I'm calling it "equilibrium" on the blog, which is really just a code-word for weight loss. I have pretty much been the same weight for nearly three years now. Prior to that, I had an extra ~10 Starbucks-induced pounds somewhere, and each year that the scale number increased, I feared that it would only go up from there. Should the same trend start again (due to aging, babies, or whatnot), I want my starting point to be as low as I can (healthfully) get it.
I haven't talked much about weight loss on this blog. For one thing, I've approached the whole thing rather stupidly in the past. Secondly, I know that such topics are controversial/sensitive, which opens me up to criticism. That all comes with the territory, I suppose, but in exchange for some accountability, I'll take it. And maybe I might motivate someone.
The Goal:
"The Ukrainian" and I both think that carrying a little less weight will help improve our running, as both of us have been noticing our steps getting heavier these days.
My (lofty) goal is to lose 10 lbs over the next 10 (or so) weeks. "The Ukrainian" has a similar goal, pretty much x2 of mine. For the both of us, it will bring us closer to the "ideal" weights for our ages/heights and perhaps help us be more efficient runners.
The Plan:
I will be blogging (hopefully weekly) updates over the next 10 weeks or so, for both "The Ukrainian" and myself. This will include weight and gut changes, though I will take a few additional measurements for just myself because they seem unfair to men (bulging biceps, anyone?).
I will NOT be reporting any actual values, just changes. Also, I will NOT be posting any body shots -- while I thought about doing this, I'm not really comfortable with that idea!
Change (me) | Change (Ukr) | |
Overall Weight | -- | -- |
Waist | -- | -- |
Bicep | -- | n/a |
Hip | -- | n/a |
Thigh | -- | n/a |
Food:
So the main plan of attack is to mind calories, something I haven't done in years. For sanity's sake, we don't plan on being all that precise, but any sort of reference is better than none. (I must be the worst weight-loss blogger ever...) We used THIS calculator as a reference, which made a recommendation based on account current mass and activity level. For me, that number is roughly 1400 kcal per day (varies with activity level) for a loss of .6 lb/week and about 2000 for "The Ukrainian" to lose 1 lb/week. (Edited to add: I'm also using myfitnesspal.com to help me track things for the first week or so until I can eyeball things on my own.)
Exercise:
Since we both just did a marathon, I except neither of us will be doing a whole lot of running for a while, but my goal is to exercise five days a week for about 45 minutes each time. "The Ukrainian" is usually waaay more hardcore about his workouts than I, but his gym will be closed over most of this time period, so the calculations assumed an activity level similar to mine.
Initial Reflections:
- Yes, it's holiday time. I expect we'll have some deviating moments, and I'm okay with that. I mean, if I can't manage a weight without killing myself, it's not worth it.
- I think I'd be okay if I don't reach my goal, and even if I could, it will probably take a long time to get there. I haven't seen -10 on myself for about seven years, while I was still in college with no desk job and did not run regularly. However, back then, I could lift more weight and was able to last on other cardio machines much longer than I could today. So this means there is room for improvement, for sure, but whether my body can healthfully support that amount of weight loss is yet to be known.
- The first day of this was really rough... I was hungry allll day.
- Thank goodness someone is doing this with me, or I would have given up already.
I'm on a secret 10% loss challenge with myself as of today. I will not do my next marathon heavy. NO FUN! Good luck, I know you can do it!
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Great minds. I was going up the stairs yesterday and caught myself getting winded. I figured out I need to drop about 20 pounds to get in good shape. This is a great plan you have. I'm right there with you!
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