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Frustration = Chocolates

October 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

YUM!I’m writing this on Thursday, October 20th. I’m frustrated and angry. The details are unimportant but the results on my eating are. To preface this, I want to say that I had a great day so far. I ran 5 miles this morning, had a healthy breakfast with some nuts and a bit of fruit and then a healthy lunch (chicken). I haven’t had a diet coke all day (had one this entire week) and I’m feeling great.  And then it happened, I had a really crappy meeting and I was annoyed.  I didn’t feel like working and I didn’t feel like talking to anyone.

Binge Eating Ahead

In the past, this would mean a trip to McDonald’s and 3000 calories of junk food plus a gallon of diet coke.  Seriously, my usual “I’m frustrated and I want to hit someone” order at McDonald’s was a double quarter pounder with cheese, 20 nuggets, two snack wraps, fries and an extra large diet coke.  That’s an insane amount of food, especially when you consider this isn’t instead of any of my regular meals, it’s in addition to it.  I would always justify it though by saying to myself “well, they screwed you over and you’re allowed a treat to feel better.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Eating Healthy, Motivation, Self Improvement Tagged With: , , , , ,

Week 5 – Speed Bumps Encountered

October 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series The Long Path To Health

Speed Bump AheadThis is week five of my project to get back to a healthier lifestyle.  If you recall from a couple of weeks ago, my goals at this point were:

Plan:

  • No drinks other than water
  • No sweets other than fruit (no dried fruit either)
  • No beef
  • No bread
  • Three runs per week
  • Three weights workouts per week

And The Goals Were:

  • 1 hour run at 5.5mph
  • 1 set of bench press at 255
  • weight 225lbs (this has changed)

How am I doing? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Eating Healthy, Fitness, Gyms, Healthy Habits, Monthly Update, Motivation, Running, Stress, Time Management, Weight Loss, Work Tagged With: , , ,

How Do I Look?

October 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

That’s me in the picture.  It was taken maybe a week ago, when Julie and I went to Half Moon Bay.  You notice that big smile on my face?  That’s because I’m happy.  I’m doing something fun with somebody I love.  The last few weeks, since we came back from our honeymoon have been great.  I feel good, I’m happy and I’m doing well because of it.  I’m more productive at work, I’m more at ease with my friends and I’m doing far better with my fitness goals than I thought possible.

I’m not quite sure where this post is headed by the way, I’m typing this as it occurs to me, but it seems like the connection between physical health and emotional health is undeniable.  Feeling better in general has led me to feeling better about my body and health.  It’s led me to have more motivation for my goals, health related and otherwise.  I wonder if this is why married men are on average healthier and tend to live longer.  I suppose it could be because we tend to do less stupid things when married but I also believe it’s because we’re happier and happiness is conducive to a healthier life.  Happiness means less stress and stress is the thing that kills most of us. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Editorial, Motivation, Stress Tagged With: , , ,

Active Living Through Active Giving

August 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Habitat-for-Humanity-77I mentioned a few weeks ago that being healthy means living a healthy lifestyle.  It’s a lot more than just 4 hour diets and trips to the gym.  It means doing everything possible to live a life that gets you moving more and eating less.  Today I’d like to talk about the act of giving.

We all enjoy giving.  We like making people around us feel better.  However, purely monetary giving (the act of giving money) seems to be unpopular these days.  We hear constant stories of our money being used for less than charitable purposes, we believe that the individuals we give our money to might misuse it or we simply have no money to give.  So, I would like to propose an alternative that is satisfying to both body and soul, volunteering. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alternative Workouts, Healthy Habits, Motivation Tagged With: , , , ,

Marathon Training Update

August 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

marathon training scheduleJust a quick update about the marathon training.  I’ve split my weekly runs into four different days:

  • Monday and Thursday I run for about 6 to 7 miles at a normal pace, which is about 6mph for me.  I’ve been increasing both the pace and the distance but very slowly.  I do these runs at the gym, which means I can closely monitor distance, speed, incline and overall performance.  These are the sort of runs I would three times a week before I started training for the marathon.
  • Wednesday I do sprints.  This means 1 minute at 7mph followed by two or three minutes at a walking pace, typically 3mph.  I do this for about an hour to work on my speed.  I’ve been slowly increasing the sprint speed.  Again, this run is done at the gym so I can closely monitor all numbers.
  • On the weekends I try to do one long run.  I’m currently up to about 12 miles.  These runs are done outdoors, typically on a trail or city streets.  I don’t monitor my performance too much on these runs.  In fact, other than total distance, I don’t really look at any numbers.  I just want to get out there, feel good and enjoy a nice, long run.  I figure the other three runs a week will improve my performance, this one is just for getting used to running long distances.
  • On Tuesdays and Fridays I do my normal weight work outs with a little bit of elliptical afterwards to get my heart rate up.

Overall, I can feel my performance getting better and better.  My pace is going up as is my endurance.  When I started this a few months ago, I doubt I could have run 6 miles in a row and my pace was barely above 5mph.  I’m feeling good about finishing that marathon in under 5 hours and I’m really hoping to get close to the 4 hour mark.

The Benefit Of A Goal

I definitely feel that having this public goal of training for a marathon is enhancing my resolve and motivation.  It’s nice to have something to work towards and to have a bit of social status hanging in the balance.  Motivation is key in everything we do, so having an upcoming marathon to think about it definitely motivating me to get healthier.

Filed Under: Exercise, Motivation, Running Tagged With: , , , ,

An Easy and Healthy Home Made Dinner

July 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Caprese SaladWe invited my fiance’s family over last week for a fun little dinner at home and I was amazed at just how easy it was to make a healthy dinner for 5, and for a very low budget too. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Eating Healthy, Healthy Meal Ideas, Motivation Tagged With: , , , , ,

I Had A Great Run

June 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been training for a marathon for the last few weeks and, while I was a bit intimidated at first, it’s been going much better than I expected.  I’ve been alternating long slow runs with shorter, faster ones, plus tossing in a few sprint days here and there.  My performance is way above what I expected it to be right now, especially considering the fact that I stopped running for a few months earlier this year.

To be honest, I forgot how much fun it is to run.  You get to a certain point where your body is performing like a machine and your brain is high on endorphin (runner’s high, oh yah!) and the miles just melt away.  Plus I feel incredible after the run.  I’m soaked with sweat, my body is still coming off the high and my brain is screaming “BRING IT ON!”

Anyway, just wanted to share that with you all.  I highly recommend finding a challenge of your own and training for it.  It can be a marathon, a three day hike, a mountain to climb or that backflip you’ve always wanted to do.  Whatever it is, I think we human beings thrive on challenge.  Without it, we’re just plodding along waiting for death.

Filed Under: Motivation, Running Tagged With: , , , , ,
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