26M385Y.COM

Food Journal 2009

2009-01-08T14:06:00Z

BurnTheFat.com

Episode 107 For the first eight days of 2009 I have started keeping a food journal. I have found out a few things about trying to do this. First, I am still eating a lot of food. Second, I am eating relatively healthy with the exception of a slice of pizza or bowl of ice cream here and there. Third, it is hard as hell to keep writing this stuff down, unless you are able to write it down as soon as you are finished eating.

Anyway, I am going to keep this going. It gives me a good understanding of what I am putting into my mouth. Hopefully, I will learn some more about my eating habits and be able to cut out even more of the "bad" stuff.

I have looked at a few sites that offer food journals: some are free and some you pay to keep up with the calories you are stuffing in your mouth. Most of them seem cumbersome to me. If you know of any that are simple please email me or leave a comment about the sites you think might be relatively easy to keep up with food intake.

I am sure there is probably an application for my phone but I have not looked into it that far yet. Maybe I will start looking for some of those programs for when I start traveling again in February.

The main things I see that I need to cut back on are bread and the killer for me, ice cream. Right now the weekends are getting rid of whatever I gains I make during the week with my running and lifting. Lately, while watching football, I have been eating everything in site on Saturdays and Sundays. For the next few weeks I am going to cut it down to Sundays only and see how that works.

Well, I am going to keep up with this food journal for a while and see how much progress I can make. It does help me when I keep up with my runs and exercise routines so I hope this will have the same effect on my eating habits.

So, I have figured out that I am not making as much progress on getting to my first marathon as I thought. The good news is I am working out and I am motivated to keep going. Now, I have to grip a little tighter and work harder on getting faster and eating healthier. That is the only way I will make it 26M385Y!

Great Workouts, Bad Eating

2008-12-30T23:51:00Z

Episode-106

BurnTheFat.com

My holiday trend continues and I am so glad that January 1, 2009 is fast approaching. I have had some of the best workouts and runs but I am fighting the food back (okay, I am not putting up much of a fight with the food). Unfortunately, I am sure that I am just maintaining my weight for now since I have been eating so much. I guess it is better than eating bad and not doing any activity, like I did for so many years.

I am not a big New Year's celebration guy, but I know I will have a few beers and some more junk food. And, like everyone else, I will be back in the gym on January 2, 2009. There will be one more workout tomorrow (the 31st of Dec) so I will have that to feel good about until the 2nd gets here. Really, the New Year can't get here fast enough. I am really want to train hard so I can compete in my first competitive race. There may even be an opportunity to do that before I am actually ready but if I have the chance to run a race in January or February, I am going to take the chance to compete. It will give me an idea of where I am compared to where I think I am.

Hopefully, everyone will has their 2009 health/fitness plan in place. It will make a difference even if you don't see instant results. One thing I noticed back in February and March of last year, when I started working out, is I started feeling better and feeling the difference in my waist before anyone else noticed. Sometimes I think we are looking for friends and relatives to notice first. It probably won't happen, so stick to your program and when you feel the results, then everyone else will notice a few weeks after. Okay, enough of lecturing, just stick to your plan and don't expect instant results. Give it some time!

Since I have been sticking to the workouts and running I will continue to gradually increase mileage and throw in more and more speed days. Speed days along will weight training is helping me increase my overall speed and endurance. My biggest goal is to start off the year watching my food intake. One thing I am going to try: one day per week I am going to not eat anything out of a box or bag. Meaning, for that day I will stick to fruits, vegetables, protein, and water. That will be a hard one for me!

Have a great New Year and remember, the hardest part about going to the gym is getting there!

Holiday Challenge Update

2008-12-26T15:19:00Z

BurnTheFat.com

Episode-105

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Man, I am glad all that food is gone. I really thought I would have more will power not to eat so much, but I was wrong. Not only have I not run in 3 days, I have probably eaten a weeks worth of calories in the past two days. Other than the eating, Christmas was great. I was able to spend time with my family and that is the most important thing.

Well, I thought I should give an update, just to show how hard it is to stay on course this time of year. For some reason, it was easier for me to resist all of the great (fattening) food last year. This year I did not turn anything away or cut back on anything. Okay, now I have to jump right back on the wagon and eat right and train harder than ever. My goal is to lose another 12-15 lbs over the next 45 days. New Years day may be a set back but I am going to really try to not get off course just because it is New Year's Day.

Today, I will run a slow paced 5 mile run and do a circuit of weight training. The last time I did this particular workout I have 2-3 days of good running afterward.

The workout goes something like this:
Running: 5 one mile runs (hopefully, 5 ten minute miles or less).
Weights: in between each mile I will do a 30 rep set of exercises such as bench press, squats, pull ups, leg curls, and abs.
Stretch: I will also make sure I stretch before and after.

Tracking my runs: I have been using a Nike Plus watch to track my runs. I have to say that since purchasing this it has been much easier to see if I am making progress or not. And, it is great to be able to go back and see my individual runs or just look at the total miles I have run for the week or month. Nike Plus is a great, and relatively inexpensive ($59.99) way to track your runs. Maybe I need to find a way to track my calories and food so I can make better progress on my nutrition.

Hopefully, everyone is having a wonderful Holiday Season!

Holiday Challenge

2008-12-21T17:10:00Z

Episode-104

BurnTheFat.com

The holidays are upon us once again! They get here faster and faster every year. In today's society we are facing challenges many of us have never seen. The economy is bad and many people are struggling more than ever this holiday season. We are all facing our own set of challenges whether it is financial some other personal crisis we might be facing. Some of the challenges we are facing might be out of our control for now but there is one challenge that I believe we can all do a little something about. The challenge I am talking about is our own personal health.

I know at some point during the holidays we are going to eat more than we should, drink more than we should, and do absolutely nothing more than we should. But, something that really helped me begin to lose weight and become healthier was trying harder than normal to control my diet and exercise during the holidays. None of us are going to stick to a solid plan during this time, but just as I started doing a year ago, during the holidays, we can pay attention and cut a few things out. Or, at least go for a walk or a run just to get your heart rate up.

Many people always want to start that "diet" on January 1 or 2 but I believe we should try to have some will power and start reducing calories during the holiday season. Doing this made me feel like I could reduce my calories any time of year. I figured if I could cut out just some portions of my holiday favorites, I could be successful sticking to a better nutrition plan for the rest of the year.

It has worked for me. I am down 40 pounds from a year ago. Although I may not be getting to run everyday I still feel like every other day is beneficial. And, I am going to eat some good food over the next few weeks and not feel guilty.

So, as we all deal with the stresses of the holidays keep your own well being in mind. Get up and get outside or at least hit the treadmill while watching that bowl game. If you see just a small result over the holidays you will know you can be successful the rest of the year.

Happy Holidays from 26m385y.com

5 Mile Run

2008-12-20T15:42:00Z

WorkoutPass.com
Episode-103

For the past year one of my favorite things to do is to go for a run when I travel. Since I had to travel for work this week and it happened to be in Florida (where the weather is nice) I was excited to go for at least one good run. I didn't really even know how long or short of a run I would take nor did I make a plan for how fast I wanted to run. Sometimes I think it is good to get a run in with no plan at all, just go do it.

I left the hotel at 6AM with thoughts of just completing 5K but once I was twenty five minutes into the run I felt like going further. By the time I made it back to the hotel the run was just over 5 miles and took a little over 52 minutes. Not a good time or speed but it felt good to get up and get it done.

Most days I don't get to go early in the morning but when I have the chance I really enjoy going early. The weather was nice and I felt good when it was over.

This was the first time I have run outside in about 2 weeks. The weather at home has been cold and I really haven't bought the clothing to run in the cold yet. I will get there. The treadmill is a good change every now and then but I would much rather run outside when I can. There is more to see and it opens my mind up a little more too. Plus, I don't have to stare at a tv with depressing news on it for at least an hour.

This will be the only run I will get on this trip but I may jump rope or do some core exercises tomorrow morning. If I go on a 4 day trip I like to exercise at least half of the days just to stay in some type of rhythm.

I am just trying to get another step closer to completing 26m385y.

5K Run 12/15/2008

2008-12-16T22:09:00Z

Today is Tuesday 12/16/2008WorkoutPass.com!
Yesterday I ran a 5K and mix in some weight training and ab work. Lately, I have been feeling like I need to include some other activities to become a better runner. Since it was raining yesterday, I ran a 5K in 31 minutes and 50 seconds. I know, that is not too good especially since I have been running for almost a year. At first, I was only interested in losing weight, but now I am becoming interested in getting faster and more efficient.

Since I want to keep the majority of my exercise to running I cut my distance back from 5 miles to 3.1 miles for yesterday. I did this for a few reasons: my first reason is, I just wanted to do something different. Secondly, I knew that I only had about an hour to complete my training and get home. Third, I wanted to complete a circuit of weights just to mix in a couple of leg, chest, and bicep exercises. Basically, I used light weight and did 1 set of each exercise for 15 to 30 reps. It felt good to do this after a short run. I will probably add this in at least once a week from here on.

My next quest is to add in a "speed" day each week. I have not been good at adding in this portion of my running days but I feel that adding a speed day will help me get closer to my goal of competing in and completing a marathon. If you have any suggestions on how to get started with a speed day please send them my way. There are a ton of them on the internet but it is hard to narrow them down to the best one.

Today is going to be all abs and jumping rope. This is not really what I wanted to do today but I have to make sure I get some type of exercise for the day.

That is it for today. Starting tomorrow or Thursday I am going to start putting up my notes from when I first started and a few stories of what got me motivated.

Welcome to 26M385Y.com

2008-12-13T21:49:26Z

Welcome to my blog 26M385Y.com. First, let me explain a little bit. You might be thinking, "What does 26M385Y stand for?" For the past 10 months I have started running.... or experienced runners might call what I do, jogging. Anyway, I am working towards an ultimate goal of running my first marathon. Many of you may know that a marathon is 26.2 miles or 26 miles and 385 yards. So, after watching a documentary called, "Spirit of the Marathon," where they told some history of marathons and showed some individuals, at different levels of skill running marathons, I wanted to start a blog about my journey. In the documentary, they kept referring to the distance as 26 miles and 385 yards although most of us have always heard the distance as 26.2 miles. For some reason, the expression 26 miles and 385 yards stayed in my head the whole time I watched the documentary. It just sounds better to me.

Although I have been running or jogging for a while now I wanted to have another way to track my progress and have the ability to share it with others that might have an interest in running. Or, those of you that were like me a year ago, and knew that you needed to start doing something to get into shape. Maybe by having a web presence I can continue to gain momentum and progress even more by gathering your comments and suggestions. Maybe I can help inspire someone else to get started.

So, there is a brief summary of how I came up with 26M385Y.com. I hope you decide to follow along as I try to reach my goal of competing in my first marathon.

Email: run26m385y@aol.com