Wednesday, April 09, 2008

New Goal: Drop the 'Law School 30'

I am sick and tired of the 30 extra pounds I have been carrying around since law school. It is time to get rid of them, once and for all.

Higher education has never been good to my waistline. When I graduated from high school, I was 166 -- mind you, I had neither muscles nor endurance, but at least I wasn't fat. ;-)

By the time I was a senior in college, my weight was up to 205. I had gained about 40 pounds -- that's 10 a year, on average. I was tired of it. And so, at the urging of high school chum Ian, I decided to lose it. In 2001, after a summer of hard Body for Life workouts and healthy meals, I had dropped 25 pounds. I was at 178 and feeling great. (And, as the 12-week before/after photo shows, looking pretty good too!)

From 2001 to 2004, I hovered around 185, give or take a few pounds. I didn't eat that clean but I didn't stuff myself on a regular basis. I exercised regularly, often making it to the gym 3-4 times a week, and I ran when I had the chance.

Then law school happened and I threw myself into studying. I stopped exercising as much as I had been, and I didn't pay much attention to what I was feeding myself. Like many law school friends, by the time 3 years were up, I had gained 30 pounds. As this seems to be fairly common, I am officially dubbing it the "Law School 30."

For the last couple years, I have been holding steady around 210. Sometimes I lose five or gain five, but I usually return to 210.

I don't like being 210. I feel gross and out of shape. I don't look as svelte as I like. (NB: It doesn't seem to concern the ladies, but I'd still like to look my absolute best.)

So now that the 5K is over, I am setting out on a quest to get back to my pre-law school weight -- 30 pounds. To that end, I plan to eat healthy and go to the gym regularly, following the Turbulence Training program, as well as maintain a base mileage of around 10 miles a week in preparation for the official half-marathon training I will start sometime in June.

I plan to post my meals in many of the blog entries, so that my readers can see what I am eating and encourage me and keep me on track.

I am confident that if I drop the weight, my running will improve to the point where I could run many many miles without stopping, and maybe one day even experience that elusive runner's high...

Wish me luck!

Today's Meals
  • Cup of low-fat cottage cheese (160)
  • Turkey sandwich on whole wheat (300)
  • Tuna sandwich on whole wheat (300)
  • String cheese (80)

    Projected
  • Chicken, rice and veggies (700)
  • Protein shake (200)
Total: 1740
Workout

  • 30 minutes of bodyweight and dumbbell exercises
  • 17 minutes of interval training on the recumbent bike

5 comments:

  1. You can do it!! Good luck. I'll be watching you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good accountability, posting your meals online. Just make sure you're totally honest ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Lilla and Di!

    (Sounds kind of like a folk song refrain. "Keep on pushing, lose that weight, lilla-di-di-di, lilla-di-di-di")

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm wondering why you decided not to do Body for Life again since you had success with it?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Saucha, that is a whole post unto itself. Actually I might write about that soon! But to sum it up, although BFL is a great program and it works well, it is HARD. It requires an enormous amount of dedication and, more importantly, effort. Hitting a level-10 intensity is EXHAUSTING, and doing so at every workout? Well, unless you get TONS of sleep, it's easy to burn out and get sick or injured.

    I tried BFL several times after the initial challenge. If you go back in the Archives to my very first post on this blog, you can read all about my failed attempts. ;-)

    Anyway, I've decided that instead of trying BFL again, I would try one of the more modern programs. Turbulance Training seems to be very well-respected, so that's where I'm starting!

    There are many more reasons why BFL has been hard to stick to, and the more I think about it, the more I think it would make a good post. So stay tuned -- and thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete


http://physicsdiet.com/chart.ashx?t=weightloss&s=2011-10-31&u=ztrawhcs