As I mentioned in my previous post, I have decided that we need to lose some weight this year. And I don’t want to just lose weight; I want to permanently alter some of our bad habits to promote a healthy lifestyle. In the past, we always would take a drastic approach and significantly alter our eating and increase our training for a race to try to lose weight. The problem is that we can usually only last around a month or maybe two at most before we give up and slowly go back to our old ways. I think the biggest reason we usually fail is that the changes made are too drastic and the time commitment required for the food preparation and exercise routines is too great. So this time, we’re going to take a different approach.
There are two major milestones I would like to accomplish this year: I would like to get back down to 125lb and I would like to get a new 5k PR (personal record). I think these goals will work well together because if I am training hard enough to get a new 5k time, it should be easier to lose the weight. Plus, I think getting a new 5k PR (or even getting close to one) would really re-ignite my excitement for racing and help make training year round a more permanent part of our lifestyle.
Based on another blog I saw (http://summerskinny25.tumblr.com/) I was inspired to break up my weight goal into smaller increments and I’m going to do the same thing with my running. The first thing to do is to gauge where I’m at right now. So I got on a scale, got out my measuring tape and I’m embarrassed to say that here’s where I’m at right now:
Current Weight: 147lb
Thighs: 24"
Waist: 31"
Spare Tire/Widest Part of Midsection: 35"
Now the measurements may not be scientifically correct – I measured the largest part of the area that I am unhappy with so that I have another tool to see where the weight is coming from as I lose it. I also ran an informal 5k run as a baseline for my current time and I finished it in 32:30. So I have a lot of work to do. The next step is to define the intermediate and final goals.
Goal #1: 140lb weight, 5k time under 26:00
Goal #2: 135lb weight, 5k time under 24:00
Goal #3: 130lb weight, 5k time under 23:00
Ultimate Goal: 125lb weight, 5k time under 22:00
I think having two requirements to meet the goal will really help me as well. If I’m losing weight but not getting my time down enough, it will tell me I need to focus more on my training and may even need more nutrition (your runs can really suffer if you don’t eat enough). If I’m meeting my time and not losing enough weight then I’ll know I am doing well with the training but need to re-evaluate my nutrition plan.
Rather than try to make specific meal and training plans for the whole year (which never works for me), I’m going to evaluate my progress at the completion of each goal and identify what specific things I need to do to meet the next goal. I can also determine whether those need to be permanent changes or whether they can be specific (ex: you will not be able to “peak” in running for the whole year, some will need to be base building, some speed and some maintenance to peak properly and avoid injury). Next I’ll write up what I’m going to do for the start of my quest to reach my ultimate goal. Who's with me on the weight loss train this year?
