Sunday, April 28, 2013

My First 5K! Time to Lose the Excuses!

Are you a big loser?  Probably, not in most aspects of life.  But, losing weight is one area where being a loser is not a bad thing.  If you read Getting Started, then you probably already know that Ive been trying to lose weight for about 6 weeks now.  It really has not been as hard as some might think.  What is your reason for not starting now!

I remember back when I wanted to lose weight.  We decided we would start Monday.  Kept saying that today is the last day we can drink soda or eat a cheeseburger.  Then Monday came, and we put it off again.  Its called temptation, in order to be successful at this leaner and healthier lifestyle, we need to over come the temptations and start losing the excuses.  I know you have probably already used a few of them.

One of my favorite excuses is that life is too stressful.  Then maybe its time to take a stress managment course.  If you use this one "I dont have enough time".  Remember you have the same exact amount of time that everyone else has, 24 hours.  Thats all the time in a day, you need to make the time.  Lose the excuses and lose the weight. 

To the left here you will see my cousins and kids of cousins and myself.  To the far left is my cousin Scott.  He started losing weight about 5 months ago.  He started at 303 pounds and is down to 230 pounds.  All the way to the right is his brother (Lee).  Lee started at about 250 and is down to 218.  I am right in the middle in the teal or green colored shirt.  My number is 522 in case you want to know.  I started at 293 and currently am weighing at 264.  I finished the 5K in 55 minutes and 25 seconds.  My goal of under and hour was met.  The best part of running this with my family is that it was for breast cancer and we lost an aunt exactly 9 years to the day of this race. Not to mention that as I was coming up to the last leg of the race, my cousins all decided to keep me going by running it with me.  A very touching moment for me knowing that they were all there to make sure I finished the 3.1 miles strong. 
 
 
If your interested in learning how to train for a 5K, I can tell you that its nothing like running on a treadmill.  You need to get outside and run.  Treadmills are great for cardio, but being outside is totally different.  I can do 3 miles on an elipitcal or treadmill, but the race killed my legs.  So, my advice is if you never ran outside, do it.  You will feel a completely different feeling.  Keep the following schedule and you will be running 3 miles or more in about 5 weeks.
 
Week 1:
 
Monday-Run 1 mile/run for 30 seconds-walk for 1 minute.  Repeat until you reach the mile.
Tuesday-Walk for 30 minutes
Wendsday-Rest
Thursday-Run 1 mile/run for 30 seconds-walk for 1 minute.  Repeat until you reach the mile.
Friday-Walk for 30 minutes
Saturday-Rest or Walk
Sunday-Rest
 
Week 2:
 
Monday-Run 1.5 miles/running for 1 minute and walking for 2...
Tuesday-Walk for 45 minutes
Wendsday-Rest
Thursday-Run 1.5 miles/running for 1 minute and walking for 2...
Friday-Walk for 45 minutes
Saturday-Rest or Walk
Sunday-Rest
 
Week 3:
 
Monday-Run 2 miles/running for 1.5 minutes and walking for 3
Tuesday-Walk for 1 hour
Wendsday-Rest
Thursday-Run 2 miles/running for 1.5 minutes and walking for 3
Friday-Walk for 1 hour
Saturday-Rest
Sunday-Walk for 1.5 hours
 
Week 4: Times getting close...time to push to the finish
 
Monday-Run 3 miles/running for 2 minutes and walking for 2
Tuesday-Run 3 miles/running for 2 minutes and walking for 2
Wed-Walk for 2 hours
Thursday-Rest
Friday-Walk for 2 hours
Saturday-Good day for a run.  Run or Walk 2 miles.
Sunday-Rest
 
Week 5:  Its race week!
 
Monday: Run 3.1 miles/running for 5 minutes walking for 2.
Tuesday: Rest
Wendsday: Run 3.1 miels/running for 5 minutes walking for 2.
Thurdsay:Rest
Friday:Take a walk, just keep moving.
Saturday: Its Race Day!  When doing this, run run run.  Remember its you that you need to beat.  Set a goal and reach for it.  My goal in my first 5K was to finish in under 1 hour.  I did that (55 minutes and 25 seconds).  My next goal will be to finish in 50 minutes or less. 
 
After the race.  Take the next few days off.  Your legs deserve it!  Great job and keep moving and losing weight and excuses.
 

 
 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Getting Started: Looking for the Motivation!

Lets start this in the beginning.  I have been wanting to lose weight for quite sometime now.  I know your probably thinking that we all have.  Well, may be true.  The hardest thing that I found is to just get started.  I say this because losing weight is actually easy after that.  For some of us we just need something to get us going.

For me the motivation came from work.  They have a "Biggest Loser" competition at work.  It lasts 10 weeks and the winner recieves $200 cash and 2 paid days off from work.  That might be enough motivation to get anyone started.  For me it was enough.  Not to mention that they also have an on-site fitness center and that cuts out the cost of joining a gym.

I started this competition weighing in at 293 pounds.  I started the first week out by losing 10.5 pounds.  I was excited about this.  The way I started was cardio, cardio, cardio.  Also I cut my food intake down to about 1200-1500 calories per day.  This was down from well over 3000 daily calories.  I was eating 2 or 3 slices of pizza and a dozen chiken wings about twice a week.  I would also squeeze in a few cheeseburgers and all the soda I could drink. 

I had to cut out the soda, pizza and wings.  Dropped away from all fried food.  I started going to the gym daily after work.  The reward came in the way of weight being dropped off.  The amount of weight 10.5 pounds kept me going for the next week.  We are currently in the 6 week of the competition and I will be writing more each day.  This is get you all upto date and then it will be weekly updates and just a few other posts as too help others with motivation.

Remember that losing weight comes down to a simple equation.  Calories in < Calories out = pounds lost.  Also, you have to keep in mind that there are 3500 calories in 1 pound of fat.  So, if your ready to start losing then keep reading.