About that water, eh?

Another thing I should be doing more of: drinking water.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN answered a reader's question regarding drinking water and losing weight asking if drinking more water helps you lose more weight. I always thought that dieting websites and articles said to drink more water in order to lose weight because people will do anything those articles say, especially if it's as easy as that. And so mentioning it in an article would be a simple way of getting a generally dehydrated population to drink more of the good stuff, instead of there actually being any body of evidence that shows more water means more weight-loss.

Anywhos, I was wrong. Dead wrong. A couple studies published by Dr. Brenda Day, associate professor of human nutrition, foods and exercise at Virginia Tech, showed that not only did "people who drank water before meals [eat] an average of 75 fewer calories at that meal" but also that "people who drank two glasses of water 20 to 30 minutes before every meal lost weight more quickly initially and lost significantly more weight than those who didn't."

As Dr. Gupta quickly calculated, eating 75 fewer calories at lunch and dinner for a year would result in a loss of 14.5 pounds over that year! Wow...and all due to drinking more water.

Dr. Gupta also explained that sometimes thirst can be mistaken for hunger by our bodies and so we overeat when instead we are just thirsty. And lastly, "water-based foods like soups, vegetables and low-fat dairy, which are equally important for weight loss, as they lower the calorie density of meals. That can help you reduce calories without reducing portions."

And I almost forgot: "In addition, being even 1 percent dehydrated can cause a significant drop in metabolism." Whoa. That's nuts.

Anywhos, it's good that it's winter soup weather and I'm a big fan of dairy. Now I just have to focus on the two glasses of water 30 minutes before dinner and I should be set. I mean, I'm already a big water drinker but I definitely don't drink right before eating so that's something new to try.

Apparently morning people have it made

I absolutely love mornings, and if it weren't for my obsession with sleep, I'd most definitely be a morning person. Lately, well, prior to going home for Thanksgiving and losing all motivation to exercise, The Roommie and I had been getting up in the mornings to go for runs. Although I'm not a fan of running and definitely don't like getting out of my toasty bed to go out into the freezing sunrise (you'd think those two would be complete deal-breakers), I really enjoyed getting my exercise out of the way and the resulting feeling of being energized for the rest of the day. And having already been up for a while, I was much more likely to eat breakfast, which has been a problem for me for years.

And now, there's an article in the New York Times, called "The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast" which mentions a study published in The Journal of Physiology that suggests that exercising intensely in the morning before breakfast has greater health benefits than exercising after eating or not exercising at all. As the article states, "working out before breakfast directly combated the two most detrimental effects of eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet [which are increased insulin-resistance and storage of fat in the muscles]. It also helped the men avoid gaining weight."

Granted, it was done on 28 healthy men and they did high intensity workouts ranging from 60 to 90 minutes, neither of which apply to me...or most anybody else. But the take-home message is that "exercising in a fasted state (usually possible only before breakfast), coaxes the body to burn a greater percentage of fat for fuel during vigorous exercise, instead of relying primarily on carbohydrates."

BUT..."Exercising on an empty stomach is unlikely to improve your performance during that workout."

So for me, that's good since at the moment I'm just running to burn calories and get my butt off the couch. I'm not trying to improve my time, per se. Rather, I'm going to the ability to complete some sort of mileage and my workouts aren't nearly long enough to cause bonking due to exercising on an empty stomach.

Yet another incentive to start getting up early again, I suppose.

I'm just going to ignore the part that says, "The researchers also don’t know whether the same benefits will accrue if you exercise at a more leisurely pace and for less time than in this study." And stick with the commentary of Leonie Heilbronn, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia, who has extensively studied the effects of high-fat diets, regarding the study: “I would predict low intensity is better than nothing.”

If only I could get my run fitness and finger back, I'd be golden

Yes, I haven't written in a very long time. Yes, you could say I've fallen off the wagon. No, I haven't gained weight!

After slacking for over two weeks, which doesn't include the week I spent at home because I kicked butt there, I weighed myself this morning with great trepidation. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to see 213.0 on the scale. That's a 4-lb. loss from about three weeks ago when I last weighed myself. It's still not enough to keep up with my planned 5% loss by this week (I should be at 209.0), but I'll take it, considering I haven't been watching what I eat and have been sitting on the couch for two weeks.

About that sitting on the couch thing...I do have a somewhat legitimate excuse for the first week. But before I get into that, I would like to congratulate myself on my stupendous commitment to running while I was home for Thanksgiving. I made it out of the house four times, and all those runs were super hard: 3' jog 1' walk x 8 or 9, depending on the day. Prior to that I'd been doing 2' jog 2' walk x 6 or 3' jog 2' walk x 7, so nothing like the runs at home. And although it took a lot of self-pep-talking to get through each of my runs at home, the moral of the story is that I did it. And super fast! I'd gotten my pace down to a sub-10' mile for the entirety of the run, and about an 11' mile when you include the walking parts. It was pretty awesome. I'm sure coming down to sea level from 5000 feet made a huge difference, but whatever. It's still pretty cool.

And then I got back to Colorado and my laziness came back in full force. That, and my complete clumsiness in the kitchen and/or around fire derailed me from exercise for what should've only been about a week but has turned into two weeks and counting...

On Sunday night after Thanksgiving, I really wanted a pie. A pecan pie to be exact, and then I decided to make an apple pie as well. Bad decision. (We're foreign. We don't do Thanksgiving, and thus, no pies. Instead, I got lots of delicious Mom cooking, which I am very happy about, but alas, no pies.)

BEWARE!!! GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF BODILY INJURY FOLLOWS. SKIP TO NEXT CAPS IF YOU GET QUEASY EASILY.

The pecan pie was already in the oven when I started slicing the apples using a mandolin. You know, the horizontal thing that you slide whatever you want sliced across and a super sharp blade makes it all go effortlessly and quickly. Well, that handy super sharp blade also slices human tissue pretty effortlessly, as I found out that night.

Only three slices of apples in, I had cut off the tip of my finger. And by that I mean, a third of my pinkie nail, along with a large chunk of the skin was gone. If not for the extreme pain shooting up my arm and the large pool of blood on the floor (it looked like someone had died in our kitchen), I wouldn't have known anything was amiss and kept right on slicing, it was that easy.

A trip to Urgent Care followed and I was bandaged and doped up on a whole bunch of meds about 2 hours later. In case you're wondering, they don't reattach pinkies. I even brought my finger with me hoping they would. They don't.

END GROSSNESS.

So yes, I cut off the tip of my finger and a chunk of my nail on an apple slicer and it hurt a whole bunch for many days even with strong medication. To add insult to injury, we had to leave for Urgent Care before the pecan pie was done and we never finished that apple pie. Huge bummer. But I digress.

By the end of the week I probably would've been OK getting my blood going without serious pain but once I start sitting, I can't get my butt off the couch.

What bums me out the most is that I've lost most of the run fitness I'd worked so hard to build up. Apparently taking up to a week off is fine, but with more rest than that, you have to start slower and slower until about two weeks out when you're essentially at zero. And that's me right now.

The bright part is that my super speedy military friend is no longer doing the 10-mile race so I don't feel nearly as guilty being slow. I'm kind of unhappy about him not being there, but at least there's a silver lining. So now I'm going to focus on getting up to a 10k instead of 10 miles and go from there. I was getting a bit overwhelmed with that ginormous task earlier, but now I'm content.

I also think part of the problem is I'm bored with running up and down our block. We have plenty of bike paths around here, but they're all concrete, which is way too hard of a surface for me. I was getting shin splints from running on the sidewalks already so I don't want to risk that anymore. I may hit up some running trails around here instead, which aren't nearly as convenient as going out my front door to run, but they're more pleasant.

That's the plan, at least. I've also made a bike date for Thursday morning with my neighbor (not a real date at all, bummer) and am signing up for the swim team after the New Year. I'd been planning on starting swimming this month but then the finger thing happened and I haven't been able to put my scabby hand in the water for any extended period of time. So that's something to look forward to next month!

Oh, and another silver lining is this sitting around has cured all the ankle and shin problems I'd been ignoring and pushing through. So maybe cutting off my finger wasn't too bad...

And lastly, that photo is of me indoor skydiving. Gotta say, best birthday present EVER. I would never jump out of a plane, but put me in a wind tunnel and I'm happy as a clam.

Weekly Plans for November 2010

I like lists. And goals. So if it's on the list and part of a goal, I'm more likely to do it. Hence this page of weekly plans of exercise.

Overall, November 2010 was a very fluid month in that I rarely stuck to a scheduled workout but I did end up doing most of them. By the end of the month I was running a 5k at about a 10:00-10:30 min/mile pace (amazing!) and even got four workouts in when I was home for Thanksgiving. I was very proud of myself for that.

Unfortunately, December began with a horrendous apple slicing accident that kept me benched for two weeks and I had a hard time getting back on track. So there will be no weekly plans for that month.

But for now, here's an archive of my weekly plans for November 2010.

Key for colors is at the bottom of the post.

Week of 10/31: Run four times
Monday - Nada
Tuesday - C210K: Week Two, Day Two
Wednesday - Nada
Thursday - C210K: Week Three, Day One
Friday - C210K: Week Three, Day Two; C210K: Week Two, Day Three
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - C210K: Week Three, Day Three; C210K: Week Three, Day One

Week of 11/7: Run four times (and somewhat enjoy it)
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - C210K: Week Three, Day Two
Wednesday - C210K: Week Three, Day Three
Thursday - Rest
Friday - C210K: Week Four, Day One; C210K: Week Three, Day Three
Saturday - C210K: Week Four, Day Two
Sunday - Rest

Week of 11/14: Run five times (no more falling behind!)
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - C210K: Week Four, Day One
Wednesday - C210K: Week Four, Day Two
Thursday - C210K: Week Four, Day Three
Friday - C210K: Week Five, Day One
Saturday - C210K: Week Five, Day Two
Sunday - Rest; C210K: Week Four, Day Two

Week of 11/21: Run while in California
Monday - C210K: Week Four, Day Three
Tuesday - C210K: Week Five, Day One
Wednesday - C210K: Week Five, Day Two
Thursday - C210K: Week Five, Day Three; C210K: Week Five, Day Two
\Friday - C210K: Week Six, Day One
Saturday - Rest / Travel Day
Sunday - C210K: Week Six, Day Two

Key:
Accomplished day's exercise
Weekly goal
Amended weekly goal
Other exercise (non-goal oriented)
Regular get-some-movement-in filler exercise (not strenuous)
Added exercises (unplanned)
Comments regarding the week

Mental health days

I've had a pretty stressful couple of weeks with work and school having had too many deadlines and exams, so I needed a day off. And a friend suggested we head up to the mountains for our first day of the season. I don't have class Tuesdays and Thursdays and ditching work is not that difficult, so we decided to head up on Thursday. Good timing because they got 22" of fresh powder between Tuesday night and Thursday morning.

I'd planned on getting a run in before we left in the morning because I'm way behind with C210K, but my bed was warm, it was still dark outside, the moon was the wrong color, whatever excuse you think of, I used. This was the second day in a row that we'd agreed to go on a 6 am run and then bailed. I learned that I don't mind morning runs as long as the sun has risen, which is not the case at 6 am this time of year. So 6:45 and later is our time-frame from now on.

But I digress. The mountains were beautiful and the day was absolutely perfect. There weren't too many people so we got a lot of runs in and the snow was just right. The wind picked up a bit in the afternoon, but once you started going down a run, the mountain blocked it, so no problemo.

After snowboarding all day yesterday and eating healthy all week I was so excited to weigh myself this morning. But instead of the anticipated loss and much to my surprise, I gained two pounds and am now up to 216.5. This may be because I have yet to recover from Wednesday's drinkfest (it usually takes me about three days for my weight to stabilize and day two (today) is usually the highest weight-wise of the three) or maybe my muscles are recovering from a full day of snowboarding (my calves are burning!). Or I'm just not logging my food correctly. I don't know. It's weird. I'm totally off my goal of losing a pound a week so I may have to amend that yet again.

I'm hoping that it will drop down again tomorrow, but I'm also going out to celebrate a friend's PhD defense with the soccer girls, so that's not gonna help with the plan to stay away from booze one more day. And it's not like sticking to only one beer will prevent the alcohol water weight, so I may as well go all out, right? Well, not entirely logical, but still. It's annoying.

Breakfast challenges

I've started participating more in the forums on the 3 Fat Chicks forums recently because I feel like I need to be more involved that way to keep reminding myself that I need to make smarter decisions about food and not just write it down and say, "Oh shucks, I probably shouldn't have eaten that extra brownie, or had that extra beer."

The support on there is really amazing and I've learned so much about so many people and the struggles we all go through, as well as the ups and downs. Now I don't feel like a failure every time I slip up, or even due to the fact that I've been "losing weight" since freshman year of college (that would be September of 2003) and instead have gained over 50 pounds. So yeah, 3FC is cool.

BUT, I often find the challenges don't really apply to me or go along with what I need and want. If you can't tell from my blog entries over the summer and my recent sign-up for a 10-mile obstacle race (I don't expect you to because I'm sure no one actually reads or follows this blog), I'm a pseudo-masochist. I play rugby after-all.

Most of the challenges on 3FC, however, are weight-loss challenges. Like, "20 pounds lighter for New Years'", for example. Maybe I should get more intense about my weight-loss, but at the same time, I'm more so trying to change my lifestyle one step at a time instead of losing weight quickly and focusing on the numbers. I'm not ragging on these kinds of challenges at all. I think they're great. They're just not for me because they bring out the unhealthy I-need-to-lose-weight-fast-no-matter-what-the-cost part of me, and that usually doesn't last very long. I mean, look at my weight-loss history. I've been a yo-yo dieter and it obviously hasn't worked.

So, if you're still with me, the point of this entire entry is that I finally found a challenge that's perfect for me! It's a streak-based challenge where you pick something you will or won't do every day for 21 days and stick with it. If you mess up, you start the counter all over. Here is the "Every-Day" 21-Day Challenge explained even better.

Long story short, I've never been a good breakfast eater. I prefer to skip it and sleep in the extra 10-15 minutes. Always. The only time I eat breakfast is when I'm home and my mom makes it for me as soon as I wake up and I have nowhere to be so I can get up and eat as late as I want.

So my challenge is to eat breakfast every day. And since I've joined the thread, I've kept with it. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that the thread is THE ONLY reason I've kept with it, since I think 7 days is the longest I've ever gone for eating breakfast. I even got up a bit earlier today to pour myself some cereal before school. It's so weird. But I love it.

Since I've got the breakfast thing mostly down, I'm going to work on sticking to my exercise plan daily since this 10-mile race is sneaking up really fast on me and I've been slacking too much lately. So wish me luck!

And you should join the challenge as well. It totally works!

To Belize or not to Belize...and oatmeal

Honestly, I don't know what to do. About a month ago, I posted about being excited about going to Belize for a month in May and June, but the more I think about it, the more unsure I am. Above is a photo of the orphanage at which I may (possibly) be staying. It's pretty cool and warm and pretty, and especially more appealing now that there's snow on the ground over here. The other option is to head to Poland to visit family and go on a sailing trip, assuming my friends aren't getting married/otherwise occupied like last year. It's way more expensive but I think I'd enjoy it slightly more. I'm also kind of bummed that this much-needed long vacation will interfere with my tri schedule for the summer. So I need to take that into account. May is the perfect time to get out of Boulder, but it's also the prime tri training month. And I'm most definitely not taking my bike to Belize, or on a boat. That's just stupid.

In other news, the 7:03 morning run on Tuesday turned into the 7:45 morning run on Tuesday (that's how long it took me to get out of bed...yup, 45 minutes). But once we got outside it was so beautiful: The birds were chirping, the leaves were falling, and the sun was peaking out from behind the clouds. Absolutely beautiful and peaceful. The run itself was pretty hard even though it was just 2 minutes of running at a time. My legs felt heavy, but I didn't feel the urge to quit and ran everything without even thinking of stopping. So I'm getting back to my original excitement of C210K. Woohoo!

And I'm really glad we went before work, because within a half hour of us getting back, the skies had turned gray and it had begun to rain and sleet. And that continued all day, with the rain eventually turning into hail and then snow. Wow, great timing!

When we got done with the run, I had an intense craving for oatmeal, which never happens, and have been eating it for breakfast ever since (a whole three days). I think it's just the perfect food for this weather...comforting and filling.

I've been trying to find various takes on the classic oatmeal, since it's so bland just by itself. I always microwave it using milk and not water because I have an aversion to making anything on water, including hot chocolate...it becomes so watered down and tasteless. And oatmeal needs all the flavor it can get, so I also usually add a couple teaspoons of brown sugar to sweeten it up. So far I've had the following:

Banana and Brown Sugar
- Mix 1/2 cup oatmeal and 1 cup 2% milk and microwave for 3 minutes
- Add salt and brown sugar, to taste, and a small banana
- Nutrition info:
  Calories: 393
  Fat: 8 g
  Carbs: 74 g!
  Fiber: 6 g
  Protein: 9 g

- I should probably eat less of it and not use 2% milk, but with a goal of eating 1600 calories a day, this fits perfectly into my breakfast allotment of 400. I'm surprised the banana is so calorific and only contributes 2 g of fiber.
- Substitute water for milk and you cut out 122 calories (271 total). But I need my daily dairy otherwise my life is not complete.
- And 74 g of carbs?! Uh, oh. 

Cinnamon Apple (and Brown Sugar)
- Mix 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 cup 2% milk, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 diced apple (preferably McIntosh) in a bowl
- Cover and microwave for ~5 minutes
- Add salt and brown sugar to taste
- Nutrition info:
  Calories: 399
  Fat: 8 g
  Carbs: 77 g
  Fiber: 12 g!
  Protein: 9 g

- Same calorie concerns as before. Could be 277 calories without the milk, but again, I need dairy. And I don't mind eating a hearty breakfast. It keeps me from snacking until lunch, so I save many calories in the long run.
- 1 tsp of cinnamon has 4 g of fiber!!! I've been working on increasing my fiber intake lately (I don't eat nearly enough) so this is a HUGE selling point for the cinnamon apple oatmeal. And it's so freaking delicious.
- Again, so many carbs! Apparently an apple has 21 g of carbs, which is way too much, and the oats have 27 g.
- I'd been eating 3/4 cup of oats with 1.5 cups of 2% milk, which gave the whole meal 536 calories and 97 carbs, but I figured that's just too much. I was full for about 4 hours after eating so I took that as a sign that my breakfast was just way too big. So I'm going to try this 1/2 cup of oats thing in the morning and see how it goes.

I don't do 6s

Friday I did W2D3 of C210K (2' jog 2' walk x 6) and it was KILLER!!! I hated practically every minute of it and even stopped in the middle of one of the intervals because I was so fed up with running. But I pulled myself together and focused on putting one foot in front of the other and somehow made it through. It took all the will-power in the world to run, but I kept telling myself that I need to do this otherwise I will never get in shape. And somehow that pep-talk worked :)

And Sunday I had a 3' jog and 2' walk x 7 that was just as brutal mentally. It must've just been last week that's been so bad because I'd been so happy and positive about every other workout I've had, including other 2' and 3' runs.

I have been pretty stressed lately so maybe that's translating to my runs, but hopefully this week will be better. I was a little worried about the big jump from 2' running to now 3' running (what a difference a minute makes!) but I noticed it's essentially the same intervals for three more weeks, so I have time to get better at it. And here I thought I'd be up to 5 minutes next week. That would've been scary!

And tomorrow is another 2' jog 2' walk, which is such a relief. Since the weather for the next 36 hours looks like this:

 

And since we can't afford to skip anymore runs, it's looking like I'll be running at the bright and cheery hour of 7 am. Well, actually, it's going to be 7:03 am since I refuse to wake up in the 6s to torture myself go for a run, and 3 minutes should be plenty of time to get out the door.

A little about myself and my sleeping habits. Getting up early for me is 9 am. Maybe even 10 am, depending on the day. My job allows for this kind of flexibility so I tend to work at night when everyone else is asleep and there's nothing on TV to distract me from my work. School isn't flexible at all, which is why I resent it so much, among other reasons.

So yes, wish me luck. It's going to be brutal, mentally more so than physically. At least it's only 2 minutes of running at a time. And a hot pot of tea awaits me when I get home. :)

I believe in miracles

I forgot to mention this in my post last night, but when my roommate and I were doing our C210K workout yesterday (1 minute jog, 2 minute walk) we got our paces up (or down, I guess) to between 9:05 and 8:40...for all of them. And I still feel like I could've gone just a little bit longer. WOW!

I remember our first run about two weeks ago when I was DYING during the first couple 1 minute intervals. Like, thinking that this shouldn't be that hard. I mean, I felt like I could do a couple more intervals then, but not any faster. And most definitely not at that kind of speed.

I know it's just a one minute interval, but still. There's hope for me. I just need to keep pushing myself as hard as I can to get faster and fitter and maybe one day I will become a fast runner. So far, I'm becoming someone who enjoys running (after I get out the door first, of course), which is absolutely shocking to me. In a good way of course.

AND, another goodie that totally made my day. My fat percentage is down to 48.7%. Wowsers! And my lean mass increased even with some weight-loss. I am so on the right track. And so happy/relieved/understanding of my non-shifting scale. I have no idea where the muscle came from. Maybe from doing beer curls...or drunken slalom races? I don't know, but I'll take it!

Runner's high? Not quite...

Within the last two weeks I've really started following the Couch to 10k (C210K) program. And surprisingly, I've stuck with it! Although I couldn't really run this weekend because I was resting my ankle (the one I drunkenly injured almost four weeks ago), I really wanted to get out there. Today, on the other hand, I had no desire to go, but I had to.

You see, I'm doing the Tough Mudder: Austin race on January 29th and it's going to kick my butt if I don't get training. And since I'm essentially going from sitting on the couch to a 10-mile muddy obstacle course designed by British Special Forces, there is some fear and fire under my butt. So I've made an effort to get out there four times a week, minimum.

(The C210K Program is designed for three runs a week, but I don't have enough time, that is weeks, to finish it and get up to 10 miles by January 29th, so I decided to amend it and run four times a week instead. Shouldn't be too much of a biggie and hasn't been so far.)

My only issue so far (besides some lack of motivation) has been the ankle injury and now possibly knee pain. I don't know if the knee is due to compensating for the ankle or a nagging, recurring old rugby injury, but it has me somewhat worried. It could also be my shoes, which are fairly old and have taken their share of abuse, so I'm going to go to the running store this week and get fitted for a proper pair of shoes. I figure with my crappy ankles and surgically repaired knee (the gifts that rugby keeps on giving), $100 is not too bad of an investment in new and good running shoes.

Another problem could be running on concrete, which I've read is REALLY bad for your joints, so I may switch to asphalt (that is, the road) as often as possible. Lately I've been running up and down our quiet street, so I should be ok with cars, but I don't know what I'll do once the distances pick up. I've read that grass is supposedly perfect as a running surface as are trails, but I don't trust my ankles that much yet. I should work on strengthening them when I'm at home watching TV.

Wow, now I sound like an injured train wreck. It's actually not that bad, I just like to dwell on things.

As for eating...well, I haven't been doing too well. BUT, I also haven't been eating out nearly as much. I've just been cooking and eating enormous portions of beef stew and burgers, which is not so good for the calorie intake. So even though I've been burning a minimum of 2500 calories daily, I still haven't lost any weight. That could be because I've been drinking a lot lately and thus getting way more calories in that way as well as holding on to water for the daily weigh-in. So I'm going to weigh myself tomorrow and see where I'm at. Hopefully it's less that 217, because that was my weight a couple weeks ago and according to my GWF, I should be down at least a pound or two.

So here's to hoping!