Delinquent

Yes, I have been delinquent in writing my blog. I know I don’t have a steady group of readers waiting for each and every new entry, but for my own personal fulfilment I like having a blog to get thoughts out of my head and to hold me responsible to the goals I’ve set for myself.

The reason I’ve had trouble writing for the past 85 days has to do with work and health. I picked up a second job as a group counselor therapist in early August that requires that I work an additional 12-20 hours per week on top of my full time job at BYU. I’m loving what I’m doing as a therapist by helping people through this intensive-outpatient program. However, it is high-stress work and the clients I’m working with are pretty much all suffering from chronic mental health conditions but they experienced a marked increase in severity prior to getting treatment through my program. On top of that in mid-August I became ill. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I have never felt that sick short of getting influenza. I went to the doctor twice to see if they could identify it, but they just kept assuring me that it wasn’t influenza or strep. It wasn’t until late August that doctors started noticing that enterovirus D68 was rampant around the country. I never went back to get it confirmed but I have no doubt that’s what it was. In the 30 some-odd days I was actively symptomatic I did some additional damage to my body from all the coughing. I bruised a rib and thought I’d given myself a hernia (fortunately that was just bruising too, not a full blown hernia).  So that one “cold” left me with lingering problems that I’m just now finally getting over.

The two blog projects that this completely derailed were my healthy living challenge and my #MormonPositive series. I leveled off on my weight loss, but fortunately haven’t regained much. It pretty solidly delayed my goal of getting below 20% body fat before Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I’m not giving up on becoming healthier in general (who knows, maybe the next time a nasty virus goes around, I’ll recover much faster).  For the #MormonPositive series, I’ll get back to writing those. Each of those entries take longer to write, and it has been hard to find the time with the new job. I do hope to write a few more before giving myself other topic to write regularly on (probably something related to mental health and psychotherapy next). Perhaps in the meantime I’ll go back to just writing something random on occasion when I have the time and desire to get my thoughts out.

Not getting off track…

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been off my blog lately.  We had a trip to my in-laws last week, and (no offense) but when I’m on vacation I’d rather spend my time with family then take the time to blog. After all, that’s the whole point of a vacation.  But, as great as vacations are for families, they’re not so great for diets…

I realized today that if I were doing this diet and exercise plan on my own then my summer of becoming healthy would have ended yesterday. In the past I was only able to keep up a diet and exercise plan until there was some change in my routine or schedule, like the end of a semester or a vacation.  Well, right now, in addition to last week’s vacation, I am starting a 2nd job and the summer term ends in 2 weeks.  So, with taking a week off from my diet for a vacation (although I did watch what I ate), coming home from vacation and starting a 2nd job in the evenings, and with my schedule about to change at the end of the summer term…I am so glad I decided to do the training program with the coach this summer.

I have seven more sessions with her, & since we have to miss two weeks between the Summer Term and Fall Semester, I will be meeting with her until about the first week of October, which is when I’ll get to redo all my fitness assessments.  I know I’m improved, but with two more months, the challenge is going to be making sure there is improvement between now and then.

That was mostly what I talked about with my coach today, how to exercise when my time is now more limited. She recommended I refocus on the vigor of my workouts instead of the quantity.  So, instead of running for 40 minutes in the morning or evening, I could just run one mile during my lunch, but make it the fastest mile I can run.

I do think I’ll be able to find the time to exercise, what’s harder for me is the motivation when I’m tired from working 52-55 hours a week.  That’s where having a coach is the biggest factor, knowing that each and every Wednesday from now until October I’m going to have to go account for myself and my behavior.  That reporting element makes such a difference, and I firmly believe is what is going to make me succeed this time.

In the mean time, here are some results:

Weight: 191.2
2 lbs lighter than 2 weeks ago today, so I was able to stay in a downward trend on the trip.

One mile run time: 8:34
I actually did run a lot while I was on vacation. Last Friday when I just couldn’t take the Texas heat, I ran on a treadmill.  I wanted to see if I could run a sub-9 minute mile and did at 8:58!  I then started a 1/4 mile cool-down and was still feeling good, so I tried a second one and did that one in 8:34.  I was very happy about that.  The big question is whether I can turn that into a 27:00 5K time by the end of September.

Lastly: I bought a new running shirt thanks to the abundance of outlet malls in Texas.  I quite enjoyed breaking it in the Texas heat.  It’s a pretty awesome shirt.  I think Nike is right to fear Under Armour’s growing market share.

Out running in the Texas heat

The funnest days out running are those that I get to run with my wife. One of the many reasons I’ll miss being at my in-laws. It’s too hard to run together without my mother-in-law there to keep the kids from hurting each other or burning the house down.

Running Again

I’ve started running more over the last two weeks. I’ve gotten to where I can run 5K without too much difficulty. I just need to work on my speed.

This was my second personal 5K this week. I beat Monday’s time by 2:13. I think dropping the 4000′ in elevation between Utah and Texas, & having it be the most ridiculously pleasant July ever in North Texas might be contributing factors in the improved time.

When I was on high school cross country my average speed for a 5K was about 20:15 with a PR of 18:56. I think I’d be happy to be able to do less than 28:00 by the end of September.

Here’s Monday’s run by comparison:

Keeping it up – Healthier Life Check-in

I haven’t had much time for any blog posts the last couple of weeks.  Starting right around the 4th we had a bunch of family come to town, followed by my son’s baptism, followed by spending time with said family, camping, birthday parties, etc, etc, etc…     It’s actually been a lot of fun.

I’ve been able to stick to my cardio goals, but I’m still having problems making my strength training happen regularly.  I just kind of get to it when I get to it, and I’ve missed some workouts because of that.  The thing is though, that I’m starting to see actual results:

• I’ve lost 12.6 lbs, that’s the equivalent of 1 1/2 gallons of milk.  Think about having to carry a carton and a half of milk everywhere and then suddenly not having to anymore.  It makes a difference and I can totally feel it when I work out.
• Last Saturday, in the morning I biked from Park City High School to the base of Deer Valley
  and then back.  Then in the afternoon, I hiked from Trial Lake to Wall Lake in the Uintas, and half jogged/speedwalked back to camp to make sure we could get dinner started.  Lastly, in the evening, I again biked.  This time 4.6 miles uphill to Bald Mountain Pass; over 1000 feet of elevation gain, with the starting elevation over 9700′!
• Then Monday, I was out doing my 2-mile jog and I got 1 1/2 miles in and was still feeling good, so I decided to see if I could jog a 5K without having to walk at all.  I made it 4.85 km in 34 minutes, and to make sure I finished in under 35 minutes I actually sprinted the last 150 meters.

All of that stuff would have been unthinkable back in May, but each time I accomplish something that I know I couldn’t have done just a few weeks ago, it just makes me want to keep going to see if I can do even better:

• Yeah, 12.6 pounds is good, but I still need to lose another 19.1 pounds to get down to a healthy body-fat percentage. Another 13.1 pounds past that to get me to ideal!  Still, if I feel this good having gone this far, I know that going further will be even better.
• Yeah 4.6 miles uphill on my bike was great, but what if I could do a full mountain loop.  One of these days, I’m gonna do the Alpine Loop around Timpanogos or the Nebo loop.  That will feel amazing.
• Being able to jog a 5K is great, but my personal record from high school was 18:96.  Yes, I’m in my mid 30’s and will never return back to that level of performance, but it doesn’t mean that I couldn’t someday be sub-24, running 8 minute miles again.

I just want to keep my eye on the prize so I don’t get complacent with where I am right now.

On a different note, one thing that I’ve learned in the last weeks, as my cultivated diet gave way to family gatherings, BBQs, and buffet meals is that people don’t seem to think it is good manners to pull your phone out and counting the calories of all the food in front of everybody. Yet, trying to get to it later means you end up forgetting some things.  So for that last 10 days or so, I didn’t do the immediate journaling during my meals.  Instead, what I did was skip all the major treats (birthday cake, ice cream, etc.), and then during meals make sure my plate was about 1/2 to 2/3rds as full as most other people’s plates.  Lucky for me, my family tends to be healthy, so the food was good, and since they all maintain good body weights, I figure if I eat 50-70% of what they’re eating I’ll be right in my goal of 1800 cal/day.  Luckily the strategy paid off because my weight loss is staying right where it has been the last two months.

I did allow myself one major exception to my diet though:

The best s’more ever!

Hey, I was camping! You can’t go camping and not eat at least one treat. (Don’t worry, I only ate half)

New Week, New Goals!

I’m now over two months into my summer goal to become healthy.  I’m really glad that I’m doing a coached program because in the past this was about as long as I was able to last on my own, but I’m feeling good and confident, so you’ll have several more weeks of these blog posts coming from me.

My goals for the coming week are:

• Run 2 miles 2 times
• Do my strength training workouts 2 times
• Attend spin class once
• 300 minutes of cardio

So far the biggest challenge I’ve had is getting the 300 minutes of cardio, I’ve been averaging 210-240/week.  With Friday being a holiday I might actually make it this time.

 

Blue line: Projection / Red line: Actual

I’ve been doing good when it comes to tracking my weight these past two months.  Last week I mentioned that I had hit a plateau.  In hindsight I don’t thing that it was a true plateau, but my weight measurement on 6/18 was an outlier. Basically I looked like I lost more weight than I really had.  As you may recall, when I got my 2nd BodPod measurement I tracked out an estimate of what I would lose based on the changes I had done during the 3 weeks between my measurements.  I had lost an average of 1.101 lbs/week in between my BodPod Measurements, so I created a spreadsheet to see how long my goals would take if I maintained that pace.  The blue line on the chart is where my weight would be if I kept up the 1.101 lbs/week trend.  The red line is my actual weight loss.  So even though I look like I gained weight between 6/18 and 6/25, I’m still beating my estimate. A fact that makes me very happy 🙂

Another bit of good news is that based on my projections of losing 1.228 lbs of fat/week and gaining 0.128 lbs of muscle, my body fat percentage should now have passed below 30%.  I won’t know for sure until the last week of my program, but if anyone asks, I’m going to tell them that I am now officially “overweight” and I’m no longer “obese” (Again, using these terms based on actual body-fat percentage, not the stupid BMI. According to my BMI, I’ve never been obese & I would be “healthy” with a 26% body fat!  Stupid BMI…).

So to recap: Still working hard, glad I have a coach, 1 new goal, 3 repeating goals, not a real plateau, & now just overweight.

See you next week!

 

PS: the chart above was based on my weigh-ins at the gym.  I’ve also done my Wii Fit almost every morning in the month of June.  Here’s the chart from that:

 

 

 

Do you like my Mii?

Diet Soda Killed My Root Beer Habit

I’ve thought about writing this for one of posts for my “Becoming Healthy” blog project, and thanks to reading a related news article, I decided to finally do it!

Why Diet Soda Will Never Top the Real Thing

The above article was on the Real Clear Science Newton Blog this morning, and it hit on something I’ve totally noticed within myself and my eating habits.

Confession: I LOVE root beer.

I like going to specialty soda stores and trying out the various flavors. I get in discussions about the best bottled vs the best canned root beers.  I am adamant that sarsaparilla is NOT root beer.  I can tell the difference between a cane sugar and a corn syrup root beer.  I love root beer sweetened with honey.  My least favorite root beers are those that incorporate a black licorice flavor into the taste and bouquet of the soda.  I’m very particular about the quality of ice cream I will use for floats (No soft serve or vanilla bean for me!). Yeah, I love root beer.

My favorite can-buy-anywhere root beer:  A&W

My favorite dessert root beer: Henry Weinhard’s

My favorite overall root beer: Abita

My favorite float root beer: Stewart’s

And yet, if you’ve been following my blog, you know that in early May of this year I started a diet and exercise regime to get my body fat percentage back in control, and to feel better about myself and my appearance.  What room is there in my daily calorie budget for the occasional root beer?  Zero.

Delicious, foamy root beer

That doesn’t change the fact that I love root beer.  I’ve tried diet root beers in the past and without exception they were all terrible. Nothing redeemable about them whatsoever.  They all had a harsh chemically aftertaste that completely overpowers the flavors of the sassafras, vanilla, molasses, nutmeg & whatever else the brewer chooses to include.  I did find one exception though, and that is A&W 10.  It has a bit of that chemical taste, but overall the root beer flavor comes through pleasantly.  With my coach’s permission, and her assurance that all those rumors about artificial sweeteners messing with metabolism are not supported by scientific study, I bought a 12 pack for the occasional indulgence.

The last time I bought a 12-pack of root beer to keep in my office was back in February or March.  I noticed a funny thing happened.  I would crave a root beer around 2:00 or 3:00 pm, during the afternoon drowsys, and since there were plenty of cold root beers in my mini-fridge I’d have one.  The next day around the same time, I’d want a pick-me-up and the root beer craving would hit me bad, so I’d have one.  Then on the third day, I’d grab a root beer without even thinking about it.  Before I’d know it, my 12-pack was gone.

With the 12-pack of A&W 10, I let myself have one, but then the next day the craving never hit.  Three or four days went by and there were still 11 can in my fridge.  I’d have one with my lunch, but then the next day I was happy with a glass of water.  I find myself satisfied with the flavor, but indulging in one can leads to zero craving for a second root beer the next day. I think that speaks to the addictive nature of sugar.

Since there is no caffeine in most root beers the only addictive element in the soda is the sugar itself.  I occasionally drink Dr. Pepper, but since I’m not a coffee or tea drinker (obviously) and I’ve never had a period in my life when I had a daily indulgence in caffeinated soda I can drink caffeine for a pick-me-up, headache relief, or an overnight drive without developing a caffeine craving.  So I guess for me, at this point in my life, sugar is potentially more addictive than even caffeine is.

Well, I’ve been “sober” from refined sugar in both root beer and my favorite candies for almost 8 weeks now.  In a few months, when I finally get to a point that I’m satisfied with my body-fat percentage and overall health, I’ll need to be very careful about reintroducing full-sugared root beers and other sugar-heavy snacks into my diet so that they don’t become habit forming again.

7 1/2 weeks in, hitting a plateau

So, I’ve been working at this healthier-self project for 7 1/2 weeks now, and I’ve hit my first weight-loss plateau.  I’m actually 0.5 lbs heavier than I was last week.  It was bound to happen eventually, but I’m sure that I’ll work through it. This week my coach provided me with a two strength-training workouts that I’m supposed to alternate and do 2-3 times per week.  I’ve never been properly trained on how to use strength-training as part of a workout routine, so this will be good.  We’re focusing right now on exercises that don’t require gym equipment so I can do them anywhere.  Still, since the goal is fat-loss, the majority of my workout time will be spent on cardio.

One thing that I’ve been curious about is regarding my daily calorie intake.  I know my RMR is about 1760, so I’m supposed to keep my daily intake between 1800 & 1900.  I’ve been wondering though about those days that I do some serious exercise, like if I go on a day-long hike that burns 2500 calories, should I eat those calories?  What about days I only exercise a little bit and burn 300-400 calories, should I eat those?  My coach answered that calorie burning in exercise is so unpredictable and unmeasurable on an individual basis, that I should never do a calorie-for-calorie recovery of exercise.  Instead, if I have a major work-out day I can up my daily intake to about 2300 maximum. Perhaps that’s why I was never able to lose more than 15 pounds on my own in the past.

The big news for this week is that my blood profile finally came in from the hospital.  It turns out that while I might be carrying around way too much fat, my cholesterol is totally fine.  I’m in the “desirable” range for my total, HDL level, LDL level, and my HDL/LDL ratio.  In fact, I was barely in the “desirable” range, and could very well be in the “ideal” range by the end of my Y Be Fit program.  Yay!

This coming week, my goals are:

• Get up to 300 minutes/week cardio workouts (still hitting between 200 & 250 / week)
• Attend the faculty/staff spin class (couldn’t last week because of finals)
• Follow my coach’s strength-training guide at least twice.