Weightloss diet = No good

There is no such thing as a weight loss diet. Sure there are many of them out there Atkins, South Beach, blood type, Alkaline, and 100 mile just to name a few and yes they temporarily remove weight. I say temporarily because I have yet to meet someone that lost weight and kept it off on any of the above diets once they stopped those diets.

The only diet that truly works is a life change diet. You have to change your eating habits forever. The good news is you don't have to eat perfect. You're not stuck eating rabbit food the rest of your life. I'm not going to lie it's pretty tough at first. Eating habits are the hardest habits to change. It was far easier for me to quit smoking than it was to change how and what I ate and I still don't do it perfectly. Which really is the good news.

I'm not a nutrionalist so I won't pretend to be one. Everything I've said above I'm sure you've heard before. Sit down with a nutrionalist and they will say the same thing. Don't worry, I'm not going to leave you hanging on how to actually do this amazing life change process. I will share what worked for me.

1. I set a date 2 weeks out.I would suggest a Tuesday in case you have a bad Monday. Then I ate whatever I wanted guilt free for two weeks. Let me tell you how liberating that was!

2. I psyched myself up for it. I decided I was going to go hard and strict for 12 weeks. 12 measly weeks. I lost the majority of the weight I wanted to lose in those 12 weeks.

3. Once week 1 day 1 starts - start a food journal. Record everything you put in your mouth in a day. Everything. Eliminate all junk food from the house. Get rid of the chocolate, the ice cream, the chips, soda. Replace these items with fresh fruits and vegetables. Try some raw peanuts, almonds, cashews. Get a bag of granola. Cut out all fast food and all fried food.

4. The only way to lose weight is to use more calories than you take in during the day. Start by knowing how many calories you need to take in to lose weight. My personal favorite calculator is here: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm and start reading the labels on all the foods you eat. Check the calories, check the fat content. Realize that it takes approximately 30 min of walking to burn 100 calories.

5. Get active. I don't care if you walk, bike, swim, skip rope, lift weights or run. But do something every other day for at least 30 min. You can find the time! No excuses!

At the end of 12 weeks if you really feel the need go ahead and have a junk meal. If you've been good for the 12 weeks you will probably like your results and won't want to stray from your good eating habits. If you do have that unhealthy meal I'll be surprised if you don't notice how crappy you feel after eating it, and wonder how you ever ate like that all the time.

The benefits are amazing! It's been over a year for me and I've continued to lose weight and still enjoy some of the junk I used to. I just don't eat it near as often or in the quantity I used to. My everyday food choices never leave me feeling stuffed or bloated. My immune system is strong and rarely am I sick and when I am it's for a very short duration. I look and feel younger and I'm way happier than I have ever been. It was the best,hardest action plan I've followed up on to date.

Running Seasons

I was out for a late run last night and I was really enjoying this run. It's my normal 3 mile default course so I wasn't taken by the scenery like I usually am on my less frequent routes. That's one of the great things about a well known course. Your mind has the freedom to wander all over the place. Instead of wandering away from the run mine was engaged in the pure endorphin high of the moment. I thought about how much I was enjoying the warm night air on my face and the hypnotic rhythm of my Nike clad foot falls. I was in my zone.

It was in that moment I was thinking about my current running season. I've come to the realization that my running goals have changed a lot over the past 6 months. Prior to this year I was only interested in running faster and faster 5K's and as many as I could squeeze in. Then in February I started training for my first 1/2 marathon. The beginning of this new season in my running. Because of the demands of longer races I'm sticking to training plan. Instead of running 5K's on the weekend I'm running long training runs. Part of me misses the 5K's and the old routine, but I know that season shall return.

I had a moment of fear while I was running last night. A fear that I might grow tired of running, that perhaps this is just a phase I was going through. That may have been the case if I didn't discover the depth of running. Last night I really started thinking about the whole spectrum of running. There are just so many facets. Running will be a part of my life for the rest of my life. Just to give you a feel for the depth of running here is a list of running life as a whole. You have your sprint races everything from a mile to a 5K. You have middle distance 10K - 25K then you have your endurance your marathon up to ultra marathons. You can become a running travel and try to run a race in all 50 states. Think of all the different places you could go that you normally wouldn't have a reason to. You can train and run all of these, or you can run with no set goals and just enjoy the night air, the wind in your face and the chewed up asphalt/concrete/trail behind you. Then there is the volunteer side to running. Races don't happen without volunteers. I'll blog on this subject later as I think it deserves it's own topic.

Keep running friends!

The time is NOW!

One year ago today I made a decision to change my life, but that decision wasn't to start running. I was already running for almost a year at this point. No, I set out to do what most people say they want to do, attempt to do, fail and say they are still going to do... some day. Yep. Weight loss. One year ago today I was 225lbs and I hid it very well. Today I am 47lbs lighter.

I had finally made up my mind that this was the year I was going to lose weight. I planned 2 weeks in advance of June 1st. I gorged myself on every kind of fast food, every Little Debbie snack and I would be doing much better had I owned stock in Pepsi. With my 8 can a day habit I'm sure I was sending someone's kid to Harvard. Well I convinced myself that I could abstain from those food sources for 12 weeks. A measly 12 weeks after which if I wanted to I could indulge in all those things that made me happy as much as I wanted, but I had to abstain for 12 weeks.

I toughed it out and at the end of 12 weeks I was down 30 lbs and I felt and looked great. I was doing so great in fact I didn't miss my weekly Big Mac, well maybe a little. But there was no way I was going to start putting that weight back on. Nope, I sit here today at 178 lbs. I went from 38" jeans down to 32". I was running 9.5 min miles now I'm running 7.25 min miles. I measured 44" around my stomach now I'm 36".

All that stuff is great for me and I'm proud of my accomplishments, but it was during a long run this past winter. I was hit with something that is well known yet often treated as trivial. I was jogging along Jefferson street listening to my iPod when a song from DC Talk started playing. The song title is "Time is ticking away" The lyrics really struck a chord with me during that run. "All the money in the world can never stop the hands of time, and a wasted day in your life is more than a crime" I got to thinking about all the things we put off in life assuming we'll get to them later. Lose weight, get in shape, save money, clean up my life, quit smoking, eat better, exercise daily, start running, read more, watch TV less, go to church, get right with God, read my Bible, spend more time with my kids, spend more time with my wife etc... Time is ticking away just ask any parent with grown kids. That's why the time is NOW. Some things you want to do will be easier to do while you are younger(meaning now)others you want to complete before you leave this planet.

I encourage you to start something this summer. Something you've been putting off. Something that you insist you were going to do later. Make later now. I can now tell you from my experience that it's a great and rewarding feeling. I can tell you that I have my list of laters that I'm working on now. The journey is just as great as the destination. Instead of leaving me a comment saying "congrats" or something, tell me what later you are going to start now.