This week I have been focusing on something that has been bothering me for a few weeks.. my weight.
I bucked up and started a food diary. I am using myfitnesspal.com. I needed to be accountable for what I was putting in my mouth because I wasn’t understanding why the scale was climbing higher than it ever has before for me, yet I am “training for a marathon”. I guess even though you are training it doesn’t mean you won’t gain weight. I also read on runnersworld.com about several others who increase their mileage each week and are also increasing their weight because they think the increase in miles means a free pass to eat whatever you want. NOT TRUE! I am getting back to eating clean foods again and watching my caloric intake. No longer will I just graze through my pantry and have a few Lays chips, a handful of chocolate chips, a little of this, a little of that. All those little this’s and that’s gained me 5 pounds!
A fellow runner in my TeamDisney group on facebook wrote a great blog posting about the numbers not lying. He said it so well. When we start really examining what goes into our mouth and writing it down it makes us stop and think twice about what we chose to eat. If I want that special treat then I am going to have to add a workout to my day to get rid of that treat.
Brian also has some good advice on his blog about exercise.
I started adding a 20-30 minute walk to my weekly routine as well. Just because it is a non running day doesn’t mean I can’t get outside and enjoy the morning and also get in a workout. I added weight training back into my routine. I used to do weights for years and in the past year since focusing most of my time on running I have paused the weight training. So I stepped up my exercise routine this week and I hope to see some results in the upcoming weeks.
Weekly Recap:
Sunday – weights
Monday – 3 mile run
Tuesday – 2.5 mile walk
Wednesday – 3.5 mile run
Thursday – 2.6 mile walk and weights
Friday – 4.7 mile run
I am feeling hungrier now that I have started eating less, but I have successfully lost a pound in a week which is a safe amount of weight loss. I am also hungrier from working out more often so I have to be aware of the food choices I make to choose things that are more filling and not just empty calories. With my fitnesspal.com I am able to see how much I am eating and have been able to enjoy some snacks such as my favorite – popcorn. And I have been making banana softserve so I can have a snack after dinner which isn’t a sugary snack at all. I whip up frozen bananas in my blender and enjoy them on a 20 calorie ice cream cone. The added benefit to this is that I am getting my potassium to help my legs.
In terms of the marathon training. I have been ahead of the recommended Jeff Galloway schedule because I am preparing for the Sea Legs Shuffle in Guilford on August 5. It is a 10 mile race. My average miles are between 16 miles to 20 miles per week and I’ll be interested to see those miles increase the closer to the marathon I get. I am feeling good about my training but I want to adjust my running days. I have been running on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and that is not giving my legs enough rest between runs so I will modify that to give myself 2 days off between runs.
While I am a little nervous about the 10 mile race next weekend, I am looking forward to it.