Let’s get the diet-y and exercise-y stuff out of the way: Weight is holding steady at 188 for the past two days. Whoo-HOO! It means that my weight has dropped below 190 for the first time since, oh, I don’t know, High School? It feels great.
I’ve switched to counting calories, although the calories I eat are still mostly Atkins-y. F’rinstance, I had BBQ Beef Brisket for lunch. I’m aiming for 1700 calories per day, which is approximately 500 fewer per day than my body burns, working out to a one-pound loss per week.
I happen to think that the Atkins diet is just a sneaky way to restrict your calorie intake, as counter-intuitive as that seems to people unfamiliar with the low-carb diet. “What?” they shriek, “you’re eating nothing but fat and bacon! How can you possibly be eating fewer calories?! That’s just not right!” Truth is, though, I do eat vegetables; Salads, green beans, broccoli, all good for me and included in my diet. Atkins is more about restricting white flour and sugar (and other starches, like potatos or corn or rice) than it is about stuffing your face full of bacon and pork rinds.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Hey, a tangent. Where was I..? Oh, right.
Exercise-wise, I’m doing great. Went running with some friends on Monday (to celebrate my last Monday off; schedule change, it mostly sucks), and managed to not hold them back too much. I went about 2 miles, which doesn’t sound like much until you realize it was uphill. We were running from Duniway Park up Terwilliger Blvd, and then back down. My faster friend, Jake, ran ahead and covered the first mile in seven minutes, give or take. He stopped around where there’s some stairs leading up from the road to some building. (Sorry these descriptions are so vague; I’m not that familiar with the area). Jake missed the stairs and ran past, then stopped and came back to me. I had been running and mostly keeping up with Caleb, but Caleb had pulled ahead of me by then. Jake reached me, then we continued up to the stairs, which Jake promptly ran up.
I tried to run, but ended up plodding up the stairs one by one. At the top, Jake asked me if I was tired.
Dumb question. But, actually, I didn’t feel that bad. No pain, just short of breath.
On the way down, I met and talked to a girl who works at the hospital on the hill. She was dressed all in black and had on some seriously clogg-y looking shoes, but had some trail shoes sticking out of her backpack, which prompted my conversation. She seems nice. I ended up walking the rest of the way back to Duniway Park, where Jake was waiting for me.
Yesterday I ran 6 miles on the elliptical trainer, and today I rested. Tomorrow, back to the elliptical trainer, unless the rain lets up in the morning; then I’ll go running again.