The XTERRA Chubsmas Challenge powered by H20 Audio: Week 2 Weigh in!

First off, welcome aboard to the fine folks at H20 Audio as sponsors of the contest. They were kind enough to send along a pair of Flex waterproof/sweatproof headphones for my review, and sending free stuff during December gets your name on the challenge.

Anyways, so instead of making everyone "weight" around for the numbers *zing*, here they are:

Chuck 255-251 = 4 pounds lost in 2 weeks
Ben 321.6 - 316.5 = 5.1 pounds lost in 2 weeks

Thankfully we're doing this on Wednesdays as both Chuck and I have had tough weekends and had to burn off homemade holiday cookies or excess food at the hockey game. The challenge really ramps up this week as I have 2 holiday parties in the next 48 hours plus a friend in from out of town on Saturday night. The hardest part of me is that my responsibility for one of those parties is to provide a dessert. Seriously, how is that fair? I'm bringing Cannoli's for the party because my groups theme is Italian. I should have volunteered to bring something I don't at all like, say Raspberry flavored Italian ice with raspberries on top.

Chuck has some stuff upcoming as well, so it will be interesting. That last week of the year in particular will be a challenge because the Blue Jackets have 5 home games between now and the end of the year. I don't know how many of those Chuck has tickets to but I'm guessing it's a couple. Maybe I should send him some more tickets and food vouchers for the games to boot.

What's not fair to Chuck in this contest is the 60 pound starting weight difference, because while I've lost 1 more pound than he has, I've actually lost only the smallest percentage points more of my body weight. Chucks lost 1.568 percent, while I have lost 1.585 percent. So even with percentage I'm winning, but it's SUPER CLOSE. Maybe I should get him a subscription to Wine and Cheese of the month club with rush delivery.

When we were shopping for the Cannoli's at CostCo the other night, I saw a box of frozen veggie burgers and decided to pick it up. A little known fact about me is that I was a vegetarian for 3 years in my late teens and early 20's. I figured it was better for me and better for the animals. I still managed to gain weight during that period, but I did eat fairly healthy, and one of the things I ate then were Boca Burgers. They're tasty, non-fat, vegan, and only 2 points per burger. With the sandwich thins ketchup and a slice of cheese, its a grand total of 7 points. A couple healthy sides and I got a good meal under 13 points.

It's cold, so it must be time to go outside!

It's been really cold here in Boston these past few weeks, and while I generally have some issues with the decrease in sunlight, I've always been relatively OK with the cold. This year, however, I've been a giant wuss about it. Most of my workouts since mid-November have been indoors. It was really rainy leading up to Thanksgiving, and I don't like training in the rain unless it's right before a race.

But with just a few weeks left until the Lowell 1st Run, it's getting to be the time when I need to be adapting to the weather. I have the clothes I need so it's not a real matter of physical preparation; merely the mental process of consciously deciding to go outside in the cold. I usually race better in the cold so it's an easy decision on race day, but on training days it's a lot harder to motivate myself.

Last night was a scheduled run, and i wanted to make sure I got it in considering the weight gain this weekend. Rach also had a run, and because it was after dark, she ran with me due to safety concerns. I'm always happy when she runs with me, right up to the moment about 2/3rds of the way into the run when I'm getting tired and she says "It's hard for me to run this slow". Ouch. But it's always worth it to know she's safe and to get to have her pace me.

We wound up doing 2.65 miles and without stoppage time or a walk break we did around that distance in 36 minutes. Not super fast, and not super slow. But I did almost 1 1/2 miles before stopping to walk. We walked less than 2 blocks out of the nearly 3 miles, and I finished strong.

I had music last night thanks to the H2OAudio Flex earbuds I started using last night. It didn't rain or even mist while we ran, but I sweat a good bit, and the Flex seemed to hold up fine to that. I'll be putting them through their paces the next few days as part of the review process.

Notes:

- I dropped most of the weight I put on this weekend, and am on target for a good day, and hopefully managing to be down a little bit for tomorrow's weigh in.

- I just finished signing Rachelle up for the Hyannis Marathon in February. While not thinking she'll be able to qualify for the Boston Marathon in this race (a future goal for her), she does have a goal of 4:30 on that day. I'll probably wind up signing up for the 10k, but with Christmas almost here I have plenty else to pay for.

- False Chuck Fact of the day: Chuck once shot a man just for snoring too loud. Ok, actually that's a line from a Time Life book series commercial, but he probably almost did shoot a man (me) just for snoring too loud on a road trip in 2005.

A little too much is still too much

A couple of years ago, I joined Weight Watchers at work, lost 40 pounds in 10 weeks and have kept it off. But I continue to lose the same 3 pounds only to regain it again a few days later. On Wednesday, I was 319.6, and feeling like I was on top of my food intake and focused on doing the right things.

By this morning I was back to 322.6, and feeling completely frustrated about how I'm doing. And it wasn't like I went out and ate like crap and did nothing all weekend.

Friday I was close to right on with my points, but I didn't have time to work out. I had a roast beef sub for dinner, and on Saturday morning, I was 320.6

Saturday afternoon, I spent 30 minutes doing cardio with the new snakebyte Wii Premium Fitness Board I am reviewing for Gaming Nexus. I followed that cardio time up with 15 minutes of core work, and by the time that was over, I was beat.

Saturday night , we had tickets for the Springfield Falcons game, and usually I am not on my best behavior at hockey games when it comes to eating. There's so much temptation, and very little available in the way of healthy options. I had a chicken caesar wrap, a side of fries, and a bottle of water for dinner. Then as a treat, I had a small serving of ice cream. I thought that was pretty good for a hockey game, but late in the game I gave in to temptation and had a mountain dew. Though it was less than 20 oz, it's still more calories than I had planned. 

Sunday Morning I was 321.6 and right back where I started a week and a half ago. I was determined to eat healthy on Sunday, and I mostly did. Oatmeal for breakfast, the lunch sized cobb salad at Cheesecake Factory, and some soup with bread for dinner. But I ate a bunch of the bread & butter they give you at cheesecake factory before the meal. And then following my bike workout in the evening (I did 4 miles on the rollers), I had a couple fiber bars and a glass of chocolate milk for recovery. Sure, I needed something after that really hard ride, but I didnt need as much as I had.

So, it's time to be a bit more regimented. I clearly need some rules to follow about my eating between now and the end of the year.

If it's fried, I'm not eating it. 

Other than lean roast beef, only 1 meal per week with red meat.

1 desert per week.

Every day, including Christmas and New Years eve, must be within my points totals

No sugar or high-fructose soda

Those four rules ought to make it easy to follow and yet give me enough leeway to not feel like I'm sacrificing everything. Now I just have to implement it in such a way that I can re-lose the 3 pounds from this weekend and at least get back to where I was before Wednesday.

Famous Fridays 2: Bloggin' it up

The term "social media" bothers me. Because all media is social, so either they could just call it media, or even better, they should just call it being social. because it's really just sharing about yourself, or things you find interesting. Technology has always increased our ability to share. Think about the telegraph, the telephone, the television; all of them are forms of "social media". Media is the plural of medium, which is simply a way to communicate. 

Last week the kick-off of Famous Friday was focused on twitter, because, well, the most famous people I've connected with has been through tweets. Twitter isn't really the core of my sharing, which of course is here on the blog. Because of that sharing, I've gotten a boatload of sponsors (ok, a boatload for my level of skill), and while I'm not an expert on triathlon by any means, I've even taken on an apprentice who I'm helping get started in triathlons. I wouldn't presume to call myself a coach by any means, I'm merely giving him the benefits side-effects of my experience.

Most people think that sponsorships are all about what you can get someone to give you. Sure, it's about that trade off of product or money for what amounts to free advertising, but it doesn't really work if all you're doing is talking about something you got free. People can see through that. You have to be smart enough to ask for or accept things you really want, and give honest reviews to each product even if you risk losing the sponsor. 

For example, take my review of the H2OAudio Capture case and headphones. I bought the case at a heavily discounted price via a sponsorship from the company. I got it specifically for the purpose of using it for swim training, but unfortunately it's not really designed for that. It's still a great product for its designed purpose, and the earphones really do live up to their waterproof statements. While my review wasn't a raving, "go buy this product right now" kind of review, it was an honest one which my rep at H2OAudio appreciated. So when they recently announced their new Flex all-sport earbuds, they wanted to see if I'd like to take a look at them, which I quickly agreed to. 

I hadn't been running with music for a while in order to get used to race conditions, but now that I'll be training for a marathon distance, I need the music for all the extra running. When I got done with my run the other night using my H20Audio Surge earbuds, I was thankful I had waterproof headphones. I had... how do you say... perspired heavily.... during my run, and my phone and earbuds had both taken a bit of collateral damage. 

Flash forward to earlier this week when the Chubsmas Challenge became the XTERRA Chubsmas Challenge. Finding a simple picture of me in their wetsuit prompted XTERRA to send us some mesh backpacks. I would have thought seeing me in their product would have prompted them to lose their lunch, but hey, any press is good press I guess. 

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm patting myself on the back. I do that all the time, but I'm not posting  to sound self congratulatory. There are people who have gotten much more recognition out of their blogs, and do so with a lot less talking about it. Mandy, a reader here and fine writer in her own right, just got accepted to Team Trakkers, with whom she will kick much ass this season.

My point was blogging can make you famous. Even if it's the Perez Hilton kind of famous.

Wait, what? Diet is more important than exercise? ZOINKS!

My mother, who I may have mentioned has been rocking the weight loss these past few weeks sent me an interesting article the other day. In a Time magazine piece on the value of exercise in the weight loss process, they point out an important fact to remember: Exercise stimulates hunger.  So instead of making it easier to lose weight, regular strenuous exercise can actually make it harder to lose weight.

Well, duh. Working out hard drains you of salt and fluids, and causes you to need to repair the tired muscles. Plus, the glycogen we use up wants to be replaced, and the fastest way to replace it is with sugars. So not only are you tired and hungry, your body is crying out for salt and sugar. And a lot of folks, myself included, often find themselves either eating things they normally wouldn't or simply more of things they would, because they think "I just burned 500 calories".

Here's the part that really hit home with me:

You might think half a muffin over an entire day wouldn't matter much, particularly if you exercise regularly. After all, doesn't exercise turn fat to muscle, and doesn't muscle process excess calories more efficiently than fat does?

Yes, although the muscle-fat relationship is often misunderstood. According to calculations published in the journal Obesity Research by a Columbia University team in 2001, a pound of muscle burns approximately six calories a day in a resting body, compared with the two calories that a pound of fat burns. Which means that after you work out hard enough to convert, say, 10 lb. of fat to muscle — a major achievement — you would be able to eat only an extra 40 calories per day, about the amount in a teaspoon of butter, before beginning to gain weight. Good luck with that.

Going forward, I am going to be smarter about not eating too much because I just worked hard. I'm as susceptible to cravings as the next person, especially after a hard workout. Proper preparation can help a lot with this. Take a salt pill during a long sweaty workout will reduce the bodies craving for salty foods. Taking a 60 calorie gel during a workout should help kill the desire for a big milkshake after. It will still be important to get the right amount of protein and other recovery foods, but doing it in a healthy way is key.

Notes:

- Last night a 3 mile run. Rather, three 1 mile runs. I had decent stamina through each mile and walked a little less than 1/3rd mile between each run. I was pretty slow the last half of the 3rd mile, but I like that I got through all 3.

- Tonight, I'm shooting for 5 miles continuous on the rollers. It would be my longest session by 2 miles, so it if winds up at 4 miles, thats still progress.