I'm Back

Hi,
I was away on vacation for one week, one very busy yet very relaxing week in the Dominican Republic. During the week I actually read my book on eating clean as well as read a complete issue of FitnessRx and some of my book on training to run a marathon. (Oh, did I tell you that I'm doing the Disney Marathon in January 2009?) For the last few years, the thought of having enough time in the day to actually read more than a few pages at a time has been a fantasy for me, so having the time was great.

I also exercised while I was away. I didn't do as much as I wanted to do but I did get up early and swim a couple of days as well as lower body exercises in my room a couple of days. I wanted to do more, but the exercise room at the resort had non working exercise equipment.

When I got back I started trying to eat clean but I don't think there were enough carbs for me. I was feeling tired and light headed by the end of the second day and didn't feel like I had enough energy for a workout so I decided I'd stick to the basics of eating clean and add some healthy carbs to my diet as well. It seems to be working so far. Since there's no one size fits all healthy diet I know it'll take some tweaking.

I enjoy food, I enjoy ALL types of food and I usually gain a few pounds when I go on vacation, so that was a real concern for me. I tried not to overeat or to eat too much junk food. When I got back I went to the medical department for a weigh in. Here are my results -

August 27, 2008 vs. July 16, 2008

Weight - 178.5 lb vs. 184.0 lb
BMI - 27.1 vs. 28.0
Fat % - 30% vs. 35.3%
Fat Mass - 53.5 lb vs. 65.0 lb

I'm making progress but I still have a lot of work to do. The hardest thing for me is staying away from junk food, so if anyone has any suggestions at all or recipes for somewhat healthy snack foods, please pass them along to me. I'm not talking about snacking on nuts, fruits and veggies. I'm talking about cake or cookie recipes that are low in fat and still taste good.

I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but I registered to do the Hampton's Half Marathon on September 27th and the Disney Marathon; my first full marathon on January 9th. I'm not worried about completing the half marathon, but I would like to complete it in 2:45. At this point I've never ran more than 13.1 miles at a time, so the thought of the full marathon makes me nervous. I really wanted to register for the half but it was all filled up, and for some reason unknown to me and without giving it any thought I clicked on the tab for the full marathon, so now I have four months to prepare to run 26.2 miles. Ugh...