A Closer Look At My Eating Habits

Last post, I talked about My Fitness Pal. An app that makes it very easy to track food and count calories and helps keep you accountable of your daily habits. Pretty awesome if you ask me. I have now been using it for a couple of weeks simply to keep track of my current eating habits and see where I am exactly and where I have to put some effort. What I have found is pretty interesting so far and while some of it I already knew, most of it I had no idea. Here are some of my findings.

Soda Sucks
This one is no surprise at all, but let's forget about the health issues involved for a moment. Even if there weren't any, soda simply doesn't make sense. Why drink your calories when you can eat them? As a self confessed soda addict, I have always struggled with this and in the past two years I have decreased my consumption significantly, but looking at my food intake graphically, the difference on days I drink soda as opposed to those days when I don't is pretty significant. When do I drink soda? If I eat fast food, I usually cave on the soda. It's just too convenient and cheaper. This is a sad, telling fact of the way we live. A double cheeseburger, fries and a soda is a lot cheaper than a salad with a bottle of water. Want to trade the soda in your combo meal for water? You gotta pay extra. And don't get me started on the bottled water racket... Which brings me to my next point.

Eating Fast Food is a Big Problem
I'm trying to cut this down but I'm in a vicious circle regarding my food budget. Avoiding fast food means having your fridge and pantry stocked with food so you can make your own but we are a family of five and our grocery bill can get pretty high. When the food runs low, we can't always fully re-stock right away so while that happens we order out, which in turns drains our budget even more. Usually we try to find a middle ground where I buy a few things that run out and leave others for later but that means I'm always running to the store to get "something". In the meantime, we order out and since we can't spend too much, we go for the cheap combo meal. Again, I try to avoid this as much as I can but once or twice a week, I end up in some drive-thru. And folks, if you haven't done the calorie math on this, you should. The calorie intake when I eat fast food versus days I don't is ridiculous.

Lunch is the Worst Meal of the Day
When we cook at home, we always make sure there are leftovers I can take to work the next day. This works out great from a health and budget perspective but when we don't cook at home I have to buy lunch. Where do I end up? The drive-thru. Remember what Joe Pesci said about the drive thru in Lethal Weapon 2? Exactly. There have been days when I have blown half of my calories for the day on just lunch. 

The Night Grazer
It's important that I leave some calories every day for a nighttime snack. If I'm hungry, I get restless, if I get restless I can't sleep, if I can't sleep I watch TV, if I watch TV at night I head straight to the fridge and I'll eat whatever is there. This is not a problem if you have snacks planned and enough calories to eat them but if not, watch out! And Lord forbid, that there should be ice cream in the fridge. (There isn't... usually.)

We Need to Ban Weekends
Ok, that might not be such a good idea but weekends are dangerous. They are like a free pass to do stuff you shouldn't do or don't do stuff you should like, you know, cook. Suddenly, the stove becomes your worst enemy and our brains start to think differently. Whereas during the week I would consult with my wife: "What should we make for dinner?" During the weekend that exact conversation becomes: "What should we buy for dinner?" Or Lunch... Or Breakfast...  I realize that the week is pretty hectic and we like to wind down a little during the weekend but we have to discipline ourselves more regarding this issue. What is worse, I find myself NOT counting calories during that time. I'm eating junk and suddenly I start to "forget" logging my food. Not good at all.

Breakfast of Champions
I thought I should close on a good note and this is definitely it. 5 years ago, I was defiantly entrenched in the "just a cup of coffee for breakfast and screw everything else" camp. Not anymore. It took some time and effort but I always make sure I eat something in the morning along with coffee, even if it's just some cereal and toast. It is now a habit and one that helps immensely. If you are an over-eater like me, missing a meal is just a cheap excuse to eat everything. Have some breakfast. It makes a difference. Believe me.

And that's the findings so far. I know it sounds pretty horrible but all in all, I actually manage to stay within my calorie intake pretty consistently. However, I could be doing much better, especially regarding the quality of what I'm eating. Fast Food joints have a pretty strong grip on our lives. Yes, lives. This applies to my whole family as well. Our daughters are young and we still have time to turn this around somewhat. So this effort is not just for me to lose weight but to place healthier eating habits for all of us.

My Fitness Pal - A First Look

Ahhh... Keeping track of what you eat. How hard can it be right? 

By now, it has become pretty clear that those who keep a food journal are more successful at losing weight than those who don't. The studies are many and pretty conclusive on this matter yet, you don't see many people writing down what they had for lunch at the local food court. Why? Because it's incredibly annoying. That's why.

"How many calories are in that?" "What's the serving size?" "Is that a half cup?" "Wait, how many ounces of soda did I just drink?" I'll admit it. I'm not a big fan. Forget about an actual food journal. You know, a notebook or diary where you write all that stuff down. I don't have the discipline to carry a notebook, let alone write in it. (alas, my life story will never be accurately portrayed, I guess.) Then came online trackers which are great but still not entirely convenient as you still had to wait until you were in front of the computer to upload what you did that day and to do that you had to, that's right... write it down, which I never did plus I had trouble finding some foods that are common here in Puerto Rico but not really known elsewhere.

Thankfully, things have gotten a lot easier over the years thanks to technology. Databases now cover almost any food you can imagine and now with the ever-present smart phone in our hands, the age of the electronic food journal has truly arrived. That's when I saw Mindy, from Road Runner Girl posting on her Facebook page about completing her food journal with My Fitness Pal, among others. At this point I was a bit reticent to give it a go but I thought:  "Hmm... maybe I should check this out." So I did.

The Menu Screen

As you can see from the menu screen, the app allows you to track food, exercise, goals and your overall progress. The more info and detail you add to to it, the more accurate the data you will get out of it. When you first log in, it will ask you several questions, including your weight and your goals, to determine a start point. Unlike other apps I have seen and tried, the activity level you put in at the beginning does not account for exercise. So if, apart from your exercise routine you just sit in an office chair all day, that's what you put in. Instead, whatever exercise you do that particular day gets logged along with your food intake and the calories you burn get deducted from your daily calorie allotment. This is a very good thing as the app doesn't "assume" you exercise consistently. The calorie allotment remains constant whether you miss a workout or not. I think it works better this way as it helps keep you honest.

Add Entry Screen

Entering food is as simple as choosing which meal and having the database search for whatever food you just consumed. The app keeps track of recent foods you picked which is really handy as one tends to gravitate toward certain foods so you don't have to go searching every time. You can also create meals and save them so you don't have to enter each individual item of a meal you might have frequently. All pretty handy. The database is powerful and robust. I'm yet to get an unsuccessful search. Obscure local, ethnic dishes like "Arroz con Pollo" (Sort of a stewed rice with chicken) and "Tostones" (Friend green plantains) show up with no hesitation in the searches. Spanish or English, the search engine on this app is yet to fail me.

Bar code Scanner

The bar code scanner however, takes the convenience cake, hands down. No searching. No guessing. You just scan and viola! Again, the database shines. I have scanned stuff that I was certain would not display a result and have been pleasantly surprised. Locally produced products I haven't seen anywhere else show up with no problem. This alone keeps me using the app regularly if only for the amusement.

The exercise search is a bit more tricky but still simple enough to use. The trouble I've been having is that my main form of exercise is of course, running. It's not really the app's fault in a way. Runners have an eternal debate over what is "running". As far as the database goes, the slowest form of "running" I have found is 12 minutes per mile which is still a bit on the faster side for me, especially if I'm running longer than 3 miles. So far, I play with the amount of time I put in so my calorie burn more or less matches that of my GPS watch to get an accurate number. I will play with writing "walking" and "jogging" in the search box to see if I get better results and let you know how that goes.

The app, like Dailymile, has a social component so you can keep in touch with friends and motivate each other. This works even better if log in using Facebook. You don't have to do it, but it makes it a lot easier to find friends and family who are also using the app.

So far, I've used the app simply to keep track of my intake and study my patterns and habits. I have been sticking with a calorie goal but right now my concern has been to see, right in front of me what my eating habits look like so I can work on improving them. I do manage to stay below most of the time but there have been some epic fails here and there. I will let you know all about it in the next post.

How (Not) to Train for a Triathlon - Running Edition

That was scary
Running. The one thing I have been doing continually for the better part of two years. You'd figure I would have no trouble training for this part of it. Well, you'd figure wrong though. Sometimes, things happen in a certain order that conspire to make things extremely difficult for you and let me tell you, this is exactly what happened here. 

Heart Rate Training
The concept of heart rate training is not alien to me, yet I have not really been paying attention to what the HR data in my GPS watch has been telling me. Then, I start reading about triathlon and HR training is not only an important part of the whole deal but actually the very foundation of it. It makes sense: you are doing multiple sports over what is sometimes a very extended period of time. Maintaining a stable, relatively low heart rate is the key to the whole thing. At least that's what I have read. Dave Scott, who could be called the  Michael Jordan of Triathlon, is said to have been able to run 6 minute miles in HR zone 1 which for most of us, is the equivalent of a brisk walk.

Now, I'm no Dave Scott but I have been running for a while so I thought that as long as I kept it slow, maintaining zone 1 during the runs in the first phase of the training plan I was following would be no problem. Then, I actually went to do those runs. I adjusted my watch so it would show me both HR and HR zone along with the usual data and almost immediately trouble started. Not 2 minutes into the first run I check the watch: zone 6. Zone 6?! Wait. All the stuff I've read, the charts I have seen go up to zone 5 and here was my HR monitor casually telling me I was in zone 6. 5 minutes later, I was in zone 6.8, then zone 7. 250 beats per minute. Now, I don't know much about heart rates and stuff but that was not normal. 

Health issues is one of the reasons I took up running. High blood pressure in particular was a concern. I'll be honest. Seeing those numbers on the watch scared me. I was also scared that if I went to see a doctor, he would tell me to stop running. At least until we sorted the issue out. 250 bpm was no joke after all. I know how stupid this sounds but runners it seems, are stupid when it comes to these things. So, I spent most of April and May making sure the numbers I saw during that run were no fluke but no matter how slow I ran, no matter what I did, the HR monitor would shoot straight to the sixes. The high sixes at that. I even started to feel ill while running. A tightness in the chest that very conveniently coincided with my fears of what was wrong.

Well, turns out that what was wrong was a faulty heart rate monitor.

I Narrowly Avoid Certain Death
The good thing about keeping stuff you don't use -stuff like, say, heart rate data- is that it can sometimes come in handy. After checking all my logged runs, I noticed that some time after the marathon, all my runs were averaging around 240 bpm. It didn't matter if it was a slow long run or a frantic 5k, the result was the same. Before that, everything was normal. It must have broken at some point after coming back from Florida. Great. Now I need a bike AND a heart rate monitor. I don't know if it's the strap or the actual monitor that broke but it doesn't matter. I don't think they sell them separately.

And that folks, has been my horrendously pathetic introduction to the world of triathlon: A long way to go in the swim, a broken bike (that's not mine), and unfounded heart rate paranoia.

And yet, even though I have been forced to put my triathlon plans on hold and my first foray into training has not been spectacular, I can't wait to give it another go. Triathlon is a challenge that intrigues me and I will overcome. Some regrouping will be in order. In the meantime, I have a sub-3 hour half marathon to worry about.

Breaking News

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programing...

 I know I still owe you guys one more post regarding my triathlon training but this, for me is MAJOR news. How big? Star Wars big. No, its not about the upcoming films. By now you probably already know about that. It's about the often discussed and much coveted Half Marathon.

As if this year hasn't already been filled with pretty exciting runDisney news, which included the announcement of the Avengers Half-Marathon, now we get another new race and it's the one everyone was waiting for: The Star Wars Half-Marathon Weekend, to be held in January 2015.

runDisney released this pic on all their social media outlets. The hashtag for the event is #LetTheWookieWin

As the name implies, there's a Half Marathon involved but it's getting the full runDisney weekend treatment which of course includes kid's races, 5K, 10K and the now mandatory challenge medal. That's right. Run  both the 10K and Half Marathon on consecutive days, and you will earn a third medal to go with the pair you will earn for running both courses. The Rebel Challenge Medal!. 

As you can expect, this caused quite the stir in cyberspace. Over at the #TeamrunDisney page on Facebook, the thread seemed to get a mile long  a matter of minutes.

Of course, most of the discussion was centered around all the excitement and you can bet this will sell out well before you can say "yup, yup" but also there was a bit of back and forth regarding the location. Sorry east coast folks, this one -like the Avengers half- will be in Disneyland in California. As you can probably guess, where you stand on this argument will depend on where you live, with all the people who have the Pacific Ocean closer to home elated that it will be run in Disneyland and the Atlantic folks disappointed that they will have to spend a bunch of money on travel, food and lodging along with the entry fees to make this race happen.

Me? I have to travel either way but just like the Avengers Half, California makes it almost impossible for me to make it at the moment so this is a hard blow. Harder than the Avengers Half. If there was ever a bucket list race for me, it's this one.

Having said that. I have to remain objective and say that I think it's completely fair and understandable for runDisney to set the race in Cali. It just makes sense. Face it east coast people: Florida was getting the way better part of the runDisney schedule. Not to mention the biggest event of them all (WDW Marathon Weekend). Cali had the Disneyland Half and the Tinkerbell Half. That's it. With these two races on the schedule, this really evens things out between parks.

My favorite part of all this? I they indeed, let the wookie win, maybe they will finally give him a freaking medal huh?

So, who will tackle runDisney's newest challenge? Are you going for the Rebel Challenge medal? Let us know!

How (Not) to Train for a Triathlon - Cycling Edition

So, part 2 about my training for a triathlon. We take on cycling. Just reminder, here is part 1.

I suck at cycling

OK, I don't actually suck at cycling but I have to keep some continuity going here.Plus, if I were to name this part appropriately it have to be "My Butt Hurts" so I'm pretty sure many would prefer I stick with the current sub-header. Cycling has not been that bad, actually. There has been one small problem though:

I don't, in fact, technically, actually own a bike.

This has been quite the issue. I want to try my hand at cycling, not just for tri's but in general. A bit of research on the subject though has led to the self-evident truth that this sport is pretty darn expensive. A proper 10-speed road bike will set you back anywhere in the range of $850 to $1,800. Two grand if you want a carbon model (which a lot of bike shops tried to push on me). Then there's the pedals, shoes, helmet, gear, clothing... If you are looking to make a sensible investment to begin cycling, $2,000 seems to be the entry point. I don't have $2,000 burning in my pocket right now but I want to train. What is a guy to do??

Yup, you use your wife's "Sears' Special" mountain bike which you recently got her for her birthday. She wanted it so she could ride around with the girls. Well, now it has become the World's silliest tri bike. Let's forget the fact that it's a mountain bike and that it's a girl's bike and white, pink and purple. Let's even forget that the entire neighborhood sees me riding this thing and finds it extremely amusing. We still have the problem that this bike simply was not designed for anything other than casual family rides (I don't think it would hold up in actual "mountain bike" conditions) which I painfully came to suspect and realize much sooner than later.

All silliness aside, I was kind of happy I was using it. It made me feel like I was paying my dues and earning my real bike. And you have to admit, I would have looked absolutely ridiculous racing in this thing which would have been funny indeed. But...

The first rides were a pain in the butt (huge pun intended here). I don't remember bike saddles hurting this much when I was a kid and I was one of "those" kids. You know, the ones who were on their bikes all the time. I went everywhere with it, ran errands with it... It was a BMX bike with a solid plastic saddle and yet my wife's bike has a padded saddle and I can't stand it. I think it has something to do with the fact that it's not my size and not properly fitted (big deal, bike fitment).  I bought some tri shorts (I'll discuss that fiasco later) and that has helped. Last week, I went out for a ride and just as I was thinking: "Hey, this saddle thing is getting better. I"m not feeling it as much." Bang! A pedal broke.

That's right. I broke my wife's bike. It didn't take that long either. Crap. Back to square one.

Now I gotta get it fixed which I haven't been able to so now I'm behind schedule in my training plan so I'm gonna need to rethink my June 29 window very carefully because I don't think it's gonna happen. Make no mistake. I'm gonna do a triathlon. But it seems I need to regroup and prepare myself better. At the very least, it seems I'm gonna need to get a bike before I can train regularly.

Having said all that, my foray into cycling has been pretty positive. This is one area where my running has paid huge dividends and even with a small sampling I can say I enjoy it (butt issues aside) and would like to try other things like Gran Fondos and century rides (100 mile rides) which are a big part of the sport and let's not forget the cardiovascular aspect. When I said triathlons can potentially make me a better runner, this is what I was talking about. Being able to cycle on non-running days will help me a huge deal I think. Your joints can only endure so much right?

How (Not) to Train for a Triathlon - Swimming Edition

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I recently started training for a tri (because it's hip to just call it "tri" instead of triathlon) in hopes of doing a sprint one in the summer. To say the least, the experience has been... interesting and humbling. Her are some details on this recent adventure of mine:

I suck at swimming

No amount of reading and warning prepared me for this undeniable fact. I have never done competitive swimming at any level so this might have involved some wishful thinking on my part, but having been able to swim (as in, not drown) for most of my life and not having any particular issue with water, I thought training was going to go a lot more smoothly. I had read that swimming is all about technique but man, what a wake-up call. I suck. Any sort of sustained effort, and I get tired very fast. The slightest variation in technique or breathing on my part and everything goes haywire. To the point of panic, which has never happened to me before. Progress has been really slow.

And that's the "thing" about swimming. You either nail it or you don't. Right now I have to wonder how in the World can people swim two miles without stopping when I can hardly go 50 meters. At least, I think I', swimming 50 meters. I actually don't know. Using my running watch (notice the running part of that) I kind of, sort of measured 50 meters in the sand, then picked two reference points and that's my "50 meters". I could be short. I could be long. It doesn't matter because it's hard either way. Though I'm hoping for long. When I can afford a nice GPS triathlon watch, I'll get a better measurement. That, or find some pool where it will be accurate but then I'll have to bear the shame of other people watching me suck at this. : )

Also, I have to say it. I didn't exactly load the deck in my favor either. This particular phase of training should be done in a controlled environment (read: pool) so you can concentrate on learning the basics but I have no close access to a pool so I swim in the open water at the beach which is 10 minutes from my house and the tide can be an issue. Also, I swim in this particular area that might have a sign that says you shouldn't swim there because of currents and stuff... I know this sounds moronic and counter intuitive but like I said, I live nearby. I have been going (and swimming) there all my life so It's not like I'm facing the great unknown. Also I never go over chest-deep so if I run into any problems I can just stand up. Plus, can you really hate the place where you work out when it looks like this?

The upside to all this is that, just in case anyone needed any more confirmation, swimming is a pretty awesome workout with virtually no impact on your joints. Every time I do a swim workout I finish so, so tired. But it's a good tired. Actually on the days I swim, I can run in the early morning and then swim in the afternoon no problem. It's that low impact.

So as you can see, this has been tons of fun. LOL But it gets better! We'll discuss Cycling in the next post.

Altamesa 5K

So, after my little running debacle during the 5K for Values some weeks back, I was looking forward to a little racing normalcy. You can bet that for this 5K I diligently went on the specified day to pick up my race bib and race pack. My bib by the way...

Because you know, I'm only half evil. (insert drum fill) Which means I'm half good which is a good thing. Along with my bib, they gave a children's book for each of my daughters which I sure wasn't expecting but man, what a nice touch. This 5K has developed a reputation for being very well organized and I have to say it did not disappoint at all. Packet pick was fast and efficient and the race was very well put together.

This race is organized by a local church to fund a program of theirs called Community Center which provides aid to children, especially in the academic area. When you sign up for the race, you are essentially running (or walking) for one of the kids in the program. Pretty neat.

The course by the way, was no joke. A classic out-and-back through an avenue that can best be described as seriously undulating with two particular hills that I will never forget (especially if I run this again next year). Plus, the turnaround point is right in front of a Starbucks. What is this? A race or a medieval torture chamber? The smell alone will kill you with temptation.

Probably my favorite part of the race was the start. The organizers were very strict with corral placement and for the most part people complied with the signs and instructions. The result? A very rare occurrence during a race: A pleasant start. The runners spread out very quickly after the gun went off with hardly anyone blocking other runners. With the one glaring exception of a particular group walking 6-wide at very start, everyone managed to find their space and their groove very quickly.

Meanwhile, I was trying my best to not blow everything at the beginning and pace myself accordingly. Then came that first hill and I started wishing for an extra lung. It was tough. Many were walking up but I managed to "run" the whole hill. Of course, what comes up must come down so right before the turnaround point you go down steeply, only to go back up to take the second hill. So right as you are basking in the smell of roast coffee and wishing you were in the Starbucks terrace sipping a latte, you begin a pretty steep climb. A quarter of the way up though I decided to walk the rest of the hill. Bad idea. Once I stop like that it's very hard to sustain continuous running so after starting back up and cresting the hill, I had to walk a couple of more times and with that I made it all the way to the finish line.

As I crossed, I saw the time clock so I knew I had achieved another sub-40 which is the only official goal I had for this race. What I was surprised to find out later when I uploaded my Garmin data, was that I managed to pull off a negative split. By a hair mind you, but a negative split nonetheless. I found this this extremely amusing as I didn't think I had run consistently enough, especially with the walking, to pull that off. Net time: 38:16

It's official: 5K's is my least favorite distance. Whoever spread the rumor that it's easy to run a 5K because "it's only 3 miles" clearly doesn't run and should be made to run this particular course on an endless loop. I'm having a really hard time dropping my time in this distance. The fact is that you gotta run pretty fast to ace this race and I'm not a fast runner by along shot. Thankfully, any given week you can pick from running 10 different 5K's on this island so I got plenty of chances to improve.

All in all, it was a very good race and very well organized and me being a runner, you know all that torturous account means that in a sick, twisted way I had fun running it. Plus, for a 5K, the bling is pretty sweet and unique.