<p>I was so proud of myself for getting up at 5:30 this morning to go out and run. I wanted to wait until 6, so I answered some emails etc. Went out the door and- raining! 49 degrees, but raining! I am over running in the rain, so back to bed I went! Did go out at 6:40 for 1 mile in case I can’t run after work. This is a tough time of year for me, besides my continued exhaustion from my travels and life in general. I almost do better in the dead of winter when I just put on all the heavy stuff and go out.</p>
<p>MOWC, I hope that you don’t have too much scheduled in the race department in the next couple of weeks so you can have some rest/recoup/regroup time personally and in terms of your running - it might be a pleasure to just “go out and do a couple miles” and enjoy the scenery (when its not raining or in freezing!!)</p>
<p>I am not planning to race and may even bail on the Monkey, although I suspect by then I will figure out a way to get around the course. I am trying to hit 2000 miles for the year, and I had about a 70 mile lead on the pace bunny, but I’ve been cutting into that the last few weeks since I haven’t hit 40 mile weeks. I don’t really cared, but I’ve made it to late October and I hate to blow it now. This is my last year for 2000 miles- it isn’t a good number for me- but I hate to give up now. However, abasket, you are absolutely correct in that I need to NOT have running be a chore right now. </p>
<p>My job- which I really love- is VERY fast paced and demanding. That’s fine, but something has to give somewhere… I have trips to PA (mother’s funeral), Charleston, Chicago and Michigan coming up between now and mid-November.</p>
<p>Hmmm… where in Michigan - I’m thinking a run from Chicago to Michigan could take care of your miles for the rest of the year… (wink, wink). :)</p>
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<p>I’ve realized how critically important that is to maintaining a long-term exercise plan. Unless you can commit to a streak like you have done, exercise can’t be a chore or you’ll eventually stop doing it. That’s why I’ve tried to come up with a variety of stuff and why I try to mask some exercise as “fun” – like hiking or snow shoeing.</p>
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<p>I would definitely be in some kind of long running pants/tights and a long sleeve quarter zip top at 43 degrees. I would also have fleece or PowerStretch fleece gloves. I go to the gloves in the 50s, since they breath well.</p>
<p>Mommusic:</p>
<p>I have “white coat” blood pressure. I can track mine two or three times a day for a month, and record it all to the computer. Perfectly fine. Then, I go to the doctors office, walk up three flights of stairs, hop on the table, and the nurse measures high blood pressure. You are supposed to sit quietly for a few minutes before taking blood pressure, but that’s hardly the case in the doc’s office. Like weighing you with your belt, car keys, wallet, and a full set of cloths and using that for the national BMI statistics.</p>
<p>I haven’t taken my blood pressure in a while but we have a home cuff for H. When I was younger I suffered from orthostatic blood pressure - when I’d stand up my bp would plummet and I’d feel really woozy. I had a med happy doc so actually took blood pressure meds to regulate my low blood pressure and migraines (Inderal). It’s generally around 90/60 (sans meds). </p>
<p>Very dark this morning but a vigorous session with Sabadog before everyone was out and about for the day. Rest day exercise wise. Ran 5 miles yesterday. </p>
<p>And, here’s something for the treadmill runners among us to aspire to: </p>
<p>[New</a> World Record for Treadmill Half Marathon | Runner’s World & Running Times](<a href=“http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/new-world-record-for-treadmill-half-marathon?cm_mmc=Facebook-_-RunnersWorld-_-Content-News-_-WorldRecordTreadmill]New”>New World Record for Treadmill Half Marathon | Runner's World)</p>
<p>Worked out with trainer–TRX and kettle bells. Followed this with 45 minutes on the elliptical. Enjoyed your video Idad.</p>
<p>Figure I would report in here, as my wife and I are attempting some lifestyle/health changes (guess it comes with an empty nest), and in the last month we both are doing the same thing dietarily (I am still slow getting back into exercising). As part of a fitness program my wife bought from a trainer designed around women in their 40’s and 50’s, it has a whole diet portion of it. For the first phase, you are supposed to cut out grains and sugar from the diet (not talking about fruit, talking sweeteners), it basically comes down to a relative high protein diet and also being mindful of caloric input as well. The idea is in doing this is to trigger fat burning, but it also is to wean people off the addiction to sweeteners and such.</p>
<p>Okay, a month in, this is what we have found:</p>
<p>-With not using additional sweeteners, we are finding that our tastes have adjusted, and we don’t crave it or even really want it. When we do have things like fruit, it tastes a lot better.</p>
<p>-While we both love grains, pasta and rice and bread, we have found we really don’t crave it. There are alternative to grains, like using nut flour, but in reality we don’t really have to do that.</p>
<p>-The most amazing part for us is how it seems to have leveled out our blood sugar. We get hungry, but we don’t get that feeling of being famished, and when eating get full easier. I am astonished that I will find when I track what I ate during the day, that I am not hungry, yet between breakfast and lunch I was taking in maybe 600 calories, way less than I normally used to. </p>
<p>-So far I have lost about 15 pounds, my wife 11 doing what we are.</p>
<p>I am not proclaiming this to be a miracle way to go, and eventually we will be eating a bit more normally, we aren’t trying to diet but change lifestyle, and yeah, there will be treat days and such eventually, but what it has taught us is by being careful about grains and sugar, we will be able to get ourselves back in shape yet not do it with a ‘diet’ per se. </p>
<p>I am amazed I am able to lose the weight, because I have been sidelined for the last week and a half with two nasty gashes on my right hand/wrist (lost a fight with a utility knife, they are poor winners!) and haven’t been able to actively exercise. I used to think that exercise was the key and the way we eat isn’t important, now I am finding out without both, it doesn’t work right (I know, a big duh…:)</p>
<p>For idad:</p>
<p>[Decline</a> Spider-Man Pushup | Yahoo Health](<a href=“Health | Yahoo Life”>Health | Yahoo Life)</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I’m sticking with my normal pushups, thank you very much! 
Nice hike, iDad.</p>
<p>Musicprnt, when your hand heals you can join the insane pushup competition that takes place here on a regular basis. ;)</p>
<p>Music, sounds like “BINGO!” , you’ve discovered a plan that works for you (and many others too including many of us here!). Kudos - isn’t it a great feeling to feel like you are starting to figure things out??</p>
<p>2.75 run.</p>
<p>musicprnt:</p>
<p>Awsome. Sounds like five pound party time for both you and your wife. You are so lucky to have gotten hooked up with a trainer who has given you good diet advice. That’s definitely the exception, not the rule…</p>
<p>You are finding out pretty much what I found out. For whatever reason, cutting way back on added sugar and grains is a pretty effective (and tolerable) way to lose (and maintain weight). One of the reasons that you can do it without being crazy hungry is that you are burning your own stored fat. If you are losing a pound a week, that’s somewhere in the range of 500 calories a day you are burning from your own fat stores! At least for people who are insulin resistant (a high percentage of overweight people), cutting out the carbs helps to release stored fat so it can be burned as fuel.</p>
<p>I don’t think exercise helps lose weight all that much. Unfortunately that’s almost entirely diet. But, exercising helps lose fat and maintain muscle, which is super important when it comes to maintaining the new svelte profile!</p>
<p>BB:</p>
<p>OK, I think I can do those. Well, maybe at least three of them! From the weight bench, that is. From the kitchen counter height, probably not so much!</p>
<p>Rest day today, but I’ll try 'em in tomorrow’s workout.</p>
<p>BTW, I’m lovin’ the kitchen counter push ups. They make a set of 8 to 10 push ups plenty challenging.</p>
<p>The talk about exercise not helping lose weight - I sometimes get that - but also think that while you will lose more weight through what you eat, exercise can account for a portion and I believe that exercise does help lose inches. I’m personally happy with a leaner look that is toned (or more toned) than just weight loss and loose(r) skin.</p>
<p>Interesteddadd-</p>
<p>What is interesting is the program is something my wife found on e-bay, from a woman who is a trainer and went through this herself (I saw a picture of the woman recently she posted, she is in her mid 40’s, wearing a mini dress and heels, it was like oh my god…). </p>
<p>You are correct, the reason for dropping the grains and sugar is for fat burning, you hit the nail on the head, and it is what I think is happening with us, which is cool. The other thing that eating like this does is it forces us to think about what we are eating, and of course it cuts down a lot of processed foods and such. At times we practically lived on takeout, because of my S’s schedule, and that is a danger. The other thing I am learning is just how much is in the food we eat, how much is hidden in things like bread and such, even supposedly organic food. It is very easy to go crazy with this, of course, and some people are over the top, but when you think, for example, that a lot of bread has things like corn syrup in it, you start realizing it when you cut that out. </p>
<p>Almost every fitness expert says the same thing you have, that weight loss is primarily diet and the exercise is to get in shape. One of the things that makes what we eat insidious is we assume because we go on the treadmill for x minutes, it burns Y calories, but the food we eat can sabotage the exercise. Of course, exercising does burn calories and increase metabolism, and can help build lean muscle that helps burn off calories in of itself, but the slogan is usually put as "you don’t get a body like this by exercise alone’ (and showing some fit specimen). </p>
<p>I think the key for us, too, is doing it together, when you share, it makes a big difference. I think the big eye opener is tracking what we eat, and seeing where stuff comes from. For example, if you look at the figures for a piece of let’s say steak, standard raised versus grass fed, it is staggering the difference,the grass fed beef has a lot more protein, lot less fat and calories, not to mention doesn’t have hormones and the rest of it. I realize the cost difference can be staggering and it is sad testament to a lot of things that the foods that are affordable are often ridiculously expensive (the grass fed beef is often twice the price of standard steak, if you can find it), and organic produce and organic items are more expensive (without getting political, it is one of the times I curse government policies…).</p>
<p>On the other hand, the other thing I am learning is anything you change, little improvements, matter. If you give up bread or rice one meal a day, it can be a big difference maker, same way eating less of better quality meat is a good change:). </p>
<p>One thing I am learning, that so much of it is simply being conscious of what we are doing (meaning my wife and I). With all the stress of life, hectic pace, it can be so easy to get takeout food, or when shopping to buy stuff without thinking…I had a shock, I looked at bread that was supposedly natural and healthy, just to see, and it was loaded with sugar and had stuff in it that wasn’t really natural…</p>
<p>And yeah, it can be confusing, sometimes I read things and wonder who is telling the truth. Some of the people I am most put off by are a lot of professional nutritionists, some of them to me seem to be promoting the food industry rather than being real, like one woman who was pooh poohing the idea that high fructose corn syrup was a disaster…besides the fact that it has a high glycemic load, what she also was leaving out is because it is subsidized and so cheap, it is used in foods that people wouldn’t even think it is in, but she was like ‘there is nothing inherently wrong with HFC’…there is if it is being used as filler in foods, often it is used in low fat foods or high fiber products you wouldn’t expect, and so forth. Then, too, you have those the other way, who are right in one sense, that we have to be vigilent, but good a bit over the top IMO the other way (there is a website called the food babe I think, that has great information on how, for example, things labelled organic may not be great, but she also goes over the top with other things). </p>
<p>I’ll drop in from time to time and let you know how we are doing:)</p>
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<p>My hero, Dr. Robert Lustig, says in his book that exercise is the single best thing you can do for your health, but it won’t make you lose weight.</p>
<p>Actually, I’m not completely convinced of that. All of the studies that have been done to show that exercise doesn’t increase weight loss have used really bad exercise programs - mostly low intensity cardio type stuff (treadmill, exercise bike, etc.) It appears that exercise doesn’t make the number on the scale go down, but resistance strength training results in keeping more lean muscle while while the scale does down the same amount as diet only. Same weight loss, more fat loss, less muscle loss. That’s a pretty significant benefit that is masked in studies that only look at the number on the scale or that only study exercise programs without resistance strength training of some sort.</p>
<p>Bigger picture… I have been successful at maintaining my weight loss, in large part, because I started thinking of myself as a “fit” person. “Fit” people exercise and my regular exercise is a big part of what made me start thinking of myself as a “fit” person. So, personally, exercise has been a huge part of it.</p>
<p>I don’t want to eat less or much more healthily than I already do, which means if I want to lose weight I need to exercise more. I’ve never successfully lost weight without exercising more. I lost 20 pounds of college weight by getting a job where I biked to work. Four years later, I’d gained back the 20 pounds in grad school and lost weight by running about 10 miles a week. (And eating dessert every night.) Can’t do the dessert every night any more, but if I stop exercising my weight creeps back up.</p>
<p>First off, kudos and welcome, Musicprint! I am happy for your success to date, and the fact that you found so quickly what I suspect is the most effective approach. Folks who embark on this journey without it end up with a lot of obstacles to overcome.</p>
<p>I started the “lifestyle” approach last Jan., and I’m down about 43 lbs. while my h is down 30. I exercise at least 5 times a week; albeit it short sessions; he doesn’t :)</p>
<p>I think once you’re treating nutrition the way you are (reducing sugars and bread-ish carbs), eg once you’ve “normalized” your metabolic process, that exercise does improve results insofar as it expands your caloric budget and increases your base metabolism (if doing interval style work).</p>
<p>But without a doubt, food composition and portion (caloric budget) is definitely the centerpiece. </p>
<p>Idad, I think you’re right about what’s missing in the research. I think that if they had a control group do low (glycemic) carb/high protein diets and had a second group do the identical diet with 20 minutes of airdyne intervals and kettlebells on alternating days, or exerstriding which also boosts HR, AND if they made sure no one went below their basal metabolic rate, then they would have a “true” study that showed a net difference in weightloss, even considering muscle weight. The other qualifier would be to continue to increase intensity over time, because as we become more efficient at exercise (especially running) it takes fewer calories. </p>
<p>I never imagined I could gain almost a full mile-per-hour on my hill with the ski poles given the state of the trail and the incline, but last week and this I have and it certainly takes longer to break a sweat. I doubt I’ll be able to make the same time with snowshoes on come winter, but we’ll see 
May have to find a bigger hill…</p>