Urban "Hiking" Adventure

So going back to my goals post (here) I had started talking about a lot of the things that I had started to think of as goals were just cool physical activities that I would like to do. Some of the things I'm thinking of now:

• Long bike-ride (Possibly from Raleigh to Wilmington)
• Week-long + hike (Something like hiking from Georgia to Virginia on the Appalachian Trail)
• Compete in a challenging duathlon (eventually triathlons when I can get my swimming more respectable)
• Complete a half-marathon (maybe eventually a full)

More long-term:

• Do a section hike of the full AT.
• Do the same with the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in NC
• Finish an Iron Man Triathlon (see above, swimming 2.2 miles is not happening any time soon)

What does this have to do with today? Thinking of cool things that I would like to do, I had the bright idea to "hike" from where I live in east-Raleigh to where my parents live in Apex. I had been thinking of it for a few weeks now. I had looked at and printed out a route from Google Maps, using and modifying their pedestrian route function. It was about an 18-20 mile track and I knew that my normal pace would put me between 3.5-4 mph, so I planned on it taking me a little over 5 hours. Given my work schedule recently, I haven't had a chance to think about attempting it yet...until today.

So work is slow today and I get off early, the weather is perfect; I figure, "What the hell? Let's do it." I came home from work, ate lunch (black beans and eggs) and started to get ready. Packed my backpack with water and some peanuts as a snack and a long sleeve shirt for when the sun went down (I was starting at 2 pm, so it would be getting dark by my hypothetical finish time). I called my mom to make sure she could take me home afterwards and then I just set off walking.

At first I was alternating running and walking but, to be honest, my legs never felt great probably from playing soccer and a good bike-ride yesterday, so eventually I settled in at a good walking pace and was feeling okay. Some observations from the trip:

• Hiking alone is boring. Especially when you are "exploring" scenery that you see almost daily.
• This 5 hours was going to go by slow.
• Hard pavement is not the best thing to walk on for hours on end.
• Nice shoes are important. My shoes are nice but they are not the newest, so maybe they have too many miles on them or maybe my feet just aren't in the shape they needed to be in.

Things I saw other than totally normal things that I see all the time:

• An actual professional-wrestling match going on behind Sadlacks on Hillsborough St. complete with ring, crowd, referee, everything.
• The State Fair; I think I saw what I needed to see of it by just walking by it. (Addendum: I like the fair but maybe I like the idea of it better than I actually like going. I'm certainly not a fair-snob; maybe next year...)
• Pretty much everything else was normal...and that was a problem.

Maybe you can tell, but I wasn't having too much fun on the trip. The only thing keeping me going was wanting to finish; and since this was pretty much done on a whim, that wasn't that strong either. About mile 12-13ish, I was pulling into the heart of Cary and decided to give my mom a call and see what her situation was and she happened to be up the street so that pretty much settled it. I walked to where she was and we drove.

So definitely didn't make it but I'm okay with that. I felt like I was developing blisters on the entire balls of my feet and I have to work/be active for the rest of the week. My legs didn't feel that great and this wasn't really a big goal of mine in the first place. That being said, I will definitely have to work on my endurance a lot to meet my bigger goals. I knew it wasn't going to be easy but I didn't think it would hurt as much; I mean, I run 3.5 miles in one stretch every Wednesday night and run at least a mile almost every other day. Whatever, it's a starting point and I got in a very good workout. It also feels good to have just gone out and done it. So good day overall even though my feet and legs still hurt.


 Other Things I've Seen
That section on stuff I saw made me think of the weird things I've seen running around my house:

• The other night I'm running late-night and come within 30 feet of Bambi's dad, who is staring me down and looking like one big 200 lb., 8-point, fur-covered muscle. Needless to say it startled me, there is usually nothing else out moving.
• I say usually but that's not totally true: I saw his wife a couple of weeks ago. She passed 20 feet in front of me going about 30. She was trying to turn me into this guy. 
• About a month ago, I almost stepped on one of their poisonous nature-buddies. A copperhead had come out on the road and, as the sun had been going down, I came inches from stepping on his midsection.
• Probably the craziest thing was a giant owl just standing on the edge of the road at the end of my street. The thing looked to be about 2 feet tall and it didn't even move as I went by and I must have passed within 10 feet of it. I didn't see it until the last minute and it scared the crap out of me (I'm jumpy anyways).

So no need for any Ohio "zoo-owners" to make things more interesting around. Crazy what you can see within a mile of the Interstate. 

New Additions to My Strength Workout

My workout plan has the same overall scope but I have added some new things.

I am still working out almost every day: I try to put in at least 30 minutes but most times I want to do more than that. Running and biking are my main forms of cardio; I just got some new pedals/shoes for my road bike that I'm really liking now.

The things I have added are pretty simple, low-cost strength options. The main one is a pull-up bar. I got this one here:

It's from the people who make the "Perfect Push-up" and I have seen similar models on the market. This one was $30 but is a very high quality compared to the other removable bars that I have used. You can work out all kinds of different muscles using the pull up bar, here are some of the exercises that I do:

• Chin-ups - (This is where you grab the bar with the backs of your hands facing away from you.) You can place your hands inside the middle handles or just outside. When you go towards the middle, it works out your biceps more. Towards the outside, it works out your shoulders and upper back.
• Pull-ups - (Put your hands on the bar opposite the position of chin-ups.) The same principles above apply to these as well, I like to grab the bar on the far outside position and it really gets you shoulders and upper back.
• Grabbing the handles - This just tweaks the muscle groups and will let you totally burn out.
• As with my main strength plan, if you really want to burn your muscles, move slowly both up and down and you'll maximize you're workout time.

The other exercise is something that I saw watching a Crossfit thing on TV, it is the handstand push up. So all you do is do a handstand next to a wall and do a set of push ups in a shoulder press form. This will give you a good shoulder workout and get your balance and stabilizing muscles as well.

Couple these exercises with regular push-ups and you have a great upper body workout that you can use almost anywhere at any time.

Overview of the Blog So Far

It's been over a month now. Somewhere near 400 people have visited from 5 or 6 different countries; not really sure how it's being received but hopefully it's helping people reach their goals.

I've weighed in at 164 a few times, 43 lbs. total loss, and feel like right now I am still converting fat into muscle and seeing changes in my body composition.

What I wanted to do with this post is have an overview of links to all the past posts so they could be in one place that was easily accessible. So we'll start from the beginning...

Introduction
General Diet
Before and After Pics
Exercise Plan
Shopping/Meal Schedule
My Typical Strength Workout
Motivation, Goal-Setting and Measures of Health
Tips For Effectively Using Salad Bars
Restaurant Eating Tips

Here are the recipes:
Pinto Beans
Black Bean "Chili"
Turkey Sausage and Peppers
Chicken Fajitas

The North Carolina-themed "Get Outdoors" beginnings:
City of Raleigh Greenways
Hanging Rock State Park


My Typical Strength Workout

Get Outdoors #2: Hanging Rock State Park

I was watching a show on TV about a large vertical climb in Hawaii that has inspired people to get more active and challenge themselves. I thought this was really cool but I also thought of some stuff we have even closer in North Carolina.

About 2 hours drive from Raleigh there is Hanging Rock State Park (Link), that can give a great taste of outdoors and mountain-like terrain within an easy day-trip distance to the Triangle. (The picture on the top of the page is actually from a trip to Hanging Rock)

The main reason that I thought of Hanging rock when seeing the special on the couple thousand foot climb in Hawaii because on one trip there, me and a friend climbed Moore's Knob on the Moore's Knob Loop Trail which, after looking it up, climbs about 2,000 vertical feet to a total elevation of 2,579 feet over the course of a couple of miles. This sticks out in my head because it crushed me when we did this hike; I had to stop multiple times on the way up feeling like I was going to throw up. I would like to think I would do better now but I'm sure it would still be a good exercise for anyone. (To the left is a picture from after that climb a few years ago, I am as hot and sweaty as I look)

But Moore's Knob is not even close to the only thing at Hanging Rock, there is the namesake, "Hanging Rock," that has a pretty easy climb up and some great views. (Picture to the right.) It also has some good cliffs and rock structure if you like to explore or test your vertigo.

You can also camp here, which I have done numerous times, and form personal experience the NC State Parks are always well maintained.

But probably the coolest thing that you can see while exploring Hanging Rock is the 6 waterfalls that you can see and interact with. There are variety of shapes and sizes but all are worth seeing and you can get up-close and personal with all of them. (Lower Cascades picture to the left.) While there is more to still explore as far as trails and a swimming lake, you can see most of the stuff I've talked about so far in an event-packed day. You'll be exhausted by the end and have burned thousands of calories but while you are doing it, it won't feel like working out at all.












And here is one last picture from Hanging Rock, behind a waterfall called "Window Falls."

This is definitely a great example of why I think getting outdoors can be great as far as making sure that you are staying active and getting healthy.

Restaurant Eating Tips

It's been a few days since my last post; I've just been staying on course with my work-out/eating plan. I have been continuing to run, bike, strength-train, and fight-train for an average of about an hour everyday on top of my normal activities. I have also stayed on track with my diet. So as I predicted last week, I did weigh in at a new low of 164 lbs. yesterday morning. That is 43 lbs. of total weight loss since January and 9 lbs. more to go to my next goal point of 155 lbs. where I will have lost 52 total lbs. and over 25% of my total weight.

So...enough with the update and onto the post. I have talked about my diet in general and given examples of things that I cook at home but what about when you go out to eat? It is certainly easier to stay true to your diet when you eat at home; you can control everything that goes into your meals. Going out can make it tough but I can generally find something to eat on every menu although the selections are sometimes limited.

Here are some ideas and tips for eating out:

• Mexican places have a number of selections that are diet friendly (at least my diet). You can almost always switch out rice for beans and the other main hurdle is avoiding the chips and tortillas (which can be very difficult...especially the chips!) My two go to selections are Pollo Loco (chicken breasts, refried beans, and a guacamole salad) and Texas Fajitas (shrimp, steak, and chicken fajita meat, peppers and onions, refried beans, and a guacamole salad)
• Asian places are also good for a bigger selection of choices. The big thing with Asian dishes is that you obviously have to not eat the rice, although some restaurants with allow you to substitute cellophane noodles (which are made from mung beans) for a cost. Another thing to watch is to make sure that any of the meats are not breaded like a Sesame or General Tso's Chicken. But you can certainly eat effectively with this strategy at Chinese, Thai, Korean, or any other Asian places.
• Salads as meals can be tough at restaurants. They tend to like to add cheese, croutons, and other add-ons that do not fit with the diet and you can ask for them to be left off but at some point, you're not getting anything close to what you paid for.
• You can generally substitute a salad or veggies for the standard side of fries which allows for greater variety.
• Sometimes you have to get creative. At Hibernian, one of my dishes is hummus (chickpeas) with vegetables instead of the traditional pita slices. You might have to do something similar to find anything at some places.
• If in doubt, you can even have chicken wings, just as long as they are not breaded. Fried food is not ideal to eat all the time but if you are in a pinch, these appetizers can be your only option.

 So it's definitely easier to stay on your diet at home but when eating out, it just takes some creativity, attention to detail, and self-discipline to stay on track.

Recipe #4: Chicken Fajitas

Hello everyone, just wanted to give a personal update in case anyone is interested:

• On the exercise front, I have been doing a lot of the stuff I have talked about before: running, biking, weight training, and basic punching bag exercises/jumping rope. This weekend, I did a duathlon each day; I ran a mile, biked about 10 miles, then came back and ran another mile to finish it out. It's a good work-out and I felt good afterwards.
• My diet is going really well; I feel like I am staying very committed and hitting my target calorie and fat intake almost every day.
• I also added ground turkey breast to my "Black Bean Chili" while also increasing the recipe size and it worked out really well.
• I weighed in at 165 lbs. late last week, which tied my low a couple weeks ago, and since I weighed in this morning at 168 (1 day after my binge day), I feel like I will be able to reach a new low this week. We'll see what happens.
• On that note, if anyone is experimenting with/implementing any part of my plan or another weight-loss plan I would love to hear about any experiences, positive or negative.

On to the recipe. This is another pretty easy one, kind of like all of mine.

Ingredients: 1 package (about 2 lbs.) of boneless chicken (either breast or thigh filets), 1 medium white onion (sliced thin), 1 red bell pepper (sliced thin), 1 green bell pepper (sliced thin), 2 clove of garlic, 2 tbsp. vegetable/canola oil, 1 package fajita spice (I use McCormick)

-There are positives and negatives to breast or thigh meat: breast is less fat and calories but more expensive, thigh meat is a little less healthy, but is juicier and cheaper.

1. Cut the raw chicken into thin, bite-size strips. (Be careful to wash your hands after handling raw chicken and don't cross contaminate your kitchen/utensils)
2. Mince 1 garlic clove, pour the oil into a large frying pan over medium heat, and add in the garlic.
3. After letting the garlic roast for about 30 seconds, add the chicken to the pan and brown on all sides.
4. Remove the chicken.
5. Repeat Step #2, and add in onion.
6. After about a minute add in the peppers, let the veggies cook for a few more minutes (you don't want them too soft).
7. Add the chicken back to the pan with the spice packet and stir, you may need to add as much as a half-cup of water to get the spices to dissolve.
8. Bring to a simmer and cut off the heat.

You now have a few meals that, depending on your chicken choice, 1,000 to 1,400 calories. Similar to my sausage and peppers, I like to put it in Tupperware immediately and get out individual servings. If you want to make this even easier, you can substitute the frozen bag of peppers for the fresh, and it's really quick but I don't think it's as good.

Get Outdoors #1: City of Raleigh Greenways

A great way to get active and burn calories is to integrate your "work-outs" into your recreation and leisure. One way to do this is to play sports, which are great, but most of the time take more than one person to be fun and sometimes it can be difficult to organize a group activity. Outdoor sports such as hiking, trail-running and mountain biking offer the flexibility of being fun individually or in groups.

I am about as much of a North Carolina native as one can be; at least part of my family arrived in the late 1700s and everyone has been from the state for a few generations. I bring this up because North Carolina lends itself particularly to outdoor pursuits, having a huge variety of different land formations and scenery to explore. I am partial to North Carolina, but you can find fun and interesting outdoor experiences anywhere and can even modify them to fit an urban setting.

City of Raleigh Greenway System
I have lived in and around Raleigh all of my life and have even worked for the City of Raleigh for a year and a half and have only discovered this greenway system in the last 2 months. Here is a link to the main greenway page on the city's webpage; about halfway down there is a map of current and planned greenways. You can run, walk, or bike almost anywhere in the city. I have ridden my bike from my house in northeast Raleigh past Crabtree Valley Mall on the northern section of east-west greenway. I have also parked at Pullen Park and ridden to and into Umstead Park (Umstead offers a lot of semi-wilderness to explore on it's on, if you haven't yet, check it out); all these trails essentially avoid roads as well if you are uncomfortable around vehicles. Many more miles of trail are currently under construction: there is planned route of the NC Museum of Art to downtown and a more northeastern trail that will invite faster moving.

If you live in Raleigh, I urge you to check out the greenways; they are very clean and well kept up and you'll see some different things.

Wherever you live, I urge you to check out your local outdoor opportunities and park systems. I have been all around the east coast to explore the outdoors and, in general, our tax dollars have lent themselves effectively to a great park system. The local, state and national parks each offer something to be enjoyed and something that you can burn calories while doing.

Tips for Effectively Using Salad Bars

I eat at the salad bar at Harris Teeter near where I work 4-5 times per week and have developed a pretty good routine of what I like and genuinely enjoy the meals I have there. The only real downside to it is that it is kind of pricey. Also, I notice others making some choices at the salad bar that I would consider mistakes so I wanted to post some pointers so you don't have to be one of those people.

• If you are choosing to eat a salad, and only a salad, for you meal, do not try to make it overly small. If you try to eat a small salad, you are potentially putting somewhere around 100 calories in your body and this is not enough for a meal unless you're planning on eating again immediately. I always eat over a pound of food in my salad an always keep it under 500 calories, usually well under.
• Stay away from: cheese, bacon, and fatty dressing. If you need these things to make your salad edible, then just eat something else, it will be healthier and you will enjoy it more. If you look at nutritional facts, you can easily put 500 calories of just these toppings on a salad (normal dressing alone is 150 calories per 2 tbsp.). 
• Make sure you get some source of protein and a good amount. Some healthy options at my salad bar are: tofu, cooked soybeans, black bean salad, grilled chicken breast, and boiled eggs. Protein will help add some good calories and help the meal fill you up, allowing you to stay satisfied until your next meal.
• Eat as much healthy vegetables as you would like and try to use darker greens as your base. There is nothing wrong with iceberg lettuce but it has no real nutritional value, it's pretty much just water.

 So here's my normal salad:

• Large bed of baby spinach with julienne carrots, sliced cucumber and broccoli florets.
• Depending on what they have I will add a couple of proteins. Usually a 1/2 cup of grilled chicken breast, 1/2 cup of tomato in sun-dried tomato pesto, a spoon of black bean salad, and possibly a boiled egg.
• 2-3 tablespoons of no-fat, low calorie sun-dried tomato dressing

And as I said before, it usually comes in at a pound to a pound and a half of food and is always under 500 calories. So salads can be an effective low-calorie meal if you can find one that works for you but just be aware of the pitfalls at any salad bar and if you can't stay from the most high-calorie options, then just eat something else.

Recipe #3: Turkey Sausage and Peppers

Now for a real recipe. As I have said in previous posts, it's sometimes difficult to cook for one person. I know it is certainly hard to buy fresh meat amounts for one person without freezing leftovers. So my strategy is generally to cook a family-sized meal and eat it over a few days. I usually have a meal ready to go that I can eat a few minutes after deciding I am going to have it.

My previous recipes have been simplistic but this one qualifies as an actual meal.

Ingredients: 5 turkey-Italian sausages (near 2 pounds, I usually get fresh Harris Teeter brand), 1 package frozen pepper stir-fry mix, 1 small jar spaghetti sauce, olive oil, Spices: garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, basil, parsley, cayenne pepper

1. Pour about 2 tbsp. olive oil (not extra virgin) in a large frying pan over medium heat.
2. Brown the sausages on all sides. This should take a little under 10 minutes.
3. Remove the sausages to a cutting board.
4. Pour 2 more tbsp. olive oil in the pan and up the heat to medium high.
5. Add in the entire bag of the pepper mix, still frozen, and let it cook for about a minute.
6. During this time add in a solid dash of all your spices and stir.
7. As that is cooking, cut your sausages into bite-size pieces and return them to the pan.
8. The sausage pieces will still be a little pink in the middle so just make you turn each piece at least once.
9. After the sausages are no longer pink, add about 1/2 cup to a cup of your spaghetti sauce, stir and bring to a simmer.
10. Turn off the heat and let cool for a minute.

At this point, I usually put the meal straight into Tupperware for saving. If I'm going to eat a portion, I try to make sure to serve myself an individual portion in a separate bowl in order to avoid over-eating. This whole dish is about 1000 calories and will make 2 very large meal-size portions or the parts of multiple meals.

Motivation, Goal Setting, and Measures of Health

As I said in my earlier post, it was a good weekend as far as my leisure time went. My teams won (NC State, Everton) and I got to watch some boxing and MMA.

Floyd Mayweather knocked his challenger out in a technically legal fashion but it wasn't very sporting as Ortiz was looking away and then proceeded to almost get in a fight with a 70 year old man immediately afterwards. There were also some pretty eventful MMA fights in the UFC event. I mention these things because this does tie-in to my health and fitness routine.

My Motivation
My initial reason to start changing my eating and work-out habits was not fitting into my clothes anymore. Medium shirts had started getting very tight on me and I was going to have to start buying new clothes if I got any bigger. Ironically, I have actually had to buy smaller clothes but I guess that's a problem I will accept.

I also mention MMA and boxing because, beyond being something that I am interested in and entertained by, the fighters in those sports seem to be some of the best conditioned athletes around. They follow work-out and diet plans in order to make a certain weight. So through my transformation, I have been able to set goals at different weights in order to be able to meet certain fighters in the ring theoretically. That brings me to my next tool, goal setting.

Goal Setting
Goal setting is a very important part of weight-loss and becoming more healthy. It is important to challenge yourself and have a "finish point" that you can work toward.

Your goals can be almost anything that you would like that is health related. Mine generally have been related to weight but I have also expanded them to other things as I have been more successful.

My first goal point was to drop from 207 lbs. to 185 and my attitude initially was not a do-or-die, get there at all cost drive. I was thinking "Let's see if I can do this." because I had never really lost that much weight before. Once I started losing quickly though it definitely became a specific goal. When I reached 185, I saw that I wanted more muscle definition and still had some weight to lose so I set my next goal at 175 and tentatively at 170. When I reached that, I was happy but it was at that point that I challenged myself to get to 155 and changed my diet to a more extreme level.

I chose 155 because it is the weight limit for 1ightweight fighters in UFC and I have said if I can get to 155, I will have an MMA fight at that point. I have also looked at more things that I would like to do that are now possible because I am in better shape. I would like to ride my bike to Wilmington or to Hanging Rock State Park, camping along the way. I have also looked at duathlon events (run-bike-run instead a triathlon's swim-bike-run), there are several around the state and I would like to do a few within the next year.

So your goals can be pretty much anything, it is just important to have them just as long as it is something that you want and something that is important to you.

Measures of Health
I am adding this final section into this entry because there are some alternative measurements to physical health than just weight.

The most basic, after body weight, is size, as in waist, neck, wrist, etc. If you are dieting and working out you potentially could be stagnated as far as weight loss but you could be seeing results elsewhere. I have gone from wearing 36 inch pants very tightly to now wearing size 32 pants. My neck and head have also shrunk several inches in circumference.

Another very basic measurement is Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI was developed by the insurance industry to determine a person's health and is based solely on a person's height and weight. You can find out you BMI here. Numbers between 18.5 and 25 are considered healthy and the official definition of overweight and obese are also determined by BMI. Obviously, since this is based solely on height and weight, it is not close to the best health indicator but it is an okay starting point.

The one that I like the best is body fat percentage. It is exactly what it says, the percentage of your total weight that is fat. You can get an estimation of your body fat here. A more accurate measurement of your body fat can be had using electronic devices that are available commercially, even on some scales. But the best way to accurately measure your body fat is through a caliper pinch test that measures your skinfold. I am currently trying to get a body fat percentage of under 10%. For people ages 20-40, a healthy percentage for men is 8-19% and 21-33% for women.