The real reason I run is so I can eat bacon. It's true, I'll do anything for pork products (okay, not anything, but things most people wouldn't do, like run a marathon). I've been struggling with weight more or less since Junior High, though not on an extreme scale. Right now, I'd like to lose the fifteen pounds I put on pretty much the moment I was (mis)diagnosed with a stress fracture at the end of last summer. Wishing and hoping haven't been doing the trick, so I decided to go back to the tried and true method of counting calories.
The first time I did this was back in 2006 the first (and only unless you count my final weeks of pregnancy) time I hit 200 pounds. I used a site called MyFoodDiary.com and lost 16 lbs just by paying attention to what I was putting in my mouth. MyFoodDiary was great for giving feedback on the quality of calories I was consuming. The first time I realized that most yogurt is actually sugar disguised as a health food was because MyFoodDiary gave me a frowny face. It was also the first time I realized exactly how out of control the sodium content is in most processed foods. It doesn't hurt that this was also around the same time that I read Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, a food genius whose manifesto, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" has been life changing. The information I gleaned from those books and tracking my calories has served me well, not just in forever weaning me from frozen pizza, but also in watching my sugar and sodium intake, and more importantly, guiding my decisions about my daughter's diet.
This time around, after increasing my running back up to pre-injury levels but still holding fast to my extra pounds like a looter to a TV set, I decided to go back to counting calories to see if that was the problem (as opposed to hormones or a vengeful God). Though I am using a different site (LoseIt.com) which was recommended by a friend and happens to be FREE, it has basically pointed out the same thing: I have let crap creep back into my diet for the sake of convenience. I was also eating as much on my running days as on my rest days, which is why I was unable to shed the pounds. In addition, through the use of a heart rate monitor, I have discovered that I burn far fewer calories than I thought I was while running. The 100 calories per mile rule-of-thumb does not apply to me, most likely because I don't have a lot of muscle mass. On a recent 5.2 mile run, I burned 402 calories, about 120 fewer calories than I would have previously estimated. That translates into four squares of chocolate, which I would have eaten in ignorant bliss using the standard formula, resulting in a pound of weight gain over the course of a month if I were to do that every day.
One tricky thing about counting calories is that it can have a deleterious effect if you aren't careful because it is so much easier to record the calories conveniently displayed on the back of a package than it is to figure out how many calories are in your homemade pasta sauce and fresh salad. Nearly all calorie-counting sites (certainly the ones I have used) allow you to build recipes to help this process, but it is still far more time consuming than just searching a list of brand-name items. The rub of course is that homemade is so much better for you health-wise than most packaged products. It's nearly impossible to accurately count calories at a restaurant, but hey, maybe it's a good time to go on a money diet too.
The other thing I have done to lose weight is add weight training to my fitness regimen. I joined a group class at Twist, which has a weight lifting component and also use kettle bells for a short routine I can do at home. Muscle burns more calories than fat, so adding muscle is a natural way to lose weight. Plus, I feel pretty bitchin' when I swing that kettle bell around, which almost cancels out the anxiety I feel about the possibility that one of these days it will slip and smash through the sliding glass door.
So far I have lost four pounds even with the depressive eating binge I went on when I thought I had gained back the first two pounds I lost because I forgot to account for my menstrual cycle. It's probably not enough to give me a good shot at a PR for the Eugene marathon I am running on Sunday (fat = slow) but it's enough to get me back into my favorite jeans, and for that (and for bacon) I will stick with the program.
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