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Just a quick blurb. I just weighed myself and I'm Down to 354! So the water weight is going away! Back to the daily grind. This weekend I curved my caloric intake back to my normal amounts. So it's back to shrinking alittle bit at a time! Today at some point I'll have the finished version of part two of my GRAND adventure!
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Me this week... You did not misread that. I gained 17 pounds over the course of two days. That really messed up the motivation I had going into this week... After returning from the Grand Canyon I weighed myself just out of curiosity of weight vs calorie output from the activities I did over the weekend. It was the end of the day and the scale told me that I had gained a pound. Not bad. I figured some of that could be pushed off on food/water in my stomach and not using the bathroom. Then Tuesday's random drunken escapade happened. Come Wednesday I stepped on the scale. I was blown away from the results. Three hundred and sixty eight pounds... I stepped off and waited. I checked to make sure that it was zeroing out and working properly and stepped on again. It was the same weight... How? What happened? It was the end of the day so I have a day's worth of food in me. I used the bathroom before weighing myself. What happened? I decided to try again in the morning and see if there would be a difference. I lost two pounds. 366... I sat down and just stared at the wall. I went over the entire week. I ate Wendy's on Saturday and that wasn't too bad compared to what I expelled from hiking. Sunday we ate at a Chinese buffet, but I didn't gorge myself. Two plates and I was done. Monday was another fast food day but I didn't go out of control. At least I didn't think I did... Tuesday happened but it's impossible to gain 17 pounds in two days. That's 59,000 calories more than what I put out to gain that much weight. Thursday a thought dawned on me. Water. The thought was inspired more by the feeling in my legs. Around my ankles the skin was tight and I had that tingling feeling on the top of my feet. I was retaining water. I thought back and I realized that Wednesday I didn't properly reacquaint my body with water after the heavy night Tuesday. Come to think of it, I didn't really drink water throughout the days at the canyon. Only during and immediately after hiking did I drink water. So this was a problem building. I propped my feet up after work and the pee came. Not immediately, but without drinking water I started getting the urge to go. Thursday night I hit the gym and after working out I stepped on the scale I had lost six more pounds. So then I'm down to 360. I took my measurements and besides my hips, all of my measurements had gone down in size which reassured me that I hadn't completely relapsed over the past week. I weighed myself on Friday and I'm down to 357 pounds. 11 pounds down over three days. I haven't stepped on a scale since. Partially cause I'm afraid what I'll see and partially because I don't want to become scale obsessed. I think tomorrow morning I'll I'll try again and then update the weight on the page to my current results because 368 looks very ugly. It's also pretty demotivating. I found myself wanting to eat more this week. It's been a bad week for me. I've been at or below the 2200 calorie goal but before I was consistently hitting 1600-1800. My goal this week is to get back to that standard so that I can continue to move at the pace that I have been. That's all for now! I'm off to watch some FOOTBALL! (Thank God for the NFL) I'm still working on the second part of the GRAND adventure! That should be polished up and ready to go tomorrow sometime! With that said, I'm out! Till the next episode! Done! Day One After spending the weekend hiking and walking, I entered the gym Tuesday morning dreading the task at hand. All week I'm running for 25 minutes at a time. From this point on the program is just working it's way up to 30 minutes of running. I'm going to chalk my performance up to hiking lag. My pace stayed between 6.5-7.0 mph the entire time which is what my goal is set for, but I have an unwritten rule that I need to stay at 7 mph. I realized that I'm going to have to tweak my running playlist because there are two songs that just don't have that rapid pulse to them that I need when I'm pushing myself to run. Some stats that stand out for me on this run: I hit the three mile mark at 27:50 At the 30 minute mark I improved on my distance by .02 of a mile For the last minute I decided to revisit my old challenge of sprinting the last minute of the run and this time around I managed to push the pace up to 10.5 mph My BPM was at 166 at the end of the sprint Running at that pace is possible for me but not at a consistent rate. I was able to lock in on that pace for about 15 seconds before I started wavering up and down. By the time the minute was up I was in the mid 8 mph zone. I'm happy for this though because that means that the pace I'm running at is good enough for me to maintain for more than just 30 minutes. If I can sprint after 24 minutes of running then I can run at that pace for a while longer. I'm glad I chose to do this program because I'm moving in ways that I never thought possible! Time: 35 minutes total (25 minutes of running and walking along with a 5 minute warmup and 5 minute cool down) Distance: 3.56 miles Day Two I surprised myself tonight. We normally go to the gym first thing in the morning, but due to scheduling conflicts we had to postpone gym until the evening time. I initially wanted to cancel and just go the following morning, but Chris was persistent so we hit the gym 12 hours after we normally would at 8pm. I felt a little groggy as I stepped up to the elliptical and began my session. When the timer hit 5:00 minutes and the running began I was overcome with a boost of energy! I felt like I could run for days! My average pace was 7.5 mph the entire run. It was like I couldn't slow down! A few miscellaneous stats for the day: I hit the three mile mark at 27:07 (An new record!) At the 30 minute mark I had run 3.39 miles (An new record!) Again for the last minute I pushed myself into a sprint and I consistently ran 10.5 mph. There was no slowing down this time around. (An new record!) At the end of the sprint my BPM was at 173 I was pretty gassed at the end of the sprint but I felt great. I locked onto the 10.5 mph pace and kept it going for the entire minute sprint. I doubt I can keep it going consistently beyond the short sprint, but it's something that I will continue to work on. The faster and more consistent I can get my pace now will help my stamina when I switch to an actual treadmill and street running in about three weeks. I felt energized for the rest of the night after I left of the gym. Not gonna lie, it felt great! Time: 35 minutes total (25 minutes of running and walking along with a 5 minute warmup and 5 minute cool down) Distance: 3.66 miles Day Three Oh the difference a day makes! Rather than going at night then waking up early to go again, we decided to go at night again. So tonight we got to the gym round 7:30. I was excited to go again and release all the pent up energy! Sadly, the night didn't go as planned. For one, something I omitted from yesterday, I have this little patch of skin that was rubbed raw from the run I did the night before. Tonight my inner thigh was constantly reminding me of it's existence. Nonetheless I hopped on to the running machine and put in work. This was honestly the worst time I've had running yet. My thigh pain set the tone and things went down from there. After what felt like an eternity of running I thought about calling it quits. I look down and the clock is at 6:38. I have been running less than two minutes... But I told myself that I am at the crossroads. I could quit and then go on to do nothing or I could push through and achieve something. Something to be proud of. I remembered the quote I came across about two months ago.
"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired...You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going." - George S. Patton, U.S. Army General and 1912 Olympian Now I didn't recite the whole thing in my brain as I ran because I don't have a freakish memory like that, but the gist of it still hangs around in my head. It's not easy when you push yourself to the limits but you have to go on because you know you can. Even if you don't want to. At the ten minute mark, I was getting regular signals from my thigh that it was hurt. I did the only thing I could think of to shut it up. I pulled up my pants as high as they could go then I tucked my sweats into the little crevice that forms at the base of where the thigh meets the pelvis (The groin area?) then kept going! I successfully muffled my chaff burn for the time being but my troubles didn't end there. It seems as though my body really didn't want to work with me because the response to me stifling one pain area was CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Around the 18 minute mark I noticed a slight stiffening in my quad. I gulped down some water and told it to go away. No such luck. The remaining time on the run I had to deal with the threat of a charlie horse. IT'S NOT DONE THOUGH. I continue running and the worst possible thing that I could imagine was threatening to happen. Flatulence. Because of my poor dietary choices Tuesday night I've had pretty bad gas off and on the past couple days as my body purges the badness I consumed. I'm running stiff legged surrounded by people (The gym wasn't super busy but of the street block worth of ellipticals in the building along with the equal amount of treadmills and stair climbers, everyone seemed to want to work out on the machines right around me) trying to clench back something that will offend everyone in a ten foot radius. I manage to (miraculously) hold back until it disappears and my final hurdle appears in the form of a cramp/pain going from my ribs on to my abs on the right side of my upper body. This makes it difficult to breathe. I lucked out because the cramp didn't occur until the 26 minute mark or so, so I was able to push through to the end of running. Nonetheless, my life was pretty miserable for those three or so minutes. I'm proud to say I did all this and still beat my time/distances from day one. Time: 35 minutes total (25 minutes of running and walking along with a 5 minute warmup and 5 minute cool down) Distance: 3.58 miles That brings an end to Frank to 5k week seven. And an interesting week it was! Next week is very similar to this one except that I will be running for 28 minutes instead of running for 25. Due to my chafing problem, I'm going to begin the hunt for some compression shorts to wear so that I can keep this from happening again. For now I'm going to update all of my vitals on the side today and there's a number that will shock everyone. It's enough of a shocker that I will write a completely different post about it. Expect that lter on today! Cheers for now! Until the next episode! I wish there was a t-shirt that said I survived the Grand Canyon because survived is exactly what I did! First off I'd like to thank my hike-mates Bruno and Margaux for their patience as we moved along the trails in the Grand Canyon! The adventure began at 4pm last Friday when Margaux picked me up. After loading my stuff into car we headed into the mess that is Los Angeles rush hour on a Friday before a holiday. It took over an hour to get to downtown to pick up Bruno. Once our crew was assembled we made our way back into the orgy of bumpers and car horns. Friday was the most boring day of the trip because we spent the next ten hours in the car going to what we thought would be our campsite. I took over the driving duties around eight or so and with the aid of a five hour energy shot I drove through the night. If you remember, I cut all soda and caffeinated drinks out of my diet, so I was buzzing the entire time. This is really funny to me because when I first came out to Los Angeles last year with Chris I drank two full Monster energy drinks and an extra strength 5 hour energy shot to stay awake. Sadly, because I drank pop all the time, those drinks wouldn't work at giving me energy. I was dozing off at the wheel. This time around just the energy shot kept me up and awake for close to eight hours. I spent the time talking to Bruno about a multitude of different subjects. Sometimes he was awake, other times he wasn't. It didn't matter to me cause I was practically shimmering with energy and I needed to funnel it out somehow. We stopped for gas in the middle of nowhere and I insisted on driving the final leg of the trip cause I was so juiced. According to the GPS Lake Kaibab campsite was roughly an hour away. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the campsite because technology steered us wrong. We drove around searching for the entrance to no avail. We were so far out that I didn't have signal on my phone which meant that there was no GPS. So at three am we pulled into the parking lot of a closed gas station and slept in the car. The next morning we decided to just go to the Grand Canyon then find the campsite after the hike. The first thing we did at the Grand Canyon was to sit down on a rock and eat breakfast. I had a Cliff bar and part of a bagel with cream cheese and fruit. Bruno gave me two pieces of already cooked toast with jam as well. I ate slowly and went past the point of feeling full because I knew that I'd be exerting that much energy plus more on the hike later on in the day. We walked along the outer rim and took pictures for thirty minutes or so. Once we covered about half a mile we went to the bus station and caught a bus over to the Bright Angel trail. The picture above shows the destination we set out to achieve. It's called the Indian Garden. The map says that it's 4.5 miles in. That sounds feasible since we could walk three miles per hour. We start making our way down the trail. A rule of thumb in the canyon is however long it takes you to get down, it will take twice as long to come back up. I told them to be prepared because I can go down with no problems, but coming back up would be a problem. I've been improving my uphill stamina with the Stairway to Heaven (Baldwin Hills Overlook, not the song), but I'm nowhere close to their level of fitness. I suggested we approach the return as if it would take three times the time it took to go down. Just as a buffer. With that in mind, we set a limit of an hour and a half to get to the Garden then come back because we still hadn't checked in with the campsite. Our pace was very slow with plenty of stops for pictures. The views at every turn were breathtaking. The morning sun rising across the canyon gave the walls different looks and colors every time were snapped a shot! The views were remarkable. Going downhill is not the same as walking on a flat plane. It's almost as tough as walking uphill because you have momentum trying to push you faster and faster downhill but the footpath isn't exactly smooth and flat. This results is a kind of a cautious march as you go down. We get to a ranger station about a mile and a half in and the clock is nearing the two hour mark. We solemnly found a spot to the side to sit down and eat lunch before heading up. I stopped at the water station and drenched myself in two liters of water to help fight overheating on the trip back up. We were lucky that it was a cloudy day so the Sun was not an enemy. They didn't lie when they said that it takes twice as long to get back up. The trail is comprised mostly of zigzags. After three turns I'm running out of energy. I tried my hardest to keep going but I just couldn't push myself any more so asked if we could stop for about five minutes so I could catch my breath. I drank water and caught my breath then we were off for the second time. Two more turns and I am gassed again. This really sucks. We've covered maybe a quarter of a mile in this time and I'm gasping for air like a fish out of water. Margaux and Bruno are in shape and have no reason to stop but they are very kind and awesome people. They were patient with me and we agreed to stop every two zigzags for me to catch my breath. Sometimes we had to stop early, other times I pushed on for longer. Each time we stopped I made sure to drink water, Powerade, and every other stop I'd munch on some trail mix. About halfway up an elderly couple passed us. They were at least sixty years old each and adorable. From that point on, we leapfrogged each other on the way up. We'd pass them and they'd hand the torch to us and wish us well, then on our breaks they'd pass us and we'd smile and tell them that we'd see them at the next stop. It made the whole ordeal a little more entertaining because we weren't the only group frequently stopping. We reached the first landmark we passed on the way down and I told everyone that I wasn't going to stop until we made it to the top. After passing through the arch I realized that there was still about four turns left but I pushed through. Coming around the final turn we saw the elderly couple resting. I paused for a second and we talked. The husband was ready to go but the wife wanted to rest a little bit more. I convinced her to cross the finish line together, so the three of us held hands and walked the final 100 feet to the top! I wish I would have gotten their names and a picture with them. They motivated me to cut down on my resting periods and continue to push on. Surprisingly it had only taken a little over two hours to make it back up. We credited that to the slow pace we took on the way down as well as the numerous stops for pictures. Once we made it to the top I looked for the nearest place to sit for a spell. I filled up my water bottle and downed half of it. My back is starting to ache slightly and my feet are tingling with future pains. I hobble along with the others to the car and we search the area for tourist information then a place to eat. We chose Wendy's. I had a large sized Baconator combo with fries and an orange pop. I was craving salty food because I sweat so much. I took two sips of orange pop and I was done with that. I'm proud of myself for squashing my pop addiction. Those empty calories are one of the bigger reasons for my extreme weight gain. I looked it up on My Fitness Pal. The Double Baconator from Wendy's is 980 calories. A large order of fries is 590 more. So I totalled 1,570 calories from that meal. Plus two sips of pop. Also according to My Fitness Pal I burned roughly 3,990 calories hiking for 210 minutes (Three and a half hours. I took off a half hour for breathers.) I'm not trying to justify my food splurge. Even though I burned more than twice the calories I took in, I still need to watch my sodium, fat, and bad cholesterol intake. Those items didn't help me very much in that aspect. There weren't too many healthy options in that area and I needed to eat as soon as possible. ...That wasn't the worst mistake I made that day... I'm going to end this here. The second and third days were much shorter so I figure rather than write a huge post, I'll split it up into two smaller posts. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to read more! Until the next episode! Hey guys! I hope you're all doing better than I am today. I write this through the torment of an upset stomach and a cloudy mind. You'll understand why when you read this. I survived the trip into the canyon with minimal damage and maximum fun. Last night we decided to take to the streets and celebrate a successful adventure. Without further delay, I present to you my life in a nutshell on Tuesday September 4th, 2012. A day forever known for it's valleys and peaks.
Overall yesterday was a very bad day for me calorie-wise. I haven't entered it in on my counting app but I know that I went above the 2,200 mark and may have even gone to the 3,200 "maintain weight" mark. I had to pick myself up today because accidents happen. You gotta just put it behind you and move on. I was under the impression that we were going to have tacos for dinner so after work I had a hamburger from In N Out burger along with fries. My mistake wasn't with that late lunch, but with the 32 ounce Caguama beer I had later that evening. I didn't take into consideration how long ago I had eaten. That one beer led to a couple of shots of rum, which led to a margarita, which led me to being quite drunk. Drunk me doesn't make very good decisions. I tried three times to sing karaoke. Only the final attempt was successful...Sadly Taco Tuesday was over early due to the high demand of the yummy food and low supplies to make them. So we decide to split a sampler tray. |
Weight loss timeline:Starting weight: 446 lbs Archives
September 2016
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