A weight-y issue...Running and Weight Loss
WARNING: This is a long post. If you're not interested in weight loss, you have my permission to skip. Go ahead. I'm not mad.
I lurk on the WISH boards a lot and really enjoy reading the weight loss journals. It's so inspiring to read success stories and see people like me get healthy. It gives me faith that I can do it too!
Quite often these journals include training for a Disney race as part of the "get healthy" plan. It makes sense - we all love Disney and exercise is an important part of any weight loss plan - but it's interesting that a lot of us seem to equate running alone with weight loss. "I want to lose weight, so I'm going to start running."
So is that how it works? Consider my weight-loss story...
In December 2008 I was in the middle of wedding planning and decided that I could stand to lose a little bit of weight to look my best for the big day. I've mentioned before that my employer (a hospital) is very "wellness"-minded and that those of us that work here have free access to a lot of nice tools to get healthy. For weight loss in particular we can get free memberships to Curves or the fitness center here (which I use for strength training and treadmill runs). There are also at-work Weight Watchers meetings and free visits to the Nutrition Therapy (i.e. dietitian) department available to employees.
To lose weight for my wedding I decided that visits to the nutritionist were the way to go. I'd tried Weight Watchers before in high school and didn't really like the meeting format...a one-on-one visit with a medical professional seemed like a better fit. I'd been living with an "ignorance is bliss" attitude when it came to my weight for quite a while, and my first weigh-in with the nutritionist was shocking - I was 28 pounds over the highest healthy weight for my height. I thought it was more like 10 pounds.
I was so incredibly embarrassed - I had been involved in sports in high school and college, and despite the fact that I wasn't doing any regular exercise at that point I definitely considered myself "active." Clearly something had gone wrong.
It shouldn't have been so shocking, really. I knew what a big part of my problem was - what I ate. I definitely have a sweet tooth and one of my biggest weaknesses is Coca-Cola (regular, not diet or Coke Zero). So in 2008 right before Christmas I began following the plan that the nutritionist laid out for me: eating mostly fruits and veggies, more protein, some dairy and fewer carbohydrates. No sweets and no Coke. In addition, I was also instructed to fit in some regular exercise. I forget how much I was expected to get in, but I know my method of choice was to hit the elliptical some days and do an arm/ab workout on others...gotta look good in the wedding dress, right?
At some point along the way I re-started the
Couch-to-5K training plan. I'd already run my first 5K that spring (finish time 37:25, a 12:14/mile pace) and had promptly fallen off the running wagon. I'm not sure what made me re-start training, but my maid of honor/cousin and I completed the same 5K race 2 weeks before my wedding. By my wedding day I'd lost almost 22 pounds, and it showed in my race time - a shiny new 5K PR of 30:23 (9:48/mile pace). I hadn't done any speedwork at all...but it's a lot easier to run when there are 22 less pounds to carry.
So after the 5K came the wedding and our Disney honeymoon! We were on the dining plan and I didn't think about my diet at all...exactly how a honeymoon should be. Somehow I managed to come home at the same weight as I'd been on my wedding day.
With the wedding over I had absolutely zero motivation to follow the plan the nutritionist had laid out for me. I'm not exactly sure what happened with my weight through the rest of 2009 because I was back to the "ignorance is bliss" state of mind when it came to stepping on the scale. I am also not sure how consistently I ran for the rest of the year, but I did train for and complete my first (and so far only) 10K race. My time was 1:07:36, a 10:38/mile pace...I'm guessing I'd gained back some of the weight already looking at that time, and I remember huffing and puffing a LOT throughout that race.
In January 2010 we bought our house and I set my sights on doing longer races. I had a 10-mile goal race in mind for April...and then I blew out my back (
which I talked about here). I know for sure that I gained back a decent amount of weight while recovering from this injury. The recovery was long and painful, and I was just so sad...at times I felt like I would never get back to normal.
I still ran the 10-miler, finishing in 2:00:42 (12ish min/mile pace). I ran this race with my cousin, brother and friend, and they all smoked me. I think they waited 15-20 minutes for me to finish. I felt out of shape and embarrassed...it was awful.
However this race sort of lit a fire within me - I was determined to feel better about myself. Disney races were on my radar at this point, and my brother agreed to run the 2011 Princess Half with me. I followed the Galloway training plan to the letter and finished with a smile on my face. But despite running consistently leading up to the Princess Half I hated how I looked in the pictures from that trip.
Standing super awkwardly in this photo because I had realized how bad I looked in other pictures we'd taken so far on the trip...
Right after the Princess Half I trained for and ran a half marathon at home (finishing in 2:34:53). While training for that race I also ran that same 10-mile race (shaving 6 minutes off my time) and signed up for the 2012 WDW Marathon. By the time our June Disney trip rolled around I'd been running consistently for about a year, and yet when we got pictures taken of ourselves on our trip I still hated the way I looked in the viewfinder. Again, I found myself posing weirdly to try to cover up my flaws.
While training for the 2012 WDW Full Marathon I ran a 5K at home and another half marathon. No improvement in either of my times at those distances.
I forget what made me do it, but earlier in the year I'd asked a co-worker about joining the Weight Watchers At-Work meetings that are run in my department. I was still in my "ignorance is bliss" period when it came to the scale, but I couldn't ignore the fact that I'd gone up a size in all of my clothes, that I cringed every time I looked at photos from our trips to Disney in 2011, and that my running times were not improving. In fact, running wasn't all that enjoyable...just difficult. When I'd originally asked about the meetings it was in the middle of a session, so they weren't taking new registrants at the time and I forgot about it. Then my co-worker approached me again right before the new session began was I still interested in joining? They needed at least 15 people to be able to hold the meetings.
At first I said no. I was training for the marathon and knew this wasn't the right time to radically change my diet, but she talked me into it, pointing out that I could just phone it in until after the marathon and then fully commit. I said sure, what the heck, and had to face the scale once again the week before Christmas 2011. The verdict? I guess it depends on how you look at it - I either kept off 9 of the pounds I'd originally lost (glass half full) or I'd gained 13 of it back (glass half empty).
Or, duh, it's both. At this point I was just starting to taper for the 2012 Marathon, so I was already done with the higher-mileage weeks. Obviously running more had not helped me lose weight.
So I began following Weight Watchers somewhat half-heartedly - like I said, I didn't want to mess up my marathon training by radically depriving myself of food. I don't want to turn this into a big Weight Watchers ad (I'm sure you all have seen lots of them lately since it's the New Year - so funny to me that this is when they run tons of ads
). There are things I love about the program and things I don't love so much, but I think what made it click for me was the fact that I wasn't depriving myself. I was just forced to become aware of what I was eating. I think this is why I haven't gone back to the nutritionist - initially the plan she gave me worked, but there was always a small voice in the back of my head saying, "this is only temporary. You're going to gain the weight back...this isn't realistic. You can't eat like this forever" (specifically the little-no carbs and no desserts ever - and NO COKE. Are you kidding me?!
). And when I first started the nutritionist's plan I remember a feeling of dread knowing that I was going to have to be super strict and cut out a lot of stuff I liked. In the end over half of the weight I had lost for the wedding came back.
Being more aware of what I was eating - portion control, I guess - while not depriving myself really worked for me. So much so that even though I wasn't trying very hard in those first couple of weeks, I headed down to Marathon Weekend 2012 having lost almost 7 pounds in the first two weeks of Weight Watchers...and I felt great! I still didn't love how I looked in pictures, but I definitely saw an improvement compared to the last 2 Disney trips wed taken.
After the marathon I kept up with the running and Weight Watchers and got down to my lowest weight in mid-September, right after beginning this thread!
I weighed 15 pounds less than what I weighed on my wedding day...36 pounds less than I was at my heaviest (at least as far as I know!)
The most interesting part? I averaged 14 miles per week of running during this time and didn't take up strength training until early June. Less than 2.5 hours per week of running. That's not that much...and yet I lost 27 pounds during this time, where I'd been totally stuck in the weeks leading up to the 2012 WDW Marathon.
So what's changed since the fall? Right now I'm about 2-3 pounds above my lowest weight that I hit in September - so I've GAINED weight during marathon training despite the fact that I'm consistently running 4 times per week and am doing strength training 1-2 times per week. And remember how I said above I lost most of the weight while running an average of 14 miles per week? For marathon training I've been averaging 25 miles per week so far...and yet the scale only moves in the upwards direction or doesn't move at all from week to week.
It's funny my extended family knows I run a lot and when I was at holiday gatherings I got a lot of compliments on how I look, followed by "I need to take up running!" I think this is so common - people think you can just pound the pavement and the weight will fall off. I'm sure that is true for some people, but I can definitely say that for me personally, running alone is not enough. For the past few weeks I've been eating when I'm hungry and it hasn't been the healthiest stuff, to be honest, and I haven't written any of it down (which is one of the cornerstones of Weight Watchers). My number 1 priority has been to prepare for Marathon Weekend, so I'm not surprised that I'm not losing weight right now.
Another reason I wasn't expecting to lose weight while training has to do with what happens to the muscles when training for long-distance running. Part of training is teaching our muscles to store glycogen (carbohydrates) for fuel during the long runs, and along with this glycogen the body needs to store water. This is important - it's what helps keep runners from "hitting the wall" during the marathon...so I definitely dont want to fight it!
SCIENCE! And also...I'm totally ripped now. HAHAHA not really, but I'm sure I've gained some muscle over the past few weeks (well I'd hope so, anyway), and we all know muscle weighs more than fat.
And lastly, I've heard that people who sleep better tend to have an easier time losing weight, and Im sure I've whined here a lot about how I didn't get enough sleep the previous night. I'm such a dummy, this is so easy to fix.
INFO!
http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/miles-and-meals
http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-...ure-not-losing-weight-while-training-marathon
http://running.about.com/od/runningandweightloss/f/weightgain.htm
So there you have it. My way-too-long weight loss story, the moral of which is...its not always just about running. Unfortunately one may need to think about diet as well. Which is sad since there's so much delicious, bad-for-you food to eat.
I'm not sure of a great way to end this post...except to say that one week from tomorrow, I will be in Disney. YAY!
Continued in Next Post
I can't say I've ever been a fan of New Year's Eve (we have big plans to eat some chicken quesadillas at home and attempt to stay up to watch the ball drop or whatever) so I'm mostly annoyed that places I want to go today (the gym, library, etc.) are closed...yet I'm still at work. I'm such a baby. I also feel a little dumb because I'm sure it was posted somewhere that they're closed today. Although I definitely wasn't the only one that came ready to work out...I saw at least 3 other people coming in carrying gym bags. We're just dedicated! 
I'll keep trying.
I wonder if Disney holds on to some spots until (close to the) last minute? Or maybe people are canceling to make sure they don't get charged since 'Ohana is credit card-guaranteed (which is what I'd been hoping would happen all along)? 
We'll see. I think he knows he shouldn't run the marathon but doesn't want to admit it yet. And he's bummed about paying for Goofy but potentially running the half only. Oh well.
It's starting to go away now that I've cut back on the miles though! 
