My Tips for Weight Management

It is well established that there is an epidemic of obesity in the United States. While I am a huge proponent of exercise as a method of weight control, exercise alone will not prevent a person from gaining weight. One needs to develop good habits and stick to them. I think a big reason many people ignore their bodies is that it requires work to maintain them, and gee, I work 8+ hours a day to earn a living already why should I have to work on myself?

It is work—at least initially. Some people have grown into adulthood not knowing how to cook, having no knowledge of good nutritional practices but believing that life is so hard that we must give ourselves treats every single day, and because the excess weight itself is not accorded disease status, the pounds just pile on until they do create a disease like hypertension, Type II diabetes, achy or worn out joints, shortness of breath or cardiovascular disease. If you are nearly or already obese, you will develop one or more of these diseases, guaranteed.

So what are people supposed to do? I say buck up and do some work to acquire knowledge and get some discipline going so that you can go through the rest of your life with increased health and vitality. Towards that end, here is a list of 10 common sense things to choose from that I think anyone can do to help manage their weight:

1. Swim once a week or so in a public pool. Sometimes wear a 2-piece bikini (Speedo for a man). Embarrassed to be seen in a swimsuit? You should be. Lose some weight, fatso.
2. Do NOT keep more than one size of clothing for yourself. Fit into what you have—if it starts becoming tight, lose some weight, fatso.
3. Make your treat/cheat foods something you don’t keep in your house. EVER. Why? You know you are weak—we all are. Always go out to buy it at the time you want it. Will the extra effort to go foraging for it be worth it every single time? Probably not.
4. If you are in your car and having a craving for something, drive right past the place where you can get it and keep going for 5 minutes. If you still want it, then go back for it. Betcha many times you won’t turn around.
5. Always have something that is healthy and really tasty available in your house that is either already prepared or takes minimal preparation. You know you love many good, whole foods that are super tasty—you just need to surround yourself with them.
6. Learn what it feels like to actually be hungry every now and then (except at breakfast time). If you think you’re hungry, drink a big glass of water. If 5 minutes later you still feel hungry, then you really might be.
7. NEVER skip breakfast. If you are eating correctly, you should wake up hungry—not eat-everything-in-the-fridge hungry, but you should need something. Not giving your body, and particularly your brain (which runs on sugar) something to overcome the fast that you just had (that is why it’s called BREAKfast) makes you more likely to make poor choices as the day wears on. Unfed brains make stupid decisions.
8. Always have a piece of fruit (or 2) 2 hours after breakfast. At least you will have eaten one serving of fruit for the day, right? And if you ate your breakfast and the fruit, maybe you won’t make bad choices for lunch.
9. Try to plan 1 or 2 of your meals each day, either the day before or in the morning. That way, if the 3rd one goes to hell, at least you did well for 2 out of 3. It’s easiest to plan breakfast and lunch, and if you get adequate calories there, you are less likely to pig out at dinner time.
10. Learn how to cook. It need not be elite French restaurant quality food; just simply prepared, whole foods like baked or grilled lean meats, steamed vegetables and salads. You can live on just those foods, you know. As you learn about cooking techniques and seasonings, odds are you will discover that simply prepared food is quite delicious and doesn’t always require the addition of butter, cheese or breading.

Notice that several of these tips involve the dreaded planning—yes, that’s right. You might actually have to make a list before you go to the grocery store, you might actually have to peruse recipes every now and then, but I like to think of it more as being mindful. People become fat because they aren’t mindful of what is going in their mouths and how it makes them feel—and then they go on a “diet” that requires all sorts of planning and restrictions yet somehow that work is OK with them. That is just messed up. What is a good habit if not work that has become routine? I think it’s easier and simpler (and less stressful) to practice the good techniques until they become habits than it is to go into defensive mode repeatedly.

Do I fall off the wagon? Every now and then. But I only allow myself 4 pounds in the wrong direction (my current baseline weight is 110, so 4 pounds is 3.6% of it). That is my signal that I have been eating mindlessly. I saw that number about a week and a half ago. I am down1.5 pounds and feel better already since I'm not eating so much sugar (leftover Halloween candy). So I'm not perfect. And there's a lot more to me maintaining my weight/body composition than the average person, but sometimes it comes down to the basics, just like for everyone else.

I eat a very varied diet. I prepare my breakfast and dinner on most days--lunch is usually a Lean Cuisine (yes I could do better but even I err on the side of convenience at times). My typical snack foods are fruit, string cheese, sometimes pretzels, sardines, a bite of leftovers. When I'm training about 15 hours or more in a week, I find I need to supplement with some more sugary foods, even candy. But I still try and keep 2500-3000 calories per day coming from good, clean food sources (including deliberate sports nutrition). I "cook" usually just on weekends--microwaving something from the freezer or throwing a piece of fish or meat into the oven or making a salad doesn't count as cooking to me, and I have precious little free time during the week like many people, and not just because of my training.

I only note this because I have the same weaknesses as anyone else when it comes to food--I don't have "good genes" or anything like that. I have to work at weight maintenance just like anyone else. I have just tried my best to ingrain good habits. Time was I ate like complete and total crap, and I felt like crap for it, too. I do love cooking, and reserve my high fat treat foods like deep-dish pizza, cream-based pasta sauces and Italian deli wonder sandwiches on focaccia bread for times when I have rather big workouts scheduled. So in a sense I train to eat! But even before triathlon, I could eat those things on my one cheat day per week, and it worked out just fine.

Maybe you can find 1 or more things in this post that you want to add to your arsenal. If you have other ideas, feel free to comment as well!

Painsgiving Report

I just renamed Thanksgiving to Painsgiving, since it seems every year since around 2004, I've concocted something of 1/2 Ironman or more to do during the weekend. 2011 Painsgiving will be Ultraman Hawaii ;)

This year's menu was 5K on Thursday, 2x2x2 on Friday, and today was a 1/2 marathon.

The morning of the 5K I was up early (at least I'm not getting up before 4AM now, which is an improvement), and feeling guilty that I hadn't done any strength training this week. So around 5AM I thought I could knock out an abs/core workout that has some traditional lifting thrown in there. It took about :45, and I didn't even consider the affect it would have on me running a 5K.

Did I feel at all ready for a 5K? Fuck no. I'd done a marathon just 3 weeks ago (actually 2 weeks and 5 days), and had run very conservatively since then. And I had just worked out my left hip/glute issues, and my true running form was just coming back this week. But, in a perverse way, I was looking forward to the pain of it, because it's been since last winter that I did any 5K-type racing (the indoor triathlon series). I figured, what the hell, maybe my legs will wake up--you never know on any given day.

In my mind and heart, though, I knew I would be lucky to run 9mpm, so if I could achieve that, it would be a good thing. Well, I did--9mpm on the nose! The race did suck, I did feel the effects of that :45 of strength session beforehand, but I didn't stop or give in to the demons in my head telling me it didn't matter if I walked. Because it did matter. One small step for Painsgiving--one giant leap for my return to fast running. I took 11th in my age group, which is abyssmal for me, but hey, on the day I was fine with it.

After I got home (I did an :11 warmup and of course, ran home from the 5K for about :45 total running) and checked on a situation at work (yes, I did), I got on the trainer for an hour and just rode real easy. I alternated between watching Ironman Hawaii 2008 and the AKC Dog Show. I actually enjoyed the dog show more ;) Hey, it was just a 1-hour workout, and I didn't need to go very hard.

I fixed all my bottles for the Friday festival of pain--6 hours worth of Infinit (YUM I LOVE IT) and 300 calories of Ultrafuel to top off the tank in the morning. After this, I cooked for about 4 hours, and my freezer is now full of caloric goodness. I had a big serving of the bacon/bleu cheese pasta and a lamb chop. I couldn't help but have a few beers (3) while I was cooking, too, after all it was Thanksgiving.

Friday I woke up at my customary 4AM and could tell I had a slight hangover, since I am a complete lightweight, but I knew I would, so tough shit, right? I figured swimming would shake some of it out of me anyway. I had my regular breakfast of English muffin and hard-boiled egg and downed the Ultrafuel. I packed my swim bag for the swim and brought my bike clothes to change into afterward. It was pretty cold outside, so I really bundled up so I wouldn't get chilled at all with the short walk to the garage and then to the Y from the parking lot.

I began my swim at 6:03AM, so I was late by 3 minutes! The water at first was too warm--it was maybe 85--and I wanted to puke for like 3,000 yards. Warm pool water plus hangover plus 600 calories just 1 hour before will do that to me. But then a miracle occurred! They began dumping in cold water, and I could feel the temperature lowering. I knew it was getting to the correct temperature because I wanted to drink it. That's my personal benchmark of an 83 to 84-degree pool. I know 84 still sounds warm, and I would prefer 82-83, but even at 84 I am chilled for several hours once I get out especially if I swim 1:45 or more.

I got in 6,000 yards and drank 2 hours of Infinit and no longer wanted to puke. I showered, stretched for :11 in the sauna (what the hell I can do whatever I want during a NothingMan, right?), changed into bike clothes, but not my bike socks yet because it was so cold outside I didn't want my feeties to get cold to/from my car. I had already pumped the rear tire of LGL and had loaded 5 CD's to cover my 2 hour ride plus 2 hour run plus fudge factor, so without too much slackerage, I got on LGL.

Riding felt fine--I rode in SCR for :30 and then went into BCR, and while I didn't hammer, I think I put in a solid 80-85% FTP effort for the remainder. I ended up at 39 miles total, which was great. I didn't feel bad riding at all, and smiled inside how a 6,000 yard swim warmup just isn't that big of a deal to me anymore!

I drank 2 more bottles of Infinit on the bike and got a fresh one to start running. How nice to be able to just change into running shoes and not leave the house and I'm running! Although...as soon as I started running, that's when I really felt hungover--no surprise there! I knew the run was going to suck, even though I decided to only try and run 10mpm, a nice easy pace for me.

The first hour went pretty well, but then mentally I began to hate it. Not surprising, considering this was the longest run I'd ever done on Hal. Even though you would think a treadmill is a treadmill, there's something different about running on one with a bunch of people around you in a gym versus all by your lonesome in your house. So even though I have music of my choice on speakers and not on headphones, a fan blowing right in my face, and a really nice treadmill, it's just not the same to me mentally yet. But I'm getting there.

After about 1:20, I was really wanting to just bag the run. I rolled through all the usual questions--am I in pain? No. Am I out of fuel? No. Am I untrained? No. It was all mental. So I lowered the speed just a hair for about 5 minutes, and then all of a sudden I was just fine.

I was all patting myself on the back and shit until I looked back at last year and realized that on Thanksgiving weekend 2009, I'd swum 7,000 yards, biked 3 hours and ran 13.1! What the hell, I am such a fucking slacker! But then I thought if I actually pull off a 1/2 marathon in 2 days, I will have redeemed myself, in a perverse sort of way.

I was pretty toasted the rest of Friday and much of Saturday, although on Saturday I did manage to finish sewing the new bedskirt:



If you can correctly guess the number of skulls on my bed in the picture, you will win a prize! Yes, the bedskirt has a bunch of dead people on it. It made me a little nuts while sewing it, because when you are working with a large thing like that, it gets unwieldy, and one seam around the perimeter takes a long time. I did the gathering while sitting in bed feeling like I was going to pass out, but I wanted to get this project done, and now was the time. As soon as it was finished, of course I put it on the bed and changed the sheets so everything would be all skull-y. Sleeping on fresh sheets the night before a race is always a nice thing!

After I finished the bedskirt, I had Swedish pancakes and beer for lunch, then tucked into bed with another James Patterson book ("I, Alex Cross") and finished it, and then it was lights out and I passed out for about an hour. It was blissful, since when I woke up and it was light outside, I had no idea what day it was. It has been a long, long time since I'd napped so soundly, and I was even groggy when I woke up--like I wanted to sleep even more. But I didn't go back to sleep because I wanted to sleep a normal schedule for today's race.

I woke up today around 3:30AM but made myself lay in bed until nearly 4AM which is my new rule (no getting out of bed before 4AM). I got up and had a Powerbar Triple Threat and coffee, then began obsessing about what to wear to race in. The weather report said only like 32 at the start (9AM), and this was like my 5th pretty cold race start this year (Goofy Challenge was record lows both days and it snowed; that Monster Dash 1/2 marathon on Halloween was ice cold; the 5K on Thanksgiving was cold, too), and I did not want to have cold legs for the race at all. So I decided to go with my running underpants underneath my good Pearl Izumi fleece-lined tights, polypropelene sock liners, my regular super thin Wigwam socks over those, a regular bra top, a short sleeve technical T from Northface 50 last year, and my fleece-lined PI top. I decided to wear fleece gloves and hat.

At the last minute, I grabbed a large outdoor trash bag to put on myself while waiting at the race start. It took about :35 to drive to Schaumburg. On the way there, I cracked myself up because I thought I should ask someone to guess what I was doing because I had: a large jar of Vaseline, a small cooler full of Coke and a large trash bag. The correct answer would be: running a race in the cold! Then I had another good laugh since sometimes I cut the head and arm holes in the trash bag with scissors, but this time, I thought I'd just "poke myself through" as needed, and that made me laugh hysterically to myself. It's thoughts like this that make all this shit totally fun to me.

I got a good parking spot, and walked over to pick up my bib and chip and goody bag. I had on some flannel pants and had not yet put on my running shoes as I wanted to keep my feet warm in my fake fur-lined Merrell clogs. I also had on a thick thermal fleece jacket--I wasn't taking any chances about getting cold before the start. After I got my stuff, it was back to my car, and I started it back up, not feeling guilty for burning some gasoline to keep myself warm. I decided I wasn't getting out until 8:45, since I was just maybe 50 yards from the start line.

I poked the trash bag to start my head hole and put it on in the car, and then got out to use it as my personal porta-potty. See, the trash bag has many uses! When it was go time, I lined up behind the 2:15 pacers, because I had no clue if I could even pull that off today.

I started with the bag on but ditched it after 1 mile, as I was sufficiently warmed up. My feet felt nice and toasty (but not too toasty), and my face was good since I'd smeared Vaseline on my cheekbones, up my nostrils and on my lips. I tell ya--Vaseline is good stuff! My first mile was 9:34, and I thought I'd gone out too fast, but whatever--if I crashed and burned today, it would be no big deal.

Through about 6.5 miles, I was behind the Garmin Twins--2 girls who both had Garmins on--I could see them strapped to their arms and they were running some sort of exact pace. So I just stayed right on their butts, literally! But then we hit this hill, and I thought, OH FUCK this won't feel good, and although I'd easily summitted all the lesser bumps in the trail, this one had me walk a little, and I allowed it. So I lost the Garmin Twins, but could see them just ahead of me for most of the rest of the way.

I started to hurt around 10 miles in, and it was no surprise, plus we hit either a false flat or something like it for about 2 miles. At just over 11.5 miles, I pulled out a crack baggie with some of Dad's ashes in them, and I just lost it. I grew up not far from Busse Woods where we were running, and Dad used to take us there many Sundays when I was really young to go see the elk. Yes, there is a small herd of elk in northern Illinois! We would go there and look at them in the cold or snow, and I had not run in Busse Woods since Dad passed away 3 years ago. So I took myself off the asphalt onto the dirt and tried to collect myself. When I got back where the fences are for the elk, I let his ashes fly into the woods and got on with finishing the race.

I went 2:09. I wanted to do 2:08 for some reason, but at least I had gone under 10mpm, so I was happy with that all things considered. We got a cute medal, and our goody bag has a nice technical long sleeve shirt. There were lots of eats and drinks afterward, but I just wanted some warm PowerBar whatever the hell it was (it tasted close to hot chocolate) and then get to my car to put on dry clothes.

On the drive home, I thought to myself how cool is it that I was able to do all these endurance things over Painsgiving while Day 3 of Ultraman Hawaii is going on and I also have friends racing in Ironman Cozumel. While my run speed is now just on the rebound, I feel good that I got in a 40-mile running week, and feel ready for some 50+. I mean, holy crap, I have done a lot of shit this year--3 sprint triathlons, one half Ironman, one Ironman, one Ultraman, 3 half marathons and 2 marathons.

I am quite thankful for my health and fitness, and I am considering Painsgiving a success! Now I am just waiting to meet my new grand-nephew, Scott, who I am already calling Great Scott, and have some sporting gift ideas for...

If you are in the US, hope your Thanksgiving was a good one, and if not, hope your weekend was great, and now I will go back to watching coverage of Ultraman Hawaii and Ironman Cozumel!