Andrew is getting fit

I did my first session of week 03 of C25K today. This involves running for three minutes at two points. I completed it successfully (Yay me!), but I did find that the little voice inside me was saying “I can’t do this! Give up!”

Luckily for me, I have learnt to ignore that little voice and carry on. I think a large part of the journey to fitness is not so much training the body, but is rather changing the mind to break out of its negative patterns. I think that is just as hard, if not harder, than changing the body.

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I completed Week 02 of the C25K program today.

Week 02 involves 5 minutes of brisk walking as a warmup then six alternating intervals of 90 seconds running followed by 2 minutes of walking. This is then followed by a 5 minute cooldown walk.

I’ve been running on the treadmill at my gym and I read somewhere that to simulate outdoor running you should set the treadmill on a 1% incline. I did that today and boy did it make the workout harder. I could still do it reasonably comfortably but it is definitely easier to do with no incline.

One thing I have found is that doing the C25K program has made me more keen to go to the gym. I’m relishing knocking off each day of each week of this program. Today is a public holiday here in Auckland and I still went to the gym! Normally if it is a holiday then I use that as an excuse to have a holiday from the gym. One advantage of going to the gym on a holiday is that is just about empty so I could do my routine without having to wait which was great.

I’m looking forward to starting week 03 of the program on Wednesday (I started on a Wednesday). This involves 3 minutes of running non stop which I haven’t done in years. Should be fun!

I did my regular weekly weighin this morning and came in at 110.4 kgs (243 pounds). So I am down 1.6 kgs (3.5 pounds) from last week which is quite nice.

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Where do you find your inspiration?

I have found mine by reading the stories of people who are on the same journey as me.

People like Steve, who is well on the way to losing 150 pounds.

People like John, who is trying to get fit.

People like Israel, who is making a change in his life.

People like Marshmallow, who I know!

I like reading these people’s blogs because they show that it can be done. It’s not easy and they all have their ups and downs. I like the honesty and something I have learnt is that you just have to make the little voice inside you cheer you on rather than bring you down.

And just for fun:

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I have decided that I am going to aim to run a quarter marathon this year. I’m thinking the Auckland marathon is probably a good one. A quarter marathon is 10.7km and that seems doable. It would take about an hour or so and not kill me. Of course I’m only running 2 mins at a time at the moment so this is all theoretical. Maybe it will kill me? But what a good way to die.

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I realised yesterday that I’m halfway to my goal, which is to achieve a ‘healthy’ BMI. To do that I need to weigh about 85 kgs (187 pounds).
About 4 years ago I decided that it was time to make a lifestyle change. I weighed 139.7kgs(307 pounds ) and I just couldn’t bear the thought of going over 140kgs. So I joined the gym and started to eat better. After about a year and a half I got down to 100kg (220 pounds) which was a massive achievement and I felt great. I got married and then went on my honeymoon. Unfortunately, that is where I started to put the weight back on. It never happens overnight, but after a few years of eating haphazardly – healthy bouts followed by binges – I discovered early last year that my weight was back up to 127kgs (280 pounds). I decided that I had better get serious about losing weight again so went on a fairly strict eating and exercise program. I managed to get down to about 105kgs by November and then got sick and stopped going to the gym. Two months of massive overeating and no exercise went by and I started off the New Year this year at 117kg (258 pounds).

I’ve reflected on this and it’s not good. I seem to be in a cycle of losing weight and then going back to my old habits and regaining it.

NO MORE.

From now on I plan on living a healthy lifestyle FOR LIFE. I will not let my emotions dictate what I eat. I control my body not vice versa.

In other news, I completed day 1 of week 02 of C25K today. It was a good workout and I really enjoyed it. In week 02 the running component gets upped a bit to 90 seconds of running, then two minutes of walking for a few repetitions. In 8 more weeks I will be running 5km!

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I’ve completed week 01 of the Couch to 5K program.

This week I have had to do 3 sessions of:

Firstly, a brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then 8 rounds of alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking. Then a five-minute cooldown walk.

So far it has been relatively easy. The podcasts I mentioned in my previous post really help.

I’m hoping to stick with it for the whole nine weeks and actually manage to do the 5km. Actually, I’m not hoping. I WILL stick with it.

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I live about 4.5 km from where I work which is great. It only takes a few minutes to get there in the morning and traffic is almost non-existent if I leave before eight.

For the last few weeks I’ve been having this idea of walking home from work. so this week, I decided to give it a go.

It’s a great walk. The route winds through the Auckland Domain, down a very steep and long hill to the Parnell sports grounds and then winds through leafy Remuera. One of the features of this walk is the amount of steep hills! Down a hill to the Domain. Up the hill through the Domain. Down a steep hill to the sports grounds. A bit of a flat and then up a hill into Remuera, down a very very steep hill and then, to add insult to injury, up one to home. It takes about 50 minutes.

I normally find walking rather boring, but I’ve been enjoying the walks home. I’ve put some audiobooks on my ipod and have been listening to them as I stride along.

It’s very nice and I think I’ll be doing it more regularly now.

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In a moment of madness I decided that I would try out the Couch to 5K running program.  C25K is a running program that has been designed to get just about anyone from the couch to running 5 kilometers or 30 minutes in just 9 weeks.

I’ve always been one of those people who say things like “I can’t run. “It will bugger my knees.” Or some other excuse. So I have decided that instead of saying I can’t, I will just have a go and do it. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

I found some helpful podcasts here that provide some background music and instructions for while you are jogging. There is a different podcast for every week of the program.

If you are interested, a metric version of the program can be found here.

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