Greg's Running Blog

The photo updates every fourth day have gotten old after about a month. These weekly status updates are just starting to get old. I think I have mastered the whole calorie counting thing by now and I certainly know how to weigh in every morning and put it in a spreadsheet. Just as I have made the commitment with the photos, I’m dedicated on the weekly status updates as well and they will keep on coming until I have reached my target weight and switch over to maintenance mode.

So how did the week go? Let’s start with the weakest part, which clearly has been my strength training. I barely did my Monday training and I skipped my Friday one completely as we were off from work and we stayed home that day. I should have done something, at least some push-ups at home but I didn’t. Shame on me!

The diet is going strong, I have eased up on my calories a bit this week, I ate over 2,000 calories two days out of 7. And guess what was the culprit on both of those days? It was Italian food. On Tuesday me and my co-workers went out for lunch to a small, hole in the wall Italian restaurant where I had never been before. The food was great but it was rich in EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for the ones not familiar with Rachel Ray). I’m pretty sure I’ll go there again once my transformation is complete but I’ll stay away from it for the next couple of months. The other Italian restaurant was a bit more commercial, we went to Olive Garden with the family. I did great, only had the Minestrone Soup, no bread, and the Shrimp Primavera. Total damage? 830 calories and more sodium than you probably want to know (2,640 mg if you really wanted to know). I need to be fair though, on Saturday we not only ate at the Olive Garden we went to a co-worker’s daughter’s birthday party where the grill was hot and loaded with food. I just had to eat a hamburger for my afternoon snack (455 calories) and I’m sure either the Italian or the hamburger as the afternoon snack by itself would have worked out OK but the two together was a deadly combination. I had no chips, beer, sodas or cake though, the only thing I munched on were some broccoli and carrot sticks without dipping sauce.

So Italian food can be a problem for people on a diet but I still think I managed pretty decent for the week in terms of food. I have averaged out at 1.879 calories per day for the week with 124 grams of protein a day. I’m pretty pleased with the numbers, they’re right where I want them to be. The little bit of extra calories this week could not have come at a worse time. This week was not only heavier on the calories but it was lighter on the running.

This week’s running was a fall back week with a 5K race scheduled for the weekend (more on the race tomorrow). This meant reduced mileage and easier running towards the end of the week. I only ran 28.8 miles this week and burned 3,482 calories doing it. Not exactly the same as last week’s almost 37 miler with over 4,500 calories. But I needed a slower week and it was fine. I did every run the way I wanted to do them and I felt great throughout the week.

So with the bit higher caloric intake and the bit lower caloric expenditure I wasn’t expecting my usual 2 lbs (0.9 kg) drop to happen this week. But via some miracle it did happen! My rolling average has indeed dropped 2 solid pounds from last week and my actual weight also dropped the same. I have clocked in under 80 kg for the first time in a really really long time (sophomore year high school) on Thursday with 79.4 kg (175 lbs). And I have not been over that magic mark since then, not even with the excess sodium, and retained water that comes with it, on Saturday.

So how does the math add up? I have lost 2 lbs, 7,000 calories again. That’s 1,000 calories a day deficit. I have averaged 1,879 calories as my daily intake and my cardio equaled 497 calories a day. So my net calorie for a day was 1,382 meaning my BMR is 2,382 calories. Not too far fetched, still hovering around that 2,300 calorie mark.

Overall it was a good showing with good results, and I’m really looking forward to next week for another 2 lbs loss.