Man-Beast to Marathon

Cord the Seeker said:
That's.... an astonishing amount of weight loss is such a short time.

I'm only losing at less than half that rate - I'm envious. :)
Seriously, welll done, and I hope things continue to go well for you.

How many calories do you eat in a day? Just curious.


Oh, and having read your previous journal posts, I now really want one of those bacon buger dogs....
Click to expand...
I eat probably 1500 calories per day. Sometimes on weekends I might be eating something where I can't really track the calories, but I still try to stay smart, maybe slightly over 2000 on those days. Only a couple of times since June 1st have I sat down with a pound of chicken tenders (football tailgating, can't help it), so on those days, who knows, but those are rare exceptions. It may sound like a small amount of calories but I don't feel I undereat. On an average weekday, I wake up and have a slimfast (because I can't bring myself to cook in the morning). Then I go to work and I bring food with me (a frozen meal for lunch, smartones or lean cuisine, and 4 snacks for throughout the day such as apple sauce, carrots, light string cheese, low fat graham crackers, special k crackers, ricecakes, yogurt, etc.). When I get home I'll have a tuna sandwich on a wheat wrap or pita with 2% cheese and light mayo. Later on I'll have a salad with light dressing and some more small snacks, or usually I'll grill a Purdue perfect portions chicken breast and have that on a wheat wrap with fat free refried beans, salsa, and lettuce. I'll usually snack on other stuff like sugar free jello and pirate's booty too.

The real secret is the workout though. You've gotta push yourself. Keep going until you don't think you can go anymore... that's when you'll know you're done warming up.
 
Now that was an intense workout.

My routine on the treadmill is 45 minutes everyday. 5 minutes warming until I reach a 4.0 speed and 2.5 incline at the 5:00 mark. I walk at that pace until the 10:00 mark and then turn the incline to 3.5. At 12:00, it goes back down to 2.5, at 17:00 back up to 3.5 and so on. 5 minutes at 4.0/2.5 followed by 2 minutes of 4.0/3.5 until the 40:00 mark when I start to cool down. The speed and incline used to be less and have gradually increased as I've lost weight.

But somewhat recently, I decided to amp it up with a run at the end of each workout. I find that instead of trying to run to a certain time, it's more motivating to run for the length of a song on my ipod. I usually try to find a good song in the 4:00 range and run for the length of that. But today, when "Demons Out" by Art Brut ended, I wasn't ready to stop, so I continued running through "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance" by Vampire Weekend. That made it close to 9:00 of running at a mile pace of about 9:25. Nearly a mile at a decent pace... not bad for a 310 pound guy.

The thing it got me thinking about though, was my obsession with finishing. Once that second song started, I knew I would have to run until the end of it. I always finish. Looking back in my life, it's nearly a compulsion. When I was running track in high school, I remember running a leg of the 4X400 not long after finishing my 1600. By the last 100M, my legs felt like logs. Heavy and numb. But I kept churning through the finish. I've never brought leftovers home from a restaurant. When you put something in front of me, I'm going to finish it. There have been so many times I've continued to eat after being full, after the food stopped tasting good, because I felt some subconscious duty to finish. Now, I just put smaller portions of food in front of myself, because I know I'm going to finish them.

The next thing for me to finish is losing weight. I can't envision myself drifting off of my plan, or giving up on a workout, or pigging out for a week because I can't help but finish this. I'm going 4 quarters, 60 minutes, playing to the whistle.
 
Down to 305.8 this morning.

I've heard before that it's a common thing for people who lose a lot of weight to go clothes crazy. I bought some new clothes last week and it's awesome. Down 10 inches on waist size and several sizes in shirt size. Allowed me to get a wider variety of stuff that I really like for less money. I look damn good if I can say so myself. I can definitely see myself with an absurd amount of clothes one day when all the weight is gone. Feels so much better to wear things that fit well, rather than wearing things baggy and looking sloppy like I did before.
 
Down to 301.2 this morning. Almost out of the 300 club.

Fiance and I have our engagement photo session tomorrow. Been putting a couple outfits together for it and need to shop for one more piece today. I actually don't hate shopping for clothes anymore, so it's not that bad. Have recently turned up the intensity on my workout again to 4.2 speed, with 3.0 to 4.0 incline for 40 minutes, followed by about 8 minutes running at 6.5. Burning about 750 calories per workout. Had to turn it up as I found my heart rate had slipped down into the 110s with the old workout... weight loss has picked up a bit since I jacked it up.

I'm also getting better at making healthy food taste better. Made an omelette this morning with egg beaters, fat free Kraft shredded cheese, and Healthy Choice ham coldcuts. Not bad.
 
Weighed in at 297.4 this morning... been out of the 300s for about a week now, have been hovering at 297-298.

So today I signed up to run a 5K this upcoming Sunday, the 25th. I used to run in high school, but I've never run an official 5K before. All my working out throughout my weight loss has been mainly uphill walking, with running thrown in at the end, I hadn't really run more than a mile at a time. So today I figured I needed to put myself to the test to see if I can handle this 5K. I was able to finish a 5K on the treadmill today, running the whole time, in 30:30. Not great, but I shouldn't completely embarrass myself either. I've got a friend running with me, and I'm really looking forward to it. Wish me luck. Also, why don't I get any friggin comments on here anymore?
 
So, I don't mean to spam the board, but... I signed up for the Jolly Jaunt Boston 5K on December 5th. This is a fundraising event for Special Olympics Massachusetts, which is a cause I really care about. I'm trying to raise as much money as I can to go towards this program. I provide an awesome weight loss journal free of charge, this is the least you could do, right?
 
Down to 289.8 this morning.

Ran my first 5K race yesterday. It was awesome. Don't have an official time yet but I think about 33 minutes. Not great, but I'm just glad I was able to run the whole thing without stopping. I wasn't sure how to pace myself, so I kept running behind certain people and then I'd find they were going to slow and I'd end up passing them and following someone else. Because of this my first mile was actually my slowest, and I still had enough in the tank to sprint the last 2/10 of a mile or so. Hopefully I can consistently improve. I'm already signed up for more 5Ks nearly every weekend through mid December.
 
Congrats on hitting the 200's and for running your first race.

Your story is a major inspiration. You need to go on Oprah or something.
What's your goal weight?

(And how tall are you?)
 
Congratulations on your first race! I want to do a 5K, but living up north I think I may have to wait until spring comes. I'm about the same weight as you. Nice to see a fellow big-man (soon to be former) running races.

Do you use the heart rate monitors on the treadmill? Or do you have one of your own? I found the ones on the bikes work great, but I can never get the treadmill ones to work. Maybe b/c my hands are so sweaty.
 
I'm 6-2, and my goal weight is 220 I think. I could go lower than that but I don't know how extra skin or such may effect my weight so 220 is a conservative goal, 205-210 a bit of a stretch maybe. I've been 200 before and I may have been a bit underweight at that point.

I use the handle heartrate monitors on the treadmill. I sweat like no other, but the treadmills at my gym are pretty new and the heartrate handles seem to work well.
 
Down to 286.6 this morning.

Got my 2nd 5K coming up on Sunday. Have run about 9 miles overall this week and I think I'm improving my form and endurance, so hopefully I can improve my time this time out. Weather won't be as ideal as last weekend though, so that could hold me back a little bit. Random thought: went out to pick up a Halloween costume yesterday for parties tonight and tomorrow night... is there anything more corny than the people who model Halloween costumes on their packaging or on the store's website? Seriously, go to iparty.com or target.com and look at the people modeling the costumes and see if you can fight the urge to punch your computer screen.
 
So the official time for my first 5K on 10/25 was 33:15. I had another one this past Sunday, 11/1, and I brought my time down to 32:27. Ran 4 miles on the treadmill today (stupid time change means it's too dark to run outside after work now) at 1.0 incline... under an 11:00/mile pace. Next 5K is this Saturday, 11/7... yeah I'm pretty much doing one every week. Hoping to keep inching my time down each time out.
 
Congrats on the new 5K personal best! I've been looking all over for one to sign up for, but think I'm going to have to wait until Spring. You're lucky to have one EVERY weekend.
 
Yeah, there's a great running scene in the Boston area. I'm sure you use runningintheusa.com, right? Looks like the closest one to you this upcoming weekend is in Madison, still a bit of a drive away I guess.
 
Down to 282.8 this morning.

Also, I ran my 3rd 5K (and 3rd in as many weekends) this morning. Two weeks ago I ran a 33:15, last week I ran a 32:27, and this week I knocked it out of the park with a 30:37! That's some serious improvement in two weeks time. And, I've had a cold that I'm still feeling the effects of, so to run that time with a cold in 40 degree weather is even better. No race next weekend. Time to train hard for 2 weeks until 11/21, and see if I can set another PR in that 5K.
 
Down to 280.2 this morning.

Last night I ran fartleks on the treadmill for the first time. I did the first half of a 4 mile run at a steady pace and then decided to incorporate the fartleks. They kinda suck, but also kinda help me get through a run quicker. With the switch to standard time and the New England winter approaching, the only time I can run outside is in races and on weekends... at least the fartleks give me something to focus on doing while on the treadmill. 4 miles in 42:30. Oh, and I found a race I really really want to do. In July, there's a 200 mile relay across Massachusetts... 36 legs... teams of 12. Now if I could just find 11 people as crazy as me.
 
I love this journal! I just registered with these forums today, but your story is so inspirational! I'm starting out at 330lbs. right now, and I am also engaged to be married next year ... October. I'm hoping that I'll be able to be at least back to my high school weight of 245 ish by the time it rolls around.

Keep up the great work, it is inspiring.
 
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