<p>Good morning! What a beautiful weekend! Wonderful super moon swim last night after the sweat lodge. You would think a sweatlodge would temporarily drop weight, but in my experience, I somehow add a pound of water the next day that usually goes away the day after. But losing weight isn’t why I sweat, so not worried :)</p>
<p>As promised, here’s the link to the cyclist whose aiming to break the world’s 100 mile track cycling record July 5 – there’s a donate now button for anyone who’d like to help Active Water, which helps fund and construct community wells in Africa to supply clean water:
[Chris</a> Gottwald Cycling - World Record Attempt](<a href=“http://www.chrisgottwaldcycling.com/]Chris”>http://www.chrisgottwaldcycling.com/)</p>
<p>His coach thinks he’ll nail it, but the cyclist likes to quip that it’s his “first attempt.” 
Pretty inspiring kind o guy, so keep him in your thoughts and prayers on July 5!</p>
<p>MOWC, kudos on surviving the race in style. However, you failed to give us a full fashion report One needs to have Lulus to aspire to when historically one has been too fat to fit with dignity 
I’m not quite ready for Lulus yet, but I’ve graduated to a newly acquired padded cycle skirt.</p>
<p>DadII, I wish you sounded/were happier with how things are going on your weightloss and fitness quest. There are to me some little clues scattered throughout your comments from which I might devise things that are working against your goal.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you know or don’t know, so take from this only what fits, but here’s a general roundup of things to consider:</p>
<ol>
<li>Most people are not very good at guessing their caloric intake. To be accurate, you pretty much have to weigh your food in the beginning. Being wrong by just a few hundred calories can make a difference in a couple of ways – you can end up under your basal metabolic rate, which then causes your system to hang onto the calories more and lowers your effective metabolism. If you consistently end up over, obviously you slowly gain weight.</li>
</ol>
<p>If the program you’re using is too difficult to use, try mynetdiary.com – as blankmind noted, many find it easier to track and one can barcode scan products. In any tracker, at first you enter your favorite recipes, which takes some time and calculation. But it can really help you manage your goals, so I have found it to be worth the set up. Skipping this step makes it overwhelming to manage, IMHO.</p>
<ol>
<li>A lot of the foods you’ve mentioned are high carb/ “fast sugars” – fruit is a fast sugar, bread (even whole wheat, as its rarely truly whole wheat) can be a fast sugar and most types of peanut butter are filled with sugar. A fast sugar will make your pancreas overproduce insulin, which will in turn make you feel more hungry – and dissatisfied.</li>
</ol>
<p>Fats slow down the impact of fast sugar, btw, which is why if you’re actually having something like a potato, its metabolically better with butter. (Potatoes are a very fast sugar) But same is not diet talk ;)</p>
<p>Although I myself am not on a low carb style diet per se, I am choosy about my carbs and that seems to help a lot. Eg., I am avoiding all bread-like products in general, and instead am choosing more complex carbs such as quinoa, brown rice, maybe whole wheat cous cous with olive oil or parmesan risotto for a treat (the latter is not especially innocent, but it is my replacement comfort food instead of potatoes). I will have fruit in yogurt in the am plus one fruit snack, but then in afternoon snack will be something like vegetables and hummus.
People more serious than I have a lot of success on very low carb diets. I have a different, slow goal and have to consider that my meals also feed my spouse. So I’ve been attempting to just naturalize reasonably healthy choices as opposed to what he would feel is complete depravation :)</p>
<ol>
<li>Protein sources…while peanut butter and nuts are in fact a good source of protein, they are very very caloriically dense in terms of fat. While this kind of fat is healthy, people attempting to lose weight are typically advised to carefully limit the number of nuts they’re consuming (eg count them…eg I use 8 pecans per serving in my spinach strawberry poppyseed salad. But I can’t be trusted with a bag of plain almonds or cashews. I simply will not stop eating them…and next thing you know caloriically I could have had a steak…:)</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s hard to get enough protein for the kind of extreme physical workouts you’re doing when you’re on a caloriically-reduced budget. So many folks find it useful to supplement with protein mix/shakes. In my case, I do a good protein shake for lunch on weekdays…but because I eat fish at least 3 times a week, I am still on the lower end of optimal protien intake – I also use almond milk instead of dairy, so I’m missing that protein hit. (Fish has decent protein, just not as much as chicken, beef, veal etc…but it’s caloriically about the lightest “meat” you can eat. Fish like tuna and salmon have more protein than the mild fish like tilapia or Mahi Mahi that we prefer) eg. I know a female body builder that literally ate six chicken breasts a day, about every three hours, to support her protein needs when training.</p>
<p>Now, I’m not advocating that, but your energy level is a big clue that you <em>may</em> truly not be getting anywhere near the protein you need (and are overtraining) for the style of workout you’re doing, and this imbalance is making you miserable when you should be feeling great.</p>
<p>Imagine a car running without oil…that’s your body without protien. Men especially tend to “need” higher protein diets in terms of weightloss, because it fuels the metabolic functions and enhances the construction and recovery of lean muscle.</p>
<p>Signs of inadequate protein include inexplicable tiredness throughout the day, losing muscle (your body will derive its protien from your muscles if its deficient) slow recovery after exertion, lack of mental motivation (protein also fuels the production of neurotransmitters) etc.</p>
<p>So, good sources of protien include turkey or chicken breast, red meat, pork loin, tofu, eggs, edamame, cheese and milk. Nuts are pretty much at the bottom of the list in terms of protein-vs-lower caloric density. Likewise, chicken breat is at the top of the list for “lowest caloric source of protein” – which is why my body-builder friend ate that way when training for the world title.</p>
<ol>
<li>Metabolic support through frequency of eating – another tricky balance when on a caloric budget, but smaller, frequent meals, eg every 3 hours, tends to help your metabolism understand that there’s not a famine going on, and tends to regulate your energy output. That can be as simple as (just an example) after oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast, having a banana at your desk around 10 or 11 am…then shorter lighter lunch (eg shake and a walk) followed by a bit of hummus and veggies or in my case Mary’s gone gluten free crackers or maybe a boiled eg or small protein bar around 3:30-4 pm, and then ideally a lighter meal around 7 or 8.</li>
</ol>
<p>You are less likely to feel crazy hungry if you “spread out” your budget that way, and accordingly, less likely to overeat at the next meal.</p>
<p>Have you considered working with a coach to get ready for the marathon? If so, a good coach can help you sort the best diet/routine after a baseline assessment that would be tailored to your specific condition/preferences, which is something we can’t really do here. We can try to help motivate you through the tough spots, but we only know the parts you’re telling us when discouraged, and can’t really give you objective, metrics-based guidance :)</p>
I’ve just worn them out in the last 3 months… 
Can’t do that too often; that gets expensive fast!</p>
