ffmedicmt wrote:

 

Well.....I did it!!! This past saturday I ran the Mackinaw Bridge 5.6 mile fal color race. I went the distance without walking and finished with a time of 56:20. I am very happy with it! It was up hill 5% grade for the first 1/2 of the race ad the wind was 10-15 mph in my face the entire race. It was one of the most diffacult thing I have ever done. Ill have to post a pic. to share. I also hit the 50# lost mark on that day as well. I have come a long way since July 1st and it feels great. My reward was 3 days of fishing and color viewing in Michigan's beautiful Upper Peninsula. THanks for the encourgement....Mike

what a great accomplishment, both the run and the weight loss.  i am still waiting (impatiently) for the weight to come off.  for those of you low carbing it.  what amount of carbs do u consume.  in my calorie tracker, i am typically below the recommended carbs or on the low side of the recommended amount. so how few is too few?

Congrats on your race!

 

I ended up having not one but 2 bowls of cereal.  And I don't mean the recommended portion either.  They were pretty full bowls. 

 

Also, my wife and I have a planned "ice cream day" once a month.  We have a local frozen custard place that both of us like.  Once a month is well off of what we used to do, so I feel pretty good about that.  Anyway, I find that I often drop a pound or so after those days as well.  Up till now I had assumed that this was just luck of the draw.

 

I do that a lot, not good indeed (cereal).

And as for the ice-cream, my husband and I (and kid) do it too, but once a WEEK! sometimes we trade for something else, a desert when we eat out or something like that... But we always do the treat, whatever it is, we have it. That makes us not get "sweet desperate" during the week, as we know we'll have something in the weekend.

What kind of low carb diet do you practice?

To me, the hardest thing is to have a varied diet. I like fruit, so I always have some. But as is common here, too much time at work, longish commutes, etc. don't leave a lot of time for cooking and preparing great healthy meals. So, I end up eating the very same things day in and day out for months and months. That can't work. I alway reach some plateau. And this time, since I am running and exercising most days, I haven't given up on the diet, but it has no variety at all. I've been having fruit, crackers, cereal, cheese, an occasional egg, sandwiches and oatmeal and that's pretty much it.

We have another 5k to run this weekend. This time it's a trail race in a lovely park we have here. I hope at least in a trail I walk less and run more! We'll see.

Been running/walking almost nothing these days. I still do it most days (6 times a week) but only like one mile run/walk and 30 mins stationary bike. Better than nothing but I feel I am not running as much.

That's that!

RenataFK wrote:

 

I do that a lot, not good indeed (cereal).

 

And as for the ice-cream, my husband and I (and kid) do it too, but once a WEEK! sometimes we trade for something else, a desert when we eat out or something like that... But we always do the treat, whatever it is, we have it. That makes us not get "sweet desperate" during the week, as we know we'll have something in the weekend.

 

What kind of low carb diet do you practice?

 

To me, the hardest thing is to have a varied diet. I like fruit, so I always have some. But as is common here, too much time at work, longish commutes, etc. don't leave a lot of time for cooking and preparing great healthy meals. So, I end up eating the very same things day in and day out for months and months. That can't work. I alway reach some plateau. And this time, since I am running and exercising most days, I haven't given up on the diet, but it has no variety at all. I've been having fruit, crackers, cereal, cheese, an occasional egg, sandwiches and oatmeal and that's pretty much it.

 

We have another 5k to run this weekend. This time it's a trail race in a lovely park we have here. I hope at least in a trail I walk less and run more! We'll see.

 

Been running/walking almost nothing these days. I still do it most days (6 times a week) but only like one mile run/walk and 30 mins stationary bike. Better than nothing but I feel I am not running as much.

 

That's that!

I do a pretty straight low carb diet.  I don't really count my carbs so much as try to stay away from them altogether. 

You are right, it is difficult to get variety in.  There are some things to do, but I am pretty boring probably. 

I eat a lot of grilled boneless chicken breasts, and sometimes have broccoli and/or cauliflower with it.  I also get turkey burger patties and have those a lot. 

My absolute favorite thing to do is low carb pizza.  This is actually really good.  Basically most pizza toppings aren't too bad for low carb. The sauce has some carbs but it isn't crazy bad.  The problem is the crust.  What I do for that is get Flat Out bread (Brand Name) .  It's basically a sandwhich wrap that is pretty low in carbs and it tastes really good.  It makes a nice base for pizza.  So, I take that and bake it plain for about 10 minutes at 350 to crisp it up some.  Then I put on del monte canned pizza sauce. I generally layer pepperoni over that, then a layer of mozarella, then more pepperoni.  Sometimes I add mushrooms, black olives, and bacon bits as well.  All good low carb items.  Then bake it for an additional 13-15 minutes at 350. It makes a really really good tasting pizza.  I do miss the thicker crust of real pizza, but taste-wise, this is really good.  My kids can have take out pizza and I am more than happy to stick with mine.

I also get premade meatballs and sometimes have just those for a meal, with some spaghetti sauce and mozarella on top.

Another thing I've been doing lately is occasionally making hot dogs, but using romaine lettuce as a "bun".  No carbs and it tastes pretty good too.

For snacks, I eat a lot of unsalted almonds.  Sometimes I get them smoked too, but the sodium is so spiked on smoked almonds.  It seems like a good idea to avoid it.  Another good snack though is Atkins Endulge Peanut Caramel Cluster bars.  These look and taste a lot like a Payday bar.  They aren't quite as salty, or as sweet as a real Payday.  But they taste very good.  It doesn't seem like eating a diet bar.  I also like to get sugar free Werther's candies and sometimes sugar free jolly ranchers.  Both taste pretty much like the real thing.  I like to take a couple of the werthers with me when i run.  I pop one in and push it to the side of my mouth when i run.  When my mouth starts to dry out, i suck on it for a few minutes.  It actually helps a lot.

I also often do a meal replacement (generally one meal a day) with a premade atkins shake.  The only flavor I like on those is the vanilla ones.  It seems the least diety flavor of the ones I've tried.  I also used to make my own shake with protein powder, flaxseed, plain yogurt, and frozen fruit.  They are really good. A few extra carbs, but they taste a lot better.  I mostly don't do that now because ... well... I'm lazy.  It's a lot of mess to clean up after.

For going out to eat, we have some local KFC's that have all you can eat buffets, and I like to go there for the grilled chicken.  The nice thing about low carb is that it isn't as much volume/calorie restricted, so I can eat a fair amount of grilled chicken without feeling too guilty.  Going somewhere fancier, I generally get a steak and ask for steamed veggies on the side.  It usually works out OK.

I stay far away from the burger places if I can.

Oh!  And I travel a lot for work.  That makes it difficult sometimes, but I generally end up just getting dominos plain chicken wings delivered a lot.  I'm sure there is more carb content in them than I should really have, but it's a case of lesser of evils.  Only so much I can do.

Here is a silly question but Ill ask it anyway. Does anyone have trouble with there feet itching? I seem to have days where a spot on one foot or the other will start itching very bad. The kind you can not ignor. It goes on for hours and even in my sleep (my wife says) sometimes ill wake up and have scratched it raw. It only happens maybe once a week or so and is off and on for a day. I have no rash or skin problems. It is not allways the same spot or foot but it is only in one spot then goes away. I was thinking Nerves in the foot irritated by running.....or maybe some sort of neuro changes like diabetics have? note my sugars are fine and my A1C s normal. Any thoughts ? Mike

I haven't, I once got some poison ivy on my leg and I scratched that, but nothing close to what you describe, I looked around a bit and found this article: http://www.livestrong.com/article/466592-itchy-feet-while-exercising/ it states it's likely dry skin or athletes foot. Here are some other links I found: http://www.bettermedicine.com/article/foot-itch http://www.livestrong.com/article/522230-running-itchy-toes/

I hope that helps and keep on running!

@Brandon, thanks so much for sharing that, I am doing a two week low carb to drop some and I love the tips, when I go into low carb mode I hit a lot of broccoli and hummous, a lot of cucumbers and lettuce. Greek salads with steak and chicken. I am also fond of splenda based stuff like the sugar free jello. Peanut butter on celery or sprouts are also good. Steak tips, grilled chicken and Veggie dogs are also big for me. So far 3 days 5 pounds.

Nick, I did my first 10k on 9/24 and am going to do my first Half next April or May (not sure if I will do the April, definitely doing the May one!).  I am using Hal Higdon's Novice Half-Marathon plan.  Luckily I have more weeks available for training than the length of the plan so I'm stretching it, intentionally repeating some weeks (also I've been on vacation for nearly two weeks at the beginning of this month so need to backstep a little now that I'm back at it!)

ffmedicmt wrote:

 

Well.....I did it!!! This past saturday I ran the Mackinaw Bridge 5.6 mile fal color race.

What other races do they do up that way?  I am looking for fall - destination race - this year did the Virginia Beach RR !/2 marathon.  I have family history to the old fort up there - going way way back to the Coureurs de Bois.  Family cottage used to be outside Petosky...

I have not been up that way for 20+ years...Looking for something around the Labor day time period - after Son returns to college.

Sound like that would be fun time.  I have driven that bridge many times in my youth...