50 Million Pound Challenge: Running, Diet, Weight Loss and Contest Updates

Casper is a one of Ms. Tracy’s cheerleader (lol) and resident exercise guru and this is his response about weight loss, running and diet that he posted on the Staying Motivated When You’re Not Seeing Results post. My responses are in bold:

When I was 18 I decided to quit smoking. An old man pulled me aside and told me that every time you attempt to do something your chances of success increase with every attempt. It is something that has always stuck with me. Later in life I learned about neural pathways etc. and the old man was right. Now every time I have a goal I know that as long as I keep getting back on the horse I WILL succeed. You will become the skinny bitch as long as you keep being a cast iron bitch about it. (if you don’t mind me being frank)

LOL. That made me laugh…but yes I’m being a “cast iron bitch” about it though it is driving me bonkers that Im not seeing any results.

Some things I noticed. Try not to eat anything for at least an hour after you run. Drink as much water as you want, but stay away from the foods. If you just CANNOT stand it eat eggs with salt and pepper. Black coffee or strait tea is ok too, but nothing else. If you eat anything you are loosing all the benefits of the run. (unless your running for at least 45 mins to an hour)

I run and or walk for a minimum of 50 minutes to 90 minutes a day. I don’t generally eat immediately when I come in because it takes me 20 to 30 minutes to cool down and get “back right,” once I’m back in the house. It usually takes me anywhere form 30 minutes to an hour before I eat anything. However if I wait the hour I’m STARVING. I’ve also realized that I have to eat a LOT of something once I get back in from running. A simple salad isn’t going to cut it.

My aunt has told me to eat my big meal (i.e. dinner) in the afternoon or for breakfast and then decrease my calories throughout the day. That helps. It prevents me form being a bloated cow in the morning when I wake up. As far as weight loss though I’m not really seeing any results. I’m not even sure I’m losing inches either. I’m solid as a rock though so I suppose that’s something. *shrugs*

It takes at least 30 mins of running to burn the glycogen out of your bloodstream, which has to happen before your body will even touch the fat. Maybe running in the morning is not for you. I like running in the evenings. If you really wanna get the most out of your run get a quick shower after your evening run, swig some water, and go too sleep. Your body will burn fat all night long. Because there is nothing else to run on.

I stay up very late, ’till like 4 – 5 in the morning. I usually don’t get up ’till 11/2 to start my day (this is after getting up at 7/8am to feed the kids) and I go running then, so it is more an afternoon run. I can’t sleep after an evening run (6:30/7-ish) because that’s too earlier and there are still kids to wrangle.  I’m running for a minimum of 50 minutes so I *should* be burning glycogen, but I’m still not burning any fat.

Easy muscle gain could be your ace in the hole. Massive exertion of muscle requires A LOT of calories to maintain. Basic Physics though, It is gonna require X amount of energy to move Y amount of weight. If you increase Y then the amount of X also has to increase (assuming all the other variables remain the same)

My issue is (and has been) that because I’m a pretty active person in general my workouts have to be EXTRA intense to get the weight off. If regular Jane was working out as much as I do (outside of the running/walking I jump rope for a minimum of 20 minutes at night) they’d be super fit. My body just treats it like a normal jaunt through the park. I can’t get to a gym right now to really hit the machines that I know could ratchet up the workout right now, so I’m at a loss as to what to do.

If you don’t wanna get bulky then focus on muscles that people are gonna notice less or muscles that are definitely sexy when they are developed. Abs, legs, and Shoulders are a few of my personal favs on a woman. One thing to keep in mind is that women have 1/26th the amount of testosterone as men. Which means you are not gonna get bulky like men. This is why IFBB women bodybuilders use steroids. The notion of women doing high repetitions with low weight because they don’t wanna look like men is false. Your muscles will get bigger but never masculine.

Seriously I start to look like Xena Warrior Woman after a while because I build all this muscle without losing the fat…so my thighs look like tree trunks and my mom begins to tell me how I’m exercising “wrong.” Her way of saying you’re starting to look like you could crack watermelons with those thighs…lol. I’m solid, like I said, but I don’t want to be solid…I want to be slim.

Sigh.

Ok I way over time. I gotta get going. Hope this is helpful,and not critical.

Contest Update

So the SPP Contest is winding down.  I would say I’d crown a winner come June 30 but no one has posted yet. So, at this point anyone who posts can win the dough ($100), so it’s very much any woman’s game. Also if you all would like your t-shirts and sweatshirts I will need your addresses. Some of you all sent me your info a while back, but you didn’t sent me your screen names and others just didn’t send me your info.

For those whose info I have I will send along to Ms. Tracy so she can send the t-shirts/sweatshirts to you. Here are the current standings:

As you can see we’re tied for first between Ms. Tracy and Tnt5150 with Northshore Barbie running a close 3rd. Overall good job ladies and hey, I’m not opposed to keeping my $100…so you don’t have to post if you don’t want to:-)

‘Till Next Time