Week 4 - Do Not Drink a Day Before Running

Yup, that is true! If you know you have to run don't even think in drinking. 

It was a NFL conference championship weekend so I decided to host a little get together with friends to watch the games. The problem happened after a few drinks turned into a party that lasted 10 hours. You can imagine I was in no shape to even walk the 2 miles I needed on Monday let alone run it. So I waited until today to log in my quota.

Last week I needed one more mile to complete my week since my last post. On Friday I went to the park and walked the mile and to my surprise I had a better pace than when I started walking. It took me 15' 56" to do it when before I was on the 16' 40" area.

This is week 4 so I need to log in 4 miles. I started with today jogging in intervals for 6 laps at my park and I will be doing it again on Friday with another 2. 

I still feel very heavy and my breathing gets uncomfortable at times when I am jogging but I know that as long as I don't over do it and keep my plan I should be ok with it and start getting better as time passes by. As for my legs they hurt today again because I jogged, but is a muscular pain which I admit I am glad to feel because it makes me conscious of my body and keeps me motivated to continue.

Here are my updated stats:

Miles since last post: 3.15

Total miles on 2016: 8.54

Last average pace: 13' 39"

Daily average steps: 2,946*

* Daily average steps are calculated over the last 52 weeks through my health app in the iPhone.

Week 3 - Jogging Attempt

Today was my first attempt at jogging. I was able to drop 2 minutes to my average pace just by jogging in intervals. Right now my legs are hurting and to be honest, when I was jogging, I felt the heaviest I've felt in a long while. I hope this changes as the weeks go by.

Since this is my third week of the challenge I am supposed to do 3 miles. I decided to do 2 today with a little jogging and leave the extra mile for Thursday or Friday just to give my body a chance to start getting used to more physical activity than before.

As for my diet. I haven't actually done anything to improve in that area. I wouldn't be surprised that I have gained weight these past weeks as opposed to lose some. I am ok with that because I know that as long as I stick to my running plan, my body will take care of itself (or so I hope).

Here are my updated stats:

Miles since last post: 2.02

Total miles on 2016: 5.38

Last average pace: 14' 46"

Daily average steps: 2,924*

*Daily average steps are calculated over the last 52 weeks through my health app on the iPhone

Week 2 - Removing Dust From My Bones

Ever since last week I had been thinking in logging more miles already. Today was a fairly good day to go out and walk and so I did.

My morning started a bit earlier than usual because my 10 month old daughter was awake since about 5:30 am and she just couldn't let her mother or father sleep a little longer. Though we tried to not pay attention to her as she was speaking (or so she thinks), she decided it was time for us to get up and simply raised the level of noise until we both were fully awake.

My wife got ready to take our other daughter to school and to go open her dance studio for her first class in over 2 years. She took time off since the day we found out she was pregnant until today. So I had no choice but to get up and tackle my goal for the week.

For those who don't know, my goal is that for 2016 I am going to walk, jog, run or whatever my body allows me. 1 mile on week one and add 1 mile more every week for the 52 weeks of the year. Since this is week 2 then my goal for the week is only 2 miles.

The weather was 50 degrees Fahrenheit and there was little wind, so by this area standards, this is considered chilly. I took care of some errands first and then I hit the park at around 10:30 am hoping that by then it was a little warmer but it wasn't. As I started walking the trail I felt like quitting because of the cold I was feeling and the low energy I was experiencing. I wanted to blame it on not having enough sleep and even took a glance at my phone to check for a better weather day ahead in the week. All this was on my head over and over as I walked the first lap while listening to the iHeart radio app with some dance music.

By the time I was finishing my second lap those ideas had vanished and now I was only thinking in finishing my goal for the week in one session - I know, 2 miles isn't much but remember that my average steps on the day is only 2,900, and that is averaging one year - so I pushed a little harder every lap until I reached quota for the week.

As I walked through, I felt my body tingling like last week but now in more places than before. I could feel my bones making noise and my legs hurt, but none of that stopped me from getting what I was there to do. I ended my walk with just a little more than 2 miles and with an average pace of 16' 41" which is essentially the same pace as my first week. I was now finished and could return home and enjoy a bath and breakfast.

Here are my stats for this week:

Miles This Week: 2.04
Total Miles 2016: 3.36
Average Daily Steps : 2,919*
Average Pace: 16' 41"

* Average calculated on my health app for iPhone over the last 52 weeks.

Week 1 on the Books!

I decided to tackle my first week callenge head on. Though the distance I walked is not much I can tell you that I felt how my body was reacting to a small exercise.

There is a park nearby my home that I like. Three laps there makes 1 mile so I went for 4 laps. It took me almost 17 minutes to complete my mile. 

I could feel how my thighs and the back of my knees were tingling. I suppose that was my body telling me that it was getting a little beter blood circulation (at last). For a moment I thought of jogging, but after the first lap it became evident that my legs aren't ready for that just yet.

Even though I already have my first critique of my plan (someone told me that there is no real benefit for my body until later in the year), I still decided to go ahead with it. Writing my journey will allow me to come back at later times and realize if there were benefits or not since the beginning. For starters I think that doing this will help me stay in track of my goal while building strenght and confidence in myself.

I am also trying to follow better eating habits that will help to lose weight faster. This morning I had a Sandwich with 2 slices of bread, 2 ounces of pastrami, 1/2 a cup of low fat cottage cheese and a little mustard. This was accompanied by a cup of oatmeal (made in water) with about 8 pecan halves.

Right after walking I took a granola bar and had it as my snack. Then for lunch my wife made me 4 ounces of grilled salmon, 1 cup of brown rice, 1.5 cups of steamed veggies and green salad with pecans and some lime juice. 

I must admit that the eating part is difficult and though I will give it my best it still may represent a bigger challenge for me than the miles to accomplish by yearend.

See you next time!

The Start!

I am tired of fighting my weight for the most part of my life. Tired of having a sedentary life and I am afraid that my behavior will trigger a desease that won't allow me to see my daughters grow up or that will stop me from reaching my goals. So, here it stops, (the bad habits) and here I start my challenge.

I'm a 34 year old male that currently weighs 280 lbs with a height of 5ft. 11in. I live a very sedentary life where my average daily steps doesn't reach 3,000 (those who know will agree that the absolute minimum should be 10,000). I work out of my home office and rarely leave the house. By all measures I should be diabetic or have cholesterol or high blood pressure by now. Thank God I don't have any of that and I don't know why, but who am I to question that! Right?

The challenge is simple yet gradually more difficult. It consist of walking, jogging or running (whatever my body and knees allow me) 1 mile to start the first week, 2 miles on the second week and keep adding one more mile every week until I reach the end of 2016 (52 weeks total). By December 31, 2016 I should have reached a total of 1,378 miles of exercise.

This number may seem high for someone like me. But considering that the start is with one mile a week and pushing for one more every week then it seems very doable. I really don't know if I will be able to endure the entire challenge but I assure you that my heart and soul will be on this. I will post as often as I can to keep my self motivated and will be sharing some pictures along the way to see if there is any change in my body.

Ohh, my current jean size is 40 and it is starting to feel uncomfortable.