I Made It... 3.4 miles

I finally made it past "5k range" without stopping... I got real tired around mile 2... but I kept going and was reenergized once I was in the last 3/4 of a mile. It's been probably 10 years since I ran this far without stopping.

My Big Fat Ears

This week I came to the conclusion that I am actually losing weight in my ears. A few weeks ago, I began noticing that my iPod earbuds kept falling out. They used to fit just fine. This week I tried the larger size ear buds and they worked great. Conclusion: my ears are getting smaller, thereby making my ear canal larger!! Sounds great to me....

Mid last week I ran about 2.8 miles without stopping. Tonight I travelled 3.7 miles total. I walked about 0.5 miles of it when I was feeling a little too much pain about half way through. I think I probably need to run more than 2x per week.

I finally gave in and registered for the Cary Road Race which is in April. It's a 5k.

Watch the Video: A Journey to Remember

In recognition of the friends we made and kept these last 2 years at The Journey and Vintage21, I put together a video using a song Mitch Pons wrote when we closed the Cary V21 site.

This video is just a sampling of some of the fantastic memories and victories we've experienced these last two years, by the grace of God. Check it out.

Runnin' Down a Dream

OK I had to use a song title... I wasn't running on empty, at least not until the very end. So tonight I exceeded my earlier in the week run of 1.6 miles, with a decent run of 2.24 miles. Woo hoo. Oh, for the days when I was a 225 lb. 22 year-old running a 5k or 8k, but I digress.

Tonight I went around the outside of the neighborhood. There was a pretty stiff head wind as I ran around the main streets where there were no homes to shield the effects. It really was a big difference once I turned back into the neighborhood. There was not a lot of muscular pain, and aerobically, I felt good. The main factor causing me to stop was fatigue - and of course, boredom. But my endurance is certainly building up.

I Think Alli Works!

I have noted already that this was going to be a pretty well documented diet. I'm keeping score pretty closely using those little index cards I keep in the bathroom drawer.

Today marks Day 50 of the Diet of 2008. So far I am down 21 pounds, and over half way to my goal of losing 40 before July 4! Being over the top in nerdness, I have graphed my 2008 data (cyan) with data from my diets of 2002 (dark blue), 2004 (magenta), and 2006 (yellow). The red line is the straight line goal from 0 to minus 40 in 180 days, so I am well on track there.

In general, this diet is not much different than previous diets, in that I can pretty easily eat well and exercise for 3-4 months, and knock off 20-30 pounds. I don't think I've eaten any better or exercised more on this diet than some of these previous ones.

What I have done differently is try a new product called Alli™. Alli (pronounced al-eye) is a GlaxoSmithKline product, and is the only FDA approved over the counter "weight loss aid." Alli prevents your body from absorbing about a quarter of the fat you eat. Supposedly, you can lose 50% more weight if you take Alli while on a diet. You have to be on a diet for this to work, as there are very nasty "treatement effects" if you aren't. I have been using this since about week 2 of this diet and have noticed NO side effects at all. So after 50 days, I think the data shows... this stuff must actually work!!! The bad thing about Alli is it is quite expensive - about $2 per day for the 3 pills required (one for each meal).

In the first 50 days of my previous 3 diets, I averaged 1.8 pounds lost per week in 2002, 1.7 in 2004, and 1.7 in 2006. Pretty consistent. For the Diet of 2008, I have averaged 3.0 pounds per week! Without doing the math behind it, I think that is statistically significant. Pretty cool, huh? So anyway, I'm about out of my most recent refill, so it's time to head to the drug store for a refill!