I’m looking at the 60K option as it would be my first ultra.  It’s in March so I should have plenty of time to train after the Taipei Marathon in December. 

Thoughts?

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First off I had an audience:

It was a beautiful winters day here in Auckland:

I even discovered a new walkway which had a great view of the mangrove swamps:

I’m still running and my weight is still stable but I just don’t feel like I have a lot to say at the moment so blogging will be light until I recover my mojo. I’m probably still in my post marathon funk.

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I always had the vision of Vegans as being a bit odd but then I became vegetarian myself so I’ve had to re-evaluate my stance somewhat. Although there are those who think I’m a bit odd so I guess it all depends on perception.

The main thrust of the book is that you need to eat high quality foods that your body can break down easily for energy.  It’s not at all preachy and it just focuses on which foods give you the most bang for your buck if you are vegan.  A must read for someone who doesn’t eat meat and wants to get optimum nutrition for training.

After reading it I realised that when I’m eating well I’m already eating most of what he recommends.  The trick is to be consistent with it!

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What would happen to your weight if you added a tasty chocolate chip cookie to your daily diet without making any other changes? So you don’t exercise any more than you do today and you keep eating everything else that you’re eating today. Except for that extra 210 calorie chocolate chip cookie.

Your weight would go up, right? In fact, there’s a pretty well-known relationship between net calories consumed and changes in body weight than should be able to tell us by how much. That relationship tells us you will gain one pound for each additional 3,500 net calories you consume above what it takes to maintain your weight at a constant level. Likewise, you should expect to lose one pound for each 3,500 fewer net calories you consume with respect to what it takes to keep your weight steady over time.

As you might expect, the entire weight loss industry is largely built around this basic relationship. The only problem is that it the math behind the relationship doesn’t work in real life.

What happens in real life is that your body’s metabolism will adjust over time to compensate for the additional calories you’re consuming, in such a way that the amount of weight you might gain will be much smaller than what that 3,500 calories = 1 pound relationship would predict.

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I bought the KSO’s (Keep stuff out!).

My initial impressions are pretty positive.  They snugly.  They are very light.  It’s almost like you are not wearing shoes.  I haven’t gone for a run in them yet but I’m hoping to sometime this week.  I won’t be using them as my primary running shoe (at least not this year) but I do want to give them a go.

In other news I’ve had one run since the marathon (on Friday).  I did a very easy 4.5km local loop with my wife and it was most enjoyable.  I was supposed to do a 10K yesterday but I stubbed my toe while vacuuming and it went all purply.  It hurt like hell and at first I thought I had broken it but this morning it is not really sore but it looks pretty disgusting.  My whole little toe and part of my forefoot is a nice purple colour!

I’ve had a week off eating sensibly and running (as part of the post marathon relaxation) and now it’s time to get back on track.  I’m cutting out all junk again and want to try and lose about 3 or 4 more kgs before I start my serious training for the Taipei marathon.  More about that later.

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I used to drink about 2 litres of Coke a day and I’m pretty sure that goes a long way to explaining my weight gain.

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Because I won, I had fun.

Back when I was obese I had to win at every game I played or every endeavour I attempted.  If I couldn’t be the best I wasn’t interested.  And I wasn’t shy about tweaking the conditions to make sure I won.  I am no longer like that.  I think I’m not that afraid to admit I struggle with certain things.  I can participate in things and enjoy them without having to win.

I actually think that I had to win at everything because I felt like a failure inside.  Obesity is not fun and is not something you can hide.  I had to win at everything else to be a worthwhile person.

This is quite linked to how my fitness journey started.  I’m still working on that post!

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Shauna (Dietgirl) and Carla (Mizfit) published episode 11 of their “Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone” podcast today. The episode title is “Let’s Hear It For The Boys.”  It’s all about men and blogging and they were particularly interested in why there appears to be fewer men than women participating in fitness/healthy living blogs.

I was lucky enough to be invited to participate and I think my contribution is enough to reinforce my opinion that I’ll never be a podcaster!  Have a listen as I think it’s pretty interesting overall.

I listened to it while out on a run this morning.  I did 15.4km on a bright sunny autumn morning and it was great!

In other news I’m changing my half marathon entry in the Christchurch Marathon to the full marathon!

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What is your target and why did you pick it as the target if I may ask?

When I first started my weightloss and fitness journey I found myself weighing in at 308 pounds.  At 6’1″ that put my BMI at over 40.  I decided that my initial goal would be to get my BMI into the normal range.  For me that would be 189 pounds.  However, that meant that I would have to lose 119 pounds and I just can’t live with a non rounded number like that so I decided to shoot for 120.

I’ve since come to realise that the BMI is a pretty flawed tool – you learn a lot on this journey – but it is still a marker that has meaning to us in many respects.  The BMI is the tool society uses to judge and I guess I’ll always have a part of me that wants that wider acceptance.

As of this morning I’m at 193.3 which means I’m pretty close to my BMI goal.  However, I know that I still have a bit of excess around the middle so I’ve decided that a longer term goal will be to get my weight down to about 176 pounds.  To be honest I’m hoping to do so mainly because I’d like to pick up a bit more speed in my running.  I’m already at the vanity goal – if you know what I mean.

In other news I went out for a nice easy 7 km run this morning to test my hip and it seems to be fine.  My policy of resting at the first sign of injury seems to be paying off.  So hopefully I can get in a bit of a longer run tomorrow.

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I was offered the chance to try a habit changing program by the folks at Habit Changer. They asked if I’d take one of their 42-day programs and then blog about it–whether my “experience was positive or not.”  I decided I could live with that so accepted.  This is my review:
Habit Changer is a web-based application that uses cognitive behavior therapy and neuroplasticity to help participants recognize current beliefs and behaviours and replace them with a different perspective.

Habit Changer uses a system of positive messages and activities to help users jump-start a reversal of that negative pattern.

The four most popular programs offered are Losing Weight, Stop Stressing, Money & You, and Feeding Your Kids, but there are several other programs offered as well. Most cost $19.95  but the Feeding Your Kids program is free.

I chose Losing Weight 2 as my option.  You are supposed to be at goal or close to it for this program so I figured why not. :p

Every day I’ve been getting two emails from Habit Changer on a topic, along with a daily challenge.  Later in the day I get another email that reinforces the lesson of the day.  You can also set it up so that it sends messages to your cellphone and what not but I don’t like being bothered that much so I didn’t use that functionality.

In the beginning I found the experience quite good and I was keen to see the daily email.

One that I found quite relevant to my journey was an email about mindfulness.  I’ll reproduce it here so you can get an idea what it was like:

Day 15: Mindful Eating – 1

Mindful eating is one of the simplest, easiest, and yet most powerful tools you have to stay in control of what you eat. Mindful eating simply means being conscious of what you’re doing and why while you’re doing it.

How do we know this works? Well, it turns out that higher mindfulness is correlated with lower body mass index. Meaning that if you’re mindful about eating, you’re likely to be thinner. Permanently.

By definition, being mindful requires slowing down slightly. It takes a little attention to think about what you’re doing, and the food you’re eating. Cultures that have long slow meals tend to be far more mindful — they spend time enjoying the food, not just putting it in — but you don’t have to take all day to eat a meal in order to be mindful. If you can consciously focus even for a moment on what you’re doing, you’re on the way.

Today

• Try the mindfulness questionnaire below.
• How did you do? What do you need to work on?

Tomorrow we’ll do an actual experiment.

Questionnaire:

What would be your answer to each of the following questions?

• I eat so fast that I don’t taste what I’m eating.
• I notice when having delicious food around me makes me want to eat more food than I ought to.
• When someone serves me a portion that’s too large, I’m able to stop when I’m full.
• I tend to think about other things while I’m eating.
• I don’t recognize when I’ve had enough.
• I notice the flavors in the foods I eat.
• I eat without noticing that I am eating.
• I think about the taste of every bit of food that I eat.
• I stop eating when I’m full, even if it’s something really delicious.
• While I’m eating I think about things I need to get done.
• I take time to stop and enjoy the colors and smells of my food.
• I realize it when I’m eating even though I’m not hungry.

If you are thinking: I don’t have time to think about anything else! I need to eat on the run! I barely have time to eat at all!

Try this instead: It’s easy. Just spend a moment thinking about each bite. It doesn’t take long at all. I’ll enjoy it more, and I’ll stay at my goal weight far more easily.

However, after a while I started to find the daily emails a bit annoying and to be honest the last week or so I barely read them.  That’s probably a failing of mine rather than of the program.

I think there is a lot of value in the system if you are serious about changing your habits and haven’t learnt these lessons yourself already.  I think I’ve picked up most of them by reading your blogs so they were maybe not as helpful to me as they might be to others.

Having said that I’ve had nothing but success in my weightloss efforts since I’ve started the program so who knows!

If you would be interested in trying any of their other programs, please feel free to  Try any Habit Changer Program at a discounted rate

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This is what I normally eat Monday to Friday and weekends I reserve for a bit of variety.  Some might find it a bit boring but it works for me as I enjoy every single meal.  Lots of photos so I’ve put them beyond the jump.1st off breakfast:

I have some oats (in water as I hate milk) with a handful of strawberries and a handful of blueberries.

My post run protein:

One scoop of protein power in a cup of water.

And I normally have one piece of fruit as well.  The other one is my mid-afternoon snack.

My midmorning snack is normally 2 boiled eggs.  I love eggs and having them boiled is the easiest for me to do as I can prepare them in advance.

Lunch:

I normally make my lunches for the week in bulk.  I have a bed of brown rice and quinoa and on top I have a mixture of soy mince, black beans, green beans, green & red peppers, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, spring onions and tomatoes.  Nothing unhealthy in there. And it tastes pretty good too.

Dinner is a salad on top of a bed of chickpeas and nuts.

It’s a pretty healthy set of dishes I think.  Best of all I’m not hungry and I have plenty of energy for my running.

It’s definitely a lot healthier than the way I was eating before I wised up.

In other news I did a great 12.6 km run into work today and I also managed to complete week 04 of the hundred pushups program for the first time.

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1.  My iPod Touch.

I love this device.  I carry it almost everywhere I go.  It carries my books, my music, my podcasts, my twitter and all sorts of other apps. Love it, love it, love it.

2.  My Garmin Forerunner 305

I love knowing how far, how fast, how high, and how hard I’ve worked out.  This GPS watch gives me all that and more.

3.  My Sennheiser MX75 running headphones

These headphones are brilliant.  Water resistant, fit great and sound brilliant while letting in ambient sound so that mack truck doesn’t run me over!

4.  My iPod Shuffle

My brother got this for me for Christmas and I love it for those days that it is a bit wet and I don’t want to risk getting my iPod Touch wet.

5.  My internet connection

I love being connected and having access to so many great things/people/ideas. I especially love that my internet connection gives me access to you folks. The ever supportive blogging community. I’ve received so much support, advice and encouragement – it’s truely a blessing.

6.  My city

I love living in Auckland, New Zealand.  Consistently ranked in the top 5 places to live in the world and I can testify that it is great.

7.  Peanuts

I love peanuts and they love me. Enough said.

8.  Mowing the lawn.

I really like mowing the lawn for some reason.  It’s almost like therapy.

9.  Reading books

I read a lot.  Way too much according to some.  I normally go through at least 2-3 books a week and I can’t imagine not having access to a book.  My first paying job was in a bookshop but it didn’t pay enough for me to make a career of it.

10.  Running

Last but not least.  I love running which I think you’ve guessed by now.

Speaking of which I did a beautiful 10K this morning.  Conditions were great:

Auckland is definitely lovely.

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I need to start organising a wedding for 2010!

P.S. My Traineo buttons on the right have gone wonky.  Just ignore for now.

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He didn’t mention that it was buried under about 20 other packages and once we got to it that I had to do the heavy lifting. I recall wondering why I had paid $100 for delivery if I had to do the lifting myself?

It was quite funny in a sad sort of a way that we had to have a rest after moving the treadmill about a metre as it looked like the poor old guy was going to have a coranary.

We eventually got it into my basement/rumpus room and then he diffidently asked if I would mind giving him a hand loading all the parcels back into his truck! Needless to say I did but there was some quiet muttering under my breath!

Click more to see my installation fun (warning! lots of photos).Here it is in the box as I left it this morning:

My first task in assembling it was to get it on it’s side so that I could take it out of the box!

I’m doing my bit to support the Chinese economy:

I got the lid off and it was revealed in all it’s glory:

I then had to pull it out of it’s box and all of a sudden there it was:

I had a moment of panic when I couldn’t figure out how to get it flat on the ground but unlike some other men I’m not afraid to read the instructions!

Tighten a few bolts:

Screw on some plastic bits:

And she’s all done:

My home gym is taking shape!

It took me about 40 mins from unpacking to having it operational and I was very glad to have my wife’s help in holding the odd piece in place while shining a torch so that I could see where the holes for the screws and bolts were.

Today is my rest day so I’m looking forward to my inaugral run on it tomorrow morning!

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There are 100 half kg blocks of butter (50kgs/110 pounds worth) in that pile under my hand. I can’t imagine carrying that much weight around with me every day now. It boggles the mind really.

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All very nice you might say but why am I mentioning this? Well look who got mentioned at the bottom of the article under Favourite Diet Blogs!

I’m rather flattered. It’s always nice to be mentioned by someone famous.  It’s even nicer that it’s Dietgirl.  She comments every once in a while and I must admit that every time I see her comment I am amazed.  She has 500 000 + readers and still posts encouraging remarks here.  She was one of the first bloggers that I started to follow and I’d encourage you all to visit her site.

BTW her book is fantastic!  If you are feeling discouraged read this book as it is incredibly inspiring.  It chronicles her journey and the ups and downs.  I think we all experience the ups and downs and it’s really great to see that you can have success if you just stick with it.

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“Do you ever forget what the old you was like?”

Truth be told I sometimes do. I went looking through my old photos the other day and this one was taken just two years ago.  It always takes me by surprise when I see a photo of how I used to be.  I don’t have that many as I used to avoid having my photo taken for some reason.

This version of me couldn’t run more than a minute and avoided cardio workouts like the plague.  I was 80 odd pounds heavier than I am now at the time and looking back now it’s hard to remember being that heavy and unfit.

My wife took this photo about a week ago and I am literally a changed man. I love exercise now and I’m just happier in all aspects of my life. It’s really amazing to me how quickly I’ve managed to transform myself.

Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t happen overnight and it wasn’t/isn’t always easy. I still struggle everyday with eating right. Although I have found that the exercise is addictive. I’m running more and more and loving it more and more.

My run today was an absolute joy.  I left the house about 6am-ish and conditions were perfect. Overcast with a gentle breeze blowing. About 3km later a gentle drizzle started to fall and after a while I was absolutely drenched. Yet I found myself incredibly happy.

I’m still doing the low heart rate training (resting heart rate was 42 the last 2 mornings!) so my pace was relatively slow at about 6:30 min per km for most of the run. However, I felt like I could run forever at that pace.

It was just a sublime feeling especially when I was recalling the days that I didn’t even like to walk 100m nevermind run! I incorporated a few long hills in my run and had to slow down to almost walking pace to keep my heart rate down at times but it didn’t matter. I was out there running and it was great.

Jason wrote this in a comment:

And I have to give an answer to AJH’s quesiton about forgetting. I do sometimes. Especially when I am in a long run or marathon and I think it is hard, then bam. I realize I am 130 lbs lighter and laugh because riding a bike for 15 minutes felt harder than running a marathon.

It made me laugh to remember how hard running 90 seconds used to be as well, especially as I did my longest run ever at 25.59 km (about 16 miles) today.  Life is good indeed.

I also did my highest ever milage week at 73.6 km (about 45 miles).

A few people have asked how I get the satellite maps. I use a Garmin 305 to track my runs and I then download the GPS data to a program called Sporttracks.

One thing I would like to say is that if you are thinking about getting fit then stop thinking about it and get out there and do it.  I started running about a year ago now with Couch to 5K and I’ve never looked back.  I honestly believe that if this former couch potato can do it then anyone can.

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When we got home I decided that I had better get my run in before it got dark so I headed out in the late afternoon.  I wanted to do a nice and easy 10K run so I headed out towards Tamaki Drive.  I did a 10K run but it wasn’t particularly easy.  I think I was a bit dehydrated as I hadn’t drunk anything since about 10am and there was quite a strong wind blowing so the running was rather hard.  Having said that I still managed to run the whole way and didn’t stop at the ice cream shop that I passed twice!

One of my friends, Stephen, had his birthday yesterday and held a party in the evening.  My wife and I went along and had a great time.  I can’t remember any other evening events that we have actually gone to during the week since our daughter was born.  Considering she is 15 months old tomorrow – it’s been a while!

I had a single slice of pizza, some fries with aoli and an espressotini and a small piece of birthday cake.  They were all good and, to top it off, I had a record low (scale weight) on my weigh in this morning so it looks like you can have your cake (in moderation) and eat it!

Here’s a photo that he took of me last night:

A bit different from this one:

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“When I look for you in a crowd my mental image is still the big fat white guy. You’re harder to find now.”

Apparently I don’t stand out in a crowd any more. What a shame.

I only had time for a 5K run today. I’m going to get in a 10K session tomorrow. 1 month to go until my half marathon!

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Poll Answers

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