Tuesday, December 1, 2009

1. High Blood Pressure!!!??? Weight Loss? Workout? WHAAAT?

You may be wondering why I have the number 1 outside of my post & guess what if you’re not – I’m going to tell you anyway! 

I am participating in NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month.  I must write at least 1 post a day for the entire month of December.  Now we all know that I’m a busy ass person, but I’m gonna try this out & see how it works.

The NaBloPoMo theme for this month is Mitzvah.  Mitzvah means to express an act of human kindness. 

My bloggie friend Soph! asked me how I started running & if I had any tips/tricks to this workout/diet thing.  So today’s post is just for Soph! – sharing my experience so she (and others) can benefit is my act of human kindness for today! :)

So here goes….I’m going to lay it all on the line…well on the blog! ;)   

How I started:
I went to the OB/GYM to talk with him about my birth control pills & the problems I was having with spotting.  At my visit he told me that he would switch my pills, but also was a bit concerned that my blood pressure had been consistently high in my last 3 visits, not alarmingly high at like stroke level or anything, but high for a fairly healthy 26 year old.  He told me a nice, doctor-ish, round about way that from the blood workup that he’d done in a previous visit, he didn’t see any factors that were contributing to my elevated blood pressure other than my weight, which then turned into a conversation about the foods that I ate.  Love my OB/GYN BTW, he’s the best!  I told him that I had a family history of high BP & diabetes & asked what I could do to decrease my weight & ensure that my BP was at a normal level.  He first suggested that I limit my daily caloric intake to 1500 calories a day, get at least 30 minutes of cardio a day, and STOP DRINKING SODA.   He also gave me an appetite suppressant to help with the first part (daily caloric intake) cause I probably would have eaten myself out of house & home if I didn’t take the diet pills.

Let me just say before I go into details about my “numbers” & my “plan” – I travel for a living, so finding something healthy to eat on the road EVERYDAY is a bit hard (hence the reason why I gained so much weight). ANYWAY!!

My starting numbers (5/09):
I’m totally not ashamed of my starting numbers so I’ll share them with you..
  • Age: 26
  • Height: 5 feet 11 inches
  • Weight: 180 pounds
  • MY Goal Weight: 150
  • Doctors Goal Weight: 157-160

My meal plan:
  • No more soda, no diet soda, no X-zero (you name it sprite, coke, etc) soda…NO SODA!
  • Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day
  • Eat a healthy breakfast.  My usual breakfast consists of a cantaloupe bowl from Publix, Yoplait yogurt, and 1/4 cup of bear naked granola & a bottle of water with Crystal Light strawberry & lemonade mix ins.
  • Subway for lunch – usually a 6 inch ham on honey oat, no cheese, toasted, with onions, regular mustard, light oil & light vinegar, a bag of baked lays chips, and a bottle of water with crystal light strawberry & lemonade mix ins.
  • Snacks – 100 calorie cookies, chips, trail mix, etc – you get the picture!
  • Dinner – I eat whatever I want, but I don’t go overboard!

My Workout Plan:
So this is the part that people really want to know about – how did you go from not working out to running like a maniac?!  I armed myself with a few handy gadgets. 
  • I already had an iPhone 3GS so I could mark that off of the list. 
  • I ordered myself some NikeID shoes that were also Nike+ compatible.  (FYI there is no need to order any NikeID shoes – they’re too damn expensive so skip that step, just buy some shoes that are Nike+ compatible)
  • Purchased the Nike+ sensor to put in my shoes
  • Registered at the NikeRunning website & joined several challenges that they have on their website – nothing like motivation of other members on your “virtual” team.
  • Purchased a handy dandy sports case for my iPhone from the apple store…Marware Sportshell Convertible for iPhone 3GS
  • Turned on the Nike+ iPod application on my iPhone & performed the calibration for both running & walking.
  • I made a playlist of songs to listen to (If you want the list let me know and I’ll hook you up) & I told myself the following: “I will run to the chorus of each song & walk through the verses.”

I went on for about 2 months of running to the chorus only & walking through the verses, each session my workout time was getting better & better – totally proven by the workout history on my Nike+ iPod app!  I ran more on days that I was super stressed out because somehow running became an effective way for me to get in my 30 minutes of cardio, but a way for me to release the stress of life & work. 

Each run I pushed myself to run a little longer than the chorus, to see if I could make it through the chorus & the verse, then walk & try it over again & that’s how I made it to 3 miles in about 35 minutes. 

I also downloaded an app from the iTunes app store called C25K – Couch to 5K which helps you train for a 5K run.  The app is pretty sweet & can be found in the iTunes app store. 

My best mile to date is 10 minutes 12 seconds & my best 5K is 31 minutes 53 seconds.  My longest distance is 5.30 miles which I did in 1 hour 1 minute & 34 seconds. 

My current numbers (12/09):
  • Age: 26
  • Height: 5 feet 11 inches
  • Weight: 152 pounds

Some days my scale says I weigh 154 pounds – some days I say my scale is a POS and can’t make up it’s f*cking mind how much I weigh! ;)

Yesterday I got back on track – I ran 4.21 miles in 45 minutes 58 seconds with a pace of 10 minutes 54 seconds per mile.  Not too bad considering I had just finished eating dinner & was running on a full stomach.

I’m well on my way to being a much happier & healthier me!  When I go back to my OB/GYN for my annual visit, I’m sure he’ll be happy to see that I’ve lost the weight and am keeping it off.

6 comments:

Becca Christensen said...

YAY! I'm clapping for you in my cubicle right now. GET IT GIRL! : ]

Also, for Dec one thing you might want to think about is 'scheduling' blogs. With my crazy schedule and traveling often times I write 2-3 blogs in a day and then schedule them to post randomly throughout that week. That way on days I just can't post, it post for me!

Proud of you.
B

Laura&Chris said...

wow! kudos to you lady!! :) here's my question to you -- do you do this on a tread mill? i've been noticing that i've slowly been packing on some pounds recently... oddly enough, my exercise routine and my eating habits haven't really changed! i'm thinking it might be stress and depression over the change in the seasons. i need to start some cardio workout as a balance to my 5-6X a week rides on my horse. this is inspiring me!!! :)

michelle said...

wow! that's so awesome :) congrats and keep up the amazing work

Soph! said...

Yay! Thanks for this post. It's very inspiring!

I definitely took some notes down about your meal plan. It's definitely do-able! Not like other diets where I feel like I'm depriving myself from things I love to eat.

I really like the idea about running to the chorus and walking to the verses as a way to get into running.

Congratulations on all of your weight loss and thanks for the tips!

NA said...

@Becca - Not sure how to schedule blogs...is that something you can do within blogger? If so, I definitely need to do that!!

@Laura - I do run on a treadmill during the week. I travel for a living & am often in different cities, so I usually hit up the hotel gym to do my workouts. On the weekends, I run on an indoor track at our air force base gym. A bit of cardio will definitely do wonders for your stress...trust me, I know.

@Michelle - I'm going to try...lol try is the key word!

@Soph - No you don't have to deprive yourself of anything, just be a little more cautious about what you're eating. And running to the chorus, walking to a verse is the easiest way to start off I promise!

K.Pete said...

That is definitely something to be proud of!!!! Wow! And I'm excited you are going to be posting every day this month - lucky me :)