Greg's Running Blog

Today wasn’t as good as I had hoped for. We went out to run errands and ended up at Panera Bread for lunch. Which in itself is bad but combine it with the fact that they didn’t have their vegetable bean soup and it’s a disaster. I have been eating their Frontega Chicken Pannini and the bean soup every time we went and skip the chips. Today I had to eat their potato soup as even their tomato soup had as much calories as their potato soup. Which is almost 100 calories more than the bean soup with much less protein. Sodium was through the roof but that’s to be expected any time you eat out. The think that pisses me off the most about Panera Bread is that they market themselves as a healthy food choice when in truth they’re just as bad as any other.

For dinner I had Filet Mignon again. The prime $30/lbs kind. This stuff is good. I had sirloin a week or so ago and it was bad. Once you’re hooked on prime Filet you do not want to eat the sirloin any more. Which is a shame considering this stuff costs three times as much. But with all the saturated fat in it it might not be a bad thing that I only eat it every once in a while and stick with chicken otherwise. To offset the excess calories I gave up on brown rice and ate it with only steamed veggies.

So the fatty lunch and fatty dinner explain why my carbs had to be so low just to fit into my diet.

I as going to do a whole lot of cardio today but ended up with only 45 minutes. I was going to have a second 45 minute session in the evening but we ended up babysitting our friend’s daughter and she slept in our bedroom so the elliptical was off limits until 11:30PM when they picked her up. And while usually I can still manage to put a cardio session in that late I just didn’t feel like it today. So I had to make do with the 45 minutes I put in while the kids were napping in the afternoon.

Today’s photo session was OK. I have actually gained 0.7 lbs since the last photos but I think there is now more definition in my back. My bicep, calf and thighs have grown a quarter of an inch but my hips and chest has gone down half an inch. Either the fat is migrating around or I have gained muscle in my extremities or I just measured them wrong before. Something is definitely going on. I guess time will tell what really is happening.

12/25/2009 Transformation Picture

After yesterday’s splurge I have toned it down a good bit today and managed to eat a measly 1377 calories. Yet I still managed to pack close to 145 grams of protein in there. ow did I do it? Had a good breakfast with almonds and yogurt as the main source of protein, for lunch I had brisket and eggs, another two good sources of protein then I had whey shake for the afternoon snack and finally for dinner I had some pork in paprika sauce with spaetzle. All in all a good day for the macronutrients. I think I need to cut my calories below 1,700 as my weight loss have been slowing down this week. Plus I won’t be able to do as much cardio while home as I have been doing at work and since I’m lighter the cardio burns less calories than before. Losing all this weight is a triple whammy to weight loss.

I have done a new VO2 measurement yesterday and my VO2 has jumped from 34 to 38. I have also measured my resting heart rate and I’m sitting at 54 bpm. That is pretty good considering that it was in the low 70s when I have started. Sicne I have dropped 20 beats off my resting heart rate it’s only normal to see my exercise heart rate dropping too. And since my VO2 has gone up I’m more efficient in utilizing oxygen so I need less heart betas to get he same amount of oxygen in and to burn the same amount of calories. This shows in my exercises now as my heart rate only averaged 115 tonight yet I still burned 497 calories in an hour. Before I needed 119 bmp average heart rate and I had weighed a good 14 lbs more to burn the same amount of calories.

Today went OK. For a cheat day that is. I have eaten candy for my morning snack but had a good breakfast and lunch. Then I made the decision that today was going to be about Christmas and I figured I would eat a nice meal with the family instead of making my grilled chicken for dinner with steamed vegetables. In anticipation I have skipped my afternoon snack of whey protein. For dinner I ate what the rest of the family ate. I ate in moderation and I think I did OK, considering it was a cheat day. I had jasmine rice and turnip puree as sides. Then I packed on some fried tilapia and fried Monterey Jack cheese. The frying was the bad part but I enjoyed the meal. I ate in moderation and I didn’t have dessert. So overall I think I did pretty good. I won’t be repeating this meal for a while though. Christmas has been fun and I’m really enjoying the time off. I have skipped cardio today though but it’s OK, I just can’t make a habit of it, that’s all.

I’m not even sure if I should put it here, but I guess I did do some strength training. Since I’m off from work I don’t have access to the machines that I usually use. It was supposed to be a chest day today so I did some push-ups. I have tried to do push-ups a month or so ago and I could do 12 in a row. Today I have managed 3×25. That’s quite a change. I don’t think it’s me getting stronger, it’s more about me getting lighter and easier to push. I have also checked and it’s about 70% of your body weight that you have to push up using your hands when you do a proper push-up. While it wasn’t much it was more than nothing so I’m logging it here.

Push-ups

• 3×25 at BW

Today was another successful day. I ate pretty light during the day which allowed me to have a big dinner. I had turkey leg for lunch and had brisket and smoked turkey for dinner. I even had some baked potato with my brisket but obviously no sour cream, butter or cheese. The potato still tasted excellent, it’s been a while since I had potato. I’m on vacation for the next 11 days and I’ll be spending the time with family at home. It’ll be interesting how my diet and nutrition will go with all the Christmas food and spirit around.

I have a hard time getting my heart rate up. I have upped resistance both at home and at work on the elliptical and I’m still much lower on my heart rate than before. I think my resting heart rate must have dropped since I have lost some weight, and my cardio exercises aren’t burning as much as they used to. I have checked my VO2 again and it has improved from 34 to 38 which means it’s still pretty bad but it’s better than it used to be. It will also positively influence my calculated caloric usage but not my actual caloric usage.

Since I won’t be going to work for the rest of the year I think this was the last day that I will manage to do 90 minutes of cardio. I’ll be shooting for 60 minutes a day for the rest of the year.

Ab Crunch

• 1×10 @ 60lbs
• 2×10 @ 50lbs

Twisting Oblique

• 3×16 @ 40lbs

Leg Press

• 3×10 @ 230lbs

Standing Calf Raise

• 3×10 @ 150lbs

Leg Extensions

• 3×10 @ 50lbs