Fat Man Running

Back to Training

Paul — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:31:00 +0000

So I lounged around for the weekend and then decided to pick my C25K training back up again. So we’ll say this is Week 1 Day 1! :) Good session today, I did about 1.75 miles. Slowly but surely I’ll get there. Back and neck are 99% recovered, so tomorrow is weight training. Really need to build core muscle strength.

Yet another setback

Paul — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:52:58 +0000

Well, I started C25k last week and was doing my best to stick with it. I did the first couple of days of training and was all geared up for the 3rd, when I was in yet another car accident. That’s my 3rd in 6 months. I swear there’s a karma contract out on me. So a little bit of whiplash later, and I REALLY don’t feel up to running. Hopefully Monday I’ll be ok to start over. When it rains, it pours!

On the plus side (or perhaps I should say the minus side) I am down 20 pounds today from when I started a few weeks ago. Obviously that’s the “easy” weight to lose, but at least I’m seeing progress. People knock low carb, but I honestly am never hungry and overall I feel pretty good.

I’m baaaack

Paul — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:41:08 +0000

Ok, enough with the hiatus. I admit it, I was lazy and fat. My exercise became sporadic and my middle became rounder, and I just gave up. But I’m firmly on the path of low carb again, and now have the energy to look at excercise again. I’m starting a new “C25k” program, which is Couch to 5k. Sounds fun. Here’s a rundown of the checklist:

http://shepherdweb.com/lab/2007/Couch-to-5K/Couch-to-5K.html

So we’ll see how it goes!

The BodyBugg does bug me… but it works

Paul — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:38:07 +0000

I never would have thought I would take to the BodyBugg so much. But I have to admit I find myself deliberately trying to beat my goals, watching my calories far more closely than I ever did in the past, and just being very aware of what I’m doing. It’s really been a great tool for me so fat. That said, I’m annoyed by a few things that I need to find solutions for:

The digital display gets out of sync with the band a lot. I find that I’m having to resync it quite frequently. I don’t understand why, it shouldn’t be such a chore.
I need to know if I can wear the arm band on my left arm as well as my right. I need to switch it up sometimes.
My skin is getting rubbed raw by the one small part of the armband where it loops around and fastens. Not pleasant.

Ultimately no pain no gain, but these minor annoyances do tend to piss me off from time to time. In other news I added weight lifting to my routine 3 times a week. That’s hopefully going to help me with my core muscle strength and let me continue to push my run/walk ratio more towards the run side.

Run Fat Boy, Run

Paul — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:43:46 +0000

Somewhat amusingly I’d never heard of this movie before I put up the site. So when I finally saw the trailer I had to laugh. Boy do I understand ;) Unfortunately I’m still at the “Walk fat boy, walk!” stage. My legs are slowly hurting less. Soon maybe I’ll be able to do more than 22 minutes on 3.3 on the treadmill and not feel like my shins have been spint with an axe. Ah, to dream!

In other news, I got my Bodybugg yesterday and have been obsessed with it. I really like the little bugger. The arm band is a bit uncomfortable and tends to slide around more than I like, but I really dig the real-time feedback it gives me! It has a couple limitations… the most obvious being that it does not measure heartrate. They are trying to put it in the next version, but I do miss having it. Second is that you obviously have to accurately enter your food journal. Now I realize that it’s great to have a food journal, and it certainly gives me a real view of what I eat. But man is it a pain! Also it doesn’t have an option for a low carb diet, so it’s impossible to make their numbers align with what I am eating other than calories.

My legs are weak, but my kung fu is strong!

Paul — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:17:29 +0000

Ok, maybe it’s just that my legs are weak. I talked to a trainer finally about my severe leg pain. He was polite, but the gist of the conversation boiled down to the fact that I was way too fat and trying to use muscles that were not up to the task. He said I’d get through it eventually. We’ll hope he’s right, because damn does it hurt!

In other news I ordered the BodyBugg. I’ve been fascinated with the little gizmo ever since I saw it on “The Biggest Loser” and I found one on sale. So I sprang for it. I’m not sure if it will ever be more than a nifty gizmo, but it can’t hurt!

Thinking about food is an interesting challenge

Paul — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:19:33 +0000

So last Sunday I taped a show called “I Can Make You Thin” on TLC. I did it as kind of a lark, not really expecting much out of it. It’s hosted by a guy called Paul McKenna, and he’s annoying as hell. But despite that, I was pleasantly surprised when I sat down and watched it a couple nights ago. I’m not saying there was any earth shattering news in it, but some of the ways he approached how you should eat were really interesting.

His 4 Golden Rules actually make a lot of sense, and I’m going to try them out myself as a way to eat. I’ve already started to be more deliberate about eating my meals, and he’s right. You do feel full sooner if you approach it that way. I’ve heard part of the reason is that your stomach doesn’t begin sending out “I’m full” signals until 15 minutes into a meal, so if you wolf food down you won’t feel full until it’s too late.

Now, I’m not completely buying in to everything he’s saying yet. For instance, his entire apprach seems to be on modification of how you eat and not excercise, specific nutrition, etc; But certainly the approach itself makes sense. So check out his website on www.tlc.com/thin if you’re interested.

These Shoes Are Made For Walking

Paul — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:12:39 +0000

New shoes came in… sadly they didn’t fix my problem. They did help it though so that’s a good thing. Today was my day of rest, and I spent it considering what my diet was going to be. I waffle. On the one hand I REALLY enjoy food and find low carb incredibly restrictive. On the other hand I need structure to eat correctly. I admit it, I’m a weak fat man. So I’ve got to figure out what the heck I’m doing. Running alone isn’t going to fix me, and I can’t really get to running hard like I want to unless I shed some serious pounds. *sigh* I need the magic pill!

I am actually missing exercise today but my legs needed a break. I was also suffering from a little sleep deprivation (damn cat) and of course feeling lazy. So enough excuses. Tomorrow it’s back on the treadmill.

Ouch

Paul — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:10:15 +0000

So far, this is more like fat man limping I started going to the gym last Thursday and the trainer has me alternating walking and running. I’ll be blunt… there’s a lot of walking. I’ve got some new shoes on order that I hope are going to help, but right now my shins hurt like the blazes. I’ve got these weird little knots on the muscle that goes up over my shins. It gets so tight I have to stop and do some ankle rotations to work it out. I’m not sure if it’s the weight, my shoes, or the fact that I am badly out of shape. Hoping it goes away!

The shoes I ordered are marketed as being for guys with flat feet (check!), over-pronation (I looked it up… check!) and being on the heavy side (triple check!). So I am very hopeful. On the diet front I’m adding a lot more fruit, but I need to work on the green stuff. And I have got to cut out all the cookies. I’m trying to use those 100 Calorie packs. I like them a lot, I just want to eat like 2 or 3 in a sitting. I had said I was going low carb I know. I’m working my way to it! Anyway… onward I go.

My name is Paul… and I’m fat.

Paul — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:36:54 +0000

Welcome to FatManRunning.org. This is my personal journey down the road to finding a thinner me. I won’t say skinny because frankly that’s something I’ve never been (and am never likely to be!). But I’m 5′8 and weigh 267.5 pounds as of this morning. That puts me in the bowling ball status. And that, dear readers, isn’t a great place to be.

So why am I writing a blog about it? Good question. I doubt anyone will actually ever read this, but I will. And the threat of public humiliation is, in some insane way, motivation. Certainly not my only one, but I can’t deny that it is there. And I need all the motivation I can get to stop being a slug. As my wife frequently reminds me, if I die before her she’s going to dig me up and kill me again.

10 years ago I was 22 years old and weighed 182 pounds. I ran 4-5 miles a day mostly because I had large angry men yelling at me that I had to (I was in the Army). I could do 60 pushups and 80 situps in 2 minutes, run 2 miles in under 12 minutes, and in general was a pretty fit guy. Then I got a series of incredibly painful stress fractures that made running feel like I was standing on pieces of glass, and I was discharged from the Army. 10 years and almost 100 pounds heavier, here I am.

So here’s my plan… I’m going to run it off. Step by step, quite likely pausing to puke frequently in the initial stages. I’m sure I’ll be doing mroe walking than running too. But I’ll get there. I want to run a half marathon by the fall. I’m also dieting, low carb. Not the best combination for a runner but I know what works for me in terms of losing weight. I love sugar too much. Waaay too much.

So I’ll use this blog as a diary. I’ll post some pictures, weigh ins, etc; If no one but me ever reads it I guess that’s ok, as long as I reach my goal. Not much else I can say about that :).