Good News

Don't worry! Unlike certain BAD periods in the past, three weeks of silence in this case does NOT mean I have given up or fallen off the wagon or anything like that. I have just been busy with my new job.  :-)   Admittedly it is harder to fit a daily workout in when I have to leave for work at 8:30. I have not and never will be a morning person, and so morning workouts are simply out of the question. I've tried them; even when I can force myself out of bed (which is doubtful), I am never awake or energetic enough to get a good workout going.

So I've tried to fit workouts in after work, but it's tricky. I've mostly been getting them in on the weekend. I'm averaging about 2 workouts a week, which is not ideal, but it's better than nothing. My weight is holding steady.

Here's the REALLY GOOD NEWS. I've compared my weight and body fat logs from 4.5 years ago to now, and it turns out that although my weight has gone up 3 pounds, my body fat has actually gone down over one pound! Which means I've lost more than a pound of fat, and gained more than 4 pounds of muscle!

I still have a lot more to lose, especially around the middle, but it's nice to know I haven't completely dropped the ball these past several years. :)

Today's Workout:

• 36 mins recumbent bike (pulse avg 130-140)
• Leg Press: 10 reps at 170 lbs, 10 @ 240, 10 @ 290

Treadmill and crunches = good combo

I wouldn't go so far as to say I've "fallen into a routine," but I've noticed that I tend to naturally follow my treadmill C25K runs with 60-80 Swiss ball crunches. It works out pretty well, and I'm in and out of the gym in less than 45 minutes. And I feel great when I'm done!

I finished Week 3 of C25K today. Less than 60 days now until the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. Honestly I don't know if I'll be up to 10 miles by then. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to handle it from a cardiovascular standpoint, but I'm still just worried about doing too much too soon and getting another stress reaction in my metatarsals, like I did back in aught-nine. But we will see how I feel a couple weeks before the race; if I can't handle it, I'll drop down to the 5K and shoot for 30 minutes.  :-)  (OK, 35 minutes.)

Today's C25K didn't feel quite as easy as a couple days ago -- my body is likely still rebuilding from the 9 mph I threw at it! -- but I did keep the treadmill between 6 and 7.5 mph on the running portions, I didn't have too much tightness, and I felt pretty good overall. It's still hard to believe that in just two weeks I'll theoretically be running 20 minutes without stopping! That's what the program calls for anyway. We'll see if that happens.

I'm not sure exactly how high my pulse got while running, but just after finishing the last 3 minute run it was around 170. Yesterday I ordered a Polar heart rate monitor, so starting with my next run I will be able to monitor my heart rate continuously over the treadmill. I enjoy heart-rate training, as it lets me know quite naturally when I should pull back, and when I can push harder.

My new job starts tomorrow and I am super pumped... it's back to a journalist's life for me! I won't be able to workout tomorrow, and maybe not Friday either, but I will hit it again on the weekend and I'll try to figure out a way to incorporate fitness into my daily routine once I actually have to leave for work every day by 8:30!

(Say what you want about unemployment, but I will miss the lazy mornings and 11 am workouts.)

Here's a picture from today between sets on the Swiss ball! Good runs + good crunches = happy Matt!

9.0 mph ACTUALLY EXISTS on a treadmill

Tonight, in an attempt to make my cardiovascular system capable of running 10 miles without stopping just two months from now, I flung myself down to the gym, where I set the treadmill to a 1% incline and proceeded to do Week 3 of Couch to 5K.

Here's the news: I started my first running segment (90 seconds) at about 5.8 mph, but I was feeling good and quickly pushed it up to 6.2 mph. Did the second running segment (3 minutes) at 6.5. Third running segment (90 seconds) zipped along fairly easily at 7 mph. Fourth and final running segment (3 minutes) started at 7, but my footfalls weren't keeping up with Aerosmith's beat, so I pushed it up to 8. Now I was barely keeping up with the beat, but I still felt like I could do more...

For the first time in my life, I pushed the treadmill up to 9 mph!

I kept it there for over 30 seconds before my body forced me to pull back. I quickly dropped down to 8, 7, 6, and finished the last 30 seconds with a 5.5 jog.

The key takeaway here is not just I managed run at 9 mph for half a minute and not go shooting off the back of the belt (that's a 6:40/mile pace!), but also that my speeds were generally off the chart the whole time. Except for that part at the end where I really pushed myself... it was all so... easy! When has 7 mph EVER been easy? Sure, I didn't hold it for very long - just 90 seconds - but just a few weeks ago, even holding a 5.5 mph jog for 90 seconds was treacherous. I felt like I was going to die. And today it was EASY!

Is this all just a quick reaction to a bit of applied exercise? Sure that's part of it, but I think there's more: For one, my diet today was pretty clean. I started with a spinach florentine bagel with butter, and coffee. With butter, cream, and sugar, we're probably close to 700 calories. So far not so good, but after that, the next thing I ate was a wild rice mix with grilled chicken breast and sauteed walnuts! It was positively delicious, and probably no more than 600 calories. A few hours later, I had some whole wheat pasta with three turkey hot dogs: 500 calories, perhaps. And throughout the day, I had been partaking of sweet Honeybell oranges. Add 200 calories for the juice and fiber.

All told, before I went out running at 9, I had consumed about 2000 calories for the day, most of them pretty solid grains and protein. My body had no gooey cheese to contend with, no disgusting deep fried BLECH to clog the veins. I was appropriately fueled and my body had rebuilt itself from the last time, and I was ready to go.

(Oh, and due to frequent massages with The Stick, my calves didn't tighten up at all.)

For the first time in years, a really good run! To cap off a really good day. I might just make this 10 Miler after all.

--

Addendum: Upon reviewing the archives, I am shocked to learn that tonight's experience is about exactly where I was, cardiovascularly, in 2003 -- nine years ago! Take a look at my 2003 description of a treadmill run. I wasn't knowingly using the C25K program, but my method -- run till my pulse hits 170, walk till my pulse hits 130, rinse and repeat -- is essentially exactly what I'm doing now. Wow! This means that I might be in just as good shape as I was when I was 23; I just have a little extra padding around the middle, that's all!

Sickness derails fitness: NEWS AT ELEVEN

Ah, January 16. I remember it well. As readers of this blog may recall, I worked out harder than I had in years. I warmed up with 20 minutes on the recumbent bike, then did an intense upper body workout, and THEN did a bunch of running on the treadmill. I got the speed up to 8 mph at one point. I felt exhausted, and amazing.

But there's something I neglected to mention in my last post. You see, while I was running I felt great, but right afterward, I felt a tightness in my chest. It wasn't a heart attack or anything, but it did feel kind of hard to breathe. I've never really had asthma, but it felt kind of like what I thought asthma might feel like. I came home and Googled "exercise-induced asthma." Such a thing exists, so I chalked it up to that, and vowed to take it a little bit easier in the future.

Then, calamity: Over the next week, I got very sick. My main symptoms? Fatigue... and chest congestion. It turns out that while I was KILLING myself at the gym, my body was also trying to fight off a bug that has been going around DC, and which has cleared all the DC-area drug stores of every formulation of Mucinex. By working out so hard, I inadvertently compromised my immune system.

I fell off the wagon. I couldn't exercise, and because I was sick, I decided it was okay to treat myself with some of the foods I love.

When you go to the gym every day, and exercise hard, and eat well, you build up a momentum and it is easy to keep it going. You always have energy and you WANT to exercise! You WANT to eat nutritious foods! You just naturally want to build on success. Your body has no desire to consume pizza and donuts, because it will just make it harder to exercise, and it will undo the very real gains you are making at the gym.

The flip side is also true. Once you fall off the wagon, it's really hard to get back on. The momentum is lost. It sucks, and it's hard to get started again.

And I don't even want to think about how much pizza I've eaten over the last week. And donuts. Ohhh the donuts.

I know what happened, I know what I did wrong, and in the future if I feel myself coming down with something, I will take it really easy until I know I'm in the clear. I've had almost two weeks off, and my diet has been horrible, and the scale reflects that. Now it's time to get back on the wagon. It will be hard for a few days...

But then it will be easy again.

The Hardest Workout in YEARS

I don't have a lot of time because I want to go to sleep, because I am exhausted, because of what I am about to discuss. Today I was at the gym for two hours and I pushed myself harder than I have in years. I started with 20 minutes on the recumbent bike to warm up (getting my pulse up around 150), then did about an hour's worth of upper body resistance training, and THEN to follow that up, I decided to do one of the Couch-to-5K Week 2 programs. This means I was walking for about 15 minutes, interspersed with 9 minutes of running for 90 seconds each. And this wasn't just any running. It went something like this:

• Walk 5 minutes
• Run 90 seconds at 5.5 mph
• Walk 2 minutes
• Run 90 seconds at 6.0 mph
• Walk 2 minutes
• Run 90 seconds at 6.5 mph
• Walk 2 minutes
• Run 90 seconds at 6.5 mph with 1% incline
• Walk 2 minutes
• Run 90 seconds at 7.2 mph with 1% incline
• Walk 2 minutes
• Run 90 seconds at 7.5-8.0 mph with 1% incline

During that last run, when I pushed the treadmill up to 8 mph and held it there for at least a minute before I "dropped it down" to 7.5 (normally "dropping it down" would be to 4.5 or 5!)... just WOW. I felt incredibly invigorated. My arms were pumping. And I absolutely could not have gotten through it without Aerosmith. 

Another cool thing is that I took my pulse right after the final run, and it was just a little over 160. I wasn't even in my top 10% heart rate zone!

And when I learned that, I realized something pretty awesome: I don't know if I'll be able to train myself to run the 10 Miles on April 1st, but I have no doubt I'll at least be able to run the 5K. And not in 42 minutes like 4 years ago, either. I've got 74 days left till the race. I haven't even begun to fight!

Mmm dinner

My food today was equally healthy:

• Chocolate protein shake and banana (500 cal, 44g protein)
• Grilled chicken with whole wheat pasta and sauteed peppers (~700 cal, 40g protein) 
• Vanilla protein shake with skim milk (500 cal, 54g protein)

TOTAL: 1700 calories, 138g protein

I know, that's pretty low calorie-wise, but I just haven't been hungry. Whole grains and slow-digesting protein powder keep me pretty full.

The scale has been hovering around 210 lately but I'm convinced 208 is at my doorstep!

--
Addendum, 7:50 am - 208.4!!!

Regrets and Rebounds

I did a bad thing. On Sunday night, after eating well all week and losing weight, I decided it would my "Free Day" (a la Body for Life), and I treated myself to a major eating binge. MAJOR. I ate basically a large stuffed crust meat lover's pizza from Pizza Hut, AND an order of cinnamon sticks with extra icing.

It was tasty. I felt like I was getting away with something. I went to sleep, fully intending to get right back on track in the morning.

When I woke up on Monday, I literally felt like I had a hangover. I could feel my body trying to fight all the poison I had fed it. I was dizzy and nauseous and lethargic all day. Even the next day, I still felt out of it. I slowly got back on the healthy eating wagon, but it wasn't until Wednesday that I finally felt like myself again.

That's the bad news. The good news is that I came back to the light. For the last couple days I've been eating clean, and working out hard. On Wednesday I did 20 minutes on the recumbent bike, a bunch of heavy leg presses, and 60 Swiss ball crunches! Today I did week 2 of "Couch to 5K," putting the treadmill on a 1% incline, and toward the end I had pushed my speed up to 7, 7.5, and then 8 mph! My pulse shot up over 180, but I felt great, and I could have kept going, and I could have pushed it even faster. And, even more amazingly, my calves didn't tighten up at all! I have been massaging them regularly, but I was still surprised the tightness has left me so quickly. I haven't run without tightness in years!


I am in love with Syntha-6 protein powder, both chocolate and vanilla flavors (although the vanilla may be a bit too sweet for me -- I'll have to see if I can tone it down: does anyone know how to make something less sweet?). This protein powder keeps me full for so long, that by evening I'll wonder why I am suddenly hungry, and then realize that I've only eaten 1200 calories the whole day!

All told, the pizza-and-cinnasticks incident pushed my weight up by 2.6 pounds, but as suspected, most of that was water weight, and as of this morning I was lower than last week. I am soon to cross the 210 threshold. Next goal: 200. Final goal: 190. Then I'll reassess.

Onward! :-)

--

Thursday's Food Log:

• Banana - 100
• Vanilla protein shake - 200, 22g
• Grilled chicken, spinach salad, wild rice - 500? 30g?
• Vanilla protein shake - 400, 44g
• Banana - 100
• Orange - 50
• Glass of chardonnay - 100
• Whole wheat pasta and chicken breast - 800? 50g?

Total: ~2250 calories, 146g protein

Beautiful night for a walk

Today after work I went to the gym where I used a really nifty machine called the "Vertical Traction" by Technogym. It's kind of like a high-tech lat pulldown machine that really works your arms. I LIKED IT. Unfortunately I had to cut my workout short because I forgot my sneakers, and I looked ridiculous sitting there in shirt, shorts, and... black dress shoes.

So I showered and left to go meet some friends at a pub about 1.5 miles away. I could have taken the Metro, but it was such a beautiful night, I decided to walk!

About halfway there, I realized I was right in front of the White House, and I took a few moments to make several Skype mobile video calls to some somewhat amazed family and friends.

"Who WOULDN'T want to FaceTime with that handsome man?!?" -Ari

I then thoroughly threw away my healthy eating plan for today by sharing a trio of appetizers with friends: Big fried pretzel things, vegetable spring rolls, and grilled chicken skewers (at least there was one healthy option). Oh, and a pint of Strongbow.

My eating choices for today were not that great, mostly because I didn't make my meals last night and I waited until I was hungry before heading out for lunch. But I kept the calories low enough that I won't gain today:

FOOD LOG:

• Syntha-6 Protein Shake (400 calories, 44g protein)

• Chipotle burrito: chicken, brown rice, pinto beans, cheese, sour cream, salsa, guac, lettuce (1200 calories, 65g protein)

• Bar food: Deep fried pretzel thing (~300), chicken skewer (~100 / 15g), veggie spring roll (~150), Strongbow 20 oz (230): (~800 calories, 15g protein)

TOTAL: ~2400 calories, 124g protein

Definitely not what I would call "healthy," but perfectly adequate for a resistance-training Friday. And I have to have some fun sometime or else I won't be able to stick to a mostly-healthy eating plan for the rest of my life! (...eek, it sounds scary when I put it like that).

Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend for lunch at a deli about a mile away, and I've already decided that if the weather isn't too bad, I'm walking. My friend Josh lost a TON of weight by walking all over Boston (and watching what he ate). I can too!

The smallest belt hole!

Today I noticed that my pants were loose so I went to adjust my belt, and it turns out I only had one belt hole left! Now I am on the smallest one and that just feels so awesome. And look at the awesome graph! It looks like this "Calories In < Calories Out" thing really works!

Food Log

• Syntha 6 (400 calories, 44 grams protein)
• Chicken, rice, quinoa (~600 cal, 30g)
• Subway 6" turkey melt (400, 25g)
• Chicken and barley soup (160, 14g)
• Two sticks of string cheese (160, 16g)

Total: 1720 calories, 129 grams of protein

I'm not purposely starving myself, I swear. That protein drink just keeps me SO full, and by pre-emptively eating just before I get hungry, I am basically never hungry at all and don't get any cravings! 

I'll probably get hungrier once I'm exercising regularly -- things are really tight right now with rehearsals every night, but after Saturday the 14th my rehearsal schedule will drop down to ONE PER WEEK. I am sincerely looking forward to having almost every other evening free. It's time to take care of Me.


PS - I just noticed how many exclamation points I used in this post. Please accept my humble apologies.

Forgot my shoes AGAIN

Well, I was planning to hit the gym today and do a little running on the treadmill, and I managed to bring everything I needed -- shorts, T-shirt, extra socks, extra underwear... the only thing I forgot was my SHOES! Again! I always forget my shoes! Alas.

The good news was that my calories were pretty low today:

• Protein shake (400 calories, 44g protein)
• Potbelly Tuna Sub + chips + Mt Dew (1400 calories, 50g protein) - yes yes, I know, but it kept me full forever)
• Chickarina soup (260 calories, 16g protein)

Total: < 2100 calories, 110g protein

I've got chicken and rice cooking in the kitchen right now, so my lunch tomorrow should be back on track. I'm on this.

Tomorrow's lunch!

Food log

• Coffee with cream/sugar (100, 3)
• Subway Cold Cut Combo (900, 42g)
• Protein drink (400, 44)
• Chicken and dumpling soup (320, 14)

Total: 1720 calories, 103 grams protein

Thoughts: Boy that protein is filling!

Stats for Vacation Week

• FOUR: excursions to the gym, at which I lifted many heavy things, began to learn to run, and kept my pulse up very high, hovering around 150 but blowing past 180 when necessary!
• THREE: healthy meals taught to parents: Whole grain rice with tofurkey sausage and peppers; whole wheat thin spaghetti with butter and chicken; and the tastiest protein shake you'll ever find.
• TWO: family members who are PUMPED to continue eating right and working out. AND
• ONE: redheaded man who has returned to the DC, eager to get back on the eating-right gym wagon. Left DC at 214.8 lbs; returned to DC at 212.6 lbs.

The long green shaded area is the VACATION!

On the Wagon, Even at Home

I have spent the past week in Michigan, but that hasn't stopped me from exercising and (mostly) eating right. My dad has a membership to the local Planet Fitness -- an amazing gym for the price -- and his membership comes with guest privileges, so I have been working out hard every couple days. And I've been showing my family how to eat well, cooking them whole wheat spaghetti and making wild rice and Tofurky sausage and peppers -- ya know, all my classics. And they really like it! Eating healthy doesn't have to taste bad.

I have also started to train for the 10 Mile Cherry Blossom Run on April 1st. Just 92 days left (according to my nifty countdown app). It starts off slowly -- a minute of running, 90 seconds of walking, repeat 8 times -- but I have really been pushing it on the last couple minutes of running. Yesterday I pumped up the Aerosmith and pushed the treadmill up to 7, and then 7.5 mph! I kept that pace up for a whole minute and I felt totally exhilarated by the end.

Then I slept like a baby.

I will admit I've been eating more Thai food than is normal, and going out to eat with old friends. That will taper off soon and I plan to get right back to my healthy diet once I'm back in DC. And then... onward.

The Planet Fitness that has been keeping me sane this week.

Today I didn't eat so cleanly but I kept the calories low AND I started Couch to 5K.

I know it's silly but I already think my face looks a little thinner. I'm SO tired from all the exercising but I am also a lot more chipper!

• Bagel with cream cheese (400), coffee/cream (100), 15g protein
• Beefaroni (420, 16g)
• [EXERCISE: C25K Day 1]
• Grilled chicken with jasmine rice and butter (600, 35g)
• Chocolate chip cookie (200)
• Chickarina soup (260, 16g)
• Syntha-6 (200, 22g)

TOTAL: ~2,200, 104g protein

ONWARD

My weight cannot be as bad as I think because today I wore pants that I bought 6.5 years ago, and they still fit perfectly. And they are not the kind of pants that would stretch over time. Sooo at least some of the weight gain has to be muscle mass.

HOWEVER, that changes nothing. My resolve is strong and I will succeed.

I would type more, but my chest, arms, and shoulders are incredibly sore -- Wednesday's workout has finally hit me, and it was almost impossible to put my jacket on tonight.

I can do this.

--

LOG

• 10:30 am: 2 servings Syntha-6 chocolate protein powder, with 10 oz. of 1% milk (400 + 120 = 520, 54g)
• 1:30 pm: Potbelly's: Big Wreck on Wheat, thin-cut (835, 42g) + Zapps chips (120, 1g) - half
• 3:00 pm: Other half of Potbellys
• 6:00 pm: 2 servings Syntha-6 chocolate protein powder, with 10 oz. of 1% milk (400 + 120 = 520, 54g)
• [8:30 - LOWER BODY WORKOUT + 27 minutes on the recumbent bike]
• 10:30 pm: Chicken breast with 1/3 cup of rice (400, 30g)

TOTAL: ~2400 calories, 181g protein

No More Complacency

Okay.


Looking over the other day's insane graph, three things jumped out at me:

1. When I pay NO attention whatsoever to my diet, and eat whatever the hell I want, I generally gain 1/2 to 1 pound per month.

2. When I vaguely pay attention to my weight, and generally try not to pig out, but allow myself a fair number of indulgences (regular pizza, Chinese, etc), I always gain 1/4 to 1/2 pound per month.

3. When I pay close attention to my weight, and choose my food wisely and with purpose, I always lose 1-2 pounds per WEEK.

That is not a typo. When I actually try, I lose up to two pounds a WEEK. And that's with diet alone. When I throw exercise in there, my numbers are even better.

In other words, complacency makes me fat. Luckily, that graph gave me a kick in my complacency. I simply cannot eat whatever I want anymore. I have to reverse the trend. If I do not, if I just amble through life vaguely paying attention, eating whatever I feel like, and not getting exercise, I will continue to gain 1/4 pound a month. That's 3 pounds a year. In 10 years, that's THIRTY POUNDS.

You may be thinking: Oh, come on, surely you'll notice and stop the trend before it goes that far. Well, I'd like to think so too, but the numbers speak for themselves. Go look at the graph. Yeah, in June of 2008 I started paying attention, and dropped 20 pounds over the next five months, but then I got complacent again and look what happened: The line started back up at a rate of over 1/4 pounds per month. The linear trend line from high school graduation to now is a perfect fit.

If I keep on my present course, then in 10 more years I will be pushing 250.

It's so easy to become complacent. Three pounds a year is nothing. "Oh, I'm almost the same as last year," I say to myself contently, every year, every year. After a decade, that becomes a pretty wide gulf.


I don't want to get back to my high school weight. I was a scrawny little twerp with absolutely no muscle. But I would love to get back to my pre-law school weight of <190, and even my post-Body for Life weight of <180. It's not just about looking better; it's about feeling better. I never had more energy than when I was working out six days a week and eating healthy. (And yes, I looked pretty damn good too!)

It took several false starts before I finally completed a Body for Life 12-week challenge. What caused me to succeed that last time? I finally realized that I had to make a big change. Well, it's time for another big change, and I think I'm finally realizing that.


---

FOOD LOG FOR DEC. 21, 2011

1. Spinach florentine bagel with butter (400 + 200 = 600, 17g protein)
2. Large turkey Italian wedding soup from Zoup, with sourdough roll (240 + 170 = 410, 10g protein)
3. Random food at Lobby party: 3 veggie dumplings, 5 small meatballs, 2 meat pie things (600? 20g?)
4. 2 servings Syntha-6 chocolate protein powder, with 10 oz. of 1% milk (400 + 120 = 520, 54g);  Radishes and hummus (100, 5g)
5. 1 serving Syntha-6 chocolate protein powder with water (200, 22g)
6. Pack of sliced deli chicken breast (275, 50g))

TOTAL: ~2700 calories, 178g protein
EXERCISE: Upper body work out (chest, back, shoulders, triceps, biceps; recumbent bike)



FOOD LOG FOR DEC. 22, 2011

1. 1 serving Syntha-6 chocolate protein powder with water (200, 22g); 1/2 cup of Kashi GoLean Crunch with 1% milk (150, 8g)
2. "Blackened chicken gyro" from Devon and Blakely (700? 50g?)
3. Naked Protein Smoothie (450, 32g)
4. Turkey sausage and 1/2 cup of Jasmati rice with tbsp butter (750, 34g); Radishes and hummus (50, 2g)

TOTAL: 2250 calories, 158g protein

Oh Crap.

Observations on food to energy correlation

Today I ate:

* Soy crisps
* Coffee with cream and sugar
* A smoked salmon sandwich on multigrain
* Some Junior Mints
* Jasmati / wild / brown / red rice with canned chicken, and a bit of butter/salt/garlic/olive oil

And I have had tons of energy all day.

Note also that I started the day with a deeply discounted Bob Harper's "Smart Weight Loss" pills - basically some vitamins and caffeine.

So I've had a lot of caffeine today -- but none since about 2 pm.

Looking at the day, I see that I never pigged out (yet was never hungry), and had a lot of caffeine. The result? Lots of energy.

I'll be interested to see what happens going forward...

My tummy is big!

.....that is all.

David Garcia is My New Hero

Back in high school I had a pal named Dave Garcia. David was friendly, and funny, and - most relevant to this post - portly. Actually, that's putting it mildly. David was a BIG GUY.

David and I were both thespians to varying degrees, and I once acted with him in a performance of Into the Woods. Beanpole thin, bright red hair, the kind of guy who might truthfully have a cow as his best friend, I was immediately typecast as Jack of the Beanstalk.

David was also typecast: He played the Baker. Just by looking at the cast, even a stranger would have been able to tell that David was the baker. He looked like the kind of guy who spent all his time consumed by, and consuming, sugary dough.

David and I didn't hang out much in high school, but I do remember the one time I came over to his house after school. Offering to make me a snack, he reached into his freezer and pulled out, among other things, a large box of deep fried beef taquitos. A snack to me might have meant 2 or 3. He emptied the box of 16, putting half on my plate and half on his. I was surprised but delighted at this unexpected gluttony. After all, I was a teenager and I could pretty much eat anything I wanted and stay thin. What I didn't necessarily realize at the time was that, for Dave, this wasn't a one-time treat. He ate like this all the time.

David and I both attended the University of Michigan, but we didn't really see each other much in college. We emailed back and forth about the then-dwindling quality of the Simpsons, and one time I went to his dorm room so he could critique me on an audition monologue I was preparing. But after that, I lost touch with Dave, and I didn't run into him again until our ten-year high school reunion.

Me with David (and a mutual friend) at our 10-year reunion

Just as I remembered, David was friendly and funny and boy had he gotten portly. As I said, he was always a big guy, but the years had paid their respects and Dave had to be pushing 400 pounds. I didn't care, of course. Dave was a friend and I didn't care how much he weighed as long as he was a good person. And if he was happy with being 400 pounds, then that's really all that mattered.

What I didn't know at the time was that David was not happy. In fact, it turns out David had been far less jolly in high school than I had originally thought. He had gone through some pretty rough patches. Depression had hit him pretty hard. And he wanted to make a change.

I know all this because David keeps a blog. The blog is called, “Keep It Up David!”, And it details his weight loss journey. How big of a journey, you may ask? Well, a year ago David tipped the scales at 402 pounds. Today, he is under 250.

Over 150 pounds in one year.

Any particular weight loss secrets? Yep. Four words: Move more, eat less. It is the simple wisdom of every person to have ever shed massive amounts of weight. Oh, sometimes they reverse it: Eat less, move more. Either way, it's four words and it works.

The problem, of course, is sticking to those four words. You need motivation and you need dedication and you need accountability. David is lucky enough to be a pretty optimistic guy after all is said and done, and he desperately wanted to lose the weight, so he had the motivation.

Accountability on the other hand, that is harder to come by. You need somebody there to report to. Be it a reader on a blog, or a best friend, or one's family, or… Richard Simmons.

Richard Fucking Simmons!

Sequined Serendipity

David had been some sort of production assistant on Ellen, and one day Richard Simmons was the guest. While David was helping with production, Richard gave David his personal e-mail address and told David that If he wanted help, Richard was there for him.

A few weeks of deliberating, a promise to e-mail Richard a food log listing everything David ate for the last year, and a lot of healthy choices and Richard "Slimmons" classes later, and voilà. Skinny Dave.

David returned to the Ellen show last week not as a staff member but as a guest. Ellen was stunned at David's new body, the crowd gave him a standing ovation, and the show gave him thousands of dollars in gift certificates to high-end clothing stores and Whole Foods. Watching the segment, I couldn't help but tear up as David revealed his new physique, and reveled in his hard work and fantastic achievements. See for yourself, and try not to shed tears of joys for my dear friend.



And yet, even as the tears fell, my next thought was a sobering one:

David Garcia is skinnier than me.

This is kind of a big deal because of what happens when you turn that sentence around.

Matt Schwartz is FATTER than David Garcia.

Today, although my Body Mass Index is still technically lower than David's, if the two of us took a picture together, I might conceivably be described as the Chunky One. Indeed, if our high school drama teacher were typecasting Into the Woods today, David might very well be Jack; I might very well be the Baker.

Talk about lighting a fire under me.

I have to lose weight. I know that. I have been overweight for the past several years, ever since law school. I don't feel good at 210. I don't look particularly good at 210. I know from experience that I look and feel my best when I'm below 190–and ideally 180. I've wanted to get back there for a long time. And seeing David accomplish such an amazing feat is enough to really inspire me to get out there and work hard.

And for the last couple weeks, I have been working hard! I joined a gym! I've gone five times, doing four weightlifting workouts and one killer boxing workout that left me panting and vomitous on the floor! And it sucked at the time but now every time I cough or laugh I feel muscles I didn't know I had, and it makes me happy! And already I can feel myself getting stronger, and more energetic, and even people at work have noted that I've started slimming down.

David Garcia used to be the Big Jolly Fat Guy. Now, he is the Amazing Energetic Inspiration. He has achieved "Biggest Loser"-level success. If he can do it, I can do it. And I'm lucky in that I've only got about 25 pounds to lose.

So, thank you Dave. You're an inspiration to us all, and I look forward to one day visiting you in Los Angeles, feasting not on deep fried taquitos but on healthy and delicious food, and maybe even celebrating my own weight loss success with you.

Cheers to old friend David Garcia, my newest Weight Loss Hero!

I know.

Yeah, yeah. I know.

drinking and running don't mix

On Friday night I got drunk and signed up for a 5K two weeks from now.

I am not ready to run a 5K in my current state of conditioning.

But I will try to get ready.

On speed work and exceeding expectations

Hello everyone! Matt here, coming at you from the middle of August 2009, in the hot and humid district known as our nation's capital. To what do we owe the pleasure of my reappearance today? The answer is known to runners everywhere as the dreaded and yet exhilarating "speed work."

Speed work is where you work on running fast. This does all sorts of fancy technical things like work your fast twitch muscle fibers, help build your quads for explosive movements, help burn tons of calories, and generally just help you run at a faster speed even when you are not consciously trying to run at a faster speed. Basically, it speeds you up. And we all know I need speeding up.

I traditionally run my easy days at a very slow pace. A typical easy run, for me, has me jogging between 4 and 4.5 mph. This equates to a mile pace of about 14:17/mile, which is fairly comically slow for anyone else. but for me, it helps me build my endurance. Now, normally I am running through the neighborhood, which is very hilly, and so my slow pace reflects that. Today, however, I went to the place where speed work is traditionally done: the track.

Now, I have not been to a track in several years. The last time I was at a track was probably sometime in 2001, when I was trying to get in shape doing Body for Life. Since then, I have had no Need to go to a track. Until today. You see, I have spent several months building up a base of endurance -- the ability to traverse a large distance at a slow pace. But I really want to work on my speed. So to the track I went, with running buddy Dawn.

Now, when I talk about my increased endurance, you should know that that is relative. I have absolutely no endurance compared to someone who is actually in shape and a runner, like Ian of defunct blog "Short Man Running" fame. To me, the word "endurance" means that I can go a couple of miles without collapsing in a heap of sunstroke induced unconsciousness.

But I still cannot run four times around the track without stopping. At least, I think I can't. I haven't tried it in several years. I probably could, but it would be at the slow pace that I discussed above. And, as I also said, my goal is to get faster. To that end, my speed work tool of the day was interval training!

Interval training, for the uninitiated, is where you go fast and slow and fast and slow, repeating it until you collapse into a pile of semiconscious drool. I am proud to tell you that this is what happened to me today. First, Dawn and I walked around the track a couple of times to warm up. (I have found that simply walking for a half-mile is a very effective way for me to limber up my muscles and not get cramps.) Then, I wanted to jog around the track once at a moderately easy pace and see how long it took me. I walked around the track once more, and then jogged it once at a slightly faster pace. I repeated this twice more, walked around once more to cool down, and called it a day.

Here were my results:

• Running lap one: 3:05 (12:20 minutes/mile pace, ~4.86 mph)
• Running lap two: 2:30 (10:00 minutes/mile pace, ~6.00 mph)
• Running lap three: 2:05 (8:20 minutes/mile pace, ~7.2 mph)
• Running lap four: 1:49 (7:16 minutes/mile pace, ~8.26 mph)

Folks, this might not seem like a lot to you, but I'm pretty damn impressed with how I did today. I have not tried to maintain over an 8 mph pace for a quarter-mile in years! It was hard as hell, and my pulse got up to 186 at least, but I did it. And I did it in 85° heat at 60% humidity! Wearing a plain old cotton T-shirt! None of these technical wicking fibers for me. Oh no. I will wear my Cherry Blossom technical running shirt to the bagel store, but give me sweltering summer heat and humidity, and I am old school, man. (Okay, I forgot to wear it.)

A few more observations: the first lap was very easy. True, I only went around once before walking, and I'm sure had I continued trying to run, it would not have been that easy anymore. But for one lap, it was easy. The second lap wasn't quite as easy, but it was still nothing too difficult. Unfortunately, I wasn't wearing my heart rate monitor, so I have to go with my amorphous perceived rate of exertion, which is subjective and faulty at best, but I would say my heart rate did not get much over 160 for that lap. Not exactly a heart rate that I want to maintain on my easy days -- I prefer to keep things in the low 150s on easy days -- but it was still doable.

Running lap number three was pretty damn hard. I would give it an eight or nine out of 10 on the perceived exertion scale. And the final lap was a nine out of 10 up until the last hundred meters, at which point I was running close to full out. I wasn't sprinting like this was the final hundred meters of a marathon and this last bout of exertion meant the difference between gold and silver, or even like this was the end of the 5K that I wanted to set a personal record on, but... come to think of it, I suppose I wasn't running a level 10. Probably a level 9.5. But still pretty damn hard.

After all was said and done, I walked 1.5 miles and ran 1 mile at a pretty quick pace. Not an Olympic feat, by any means, but still pretty fun and pretty damn good for me. And now that I have found this excellent track just one mile from my house, I can say without hesitation that I'll be using it frequently. I can easily foresee an easy one mile walk/jog to the track, a one or 2 mile jog at a moderate pace on the track, and a 1 mile cooldown walk/jog home.

The only downside about this day, fitness wise, is that I bought a pizza to help me through the So You Think You Can Dance finale and voting marathon. (Go Evan!) But my weight is still down from where it has been, and reaching 200 is looking less like a possibility and more like a certainty.

Woo track running! Woo speed work! Woo Evan!

Mid-Summer Update: Running Partners Rock

Hi everyone! I see that I haven't posted in a while, so I just want to give you a little update.

I've been exercising fairly regularly -- not killing myself or anything, but trying simply to Move More. And the big news is that I've started jogging with a running buddy! I'm actually beyond Dawn in endurance, so we are working on building up our running time. We started with 1 minute of walking, 1 minute of running, and repeated it until we got up to about 2 miles. That worked well for the first day or two. Then I noticed Dawn was huffing and puffing a lot less, so for the last 2 times we've been doing 90 seconds walking, 90 seconds running -- and we've been going a little faster too. But again, the huffing and puffing has mostly ceased, so next time it'll be 2 minutes on, 2 minutes off.

It's GREAT to jog with someone else! The run goes by SO much faster, because we are talking the whole time. And it also provides a good way to pace ourselves -- the advice to "keep a conversational pace" takes on a whole new meaning when you are actually trying to carry on a conversation.

We mostly jog together, but toward the end I often jog on ahead or keep on going after the 90 seconds is up. I eventually walk back to her, but those little bursts of solo running are quite fulfilling. Last night, after feeling heavy and plundering for the first mile or so, I started to get into my groove in the second half of the jog, and I fell into a hard yet satisfying pace. It was awesome.

I've also been asked by a couple several Choral Arts people who hadn't seen me in a couple months, "Have you lost weight??" I have lost about 5 pounds in the last month or so. I am told I look good. And I do look better in pictures lately. So that's nice. :-) Here's what I looked like this weekend when my friend Donnie came to visit:


So, that's all! I'll keep on jogging with Dawn, and walking 5 miles a day when I'm playing Tourist with friends who come to visit, and I'll try not to stuff my face too much, and hopefully there will be a lot more green triangles in my future. :-)

Back On the Road

After laying dormant for two months, I got back out on the pavement today. For most of the day it was way too hot to do anything (90 degrees in April?!!), but by evening it had cooled into the 70s. I set out on an easy 1 mile loop through the neighborhood, not pushing too hard, and stopping to walk for a bit here and there.

I could have kept going -- cardiovascularly, I felt great -- but I have to be cognizant of what caused the two-month lay-up in the first place. Two months ago, in preparation for the 10 Miler, I hurt myself by doing too much too soon. My heart, lungs and muscles (once I solved the tight calf problem) might have been ready for a 70 minute jog, but my bones weren't. Suddenly I was able to run as long as I wanted -- but my feet couldn't take it.

But today, there was no pain. And with no Mandatory Distance Goal on the horizon, I'm just going to work up to 30 minutes and keep it there for a while. I'll head out every other day, and I'll aim on getting faster within those 30 minutes. I think a sub-30 minute 5K is a worthy goal -- one that I was only last able to accomplish about 5 years ago.

I enjoyed getting out there today. I'm glad that my hiatus hasn't changed the fact that I still find running to be -- gasp -- fun! I'm looking forward to getting back out there regularly.

The Rise and Fall of Matt the Runner

You have missed so much over the past 6 weeks, you have no idea.

First let me answer the question on everyone's mind: Why haven't I posted anything here since early February? Have I been slacking off? Have I fallen off the wagon? Have I hopped aboard the one-way train to Fatsville, USA? (aka Detroit)

None of the above, my friends. I was silent because I was spending my free time running instead of blogging!

Here's the short version:

• Longtime Still Waiting visitors will no doubt remember that I have long had issues with tight calves. For some reason, after 10-15 minutes, my calves would tighten up to the point where it was difficult for me to keep running. This problem has plagued me ever since I can remember.

• One day in February, I figured out why my calves were so tight and how to fix them. I had been very concerned that the tightness was due to Compartment Syndrome, which seemed to match my symptoms exactly. The only cure for that is surgery. Desperate, I Googled and Googled until I figured out that the tightness might be caused by Trigger Points -- knotted up parts of the muscle. The cure for that? Deep Tissue Massage. I took my thumbs and found the part where my calves were tightest and I PUSHED DOWN HARD. After 5 second, the pain dissipated. I repeated that treatment on both legs, several times a day. And a miracle happened: My calves got the blood flow they needed to rebuild themselves, and I was able to run as long as I wanted with no tightness!

• Literally. As long as I wanted. I picked up a heart rate monitor and planned to keep my pulse in the 150s. It turns out that as long as I jog slowly, I can keep my pulse in the 150s, and this way I don't fatigue myself and I can basically go indefinitely. One day last month I went out the door and ended up jogging almost 5 miles, with just a little walking thrown in every 10-15 minutes or so. It was amazing. The next week, I went out and, for the first time in YEARS, jogged 30 minutes without stopping.
  
  
• I was unstoppable. Or so I thought.....

NEXT TIME: Too Much, Too Soon OR "What the heck is a Stress Reaction?"

Aborted

Things were going quite well. I had made almost every scheduled training run since the training period began, and I usually made up any I missed. My endurance was progressing nicely, as 2 minutes running grew to 4 and then 6. On Saturday I did 6 repeats of 6 minutes running, 1 minute walking. I felt good.

Then came Sunday. I was scheduled to run 7, walk 1, repeat 4. The day was beautiful -- 60 degrees and sunny. Up until then my standard run took place in 30-degree temperatures or less. Sixty would be awesome! I threw on shorts and a T-shirt and headed out the door.

Right away, I could tell something was amiss. Barely one minute into it, I was breathing far more heavily than normal. I slowed my pace and pressed on, making it about 6 tenths of a mile until it was time to walk. Halfway through my second 7 minute jog, I had to stop and massage my tight calves. I tried jogging again, but I was so easily out of breath. What was going on? Why was this so much harder? Halfway through, I cut my losses and walked home.

Why was it so hard? It could have been the poor nutrition I expose myself to on the weekends. It could have been the fact that I was trying to run less than 24 hours after a particularly strenuous effort. But after some discussion with Diana, I realized that the fact it was 30 degrees warmer than normal probably had a huge impact. Apparently my body has become acclimated to exerting itself at cold temperatures, the sudden increase was too much for my wittle body to bear.

Tonight it's supposed to be in the low 40s with a little rain. The plan is to run 8 minutes, walk 1, and repeat 3 times. We'll see what happens!

Lessons from the Frozen Tundra

Things I Learned Last Night:

1. When internal motivation fails -- e.g. when it's approaching single digit temperatures -- it's extremely helpful to have external motivation.

2. When running in a sub-arctic frozen tundra, make sure to bundle up appropriately, and THAT INCLUDES CHEEKS.

3. When my calves don't tighten up, it turns out that my endurance is actually pretty good, and I can run longer than I thought I could.

4. Hills aren't so bad once you get used to them, and

5. It's a lot easier to run when you are distracted by conversation, even if it's through a tinny speakerphone, and even if your mouth is too cold to properly speak English.




Details

Focus!

I am the POS. I lack discipline. Focus.

With that ToughLove mantra in mind, I ventured out into the nipply cold tonight, attempting to build up the endurance I will need to last 10 miles without a break. I am happy to report that after suiting up in enough gear to keep me warm not too cold in the 30 degree temperature, I managed to do 10 repeats of Walk 1 Minute, Jog 2 Minutes, without too much calf tightening, and nary a smidgen of foot numbness. Woo, Superfeet!

After the jog, I broke out the George Foreman grill and cooked up some chicken breast with Italian seasonings, and put it over romaine lettuce drizzled with olive oil, with a pinch of salt and pepper. It was DELICIOUS. My body must have really been craving greens, because I felt almost a primal urge as I was devouring the lettuce. Mmmm. (Pizza and Chinese taste great, but I never get the same feeling when I'm eating those foods.)



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I [Heart] Impromptu Online Pep Talks

Ben:  get back on teh treadmill

Matt: my treadmill SUCKS

Ben:  NOW

Matt: it doesn't have an accurate spedometer
      it doesn't have an incline function
      it's not long enough
      it's a POS

Ben:  you are the POS
      focus
      you lack discipline

Ben has signed off.

First Run of the Season is a Rousing Success!

The 10 Mile Cherry Blossom Run is in less than 4 months and I went out tonight for my first jog in almost 8 months, expecting to be wheezing after 3 blocks, but.....

I MANAGED TO JOG 1.5 MILES WITHOUT STOPPING! I could have gone longer if I wasn't facing a 4% incline for the last quarter mile! So I walked most of the last bit home. Next time I should consider reversing this run so that I end with a very slight incline.

It is amazing what losing 14 pounds and getting properly fitted running shoes with inserts will do! I got the shoes a couple weeks ago, after two visits of 1-2 hours each, during which the good folks at the new Potomac River Running Store at Cleveland Park poked, prodded and analyzed me sitting down, standing up, walking and jogging. A pair of $95 Asics Cumulus and some inserts later, and my feet and legs never hurt or got numb at all!

Remembering what they told me at the running store after evaluating my gait, I shortened my stride and increased turnover. My back/left shoulder was a little tight in the last half of the jog but nothing major. Pretty balmy for December. 61 degrees and misty!

For once I realize how one can do an "easy run" and maintain a conversational pace and not take any walking breaks and actually enjoy it. Wow. I am really looking forward to this training period.

The Incredible Shrinking Matt! - OR - I Need a New Pair of Pants, AGAIN

One of my goals in this weight loss odyssey has been to wear my old pants again. You see, for one, I am kind of stingy, and I don't like buying new clothes when the old clothes are still perfectly good, and I could fit into them again with just a little discipline. Second, my goodness, what a thrill when they actually fit!

I am pleased to report I have had just such a thrill this week. My pants had been getting extremely loose, and I was below the smallest hole on my belt (where's an awl when you need one?)... On a whim, I ventured into the darkest recesses of my closet and pulled a pair of 33" corduroys off a hanger. Now, I had tried these on a month ago, and while I could squeeze into them and barely button them closed, they were very tight. But when I put them on yesterday, they fit... perfectly!! I hadn't worn those since 2004! (For reference, 2004 was my first year in law school, and the year I took the awesome picture at left.) As evidence that it's not just the brand of pants that let me fit into them, I point to the 34" Levi jeans I bought last month, which are now loose on me.

Loose!

This is all very satisfying, if a little odd: The last time I could fit into size 33-34 pants, I was 10 pounds lighter. This all leads me to believe I have gained some muscle in the intervening years. Awesome.

How is Matt losing all this weight? Has he broken down and started spending hours in the gym? Or has he stuck mainly to creating a diet-based caloric deficit? Will Matt ever breach the fabled 200-pound mark and sail down through a scale world that begins with "1," a world he hasn't seen for over four years?

Stay tuned for his secrets...

OCTOBER 2008

Trivia: Do any astute Still Waiting visitors know where the second part of today's headline comes from? Hint: It has to do with a Segway.

I Have a Major Confession to Make

I have a major confession to make. This confession will chill the bones of every long-time Still Waiting visitor. Dearest visitors, you may be aware, from your frequent perusal of this site, that I have recently made substantial progress on my weight loss goals. I had hit a plateau, hovering around 207 to 208 pounds. It seemed that nothing I could do would push me below that 207 threshold. Then a few weeks ago I started to make stunning progress, now clocking in (as of this morning) at 202.8 pounds.

So what is my confession? Simple: I have not exercised at all. That fantastic home gym that I set up, costing me several hundred dollars, has gotten essentially no use over the past several weeks. I broke through the plateau with nothing more than a sustained caloric deficit. Any exercise I may have done was, shall we say, "nontraditional," and certainly "unintentional" in that it was not meant as exercise: I pranced about a theater singing songs with my friends. There were no weights, no spandex shorts, no technical T-shirts, and no running shoes involved. There were no Swiss balls, BOSU balls, tennis balls, baseballs, basketballs, or really any balls involved. Not once did I set aside time to exercise, put on my gear, and force myself to go to the gym or to run around like an unleashed mongrel up and down the rolling hills of my suburban Washington neighborhood.

All I did was move more and eat less.

This is a fairly monumental discovery. My friend Josh lost about 50 pounds a few years ago and when I asked him what his secret was, he told me, "I am following this great new plan!" I asked him, eagerly, what it was. He responded, with a big smile, "It's just four words!" I was beside myself. Good God, man, what is it! What are the four words!

He responded: "Move more, eat less."

Of course, I never believed it was truly that simple. Surely he had followed some sort of convoluted exercise and nutritional program. Surely a plethora of fancy electronics was involved, requiring straps and cables and sensors and various frequencies penetrating one's body and hooking up to a computer for detailed analysis!

Nope, none of that. He just stopped eating crap, didn't eat when he wasn't hungry, and walked around more. No Turbulence Training workouts, no killing himself at the gym, no supersets or drop sets or inverted half pyramid sets with a mandatory "10" at the end.

All he did was walk around and put the fork down!

So it turns out, that after many years of reading about all the different ways of losing weight, and analyzing all the various bodybuilding programs, I have been -- surprise, surprise -- over analyzing! You don't have to kill yourself. You just have to maintain a caloric deficit. It really is that simple.

Of course, it's not really that simple. You have to eat enough calories so that you don't lose muscle. And you have to eat generally the right type of calories -- 2000 calories worth of Baileys Irish Cream might be a good time but it won't do your body any favors. But as long as you eat a good combination of carbs, protein and fat, and burn more calories than you take in, you will lose weight.

Building muscle is certainly important. I spent several years going to the gym and pumping iron -- and believe me, the muscle is there. I catch glimpses of it regularly, hiding behind the Big Paper Towel. But at this point in my life, my main goal is not gaining muscle; it's losing fat so that I can see the muscle I have. For that, lifting weights doesn't appear to be necessary!

So I will continue doing what I'm doing, and -- barring any unforeseen binges -- continue making progress. At this rate I should hit 190 by the New Year!!!

My Superhero Name is "The Green Triangle"

You may ask, is it hard for me to lose all this weight? The answer is, no. Once you find a rhythm that you can live with, it's no big deal at all.

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Yet Another Glowing Review of the BodyBugg, or Better Living Through Technology!

Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you that I am a technophile, wholeheartedly and unreservedly. Any time a gadget is introduced that promises to measure me, count me, cajole me, intimidate and or encourage me through the use of electronics, well, I am powerless to resist the pull.

It is even better if the particular electronic in question is capable of precisely measuring, and keeping track of, the vital signs of yours truly. Yes, if you can strap it on me and turn it on and measure the resulting heart rate/calorie burn/number of steps/whatever, well then my money is as good as gone.

If the gadget can further take those statistics -- the numbers, data points, and sloping trajectories that define who I am and what I'm doing -- and automagically graph those measurements, and give me a plethora of charts that I can feast my eyes upon, I will not just give you my money... I will give you my allegiance!

Well, friends, my allegiance now belongs to the BodyBugg, a miraculous device that used to cost $500, but now due to the miracle of advancing technology and the need to clear out inventory, only costs $200. $200 for a device that graphs and charts and loves me? Surely you cannot be serious. Oh, but I am!

Okay, so the question now is what exactly does this machine do. I'm glad you asked. I first saw the device strapped to a fattie on that hit reality television series, The Biggest Loser. The way it works is simple: you strap it around your arm, and go about your business. When you see fit to press a button on the device and wirelessly connect to your (sadly not yet Mac compatible) computer, the graphs miraculously materialize before your awed and inspired eyes.

As you will see below, the graphs show exactly how many calories you burn minute by minute, how many calories you burned for the entire day -- or whatever period you are looking at -- how many steps you took, when you took them, how much "physical activity" you got (where "activity" is defined as any time that you were burning more than 3 calories per minute), and much much more! The benefits of this piece of technology is that you can know, finally and demonstrably, exactly how many calories your body burns. You can then use this information to know exactly how many calories you need to consume each day in order to lose weight.

Here is a screenshot of my activity for Thursday, October 2:

The first thing you will notice is that I burned approximately 2800 calories -- which was my goal for the day -- and consumed below 1900 calories -- which is far below my upper limit of 2200. You will also see exactly when I burned those calories throughout the day. It is extremely useful for me to know how many calories I burn and when I burn them, because then I can plan my weight loss with an extreme level of specificity.

For instance, from the graph I see that I burn approximately 1.5 calories per minute when I am sleeping or sitting. This is very good to know because it means that, in the absence of any physical activity, I will burn about 90 calories an hour. So if my goal for the day (midnight to midnight) is to burn 2800 calories, and if I don't want to do any sort of exercise after nine in the evening (because it keeps me up), then I know that by 9:00 PM I need to have burned (2800 - (90 x 3)), or 2530 calories. (This time-based target will be much more useful to me when the "digital display" arrives -- this is a watch that is continuously synchronized with the BodyBugg and tells me how many calories I have burned at any given time. Until then, I will have to synchronize the device with the website in order to see the calories that I have burned.)

I also now know that walking will burn approximately 6 calories a minute, depending upon the elevation grade. So if I look at my watch see that it is 8:00 PM and I have not yet burned 2440 calories -- say I am only at 2380 -- then I can simply walk for 10 minutes and get up to 2440, thus putting it on track to reach my 2800 goal for the day!

Now, for many people, this kind of micromanaged caloric expenditure may seem like overkill. Skwigg, for instance, will probably just tell me to drink more caffeine and spend my free time running after the dogs like she does, and not worry about the specific calories. Fair enough. But for people like me, this level of numerical specificity gives me a feeling of control over my weight loss destiny that I otherwise would not have. It encourages and thrills me when I can set a numerical goal, meet or exceed that goal, and then at the end of the week look at graphical evidence like this:

Just look at that. A week ago, I was burning approximately 2400 calories during the day, and walking just a couple of thousand steps. By setting specific goals and making a daily effort to reach those goals, I was able to get to 2800 calories and over 8000 steps yesterday. Most of the steps came during rehearsal, but I have learned that where the steps come from doesn't matter at all; all that matters is that you take steps. Walking around the block or walking back and forth on the stage do the same exact thing! All that matters is that you move!

And, in the end, that may be the best thing about the BodyBugg: It PROVES, once and for all, that all you have to do is move. And it encourages you to move because you really want to see those "calories burned" numbers go up!

Now all I have to do is maintain an average daily caloric deficit of 600, and the pounds will melt off at a rate of approximately 1.25 pounds per week. At that rate, I will be below 200 pounds by Thanksgiving, below 190 pounds by mid-January, and below 180 pounds (!) by the beginning of April, just in time for the Cherry Blossom run. All without unduly killing myself at the gym, or unnecessarily restricting calories to the point that I become famished and cranky.

I haven't been 180 pounds in five years. If my new toy can help me get back down to that fit weight -- if it can encourage me to get back into a healthy and active lifestyle -- then it will be money well spent. And, more importantly, it will be yet more proof that one can achieve Better Living through Technology. And that will make this gadget-lover oh so happy!

* Note: This technophile wrote the entire blog entry you just read with my nifty MacSpeech Dictate voice recognition software. 99% accuracy. Better Living through Technology, indeed!

Matt's Fitness Goals

Okay. I was a bit too care-free with my weekend eating this past weekend, and so my weight seems to be leveling off around 209. While this is way better than my high of 221 in June (still can't believe it went that high... really? WTF?), it is still far from my ultimate goal (for the last five years now) of 180.

To that end, I now set forth realistic goals, and a plan, that will get me to where I want to be.

GOALS

• Phase 1: 205 pounds, 36" waist (by end of September)
• Phase 2: 199 pounds, 35" waist (by end of October)
• Phase 3: 189 pounds, 34" waist (by end of December)
• Phase 4: 180 pounds, 33" waist (by the Cherry Blossom Run -- i.e. early April)
  
  
• More energy throughout the day, and quick sleeping at night.
  
  
• Have the confidence that comes with looking and feeling great.
  

PLAN OF ACTION

• Make time to exercise at least three times a week. Heavy weights. On extra days, throw in cardio (riding bike to work would count).
• Never let myself be in an unexpected eating situation where cravings might take over.
• Healthy pattern of fruit and a protein for breakfast (peanut butter counts); big lunch (but try to cut back on the Dew); light dinner (but never skip dinner -- at least have soup or protein).
• Don't go crazy with food on weekends just because you "can." Eat what you want on weekends but only if you REALLY want it. (You know this, Matt. You've been here before.)
  

Major Greenage

It's almost ridiculous. I've lost over a pound EACH of the past three
days. Before you go and accuse me of starving myself, here's my DGR
for yesterday:

• 10 am - Wheat bagel with eggs, cheese and bacon (est. 700 calories)
• 2:30 pm - Half of a tuna melt (rye, tuna, cheese, lettuce, lots of
  alfalfa sprouts), bag of chips, bottle of Mountain Dew (600 calories)
• 4:30 pm - Other half of tuna melt (250 calories)
• 8:30 pm - Can of chicken breast, two tablespoons of hummus, two
  teaspoons of olive oil (at least 300 calories)
• Other fluids - A few glasses of water, and a couple big glasses of
  pink lemonade Crystal Lite (20 calories)

TOTAL: 1600-1800 calories

And I wasn't hungry. Yes, it's true that I am keeping my calories very close to my Base Metabolic Rate, and possibly just under, and possibly losing a teeny bit of muscle in the process. But I'm sure the bulk of this is fat loss. I also know that when I start exercising regularly again, my weight will go up temporarily as my body adjusts, holds more water, builds some more muscle, etc. But for now this is pretty good! I'm back where I was a year ago!

Preparations

So. Weekly weight graph continues to go down, with a fairly predictable pattern:



As you can see, I eat what I want on the weekends, and cool it during the week (basically having a light dinner on most weekdays). My weight spikes on Sunday or Monday, but then it goes down, and each week my weight is lower and lower. With (currently) very little exercise, I'm losing 1/2 to 1 pound a week.

But that will all change very soon, my friends. I am about to blast off. Last week my Powerblocks arrived, and they are truly wonderful. But I need a bench to really make good use of them. So I've also ordered a weight bench, and a Bosu balance trainer, which is really wonderful for working a lot of stabilizing muscles you otherwise never use. Once everything is set up, I will take a picture of my nifty home gym and post it for the world to see. And I will, of course, use it, on a daily (or mostly daily) basis!

My friend Jeremy is also on a quest to lose weight (about the same amount of weight as I want to lose), and he is succeeding. So I want to congratulate him on his perseverance, and assure him that he will not be the only one sporting a fit and trim look this New Year's...

It's great to have a recumbent bike in my house

Having just upgraded to a place with central air, I recently traded my now unnecessary room air conditioner for a very necessary recumbent bike. It's not very fancy and it only uses magnetic resistance controlled by a knob (as opposed to the hydraulic-based computer-controlled bikes at the gym), but it gets the job done.

Tonight I did 30 minutes on the bike, getting my heart rate up to 182 at one point - up around 95% of my max! As you can see from the graph, I generally like to keep my pulse around 70% of max, but it's crucial for me to really push myself a couple times in a half-hour workout. I learned the importance of pushing hard during my Body for Life workouts, when I had to hit an intensity level of 9/10 for several minutes, and 10/10 for at least a minute, to achieve the best results and the longest afterburn (body burning calories after I get off the bike). Any time I get my pulse over 180, my energy levels go through the roof for days or weeks afterward. It's awesome.

I'm already feeling very energetic -- it's like a shot of caffeine but without the jitters!

Calories IN

Hi everyone! So, the darndest thing... I haven't gone to a gym and exercised since my last post. Yet I have lost several pounds since then. In fact, I'm down to below 210, which I haven't been at since late December. Before you start yelling that it's muscle loss from not lifting, let me deflect that criticism by saying that my pants are looser and I look much better! Go ahead, scroll down to the bottom of the page and marvel at my weight graph.

I'll wait.

So, how do I do it? Simple: Don't eat as much. We all know that Calories In < Calories Out is the key. I have really been focusing on the Calories In part of the equation. I have a light breakfast, usually consisting of a banana and maybe some granola. I have a big lunch that I spread out over the course of an hour or two, usually consisting of a big turkey or chicken sandwich and, yep, a little bag of chips and a soda. That keeps me full for the next several hours. When I get home, usually after 7, I will have a light dinner -- an "Eating Smart" healthy frozen dinner from Safeway, or a can of soup or something. If my roommates want to order delivery I will usually go in with them, but I don't pig out anymore. For instance, a few nights ago we split a thin crust pizza. The first night I had 3 pieces, and the next night I had 2 pieces.

And the scale continues to go down!

It's not hard. You just have to not pig out.

Calories In < Calories Out. Pretty simple.

I look forward to the boost when I start upping the Calories Out side of the equation by riding my bike to work!

Exercise Cures Cancer! News at 11.

Last week I was so lethargic I briefly entertained the idea that maybe I had cancer.

I can laugh now, but the fatigue was INTENSE. I woke up tired, caffeine had no effect, I was tired throughout the day, and yet I couldn't fall asleep at night despite being tired. Once I finally fell asleep, even if I got 8 hours, I didn't awake refreshed. I awoke tired. And the cycle continued...

...UNTIL I hit the gym hard. On Saturday, in spite of my sluggishness, I forced myself to go to the gym and work out. I managed to bench press 50 lb dumbbells -- pretty good for me! -- and I did some ab work, and 20 minutes of interval cardio on the recumbent bike.

Friends, guess what! I don't have cancer anymore!

Almost immediately, I experienced boundless energy. And so, once again I have demonstrated to myself that lethargy stems from inactivity, and exercise cures it.

I've been packing and cleaning up to move from DC to Arlington this week, so I haven't had much time to continue the exercise, but I did bike 2 miles uphill last night, and today during a lull at work I stole 20 minutes to go downstairs to the basement gym and work the dumbbells. I've also been trying to eat (somewhat) healthier, and I have found a really good breakfast routine: a banana, a tablespoon of creamy organic peanut butter (mmm), and a baby cucumber! (Rudy loves it too, and has taken to flying to the top of the refrigerator in the morning and squawking to remind me that it's time for his Morning Peanut Butter.)

For the past week, I have awakened with energy and I don't need ANY caffeine throughout the day! No longer am I rushing to the coffee machine first thing at work. Indeed, I find I have no desire for it, because I just don't need it -- my energy is all there.

So, I'll keep sticking with my banana/peanut butter/cucumber breakfast and small meals throughout the day, weight lifting downstairs when I can squeeze it in, and bike rides to work. My new house is going to be about 6.5 miles from work via bike trail, so I'm sure the addition of 13 miles on the bicycle a few days a week will really step up my results even more.

Woo!

Preparations

I've been pretty torn up about the whole Tim Russert tragedy this weekend, and I used it as an excuse to veg out on the couch with comfort snacks as I watched the coverage.

But also, my Strength for Life book showed up this weekend and, as Skwigg promised, it is chock full of OMG-get-the-highlighter quality quotes. I look forward to starting the program.

I have been feeling very sluggish lately and I know that the best way to fix that is to get to the gym. So tonight I walked there and laid down on the incline bench with a 35-pound dumbbell in each hand and WOW did it feel comfortable in a familiar sort of way. I miss that feeling. I look forward to getting back into it.

In Transition

My few faithful readers have probably wondered where I have wandered off to in the past couple weeks. Am I still running and working out? Am I still eating healthy and tracking my weight on a daily basis? One glance at the weight graph on the bottom of the page should give you the answer to that.

What has happened, you ask? Simple: I got a new job at a law firm downtown, and the past two weeks have been a time of transition. Now I am not blaming my job or anything ridiculous like that; I am simply saying that when I am in a time of transition, fitness tends to fall by the wayside. I promise it will return.

Today I found the gym in the basement of the building where I work. It's not very big but there are cardio machines, weight machines, and some free weights. By free weights, I mean dumbbells up to 35 pounds. How am I going to tire out my pecs with measly 35 pound dumbbells? Probably do a lot of push-ups beforehand. :-)

Incidentally, I tried briefly doing bicep curls with them, and I did four with each arm, no problem. This is kind of a big deal, because 35 pounds dumbbells used to be way too heavy for me to curl with. To progress!

Anyway, I plan to get down a workout routine soon. I have to, because the scale is creeping up and my energy level is going waaaaaay down... Per Skwigg's recommendation, I ordered a copy of Strength for Life (by the brother of Bill Phillips, who wrote Body for Life), and that will get here on Friday. So I'll get started with that soon

If the Mayor can do it...

I rode my bike to work again yesterday, and the results were encouraging -- I shaved 5 minutes off my time, traversing the 6.8 miles in about 32 minutes! For comparison, it takes between 20-25 minutes to drive to work in the morning, depending on traffic. So I'd say I make pretty good time on the way there. (The way back is a different story. That 300 foot ascent in 2 miles is killer -- little wonder it takes me 20 minutes longer to ride home.) As usual, full stats available here.

But this is not why I write. I write because today there is an interesting article in the Washington Post about Mayor Adrian Fenty, who, despite being mayor of our nation's capital, still finds the time to run three times a week and bike and swim twice a week for two hours at a time. Those around him say his dedication to fitness mirrors his dedication to hard work in office. I greatly admire anyone who can fit in regular strenuous exercise into an already busy schedule, and I hope to be able to emulate Mister Mayor even after my new law firm job begins next week (sapping away any extra time I currently have).

But what really intrigued me in the article was this gem:

At 6 feet and 180 pounds, Fenty appears the picture of fit, but he hasn't always been that way. In 2000 -- the year his twin sons were born, he wrapped up a long campaign for a D.C. Council seat, and he and his wife renovated their kitchen -- Fenty did not run a single time. He also reached about 215 pounds.

Six feet tall, 215 pounds, let work and life get in the way of his fitness... hmmm... remind you of anyone? The inspiring part is that he was able to drop the weight, keep it off, and now he runs amazing times (65 minute 10-miler; 3:40 marathon) and can bike 33 miles in 90 minutes. Oh, and has managed to become mayor in the process.

Fenty's fitness success story just goes to show that even if you have some rough spots, if you keep persevering, you will succeed in the end. A great story -- one I hope to emulate!

First day commuting with the new bike (which I continue to love)

I rode my bike to the office today and I felt great! Here's how it played out:

The first 2 miles are essentially all downhill from my apartment to the Key Bridge. The biggest problem in this leg was making sure I didn't go TOO fast -- the pavement was wet and if I went too fast it was harder to brake. My max speed was about 20 mph but I could have gotten it up to 30 or more -- this is a FAST bike.

Then I crossed the bridge and went onto the Mt. Vernon trail, which is mostly flat but also has some lightly rolling slopes. The biggest surprise was that my rate of perceived exertion was way off. When it felt like I was working at a fairly easy 135 bpm, I looked at my Garmin and saw that I was actually working at 155 bpm! At certain points my heart rate got up to near 170! I would have been really working hard if I kept my heart rate that high while running -- but biking, it felt far easier to me. I think this is because my quads are WAY more powerful than my calves and core, so it wasn't nearly as hard for me to pump hard and keep the bike moving. Don't get me wrong -- it was still a major workout, and as the graph shows I kept my pulse above 150 for several miles -- but it didn't feel as intense as it actually was, if that makes sense.

After about 5 miles I started to grow a bit tired, but then I saw Reagan Airport in the distance and I knew I was nearing my destination. Shortly after the 6 mile point there was a Crystal City "exit" on the trail. The exit saw a fairly steep (but brief) uphill, and before I knew it, I was at my building!

I had no problems with traffic or pedestrians or anything. As I was on the trail most of the time, there was no car traffic to worry about, and because it was drizzly I only saw a few other cyclists and a handful of runners. There was plenty of room. I was wearing my bright yellow rain slicker just in case it started pouring. I didn't really need it for the rain, but it made me highly visible and it blocked the wind!

When I got up to the office I realized I was sweating profusely, which I hadn't really noticed before since it was so windy and cool on the bike. I was tired, but a few minutes later I felt great. Slightly tired but at the same time totally energized -- just like I feel after a great gym workout. The whole thing was about 6.8 miles and took 37 minutes.

The ride home wasn't quite as fun because whereas this morning I was starting with a 2 mile downhill, this time I was starting with 4.5 miles of flat land and ending with a 2 mile UPHILL. The ride took me about 10 minutes longer -- it didn't help that I had a massive headwind the entire ride. On the extra steep uphill portions I dismounted and just walked the bike up a couple blocks. But all in all I still had fun and got a GREAT workout.

When I got home, I freshened up and then rode the bike another 0.7 miles to rehearsal (and then back home afterward). In total, that's 15 miles today!

I am very excited about riding my new bike -- it's fun, exhilarating, and gives me an excellent workout. Here's a map of my journey...


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