The Days March On...

The new month is upon us! Time to talk goals...

Physical (1) - Follow the 'Slow-Carb' Diet

Complete with minor infractions for office birthday cake.

Start weight: 95kg

Start waist measurement: 35"

Finishing weight: 92.8kg

Finishing waist measurement: 34.5"

My thoughts? Not bad, probably would've been more effective if I'd changed one or two things, but I'm still not a fan of dieting.

The diet involved upping my protein intake dramatically and switching out oats/corn/wheat/rice for beans and lentils, avoiding fruits, cutting out dairy, and avoiding 'domino foods' (addictive foods) like nuts. And eating four times a day.

My first meal of the day (eggs - boiled or turned into an omelette) was at 5am to allow the other meals to align with my working schedule. Getting up so early to choke down a solid meal wasn't exactly the most fun but it certainly allowed me to seize the day! The daily dose of 3 eggs (assuming no other eggs during the day) meant I was guzzling at least 15 eggs a week - here's hoping the pro-egg research is correct!

Second breakfast (9am) was most often a spinach and tuna salad. Sauerkraut, red onion, peas, and broccoli were common additions. The dressing was just a generous splash of balsamic vinegar.

Lunch (1pm) was either a salad in the same vein as second breakfast with beans or lentils or turkey, beans/lentils, and vegetables (mostly mixed veg or steamed broccoli).

Dinner (6pm) was normally the turkey, beans/lentils, and vegetables but I sometimes indulged in a bit of steak or chicken.

Sundays were 'refeeding' (or binge) days to shock the body back into sugar mode, stop it adjusting to the new diet. These, I believe, were my downfall. Anything I had obsessed about not being able to eat during the week, I ate. I crammed my face full of sugar and dairy. This generally led to crazy sugar spikes (and the following crashes) despite consuming grapefuit juice to partially blunt the response. On most binge days I had eaten so much by lunch that I skipped dinner because the thought of more food made me feel slightly sick. The excess of these days made me glad to return to the healthy goodness of my weekday meals.

Had I been more controlled on the 'refeeding' days, I may have posted better results. This diet is supposed to increase muscle mass as well as burning fat, meaning body fat measurements should have been used rather than weight and waistline measurements, so my results may be misleading. I reckon, on balance, that it's more likely that the weight loss was due to lower water retention (the banned carbs draw water into the gut, leading to increased water retention and 'bloating') and the waist measurement change can not be classed as significant due to the lackadaisical approach to measurement.

This is definitely a sustainable diet - it doesn't ban any foods, merely limits them to one day a week - but, as with most diets, develops in me a rather unhealthy and obsessive relationship with my food. I'd rather take some of the more important points from the diet - avoiding 'domino foods', minimising liquid calories, and seriously cutting down on sugars - and apply them (somewhat less rigorously) to my day to day diet. It's the small, sustainable changes over time that add up without creating the need for willpower that best suit my dietary evolution.

Physical (2) Run a half marathon

Complete. Official time: 1hr 55min 40sec

I used to say I'd never run a 10km. I didn't have a runner's build, I hated running, it was too far, always an excuse. After I ran 10km I said I couldn't do a half marathon. Two 10km runs back-to-back? Not for me.

Then one came up in my area, on my birthday, when I had not much else going on. Why not give it a go?

I didn't really train for the event, just kept up my two jogs a week (6-7km on Thursday, 10-11km on Saturday) and the sprint intervals in the gym. The two Saturdays before the race I upped my Saturday jog to ~13km (about 8 miles). Not the greatest training, but it served me well enough.

It was a cold run day, snow still on the ground, but perfect for running. Only the lightest of breezes, mostly clear (it snowed on us a bit around mile 6). By the end of the race the sun was beaming down on us and I was roasting (even though the high for the day was supposed to be around 3C).

The run itself was mostly uneventful. Mile 12 saw me hit my 'wall' - the tank was empty and my pace suffered. A couple of folk I passed earlier powered past. I didn't stop, didn't walk, and still (amazingly, given my PB for 10km is 55min) made it to the end in under two hours.

Hard work? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.

Goals for March

Mental: Study at least and hour a day for the IMC (Investment Management Certificate)

Physical: Stick to marathon training schedule, ideally keeping current gym regime in place.

Spiritual (1): Pursue new volunteering opportunity (youth work)

Spiritual (2): Bake. The oven is back online. I'm running more. Time to rustle up some tasty carbs!