Over a year after this post was published – see what I’m doing with running now: May, 2022 running update.
My return to life as a runner after over a decade away started with a whisper at the start of January and kind of sputtered out for the rest of the month. The nagging heel injury that was delaying the comeback process didn’t seem to fully want to go away.
The start of February, February 1 to be precise, brought about a resurrection. Although I’m not racking up high mileage yet, my run frequency is steady at every second day. The heel, although providing an ever present reminder that it’s not 100% (and may never be), has held out quite well. My overall leg strength is definitely on the rise.
I may be at the lowest weight since my high school/college days and I may, indeed, be at my strongest. However, I’m certainly a ways away from my fastest pace and my longest distance. But, I refuse to push too hard in those areas, instead focusing on injury free running focused on good form.
What the first 25 days of February have brought me is a vision. I will be back running half marathons, marathons and beyond. I will be running these at times a much younger me couldn’t. And, this vision is not that far into the future.
Of course, there are no actual races that are a definite go in 2021 due to the COVID-19 shit storm. I see this as a good thing. There’s no pressure to ramp up distance and pace too fast. As long as I continue with consistency, it’ll all happen – just as my weight dropped over 50 pounds in four months simply through consistency and persistence…
Update On My Weight
I now weigh in at a consistent 161 pounds. I have had days as low as 160. I really don’t know if I will drop any more. I do know I will continue with intermittent fasting, a full vegan diet, daily exercise and the Wim Hof Method of breathing and cold water exposure, along with the other habits that came with my lifestyle shift.
This is as low as I can remember since college. But, for the first time in my 52 years, I have abs! I have been athletic since I was a child but never had a visible six pack to speak of. After about three months since introducing planks into my workout routine, I have a stomach like never before. Quite frankly, when I look in the mirror, all I can do is laugh. It seems so ridiculous that it took so little time and was really quite easy (not just the abs but the overall package).
I really don’t have any current goals as far as losing more weight. I am simply monitoring daily to make sure no upward trends sneak in. But, I don’t think that will be as issue.
Intermittent fasting (not eating between 4pm and 10am) is nothing short of a miracle. That one habit is amped up by all the other habits of my lifestyle shift. If governments actually gave a fuck about the health of their citizens, they’d promote this stuff…
My meals are quite simple. I fry up a mix of veggies (always onion and garlic) in extra virgin olive oil. I then mix in beans or lentils that I’ve already prepared. I add water and simmer for a few minutes. In the meantime, I go to town on fresh cut raw veggies. Obviously, there’s no quantity limits with these. I try to make sure I have a fresh avocado at each of my two daily meals. I also eat a handful of nuts with each meal.
I’ve gotten to making it a regular meal option to add a couple of squares from a 90% cacao chocolate bar. They say it should be over 75% but I don’t feel any good about anything less than 90%.
I’ve added cheat days every second Saturday. Funny thing is, I don’t really enjoy them. That is, I don’t enjoy if it’s restaurant food. Even the healthiest choice at a restaurant is laced with sugar and other crap. I now find my stomach suffers.
What we’re doing this Saturday instead is a nachos and dip day. The nachos are obviously something that is a no-no in my diet but that’s the cheat. The dips will be a mix of store bought and homemade. My goal is to put together some vegan options that might just go over so well that I can catch the attention of my carnivorous family…
What The Near Future Brings
Cross training, baby! I don’t even want to all it ‘training’. I just want to be out every day, either biking, kayaking or hiking the trails. We’ve got to the point where sunrise is at 7am and it only gets earlier until the summer solstice (except for that daylight savings time blip…). This means more and more daylight time available in the mornings to put this machine through some hard core exercise.
The near future also brings more content to this website. I have been a bit lax in posting new stuff. I plan to focus on writing more regularly. Also, I plan to put together a book to be published on Amazon Kindle just after the six month point of my lifestyle shift. Why six months? Because, that’s the point when even the best intended diets start to fail and the weight boomerangs back. I confidently will prove that that is simply not the case with my lifestyle shift plan.