Day 132: The Reflex Fle Fle Fle Fle Flex

Update: 208.2 lbs, 50 lbs so far, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124.

So it's a rainy Friday, and I really don't have much in the way of big news, inspiring words, dog chasing stories, or really anything worth reading. If I were you, I'd just stop now, and go Google the new iPhone or something, you'll probably gain more useful knowledge that way. I've still got Duran Duran on the brain from this morning's Shuffle playlist.

It was raining a bit this morning when I woke up, the first day of summer vacation for all of our kids. Between the rain, and unlaundered bike clothes (really only need the shorts, but I DO need those) I decided to not exercise this morning. Then I walked by a mirror without my shirt on, and decided TO exercise this morning. Threw on my shoes, sweats and my N-Gage Lara Croft Tomb Raider t-shirt (pretty sure this is some sort of collectors item now) and went for a three mile wog. Not really a jog, little bit better than a walk...it's a wog.

Gotta say, I still don't like running, or in my case, trying to run. The walking part I don't mind, but I took my heart monitor today and noticed I basically hovered around 120 bpm if I wasn't jogging more, as opposed to being on the bike where I think I hover more in the 145 range. But I was glad to be out...just not sure if or when I'll be able to carry the running part of a duathlon -- I may just have to team up and do the biking part.

On another note, it's moving day at the office...in fact, our office has been a shambles for the past two weeks with construction and people in and out. After we move, I'm headed to the beach overnight with a couple vans of middle school kids and CraveHizzle staff to celebrate the promotion of our 8th grade buddies. And then summer vacation really begins...or as I like to call it around here, Summer Madness 07. I think between the three school aged kids, we have 8 camps they are attending, a couple concert festivals, tons of parties and overnight trips, our own camping trips (ha! yeah, not looking great right now) and perhaps even a trip for one of them to Texas for a couple weeks. We're gonna need the school year to recoup from the summer vacation.

Well, like I said, nothing really useful here today. Gotta go get ready to burn more calories moving junk from one office to the next. Happy Summer vacation to y'all.

Hasta.

Day 130: Could I Do A Du?

Update: 208.2 lbs, 50 lbs so far, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124.

In my current contemplation of where to go from here, I had a new wild hair come into the radar. I wonder if I could actually pull of a duathlon? This may be the craziest idea I've let enter my big mushroom-haired head in a long time.

I've never had any desire to compete in any kind of endurance athletics before in my life. I'll be honest, until recently, playing 18 holes of golf would wear on me...and that's with riding in a cart. Going up a flight of steps or two could get me breaking out in a subtle mist, and frankly I think I could work up a sweat just eating. More of a FlabbyMan, than an IronMan for sure.

Lately though, I've really been loving the bike, and getting in 12-20 miles every other day, and sometimes every day, is becoming the norm for me as I continue to work exercise into my normal routine. I still don't love running, and actually can't even really run right now, it's more of a fast walk / job combo thing I've got going on. And forget swimming of any sort, it just ain't gonna happen for reasons too many to list. But since a duathlon is comprised of biking and running I thought maybe, just maybe I could put one of those on the radar for some future date.

I was reading about one in Portland that is 3 miles running, 15 miles cycling, then 3 miles running again. The 15 miles cycling is no problem, I'm doing that now. But the running would take some training, and I don't know how long it would take to get from the burning feeling I have in my lungs now when I run for more than a couple hundred yards, to being able to run 3 miles without stopping. Hmm, now that I put it that way, I'm not sure I even want to go down the path to get from point A to point B there....that's a lot of lung burning in the process. They DO have team duathlon options too...maybe that's the route for me. No pain, no gain and all that.

Anyway, still thinking....

Hasta.

Day 129: Balance Daniel-san, Balance!

Update: 208.2 lbs, 50 lbs so far, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124.

I've been looking to the inner-Miyagi for guidance in today's posting. Looking to offer you, the loyal readers, a little 'balance Daniel-san, balance!' So you don't end up all wet behind ear!

Yesterday was a crazy day. Up at 5 for a quick ride before I was even really awake. Then home to get kids moving and off to school. Then down to the office first thing for a big project that was due, where John and I were until about 11 pm last night. I stayed within my target calories for the day, but the eating was sporadic, and I felt like I was on a food rollercoaster...getting pretty good and hungry, and then jamming a bunch of food in. Yesterday was a special case, but there are definitely days where I know I'm not doing myself much good, even if I think I'm eating well.

According to an article I was reading on MSN this morning, - The Skinny on Fat - I need to really find some more balance in my eating. By running out first thing and burning a bunch of energy, without the fuel to really power it, apparently I run the risk of just burning up muscle tissue. Then when I come home and eat more than enough calories to fuel it, I'm storing up fat! Not the best way to keep my eyes on the prize. Author Lou Schuler says:

We try to run on empty for hours, then dump in more fuel than we can handle. Benardot's research shows how self-destructive this strategy is.

Let's say you really want to lose fat, and decide to jog first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach. "The easiest way to get energy is to break down muscle mass," Benardot says. Your body can convert specific amino acids the building blocks of muscle to glucose, the sugar that powers human activity. "Someone running before eating may actually be breaking down the very tissue he's trying to improve. Sounds counterproductive to me."

Call it the "muscle loss" diet.

The second way is probably more typical of most of us. You can call this one the "fat gain" diet. You wait a long time between meals, and then, when you're ravenously hungry, you wipe out an entire buffet line. This guarantees that you'll get a larger surge of the hormone insulin than you ordinarily would. That means more fat storage.

And you can probably combine the "muscle loss" and "fat gain" strategies and turn your body into a perfect muscle-burning, fat-storing machine. Hard exercise slows down appetite in the short term, but as you get used to it, your appetite matches your exertion level. So if you go out and run 10 miles on an empty stomach, then eat enough to fuel a 15-mile run, the net effect is that you've lost muscle on the run and gained fat from the postrun meal.

He then goes on to give a few tips, which make a lot of sense:

1. Eat as soon as you wake up in the morning.

2. Make sure you eat something before you exercise, no matter what time of day it is.

Not only does the food prevent your muscle tissue from becoming cardio chow, but it increases the number of calories you burn during and after exercise. A 1992 study at Arnot-Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, New York, shows that exercise following a meal enhances metabolism.

3. Eat soon after exercising, when your body has depleted its energy stores. Act fast, or you'll start burning muscle for energy.

4. Eat a total of five to six small meals a day.

I've been pretty good about trying to do #4 above, but making sure I'm fueling up at proper times hasnt' been high on my priority list. Sadly, I think I fall into that category of becoming a muscle-burning, fat-storing machine. And honestly, I mastered the fat storing thing a long time ago, so I don't need to work harder to just do that again!

So today, I had my peanut butter and honey toast FIRST THING, as I type this up for you today, and am going to try to fuel up at all the right times. Now if I can just catch a fly in my chopsticks, I'll be good to go!

Bonzai!

Day 128: Where To Next?

Update: 208.2 lbs, 50 lbs so far, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124.

So, I hit this goal last week, and I still can hardly believe I did it, but sure feels good to set a goal and get there...especially one that basically removes a panda-sized amount of fat from my body. So after taking two days away from the blogosphere, the question is...where to next?

I spent most of my rainy morning ride contemplating the next goal. After hitting 50 lbs I realized I've still got a decent amount of baby fat going on...as in "oh baby, that's still a bunch of fat hanging around." Of course, I feel great, and feeling better all the time, but I think there's still a little work to be done. When we got married, I was in that 185 range, but I'm not sure I'm gonna get all crazy like that about it. At the same time, I am still riding as close to every day as I can, and counting the calories, so who knows for sure what will happen by end of summer. Some of that fat should be replaced by muscle, which can/will actually weigh more, and that's actually cool with me too.

I think for now I'm setting a new mini goal -- getting under 200 lbs. I think it's been at least 10 years since I was under 200 lbs, and maybe even longer. That's just an 8.2 lbs loss, so I probably need to shoot for 198.2, so I will have lost an even 260 lbs, and then actually reach two mini goals in one effort. Also, the LiveStrong is now just about 3 months and 2 weeks away, so I need to start getting some longer rides in for training as well, and it turns out that one of the rides I was looking forward to as part of the effort -- a 40 mile round trip with homemade scones at the halfway mark -- is no longer on the table. Sorry to break it to the other half of team N-Lo, but I just recently heard that lady is out of the scone making business. But I think there's still a Circle K along the way that has 3 for 1 corn dogs.

That's it for me, big project due, kids to get to school, and the sky is grey not blue, so good day from me to you.

Hasta.

Oh yeah, how do you celebrate a 50 lb weight loss goal? A weekend of 36 holes of golf, 50+ miles of riding, and of course, Paddingtons. Ah yeah.