intofitness.net

Background:
Back in March 2008, I had been in a weight-loss plateau for three months, weighing in at 193 pounds and having a body fat percentage of 15%. Despite my intense exercise routine, I was not able to lose the desired remaining weight consistently; however, my body fat percentage was also decreasing slowly.  I suspected that I had been eating too many calories for weight loss, and was simply maintaining my weight.  I knew that if I wanted to go below 10% body fat, I could lose about 20 more pounds.

Results Summary:
I started using MyFoodDiary.com (MFD) on March 31, 2008 and reached my goal of 175 pounds and under 10% body fat on August 6, 2008.

What is it?:
MyFoodDiary.com is a web-based calorie counter and exercise log designed to be used as part of a weight management program.  Most users of this online service use it to assist with weight loss.  The site tracks calorie intake (diet) and calorie expenditure (exercise).  Then based on the user’s physical statistics and goals, it calculates how many calories must be consumed and/or burned to either lose one to two pounds per week, maintain weight, or gain weight.  Users can monitor on a daily basis two factors involved in weight management: food intake vs exercise.  MyFoodDiary.com supports the basic weight loss premise that one must consume less calories than the calories expended.  For example, in order to lose one pound per week, one should create a calorie deficit of 500 calories/day.  Over the course of seven days, the deficit would be 3,500 calories, which is approximately equal to one pound of weight loss.

You can watch a video overview here.

Target audience (Who is it for?):
MyFoodDiary.com is best suited for the disciplined person.  Ideal users are those who are willing to record what they eat on a daily basis (using the site’s online database of over 50,000 food items), record nutritional information for the foods not in the database, and record calories burned through activity and exercise. Users should be goal-oriented, motivated, determined, and persistent.  The service is best applied by those who want to change to a healthy, active lifestyle.  I would not recommend this service to people looking for a quick fix to their weight problems or those who just want to change their diet without exercise because losing weight in a healthy way is not just about food or “starving yourself”.  Additionally, I believe the service works best in conjunction with the use of a heart rate monitor during exercise to monitor the exact number of calories burned.

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Yesterday’s Shelter Island 5K was most definitely a very cool event.

Big time amenities:

• Flat course - thank you, I appreciate that!
• Free champagne brunch for the participants
• Cool t-shirt

Not so fun:

Only one downer — the weather was a little on the cool side, not so cold that it was uncomfortable while running, but mainly after the run when my sweat was drying really fast and cooling my body temperature.

Kathy Loper typically hosts some great events, and this was no exception.  With adaptive therapies for injured soldiers as the cause, my wife, son and I were pleased to participate in this event with our entry fees benefiting such a worthy cause.

Results: (Also, check out my runningahead.com results summary.)

• Official time = 21:56
• Unofficial time = 21:54
• Age Group (40-44): 12/46
• Overall: 73/920

I’m pleased with my results considering it’s my first race ever, and after only four weeks of running.  I entered the race with three goals:

1. Beat Trainer Murray
2. Finish in under 22 minutes
3. Beat my fastest time

I accomplished two of the three, but did not beat my previous fastest 5K practice time of 21:42.

I am amazed at how fast people can run, even in their old age.  There were some 50+ year olds who had faster times than me and faster than people much younger.  The winner was 36 years old with a time of 16:02.  The first three finishers in my age group finished around 19 minutes.  My son was saying that running speed at this level is almost independent of age, and with people in their 30s through 50s running at these times, I have to agree with him. 

What I learned:

1. Save some gas for the end.
   I definitely came out of the gates way too fast.  My one-mile time was around 6:40.  Strangely, it didn’t feel like I was running that fast.  By 1.5 miles, I met my milestone marker of being under 9 minutes, but by the last half-mile of the race, I was tired.  I tried sprinting for the last half-mile, but my legs and lungs rebelled.  I did, however, sprint the last quarter-mile, but by then it was too late to beat my previous best time.
2. Stick with a routine with eating.
   I really liked how I did not drastically alter my pre-race breakfast: cereal with non-fat milk, fruit, and coffee (grande, iced skinny vanilla latte from Sbux).  The only new item I added to my pre-race diet was a free drink mix sample I received called CytoMax (Cool Citrus flavor).
3. Be sure to get to bed early the night before.
   I went to bed at 10 PM.  I probably could have gone to bed at 9 instead.  Because I was excited about the race, I didn’t sleep very well.  I might consider taking some Melatonin next time to help me sleep.
4. Enjoy the improvements and gains made while training.
   Hard work pays off.  And while I may not have reached all my goals, I am content with my progress in learning this new sport.

I’m writing to announce that my personal fitness trainer, Murray, will be joining me on this blog. Over the next several days, Trainer Murray will be introducing himself to you. Together we’ll provide two unique perspectives about fitness: the voice of the trainee and the voice of the expert certified trainer.

We look forward to our writing partnership geared towards helping you achieve a level of health and fitness that you want, maybe even a level that you would have never thought possible.

Read on!

I know I’m just a novice runner, and maybe I shouldn’t be talking about medals in my very first race.  Maybe I should lean more to the side of realism, and just remove any ideas of getting a medal from my head.  But I’ve ALWAYS been like that for as far back as I can remember.  I learned it from my mom.  If there’s an activity to be done or something to know, she always said, “Why not be the best?” or “Why not do your best?”.  So I say, “If I’m going to race, why not race to win?”

Yes, I’m aware that my chances are slim.  But I don’t intend to go into this race resigned to the fact that I will lose.  I know the likelihood of getting one of the top three medals in the upcoming race is very low.  Last year’s winning results for my age division, ages 40-44 were as follows:  1st place = 18:30 (44 years old), 2nd place = 19:03 (44 years old), and 3rd place = 19:08 (43 years old).  My latest time seems light years away with a difference of 3 minutes.  No, I don’t think it’s humanly possible to shave three minutes off my time by November 9th.

But that is not going to stop me from trying.  Because in the course of trying, I make great strides and improvements.  Example: When I first ran the 5K distance, my time was in the 28-minute range.  I’ve now run this distance a total of five times, including today’s run.  My time today was 22:44, a difference of about 6 minutes.  

Belief is the heartbeat of success, the core to my success.

 
Similarly, someone today saw my current profile picture (above) on Facebook, and asked if I was a fitness model.  I know I’ll never be a model, but that doesn’t stop me from working my tail off in the gym so that I’m in the best shape I can be, the fittest I can be, and have the best abs that are possible for me to have at my age.

And yes, I’m going to save that e-mail for a very long time.

I was able to convince, cajole, and otherwise, persuade Maria and Tony to join me at the Cal State San Marcos track this morning.  Tony kicked a soccer ball around the little field in the middle of the track, while Maria walked in her new running shoes.

My goal: to run 5 x 400 meter intervals, which is approximately 2.5 miles overall.  5 laps of sprints with walking in between laps, a total of 10 laps.  That’s 1 sprint followed by 1 walk, for a total of 5 sets.

My times are here, not that bad for a total novice like me.  At least I think they’re okay.  For the most part on the 1 lap sprints, I was running them at a sub-six minute pace.  That’s pretty fast for a 42-year old, no?  The real question is: Can I sustain a similar pace for 3.1 miles (equal to a little less than 13 laps around the track) on November 9th for the Shelter Island 5K?

I don’t know all the physiology behind why interval training is supposed to help me run faster.  I sure hope it works because I really hate it.  Perhaps by the time I reach 10 x 400 intervals, I will be better at it, and not be so winded.

Other than a couple of weeks ago on NBC TV’s The Biggest Loser, I had never seen a really fat person do pull-ups. It’s so unlikely isn’t it? I mean how does someone who weighs in excess of 280 pounds with gravity acting on that mass pull themselves up over a bar? I know for a fact that it’s difficult to do.

Do you remember those physical fitness tests you had to take in middle school P.E.?  Never mind about the trauma of undressing in front of people in the locker room.  Maybe you were the type that looked forward to physical fitness testing: the sit-ups, the push-ups, the mile run, and yes, the dreaded pull-ups.  Were you the one that could do 15 pull-ups, and keep going and going like the Energizer bunny?  Were you able to do 80 sit-ups in three minutes and 100 pushups in the same amount of time?  I remember being envious of those athletic people in gym class.

As for me, I was the short, fat kid who couldn’t do anything, maybe 5 push-ups and 18 sit-ups on a good day.  The most humiliating thing was to go to the pull-up bar, knowing that it would take a huge effort just to get my hands on the bar, and then not be able to do a single pull-up.  Pretty much it was only the girls and the fat kids who couldn’t do pull-ups at that age.  Just one of the few reasons I hated P.E…

I just can’t believe what happened today at the gym during my workout.

I was getting ready to do a “negative” pull-up.  That’s when you jump up to the highest position you can just below the top of the pull-up bar, and let yourself down as slow as you can.  These “negative” exercises are designed to build up the strength to perform difficult exercises.  My trainer says that negative pull-ups help you to get better at performing the bench press, and obviously, better at doing pull-ups.  I’ve been doing this negative pull-up exercise for about two weeks now, maybe only three times total.

So I get my hands on the bars, and was just about to hang, when I sensed additional strength in me.  And then I actually pulled my head over the top of the bar!

Un-be-lievable!  I actually did a pull-up, and not just one pull-up, but a total of 16. My five sets of pull-ups were: 5, 3, 2, 3, and 3.  Wow.  These pull-ups were 42 years in the making.  I’m totally stoked.

Reaching 179 lbs by Greek food is definitely not the way to gain weight.  But that’s what happened after Saturday night’s dinner party.  We had some neighbors over to thank them for their generosity in letting us borrow stuff while we had lots of family staying in our home for our son’s recent wedding.  It was no holds barred on the Greek food:  pastitsio, Greek chicken, spanakopita, and Greek salad.  Maria even made carrot cake.  That morning I weighed in at 177, so the next day’s 179.6 was not a pleasant sight for me on the scale.

To offset the planned Greek food, I went on a 5-mile run Saturday morning down to the gym and back.  It was an easy run, but strangely, I felt a little lethargic.  In any case, the 700 calories I burned were not enough to offset my overeating later than night.

To compensate for the unwanted weight gain, I burned over 1700 calories in the gym Sunday:  spin class, abs workout, and a short upper body workout at LA|FITNESS, and then my leg workout at 24Hour Fitness later in the evening.  I sure did sweat a lot on Sunday, but I think the two protein shakes I drank gave me some constipation this morning.  Even so, I was able to drop down to 178.8 lbs.  Surely, if I had had a BM (as my trainer likes to say… stands for “bowel movement”), I would have been at my previous 177 lbs on the scale this morning.

Last night I used my new 24Hour Fitness membership for the first time.  LA|FITNESS closes at 8:00 PM on weekends.  I have to say that the 24Hour in Escondido looks good on the outside, but compared to the new LA|FITNESS, it was definitely an eyesore inside with old equipment.  But there could far worse things.  I am fortunate to be a member at both clubs.

My Lower Body workout routine was good.  I think my least favorite part is the squats, especially the split stance squats where you put one leg in front of the other.  I do them on the Smith machine, and it’s just not comfortable for me right now.  I feel a little hesitant, like I might drop the bar and hurt my back.  The split stance is more difficult that the regular front squats because on the front ones, I can support the weight with both of my legs directly under the weight.  In any case, I sure did sweat a lot … to the tune of about 400 calories.

I continued my new running program this morning before work.  Again, I did about 3 miles.  I felt strong in the legs, probably from the strength training from last night.  But strangely, my pace was a little slower than last week’s.  It’s hard to say why.  The whole run felt good.  I was motivated.  Maybe I got lulled into a slow pace by how easy the run felt.  I will be sure to push myself harder when I feel that strong in my legs.

I love summer.  For as far back as I can remember.  Long days of swimming at the pool with friends.  Being out all day.  The sun staying out until 9:00 pm sometimes.  Playing tennis until you can’t see the ball anymore.  Those are the joys of summer and daylight savings time.

Then there’s the depressing fall (which happens to be my wife’s favorite season).  It’s dark in the morning when you leave for work, and it’s either getting dark or dark when you arrive home.  Just plain depressing. 

Since I plan to ride my bike only once a week now and replace my cardio activities with training for runs, there is little light left during the afternoon after work to get in a good run.  Some good things about running on the Naval base are that:

• Sailors run on the streets of the base all the time
• Speed limits are strictly enforced
• There is very little traffic
• The base is closed, and pretty much safe from strange people
• There are plenty of places to run on a flat surface

So this morning, I implemented my darkness contingency running plan: every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I intend to run at least 3.1 miles on the base in the morning before work.  Today I arrived on base a little after 6:00 AM.  The sun had still not come up.  After getting situated at my desk and going to the bathroom, I stretched out my hamstrings, quads, groin, and hip flexors (next time I have to remember to stretch my lower back and calves).  Just put my military id in my pocket and headed out the door!

It felt great.  Very miniscule tightness in my lower back and hamstrings, no tightness in my glutes.  I’d say the discomfort was about 1 to 2 %.  I attribute the improvement to the 15 minutes of stretching at the gym last night using the stretch machines.  I liked running with, ummmm, say about 99% of my range of motion.  What a difference.

In approximately the same distance as my previous run, I did 3.14 miles in 25:32, which is an 8:08 pace.  I’m stoked to shave off almost three minutes from my last run.  I think I’ll be ready for my first 5K in early November.  Heck, when you look at some of the winning times in my age group at around 19 minutes, I could be in serious contention for a winning medal by then.  Now that would be amazing.

My running appreciation just went up.  I’d say that I moved a couple of notches above hating to run to actually just below liking it.  The best thing about it so far: I can actually envision myself getting better at it.

I’ll find out the answer to that question this evening during my training session because I’ve asked my trainer to take me through my Upper Body routine so I can experience what the pace, intensity, and weight levels are supposed to be like. I don’t think my workouts are intense enough. Let me rephrase that: I’m not intense enough during my workouts. Especially during this Power phase.

I suspect that my “breaks” in between sets and exercises are a tad too long. The pace of exercise is probably too “fast” when it should be a little slower and gritty.

Sure. Some of this uneasiness could be learning these three new routines. I’ve only finished one full rotation of all three, and it could very well be that after one or two more full rotations, my confidence in performing the exercises correctly will increase to the point where I can get more intense.

That’s the way I felt during the other two phases in the past four months.

My intensity does need to decrease when it comes to my weight… on the scale that is. This morning I weighed in at 177 lbs, which caused me to freak out … for just a little bit.  I’m curious to see what body fat % my skinfold measurements yield tonight. If they are the same or lower than last week’s, then I’m okay with the quantity of food I’ve been eating, which ranges from 2500 - 3000 kcal/day while burning anywhere from 400 - 800 kcal/day.

I’m really enjoying the new “Power Phase” workouts my trainer (Murray) has me doing.  I think the terminology he uses is based on the Optimum Performance Training (OPT) model from his NASM Certification.  He’s taking me through the OPT Model for Sports Performance Clients — on the previous link, see the cool diagram at the bottom of the page.  Since I’ve worked with him the last four months, I’ve gone through the Stabilization and Strength phases, so now I’m learning some new workout routines in the Power phase.

What’s nice is that my workouts are only 8 exercises for each of three routines: Upper Body, Lower Body, and Total Body.  So far I’ve tried the Upper and Lower; today at the gym, I plan to do the Total Body workout for the first time.  The weight/sets/reps philosophy behind this phase is heavier weights at fewer reps performed in 3 - 5 sets.  Murray says I should expect to gain about five pounds in weight during this phase with about 1.5 pounds of it in new muscle mass.  He says the rest of the weight will be water weight.  What’s exciting about this weight gain is that he says I should also see my body fat percentage decrease.

**Don’t tell Murray: he doesn’t want me to be in the gym for more than an hour per workout, but I added an ab workout to the routines, so I’m in there for two hours at a time.**

I have to admit that it’s difficult for me to not to FREAK OUT about gaining weight.  I’ve already gained one pound above my previous limit; currently, my weight is 176 lbs.  I’ve been advised not to weigh myself every day, but I need my body weight to enter in the correct info for my heart rate monitor (HRM).  As a compromise, Murray said he would take weekly skinfold measurements with the calipers so I can measure my body fat percentage weekly.  I think this will ease my mind as I see the pounds go up on the scale; I expect some decrease in body fat.  Last week’s caliper measurement yielded 9.1% body fat, which probably means that if I were to take a hydrostatic measurement (under water), I’d probably be at around 7% body fat.  So granted, I don’t have much more fat to lose; I think the healthiest lower limit is 6%.

What’s new about my results just from two workouts is that I’m experiencing muscle soreness.  I think it means that I’m breaking down muscle fibers during the workouts, which should translate into new muscle growth and density.  To that end, I’ve also started taking a creatine supplement before and after workouts, as well as, ensuring that I eat a glutamine supplement with my post-workout protein shake. 

Along with the new workout routines, I’ve just started a running program.  So far I’ve ran two times, the latest run was last night for about 3.2 miles.  I completed the run just before sundown in 28 minutes, which is about an 8:45 min/mi pace.  I think that’s okay for a novice runner at my age.  I had some slight discomfort during the run.  My quads, hamstrings, and glutes were really tight, and limited my range of motion as I was running.  I did take time to stretch before the run, so I was surprised at the tightness.  I hope it goes away before my next run on Friday.

Per Joe Thorn’s recommendation, I’m trying out an electronic running journal called Running Ahead.  Although I like electronic journals, I only plan to use it for running.  I record my exercise in the gym in a traditional notebook journal called The Body Minder.