155 or Bust: week 3

Finally, the scale is starting to move in the right direction!  Down nearly 3 pounds compared with a few days ago, with the needle settling under 170 pounds for the first time in months!  169.8 – yes!  You don’t have to be a nutritionist or sports physiologist to figure out why, but both disciplines played a roll.  More controlled calorie intake with a conscious effort to limit the # of calories for each meal to a specific number and significantly more calories expended on exercise.  That will do it every time!

Since last Sunday I logged about 37 miles running (mostly easy but with one speed session at Rice track on Thursday), a few more miles of walking and four one-hour sessions of upper body, abs, core and leg workouts.  Most importantly, the Accu-Measure fat caliper result (average of 3) was 26 mm at the sacro-ileac spot: that is down a significant 4 mm from last week’s reading which was at 30 mm!

Bottom line:  3 weeks into my ‘155 or bust’ program, I am down by almost 5 pounds and starting to feel a lot more positive about the prospect of a long-term good outcome.  Still a long way to go but I am encouraged and will step up the dietary control measures this week. 

Pretty good running this week:  37 miles as noted with two fairly long 7 mile  efforts with Kathleen who is also doing a lot better.  Both of us have some incipient issues with plantar fasciitis; so far regular foot rolling and occasional icing is keeping it at bay.  The calves are about 90 per cent.  Lesson learnt:  once you run on Vibrams exclusively, don’t take too long a break from them because the calf muscle clearly will shorten up again when wearing regular shoes.  And most importantly, don’t try to get back to running in the Vibrams too quickly, particularly in a very hilly environment.