Another 6 pounds down in 6 weeks, so my usual slow average of one pound a week. As I get closer to my goals it seems to get harder and harder. I have a carb restricted diet of a max of 25 (healthy) carbs a day and the rest is fat and protein. As of this measure I slide from “overweight” to “normal” using the US Navy Body Fat calculator using parameters of height of 5’9, weight 168, neck 15 inches and waist at belly button of 35.
This brings my total weight loss to 77 pounds.
| Workouts | 6 |
| Time | 219 min |
| Running | 25.5 miles |
| Workouts | 8 |
| Time | 341 min |
| Running | 25.9 miles |
| Walking | 4.5 miles |
These low carb treats will make you forget you don’t eat bread anymore! There is less than 2 (non fiber) carbs per muffin and so your blood sugar will not spike when biting into this moist, delicious muffin. This is an easily adaptable recipe. You can experiment with different flavors or different combinations of flax and almond meal. As this recipe stands, each muffin has 134 calories, 5 gm of protein, 11.2 gm of fat, only 1.2 gm of sugars and 2300 mg of omega-3.
Flax seed is good for overall health. In the book “Cholesterol Down: Ten Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol in Four Weeks,” author Janet Brill notes that flax seed can help protect against breast, colon and prostate cancer and also can lower cholesterol. Nutrients such as B vitamins, which are an intricate part of energy production in the body, and vitamin E, which is connected to skin and hair health, are also prevalent in flax seed. Finally, flax seed has been linked to increased brain function due to the omega-3s present in the food.
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| Workouts | 8 |
| Time | 288 min |
| Running | 23.0 miles |
| Walking | 20 min |
| Weights | 30 min |
Egg muffins are super easy to make and provide a tasty breakfast or snack that can be prepared in advance. They are basically like mini quiches in which you can make in many different varieties. Because it is made with egg and vegetables there is no explicit carbohydrate component to the recipe. It only takes about 10 minutes to mix the ingredients together and most of that time will be in chopping up some veggies to add to the mix. Because of the egg and cheese I do recommend a good no-stick spray like Baker’s Joy.
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I read this great quote today which nicely sums up the solution to weight loss:
Forget calorie counting – fat cells accumulate fat under the influence of insulin. Insulin is excreted in response to blood sugar levels. Only one dietary component elevates blood sugar levels – carbohydrates. Weight is a matter of how your intake is partitioned into, or out of fat cells, and that is driven by hormones, not by caloric value. Stop eating carbohydrates. It’s simple.
I set the alarm for 4:30 am and was up and out the door in 15 minutes after making my usual pre-run shake. When I got to the parking lot at the head of the Peabody Independence Bike path there was nobody there… just the way I like it. It was brutally muggy, 80 degrees with a heat index of 92.. which is *not* the way I like it. I kept the music off for a while so I could just enjoy the sounds surrounding me.
It was so muggy and hot eventually my sweat overcame the “moisture wicking” properties of my shirt and I started chafing. I should have taken the shirt off but instead I ignored the symptoms and ended up paying with that awful runners penalty: bloody nipples.
| Workouts | 5 |
| Time | 278 min |
| Running | 19.5 miles |
| Weights | 60 min |
I am finally back to running in my Vibrams. My ankle is healed enough and my calf is strong enough to let me run with a forefoot strike in an unstructured shoe like the Vibrams. I first tried this two weeks ago for the first time since my injury but I went too far in them and then it took 2 days to recover from the right calf pain.
It is hard to explain how freeing it is to run in foot gloves like the Vibrams. Being able to truly feel the road beneath you is extremely liberating.
My training schedule called for an easy 4 mile run so I hit the road plugged into a new audio book “Hammered: Iron Druid Chronicles Book 3”. I kept the pace extremely low (11:00 mm) and just enjoyed the feel the ground beneath my feet and the story I was listening too.
I was about 15 minutes in when the skies opened up and the rain started to fall. I have to say that running in a summer rain is a joy I don’t think many appreciate. The feeling of the cool rain washing away the sweat and body heat is wonderful. One of these days I would like to race in the rain.
