I just have to give a general shout out to the wonderful group of people that is Camp Companion of Rochester - I don't know that I've EVER witnessed such an active group of people in any organization anywhere. I love to go to their Facebook page and just see all the animals being rescued, treated, adopted, so many all the time! We adopted our 3 cats from them and they are just wonderful to work with. And all of this is done via foster homes - quite an undertaking and quite amazing.
https://www.facebook.com/campcompanion
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
100 Miles!
A little lighter of a post, and a shout out of my friend Wayne, who attempted his first 100-mile run. And is a great storyteller :) I owe the birth of my entire running career to Wayne, before I met him I never thought I'd run 10 miles in my lifetime, and by the next summer after we met he had me running his 10 and 20 mile training runs with him, just for fun.
Now, I've done 3 marathons, which are 26.2 miles, and they took me between 4 1/2 to 5 hours to finish. And I was dead by the time I finished. Now, think about doing that do that 4 times in a row.
Or, to put it in a different perspective - how long does it take you to even DRIVE 100 miles?
Congrats Wayne, even though you ONLY got through 80 out of 100 :) (and he says he's going to do another one in a few months, wow!)
Now, I've done 3 marathons, which are 26.2 miles, and they took me between 4 1/2 to 5 hours to finish. And I was dead by the time I finished. Now, think about doing that do that 4 times in a row.
Or, to put it in a different perspective - how long does it take you to even DRIVE 100 miles?
Congrats Wayne, even though you ONLY got through 80 out of 100 :) (and he says he's going to do another one in a few months, wow!)
Saturday, April 9, 2011
My History with Carbohydrates
I have come to learn that that I am a carbohydrate addict to some degree. I'm not really even sure if I know what that means, but over the course of my life, and especially in later years, there was something more to wanting something sugary or starchy than just being hungry. Whether it be a slight alteration of my route somewhere so I could stop and get an afternoon mocha, or an attempt to cure a low energy or down part of the day...it was definitely pre-meditated.
In many cases when someone has an addiction to something, they try to just quit doing it entirely - smoking, alcohol, gambling, or whatever it is that interferes with life. When it comes to food though, it isn't as simple - obviously we can't just stop eating food entirely. But, in 2004, at 215lbs, and after several friends of mine had been having success with the low-carb diets, and despite this being contrary to all "conventional diet wisdom", my curious side got the best of me and I started reading. There were two books out at the time getting the most traction - "Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution" and "The South Beach Diet". I read both of them. And even then I had lots of skepticism - how could all this stuff about low-fat, high-carb, calories in < calories out, the food pyramid, etc. possibly have been wrong all these years?
However, I was also had a great exercise routine going, including a lot of power weight training, and I knew that whatever I did had to be high enough in protein so that my muscles could recover from their workouts (I was already supplementing with protein shakes). So, on Saturday, January 10th, 2004, after the holiday eating had "cleared", I went to the grocery story and stocked up on all the food I would need (and also got rid of or gave away all my "carb" food).
I won't explain all the details of Atkins, but every low-carb diet has a similar set of phases - an "induction" phase with almost no carbs at all that resets your body so that you get off of the sugar spikes/lows you're used to with high-carb diets, an intermediate phase (or two) where you slowly add stuff back in, and a lifetime maintenance phase where you figure out how many carbs you can eat without losing weight, and presumably adjust it over the rest of your life.
The main difference though, between a low-carb diet and other more "conventional" diets, is that besides having to limit carbs (either by # of grams per day, or by the foods you are eating), you eat normally, and if you're hungry, you eat. For me, this was huge for two reasons - I knew I wouldn't be starving my body, my muscles, etc., and I also knew that I'd never get to that point in the day where I'd have eaten all my allotted "portions" (calories, servings, etc.) and couldn't eat anymore. If I really wanted to eat some more, I could - just not carbs.
Dr. Atkins does say that the first couple of days when you stop eating carbs altogether, your body will try to fight you. The first time I did this, it really took a whole week of feeling like I was in a fog, but I now realize that the main reason for that was probably the fact that I was also giving up caffeine completely at the same time - and before that I was a coffee + 5-6 can/day diet pop drinker. Besides that week though, every day after that I generally felt better, and had lost 10 lbs in two weeks (Dr. Atkins does mention that a few pounds of that are usually water weight). After two weeks I continued to phase 2, where you add back 5g of carbs every day for a week, then the next week you add back 5g more, etc. while monitoring your weight loss, until you're losing about 1 lb/week.
According to the log I kept, I went from 215 to 185 in about 4 months, and trickled down to 180 after that. By the summer, I was a healthy, in-shape 180 doing power weight training and cardio. I was never hungry, never tired (after week 1), and at my physical all my cholesterol, triglyceride, blood sugar, and blood pressure numbers were fantastic. I might have been in the best shape of my life. So you think, "wow, it worked", huh? Yes, it did. And that could have been the end of the story, had I stuck with the lifetime maintenance plan and just controlled my carb intake (and by controlled, we're talking 80-150g a day depending on physical activity, which is NOT that hard to accomplish).
But that's not the end of the story. And not because of Atkins or low-carb. I kept in great shape the rest of 2004 into 2005. And then...I started marathon training again. Anyone who is a runner knows that when you run 30-40 miles per week, you just can't gain weight, and for long runs you generally want some more "quick" energy, the kind that comes in carbs. Which is fine, because when you're running those kinds of miles, you burn it all off. But, as in 1999, once I started eating like a high-mile runner, I didn't have a plan to stop eating that way when I was done running. I actually did another marathon in 2006, so I kept on that high-energy-burning routine through June 2006, when I finished my 3rd marathon. I was still in fantastic shape - around 175 and could run 20+ miles at a time :) But, alas, when all that high-mile running stopped, the high-mile eating didn't.
(Do you see a pattern here?) It was summer, I was in great shape, I'd just run 2 marathons in two years, why should I give up eating all the ice cream, cookies, chips, crackers (pick your favorite carb) that I want? I will get back to the "good" eating "pretty soon".
"Pretty soon" turned out finally be nearly 5 years later, in March 2011. At 223 lbs, the most I've ever weighed in my entire life, I'd gained 43 lbs, stopped exercising, and, for 2 straight years at my annual physical my cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood pressure numbers have gotten progressively worse. Somewhere in those 4 years I tried an "all organic foods" diet, which might have helped me eat better quality food, but didn't help me lose any weight. I also half-heartedly tried to start the South Beach Diet, but, at least for me, it was not structured enough for me to not stray on (I think some people find that a lot easier).
So, March 14th, 2011, I started Atkins again, this time with some experience and hopefully a little smarter. There's also been a lot of new studies and science in 7 years, which was great and helpful to read. Yesterday I finished week 4 and am down 13 lbs to 210. My long-term target is 180 again, but I now see this as a lifetime thing, so if it takes a year to get there I'm ok with that. I've also started back into some regular exercise - I ran a mile last Thursday, a far cry from the 26.2 I had been running, but I suppose you have to start somewhere :)
One more post (I know I said 3, but hey it's my blog and I want to write some conclusions), which will include some of the more useful and interesting links I've found pertaining to studies on carbohydrates, cholesterol, and saturated fat.
In many cases when someone has an addiction to something, they try to just quit doing it entirely - smoking, alcohol, gambling, or whatever it is that interferes with life. When it comes to food though, it isn't as simple - obviously we can't just stop eating food entirely. But, in 2004, at 215lbs, and after several friends of mine had been having success with the low-carb diets, and despite this being contrary to all "conventional diet wisdom", my curious side got the best of me and I started reading. There were two books out at the time getting the most traction - "Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution" and "The South Beach Diet". I read both of them. And even then I had lots of skepticism - how could all this stuff about low-fat, high-carb, calories in < calories out, the food pyramid, etc. possibly have been wrong all these years?
However, I was also had a great exercise routine going, including a lot of power weight training, and I knew that whatever I did had to be high enough in protein so that my muscles could recover from their workouts (I was already supplementing with protein shakes). So, on Saturday, January 10th, 2004, after the holiday eating had "cleared", I went to the grocery story and stocked up on all the food I would need (and also got rid of or gave away all my "carb" food).
I won't explain all the details of Atkins, but every low-carb diet has a similar set of phases - an "induction" phase with almost no carbs at all that resets your body so that you get off of the sugar spikes/lows you're used to with high-carb diets, an intermediate phase (or two) where you slowly add stuff back in, and a lifetime maintenance phase where you figure out how many carbs you can eat without losing weight, and presumably adjust it over the rest of your life.
The main difference though, between a low-carb diet and other more "conventional" diets, is that besides having to limit carbs (either by # of grams per day, or by the foods you are eating), you eat normally, and if you're hungry, you eat. For me, this was huge for two reasons - I knew I wouldn't be starving my body, my muscles, etc., and I also knew that I'd never get to that point in the day where I'd have eaten all my allotted "portions" (calories, servings, etc.) and couldn't eat anymore. If I really wanted to eat some more, I could - just not carbs.
Dr. Atkins does say that the first couple of days when you stop eating carbs altogether, your body will try to fight you. The first time I did this, it really took a whole week of feeling like I was in a fog, but I now realize that the main reason for that was probably the fact that I was also giving up caffeine completely at the same time - and before that I was a coffee + 5-6 can/day diet pop drinker. Besides that week though, every day after that I generally felt better, and had lost 10 lbs in two weeks (Dr. Atkins does mention that a few pounds of that are usually water weight). After two weeks I continued to phase 2, where you add back 5g of carbs every day for a week, then the next week you add back 5g more, etc. while monitoring your weight loss, until you're losing about 1 lb/week.
According to the log I kept, I went from 215 to 185 in about 4 months, and trickled down to 180 after that. By the summer, I was a healthy, in-shape 180 doing power weight training and cardio. I was never hungry, never tired (after week 1), and at my physical all my cholesterol, triglyceride, blood sugar, and blood pressure numbers were fantastic. I might have been in the best shape of my life. So you think, "wow, it worked", huh? Yes, it did. And that could have been the end of the story, had I stuck with the lifetime maintenance plan and just controlled my carb intake (and by controlled, we're talking 80-150g a day depending on physical activity, which is NOT that hard to accomplish).
But that's not the end of the story. And not because of Atkins or low-carb. I kept in great shape the rest of 2004 into 2005. And then...I started marathon training again. Anyone who is a runner knows that when you run 30-40 miles per week, you just can't gain weight, and for long runs you generally want some more "quick" energy, the kind that comes in carbs. Which is fine, because when you're running those kinds of miles, you burn it all off. But, as in 1999, once I started eating like a high-mile runner, I didn't have a plan to stop eating that way when I was done running. I actually did another marathon in 2006, so I kept on that high-energy-burning routine through June 2006, when I finished my 3rd marathon. I was still in fantastic shape - around 175 and could run 20+ miles at a time :) But, alas, when all that high-mile running stopped, the high-mile eating didn't.
(Do you see a pattern here?) It was summer, I was in great shape, I'd just run 2 marathons in two years, why should I give up eating all the ice cream, cookies, chips, crackers (pick your favorite carb) that I want? I will get back to the "good" eating "pretty soon".
"Pretty soon" turned out finally be nearly 5 years later, in March 2011. At 223 lbs, the most I've ever weighed in my entire life, I'd gained 43 lbs, stopped exercising, and, for 2 straight years at my annual physical my cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood pressure numbers have gotten progressively worse. Somewhere in those 4 years I tried an "all organic foods" diet, which might have helped me eat better quality food, but didn't help me lose any weight. I also half-heartedly tried to start the South Beach Diet, but, at least for me, it was not structured enough for me to not stray on (I think some people find that a lot easier).
So, March 14th, 2011, I started Atkins again, this time with some experience and hopefully a little smarter. There's also been a lot of new studies and science in 7 years, which was great and helpful to read. Yesterday I finished week 4 and am down 13 lbs to 210. My long-term target is 180 again, but I now see this as a lifetime thing, so if it takes a year to get there I'm ok with that. I've also started back into some regular exercise - I ran a mile last Thursday, a far cry from the 26.2 I had been running, but I suppose you have to start somewhere :)
One more post (I know I said 3, but hey it's my blog and I want to write some conclusions), which will include some of the more useful and interesting links I've found pertaining to studies on carbohydrates, cholesterol, and saturated fat.
My History with Diets
I never tried any official "diet" or organized plan of any sort until I started working full-time in 1997 after I graduated from college. I went through various phases of trying to eat less or exercise more, or drink diet pop, etc. etc. but none of these really had any plan or goal, and of course I never really stuck to them. Besides the junior year of college when I somehow dipped down to 185, I had hovered around 200 most of my post-7th grade life (to 215 in May of 1997).
Two things changed when I started working and living on my own - I had a LOT more free time all of a sudden (all I had to do was work, which was WAY less than all the stuff I had going on at school) and I had total control of what I was eating now - I bought my own groceries, made my own meals, and ate out when I wanted to.
So in the fall of 1997, after I got settled into my job, I found a diet book I had gotten awhile back called "The Clinic 30 Program". This diet was based on the "conventional" diet thinking we've all had pounded into our heads since elementary school health class - low-fat, high-carb, high-protein, eat less calories (the food pyramid we all remember!). All "modern" medical science at that time was in agreement (or so I thought anyway) about that, so I figured it must be right! This particular program was set up so that you could have a specific number of servings of each of the food groups - 4 bread/cereal, 7 meat/protein, 2 vegetable, 2 dairy, 3 fruit, and 1 fat. A "serving" is about what you'd expect - a slice of bread, an ounce of meat, a piece of fruit, a vegetable, an 8 oz glass of milk, and fat was like a pat of butter. So this was an extremely low-fat diet. Basically, if you eat all your servings every day, that's about 1300-1400 calories a day.
I actually have all of the paper charts I used to keep track of what I ate every day, and my progress. I started at 210 lbs on 9/22/1997. I followed the program (there were 3 phases) seriously for over a year, and then off-and-on for another year and a half after that (when I started marathon training in 1999 I stopped - remember that point for later :)
I got down to 170 on 6/29/1998 (actually got down to 167 two days later, but that was because of the stomach flu, so it doesn't really count). I also completely trashed my body and lost almost all of my muscle mass. For the first several weeks of the diet I felt like I was starving all the time (and now I know that I was starving my body!) The diet did not emphasize making healthier food choices, only counting calories and servings, and I still wasn't in the habit of eating vegetables and fruit, so most of my days I really only ate my bread/cereal, meat, and fat servings (I did eat more fruit as I went on because I was so hungry). I was probably fortunate that by the time I got to my "goal" weight I had started running, and also joined the Rochester Athletic Club and had started lifting weights regularly, because it sort of forced me to eat more and kept my muscle from completely disappearing. Looking back, I think that the abuse and stress I was putting on my body with that diet caused me to get sick a lot more - I had a lot of stomach flus and other "tummy" issues.
I ran a lot in 1998 and did a full marathon in 1999. You don't gain weight doing marathon training, no matter what you eat :) After I was done with the marathon in Oct 1999 though, I stopped doing all the running I was doing, but I kept eating like I was doing all that running. So, by March 2000, I was back to 200 again.
Between 2000 and 2003, because of the amount of physical activity I was doing, I stayed between 190 and 200. But I slowly crept up to 215 again by the beginning of 2004, and I decided I needed to figure out something better...
Next post...why I now understand and believe that carbohydrates hold the key to our weight (and maybe a lot of our health)
Two things changed when I started working and living on my own - I had a LOT more free time all of a sudden (all I had to do was work, which was WAY less than all the stuff I had going on at school) and I had total control of what I was eating now - I bought my own groceries, made my own meals, and ate out when I wanted to.
So in the fall of 1997, after I got settled into my job, I found a diet book I had gotten awhile back called "The Clinic 30 Program". This diet was based on the "conventional" diet thinking we've all had pounded into our heads since elementary school health class - low-fat, high-carb, high-protein, eat less calories (the food pyramid we all remember!). All "modern" medical science at that time was in agreement (or so I thought anyway) about that, so I figured it must be right! This particular program was set up so that you could have a specific number of servings of each of the food groups - 4 bread/cereal, 7 meat/protein, 2 vegetable, 2 dairy, 3 fruit, and 1 fat. A "serving" is about what you'd expect - a slice of bread, an ounce of meat, a piece of fruit, a vegetable, an 8 oz glass of milk, and fat was like a pat of butter. So this was an extremely low-fat diet. Basically, if you eat all your servings every day, that's about 1300-1400 calories a day.
I actually have all of the paper charts I used to keep track of what I ate every day, and my progress. I started at 210 lbs on 9/22/1997. I followed the program (there were 3 phases) seriously for over a year, and then off-and-on for another year and a half after that (when I started marathon training in 1999 I stopped - remember that point for later :)
I got down to 170 on 6/29/1998 (actually got down to 167 two days later, but that was because of the stomach flu, so it doesn't really count). I also completely trashed my body and lost almost all of my muscle mass. For the first several weeks of the diet I felt like I was starving all the time (and now I know that I was starving my body!) The diet did not emphasize making healthier food choices, only counting calories and servings, and I still wasn't in the habit of eating vegetables and fruit, so most of my days I really only ate my bread/cereal, meat, and fat servings (I did eat more fruit as I went on because I was so hungry). I was probably fortunate that by the time I got to my "goal" weight I had started running, and also joined the Rochester Athletic Club and had started lifting weights regularly, because it sort of forced me to eat more and kept my muscle from completely disappearing. Looking back, I think that the abuse and stress I was putting on my body with that diet caused me to get sick a lot more - I had a lot of stomach flus and other "tummy" issues.
I ran a lot in 1998 and did a full marathon in 1999. You don't gain weight doing marathon training, no matter what you eat :) After I was done with the marathon in Oct 1999 though, I stopped doing all the running I was doing, but I kept eating like I was doing all that running. So, by March 2000, I was back to 200 again.
Between 2000 and 2003, because of the amount of physical activity I was doing, I stayed between 190 and 200. But I slowly crept up to 215 again by the beginning of 2004, and I decided I needed to figure out something better...
Next post...why I now understand and believe that carbohydrates hold the key to our weight (and maybe a lot of our health)
My History with Food and Weight
(I am going to do this in 3 related posts so that they're not so long - and if you you just want to get to the main topic, skip to the 3rd one, although this stuff may make you appreciate it more)
Over the past ~ 4 years, I have once again let myself slowly slip into some bad habits when it comes to eating and exercise. While this isn't a yo-yo cycle for me, I can now see some trends that I've decided I need to break, hopefully once and for all.
I'll make a standard disclaimer before I start - I am not a doctor or a medical professional, and some of the information about diets and medically-related topics are based on my own reading, research, and experiences of what works for me. Everyone should consult a doctor before making any life-changing decisions related to their health. That being said...don't forget that YOU are ultimately responsible for your health. Doctors, as good as they are, can only make their best judgments on the information they know about you, and the information they know themselves, and even the best doctor on Earth still can't know everything about everything. I would encourage people to remember that it's ok to get a second opinion and that there is often more than one way to solve a medical or health problem.
So, I have issues with food. I have had them since I was very young, before I can even remember (according to my parents, somewhere around age 2 1/2). I was EXTREMELY picky as a child - I don't think I threw tantrums about much of anything, except probably food. You say, "yeah I was picky too, we all grow out of it". Well, to put it in perspective - most of my younger life, there were about 4 or 5 things I would eat (other than things like dessert which pretty much anyone eats, although I was even picky about that). I lived on peanut butter and crackers, fried chicken, bacon, toast, cereal, milk, Wild Berry Hi-C, and fruit rollups. I did not eat pizza until I was about 15, and then it was ONLY cheese pizza from Pizza Hut. As I got into high school, I figured out french fries were ok, as well as plain chicken sandwiches. I didn't eat any fruits or vegetables to speak of, unless you count corn-on-the-cob, during the one month in the summer when it was in season. Not until college did I even start edging my way out of my eating shell (a little).
I don't know exactly when I slipped into the "overweight" category as a kid, but I have one "reference point" I usually go with. In 7th grade in PE class, we did a unit on wrestling, and were divided up into weight classes. I was at 200 lbs by then - easily the biggest in my 7th grade class (to be fair, I was also the tallest at that point because I grew sooner than just about everyone). I hovered around 200 through most of high school, which at 5'10" (even with a large frame) is probably still too much.
In college, I actually got to some period during my junior year where I dropped down to about 185 - I wasn't really specifically trying to lose weight, but a combination of having a walking campus, taking a weight lifting class (that really de-mystified weight training which I've continued to do through most years after that) and maybe a lot of studying and stress, I just dropped some pounds. During my IBM co-op, I also worked out a lot because I had a lot of free time. Sadly, my senior year I think I over-endulged a bit on pretty much everything, and graduated college in 1997 at an out-of-shape 215, my all-time max weight then.
Next post...my attempts at diets, cardio, marathons, weight training, and how they worked.
Over the past ~ 4 years, I have once again let myself slowly slip into some bad habits when it comes to eating and exercise. While this isn't a yo-yo cycle for me, I can now see some trends that I've decided I need to break, hopefully once and for all.
I'll make a standard disclaimer before I start - I am not a doctor or a medical professional, and some of the information about diets and medically-related topics are based on my own reading, research, and experiences of what works for me. Everyone should consult a doctor before making any life-changing decisions related to their health. That being said...don't forget that YOU are ultimately responsible for your health. Doctors, as good as they are, can only make their best judgments on the information they know about you, and the information they know themselves, and even the best doctor on Earth still can't know everything about everything. I would encourage people to remember that it's ok to get a second opinion and that there is often more than one way to solve a medical or health problem.
So, I have issues with food. I have had them since I was very young, before I can even remember (according to my parents, somewhere around age 2 1/2). I was EXTREMELY picky as a child - I don't think I threw tantrums about much of anything, except probably food. You say, "yeah I was picky too, we all grow out of it". Well, to put it in perspective - most of my younger life, there were about 4 or 5 things I would eat (other than things like dessert which pretty much anyone eats, although I was even picky about that). I lived on peanut butter and crackers, fried chicken, bacon, toast, cereal, milk, Wild Berry Hi-C, and fruit rollups. I did not eat pizza until I was about 15, and then it was ONLY cheese pizza from Pizza Hut. As I got into high school, I figured out french fries were ok, as well as plain chicken sandwiches. I didn't eat any fruits or vegetables to speak of, unless you count corn-on-the-cob, during the one month in the summer when it was in season. Not until college did I even start edging my way out of my eating shell (a little).
I don't know exactly when I slipped into the "overweight" category as a kid, but I have one "reference point" I usually go with. In 7th grade in PE class, we did a unit on wrestling, and were divided up into weight classes. I was at 200 lbs by then - easily the biggest in my 7th grade class (to be fair, I was also the tallest at that point because I grew sooner than just about everyone). I hovered around 200 through most of high school, which at 5'10" (even with a large frame) is probably still too much.
In college, I actually got to some period during my junior year where I dropped down to about 185 - I wasn't really specifically trying to lose weight, but a combination of having a walking campus, taking a weight lifting class (that really de-mystified weight training which I've continued to do through most years after that) and maybe a lot of studying and stress, I just dropped some pounds. During my IBM co-op, I also worked out a lot because I had a lot of free time. Sadly, my senior year I think I over-endulged a bit on pretty much everything, and graduated college in 1997 at an out-of-shape 215, my all-time max weight then.
Next post...my attempts at diets, cardio, marathons, weight training, and how they worked.
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