Hurting real good...

When you get back to weight training after a long time off, you feel it. It doesn't take long. Yesterday I did weights today I'm sore and tomorrow the soreness will even get worse.

On one hand it feels good in that you know you have taken the first step in stopping the atrophy of your muscles, on the other it hurts, I'm shuffling and moving like and old man. Moving my arms above my head hurt and getting up from the couch my entire body hurts.

You have two options. Relax and let your body recover, or push through it and get training.

The good thing about just pushing through is the pain is extremely temporary. It only takes minutes after getting started where the endorphins kick in and you don't feel the soreness anymore, at least until you stop.

This morning I woke up sore and immediately put on my running gear. There is something that makes it more likely that you will train if you put on your running gear right away.

I made myself a cup of coffee, added my coconut oil and half and half cream. It's delicious. Adding coconut oil just makes my coffee taste more full and satisfying. It takes a little getting used to the oil floating on the top and feels a little strange at first, but once you get used to it, you don't want to drink coffee without it. It took me about 2 - 3 weeks to get used to it.

Taking coconut oil is probably one of the best things I do. It's an amazing product. It helps recovery, it helps satisfy food cravings, it's great for your body on so many levels and aids in weight loss.

About an hour after I woke up I was on the road. It was snowing lightly and the sidewalks already had about 4 or 5 inches of fresh snow on the ground. It was a slow start as I was sore. Then the soreness went away and it was a slow run because I was running on the snow on the sidewalk, it's like running on sand.

Immediately I noticed my heart rate was lower than usual. A direct result of the change in my diet, I added carbs. Frankly all these diet systems work for some and not for others. What I've heard none of them talk about is heart rate. If you want to know what foods are ideal for your body wear a heart rate monitor.

You can even wear it right after you eat the food. I can tell you that if I eat a couple pieces of pizza my heart rate is fine. If I over eat pizza my heart rate goes through the moon. I also know that if I'm eating an overall good diet for my body my heart rate on my runs goes down dramatically.

For example, on the Banting diet which is all fat, protein and 5% carbs, my running heart rate would hit the157 bpm at a low effort. After just two days of eating a nice mix of protein,  carbs and fat, my heart rate today was 130 - 135 bpm for the entire run.

I did get some good news total, actually its' more like an added bit of motivation. My Ironman buddy Peter bet me I wouldn't lose 8 lbs by end of March. The actual bet is I won't get down to 198 lbs by the end of March and the bet is for $200 if I win and $400 if I lose. When I combine that with Rodney's bet, that means if I don't do it I'll be paying out $600. If that isn't motivation I don't know what it.

Actually Rodney's bet is 185 lbs by end of March. Peter just sent me a semi life line. I have a much better chance of getting down to 198 lbs by end of march and if I do, the money I lose to Rodney will be paid by my winnings I got from Peter. At least that is the plan. I have a decent shot of getting down to 198 lbs IF I don't drink beer.

One of the risks I run, which is really a double edge sword, is weight training. What you potentially lose in fat, you can gain in muscle. Yet having more muscle you burn more fat.

I'll know when I get to my ideal weight, I won't nap anymore. When I was 185 lbs or less, I never napped, other than once in about 3 or 4 years. It was the strangest feeling, I had just way to much energy to sleep. Now I find it hard to stay awake, I can barely make it through a TV show without falling asleep.

I started eating some fruit. I love fruit, much more than vegetables. Alice is the opposite. The tough part right now is that the fruit tastes sour. Yet when my taste buds adjust they will taste sweet. I'll be craving it. Right now I have to force myself to eat it because of the sour taste.

The key for me right now is to keep everything simple and not get too worked up. To pace myself mentally. It's so easy for me to spend all myself thinking about work and ideas and getting on that mental treadmill. On todays run that mental treadmill was starting and I just had to stop myself and tell myself not to over think, let the process unfold and trust it will all work out. Have faith.

I use that word faith purposely, rather than hope. Hope is victim word. The difference in attitude is very different when you use the word "hope" versus "faith", you do not give up your power when you  have "faith" it will all work out. It's a power word.

I definitely know right now that tomorrow's training is going to be tough. As the night goes one I'm getting sorer and sorer. I know if I can keep training consistently, I don't snack after 8 pm and don't eat anything but fruit until noon, I'll drop the weight. Mind you at my age it goes a LOT slower than when I was younger.

Last year I dropped 10 lbs in 30 days for Ironman Cozumel. It was the toughest thing I have ever done. It was near painful tough. I trained close to 70 hours that month alone, I ate super healthy and took lots of supplements. After I dropped the weight, I was down to 190 lbs and told myself that I need to keep the weight off because I don't know if I have it in me to go through something like that month again. So much for listening to myself. Now I'm even in a worse position.

But I have faith it will happen if I stay the course.

I keep track of my weight and pulled out the last year that shows my weight transition. Too bad my weight chart wasn't a stock I owned.

On a personal level I kept myself busy today setting up some bank accounts. It's a long story but I recently got a U.S. Credit card from RBC in the U.S. and then find out the only way I can pay it is through a U.S. account, even though RBC is a Canadian Bank. It kept me busy for about 3 hour being on the phone and then having to go to a local bank branch. If there is one difference, it's much easier dealing with the U.S. branch.

Either way it was a good distraction and there is something gratifying about solving anything to do with money problem. For me I always feel whole if my personal accounting and business accounting is up to date and all my government stuff filed. We never procrastinate with that stuff. It wears on you if you do. I have no idea why people procrastinate when it comes to that stuff, it just wears on your mind. It's like spending all day thinking that you need to train, rather than just doing it as early as possible and spend the rest of the day feeling like you had a major accomplishment that day and ride the positive feelings.

Run - 1:22:34 / 11.19 km
206 lbs