Weight loss is hard
Recently I did some research about heel strikes. What the hell is a hell strike? That’s what runners talk about when they talk about running form, and whether your heel should hit the ground in your strides. Apparently you don’t want to do that because hell strikes will cause unnecessary pounding on your body. And landing on the front to middle of your feet is good because the arch of your feet is naturally built to absorb pressure. Think of shocks on a car. Heel strikes also reduce your speed because you slow down. See, this is the kind of research I do about running, because running SUCKS. It’s absolutely the best way to lose weight, but it sucks so bad. As for losing weight, it’s really come to a halt, and that’s why I’m trying to get into running.
Losing weight is just not working well enough. At my peak, I was 183 pounds, and in the last few weeks, I managed to hit 174. But now I’m hovering between 175 and 176 all the time now. It’s just not fun to lose weight. Even with oatmeal in my diet it’s hard to keep off the calories.
Over at Serious Eats, Ed has decided to stop weighing himself every week because he thinks it’ll be more effective. I’m not so sure that is what most dietitians would suggest if one wants to lose weight. I avoid the scale on a weekly basis because the plateauing effect is kind of not promising.
I keep an eye out for everything that might work with losing weight. NY Times had a blog post about vegetable purees making you feel full with less calories. They also suggested spicy foods help you burn a wee bit more calories, and cause you to consume a little bit less as well. All that is well and good except I can’t stop putting food in my mouth. That’s why I’m going to try and take up running…
Yesterday I got up at 6:50 AM to go out and jog. As an occasionally competitive person, it sucks to watch everyone pass me again. Seriously, I’m wack. What I lack in speed, I hope to make up in stubborn determination. I listened to a podcast about ironman competitions and heard about people who go on like 50 mile or 100 mile races where they run all the time and still make it out alive. There are also other cross country competitions where competitors go so hard in the sun that the skin on the back falls off from sunburn. So when I’m jogging in the park, I try to tell myself, “Skin is not falling off of my body yet, keep running. Still able to take in oxygen, keep running.” I’ve ran like, three times this year yet I was still able to go for 45 minutes yesterday. Not bad.
At home though, I still wolfed down tacos. See, that part of weight loss is about incentives. Obviously if a big burly dude sat next to me at every meal and said, “If you eat that extra piece, I will fucking wreck your face.” That would really make me watch my portions. Unfortunately, renting a big burly dude to be at my every meal is too costly.
Another thing I’ve tried… Since there’s a digital scale at home, I try to weigh my breakfast. 50 grams of muesli and half a cup of milk. Then at work it’s tea until lunch, which we’ve discussed is oatmeal 4 out of 5 days. The problem is the afternoon. Man… that is a long afternoon. I always end up eating a ton of almonds, which are REALLY high in calories and fat. I just figure it’s better than cheetos, but damn yo… 1 almond = 9.333 calories. I can eat almonds like most people can eat popcorn.
It’s really easy to understand what’s necessary to lose weight, but it’s another to put it all together all the time. I don’t plan on turning this blog into a dietary log, but it already sort of is. There just won’t be weekly updates. If this running thing pans out, I shall report back after the running effect plateaus.
Posted by Danny on May 6, 2011 at 3:47 pm
(I invite you to follow me on Twitter so you can get more updates.)
