RUNiversary! My First Year Running and Blogging

One year has passed since I started on this fitness journey, and this blog.
I just thought I would throw out a few thoughts and some stats..


My main reasons for undertaking this marathon quest were to, lose weight, improve my overall health and energy, prolong my life, and ultimately all so that I can be a better husband and father. As some may know, I had a major health scare a few years back, which involved some pretty scary emergency heart surgery. You can read more about that here:  About Me (& My Heart)


I started walking right after the 2010 LA Marathon. In the weeks leading up to then, I had started trying to watch what I eat, and had lost a few pounds. But still, at that time, I was around 268lbs and felt pretty unhealthy.. lethargic, knee and hip pains as soon as I stood up from bed, very sedentary.
Juiced up with inspiration from the LA Marathon, and bloggers like @GWJones00, (http://therunningfatguy.blogspot.com/) I began.. slowly.


At first, it was pretty painful short walks around my neighborhood. I think my first "recorded" walk was only 2 miles, and it took me almost 45 minutes. I eventually progressed to walking the block, but trotting faster or jogging across the intersections, then resumed walking. It progressed from there. Unbelievably, 2 weeks ago, I was able to finish the 2011 LA Marathon. Pictorially, here's my year in a nutshell:

My first 2 mile walk in green is superimposed at the beginning of my recent 26.2mi LA Marathon run


I was not the best about consistently blogging or tracking my training and diet over the whole year. Still, I looked over my data on GarminConnect and DailyMile to gather some fun stats: 
Miles of Training:      800 miles
Calories Burned:      100,000
Donuts Burned:        500
Half-Marathons:         2
Full Marathons:         1
Triathlons:                 1
Weight Lost:           45 lbs
Blogs Started:           1

	Resting HR	Blood Pressure	Beta-Blocker Dose	Weight
2010-Feb	76	136/76	400MG (Max!)	268Lbs
2011-Mar	56	100/53	100MG	223Lbs

One year has gone by pretty quickly, and I am pretty satisfied with my progress. I still have some work to do, and my goals for the upcoming year include:
 - lose some more weight. Would like to get down to 190Lbs
 - improve my running. I've never been overly concerned about pace, and I still am not. I would; however, like to improve my running endurance and be able to run longer (even at slow pace) without taking so many walking breaks.
 - eat better
 - expand my running horizons, maybe incorporate some reasonable trail running, hiking, etc.
 - learn to swim better, and start doing a few more Triathlons, work up to the Olympic Triathlon distances
 - start my kids running, biking, swimming more
 - blog more consistently.. this blog, Facebook, Twitter, they all definitely keep me accountable and motivated!
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"  <geeks click here!>

Since I have acquired at least a few friends and followers over my first year, I guess this blog truly exists. I will try to blog more regularly, so I can "exist" more in 2012.

Thanks for listening!
 -J

Eat This, Not That (Fat)

650 Calories! Over 35% calories from FAT

LA Times: San Francisco bans Happy Meals
The city's board of supervisors votes to forbid restaurants from giving away toys with meals that have high levels of calories, sugar and fat.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/02/business/la-fi-happy-meals-20101103

- no free toy if the Happy Meal is over 600 calories and over 35% of calories are from fat


CNN: Mayor vetoes San Francisco ban on Happy Meals with toys

In making the veto, the mayor (Gavin Newsom) released a new report on how a public-private partnership is combating childhood obesity and how San Francisco's more than 55,000 public school students are now eating fresher and healthier foods.

"Parents, not politicians, should decide what their children eat, especially when it comes to spending their own money," said Newsom. "Despite its good intentions, I cannot support this unwise and unprecedented governmental intrusion into parental responsibilities and private choices."

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-12/us/california.fast.food.ban_1_childhood-obesity-shape-up-san-francisco-food-desert?_s=PM:US

Here are my thoughts..
The average McD Happy Meal is 650 calories, over half the recommended daily allowance for a toddler. Holy smokes, why would you buy your kid that (often)?! Why not just mandate eliminating all soda and french fries? I suspect this alone would bring it under the 600/35 line. And also, add non-fried choices (grilled chicken strips versus McNuggets). Outside of California, the nanny state, there currently is no legislation like this. Yet already, there are SO many more healthy choices available now compared to just a few years ago. Why? Consumers are demanding it.

Examining the rare fossilized remnant fry or nugget littering my minivan booster seats and floors, you don't need to be Miami CSI to figure out that I occasionally support my local McD Drive-Thru, from time to time. For the most part, I order apple slices, instead of french fries.. and milk, juice, or water. Never soda. If my kids ask for junk.. most times, this is how I deal with it:

"You eat what I buy you."
(at home, it's "You eat what Mommy makes you")

What happened to "personal responsibility"? Plus, this is just another useless symbolic gesture. To think this will have ANY impact on childhood obesity is just stupid. Are parents are so feeble-minded to be swayed by this symbolic gesture? If so, then what additional symbolic gesture can we implement to get parents to get their fat kids off the Nintendo DS, Wii, TV, and outside playing, moving, exercising, .. truly being fit?

If we are going to move towards legislating or dictating peoples "personal responsibility" and really wish to affect peoples behavior, then at least do something truly effective. Hit'em where it counts. Money. Have the courage to say out loud. "You smoking, or you being fat, is unacceptable to yourself and to society".. and it costs us (society) in terms of healthcare dollars spent caring for your irresponsible behavior. Therefore, we are going to implement a prohibitively high "sin" tax on those cigarettes, soda, and high-fat meals. Show me a pol who says this out loud, and I would at least applaud their honesty and courage.. and support his/her (short) career.

Ok.. that is all for today. Have to go hit up the Drive-Thru.. I hear the McRib is back.

Hey, there are veggies in there!

Motivation! STAT!

Halloween sucks.
Can I just say that?
I don't even like sweets or chocolate that much.
The only thing that sucks more than Halloween is the week that I've had after Halloween..

Work-outs:  Zero
"Fun-Size" Snickers Treats:   about a dozen, but who's counting?

I was going to put off the scale for another week or month or so, but it's been awhile and I felt I needed this kick in the ass.

my nemesis this week.. +1.6lbs

Sh*t.. what's wrong with me this week? Is it the upcoming Daylight Savings Time? It is pitch black outside at 7:00AM now (but that shouldn't stop me from biking or rowing in my garage.. so that excuse is 99.9% lame).

Anyone else having trouble with motivation lately?

Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, right when you need it most, you get an inspirational tweet. I slept in and didn't work out this AM, but I did read Sam's latest entry on his awesome Operation Jack blog. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. In brief, in the days of his youth, Sam was thrown into a pool (bullies? he doesn't really say..) and broke his neck. Luckily, he not only survived and recovered, but thrived! Now, he has a wonderful family with a middle child named "Jack". Jack has autism, and Sam's cause has been to run 61 Marathons this year (with his healed broken neck), in honor of his son Jack and to raise awareness and money for the cause of autism (Train4Autism). Ok, what was my lame excuse for not running yesterday, and again this morning? I can't remember now.

That was a nice little shot of motivation in the butt.. but clearly not enough to fully revive this sleeping giant.

I need to snap out of it, STAT! (as they say in my field..)

Here's what I did today to grab the bull by the horns:

(1)  called a few patients in early, so I can hopefully get out early to run. Worked through my lunch to squeeze them in.
(2)  RSVP'd for the Sole Runners mid-week run.. TONIGHT. Yes!
(3)  During my working lunch I also printed out and penciled in an 18-week training plan. Thanks Glenn (TheRunningFatGuy) who steered me to Hal Higdon's Marathon training plans and website.


What else... there was one other thing I did.. what was it? hmm...

oh yeah..

this...

(4)

oh Sh*t.. my first marathon (I hope)

Staggering!!

Here's my big problem. Wow.. 3 birthday parties in 2 days (2 of the parties were for me, but still!)

As much as it's a PITA (Pain-In-The-Ass).. The Running Fat Guy is right. I need to keep track of this!

     My Big Fat Birthday!!! >>>

Hospital Food

Busy day.. lunch at my desk. But, I get to test out Blogaway on my Droid. Was surprisingly easy to walk past the quesadillas & french fries today. Progress is good!