Running For Weight Loss – 5.5lbs Lost In My First Week Of Ultramarathon Training.

One of my biggest regrets about my initial weight loss period was not keeping a photographic record of my body as it changed.

For this reason I’ve decided to take a picture of myself on weigh-in Saturday and use it as motivation to keep my preparations for the 100k race in May going strong.

Here’s today’s picture.

And yes, that is my real fucking head.

I now weigh 210.8lbs which is a 5.5lb loss from last week.

This is my single biggest loss ever, but it’s not unexpected. Here are the reasons behind it.

1. I’ve felt indebted to you all for your Indiegogo support – I know that you’re meant to practice self improvement for own sake but I think it’s amazing that you’ve invested in my idea. Now that lots of you are onboard, I won’t fuck this up like I fucked up Paris and Las Vegas. I’m becoming healthier each day and I can finally feel momentum building.
2. I’ve ran 55 miles since Monday – And I haven’t really been challenging myself in terms of pace or distance at the minute. I’m just concentrating on becoming stronger so that I can easily take on the hilly routes again. Besides, the chances are if you run 55 miles in 6 days and eat reasonably healthy, you’re gonna get a result.
   
3. I didn’t track anything I ate – I didn’t bother logging my calories, restarting Weight Watchers or anything like that. I only ate when I was hungry. People always talk about breakfast being the most important meal of the day, but that’s not true. All of your meals are fucking important. If you don’t watch what you eat at lunch, dinner or supper then you’ll struggle to lose weight. Besides, whenever I fire up my appetite I can’t stop. If I try to constrain myself to a certain number of calories, I become obsessed about them and it’s not fucking healthy. Then when I go over my calorie limit, I just start eating as much shit as I want as I’ve failed. Eat when you’re truly hungry. It makes sense.
4. I haven’t really been stressed out at all – I go for chocolate and pizza whenever I’m stressed out. Fortunately my anxiety levels have been low this week but I’d be lying if I said that I never encountered any stress. I’m still very fucking scared about working on the book, blog and website full time. Writing about my fears helps though and my future is in my hands. All I know is that eating junk food won’t help me get to where I want to go to at the moment.
5. I’ve starting eating lots of cereal at night instead of burgers and cheese – Last Monday I had my first bowl of cereal in 3 fucking years. I couldn’t bear to eat it anymore after I ate an entire box of Start in 6 hours whilst I was still working at the University. My favourite at the moment is Special K. It’s quite filling too which helps. I’ll sometimes have it for breakfast but try to limit myself to 3 or 4 bowls a day.
   
   I ate the entire box of Start as it ‘only’ contained 49 WeightWatchers ProPoints at the time. I barely poured any milk on it because I was terrified of fat. My bowl was as dry as a nun’s crack. 
6. I’ve taken it a day at a time – I know this sounds like hippy bullshit, but there have been too many times where I’ve had to go out later in the week to dinners and parties and thought “this week isn’t gonna be a good week for healthy living. I’ll start over next week”. All I can do is try to be healthy today and leave myself in a stronger position by the end of the day than where I was when I started.
7. When I’ve drank alcohol this week I’ve always remained hydrated before, during and after – My biggest weakness is takeaway food and I typically order it in when I’m dehydrated from Whiskey. I drink the alcohol much slower and typically I have less booze too which has undoubtedly helped with my weight loss.
   
8. Whenever I’m tempted to eat crap I look up Google Maps for the route between London and Brighton – I am not carrying any excess weight with me for 62 fucking miles. Sure, I can adopt the odd ‘one pie won’t hurt’ mentality to my diet, but I never stop with one. It’s just my nature. I know who I am. I am a fan of the fucking pies and I’m not taking them with me to Brighton!
9. I keep my mind active at night now – I spend the evenings either writing, reading or playing my guitar. Before I’d have sat around watching TV, got restless and ate to relieve the boredom.

My next goal is to be under 200lbs by the end of January.