscle. I'll have to still be on a strict diet during the first little while, so that my weight gain is primarily through muscle, and not through fat gain. But I figure this way, I'll be at a point where my body is a comfortable weight, but with a low body fat percentage, plus I'll have the motivation to keep losing weight until I plateau, and then I can take my time to build up the muscle that I want.
So that's the basic idea behind my long term goals. If I were to give a hopefuly timeline, I'd say that I'm hoping that by the end of next school year, so about 12-13 months from now, I'll be at that point. But you never know, these are just estimates. And I could always change my thinking behind all of this. At least, these are my preliminary thoughts on how I'll accomplish my long term goals. Until Sunday, stay fancy. Then after Sunday, I don't care how fancy you stay.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
5k101 Podcast Graduation!
Ah, finally. I'm done. It only took 12 weeks to finish an 8 week podcast (due to illnesses setting me back), but I'm done. And I feel wonderful. Starting tomorrow, I will begin my own schedule, to work towards running 5 miles without walking. It'll be tough to complete, but I'm looking foward to the challenge.
To cover the last week, on Tuesday I went to Dixon with Nick for a light workout. Just did 20 minutes on a bike, and then lifted weights for a bit. It was more of to relax, hang out, and still be a bit active. Wednesday, completed the first day of my Week 8 podcast, which is 30 minutes without walking. Thursday, I went to Dixon again, and weighed myself. And in 5 days, I had only lost 1 pound, and I began to panic a bit. It meant that my weight loss is finally starting to slow down. I knew this would happen, but I thought I'd easily hit 200 by my birthday. Now, I'm hoping for 205. So due to my panic, it meant that I ended up doing 80 minutes of fairly intense cardio on bikes and a bit on an eliptical. I was pretty exhausted, but I managed. Friday, I did the second day of my Week 8 podcast, and then went on a bike ride to Philomath with Nick, Maddie, and Maggie, the ol' freshman crew (group of friends from Freshman year). Ended up being about 12 miles, which was pretty tiring after my run, but I was doing pretty well. We ended up at Flat Tail Brewery in downtown Corvallis, and I got a massive burger (I had only eaten about 300 calories prior, and had 2 workouts - I deserved it). It had a 1/3 pound patty, grilled onions, bacon, peppered turkey, a fried egg, and avocado. Wow, so good.
Saturday morning, went to Dixon, weighed in at 214, so 2 pounds from the previous week (meant that I lost 1 pound from Thursday to Saturday), and did about 70 minutes on a recumbant bike (was too sore for an upright bike), but was not doing an intense workout. Just wanted to keep myself a bit active. Went home that afternoon to Lake Oswego, to celebrate my brother's and my aunt's birthdays this evening (Sunday), so I stayed the night. Went for my final 5k101 run this morning, and it went pretty well. Was beautiful, and I got to run along the riverfront, and encountered a lot of people out and about. And the day couldn't have gone any better.
Tomorrow, I think I'm going to run 2 miles to help my body recover some from the last few days, and Tuesday, I either won't workout, or will do something very light at Dixon. I might instead do a small workout in my apartment on Tuesday. Either way, on Wednesday, I'm hoping to pull off 3.5 miles, so I can start working on my 5 mile goal.
I have 5 weeks now, to lose 14 pounds... Bit unpractical at this point, if I'm struggling with just 2 pounds per week. It's still possible, but unlikely. Luckily, I'll be happy no matter what, as I will for sure be under 210, and will be at least very close to hitting 200.
Weight loss since Februrary 19th, 2012: 36 pounds
Weight loss since the beginning of Junior year: 41 pounds
Total weight loss since Senior year of high school: 56 pounds
I've pretty much decided what my future plans will be, through the summer and during next school year, but I'll talk about that in my next blog post. Until then, stay fancy.
To cover the last week, on Tuesday I went to Dixon with Nick for a light workout. Just did 20 minutes on a bike, and then lifted weights for a bit. It was more of to relax, hang out, and still be a bit active. Wednesday, completed the first day of my Week 8 podcast, which is 30 minutes without walking. Thursday, I went to Dixon again, and weighed myself. And in 5 days, I had only lost 1 pound, and I began to panic a bit. It meant that my weight loss is finally starting to slow down. I knew this would happen, but I thought I'd easily hit 200 by my birthday. Now, I'm hoping for 205. So due to my panic, it meant that I ended up doing 80 minutes of fairly intense cardio on bikes and a bit on an eliptical. I was pretty exhausted, but I managed. Friday, I did the second day of my Week 8 podcast, and then went on a bike ride to Philomath with Nick, Maddie, and Maggie, the ol' freshman crew (group of friends from Freshman year). Ended up being about 12 miles, which was pretty tiring after my run, but I was doing pretty well. We ended up at Flat Tail Brewery in downtown Corvallis, and I got a massive burger (I had only eaten about 300 calories prior, and had 2 workouts - I deserved it). It had a 1/3 pound patty, grilled onions, bacon, peppered turkey, a fried egg, and avocado. Wow, so good.
Saturday morning, went to Dixon, weighed in at 214, so 2 pounds from the previous week (meant that I lost 1 pound from Thursday to Saturday), and did about 70 minutes on a recumbant bike (was too sore for an upright bike), but was not doing an intense workout. Just wanted to keep myself a bit active. Went home that afternoon to Lake Oswego, to celebrate my brother's and my aunt's birthdays this evening (Sunday), so I stayed the night. Went for my final 5k101 run this morning, and it went pretty well. Was beautiful, and I got to run along the riverfront, and encountered a lot of people out and about. And the day couldn't have gone any better.
Tomorrow, I think I'm going to run 2 miles to help my body recover some from the last few days, and Tuesday, I either won't workout, or will do something very light at Dixon. I might instead do a small workout in my apartment on Tuesday. Either way, on Wednesday, I'm hoping to pull off 3.5 miles, so I can start working on my 5 mile goal.
I have 5 weeks now, to lose 14 pounds... Bit unpractical at this point, if I'm struggling with just 2 pounds per week. It's still possible, but unlikely. Luckily, I'll be happy no matter what, as I will for sure be under 210, and will be at least very close to hitting 200.
Weight loss since Februrary 19th, 2012: 36 pounds
Weight loss since the beginning of Junior year: 41 pounds
Total weight loss since Senior year of high school: 56 pounds
I've pretty much decided what my future plans will be, through the summer and during next school year, but I'll talk about that in my next blog post. Until then, stay fancy.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
New Running Record
Without walking or stopping, my new record is a 32 minute run that I accomplished today. I've been struggling with moving on in my runs, and improving, and I realized that during my intervals, I lose lots of momentum whenever I walk. For example, last week I started a week 7 run, and did the first 12 minutes no problem, then 3 minutes of walking, and as soon as I started to run again, my entire body just hit the wall. My legs got super stiff, it felt as if I had never gotten a break after all, and I just lost all the motivation to keep going, being as uncomfortable as I was. So I decided that I wanted to change up my running, and steer away from the intervals, since the recovery intervals were hindering my progress.
Friday (May 4th) I ran a fairly easy 2 mile run without any breaks, at a 9:45 pace (started at my regular 9:30 pace and slowed down to a 10 minute pace by the end of it). Then went to Dixon on Saturday to just shoot hoops for a bit, and do my weekly weigh in. Sunday, I had meant to run, but I never had a decent oppertunity to do so due to a baseball game, and eating at certain times of the day, as well as when I woke up (woke up at 11, rather than 9, as I hoped for). Nonetheless, I got out there this morning, and wanted to try something longer than 2 miles, in hopes that one of these days I'll be ready to consistantly run 30 minutes without breaks. I wouldn't settle for less than 2.5 miles, but I was really going for 3, and just push myself extremely hard to finish it. And let me tell you, physically, I was done at 2.5 miles, as I got extremely exhausted by that time (right around 26 minutes or so). But mentally, I wanted to finish at least 30 minutes. And if I was going to do 30 minutes, why not just run the extra minute or two and finish off 3 miles (since my pace slowed down to about 11 minutes by the end, was 10:34 overall)? So, barely, I managed to finish, but I did it. Just over 3 miles in a little more than 32 minutes. Toughest run, BY FAR, that I've ever completed. I was afraid that if I didn't stop a couple minutes prior to 3 miles, that I might collapse - somehow I got through it though. It was actually funny, with about 3 minutes left, I crossed paths with an older man, and he gave me this look of pity, it seemed like. Almost as if he knew just what I was going through, and gave a bit of a smile. It was the look of, I'm sorry you're struggling this much, but you can do it. I know, that was a lot to interpret just from a look, but it really felt that way.
I'm thinking that I'll continue this, and start doing the week 8 podcasts until I'm ready to step up my game more. It's 30 minutes straight, but Wednesday, when I run next, I'll probably start my pace a bit slower, around 10 minutes, to make sure I don't overexert myself too much. I can see 5 miles without breaks in my future, and hopefully before my birthday, but it will sure be difficult to reach that point. I'll probably be asking my brother to help build a running schedule for me, to increase my mileage to 5 miles, in the next week or two.
I had mentioned my weigh in at Dixon. Down 3 more pounds to 216. 16 more pounds to go, in just 7 weeks! That's averaging 2.3 pounds per week, and so far over the last 11 weeks, I've lost 34, which is an average of about 3.1 pounds. Very doable. And as my birthday approaches, I will probably crack down more, to ensure that I reach my goal. Nonetheless, I'm positive that I'll reach 210 by my birthday, which was the realistic goal that I set (after making 220 my original goal). It'll be interesting to see where I'm at by the end of the summer, assuming I'm around 200 at my birthday, and then working and continuing to work out and eat better throughout the summer.
Besides all that, nothing really happened last week, and this weekend I'm going home to celebrate my brother's and aun't birthday on Sunday, but I'm still going to Dixon on Saturday morning for my weigh in and be a bit productive as well. Also, Wednesday will be making a vegetarian chili recipe that I found. Pretty easy, few cans of beans, few cans of diced tomatoes, bit of produce like carrots/celery/onion, and a bit of seasoning. I've always wanted to make chili, but some of the recipes can be quite complicated, or require plenty of ingredients. This one is quite simple. Also I'll be making some minestroni soup at some point, and found a good looking recipe for a cajun dirty rice dish. All vegetarian, but I don't mind. Trying to slowly reduce my meat intake, specifically with red meats anyways. Oh and I've recently been making some stir frys, just a pack of frozen stir fry vegetables, add in some cooking teriyaki sauce and sriracha hot sauce, and quite a good, low calorie dish.
I guess that's about it. 'til next time, stay fancy.
Friday (May 4th) I ran a fairly easy 2 mile run without any breaks, at a 9:45 pace (started at my regular 9:30 pace and slowed down to a 10 minute pace by the end of it). Then went to Dixon on Saturday to just shoot hoops for a bit, and do my weekly weigh in. Sunday, I had meant to run, but I never had a decent oppertunity to do so due to a baseball game, and eating at certain times of the day, as well as when I woke up (woke up at 11, rather than 9, as I hoped for). Nonetheless, I got out there this morning, and wanted to try something longer than 2 miles, in hopes that one of these days I'll be ready to consistantly run 30 minutes without breaks. I wouldn't settle for less than 2.5 miles, but I was really going for 3, and just push myself extremely hard to finish it. And let me tell you, physically, I was done at 2.5 miles, as I got extremely exhausted by that time (right around 26 minutes or so). But mentally, I wanted to finish at least 30 minutes. And if I was going to do 30 minutes, why not just run the extra minute or two and finish off 3 miles (since my pace slowed down to about 11 minutes by the end, was 10:34 overall)? So, barely, I managed to finish, but I did it. Just over 3 miles in a little more than 32 minutes. Toughest run, BY FAR, that I've ever completed. I was afraid that if I didn't stop a couple minutes prior to 3 miles, that I might collapse - somehow I got through it though. It was actually funny, with about 3 minutes left, I crossed paths with an older man, and he gave me this look of pity, it seemed like. Almost as if he knew just what I was going through, and gave a bit of a smile. It was the look of, I'm sorry you're struggling this much, but you can do it. I know, that was a lot to interpret just from a look, but it really felt that way.
I'm thinking that I'll continue this, and start doing the week 8 podcasts until I'm ready to step up my game more. It's 30 minutes straight, but Wednesday, when I run next, I'll probably start my pace a bit slower, around 10 minutes, to make sure I don't overexert myself too much. I can see 5 miles without breaks in my future, and hopefully before my birthday, but it will sure be difficult to reach that point. I'll probably be asking my brother to help build a running schedule for me, to increase my mileage to 5 miles, in the next week or two.
I had mentioned my weigh in at Dixon. Down 3 more pounds to 216. 16 more pounds to go, in just 7 weeks! That's averaging 2.3 pounds per week, and so far over the last 11 weeks, I've lost 34, which is an average of about 3.1 pounds. Very doable. And as my birthday approaches, I will probably crack down more, to ensure that I reach my goal. Nonetheless, I'm positive that I'll reach 210 by my birthday, which was the realistic goal that I set (after making 220 my original goal). It'll be interesting to see where I'm at by the end of the summer, assuming I'm around 200 at my birthday, and then working and continuing to work out and eat better throughout the summer.
Besides all that, nothing really happened last week, and this weekend I'm going home to celebrate my brother's and aun't birthday on Sunday, but I'm still going to Dixon on Saturday morning for my weigh in and be a bit productive as well. Also, Wednesday will be making a vegetarian chili recipe that I found. Pretty easy, few cans of beans, few cans of diced tomatoes, bit of produce like carrots/celery/onion, and a bit of seasoning. I've always wanted to make chili, but some of the recipes can be quite complicated, or require plenty of ingredients. This one is quite simple. Also I'll be making some minestroni soup at some point, and found a good looking recipe for a cajun dirty rice dish. All vegetarian, but I don't mind. Trying to slowly reduce my meat intake, specifically with red meats anyways. Oh and I've recently been making some stir frys, just a pack of frozen stir fry vegetables, add in some cooking teriyaki sauce and sriracha hot sauce, and quite a good, low calorie dish.
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