Losing Weight

Losing weight can be a tricky thing. Two things happened recently that may help you out with how to do it.

1. Dawn of The Dawn and Drew Show just announced that she lost 40 lbs. She hardly worked out at all. Dawn simply ate less.

2. Last year I was working out at insane levels, often burning 2000 to 4000 calories per day with excercise. I never lost weight until I actually told myself to hold back from eating just a bit. After that, I lost the optimal 2 lbs. per week for a month leading up to IM Wisconsin.

I have a couple of tips and a great link to help you achieve the same results. It's pretty simple, so here goes -

First off, you have to eat less. The above proves that working out alone will not shed pounds. What's the trick? I've been doing something different lately and I think I've figured it out - Eat slowly and pay very close attention to the first sensation of fullness. That sensation is delayed by about 20 minutes and nowdays we have the ability to cram food faster than what we were designed to, so you gotta slow it down!

When you feel that very first sensation of fullness, step away from the food. Develop this habit. You can assist this by putting less food on your plate in the first place.

Secondly, get an accurate digital scale and check it daily. You can follow your progress and quickly correct a bad couple of days. Dawn said this was essential for her weight loss.

That's about it. Here is a great link to a guy who has written up a simple guide to losing weight that further explains this simple process and adds much more utility.

Personally, I think the way you live your day can greatly assist your diet. Slow down your meals. Slow down your cooking time. Enjoy this time with family and friends like they do in (skinnier) Europe. Snack during the day and while you cook and you'll never be so hungry that you binge eat and blow your lean and healthy day out the window.

When Marathons are Too Easy

My buddy sent me this photo set of an impromptu aid station set up by ultra runners at the Austin Marathon.

As you may be aware, an "Ultra" is anything more than a marathon. Therefore, this event that most people set as a life goal is nothing more than a walk in the park for these folks.

I won't name names, but some of them were drinking beer and eating tacos and still finished under 4 hours. Easily.

Indulgence - Anton Krupicka

Anton rocks.

Rocky Raccoon 100 Miler Video Start

I finally figured out how to post videos without it wrecking my blog. It only took 5 hours of upgrading and wanting to smash my skull into a truck bumper, but it's done.

This is a clip of the psychopaths joyful folks starting their 100 mile running event. Looks like fun? It has a 34% DNF rate. "Look to your left, look to your right. One of you won't finish. And the other two will wish they didn't."

Triathlete Recipes

I grew up cooking complicated meals in the Great Outdoors without much more than what you could carry in your backpack. I was a member of a fantastic high-adventure Scout troop and we would always try to outdo each other with the fanciest meals possible in the most extreme conditions. Lots of times ingredients would get lost, cooking fuel/gear would be compromised, or items would end up being eaten in a previous meal. Still, the judging would go on - with the treasured "Golden Spoon" as the reward. Suffice to say, we learned to whip up a three-course meal in terrible conditions.

As a result, my cooking style is quite bizarre. I can go in pantry, find the most seemingly disparate ingredients, and create some pretty interesting meals. I rarely measure anything because I've learned to eyeball it and I enjoy having the meal taste slightly different each time. My mad cooking skillz can sometimes irritate those that are used to making meals by the book. "How do you know how much to put in? You can't cook that way!" As proof that I'm not making this up, my brother was in the same Scout troop and he is in charge of meals and whatnot at one of the largest catering companies in Chicago. He is a fantastic chef. He cooks the same way.

I was tasked tonight to make dinner for us while my beloved triathlete wife was in class, so I did my typical "Make it up as I go recipe". It turned out tasty, so I thought I'd document how I made it this time and share a decent meal for endurance athletes with all you folks. Here is my humble, thrown-together masterpiece: Totally Aero Thai. Emily gave it the double-thumbs up and my three-year-old even liked it, so it can't be too terrible.

Nutrition is important to us tri-geeks. I'm going to add a page to this blog very soon and list recipes for us to chow down on. Please send me a link to your own. Mine was written and then published with Google Documents. Give it a try if you're looking for a way to keep track of your own recipes. Look closely and you'll see that I've added some triathlon-specific touches.