Beware of the Avalanche!

I've always been health conscious. I know how I should be eating, and I am well aware of the risks of not exercising and taking care of your body. Believe it or not I used to be quite the physical specimen about 15 years ago. I ran 5 to 7 miles per day outdoors, I was meticulous about my diet, and I took great pride in my physical appearance. So what happened? What turned me into this mass of liquid jelly that I am today? Well, I fell victim to the avalanche.

Things were going great. I was in the best shape of my life and I looked forward to working out daily. In fact there were times when I would actually run two times per day. I stayed away from fast food, and rarely ate meat except for chicken and fish. I even made my own milk out of rice and vanilla. My family felt I was becoming too thin, but I felt great so I didn't worry too much about this. You might say that I was the picture of health, so dedicated was I to my well being and appearance! Then it happened. At the time I started dating my wife I also worked in a mall, so we would often frequent the food court for lunch and even dinner. Now in the beginning I stuck to my guns, sticking to steamed vegetables and rice, and maybe a been burrito from Taco Bell. I would later learn that these been burritos weren't exactly a devout health nuts best meal choice. Now, I was still running and working out, but my frequency had changed. Once you start dating you find that you just don't have as much time for other things in your life. Something had to go, and it wasn't about to be my future wife. So I made sacrifices when it came to my workout routine. I started adding sour cream and cheese to my burritos, sweet and sour chicken with my white rice, and fish and chips from Arthur Treachers! The avalanche had begun! Before I knew it I had totally abandoned my work out routine all together! I figured that I had done so much damage with my eating habits that I was spinning my wheels working out. It just seemed futile! I was now burried beneath mounds and mounds of snow and I have not recovered since!
Every time I motivate myself to get back into the habit of working out and changing my lifestyle, I am always weary of the avalanche. It can be set off by an unplanned lunch with friends or co-workers, or by indulging in a little snack that wasn't a part of your meal plan. If anyone has any advice or suggestions to avoiding the avalanche I will listen. It may even help others as well.

Jamie hunter

Water

How much water should one drink? A lot of people subscribe to the 64 ounces a day theory. Personally, I try to get around 100 or more. For a lot of people it's very tough to drink enough water. One of the best pieces of advice I could give is to just carry it around in a little container. Maybe something around 16 ounces. I have two that I use. One I have here at my desk all day everyday. The other goes with me from to the gym and anywhere else I end up. I try my best to get in 16 oz. before I have shoes on in the morning. Some days, I pound it down very easily. Others, I have to take it with me and sip on the way to work. Either way, I do everything I can to drink that before I eat or have any other beverages. I don't touch my daily orange juice unless I have had my water first. It kick starts my day and gets my flushing my system. I also try to get in one more bottle before bed no matter how late or what I recently ate or drank. It might wake me up in the middle of the night, but between those two bottles, I have 32 ounces right there. Here are a few other tips for drinking more water.

• Add some lemon or lime to your water. It adds a taste to it that might make you want to drink more of it. Be careful not to make it too sour.
• Instead of a Coke at lunch, try a glass of water. It's a whole lot better for you since you're not gonna be drinking around ten teaspoons (50 ml) of sugar.
• Fill two 32-ounce bottles in the morning and make sure you have emptied the contents of both by the end of your day. It also helps by giving a sense of accomplishment as you can see exactly what is left for you to drink for the day.
  
• Drink water 20 minutes before meals, preferably cold water. The cold causes your stomach to shrink somewhat, which will make you feel full more rapidly. This helps two ways in that you get extra water and that you also tend to eat less.

Of course, it is very hard to drop juices and sodas completely. I still treat myself to a Pepsi One or Coke Zero around once a night. As long as I am staying active and getting enough water, I justify it. I am doing all I can to eliminate liquid calories. If I am gonna have 15o calories, then I might as well eat some chips right? Diet sodas are great because they taste very similar to regular drinks and they are "better" for you. After a while, you don't miss the originals as much. Besides, a lot of companies are offering new variations and flavors all the time.

Chinese Food

I came across an interesting article online a few minutes ago that I want to share with you. I know that we are constantly hearing about fast food giants like McDonald's or Burger King being "not so good" for your waistline. Have you ever thought about the local Chinese buffet? The mom & pop places that can cook up whatever proprietary blend of food can be just as bad, if not worse. Check this out...

A plate of General Tso's chicken, for example, is loaded with about 40 percent more sodium and more than half the calories an average adult needs for an entire day.

The battered, fried chicken dish with vegetables has 1,300 calories, 3,200 milligrams of sodium and 11 grams of saturated fat.

That's before the rice (200 calories a cup). And after the egg rolls (200 calories and 400 milligrams of sodium).

A plate of stir-fried greens has 900 calories and 2,200 milligrams of sodium.

An order of six steamed pork dumplings has 500 calories, and there's not much difference, about 10 calories per dumpling, if they're pan-fried.

They do offer a few tips to help you out though

• Look for dishes that feature vegetables instead of meat or noodles. Ask for extra broccoli, snow peas or other veggies.
• Steer clear of deep-fried meat, seafood or tofu. Order it stir-fried or braised.
• Hold the sauce, and eat with a fork or chopsticks to leave more sauce behind.
• Avoid salt, which means steering clear of the duck sauce, hot mustard, hoisin sauce and soy sauce.
• Share your meal or take half home for later.
• Ask for brown rice instead of white rice.

Glad to Have the Day Off

I think I say it to my wife every Tuesday night or Wednesday morning when I am getting ready for work. "Wow, I am really glad I'm not running tonight!" It was a tough last few days on my legs. Most notably, my knees. I think I was running harder on them than normal. I feel like sometimes I was push too hard down on my legs rather than gliding. I did hit another high of 5.16 miles and 722 calories burned last night. I was thinking that I had hit my plateau of around 5.10 or so. Hopefully with the day off and 48 hours between running, I can hit around 5.20 miles. My goal is still 5.25 for the end of April.

Been eating pretty decent. The other day, the chili I had seemed like it held me back from running great. I ended up .02 short of my previous high, however, I feel like I could have added .05 or more if I had eaten well. Yesterday I had a Snackable for lunch with yogurt, pretzels and one of those 100 calorie snack packs from Ritz. I felt lighter just from not eating like I did the day before. Dinner last night was salad, green beans, and a delicious cheeseburger cooked on the grill by my wife. It's always nice to get home and smell something cooking on a grill in the neighborhood and find out that it is yours! After my sit-ups later on, I had dessert of strawberries, whipped cream and a small angel food cake. Lunch today was a can of soup and some pretzels. Snacks were string cheese, Jello pudding, and another Ritz 100 calorie pack.

I'm really looking forward to relaxing after work and enjoying the night off from running.

Tough Day

Although I did beat the previous high of 5.11 miles by one-one hundredth of a mile, I had to really push it. Hardest I had to go in about a week. The one big reason I can think of is that I spent almost 9 hours working on our office and spare bedroom yesterday. Moving desks, beds, dressers, etc. Perhaps that might have played a little in how I fared. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy to beat my record. I have no idea how I will do today when I get off work. My knees felt sore most of the night last night afterwards and I hope that time at the desk today helps a little bit. I also really need to get some new music for my run. I think that it mentally plays a pretty good sized portion of my run too. It kinda sucks to hear the same DJ set start over every few days. It's like "Oh... here we go again with this."

Gonna have a light snack day with some pretzels, string cheese, jello and lunch will be a bowl of chili. We'll see what happens there!