Andrew is getting fit

A photo run!

2008-05-14T03:20:39Z

I wanted a nice easy run yesterday and I thought it would be fun to take my camera along and show you folks a bit of Auckland. I decided to do my run up a volcano again, but this time armed with a camera.

I’ve added a split as there will be quite a few photos! Click on more to see them.

I started off outside my workplace. It was freezing as the sun was on the other side of the building. Hence the dark look.

I walked up the hill through the Domain to where I like to start my runs. I normally use this hill as my warm up as I’m normally quite warm by the time I get to the top. It doesn’t look it in the photo but it’s actually quite long and steep.

I started my run at this point. Auckland is great for running in as most of the roads have great footpaths often shaded with really nice trees.

Next I was running downhill towards Mt Eden Volcano (it’s in the background to the right of the red light of the traffic light).

What goes down must go up. At this point I’m starting the climb up to the volcano.

There is a bridge over the motorway about halfway up the hill. Look at all those suckers commuters stuck in the traffic when they could be out running.

I finally arrived at the base of the volcano.

I headed up the road and then saw a little track that I thought I would head up.

The view is pretty good from up there.

It’s amazing to think that we have cows running around within metres of suburbia.

Where you find cows you find biological landmines.

Somehow I always manage to find steps no matter which run I go on.

There’s the top!

And this is what a volcanic cone looks like when it hasn’t erupted for a few hundred years.

I then ran back down the volcano (which is always easier than going up!).

I went back to the Domain via a different route and crossed this bridge. There is a massive drop below it. Hence, the anti jumper barriers.

I got back to the Domain and ran past the War Memorial/Museum.

I then went down through Parnell.

And finally arrived back at work.

I did about 9.3 km in about an hour. The run itself wasn’t the best but I did enjoy taking the photos. I really do believe that Auckland is a great place to run in. We have such a wide variety of scenery all within minutes of where I work and live. And to think that all these years I’ve not bothered to experience it! What a waste.

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Vegetarian myths debunked

2008-05-12T18:13:40Z

There is a great article over at Slate on Vegetarians: I may be a vegetarian, but I still love the smell of bacon. I’m definitely one of those vegetarians who still loves the smell of bacon.

First off here’s a great definition of what a vegetarian is:

To demonstrate what a vegetarian really is, let’s begin with a simple thought experiment. Imagine a completely normal person with completely normal food cravings, someone who has a broad range of friends, enjoys a good time, is carbon-based, and so on. Now remove from this person’s diet anything that once had eyes, and, wham!, you have yourself a vegetarian. Normal person, no previously ocular food, end of story. Some people call themselves vegetarians and still eat chicken or fish, but unless we’re talking about the kind of salmon that comes freshly plucked from the vine, this makes you an omnivore. A select few herbivores go one step further and avoid all animal products—milk, eggs, honey, leather—and they call themselves vegan, which rhymes with “tree men.” These people are intense.

My beloved wife when I read this said “What about shellfish?” I have no idea if shellfish have eyes or not but they’re on the banned list too.

This next bit also resonates:

Which leads me to a vital point for friendly omnivore-herbivore relations. As you’re enjoying that pork loin next to me, I am not silently judging you. I realize that anyone who has encountered the breed of smug vegetarian who says things like, “I can hear your lunch screaming,” will find this tough to believe, but I’m honestly not out to convert you.

I have no problem with people who eat meat. It’s a personal decision on my part and I don’t expect anyone to change their eating habits based on what I do.

Finally, grant me one more cordial request: Please don’t try to convince us that being vegetarian is somehow wrong. If you’re concerned for my health, that’s very nice, though you can rest assured that I’m in shipshape. If you want to have an amiable tête-à-tête about vegetarianism, that’s great. But if you insist on being the aggressive blowhard who takes meatlessness as a personal insult and rails about what fools we all are, you’re only going to persuade me that you’re a dickhead.

That just cracked me up. It’s so true. I’m not totally shipshape yet but I’m getting there. I think I may have been one of those dickheads back in the past. Oh well, sic vita.

One thing that he didn’t mention (or I missed it) and I don’t know if this is common elsewhere but I’ve noticed that it’s much more generally accepted for women to be vegetarians than it is for men? It seems to be quite a common theme.

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Weigh in

2008-05-12T03:47:31Z

I weighed in at 97.28 kgs (214.5 pounds) this morning according to Physics Diet. That means I had a weekly loss of .91 kgs (just over 2 pounds) which I’ll gladly take.

I had a good week eatingwise and exercisewise except I had a bit too much bread on the weekend. I blame Metroknow for making me lust after bread with his great articles.

For those who missed it I had a great race over the weekend.

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My 3rd 5K race

2008-05-11T03:20:02Z

Today I participated in Race 3 of the Run Auckland series.

The race briefing email stated that there was no parking at the actual event as they’d blocked off all the parks so that we could run freely. The organisers recommended that we parked next to a local high school and take the track that leads down to the starting area. So I thought I would take their advice. I thought I knew which track they were talking about but I went to the wrong one and ended up being about 2 kilometres away from the start. This wasn’t a problem however as it was a nice morning for a walk.

I had planned on arriving at the venue about 45 minutes early as I had to pick up my timing chip before the race started. I made the cutoff time with plenty to spare so headed off to use the facilities. One advantage of the venue was that there was heaps of public restrooms. Race 1 only had 3 portaloos which wasn’t really enough.

The course today was flat and straight. A nice run alongside the beach. Up the beach and down again was 2.5 km. We 5Kers had to do two laps and the 10Kers had to do 4.

The 10Kers started at 9AM and once again most of the participants appeared to have chosen to compete in this event.

We 5Kers were due to start at 9:20 in order to give the field time to spread. This was actually quite nice as we got to see the 10Kers running. The really fast ones did 2 laps before we even started and they were mighty impressive. One of the highlights was seeing Nina Rillstone who is representing New Zealand at the Olympics this year competing in the 10K - she finished it in 33:29. I’ve never seen a lady that skinny yet muscly before.

My best time in a 5K race was 31:01 which I set in my very first race. In my misdirected second race I set a time of 33:48 but ran an extra kilometre as I took a wrong turn. For this race I was hoping to set a PR. I kept telling myself that anything under 28 minutes would be great but secretly I was hoping for around 27 minutes. My fastest times in training have been around 28ish and I’ve always felt I could go a little faster in an actual race where I would push myself harder than I do in training.

At 9:20AM my race started and I was off. I actually had a great starting slot this time as there weren’t as many people doing the 5K event. I was in the second row which was great.

At the 800m mark we ran past a cafe full of bemused looking people. I could just see them thinking look at all these crazy buggers. Part of me longed to be in the cafe having a moccachino and a croissant.

I did my normal trick of starting really fast! Big mistake I know. My first kilometre was my fastest kilometre ever at 4:45. I was thinking uh oh, I’m going to die on the last leg. I MUST slow down! In the finest tradition of ignoring that little voice inside of you, my second kilometre was my second fastest ever at 4:59.

I hit the second lap and my legs were starting to let me know that they weren’t too keen on this running business. Why the hell are we doing this? We could be at home in bed. I slowed down quite a bit but was still on record pace during my 3rd and 4th kilometre. The last kilometer was tough but I kept thinking RUN YOU BASTARD! and so I did. I kept trying to overtake the people ahead of me as a means of motivation.

The finish line loomed and as I started to sprint I got chicked! A young lady zoomed past me and there was nothing I could do to haul her in. I tried hard but she crossed the line a good two metres in front of me. I pressed stop on my Garmin and looked at my time. 25:18!!! I not only beat my expectations I smashed em!

Unfortunately I couldn’t celebrate as I was trying hard not to throw up. I’m not quite over that cold yet.

I then had the long walk back to my car. One thing I failed to mention was that my car was parked at the top of a cliff and there were stairs leading back up to it. I hadn’t really noticed them coming down. But I noticed them going back up. 116 of them. I really noticed them going up!

Overall a great race and a great day. According to the provisional results I’ve finshed 6th in my age group and 18th out of all the men. I’m not too fussed about that but I will treasure my PR which is actually 25:17 according to the official results! .

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Things that annoy me about losing weight

2008-05-08T18:29:22Z

It’s funny but over the last few weeks I’ve noticed a few annoying things about losing a lot of weight.

The first and foremost of these is that I’m so cold! I used to sleep with a window open in the middle of winter as I was always feeling hot. Now, I’m wearing vests under my shirts during the day because I’m cooooold. And it’s not even winter yet.
My wedding ring is loose and falling off my finger. It is in desperate need of a resize.
My clothes don’t fit! This is a real problem for me. Pretty much 95% of my clothes are too big now. I don’t really want to spend more money on clothing as I’m still losing so I’m a bit of a baggy mess. Thankfully I have some jeans that fit (bought the wrong size by mistake years ago and much to my joy I’m finally wearing them!) and of course my running gear fits.
People telling me I’ve lost enough weight. This is very annoying as well. Fair enough I’ve lost a lot but I’m still quite overweight by any objective measure. I’m on a roll folks, stop telling me to stop!
Let’s not talk about the floppy belly skin.
People not recognising me. I was at an alumni reunion on Tuesday and it was a really good night. The only problem was so many of my former students didn’t recognise me. Come on folks I’ve only lost 90 odd pounds and grown a beard since you last saw me!

Then again, why am I whinging complaining? All these things are aboslutely brilliant! Visible signs of success. They’re still annoying thought. How about you guys? Anything that particularly bugs you?

In other news, I’ve got a busy day ahead of me so I thought I would get a morning run in. I got up at 5:00 AM got dressed and had a smoothie then headed out the door. I did the same loop that I did in my night run the other day and I’ve reached the conclusion that I need to find another loop, especially while I’ve still got this annoying cold. The first mile of the loop is uphill and it gets me really tired before I’ve even started to really run. I think it was exacerbated today by my cold and lack of fuel. I don’t think the smoothie was enough.

And did I mention that it was pouring down with rain? One of my worries has been running in the rain but it’s no problem at all. With my cap on I can run just fine. The glasses haven’t been fogging up yet so it’s all good.

Two more days till my next 5K race!

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A stagger up Jacob’s Ladder!

2008-05-07T01:53:47Z

The plan today was to do a nice big loop around the waterfront then back through the city. I was hoping to do about 8 km. The run down to the waterfront was great. I don’t know why but I was running quite fast (by my standards) and had to make a concious effort to slow down. I think I was just really in the mood for a run and was glad to be out and about! Once I got to the waterfront I ran around the Hilton again and then headed off into the Viaduct area. The plan was then to head around the waterfront to the Harbour bridge and then cut through the city to the finish.

However, I took a wrong turn somewhere and while I was going in the right general direction I wasn’t 100% sure where I was. I saw a promising looking track and headed off down it. It progressed for about 50 metres and then there was a sharp turn and what did I see. A staircase! I don’t know why but I seem to have a talent for finding staircases. This was no ordinary staircase. There was a big sign at the bottom saying Jacob’s Ladder. Boy it was steep. It went up about 90 steps and I did not enjoy it! The only picture of it that I could find was here.

I then ran through suburbia looking for a street that would take me back to the shoreline. I finally found one (after running through many hilly little side streets) and it took me into Westhaven Reserve. There is a great track that runs along the shoreline and under the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The track then runs into Westhaven Marina and the thousands of boats moored there. I could definitely tell why they call Auckland the City of Sails as I ran past all the boats. I then ended up at the point where I had made the wrong turn earlier so I decided to just go back the way I had originally come.

At this point I had already done about 7 km and I was still 4 km from where I wanted to be. I decided I would change my run to a 10K run and use the last km to cool down.

Those last three kilometres were rather tough but it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and I just kept going. I’ll freely admit that I was sorely tempted to pull into one of the many cafes in downtown Auckland and get a Mocha but I didn’t.

I did 10.29 km in 1:01:29 which means my average pace was 5:59 per km which is my fastest yet on a 10 km run. I actually hit 10K at 59:45 which is my first sub 1 hour 10K run. Funnily enough I thought I was going a lot slower than the other day when I thought I was going fast. Maybe my Garmin was is playing tricks on me.

Not long to go till my next 5K on Sunday. I’m really looking forward to that.

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Twas a dark and drizzly night

2008-05-05T09:30:14Z

I have my next 5K race on Sunday so in order to get all my runs in this week I need to run Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I like to have at least one day off between each run.

As such, seeing as today is Monday, I needed to get a run in. Unfortunately my schedule was pretty full today so I had to run after dinner. This was the first time I ran in the dark and in the rain. Truth be told it was rather nice.

There is a 5K loop very close to my house that my wife and I often walk and I thought it would be great to run it.

The first half of the run was uphill and the rain started just when I really needed it. I was all hot and already tired from running uphill and a gentle drizzle started to come down and it was great as it cooled me down very nicely. A few minutes in and it got quite a bit heavier but it never bothered me at all. I didn’t even have my running cap on as I’d left it next to the front door (so that I wouldn’t forget it on my way out…). Turns out the fogging up of the glasses only happens when you stop running.

I don’t know why but I felt really fast today. The run went really well and I was really enjoying it. However, when I got back home and checked the Garmin it turns out that I was going a lot slower than I thought I was. I guess the uphill in the first half took most of my energy. I did 4.7 km in 27:53 so it wasn’t too bad. Why only 4.7 km instead of 5 km? Well I was going to do a loop of the cricket grounds at the end of my run but it had turned into a mudpit so I thought bugger that for a lark and just ran home instead.

I’ve got an alumni event at work tomorrow and it should be really interesting. I’ll be meeting a lot of people who haven’t seen me since I was 42 kgs (90 odd pounds) heavier than I am now. Should be fun.

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Weigh in: Time for a change

2008-05-04T18:18:16Z

I weighed in at 97.8 kgs (216 pounds) this morning. That’s down 1.9 kgs from last week which is fairly meaningless as my weight fluctuated quite a lot on the day of my weigh in last week.

As such, I’ve decided I’m going to switch to displaying my Physics Diet weight. With the physics diet you weigh yourself everyday and it works out a moving average. I’ll still continue to report this once a week.

As such my weight is now officially 98.1 kgs which is down .5 kg from last week.
My average daily calorie deficit for the week was 674 calories and my BMI is 28.2. You can see my public profile here if you are interested in taking a look.

Hopefully using the Physics Diet system will enable me to focus more on my weightloss trend rather than the specific number on the day of my weigh in.

As an aside I had something rather funny happen over the weekend. I put my ipod touch down on the roof of my car while I was putting some groceries in the boot and then drove off with it still on the roof. I was almost home before I remembered. Luckily for me I have stuck my ipod touch in a rubber sheath to protect it from being dropped and knocked about (I’m a little rough on electronic goods at times) and the rubber had gripped the car and it was still on the roof when I pulled over to check! Good on Apple for making low profile devices!

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Mental note to self

2008-05-02T22:23:00Z

Don’t decide to do a run with a lot of hills when you are recovering from a cold!

I woke up this morning at 4:45am as my daughter was demanding her bottle in the way babies do. It sounded like it was raining so I thought bugger running and I went back to bed after feeding her. I then got rudely awakened again at 7am by my darling daughter who had decided that it was time to get up and play. This is actually quite a good lie in so I wasn’t too unhappy.

I was feeling very phlegmy and it was drizzling so again I thought bugger running and went off to get my breakfast. After my coffee and a lovely omelette I was feeling a bit more lively and looked out the window again and the sun was shining and I thought bugger running but went and got my running gear on.

I wanted to do about 10 km this morning as I haven’t run as much as I should this week due to my cold. I decided that I would do a loop that incorporated parts of some of the other runs I have done as it should be approximately 10K. The advantage of this loop is that it starts and stops at my house so there was no need to drive anywhere. However, one thing I hadn’t factored in was that this loop was rather hilly.

I started off by running along Shore Rd which is the route I take when I’m walking home. I then ran up a very steep hill to St Stephens Ave and down to Resolution Pt. A quick gander at the beautiful view and then down to Tamaki drive and along to the Boat Sheds. I was then in the home stretch but when I looked at my Garmin I realised that I had only done about 7 km so I veered off into the Orakei Basin and ran through it.

I passed a walker as I went into the Basin. There is a little pier in the Basin and I ran to the end of it and had a quick pause to swig some of my water and admire the view. As I was doing this the walker passed me. I then continued running and quickly passed her again and she very nicely got out of my way saying “I’m a lot slower than you.” Hah! About 100 metres further along there were some a hell of a lot of stairs and they totally wiped me out. Guess who should come along and comfortably sprint up them. That damn walker. “I’m a lot slower than you” I said as she sprinted past grinning. Thankfully once I got to the top it was pretty much downhill all the way home.

Overall I did 10.5 km in 1:10:12 which I was rather pleased with. I felt really tired and wiped out by the hills but I recovered quickly once I finished which shows that my fitness is improving. I’m so glad that I decided to go for my run even though I wasn’t feeling 100%. Hopefully it helps me knock this head cold out as well.

I’ve got some questions!

2008-05-02T01:33:09Z

I’m participating in the Runner’s Lounge Take It and Run Thursday session. This week we have to post questions on our blogs. So here are mine:

Winter is looming for us Southern Hemisphere types and if I want to continue running outside I’ll have to run in the rain.

What wet weather gear do you recommend?

And for those runners who are optically challenged: How do you stop your glasses from steaming up?

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Quick update

2008-05-01T18:30:38Z

Remember how I posted I had a cold on Monday? Well today is Friday here in sunny rainy New Zealand and I’ve still got it and it’s damn annoying. Work has been incredibly busy this week and I haven’t gotten home before 9pm the last 3 days.

I managed to get a run in yesterday as I was feeling real antsy as I hadn’t done any exercise this week. I managed to squeeze in about 3.8 km in 21 minutes on the treadmill so it was just a quick little blast. The treadmill is a little boring but good for maintaing a steady pace. Oh well, the weekend looms and I’ll have time to do a nice long run outside.

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Weight tracking tools

2008-04-29T20:41:22Z

Jeff asked me if had looked at using the Google 15 to track my weight.

The Google 15 encourages you to get on the scale every day by calculating a moving average from your daily weight. We then plot this average alongside your daily scale weight and a goal weight that you set–this gives you a better idea of your weight trend by masking most of the day to day noise that variances in water weight introduce.

I have had a look at it, but don’t actually use it as I use some other tools that do a similar job instead:

The first of these is Physics Diet.

With the physics diet you weigh yourself everyday and it works out a moving average similar to Google 15. To be more precise it uses an exponentially smoothed weighted average with a smoothing constant of .9. If you are more interested in the mathematics behind it you can look here.

One of the nice features is a fancy graph:

The Weight Chart lets you track your weight loss or gain. It shows you how many pounds you are losing or gaining per week, and it shows you what your calorie deficit or excess is.

The beauty of the Weight Chart is that it lets you focus on your overall progress rather than the individual readings on the scale. You will learn to watch, and appreciate the blue trend line that shows the moving average of your individual weight entries.

Daily Weight Entries

The points on the tips of the green and red shaded areas are your daily weight entries. The red area means that for that day, or period of days, your daily weight entries were above the blue trend line. The green area means that for that day, or period of days, your daily weight entries were below the blue trend line.

If you are trying to lose weight then you will want to keep most of your daily weight entries in the green shaded area. As long as your daily weight entries are green, the blue trend line will continue going down. Even when you hit a plateau, and your daily weights remain the same for several days or even a week or more, as long as those weights below the trend line they will continue to pull the trend line down.

The Trend Line

The blue trend line shows the moving average of all your weight entries. Because of the way the moving average is calculated, it emphasizes the weights in the recent past over those in the distant past. This makes the trend line the most valuable part of the Weight Chart.

If your weight changes and goes above the blue trend line you will see the trend line change immediately. If your weight stays above the trend line for very long, the trend line will change directions and show you that your weight is increasing. On the other hand, if you start losing weight at a faster rate the trend line will also show that change almost immediately.

The trend line is especially valuable when you hit a plateau.

The Black Best Fit Line

The black line is the best fit line. It shows you the straightest line that can be drawn through all of the points on the blue trend line. It is useful because it can show you the overall progress of your diet. But it can also be misleading. If your trend line is not moving in the same direction over time as your best fit line, then the best fit line should be ignored.

Another one that I use is Skinnyr:

Skinnyr is rather simple in that all it does is plot your last ten days weight on a graph. It’s a bit simplistic but it’s pretty and gives you a quick snapshot of how you are going. It doesn’t have any other advanced features. My graph for the last ten weigh-ins looks like this:

It’s a bit misleading as it doesn’t take time into account. You may notice that there is a spike between 4/24 and 4/27 but the time gap is the same as all the others which are single days. Having said that, it is pretty and easy to use.

The last tool that I use is Traineo:

I record my weight on Traineo only so that I can get the fancy buttons on the right. T could write a little plugin that would do it for me but I’m too lazy. I only use Traineo for that really but in reality Traineo is more than just a weight tracking tool, it is a weight loss and fitness community.

Traineo’s idea is simple: join traineo for free and pick up to 4 friends or members of your family (who will become your ‘traineo motivators’) to receive weekly email updates on your progress towards your weight loss and fitness goals. Our easy-to-use software allows you to choose what you’d like traineo to report to your motivators so they can give you the motivation, support and accountability you need to achieve your goals.

Overall, none of them is perfect but they all help me track my weight and keep accountable so they are all worth using to me. Has anyone else found something that they could recommend?

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Two runs by the beach

2008-04-28T22:03:00Z

As mentioned previously, I had a weekend away in Napier. While there I managed to get in two runs.

The first of these was my long run for the week. I wanted to get in at least 10 km as that is what I did last week.

I had gotten up at 5am and then driven from 6:05 till about 11ish as I had driven from Auckland to Napier. The drive itself was fine. However, about 3 hours in my baby daughter woke up and then verbally expressed her displeasure with being strapped in for the next 2 or so hours. So needless to say it was a bit tough.

We met up with our friends in Napier and then had an enjoyable afternoon visiting wineries and having lunch etc. We had hired a house for the weekend and we got there about 3:30ish. I started off for my run at about 4 after unpacking and seeing that my wife and daughter were settled in.

Truth be told my physical condition was not conducive to a great run. I was tired and sore from sitting down for most of the day. Having said that it felt really good to be outside by the beach and running. For the first twenty five minutes or so. Then it became a bit harder. Then a lot harder. Not so much physically, but much more mentally. I started playing little games with myself. I’d tell myself I’ll run for the next 500 meters then have a rest. Then when I got there I’d say 500 more! and so on.

About 6km in I made a big mistake by heading down and running on the beach for a bit. As you can see from the picture on the right, it looks really great but it’s actually a gravelly rock beach so it’s actually really hard to run on. I stuck with it for about 100 meters but it was just too hard so I headed back to the grassy verge next to the road.

I was really feeling it then and had to resort to more mind games in order to continue running.

About 7 kms in I hit Meeanee Quay. How appropriate I thought. My body reckons I’m being a meanie by making it run today. I turned around at this point and started heading back to our holiday house. For some reason the running is always easier when you know you are heading home.

I got back and boy I felt great. The runners high kicked in when I knew I didn’t have to run anymore!

I managed to do 10.2 km which I was really pleased with. It took me 1:02:42.

My second run was a bit more normal. I woke up at 5am to give my daughter her morning bottle and decided that it would be nice to be out and running when the sun came up. So I had my breakfast and then headed out at about 6ish. It was a beautiful morning and I really enjoyed the run.

I took it easy and did a nice 5.1 km in about 30 minutes.

I know I can go faster now so I’m looking forward to my next race. Two weeks away on a nice flat course.

I was particularly pleased that I ran while I was on holiday as well. As a matter of fact I really, really wanted to run and for me that is something special. I have turned running into an addiction habit and that can only be a good thing.

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Weigh in

2008-04-27T22:08:35Z

Whoo…today I weighed in at 99.7 kgs which is 2kgs heavier than I was on Friday morning. Damn these weekends away where I indulge in snacks that cause my glycogen and water reserves to dramatically increase! I’m not too worried as I was pretty good overall and I know there is no way I can gain 4.4 pounds of fat in two days.

I had a very good weekend away. It was good to catch up with some old friends and great to see my daughter and their kids having a ball.

I also kept up with my running. I did two runs (on Friday and Sunday) which I’ll post about once I find my camera.

I also picked up a nasty head cold. I think it was due to being confined in the car with my daughter who has a cold (picked up from daycare) for quite a long time. Oh well, such is life. It means I’m at home in bed today.

Weekend away

2008-04-23T23:31:13Z

I’m off to sunny Napier to spend the long weekend (it’s ANZAC weekend here in New Zealand) with some friends. I’ve packed my running shoes and my camera so look forward to full report next week.

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How to reduce your cholesterol by over 50% without drugs

2008-04-23T22:20:20Z

About a year ago I had a conversation with my doctor that most people would dread. He wanted me to think about taking drugs to reduce my cholesterol levels. I refused as I thought I would try to decrease my cholesterol through modifying my lifestyle first.

Last week I went for my cholesterol test and I got my results back today. In my humble opinion they are fantastic! I’m within the normal range on every count.

	Recommended Range:	2007	2008
Total Cholesterol:	Less than 200	343	152
HDL Cholesterol:	Between 35-60	58	36
LDL Cholesterol:	Less than 130	266	101
Triglycerides:	Less than 151	118	62
Total/HDL Ratio:	Less than 4.5	5.9	4.3

So how did I do it? I’m afraid that those of you looking for an easy solution are out of luck. I did it the hard way, by changing my lifestyle. I think I have 3 main tips that I will share:

1. Cut out processed foods.

I’ve learnt the hard way that processed foods are not good for me. Nowadays I focus on eating mainly natural foods, predominantly fruits and vegetables. I’ve been a vegetarian for the last two years (just about) and this may have helped as well.

2. Exercise

I know this is a dirty word to many people but exercise has literally changed my life. I used to be a massive couch potato and now I’m running in races and getting the jitters when I can’t get my exercise in. The funny thing about exercise is that the more you do the more you want to do. It’s hard at first but once you get in the habit it’s annoyingly addictive.

3. Enjoy my treats in moderation

Life without treats is not worth living in my opinion. I still enjoy curly fries, chocolate cake and so forth. The key is that I enjoy them occasionally and in moderation. Before I started my healthy lifestyle I wanted quantity over quality. I’d eat snacks and junk food every day. Two litre bottles of Coke were part of my everyday diet. Now I don’t drink fizzy drinks at all (water is so much better) and I have junk food rarely.

I think that if I can do it then anyone can. It’s not easy and at times I have fallen off the wagon as it were but it is definitely worth it. Today my cholesterol is normal and I feel very happy about that.

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A run with a view

2008-04-22T02:25:19Z

When I got up today it was raining so I didn’t think I’d be running outside. However, about a half hour later it wasn’t looking too bad so I thought I might as well give it a go. I was supposed to meet up with my colleague who I ran with before but he was a no show today so I went by myself.

I didn’t really have a fixed route in mind today but then as I got going I decided I would head off into an area I had never been before even though it is very close.

I started off in the Domain which is where most of my weekday runs start as it is very close to where I work (red dot on the map). I headed into Parnell and then ran down St Stephens road (past many million dollar homes) until I arrived at Pt Resolution.

Pt Resolution is a tiny park on top of a cliff looking down over the harbour. The views are absolutely stunning from up there and I was just sorry I didn’t have my camera with me. Next time I’ll bring along a small camera as the views are tremendous.

There were quite a few stairs going down the cliff which I negotiated rather gingerly as they were very wet. I’ve marked that point with a yellow dot on the map.

I then ran around the waterfront (into a very strong headwind!) and headed back up to work as the rain started to fall again.

I did 6.13 km in 37:24 so it was a nice gentle run.

Work is offering free flu jabs today so I’m off to get one. I did a cholesterol test last week and I’m hoping my results arrive today. I’ll let you know how I did once I know.

Weigh-in & race results

2008-04-21T07:45:43Z

Today I weighed in at 98 kgs (216) flat. That’s 1.7 kgs (3.75 pounds) down from last week. You may recall that last week I was a bit peeved that I lost only .1 kgs but I guess I was just experiencing a fluctuation on the day. That is one of the perils of weighing in daily.

I checked the official results of my race yesterday and laughed once I saw them. I finished 5th in my age group and 20th overall. Not bad for my second race! If only the leading pack could go the wrong way more often. In the future I will know not to follow them!