Duathlon Results

I haven't posted for a bit. I'm not really sure why. I have cooked many new recipes and had new successes recently and will post about them soon. But today is about my duathlon that I completed this last weekend. This is an event that is like a triathlon but the swim is replaced by a run so it goes run-bike-run. The particular event that I competed in was the Cary Short Course Duathlon that was a 2.5 mile run, a 17.65 mile bike, and a 2.5 mile run to finish.

Preparation
I had been running and biking daily over the month leading up to the event. I was also preparing for a half-marathon at the same time (which I'm running this weekend). I rode many 30 mile rides and continued my typical weekly schedule of running, 10+ miles per week and was feeling pretty confident going in. This increased amount of physical activity along with some tweaked nutrition got my weight down to a new low, 159 lbs. with 8.8% body fat. The only way I changed my diet additionally for the duathlon was to add some rice into my meal plan the night and morning before in order to have a higher carbohydrate level for energy during the race. I was pretty nervous/excited going into the event so I got extra-packed/prepared the night before and tried to get plenty of sleep.

Race Day
For the 9:00 am start-time, I woke up at 6:30 and got dressed and ate a breakfast of brown rice and turkey sausage at about 500 calories; this would be plenty to get me through the entire race without any additional sugar or carbs and it should be decent on my stomach (I wanted to avoid fiber). 

 Here I am before the race started; I really got there too early and had to figure out a way to kill time before the race started.

Race

So the race started a little after 9, 129 people were doing the same race that I was, and the first run went really well. The transition into the bike also went well and then...in the bike I got passed by what seemed like 50 people. I didn't know what to expect though and I did what I could, the second run also went really well. So here's how I finished:

Run 1: 19:42 (7:52/mile avg.)

Bike:  1:03:35 (~17 mph)

Run 2: 19:44 (7:53/mile avg.)

64th place overall.

My big disappointment was the bike; I thought I would have been faster, by like 10 minutes. So I will certainly have something to begin to work on immediately. Here's a link to the overall results; I will definitely look to do something similar very soon. I will also be looking to post some of my new recipes, techniques, and exercises that dropped me down to a new low as well as a recap of my half-marathon that I am running this Sunday.

 

Plans for the Spring

I have mentioned before about the idea of doing things that you enjoy instead of just exercising for the sake of exercise. Another thing that I think is helpful is to schedule activities in order to keep yourself excited about getting and staying in shape. Here are the things that I've got planned for the spring so far.

Spring Outdoor Soccer Season

 I play for Hibernian FC in a local adult league. We play 10 Saturdays starting at the end of February going to the beginning of May.  It's a fun team to play with, we are sponsored by a local pub and it gives me a group a team to play with pretty much year-round.

My First Duathlon

 So what is a duathlon? It is basically a triathlon that replaces the swim with another run; it goes run-bike run. This is good for a couple of reasons: they can be held anywhere (not constrained to being by a body of water or pool) and they are good for someone (like myself) that are not as strong of a swimmer. We are off for essentially one week in the spring from soccer so this is the duathlon I decided on:

 

FS-Series Cary Short Course Duathlon. It is a 2.5 mile run, 17.65 mile ride, and a 2.5 mile run on Saturday, April 7. I decided on the short one (half the other distance) because of the other things I am trying to do and because I wanted to be able to "race" it instead of just finish. This is the third of three duathlons in the FS Series; I would have liked to have done at least one of the other two but I didn't really want to miss a soccer game. I have done a few of these on my own before but not this long of a distance; it will be interesting to train for and I definitely excited to try it. Here is the link if you want to check it out or sign up.

My First Half-Marathon


One of my goals for the spring is to race a half-marathon and now I am signed up for one.

 My current maximum-distance for a run is 7.5 miles and I am constantly increasing distance so I am not too worried that I will be able to run the whole distance. This is 13.1 miles on Sunday, April 15; yes, one week after my duathlon and one day after a soccer game (I think I will be playing goalie that whole game). Here is a link to the RunRaleigh site. This will be another step on my path toward reaching my other goals. (And here are my originals/longterm) 

Hopefully I will be adding other events to this schedule soon (the possibility of a "mud run" has been brought up). Here is the lead-up and review of my first 5k that I raced late last year. If you have any other ideas, let me know but it's already going to be a busy Spring!

  

Movie Workouts

I am a big movie fan. I collect DVDs; I watch movies daily and love to go to the theater as well. One thing that I am constantly impressed with is the shape that actors are able to get into for their different roles.

You might think that they have a lot of help: trainers, lots of time to work out, funds for whatever they need, etc. which is true but, as we all, know there is know solution to getting into great shape other than putting in the work with diet and exercise.

A thing that is cool about this also is that you can find pretty much every workout (and usually their diet too) for every actor for every role.

One of the first and most popular movie workouts is Brad Pitts from Fight Club. Here is a detailed diet and workout plan. If you read into it, you realize the commitment that he had to make, especially from a diet perspective, to get down 5-6% body fat.

Some other recent and popular movie workouts include: Tom Hardy in Warrior; Chris Helmsworth in Thor; Chris Evans in Captain America; etc. There are literally thousands of these things online. Remember Ryan Reynolds in Amityville Horror? No? Well he was ripped, too and you can follow his workout if you want as well. There is so much interest in these workouts that Google completes the search when you start typing the actors' names with "workout."

For the most part these things are just interesting to read but one thing I do like to use them for is to get ideas when I don't really no what to do or am looking for something different to do. So this week I started with the "workout" for one of the biggest fitness-inspired movies ever: 300.

I put workout in quotes because the actual workout is more of a fitness test, something they worked up to instead of doing it daily. It is called the 300 workout because of the name of the movie (obviously) and because there are 300 total reps and you do it as fast as you can.

Here is the workout:

Pullups - 25 reps

Barbell Deadlift with 135 lbs. - 50 reps

Pushups - 50 reps

24-inch Box Jumps - 50 reps

Floor Wipers - 50 reps

Single-Arm Clean-and-Press with 36 lbs Kettlebell - 50 reps

Pullups - 25 reps

I had to modify it some. First, because I don't have all of the equipment to do some of the exercises. And second, because this thing is impossible for almost anyone to do. I tried for the 3rd time this week today to do my modified workout and did respectable but still not really close. Here is a link to a very descriptive page that has original, intermediate, and beginner versions of the workout; all are good. It also has pictures and a video description of the workout.

So today I got in something that was a mix of all 3:

• 15 pullups
• 2x20 lb. deadlift 50 times
• 50 pushups
• 50 body-weight squat jumps
• Floor wipers with 2x20 lb. dumbbells 30 times
• Single-arm Clean-and-Press with 20 lb. kettlebell 50 times
• 10 pullups

I'm not sure how long it took me but during certain points, I definitely felt like I was going to throw up. This is something that is a new challenge and I look forward to making progress on it.

Recipe #9: Restaurant-style Salsa (with dish)

I always have a craving for chips and salsa. It is one of my go-to snacks every binge day. There's a small problem though: most store-bought salsas are not very good. I'm not a big fan of "thick and chunky" salsa in the first place, which is what almost every jar contains, and most of them seem to be average in taste at best. I do like the salsa that you can get at Mexican restaurants around here and I've figured out a way to make it very easily, although I'll give you some possible extras as well.

Ingredients: 2 cans of "Rotel"-style tomatoes with green chiles (2 if it's a 15 oz. can, 3 if 10), 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. onion powder

• For the basic recipe, all you do is combine the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. You can certainly modify the spice level to suit your tastes as well.

Other possible ingredients/techniques:

•   Varying levels of fresh ingredients - I would almost always use canned tomatoes because they are just so easy and they work so well but you can mix and match fresher ingredients as you see fit.
• Chopped serranos or jalapenos instead of the green chiles found in Rotel. One of these will make it pretty hot and it will go up in heat from there. You could also use canned versions of these for more heat just realize that they will be pickled.
• Fresh cloves of garlic instead of garlic powder (2 would work well). You could also use jarred, minced garlic as well (1 tsp.)
• You can certainly use fresh onions as well instead of onion powder (1/4-1/2 chopped depending on the size of the onion)
• When adding these ingredients I would put them in before my tomatoes to make sure they're good and small before mixing it all together.

• Roasted ingredients - Roasting your ingredients adds a certain sweetness and affects the overall flavor. You can roast you fresh tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and onions on a grill, in a frying pan, in your oven's broiler or, in the case of the peppers, straight on top of the burner on your stove. After you roast these you'll just want to make sure you remove the burnt skins. You can also buy most of the stuff pre-roasted and canned as well.
• Varying levels of chunkiness - If you would like a chunkier salsa, you can use a little bit different technique. First add your peppers and garlic to the blender or food processor and mince. Next add 1/2 your tomatoes and onion powder and puree. Finally add the second 1/2 of your tomatoes and stir with a spoon. Whatever you want to have chunks of just add later and don't blend it.
• Additional spices/ingredients: You can add something extra to your salsa with cumin, fresh cilantro or some lime juice depending on your taste and all can add something positive. 

 My salsa definitely looks like spaghetti sauce.

What to do with your salsa:
As I said above, I always want chips with my salsa but I have yet to find any kind of chip that's on my diet. But you can use your salsa to cook with on your non-binge days. Here's something that I did today:

1. Took some chicken thigh filets and cut into large pieces and generously coated both sides with salt and pepper.
2. Seared on both sides in 2 tbsp. of olive oil over medium-high heat.
3. Added about 1 1/2 cups of salsa and turned the heat down to a simmer and let it sit for awhile.
4. For some greens I added a little of what I had at the very end: 1 can of drained green peas and 2 cups of baby spinach. 
5. Once these were stirred in I cut the heat and used it as one of dinner meals

It might not look so good put this was definitely a good home-made, Mexican-style dinner. And I am looking forward to putting my salsa to good use this Saturday when I can get some tortilla chips.

 

Recipe #8: Roasted Chick Peas

This new recipe was supposed to go as a replacement for salty snacks like potato chips or nuts. I do eat a lot of almonds and peanuts but these both have a good amount of fat so I am always looking for an alternative. I got the idea out of Men's Fitness but altered the recipe significantly in order to make it better (theirs wasn't tasting so great).

Ingredients: 1 can of chick peas (garbanzo beans) drained, 1 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tsp. cumin, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder to taste

1. Put the olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat and add the chick peas (Make sure you don't use extra-virgin olive oil because it has a low smoke point).
2. Add the cumin, salt, garlic, and onion powders and saute for 2 minutes.
3. Place the chick peas on a baking sheet and put in a 400-degree oven for 25 minutes.
4. Let the chick peas cool on the baking sheet before storing.

When I made these things the first time I ended up adding a pretty good amount of salt; the initial recipe only called for cumin but it wasn't really doing it for me. I ended up making 3 cans and baking them all at once and it worked out pretty well. I am going to try to bake them for a little longer next time because they weren't as crispy as I would like. Maybe finishing them in the broiler would work too. With the ones that I had left-over the next day, I added some salsa and micro-waved them and ate them with a spoon and that worked as a change in texture from the usual beans that I have for lunch.

I tried with black beans today and it didn't really work at all; they tasted fine and will be okay to eat but they didn't crisp up for use as finger food.

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.