Product Endorsement: Yurbuds

I always have trouble getting my earbuds to stay in while working out, so I haven't listened to music exercising recently. I don't always think it's safe to have earbuds in (like if riding a bike on the road), but sometimes it's nice to change up the pace and not have to rely on you mind to do all of the work. I read about these on another blog: Yurbuds

I bought them a couple of days ago because I needed new headohones anyways. They are a little expensive ($30) but it seems that that's the going rate for iPod type accessories.

Basically the only part that is different from normal headphones is a silicon "funnel" that fits around the earbud. It is molded to the shape of your ear so that it won't fall out. To start, you basically have to figure out how the tip goes into your ear and then turn it a little bit to get it to hold with friction. I tested them out on a run today and accidentally pulled on the cable a few times and it didn't slip at all. Also, I didn't have to keep messing with the earpieces over and over like I have in the past. They seem to work exactly like they are supposed to, so if you're looking for new workout earbuds or have issues with your current ones falling out these are definitely worth a look.

US News and World Report: Best Diets

I saw this a few days ago but just ran back across it.

There is listing of rankings of different diets in different categories and also some other diet idea links on the right side of the page. Link

They list the DASH diet as there best overall (It seems to be a very balanced diet meant for overall health). And list Weight Watchers as their best diet for weight loss. There is a lot of information on each plan and some ideas that are definitely worth checking out.

Getting Started With Weight Loss

I have posted a lot so far about what I am currently doing as far of my lifestyle but I don't feel I've posted too much about how I got started with it. And getting started and keeping everything going is probably the hardest part of changing your lifestyle. Also, these are the kind of things that I keep telling people when they ask me for advice to lose weight. I wouldn't usually recommend that someone jump in very quickly to a huge lifestyle change (i.e. extreme diet and workout change) unless you have an unusual amount of willpower or are in a "camp/retreat" environment. So here are some of the things that I think were really helpful to me in kind of a stream-of-consciousness way:

• Know the nutritional value of everything that you eat. Get in a habit of reading every label and at least take a mental note of your intake throughout the day. Most nutritionist s and diet plans will have you start out with a food diary in order to help you with this and this can be a great tool, especially if you don't have the greatest memory. This can also be a hassle...so the bottom line is know what you are eating.
• Piggy-backing on the last point, don't just count calories. Make sure you are limiting your carbs and fats as well. And try to get as much protein and fiber as possible because this will help you stay more full for longer.
• Try to eliminate all white carbs. This includes: rice, bread, potatoes, pasta, etc. If you are going to eat carbs, limit the amount and make sure it's a whole wheat option. A good way to limit your bread intake on something like a  is to get the smaller slices of bread. Again, pay attention to your serving sizes and nutritional values on the labels.
• Eat as many green vegetables as possible. Broccoli, spinach, green beans, etc. are all very low calories and high in nutrients. You can literally eat as much of these as you want; fill up on this stuff so you want be hungry for other less healthy options.
• Never drink your calories. If you are still drinking regular sodas and sweet tea and want to lose weight then stop now. Water is always the best choice but I'm not really one to talk, I drink a lot of Coke Zero during the week and I definitely have my fill of beer here and there. One thing I have done with beer though is cut out the random beer throughout the week. I would never drink a beer at home now and really only drink 2-3 nights per week. I know that if a cut back on these empty calories I would certainly drop some more weight. 
• Pay attention to portion sizing. This is why it's hard to eat out on a diet. If you are eating out, order wisely and then eat slow so you can recognize when your full and save the rest for later. At home, I usually give my self a set portion to eat and if I am still hungry afterwards then I will eat more. Don't just eat everything on your plate because it's there.
• Try to do activities (exercise) that you like to do. If you are solely relying on your gym membership, then you probably won't keep up with your plan. I play soccer, I ride my bikes, I run with friends; find something that you enjoy doing.
• Walking is a perfect starting place for being more active. Walking 1 mile burns about 100 calories and pretty much everyone can do it...a mile a day (basically 20 minutes) gives 700 extra calories per week. And I know it's played out, but use the stairs and walk for your transportation; it's easy and it makes a difference.
• Pick attainable goals. If you  are losing 1-2 pounds to week and you are reasonably normal body weight then you are doing great. Shows like Biggest Loser are great, but they are in an isolated environment where their diet and exercise are being monitored constantly and the people are usually very obese; this is really the only type of environment where you would see a "double-digit" weight loss in one week.

So that is a good start; I will post any more as I think of them. As I have said constantly, diet is much more important than exercise for weight loss. Your body is very efficient with calorie-use. Exercise is always helpful and will boost results but you can definitely lose weight by changing your diet. Weight Watchers, NutriSystem... all these things can work, the big thing that they have to worry about is people not following their plan correctly or following it for awhile and quitting. So do what you can, don't get discouraged and quit all together if you fall off the wagon a little bit. Find what works for you and follow some of these ideas and you will see results.

Recipe #7: Black Bean Brownies

My first experimental recipe!

One thing that my diet kind of requires is that you are okay with eating a lot of the same foods over and over again. Fortunately, I don't mind this. Also, dieticians seem to agree that this is the best way to stay on a diet that allows for weight loss and control. I think it stems from not having to think up new things to eat; you just know what you will be having for pretty much every meal.

I am also fortunate that I don't really crave sweets; I usually have more trouble with salty foods, which I still don't really control that well. I saw that someone had made brownies using beans instead of flour on TV and thought it would be a cool thing to try.

I started researching recipes online and almost all of them used sugar and most of them also used agave nectar, neither of which are on my diet. So a recipe that was the simplest and replaced the sugar with Splenda (actually fake Splenda). So here it goes:

Ingredients
1 can of black beans
3/4 a cup of Splenda (I used generic)
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 pinch salt
3 eggs
2 tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Rinse the can of beans thoroughly in water to remove all liquid. This is important because otherwise the brownies will taste salty.
2. Put all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until it is a smooth batter.
3. Spray an 8"x8" baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and poor your batter in.
4. Place brownies in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 20 minutes or until the edges start seperating from the pan.
5. Take the brownies out and let cool completely.
6. Cut and "enjoy".

Total calories: ~900  (plus a lot of fiber and protein and no carbs besides the fiber in the beans)

You probably noticed that I said "enjoy" in quotations. This is because, although everyone said that these brownies were just like real brownies, I found them like "Healthy Choice" brownies, or something of that type. They are dry-ish and not chewie and dense like a real brownie. I'm sure that using real sugar or agave nectar or chocolate chips would have made them taste better but it also would have violated the rules of my diet and I might as well just make regular brownies anyways.

I did find one thing that made them edible though and still mostly on the diet and that was:

If a put a 1/2 tbsp. of peanut butter on one of the slices of brownie, it made a good ~150 calorie desert with lots of protein and fiber and almost no sugar.

So this experiment was okay...I'm not sure if I would do it again. I did end up eating all of the brownies over the course of a few days but I don't think that would have been possible if I didn't add peanut butter. If I did make them again, I would definitely try to change something but maybe brownies are meant for binge day anyways.

Results/Plan Update

Here are some of my results/plans:

• Still hovering around 165 lbs. with a low of 163. I am still on the same diet and I haven't lost significant weight but I do feel like I have lost fat and inches off of my body. The new jeans I bought 2 months ago are size 33 waist and are now very loose. I would think I have a 31-inch waist now, just estimating. And I am showing ab-definition for the first time ever: 

 

• I have started to up my running distances and it's definitely getting easier and more tolerable. Instead of running 1 mile when I go out, I do 3-5 miles about 4 times per week. I am doing this so I can hopefully run a half-marathon in March and I also want to do a couple of duathlons coming up that I saw online here: FS Series

These are all still building to my goals of marathons/Ironmans within the next couple of years. And hopefully through all of this my weight will drop to the 155 lbs. that I set a few months ago but I'm okay with my current weight and don't really want to change my diet any more drastically. Overall, everything is going well and I am on my way to meeting some of my long-term goals.

New Workout: Kettle Bell

I got this about a month ago and have integrated it into my workout plan. So my current exercise plan is as follows:

• Running 3+ miles, 4-5 times per week
• Riding my mountain bike 6-7 times per week (I ride to work ever day so I get in at least 4 miles, but 2-3 times per week I will ride 10+ miles)
• Riding my road bike at least once a week for a ~20 mile ride
• Calisthenics 5+ times a week (push-ups, planks, pull-ups/chin-ups) mixed in with dumbbell work
• And finally the kettle bell and the workout that came with it that I try to do 2-3 times per week

Here is the kettle bell:

And here is the guy that is extra positive and light-spoken, think the opposite of P90x or Insanity that you see on the commercials:

I do both the beginner and advanced workouts and, including warm-up, cool down and stretching, it takes about 30 minutes. I have not done any lower body lifting recently so the first time I did this, I could hardly walk the next day. But as is usually the case, every time after that first time I haven't really had any soreness the next day.

In order to make the workout more difficult I have added in my 20 lb. weight vest and it definitely does the trick. I'll post more about my experiments with the weight vest later.

Overall, I like the workout; it gives me something set in stone that I can follow when I can't go outside or when I want to have a set 30 minute workout. It gets my muscles working, times everything for me, and really takes the thinking out the workout. This is good because there's no pressure involved in thinking of new things to do. It definitely gets me sweating, gets my cardio up, and has a good cool down afterwards as well.

Hiatus: Over

My unannounced, unofficial hiatus has come to an end. I hope everyone had a good holiday period. I know I had a good time spending time with family and struggling to stay disciplined on the diet.

I had pretty good success, I weighed in at 163 this morning (equaling my low) and set about enjoying this "binge" day with some great weather and sports.

I have plenty of new topics to post about in the coming days and weeks so I look forward to get back to it!

First 5k: Success

The first 5k, or any race for that matter, of my life went on as scheduled yesterday. You can read about my pre-race expectations and plans here. I kind of knew what was going to go on at an event like this but, since it was my first, I certainly was a little nervous and unsure of what would happen.

• How competitive would it be?
• How formal is the actual race?
• Were there rules you had to follow?
• What does the course look like?
• Will there be a long line to get your packet?
• Is the course hilly?
• How will I react to "competitive" racing?
• Will I be able to run like I have in training?
• On and on and on...

You get the picture, I really didn't know much going into the event. Some of it, I'm sure I could have alleviated with some research but I wasn't too worried about it and I can go with the flow in about any situation so it was going to be okay.

Pre-Race Plan
I gave myself a rest day on Friday after running 2.5 miles on Thursday so I could make sure that my legs were feeling good Saturday morning. I planned on getting a good amount of sleep but helping out a friend the night before kind of limited that. I ended up sleeping for about 5 hours and waking up a little after 6 am Saturday morning, a little earlier than I had planned. I didn't have a hangover: good news; didn't drink much on Friday, as planned. And I had about 500 calories of peanuts for breakfast at about 7 am (2 hours before race time) and drank plenty of water.

Once at the race site, we got our race packets/numbers; there was essentially no line: more good news. I was number 47, don't really know if this is good luck; I'm not really superstitious anyways. The weather was great: chilly and sunny; I bet it was about 40 degrees at the time we moved to the starting line. I made sure to warm up/stretch just like I do for training and soccer and this seemed to work. I made sure I kept loose/moving as we got ready to go.

Race Time!
Time to move to the start/finish line! Me and my training partner have decided we are going to push the pace and try to finish as fast as we can. As we are standing there, I still don't really know what to expect; I don't know what the course looks like beyond the start, I don't know how competitive I'll be, I don't know much of anything except the distance and that I'm going to try to push my pace as hard as I can. Our collective goal is to finish in under 25 minutes.

We move towards the front of the pack, there's over 200 people "running". Then right as we get toward the front...the horn goes off! My buddy is out ahead, pacing us, we start passing everyone who was still in front of us, weaving in and out of traffic. The course is a 10-foot wide, loose gravel trail through the woods in western Wake County; as I will find out, it is very flat and goes out and back; halfway through the race, there is a mark on the ground that you run around and go back the opposite direction. About 1/4 of a mile in, we've passed almost everyone and everyone is starting to move to the right of the trail; I don't know how we're going to finish as far as speed, but I know that right now, we are moving fast, at least for us. Between about 1/2 and 1 mile in, I take the pace position and don't relinquish it for the rest of the race. As we get near the turn, we start seeing runners come the other way; one guy is way ahead, the rest are nearer to our ability level. I count the racers, I'm in 7th overall as we hit the turn. Also as we turn, I start pulling away from my buddy, slowly; I'm feeling good at this point. My legs are holding up and my air is working pretty good as well; I don't know if I'll be able to keep it up, but I'm going to try.


Just after this point, I pass a girl...6th place overall! I'm also not hearing any other racers behind me and still feeling good. With about a mile left, I feel like my pace slows a little and I'm laboring a little more. I get passed by 3 runners at this point, but I know I am in 9th overall coming into the final 1/2 mile. At this point, I'm breathing heavily and my legs are hurting pretty good, but I'm still not hearing anyone coming from behind and there's no way I would ever look back! After I pass the marker for the final 1/2 mile, I start searching for the finish; I make my way over to the left side of the trail, peering around the trees.


Finally, I see the black arch/red numbers of the clock! I'm in the home stretch and still don't hear any other runners. In a perfect world, I would have had a kick to be able to catch the 2 runners in front of me, but I don't have anything left. I keep telling myself, "Just keep running." I don't want to get passed but I couldn't have done anything about it someone tried to overtake me. As I get closer to the clock, I start to see the numbers: there's a 22 in the place that is supposed to have the minutes! It seems to take forever, but I move toward the finish. As I cross the line, the time on the clock is 22:56. (My official chip-time: 22:52.1)


I made sure to keep moving after finish, to do my cool-down walk. I'm doing everything I can to not throw-up in the woods. My throat feels like it's bleeding from the cold air and I taste blood every time I spit. But I had finished and there was almost no one there to greet me, which at this type of event, was a great feeling; I had finished almost at the front. I ran a 7:23 mile pace over 3.1 miles; faster than any other timed mile I have ever run previously.

Link to Race Results


My finishing stats:

• 22:51.1 over 3.1 miles; 7:23 mile pace
• 9th place overall out of 226 "runners" (Many were, in fact, walkers by choice)
• 7th place male, 1st in the 20-29 age group (Not counting the 2 that were Overall Top 3)

I actually didn't get beat by anyone younger than me...so...in your face, kids (CORRECTION: Got beat by a 17 year-old girl) . And I also had a great rest of my binge day eating pizza and tortilla, and drinking beer with friends. Generally unhealthy, but a great day overall. I look forward to my next endurance event: any kind of run, bike or triathlon/duathlon; I'm excited to try them all.

First 5k Ever This Weekend and New Exercise

So I know I have talked big about different endurance races/events that I would like to do but the truth is I have never been involved in any kind of competition like this...ever.

I grew up playing organized team sports: soccer, baseball, basketball, even football and hockey for a bit. I love playing team sports to this day, but this also did not allow for me to do some of the other sports that a lot of people were into like swimming and cross country/track. It even led me to disdain these things. Recently though, I've kind of switched my thinking: these activities are some of the best cardio you can get and you can do them alone. I always have, and continue to, like riding my bikes; running and swimming are growing on me, maybe it'll be easier once I'm not so terrible at them.

So...I've never been involved in any kind of official running race in life, unless you count first in First in Fitness in elementary school. That will change this Saturday.

I'm registered for the "Running Free with K-Wayne" event in Cary, NC. It's a charity event to benefit research of mental illness. I'm running in it in support of a friend who lost a love one. If you are in the area, it's certainly something that would be a healthy thing to start off your weekend with and it would benefit a good cause. You can register or donate at the website if you are so motivated.

Now for the race...I'm not too worried about the distance, especially given that I run 3.5 miles every Wednesday, but I would like to perform well, so I'm going to try to do it right. I'm going to give myself a rest day on Friday before, I'm going to try to not wake up with any sort of hangover, and will try to get up rested. I'm going to eat well (as usual, but just saying it anyways) and I will try to arrive early to warm up. I think I will try to warm up like I do for soccer games, this seems to get my body loose; we'll see if it works for races too. I think my goal is to finish in 25 minutes or under as I have done this once in my life, which was about a month ago.

Hopefully it goes well and, and as work and busy scheduling allows, I will get to do more races of all kinds in the months to come. I will make sure to report back my results and how everything went next week.

New Exercise
I've been looking on YouTube for different ideas of exercises and fitness plans to follow and I've definitely gotten some good ideas.


Here is one that I like a lot:

1. Start in plank position. (If you've never done this, it is like a push-up position but on your elbows instead of hands. Planks are a GREAT ab workout and have many different variations.)
2. Hold base plank position for a 10 count.
3. Now you will go in a rotation: lift your right arm and point it straight forward putting all your weight on your other three appendages. Hold this position for 5 seconds.
4. Cycle through all 4 appendages until you can't do it anymore: right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg.
5. Advanced: If you can do the above easily, now try to lift 2 at the same time (right arm and left leg or left arm and right leg). Hold for 5 seconds and alternate, slowly.
6. The key of all these is to remain stable and move slowly.
   

Recipe #6: Turkey, Broccoli, and Gravy

This one is kind of like a hamburger helper without the noodles and cheese. I have substituted healthier options for pretty much all the ingredients and it turned out pretty well.

Ingredients: 1 lb. ground turkey breast (can substitute chicken breast if cheaper), 1 family size package of frozen baby-size broccoli florets, 1 package powdered brown gravy (I usually use MacCormick's), 2 tbsp. vegetable oil, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder

1.  Put the oil in a large frying pan and drop in your turkey over medium heat.
2. As your chopping up/mixing the turkey with a spatula, add in a solid dash of you salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders.
3. The turkey will take about 10 minutes to "brown" (It'll actually just turn white).
4. Turn the heat up a little as you mix in your frozen broccoli; let it heat up for a few minutes.
5. As your broccoli is warming, pour your gravy mix in a glass and slowly add about 1/2 cup of water, stirring the whole time; you want to make sure you are not leaving any powder dry
6. Pour you gravy mixture into the pan and stir it in as you turn the heat back to medium.
7. Let the gravy get to the consistency you would like and take the pan off the heat.

Estimated calories: ~800, good for at least 2 solid meals

As with all my meals, there is a good bit of fiber and protein without much fat.