Sweet and Sour

As you may have noticed, there was no post last Friday.  I felt extremely... odd that day.  Hard to focus, a little shaky, and generally unpleasant.  Thus, I didn't have the patience to sit down and write and fret over word placement.  Fortunately, I am feeling much better today.  This should be a very short post, however.  It's getting a bit late.

We missed a weigh in and today's run report.

Week VI Weigh In (has it really been six weeks since I started this?)

8 June 2012
Weight: 261
Waist: 49.5
Approximate BMI: 36%

Woot, woot.  That is a loss of 3.5 lbs, 1/2 an inch, and 1% down from last week and 12 lbs, 2.5 inches, and 2% from six weeks ago.  Awesome, right?  Guess how I celebrated?  C'mon, give me your best guess.  Music, comic book, a night out on the town?  Nay I say, Nay.  I ate a whole pizza and a pint of ice cream.

WHAT?!  Why in the world would you do that?!  Simple answer: I have no earthly idea.  I have two big food rules in my house: 1. No frozen pizza and 2. No Ice Cream.  Once I get my hands on either of those, I simply do not have the will power to resist them.  I don't know why I bought these two forbidden items.  I saw them, grabbed them, and then consumed them.  All in one sitting.  So, I ask you loyal readers, how do you overcome these kind of temptations?  If you have any tried and true methods of success, leave them in the comments.  Please and thank you!

And, quickly and with much finality (for this post at least), Run Report!  Fun Fact: This is my 13th run report!

Monday - 11Jun12
Time: 30:35
Distance: 2.23
Pace: 13:41 min/mi

Still trucking along, this time at the 2:4 interval.  I did have some slight numbness in both feet around the 25 minute mark and I blame that on inactivity this weekend and the stupid uphill section of my runs.  I swear, if I had a nice even road, that wasn't a track (because tracks are blah), I'd be a happy fat guy.

Until next time,

- Louie

The Vacation Sensation

Hello again.  Today's blog post will, hopefully, not be too long, but, I'm going to share my recent vacation to Utah.  There will be pictures, so, hopefully you don't mind looking at vacation photos.

Before I get into my vacation, it is Run Report time!  Monday I shared that I had an awesome cardio session, where I felt at ease and fast.  Here are the details of that again:

Monday - 4Jun12
Time: 30:55
Distance: 2.19
Pace: 14:05 min/mi

I was quite proud of myself because of those numbers.  Today I went with the 1:4 (run/walk) the whole time through with a total of 6 minutes of actual running on route #2 (downhill then uphill).  Here is today's run report:

Wednesday - 6Jun12
Time: 30:01
Distance: 2.44
Pace: 12:17 min/mi

And boom goes the dynamite.  I wanted to see how much I could actually push myself today and surprised myself with how far I went!  Now, I don't know if this will be my everyday run intensity (I was definitely breathing much harder than usual, but, not hazardously though), but, I'm going to try and push myself this hard at least once a week from now on.  I'm not sore at the moment, but, we shall see how I am fairing in the morning.  Friday I go back to the 2:4 ratio which is where I left off at before my hiatus.

Now, onto the vacation!  I will try to keep this as brief as possible.

So, I went to Sandy, Utah to visit my girlfriend, Manda, spend more time with her family, meet her friends, and to see the sights.  Sandy is about 800 miles away from where I live in Benson, AZ, or a 14 hour drive.  Oh yes, I drove.  Here's a map:

That looks pretty daunting, right?  Luckily, Manda, flew down from the top of Utah all the way down to my little town at the bottom of Arizona just to make the drive with Brodie and me.  That's right, you heard me, Brodie made the drive with us and was a well behaved big boy, both up there and back again.  It was great having Manda to keep me company and it was a great way to get to know her all the better.

(You have no choice but to talk on a 14 hour car drive)

Here are some highlights of the trip, once we made it to Sandy.  First up, Salt Lake City.

 (Brodie at one of the many fountains at the City Center)

 

(At the Cheesecake Factory, my first time ever)

(Reflection Pool)

(Salt Lake City Temple)

As you can gather from the above photos, we visited the Salt Lake City: City Center, ate at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, and admired/awed at the beautiful architecture at Temple Square.  Quick note about the Cheesecake Factory: they actually have some pretty healthy options.  I had a thin flat bread sandwich thingy and a goat cheese and beet salad (don't hate), and it was definitely under 800 calories and quite yummy.

We also went to a beautiful wedding reception for one of Manda's friends, Taraya, at the Springville Museum of Art.  It was a very cool place to hold a wedding reception and the bride admitted to me that she likes to read my blog.  Very cool.

Next up, Logan.  I only have one Logan picture, unfortunately.

(A great group of people. Also, notice how short I am compared to everyone else)

Do you see the abundance of green and the water in the background?  Logan is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to!  It is a little oasis tucked away in the mountains.  I am quite ashamed that I neglected to take more pictures of this place.  Bad me.  While we were there, we played an awesome lawn game called Koob.  It was super simple and super fun.  You can check it out here or make a set of your own.  I think I'm going to make one myself. 

One of my favorite parts of my trip was playing a board game I brought up with me.  Stay with me here, board games are awesome.  I'm not talking about Monopoly or Sorry! (although Sorry! is pretty fun).  The game I brought was Small World.

It's made by the same people who brought us Ticket to Ride (another great great board game).  You can check out Small World here.  The whole Burri clan, with the exception of Elliot (next time Elliot, next time), sat down and played a round.  It was a huge success (I won).

So, there you go.  I don't think there was a part of that trip I didn't enjoy.  Well, I didn't enjoy leaving, that kinda sucked.  

Friday brings us another weigh in and maybe some photos of me standing in front of the shower curtain.  Until next time.

- Louie

 

A Long Overdue Post

I am a bit ashamed on how I've neglected this blog as of late.  I now realize how easy it is to get distracted with life and throw things like blogging and exercise to the side.  I have to thank my wonderful sister who is one of my biggest inspirations for starting this, for reminding me that what I have been doing is important.

(Isn't that amazing? That's her on the left at 182 in Jan of 2011 and

present at 158!  She is awesome sauce to the 10th power.)

Tammy gave me some nice, friendly reminders that I hadn't posted anything in awhile and that was enough to kick my butt into gear and to write this.  Sad to say, I actually had to look back at my previous posts to figure out what I needed to discuss in this post.  With that said, I'd like to discuss my week IV and V weigh in's and give you today's long overdue run report.

I missed posting my weigh ins for both week IV and V!  How could I neglect this?!  Here is last weeks 

the weigh in from 18 May:

18 May 2012

Weight: 263

Waist: 50"

Approximate BMI: 36%

Just a reminder, that was a total weight loss of 10 pounds, 2 inches, and 2%.  So, here is week IV's results:

25 May 2012

Weight: 263

Waist: 50"

Approximate BMI: 36%

Wait... That's the same as week III.  Why is that?  That is because I did not do any cardio that week.  I was ramping up for my big vacation to Utah (that's a blog post for another time, tomorrow perhaps) and let my exercise slip.  Sure I didn't loose any weight, but, it showed me that my eating decisions were spot on and my metabolism was working like it should be.  So, here is Week V results:

01 June 2012

Weight: 264.5

Waist: 50"

Approximate BMI: 37%

Hold the phone... those numbers went up!  What gives?!  My thinking that my metabolism had stabilized itself and my eating choices were all I needed to maintain weight was all I needed was ultimately flawed.  I blew off cardio that week as well and I think the results speak for itself.  Instead of a total loss of 10 pounds, I'm back to 8.5 and my BMI is back to 1% total lost.  My waist didn't change, so, I'm not sure where that 1.5lbs went, but, they are back for sure.

(Although, me thinks I look much better than I used to.)

I am actually am kinda glad this happened.  Why, you ask.  Because, it shows me that if I want to loose this weight and keep it off, I need to stay vigilant.  It's not just a proper diet or just exercise, it's both.  If I neglect one of them, I am bound to fail.  I also discovered that when I am not exercising it's a little easier for me to make poor nutrition choices.  That is not good at all.

How am I going to lose those pounds again?  Back to the running!  After 2 weeks of not exercising like I should, I knew I wanted to ease back into the run so I wouldn't over do it and get really discouraged by pain and not being able to do what I was able to do 3 weeks ago.  I asked my wonderful weight loss support group on Facebook (you know who you are and thank you for all your support) how I should go about this "easing period".  My dear sister, suggested that I walk for 15 minutes and then do my 1:4 (run:walk) intervals for the last 15 minutes.  I thought that was a splendid idea and decided to go ahead and use run route #1 (uphill first and then downhill).  Here is today's run report:

Monday - 4Jun12

Time: 30:55

Distance: 2.19

Pace: 14:05 min/mi

For comparison here was my run report three weeks ago where I was running at a ratio of 2:4:

Friday- 18May12

Time: 33:03

Distance: 2.35

Pace: 14:05 min/mi

Notice the pace?  Exactly the same.  And today I straight up walked half of it, albeit, briskly.  Today's run was great, to say the least.  I opened it up on my run segments and felt no pain (I'm not sore now either), no foot numbness, I wasn't gasping for breath, I didn't feel like throwing up everywhere.  I felt great.  Truly great.

Another thing was that I really wanted to do this run today.  Little story: I couldn't find my digital watch this afternoon and I use that to know when to start running and walking.  In the past, that would've been enough to call the whole thing off.

"I don't have my watch today.  I might as well wait for Wednesday to do my run then,"  that was old me thinking.  New me thinking is a little bit different.

"I don't have my watch... Well, I have my phone with me for Zombies, Run! why don't I just look at the stopwatch there?  Better yet, does the Zombies, Run! app have a visible clock?  Sweet it does, let's do this!"

I am proud of myself today.  It's a welcome feeling.

- Louie