Week 9, Day 1

Today's weight: 213

Today's blood pressure: 157/91

Today's food: can cherry pepsi, 4 clementines, yogurt, beef 'n' cheddar, curly fries, dinner at buddy's (bread, nachos, fries, french dip, part of sundae), pork roast

Today's exercise: (run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X3

Week 8 Wrapup

I ate a lot this week, because it's Christmas, and there was a big Christmas dinner, and a big Christmas Eve dinner, and Christmas parties, and Christmas candy and... We were able to run during the day a couple of times by taking advantage of the presence of family and running at other people's houses while they watched kids.

The day after Christmas I went to a big paintball match with a lot of people from my parents' ward, friends of friends, etc. Playing paintball evidently involves lots of short sprints, then lots of squatting for long periods of time while waiting to get shot. For a couple of days afterward, I had such soreness in my thighs that I found it hard to walk. It usually felt better while I was running, but Thursday I didn't go out because it hurt so bad. Other than that, the running went well.

I got a new scale this week, also. This one would be rather unremarkable except for the fact that it can give me the same reading 10 times in a row, which I could never dream of with our previous one. It also reads in .2 pound increments, so that's nice.

My original plan was to do this whole exercise thing for eight weeks, than reevaluate all the various health things I wanted to try to improve. Some things I can't check for improvement without blood tests or medical evaluation, but other things are easier for me to check myself, like blood pressure and weight. I can run farther, and I'm down almost 10 pounds on average from the highest weight when I started, and that's encouraging. But, my blood pressure hasn't dropped at all. The readings are all over the map, but on average aren't any lower. So, I'd like to keep this thing going for a little while and perhaps lose a little more weight to see if there's any chance the blood pressure will change.

I'm going to extend this until one of the following happens: I finish the running schedule and can run a half hour straight, or I lose another 10-15 pounds, or my blood pressure just suddenly drops on its own.

Week 8, Day 7

Today's weight: 213.2

Today's blood pressure: 142/86

Today's food: cracked wheat cereal, 4 clementines, can cherry pepsi, ham soup, gummy bears, waffle & ham, hot tamales, popcorn

Today's exercise: day of rest

Week 8, Day 6

Today's weight: 214.8

Today's blood pressure: 142/86

Today's food: banana, pork roast, cheese and cracker, candy, cookies, cracked wheat cereal, turkey sandwich, baked potato with chili

Today's exercise: (run 7 minutes, walk 3 minutes) X3

Week 8, Day 5

Today's weight: 213.8

Today's blood pressure: 148/76

Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, doritos, green corn tamale, beef taquito, cup of squirt, enchilada casserole, orange juice, turkey soup, party food (shrimp, mini quiches, flan, other hors d'oeuvres)

Today's exercise: (run 7 minutes, walk 3 minutes) X3

Week 8, Day 4

Today's weight: 214.5

Today's blood pressure: 133/91

Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, beef and cheddar, curly fries, ham sandwich, hot tamales

Today's exercise: Didn't go for a plethora of excuses. Hurt from paintball, too cold, no babysitter, etc.

Week 8, Day 3

Today's weight: 212.5

Today's blood pressure: 141/86

Today's food: can mountain dew, wendy's single, fries, can cherry pepsi, slice and a half of pizza, ham sandwich, cookies, hot tamales, prime rib

Today's exercise: (run 7 minutes, walk 3 minutes) X3. Also National Paintball Day

Week 8, Day 2

Today's weight: not home, didn't take

Today's blood pressure: not home, didn't take

Today's food: bacon, eggs, candy, biscuits and gravy, oj, candy, ham and stuff, candy, clementines, candy

Today's exercise: 1st Annual Christmas Family Fun Run - (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X5

Week 8, Day 1

Today's weight: 215

Today's blood pressure: 136/93

Today's food: cocoa puffs, christmas eve dinner (prime rib, potato, shrimp, crème brulee, chocolate mousse, etc), candy

Today's exercise: (run 7 minutes, walk 3 minutes) X3

Week 7 Wrapup, Colossal Failure Edition

Week 7 didn't really go well at all. We had a stomach flu-type virus going through our family one by one this week, with the resultant puking and diarrhea, and it finally got me at the end of the week. We also were out of town for a couple of days for my brother's wedding. I normally wouldn't have let that interfere with running, but we got checked in to our hotel really late, and the next day I got sick.

So, not only did I not run for four days, but I didn't do a very good job of tracking weight, blood pressure, and eating. So, I'm giving a fail for this week, and will start this week's running schedule again next week.

Week 7, Day 7

Today's weight: 215

Today's blood pressure: forgot

Today's food: scrambled eggs, bacon, shrimp, OJ, pork roast, mashed potatoes, popcorn, hot tamales

Today's exercise: day of rest

Week 7, Day 6

Today's weight: forgot

Today's blood pressure: forgot

Today's food: panda express (orange chicken, beef broccoli, chow mein), wedding reception food

Today's exercise: none. sick.

Week 7, Day 5

Today's weight: Didn't take. Out of town

Today's blood pressure: Didn't take. Out of town.

Today's food: hotel breakfast, wedding luncheon, 2 pieces pizza, 2 pieces cake

Today's exercise: none, sick

Week 7, Day 4

Today's weight: 215

Today's blood pressure: 149/100

Today's food: ginger snaps, lots of candy, 2 sloppy joes, 4 clementines, quarter pounder and fries, chile relleno, 2 mcnuggets

Today's exercise: None. Stuck in hotel, Becki sick, etc.

Week 7, Day 3

Today's weight: 216

Today's blood pressure: 144/100

Today's food: yogurt, manuel's chile verde, candy, roast, 1/2 bowl cocoa puffs, grapefruit

Today's exercise: (run 7 minutes, walk 3 minutes) X3

Week 7, Day 2

Today's weight: forgot

Today's blood pressure: 134/93

Today's food: yogurt, 3 clementines, fried chicken salad, piece of bread, all that homemade candy that patient brought in, 3 1/2 fuddruckers sliders, hot tamales, nachos

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X5

Week 7, Day 1

Today's weight: 214.5

Today's blood pressure: 148/99

Today's food: yogurt, roast beef sandwich, Dr. Wyatt's candy, 3 clementines, 3 hot tamales (actual tamales this time), popcorn

Today's exercise: (run 7 minutes, walk 3 minutes) X3

Today's run was great. I felt great like I had a ton of energy. My foot or knee didn't hurt. 7 minutes didn't feel like too long at all. It was one of those days where it's easy to remember what it is I like about running.

Week 6 Wrapup

The running this week went well. I felt like I was prepared for the 5 minute stretches of running finally. However, my foot started hurting a couple of times this week and ruined the runs on Tuesday and Saturday. My foot doesn't hurt at all any other times, but hurt so much on those days I had to stop. I can't really find a pattern to it at all. I can't find any thing that I'm doing that's making it hurt any different from the times when it doesn't hurt, so I guess I'll just keep going and see how it plays out.

Saturday's run wasn't just foot problems. I had absolutely no energy running that day, and felt like it was a huge struggle just to lift my legs. I'm hoping that my day of rest today makes it all better tomorrow.

The other thing I noticed a lot this week is that it's getting colder. Colder for us is still downright balmy for some of our far flung friends and family. But, considering that most nights we aren't able to get out until 10:30 or later, we end up starting when it's around 45 degrees or so outside. I still don't have the right clothes for running in cold. I can bundle up, but once my body starts warming up, I get too hot and sweaty. But, if I don't bundle up, I'm uncomfortable when I first start.

What we normally do is walk about a half mile to a nearby park (running the last one or two minutes of it) to warm up. There we do our stretching. By the time I'm halfway done stretching, I'm not that cold anymore. It's that first few minutes that are miserable, though. As an experiment, I ran the whole way from home to the park on Saturday, and still didn't feel any warmer until after I started stretching. So, evidently, it takes a while for the body's core temperature to rise or whatever happens to make you feel warmer when you exert yourself. The end result is that if it gets too much colder, we'll probably have to run in place or something at home to warm up, then stretch at home and hit the ground running when we get outside.

Week 6, Day 7

Today's weight: 216

Today's blood pressure: 128/87

Today's food: steak, yogurt, pop tarts, chicken sandwich, leftover shrimp/calamari pasta, popcorn

Today's exercise: day of rest

Week 6, Day 6

Today's weight: 214.5

Today's blood pressure: 130/94

Today's food: turkey soup, banana, office party (bread, calamari, shrimp and calamari pasta, etc.), tootsie rolls

Today's exercise: should have been: (run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes) X4
was actually: massive failure (foot hurting, completely drained, quit during 3rd run)

Week 6, Day 5

Today's weight: 215

Today's blood pressure: 132/96

Today's food: yogurt, banana, cheesecake, hot chocolate, turkey soup, snickers, slice of bread, popcorn

Today's exercise: (run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes) X4

Week 6, Day 4

Today's weight: 215

Today's blood pressure: 142/86

Today's food: yogurt, banana, 1/2 serving pringles, 2 sloppy joes, some more of Dr. Wyatt's fancy candy, ridiculousuly large Red Lobster dinner (salad, biscuits, lobster pizza, salmon, baked potato, shrimp, some more shrimp), potato chips

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X5

Week 6, Day 3

Today's weight: 213.5

Today's blood pressure: 139/92

Today's food: yogurt, chile relleno, taco, Dr. Wyatt's candy*, 1/2 cup turkey pumpkin chili, hot chocolate, sloppy joe, 2 clementines, pork chop

Today's exercise: (run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes) X4

*A local endodontist to whom we refer sent a bunch of fancy candy over.

Week 6, Day 2

Today's weight: 213

Today's blood pressure: 141/86

Today's food: 1/2 banana, yogurt, casino buffet (salad, fried chicken, roast beef, potatoes, gravy, ceviche), lemon sandwich cookies, cheesecake, pork chop, hot chocolate, cheesecake again

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X5*

*This is what was scheduled. Right when I walked outside my house, my left foot started hurting badly again. After three of the runs, I gave up and walked home.

Week 6, Day 1

Today's weight: 212

Today's blood pressure: 145/93

Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, cheesecake, parmesan crusted chicken, graham cracker frosting sandwiches, big juicy burger

Today's exercise: (run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes) X4

Week 5 Wrapup

This first day after the half-marathon, I had a really hard time even walking on my left foot. I attempted to walk around the block that evening, but I just hobbled around. I tried to jog for a couple of minutes to see if that was any different, and it was worse, so we hobbled back home.

I iced it that night, and the next day it felt better enough to do the normal Tuesday light workout of two minute runs. I iced it again, and by Wednesday I was ready to pick up repeating the previous week's schedule, which was already a repeat of the week before, and which was already another week behind from what that schedule was supposed to be. So now, 5 weeks into my 8 week plan, I'm finally done with week 2 of a 10 week "get into shape for running" schedule.

Somehow, I don't think I'll be able to compress the remaining eight weeks of the schedule into the three weeks left of my goal period. This week, though, we finally felt really good about the running and felt absolutely ready to move on to the next week, and its 5 minute running intervals.

Week 5, Day 7

Today's weight: 215.5

Today's blood pressure: 139/92

Today's food: cereal with banana, cheesecake, pot roast and potatoes, 1/2 cheesecake, clementine, can cherry pepsi

Today's exercise: day of rest

Week 5, Day 6

Today's weight: 216.5

Today's blood pressure: 125/89

Today's food: cereal with banana, 50 cent burger, crab legs, clementine, popcorn

Today's exercise: run 3 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes, run 4 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes, run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes, (run 3 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes) X2

Week 5, Day 5

Today's weight: 215.5

Today's blood pressure: 130/89

Today's food: yogurt, banana, t-bone steak, 1 slice bread, ward christmas dinner (turkey, potatoes, pumpkin pie, ham, rolls, etc), apple cider, hot dog

Today's exercise: (run 3 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes) X2, run 4 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes, (run 3 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes) X2

Week 5, Day 4

Today's weight: 214.5

Today's blood pressure: 123/87

Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, snickers bar, lean pocket, parmesan crusted chicken, pasta side, 1 slice bread, nachos

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X4

Week 5, Day 3

Today's weight: 215

Today's blood pressure: 116/83

Today's food: cupcake, yogurt, 3 clementines, chips and salsa, jello, mushroom cream sauce sausage, pork chop and potato, 1/2 rice krispie treat, apple cider

Today's exercise: (run 3 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes) X5

Week 5, Day 2

Today's weight: 217

Today's blood pressure: 137/107

Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, chicken caesar salad, sausage skillet, cupcake, apple cider X 2

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X4

Week 5, Day 1

Today's weight: 215

Today's blood pressure: forgot

Today's food: yogurt, 4 clementines, onion rings, BK italian chicken sandwich, jello, egg and sausage skillet, cupcake

Today's exercise: Hobble 1 1/4 miles. Attempt to jog for two minutes and fail.

Week 4 Wrapup

This week, the exercise got sidetracked because I took Thursday off, then it rained Friday, then my sister asked me to go with her in the Tucson Half-Marathon.

Running in a half-marathon doesn't really seem like it goes with the conservative philosophy that I espoused last week, and sure enough, I've hurt my left foot something fierce. My muscles are only a little sore, and I don't really feel as exhausted as I'd think, but it's hard to even walk on my foot. I doubt that I will be able to do the scheduled exercise for this week, so I'll definitely be paying for overreaching with the Marathon. Daedalus flies too close to the sun, yet again.

I'll mostly rest for a day or two, then try walking and a little jogging, repeating as much of the last week as possible, then do this week's exercise (which was originally last week's) next week. Got that?

Week 4, Day 7

Today's weight: 217 (taken after the race)

Today's blood pressure: forgot to take it

Today's food: before race: bowl of cereal, energy bar, apple cider; during race: energy bar, clif shot, 1/2 energy bar, gatorade; after race: peanut butter honey wrap, banana, tortilla chips; dinner: graham cracker frosting sandwich, 3 hot dogs, jello

Today's exercise: Half-marathon

Week 4, Day 6

Today's weight: 217

Today's blood pressure: 147/88

Today's food: pancakes, 1 macaroon, pork chop stuff, beef 'n' cheddar, curly fries, 1 slice bread, apple cider

Today's exercise: rest for half-marathon tomorrow

Week 4, Day 5

Today's weight: forgot

Today's blood pressure: forgot

Today's food: 4 clementines, snickers bar, pork chop and potatoes and carrots, cinnamon muffin, hot tamales*, Wendy's 50 cent burger, nachos

Today's exercise: rainy**

* the candy, not tamales that are hot.

** I don't yet have proper apparel for running in the rain, and it was just coming down too hard all night.

Week 4, Day 4

Today's weight: 219

Today's blood pressure: forgot

Today's food: 4 clementines, beef burrito, macaroons, halloween candy, 2 salmon in cream sauce, can root beer

Today's exercise: sick*

* Tuesday's and Thursday's workouts are optional on my schedule, and because I wasn't feeling that great today, I chose to exercise the option and go to bed early.

Week 4, Day 3

Today's weight: 218.5

Today's blood pressure: 137/98

Today's food: 1 slice pizza, 4 clementines, beef 'n' cheddar, curly fries, OJ, leftover curry

Today's exercise: (run 3 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes) X5

Week 4, Day 2

Today's weight: 218.5

Today's blood pressure: 154/94

Today's food: can pepsi, 4 clementines, beef 'n' cheddar, curly fries, macaroons, halloween candy, pork chop, potato chips, orange juice

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X4

Week 4, Day 1

Today's weight: 218.0

Today's blood pressure: forgot

Today's food: can pepsi, macaroons, stuffing & potatoes & turkey, pizza, cereal with banana, halloween candy

Today's exercise: (run 3 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes) X5

Week 3 Wrapup

Next week's running schedule had me going to 4 runs of 5 minutes each, with 2.5 minutes of walking between. That's a far cry from the 3 minutes running/3 minutes walking I was doing this week. I feel like the running I did this week was okay, although I was struggling a little. I feel like I could do 5 minutes, but I don't know for sure if I could do 5 minutes 4 times. And, I feel like the 3 minute runs should feel easier if I'm going to be able to jump to 5 minutes next week.

I had a couple of other concerns as well. For one, Becki's been going out with me most nights. She can't go every night, though, because of her other motherly obligations and claimed need for sleep. I'd prefer that she still be able to go out with me as often as she can for as long as I'm doing this. So, I didn't want to ramp up so fast that she felt like she was going to fall behind because of her intermittent participation.

My other concern is just for my own body. I really actually like running. Before, once I got past the remedial training and got to the point where I could run for an hour, I really started enjoying myself. I had the "runner's high" and everything. If I can get to the point where I can run a decent distance again, I'd like to be able to keep it up, but I can't if I injure myself. I've been living as a fat man for my whole adult life, and it may have been taking a toll on my knees and other parts. For all I know, I may only have another 5 years that I actually can be a runner before my knees give out. I'd like to do what I can to maximize my body's usefulness during the time I actually have left, and that means playing it safe and ramping up kind of slow.

So, because of all that, I'm flunking myself this week, and deciding to repeat this week of the running schedule again with just the following changes: I'm only allowing 2.5 minutes walking between runs, since that's all I'll get when I jump ahead to the following week, and I'll add a couple of 4 minute and 5 minute runs at the end of the week to try to build up more for the following week.

The good news is that the new shoes are working great. I don't have even remotely the amount of shin splint trouble I used to. I can't say for sure that it's the shoes, but I'm just glad I don't have to overdose on the ibuprofen any more.

Week 3, Day 7

Today's weight: 220

Today's blood pressure: forgot

Today's food: can pepsi, pot roast tv dinner, halloween candy, chicken curry, hot chocolate

Today's exercise: day of rest

Week 3, Day 6

Today's weight: 220

Today's blood pressure: 149/92

Today's food: can pepsi, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, turkey sandwich, popcorn & pop at movie, double double

Today's exercise: (run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes) X5

Week 3, Day 5

Today's weight: 219

Today's blood pressure: 140/89

Today's food: can pepsi, chicken noodle soup, caramel pumpkin pie, banana, jalapeno beef

Today's exercise: Didn't get to run because of plumbing catastrophe.

Week 3, Day 4

Today's weight: I somehow forgot to measure it today.

Today's blood pressure: 155/90 (measured after I got home, instead of when I get up like I normally would)

Today's food: can pepsi, thanksgiving*, turkey sandwich

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X4

* thanksgiving at Becki's mom's house, with all the food you would expect.

Week 3, Day 3

Today's weight: 219

Today's blood pressure: 146/97

Today's food: can pepsi, lean pocket, thanksgiving*, jalapeno beef

Today's exercise: (run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes) X5

* Thanksgiving dinner at my family's house, meaning, turkey, potatoes, stuffing, dessert, the whole bit

Week 3, Day 2

Today's weight: 219

Today's blood pressure: 139/89

Today's food: can pepsi, 2/3 country fried steak, bowl of chili, cereal with banana

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X4

Week 3, Day 1

Today's weight: 220

Today's blood pressure: 135/98

Today's food: can pepsi, brownie, chili's (1/3 country fried steak, potatoes, corn, southwest egg rolls, part of other peoples' dessert), yogurt, banana

Today's exercise: (run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes X 5)

Week 2 Wrapup: New shoes

Yesterday I got my second pair of running shoes ever. The first pair I got were the New Balance 950 in 2001. I had started running then and needed something to run in so I just bought the first pair I saw that didn't cost very much and didn't look totally dorky. I hadn't really run much, so I had no way of knowing how I would run, or what problems I might run into. So, there was no point in doing anything other than just picking shoes at random.

Those New Balance aren't totally worn out yet, but I did put some wear on them, and I fear that the cushioning has just degraded a little over time since they are 6 1/2 years old. More importantly, I'm guessing I might be able to find a better shoe for my needs now.

I always had shin splints every day that I ran back in the day, and just got into the habit of taking 800mg of ibuprofen 1 hour before running to cope with it. Now that I'm running again, I notice the same thing happening, so I'm hoping some new shoes could help with that.

I first went to the aptly named The Running Shop. It was a kind of small shop, crowded with about 1000 pairs of shoes, and a crapload of apparel and accessories and stuff. There were about 30 people in there, too. The shop was in a bit of disarray, but in a way that gave me the impression that everyone there was dedicated more to running than to shopkeeping. The crowd of customers would seem to bear that out as well. I would have stuck around there, but I had Joey with me and he kept wanting to ride the wheeled stools that the employees would sit on when they tried shoes onto you.

So, I went to Performance Footwear. This store is everything that The Running Shop is not: clean, spacious, well organized, open, airy... and completely devoid of people. The entire time I was there, it was just me and the sales dude. I might have just turned right around and headed back to The Running Shop, but by that time Joey had fallen asleep, and Performance Footwear had a big leather couch that I was able to just dump him on to sleep while I shoe shopped.

The sales dude was a young guy, probably a college student. He never gave me a lot of confidence that he knew what he was talking about. He may be the smartest guy in running-land, but the way he said things just sounded like he was repeating everything he heard his manager say without knowing what the things he was saying actually meant. He looked at my old shoes and saw that the only real visible wear was on the heel, and not on either side, so under or over-pronation probably wasn't a problem (which is what I had previously surmised from my own cursory examination). He watched me on the treadmill for a little bit and said that I was just landing on my heels, like most people, and I just need a shoe with good cushioning in the heel.

He brought out 4 pairs. One rubbed me funny in one spot and seemed like it would give blisters there. One was too small and he didn't have a larger size. One felt okay. The last ones were a pair of Mizunos that felt a little more okay than the previous pair. They were cheaper also, so I bought them. They have some sort of plastic shock absorber/spring contraption in the heel that I would totally be showing off on the playground if I were still in elementary school. I also picked up a pair of clearance running pants for when the weather starts to get a little colder.

So, I think these shoes will work out okay, but I will most likely return to The Running Shop for when I need anything else. The only real advantage that Performance Footwear has is that they give a 15% discount to members of the Southern Arizona Roadrunners, whereas The Running Shop only gives 10%, but that's the price you pay for knowledge, I guess.

The other thing I did today was bid on a used Garmin Forerunner 205 on eBay. My Casio digital watch broke, so I don't have a watch with stopwatch on it right now, which makes it hard to time my runs. I've been just generally counting my paces, because I know that at a normal jogging pace, my left foot will hit the ground about 80 times in a minute. So, if I have to run three minutes, I'll just count to 240. i'd much rather have a watch do it, and this watch can do things like beep when I've gone a certain time or distance in all sorts of intervals that I can program into it.

This week's exercise is actually the first week of a ten week running schedule that I got off of runnersworld.com. It was part of an article about how to get a complete out of shape non-runner to be able to run thirty minutes at a stretch. I used last week to just stretch my legs and get used to running a little, so I'm starting this schedule a week behind. That means I'll only be able to finish 7 weeks of it before the official end of my eight week experiment, which will take me up to the point where I can run 26 minutes, broken into three chunks with a few minutes of walking in between. I suspect I'll keep going after the experiment is over and finish out the schedule before seeing what comes next. I'm just not promising anything beyond my eight week goal at this point.

I'm still keeping up with the running okay. I added a couple of extra minutes in Friday and Saturday's run to hopefully be better prepared for the jump to next week.

Week 2, Day 7

Today's weight: 220

Today's blood pressure: 128/91

Today's food: can pepsi, chicken ziti broccoli, pork medallions with stuffing, 2 pieces banana cake, yogurt

Today's exercise: day of rest

Week 2, Day 6

Today's weight: 220

Today's blood pressure: 131/87

Today's food: can pepsi, lean pocket, large jamba juice (the 600 some-odd calories version), chicken soup, halloween candy

Today's exercise: run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes, (run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes) X3, run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes

Week 2, Day 5

Today's weight: 220

Today's blood pressure: 144/84

Today's food: can pepsi, two brownies, cinnamon roll, 1/2 beef barolo, slice bread, popcorn, chips and dip, halloween candy

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X2, (run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes) X2, run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes

Week 2, Day 4

Today's weight: 219

Today's blood pressure: 132/91

Today's food: can pepsi, banana, taco/relleno, halloween candy, chicken broccoli ziti, cinnamon roll

Today's exercise: walk for 50 minutes (I forgot my running shoes today)

Week 2, Day 3

Today's weight: 220

Today's blood pressure: 130/95

Today's food: can pepsi, pancakes, halloween candy, cereal with banana, beef barolo

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X2, run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes, (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X2

Week 2, Day 2

Today's weight: 219

Today's blood pressure: 146/91

Today's food: can pepsi, manuel's taco platter, 1/2 shrimp pasta, halloween candy, orange julius, cereal with banana, popcorn

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X3

Week 2, Day 1

Today's weight: 220.5

Today's blood pressure: 134/96

Today's food: turkey sandwich with bacon, beef barolo, squash soup, halloween candy

Today's exercise: (run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes) X5

Week 1 Wrapup

This week's exercise was really light, just to get my feet used to hitting the pavement again, and get my tendons and ligaments and muscles all sort of stretching again. I've really been sedentary for a long time, and running 1 minute stretches is not too much, but is definitely stretching my abilities a little.

I should mention we have the world's crappiest scale. It's digital, and it's new enough to use strain gauges instead of whatever they used before. However, it can't give me a consistent reading. I could step on it 5 times, and get a reading that varies up to six pounds from the lowest to highest reading. Each reading you see here is actually the average of about ten repeated attempts. Also, it's super creaky when I step on it which only serves to hurt my self esteem. I shall replace it as soon as I find a new one that's accurate yet doesn't cost a lot.

Week 1, Day 7

Today's weight: 220.5

Today's blood pressure: 141/93

Today's food: one bottle mexican coke, pasta with shrimp cream sauce, banana, bacon mustard chicken, popcorn

Today's exercise: day of rest

Week 1, Day 6

Today's weight: 220.5

Today's blood pressure: 139/95

Today's food: can pepsi, leftover satay, milanesa, garlic chicken, halloween candy, two bottles mexican coke

Today's exercise: Alternate running 1 minute and walking 1 minute ten times

Week 1, Day 5

Today's weight: 220.5

Today's blood pressure: 134/94

Today's food: can pepsi, salmon patty, halloween candy, tortillas, seafood ravioli

Today's exercise: walk for one hour interspersed with nine 1 minute long spurts of running

Week 1, Day 4

Today's weight: 222

Today's blood pressure: 136/81

Today's food: can pepsi, slice cheesecake, fancy lawyer food*, 1/2 serving garlic chicken, halloween candy, rice krispies with banana

Today's exercise: walk for one hour interspersed with eight 1 minute long spurts of running

* Chandler & Udall, the law firm that handles malpractice cases for my dad, was having an open house for their new office. They had plenty of fancy hors d'oeuvres like these meatball things, pot stickers, chicken satay, cream puffs and eclairs, and cocktail shrimp bigger than my 3 year old son's arm.

Week 1, Day 3

Today's weight: 220.5

Today's blood pressure: 131/87

Today's food: jack in the box sirloin burger combo, bowl of cereal with banana, halloween candy

Today's exercise: walk for one hour interspersed with eight 1 minute long spurts of running

Week 1, Day 2

Today's weight: 221.5

Today's blood pressure: 132/95

Today's food: panda house combo, 1.5 servings dijon tarragon chicken, halloween candy, bowl of rice krispies with banana

Today's exercise: walk for one hour interspersed with eight 1 minute long spurts of running

Week 1, Day 1

Today's weight: 220.5

Today's blood pressure: 132/98

Today's food: wendy's single combo, halloween candy, catfish platter at texas roadhouse

Today's exercise: 4.25 miles brisk walk

Format

The format of this program is as follows: Every day I will do some form of exercise, usually running. The amount of running I do will increase along a predetermined schedule. Sundays are a day of rest, with no exercise.

I'm not "going on a diet" or otherwise making major changes to my diet. I am making the following minor changes, however: Non-diet soda will be limited to 12 ounces per day. Each day I will attempt to include 1 serving of milk or other dairy product, and 1 serving of fruits or vegetables beyond what might be normally included in my meals. I will also try not to eat like a pig or eat so much that I make myself sick.

I will measure my weight every morning, usually just before showering. I will take my blood pressure every morning, as soon after waking up as possible.

I will post here my log for each day. Each day's entry will include my weight, my blood pressure, what I ate for that day, and what exercise I did that day. The food log will include most everything I eat, but since I usually have a bottle of Gatorade after every run, I will just assume that and will not bother entering that. I will usually not put serving sizes unless they differ from what a big hungry guy like myself would normally eat. For example, if I put "steak", that probably means like a 12-14 ounce steak, not 4 ounces or whatever the recommended serving size is. If I say "half a serving", that's half one of my servings, not half a normal serving.

I'll do this for eight weeks, measuring my testosterone before, halfway through, and at the conlusion. I'll also remeasure all my cholesterol, triglycerides, ALT, etc. afterwards.

Rationale

I'm not in very good health. I'm not in bad health, I'm just not in good health. I'm 34, overweight, have no energy, lead a completely sedentary life, and just don't feel all that healthy.

After getting struck by lightning last year, I had a full workup of tests done on my overall health. They confirmed what I pretty much already knew: I could stand to be more healthy. The specifics, however, are kind of interesting.

Right after the lightning, my heart checked out fine with an EKG, but bloodwork revealed an elevated liver enzyme (ALT). Followup bloodwork ruled out things like hepatitis, so the probable cause is fatty infiltration of the liver, where fat cells somehow get into the liver and keep it from functioning right. Probable cause of the fatty infiltration: being a fat slob. I'm not on the brink of liver failure just yet, but the doctor said we'd keep an eye on it and address it if it gets worse.

I've got elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels. They're not sky-high, but they're just a little past the threshold at which you start calling them high.

I've got high blood pressure. Again, it's not on-the-brink-of-stroke high, but right on the border between "needs medicine" and "doesn't need medicine".

One of the most interesting things to me is my testosterone level (or lack thereof). Years ago, I read a pamphlet in my doctor's office about low testosterone and the symptoms and treatment and thought "wow, it's like they're reading my mind". I matched up with most of the symptoms (depression, irritability, chronic fatigue, inability to concentrate, etc.), but didn't think to actually ask the doctor about, since the pamphlet was addressed mainly to old men. This time, since they were doing all the bloodwork anyway, I asked the doctor to go ahead and try testing the testosterone levels.

Surprise, surprise. It came back pretty low. It was not totally off the charts low. It was down at the very bottom of the reference range in the lab report. However, that reference range isn't based on a doctor's clinical assessment of what your level should be. It's just statistics. It represents something like the middle 80% of all the samples the lab takes without normalizing for age or anything like that. Most people getting their testosterone level tested would probably be older than I am, and testosterone levels fall as people age anyway. So, the reference range gets really skewed. If you take this into account, and compare my level against what a 34 year old male would normally have, my level's really low.

This makes sense to me, since I have just about all of the symptoms. I'm just exhausted all the time. I can't focus on what I'm doing all the time. I don't watch The View or anything, but I assume that's coming next. It's not clear why my level is low. The other hormones in my body are more or less normal, and any of them that were out of whack were investigated thoroughly before ruling out all expected causes.

I tried using testosterone gel for 6 weeks, and did see a noticeable improvement, both in my lab results and my well-being. The problem with that as a long term solution is that it's expensive, messy, and has side effects like eventually rendering you sterile. That would be totally worth it if it was necessary for me to have a better life, but I'm trying to explore my other options first.

Exercise is shown to increase testosterone production, and it's possible that my distinct lack of exercise is in some part responsible for my low levels. So, before I resign myself to a lifetime of sticky backs and sterility, I have to determine whether it's possible to raise my levels up by myself.

So, I've committed myself to a good solid 8 weeks of exercise, comparing my testosterone levels before, during, and after. If I raise my levels, and I feel better, then I know I pretty much have to keep that up the rest of my life to feel okay. If that doesn't seem to make the difference I'm looking for, then I know I'll have to commit to the artificial stuff.

What's This?

I'm embarking on an intensive eight week program of diet and exercise in an attempt to better my overall health (or at least determine if it's possible to better my health solely through diet and exercise).

Because I want to keep a record of what I do and eat during this time, I've decided to create a blog so that record can be centrally accessible and easily updatable. On this blog, I'll keep track of all of the exercise I do and everything I eat during the eight weeks, along with relevant measures like blood pressure and weight.

Those who know me might be a little stumped at the idea of me putting these intimate sort of details about myself out there on the interweb. In actual reality, I'm an intensely private sort of person. However, I'm attempting to draw on the resource of public shame to keep myself committed to my plan. My thinking is that if I publicly announce my commitment, and publicly track the details of my followup, any failure will be equally public and the idea of such a public failure will be motivation enough to keep me going.