Poor Choices and Consequences

Last night I decided to play basketball with some students after church. Unfortunately I was not wearing tennis shoes, and I eventually kicked off my sandals to go barefoot. After an injury last night, my smallest toe is kind of swollen and purple-ish.

This could have negative consequences on my fledgling running habit. Hopefully a couple days of rest will let me walk (and run) without pain.

Fitness Challenge -- Run #6

Today felt good. I wasn't sure I was going to make it to our goal, but Van spurred me on. Also, about 5 yards from our goal, another runner met us and told us to keep it up. He must have seen how winded we were. Gmaps-pedometer shows that we were just a hair under half of a mile. Yes sir, I am a runner.

The second, shorter stretch of running came a lot easier this time -- great feeling. I was able to time us this time, and that includes the walking to warm up and cool down.

longest running stretch 0.4745
total distance          1.1823
time                    15:30

Fitness Challenge Update -- Week 8

After working hard last week by beginning this whole running thing... my official weight checker marked me at having lost eight more pounds!!! However, when I stopped off the scales, they stuck. I think we need new scales.They're often inconsistent, and we sometimes weigh 2-3 times and take an average. Well, after I weighed again it showed a loss of three pounds. Not as exciting as eight, but I'm glad to see it!

By the way, I don't think I've mentioned the tool that I used to track my weight loss and create the graphs I post each week. It's an Excel sheet called Rob's Weight Loss Tracker. It's pretty simple and has been a good outlet for me to see my weight loss in numbers (good for the Alpha Geek in me). I stretched out the X axis on my graph to extend to a date where I can imagine myself being in good condition. May that day come soon!

Today I realized I could add trend lines. I have been wondering what kind of trend line could best represent weight loss -- I'm sure it wouldn't just be linear. I haven't found a good answer, but this image shows both linear and exponential approximations. Probably it should be something that stretches out over a longer distance -- even longer than this exponential approximation. Hopefully I'll be able to continue to lose weight steadily!

Fitness Challenge -- Run #5

Today my run was different in a few ways

1) I made it shorter -- I would like to build up to where I can run for a longer percentage of time. As it was, it was difficult to measure goals for myself for each run. Now I can build up to a longer run, and if I get comfortable with it, I can either try to decrease my time or increase the distance.

2) I ran with a partner -- my friend Van joined me today. It definitely helped having someone to run with me. Today I think I ran further (without stopping to walk) than I ever have before -- about four tenths of a mile. (I know, you must be very impressed with me at this point.) Van and I are probably at similar running abilities, makes us a good match. Also I don't get to hang out with him as much as I'd like so it's nice. We're planning to go again tomorrow.

3) I ran earlier in the day -- I made Van wait on me because I got caught up in conversation with my friend Chuck. We ran at about 7:30 - it still wasn't too hot, and I could actually see all the cracks in the sidewalk on my street. :-)

Results

I didn't keep track of our time, but here's a distance breakdown, courtesy of Gmap Pedometer. If I wasn't a privacy nut on some level, I'd just show you our route.

walk       0.3376
run        0.3816
walk       0.1388
run        0.1911
cool-down  0.1332

total run  0.5727
total walk 0.6096
total      1.1823

That's it -- Van and I ran four tenths of a mile along Man O'War (to the street that was my goal), walked till we were ready to again and ran back to my street to cool down. The last tenth of a mile running was probably the worst of the whole run!

I feel good.

Fitness Challenge -- How I've Lost the Weight

Some people have asked me how I've lost weight, and I thought I would share some notes on that here.

Began eating breakfast. This was nor the norm in the past. At the advice of my dietitian friends, I have made this primarily consist of high-fiber cereals. These include brands like All-Bran, Fiber One, and their generic counter-parts. Initially I was pretty hardcore about doing this and avoiding cereals that I had something other than bran flakes or nuggets. I would add blueberries to make it tastier. I found that I really did eat less cereal - I could fill up on one bowl - unheard of in the past. After a few weeks of that (You try eating "Bran Buds" for a few weeks), I switched to Muesli, which is still high-fiber but adds oats, nuts, fruit, that kind of thing. It is much more sustainable. The name-brand high fiber cereals can be expensive so I stock up when they're on sale.

Cut out sweet tea and non-diet soft drinks. When I'm not drinking water or milk, I sweeten tea with Splenda or order diet soft drinks.

Cut back on bread and other starches. Obviously this isn't full-blown Atkins, but I am more likely to try to choose eating some extra turkey bacon or eggs rather than eating another biscuit (as delicious as they are). I have largely avoided potatoes and really limit myself on eating extra bread with a meal, like croissants.

Cut back or eliminate sweets. I don't eat sweets very often now, but today, for example, I had a low-fat yogurt milk shake at Steak-N-Shake. A nice substitute! My replacement for snacking has been high-fiber granola/cereal bars. Fiber One and some other companies make good options here.

My beautiful wife supports me. Have I mentioned that Ashlee is a Pampered Chef consultant and a wonderful cook? She could be my downfall or my savior in all of this. She has scoured recipe books for healthy options that would still be appetizing. Mmmmm...

Replace or supplement meals with salads. I used to hate salads and eventually I grew to tolerate them -- with Ranch dressing. Last year, I believe at Thanksgiving, I had a fruit and walnut salad at Jeremy and Karissa's. I liked it! With a raspberry vinaigrette dressing and crumbled feta cheese over fresh spinach, it was actually good! It turns out I like spinach more than normal ice berg lettuce anyway, and I hear it's better for you. We buy lite dressing to cut out some calories. I don't mind eating this as a meal, or eating it before the "real" meal to make me eat less of the "real" food.

Avoid fried foods. This hasn't been too hard. Even when Ashlee and I went to B-Dubs a few weeks ago, I was able to get some very tasty "naked tenders".

Exercise. Admittedly, this has been my weakest area. I'm becoming more inspired as I am afraid I am getting closer to plateauing on the scales. My first week of the Fitness Challenge I was at Student Life camp -- I walked all over the campus! (And lost 13 pounds!) After that I didn't do so well. Ashlee and I walked together for about half an hour ~ 3 times during the next two weeks, and then not even that. A few weeks ago I began playing tennis once a week, until this past Sunday. As I wrote earlier this week, I went running. I continued doing that each day, Sunday through Wednesday, approximately 1.5 mi per day. I alternate between running and walking. I run until it's difficult for me to run further, then I walk until I have my breath back and system collected. (Sounds very scientific I know.) I'm hoping I will be able to slowly build up to more running and less walking. I've sought a running companion and my stocky Vietnamese friend Van is going to start running with me on Monday. So honk if you see an overweight white guy and a stocky Vietnamese fellow gasping for air running down Man O' War.

Well there's a quick run-down. As I look at the list, it seems like many of these things aren't terribly hard to do. I think the change in drinks alone saves me quite a few calories. Splenda is certainly not the same as sugar in tea, but I think it will be worth it.

Got any tips for me?

I'm all ears. Especially on the running -- I am such a nerd, I read web sites to learn how to run.

Fast Company on Whateverlife.com

I was fascinated by this article.

Excerpt:

At 17 going on 37 (at least), Ashley is very much an Internet professional. In the less than two years since Whateverlife took off, she has dropped out of high school, bought a house, helped launch artists such as Lily Allen, and rejected offers to buy her young company. Although Ashley was flattered to be offered $1.5 million and a car of her choice--as long as the price tag wasn't more than $100,000--she responded, in effect, Whatever. :) "I don't even have my license yet," she says.

Ashley started whateverlife.com.

Fitness Challenge Update -- Week 7

This past week was a small week for weight loss -- I only lost one pound. However, I am glad for the forward motion. Two weeks ago I lost the same amount, but then I lost five pounds. I take some solace in the fact that I have heard that weight that is lost very quickly is more likely to return.

However, I'm also afraid that I am beginning to plateau, and this is spurring me on toward actually digging in to some form of exercise. I have been playing tennis with my friend Kenny each Sunday night, but this past Sunday a storm was predicted for Lexington, and we canceled. Stewing over my need to exercise, and already dressed for tennis, I headed out the door to go for a run.

For the guy who was about one hundred pounds overweight a few weeks ago, that's a big step. (No pun intended). I alternated walking and running three or four times in a loop through our neighborhood. It wasn't so bad!

I followed the same course the following night, and then today I ran in my church's gym. With the help of Gmaps Pedometer I was able to determine that my course took me over about a mile and a half.

I'm trying to figure out when/how it will get easier for me to run for a larger percentage of the time. I read and heard from friends that it is important to have good shoes -- otherwise you can have injuries/pain. Unfortunately that costs some cash -- but they all say to do it anyway. Maybe if I can keep at this for a couple of weeks it will justify the need and then if I buy the shoes I will feel guilty if I don't run!

Got any tips for me? I've been reading lots of running sites and -- this may sound silly -- reading inspirational stories of other people's success running. I really think it has led me to want more to actually do this running thing!

Related links:

• RunnersWorld.co.uk - a vast forum here with lots of Q&A
• Run 131 - a man in Louisville has set out to run 131 marathons in 131 consecutive days -- all to raise money for injured marine vets. Check it out! He has posted updates through Run #48. Can you imagine???
• Gmaps Pedometer

Seth Godin on Really Bad Powerpoint

I think that we in the church world have a lot we could learn from Seth Godin. I realize that there is a sentiment that we should avoid learning from marketing gurus -- the Gospel is not a product we sell. I think that Godin's idea of marketing is a lot closer to what we want to be as the Church though -- when He talks about people being the medium of delivery for your message -- man, I hope that my life is transformed enough that A) people ask and B) I talk about it. (1 Peter 3:15) I hope I'm what he calls a "sneezer".

Anyway, if you are a Powerpoint user check out this post from Godin. I'm guilty of breaking some of the rules he talks about! I think this is especially relevant for those of us who work with Middle Schoolers -- how much is 7 lines of bulleted text really going to make a 7th grade boy think?

Excerpt:

The home run is easy to describe: You put up a slide. It triggers an emotional reaction in the audience. They sit up and want to know what you’re going to say that fits in with that image. Then, if you do it right, every time they think of what you said, they’ll see the image (and vice versa).

See more Seth Godin here.

Fitness Challenge Update -- Week 6

Today's weigh-in brought me to 21 pounds total lost, and 2.8 units on the BMI scale. I am 22% of the way toward my weight-loss goal and have averaged 4.2 pounds/week. I would love to simply continue at that rate -- I hear that if one loses weight extremely quickly, it often comes back.

My friend Kenny has been playing tennis with me the last couple of weekends (thanks Kenny!) which has given me some exercise. I need to do more, but I'm glad to have the tennis -- it's a lot more fun than running or getting on a machine.

My "arch-nemesis" on our church staff did not weigh in with us this morning, but unless he overtook me this week, I'm leading the men's category for the week. :-)