Greg's Running Blog

26 weeks! I have been working on my transformation for 26 weeks! Considering that I have been overweight for almost half my lifetime 6 months seems like nothing. But when I look at yesterday’s photo update it blows my mind just how much I have changed in the past 6 months. It’s almost surreal to see this kind of transformation. Sure, I have seen other people do it but I never thought I would be one of these people who actually get a hold of their weight and get back to living and eating healthy. As much as I don’t consider my transformation complete just yet, 6 months is a huge milestone so I think I am going to do a bit of celebration. So how did the last week of my 6 month transformation go? Let’s see….

Diet has been good. As you will see on the chart, I am easing up even more on the calories than before but it’s on purpose. I am gradually trying to switch over to maintenance mode from weight loss mode. I have been upping my calories for the past 4 weeks and this week was the highest average weekly caloric intake by far during the past 6 months. And when I say high I’m talking about 2,070 calories on average, still well under my maintenance calories. I had 115 grams of protein on average which is a good, solid amount of protein. Less than before but still well over the USDA recommended ridiculously low amount. I am still very pleased with the way my diet has been going especially since Monday and Tuesday I was out of town and ate out every single meal for the days. I even had ice cream on Tuesday on the way home and it was a fine treat to share with the kids and the whole family. But while I would have had a two scoop portion for myself 6 months ago, this time the whole family share two one-scoop orders instead.

I have not hit the gym during the week at all. Monday I was out of town and by Friday I couldn’t due to a medical procedure that I might or might not write more about at a later time. Bottom line is I could not work out on any of my workout days. Plus I actually pulled my chest muscle the week before and it still has a bruised feeling on the left which does seem to get better but is still not 100% fine. So taking it easy was probably a good idea.

Running went great this week. I only ran 5 days, but it was planned that way. After Friday I could not run due to the medical procedure but because of it I have moved my 10 mile long run to Friday morning instead of Sunday. And to boot, I tried to run it at a 10 mile race pace. It was a success in failure. I ran the first 10K (6.2 miles) in 43 minutes but I ran the last 3.8 miles at 8:15 mile/minute pace for a total time of 1 hour 14 minutes and 35 seconds. It was still a solid run and I am very pleased with it but it wasn’t quite the best run I had hoped for. Overall I have burned 3,268 calories with running this week and ran 28.1 miles which is not bad for 5 days only.

Weight loss, as expected based on the reduced number of calories out and increased number of calories in was less than before. Based on my rolling average I have lost 1.2 lbs (0.5 kg) this week. That is the lowest amount of weight loss for a week so far. But based on these numbers my calculated BMR is 2,203 which very accurately reflects reality. The more I’m switching over to maintenance mode with the diet the lower the weight loss rate is going to be.