Wednesday, October 14

Live Healthy: The hardest thing?

When I lose this weight, will it be the hardest thing I've ever done?

On the one hand, yes: I can't think of anything I've tried and failed at so much.

On the other hand, surely not. I've done other hard things, right? Earning my Master's degree required a lot of perseverance.

What do you think? Is losing weight so hard? Is it hard for you? Am I forgetting something harder?

Diary

Down to 200.5 on the scale today, so that's good, but I'm not counting it until I get to 200. Gotta' keep fighting it down!

Exercise is still going well. I rode 20 miles again on Sunday and I feel ready for my 40 mile ride coming up. I jogged 2.6 miles last night at the fastest pace I've done so far: 11:18 min/mi. That included a 1 minute walk break for every 4 minutes of jogging. One more jog and two more rides before my 40 miles ride coming up. Feeling good about it.

My preliminary goal for jogging is to get back to 3 miles in 30 minutes (comfortably and conversationally). Doubt I'll reach the comfortable part by the Sleigh Bell Trot on 11/24, but we'll see. If the training continues to go ok, I'll probably shoot for 3 miles in 30 minutes even if it wipes me out.

Oh, yeah. By the way, I did register for the Sleigh Bell Trot 5K. Crazy ;-)

Something I'm wondering about (that I've maybe written about before): Is it harder to lose weight when you're working out so much? In effect, I'm pursuing two goals at once: better fitness and weight loss. Working out can certainly make you hungrier (though I think I've been doing a pretty good job of not eating everything in sight ;-)

For example, Saturday and Sunday I burned about 1000 calories in exercise alone. But then you have to be disciplined to not overeat. It was kind of fun to have second breakfast, though, both days. Saturday was cold pizza and Sunday was 500 calories of toast, cheese and cashews. Hit the spot! :-)

2 comments:

Jim said...

Weight loss is great, but being healthy is better. I've seen this argument lately, that weight loss and exercise don't mix. It sounds like such BS to me. Weight loss is always a calorie deficit. So they argue you get too hungry when exercising? Bull...if you do, it's temporary anyway.
One of the things I loved about triathlon was that I HAD to eat more...woo! It got so if I skipped desert for a week I'd drop 5#s easy...that was an excessive level of training for me, but I know people my age who still do it 2-3 Ironman races per year...it's a great life style.
But food craving during times when you are bumping up training levels will subside, and your metabolism will start to run faster (it has to). And the combination can't be beat. Remember I told you I knew someone on "The Biggest Loser"? He has lost over 100#s and is training for a marathon. He already does half marathons (at 250+ lbs.) Exercising absolutely the way to go.

Sean Meade said...

thanks for the support, Jim! i think fitness has maybe slowed my weight loss, but i think of it as doing two things at once, so they'll both be a little slower. and i'm very happy with my fitness work, and proud of myself, too. now i'm a fit person who is emerging from a shell of fat ;-)