Intro from a sister

My brother blogged for several years on SparkPeople, the original version.  He passed away in 2019.  My younger sister was assisted by someone in generating a PDF of ALL of his blogs from there.  I am thinking I might undertake preserving a few of them here on blogspot as an Archive, that I can then tap when blogging over on SparkPeople 2.0.

Unfortunately, the tool that scraped all the blog content into a PDF did not recover any of the photos included.  I'm putting this one I took of Kevin (MOBYCARP) in September, 2018 at the last race we both raced in, the Wineglass Marathon (for him) and Half Marathon (for me).  He's ringing the bell because it was his personal best time at the 26.2 mile distance.  My profile picture is wearing his Boston Marathon celebration jacket from 2018.  Since he was injured in 2019 and did not run Boston that year, I believe this was not just his best time, it was his last full Marathon?  As I get into the blogs, I might discover differently!

Wish me luck!  Oh, I intend, as I did with my own archived blogs, to set the published date to the original as published on SP1.

Calories Burned by Exercise

Calories Burned by Exercise 

Thursday, September 08, 2011 

On a weight lifting forum I follow, a poster whose opinions and expertise I respect said,

"The impact of exercise is always a bit difficult to predict for all sorts of reasons.....fitness level, type of exercise etc. and also compensatory behaviour for the remainder of the day. Folk who do any amount of meaningful intense exercise usually slow down a bit for the rest of the day, so a butt-kicking workout that expends an extra 500 or so kcals doesn't necessarily generate a 500 kcals deficit even if food intake doesn't change." 

Now, this was said in the context of a community where "a butt-kicking workout" means something really substantial; but it strikes me there's some truth in it for just about all fitness levels. From the very overweight person whose butt-kicking workout is a quarter mile walk with no time limit, to the serious runner whose butt-kicking workout is a marathon, we all probably back off a bit on other physical activity on days when we push ourselves to the limit. 

Even if I'm not pushing myself to the limit, if I run on my lunch hour I'm not burning as many extra calories as might be thought. That run is replacing a brisk walk that won't be made up at any other time of the day. In effect, I'm slacking off in recognition of doing more than usual. 

So why do we do those butt-kicking workouts, if they don't burn as many calories as we think? Because the offset from backing off other activity in the day is a short term effect. Another thing the quoted poster said was that the extra muscle mass from strength training doesn't really burn very many extra calories while we're resting; what it does do is let us burn more calories without noticing, because the physical effort isn't as significant. 

And that's why exercise is so vitally important to weight management. It's not the short term effect of the 603 or 644 calories (depending on which calculator I believe) that I burned in my 36 minute walk/run this evening, less what I didn't burn from the walking I might have otherwise done. It's the long term effect of the calories I burn that aren't even counted as exercise, because it feels natural to run to beat the light getting across the street, or I walk faster when I'm going from one place to another, or it's more convenient to move the 40 lb. box of cat litter than to walk around it, or it just because it *feels good* to run a little in nice weather. Those are calories that wouldn't be burned if I weren't exercising regularly, and get burned without noticeable effort on my part. 

That, and the quality of life is better when I can move an inconvenient 40 pound object without thinking about it, or walk up the stairs to the 5th floor because I don't like crowded elevators, and the physical effort of doing stuff like that just isn't a consideration. 

Spark on!

Musings on Exercise and Diet

Musings on Exercise and Diet 

Wednesday, September 07, 2011 

It seems to me that the SparkPeople site tries to do two different things with the fitness tracker and exercise, and the two are not always totally compatible. 

First, the fitness tracker is a motivational tool to get me to actually DO some exercise. So far, it works quite well for that purpose. 

Second, the fitness tracker wants me to adjust my fitness goals, which are used to feed the nutrition tracker's calorie range goal. (And maybe macronutrient range goals as well?) I don't know all the details of how the nutrition tracker calculates the goal ranges; but it's pretty clear that if I tell the fitness tracker I'm going to burn 700 more calories per week, the nutrition tracker will tell me to eat 100 more calories per day. 

Some time ago, I made the decision that I would use the fitness tracker primarily for its motivational purpose. I no longer debate whether one set of 5 TGU/Windmill combos on each side is "worth" a Spark Point. I use the tracker to track them, and it gets me to do them. Good enough. On the cardio side, I use the fitness tracker to record intentional exercise. That is, if I go for a walk and the major purpose is to be moving, I record it. If I go for a walk to get someplace, or to stroll and enjoy the weather, I don't. I don't count mowing the lawn, because I don't need the SP motivational push to get that done. (Though the past weekend's result might imply a bit of denial in that last sentence.) 

Since I'm firmly committed to using the fitness tracker primarily as a motivational tool, that puts me in an uncertain position with respect to measuring calories burned and determining nutritional target ranges. If I understand the instructions correctly, I'm supposed to count cardio as stuff that puts my heart rate at 60% to 85% of the maximum. But that's not my guideline for motivational tracking. A walk at 4 mph might put my heart rate at 54% of the max, which falls short of "exercise" by the cardio definition; I don't know how many fewer calories I burn because I'm below target heart range. 

I also have a problem with the calorie estimates. Cycling at 13 mph calculates out to almost twice as many calories as walking at 4.2 mph for the same length of time. But my perceived rate of exertion is much lower for the cycling. At least one of those calculations has to be wrong. In practice, I've cycled a lot less since starting SP. Part of this is not wanting cycling to artificially pump up the calorie burn count, and part is wanting to get steps for the pedometer. (That stupid 10K steps per day motivational trick, y'know.) 

Then there's strength training. The fitness tracker gives me no calories burned for lifting weights. There is probably no good way to approximate calories burned by strength training; the variables involved make the cycling/walking comparison look simple. But I know that lifting weights can burn a lot of calories, even if it isn't cardio. In 2005, strength training alone was sufficient to take me from very slow weight loss to a defined downward weight trend as I increased my strength. 

All this comes together with other random information to create a large uncertainty in my mind. I dropped 16 pounds in my first 7 weeks on SP. That's 2.2 pounds per week. With a goal of losing 21 pounds from where I started with the site, it's recommended that I lose a half pound to a pound a week. I've read a rule of thumb that the maximum fat you can lose is 1% of your body weight per week. If I'm under 200 pounds, losing more than 2 pounds per week would then imply I'm losing more than fat. 

On the one hand, it looks like I'm losing faster than I ought to this close to goal. On the other hand, I'm clearly becoming more fit. I'm running longer periods, my resting heart rate is going down, and I'm lifting more weight without aching as badly the next day. Then there's the transition to maintenance. I suspect one reason SP recommends losing at a half pound per week for the final 10 pounds is to make the transition from "losing" to "maintaining" a smaller adjustment to lifestyle, increasing the chance of successful maintenance. 

So I sit here paralyzed by analysis, and don't increase my target calorie range. I have made some small efforts to eat toward the middle of the range instead of the low end some days. I'm also mindful of the fact that next week I start evening commitments on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The additional time spent on these cannot help cutting how much exercise I really get. I don't want to get used to eating 300 more calories per day, then have that level of consumption be too much for my exercise level in the fall. 

One thing SP has given me, for sure, is a way to adjust my eating by small amounts and know that I've made the adjustment. If it turns out that the weight starts going up when the summer exercise frenzy cools down, I can tell the fitness tracker that my calories burned goals are lower and it will lower the ranges for me. If I see that I'm losing weight uncomfortably fast for where I am, I can tell it I'm burning more calories and it will raise the ranges. I can make the mechanism work, and I can follow the ranges. 

Now if I can just figure out when I need to adjust the ranges, I'll be all set.

5K My Way, Week 1, Day 2

5K My Way, Week 1, Day 2 

Tuesday, September 06, 2011 

Long day at work. Got home, fed the cat, and grabbed a slice of whole wheat toast with butter and honey before heading out to walk/run. Made sure to down a glass and a half of water, as the plan was to do this one without carrying a water bottle. 32 minutes, in 63 degree weather. Should be possible. 

Went the same route as last time. Walk 1, Run 3, pay attention to hold the running speed down. I'm feeling pretty good, so I must be pacing myself okay. Try not to look at my watch too early in the run segments. First segment, check time at 1:30. A couple others, at 1:20. One segment I didn't check my watch till just after 2 minutes. 

Not bad for someone who struggled to keep running for a full one minute two and a half weeks ago. Every running segment, I feel like I could keep going longer than 3 minutes. I make myself slow to a walk at 3 anyway. Cardio is not the only thing that needs to be developed slowly. I can tell that I'm developing runner's calluses on my feet, which are different from walker's calluses. Overdoing it looks like a way to get blisters before calluses. 

Come to the end of the run, and I'm home too early. Tack on a little distance by going two driveways further and back. Net result, 3.89 miles or 0.08 miles further than Day 1. And I'm in better shape than I was at the end of the Week 1, Day 1 session. Part of that's more favorable weather, but part is likely that the training is working. 

Forcing myself not to run yesterday might have a bit to do with it, too. I'm beginning to believe I can actually do this in the scheduled 5 weeks. Ramping up slowly instead of doing as much as I can, every time out, is the key. Dang, that's a hard lesson to learn. 

Now, off to bed. Got the training in, got the blog in; but I'm out of time and need to get some rest.

Lazy Labor Day

Lazy Labor Day 

Monday, September 05, 2011 

Ah, three day weekends. After getting up early on Saturday and Sunday, a day I can sleep in. I stayed in bed almost till 7 am. 

I am not a morning person. Time was, I could sleep in till 9 if I'd been up on time the previous five days. But a while back, I set a Spark goal to be in bed by 10:30. I missed a couple of nights, but not by much and not in the same week. 

So sleeping in isn't the production it once was. Got up, and got about the day in a leisurely fashion. Fixed my breakfast, checked my friend feed, looked down the list of stuff I do daily on SP. My kettlebells called to me. The last two days, I didn't do anything with them. My body was too beat up. Pre-spark, that could have been the start of the kettlebells gathering a lot of dust. But there's 2 Spark Points to be gained by doing my morning TGU/Windmill combos and KB snatches. So they got done.

Thought about going to the gym, which is open from 8:30 to 2 on Labor Day. At 10, my daughter showed up. She's storing stuff in my basement in preparation for moving to a different apartment. We had a nice chat, then she left for work. Geared around to get to the gym, and at 11:30 I realized I barely had 1000 steps on the pedometer. (For reference, on a normal work day I'll have about 1500 steps when I'm sitting at my desk with my morning cup of tea.) 

Hmm. If I go to the gym, I might not get cardio in. That puts the 10K step streak in jeopardy. So I set out to walk my 5.2 mile loop, to get today's cardio. 

Walking was hard. It was cool and overcast with sprinkles that later turned to a steady light rain. I had a tough time holding to the walk instead of running portions. But yesterday was a 5K training day, and tomorrow is another 5K training day. Today I need to *walk* to loosen the calves, so I'll be able to walk/run tomorrow. Forgot to check the pedometer right at the start or end of the walk, but I did a bit earlier and a bit later. 5.2 miles in 74 minutes generated somewhere less than 9400 steps, but that was good enough for the 10K step streak. 

Got home in the rain. Taking care of the lawn is a lost cause this weekend. Got lunch, and it's too late to get to the gym. Played on the computer some, and the cat wants to be fed early. Tough toenails, cat. I guess I can vaccuum so you'll leave me alone for a half hour. 

Done vacuuming, and it's still too early to feed the cat. Don't want to drive anywhere, and it's a dreary day for a casual walk. The gym would be good, but it's closed now. Well, I have weights in the basement. What's on the agenda? Deadlifts, incline dumbbell chest presses, lat pulls, and standing calf raises. Can't do the lat pulls at home, but I can do the other stuff. Shut the cat out of the basement and lift weights. 

This is the first time I've done a full weight lifting session at home in a long time. Maybe Christmas 2009 was the last time? Anyway, get done with what I can do at home, and feel like I need to do something else. Can't do lat pulls. Don't like bent over rows. Settle for renegade rows, which are more a core exercise than a pull, but there is that pull element. Plus, when I get done with renegade rows I'll know I've put some effort into the session. 

Pre-Spark, what would this Labor Day have been like? I probably would have got the vacuuming done. I might have done more with the walls in the empty room than I did today, but I probably would have spent most of the day reading. I would have thought about a walk, and likely not done it because of rain. I would have thought about the gym, likely not gone, and likely not have lifted weights at home. And of course I would have eaten more and worse than I really did today. 

All in all, not a bad Labor Day. I got in a nice 5.2 mile walk, I lifted weights (including deadlifting 110% of my weight), I had a nice chat with my daughter, and at 8:30 pm I feel like I've had a very relaxing day. 

Life is good.

Uncharted Territory

Uncharted Territory 

Sunday, September 04, 2011 

Friday morning I weighed in a 184.4, and duly noted it as a 20-year low. Saturday I had no change, weighed 184.4 again. This was overshadowed by my inability to run as much as I thought I should and realization that I needed to pace myself. 

Sunday: This morning I weighed in at 183.4. Stepped off the scale. Weighed again. Same answer, down a pound from the day before, which was itself a 20 year low. 

So I put the weight into Excel, and changed the 2011 graph to add the point. It might be a smidge below trend line, but not far. This is probably a real weight loss. Then I updated the range for the long term graph, and I got a nearly horizontal wiggly line with a lot of white space below it. Huh? 

It took me a while to figure that one out. Turns out that Excel's hidden algorithm for scaling line graphs takes a range from 221 to 184.4 and sets the minimum vertical axis number at 160. But if the range is 221 to 184, Excel assumes that I want to see how that all relates to a bottom of zero. Because I've upgraded to Office 2007 since the last time I fiddled with graph settings, it took me a while to figure out how to manually set the minimum; but I did get my readable long term graph back. 

This could easily turn into a rant about Microsoft, but that's not where I want to go with the thought. 

It's not just that 183.4 initially made my long term weight chart blow up. 183.4 is off the chart historically in that I *don't remember* just when I last weighed that little. I remember struggling to come down from the unreasonably high weight of 185 some time in the mid to late 1980s, but I don't remember what I weighed in which year from 1985 through 1990. I recall a couple of key weights from 1991 - 186 before I moved, and 191 after I unpacked the scale. 

There's other stuff I don't remember, too. I don't remember what kind of scale I was using back then, or whether I had standardized the time of day to weigh or the clothing I weigh in. For sure, any scale I used was only accurate to one pound, and may have had a bias of being heavy or light by a pound or two. I remember a couple scales with such a bias, but I don't remember whether I was using a biased scale the last time I weighed this little, or which direction any bias might have been. 

I'm now in uncharted territory. Any further weight losses are into territory where I can only say very roughly that I used to weigh this little more than 20 years ago. 

I don't think I really believed I could lose weight below 185 when I started with SparkPeople. When I set a goal of 175, I forget what time frame SP set for it, I think some time in early 2012. That looked way aggressive to me, so I changed the goal to July 4, 2012. 

Yesterday I backed that goal up to April 15, 2012. That now looks like way far out, at the rate I'm losing; but I'm okay with that. Now I'm becoming concerned that I might be losing a shade more quickly than I ought to for the last 10 pounds, and perhaps I ought to slow that down a bit. 

That requires some thought. I've been comfortable in the eating range, and exercising quite a bit. The exercise is going to get toned down as fall commitments like choir and bell choir start up, so I'm reluctant to add calories to the diet. And there are a couple of social eating commitments coming up that may blow a couple of specific days of eating. But I want to keep the running training, which would mean the exercise I will be getting won't be comparable to what I got in past fall seasons on the fitness bandwagon. 

Decisions, decisions. Which way do I go? I don't know for sure, because I'm in uncharted territory.

Pacing Myself

Pacing Myself 

Saturday, September 03, 2011 

I've always had trouble pacing myself. That's one of the reasons I've never been a runner; I've never been patient enough to train slowly. 

Thursday I turned in a pretty good walk/run time in training. Friday I lifted weights and got out for a walk late to keep some streaks going. And on to Saturday. 

The plan was to get up early, do a walk/run of 5.2 miles before meeting my daughter at McDonald's for breakfast, then do normal weekend stuff. What happened is I ended up slacking off a lot. 

First, the walk/run. This was not a training exercise. The idea was to walk longer than I would in training, and not push hard on the runs. Well, the humidity this morning was every bit as bad as yesterday. The good news is I got out when the temperature was still reasonable; but I was doing terrible with the running. First stretch, I felt like slowing to a walk at one and a half minutes. After that, I managed 5 two minute runs, with 2 to 5 minutes walking between. The next time I set out to run, I managed a half minute. 

My socks were wet. I'll try buying new socks, feels like the wicking action in these socks isn't what it was. My calves hurt. Either I really worked too hard Thursday, or the walking lunges yesterday were too much. I could feel a soreness in my thighs; when I got home I looked it up and I guess I worked by hip adductors pretty hard on Thursday. I don't think the RDLs and walking lunges yesterday would do that. 

The technical term that weight lifters use for how I felt is "pretty beat up." This is obvious from the time I start the walk/run, but by the time I'm ready to admit it I'm more than halfway through the course, having run a total of 12 minutes. That's kind of deflating after training with walk 1, run 2 and running 20 total minutes. Couldn't manage 20 minutes in 2 minute segments, even with more time walking between runs. Sad. 

Managed the 5.2 miles in 64 minutes. Got a little bit of a late start, so I skipped the hamstring and quad stretches, but made sure to to a good job on the calf stretches. Made it to breakfast on time, to hear daughter talk about moving to a solo apartment the first of October. There's drama with her landlady/roommate, who seems headed for Learning Experience in Life. 

After breakfast, it was hot and humid. Normal weekend chores got started late, and some didn't get done. What did get done was a nap; grocery shopping; a bit of playing around on the SP site; and watching some football. I made no attempt to deal with the lawn in the heat. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as bad. I'll see how my body feels before I try to deal with the lawn then. 

This is kind of a wakeup call. I've been diligent about getting exercise, but not as diligent as I should have been about controlling how much exercise. This has given me problems in the past, when my fitness program imploded but I kept eating like it was still going on. I'll try to deal with it better this time. 

First step is tomorrow. Maybe I'll start Week 1 of the 5K My Way running program, and maybe I'll just walk for exercise. I need to listen to my body and see whether I've got enough rest time in to charge back into training. If not tomorrow, almost certainly Monday for the training. Tomorrow is supposed to be hot again, but Monday should be cooler at the cost of having some showers. I can deal with showers when out to walk or run. 

It's a hard lesson, but I need to learn to pace myself. Not only in a single day's run, but also in overall exercise and fitness. I really don't want the program to implode and see the results I've already achieved evaporate. If I have to see slower progress, fine. But let's not lose what I've already got. To hold on, I need to keep working the program, but not work it so hard that it implodes. 

Pace yourself, kid. You're worth it.

Heat, Humidity, and Stupid Motivational Tricks

Heat, Humidity, and Stupid Motivational Tricks 

Friday, September 02, 2011 

In Rochester NY, we sometimes get deceptive humidity. It really doesn't feel very bad, but after you walk a half mile you're dripping with sweat. 

Today was warm, about 88 at lunch, and there was nothing deceptive about the humidity. It was in my face. I took a short walk and got back into the air conditioning. I didn't bother counting the walk as exercise. 

The boss let folks out early for the Labor Day weekend. I used the time to go to the gym early (planned for after work) with the idea of mowing the lawn later, or maybe making up the cardio with a walk from home when it cooled off. Heh. 

The gym is air conditioned, but the a/c isn't terribly efficient in the weight room. The weight room is in the basement, so it was cool enough; but much of the outside humidity migrates in. I was sweating seriously after a warmup, and dripping after the first major lift. Well, that's what lifting weights is like in the summer. I persevered, in spite of having forgotten to pack my water bottle. I made lots of trips to the drinking fountain. 

After lifting, I reasoned that I might get a half hour of cardio in on a treadmill, and that would boost my step count up to where it would have been if I'd got the lunch walk. Still no water bottle, but it's only half an hour. I can drink before and after. Well. The cardio room a/c was working well, but 2 minutes in my feet were telling me that my socks were wet and it was NOT a good idea to keep going. Canceled out of that program, and didn't count it as cardio. 

Ran a couple errands, and still got home a bit earlier than normal. Step out of the car, and the heat and humidity are oppressive. I've acclimatized to fall weather, let's not go back to high summer! Went in, fed the cat, had dinner, and recorded stuff on the nutrition and fitness trackers. Survey the yard. I really need to run the hedge trimmer before I mow, and then bag the clippings. I'm not up to that this evening, it will have to wait for tomorrow. 

At this point, my pedometer reads about 8800 steps. There's no way I'm getting 1200 more steps inside my small house. Start looking as Spark Streaks. I've got a 44 day streak of exercising 10 minutes a day going, and I don't know whether weights should count. It says I have a 19 day streak of 10,000 steps, but it's really 48 days with an accidental streak reset thrown in. 

So at 7 PM, the stupid motivational tricks get my butt out the door for a walk. I need 10 minutes and about a thousand steps. This is doable. The heat is less, as the sun has gone behind some western clouds. The humidity is still in my face, but can be dealt with as long as I'm willing to sweat. Get to the turning point for the short version of the walk. I've already worked up a light sweat. I'll need a third shower for the day anyway. May as well go the full 2 mile route. Turns out I'm at an off pace, and that takes me 32 minutes. Good enough for the streaks and the steps. 

Now, off to bed. I want to be up early tomorrow, so I can walk/run 5.2 miles and get cleaned up before breakfast at 9. Then with the exercise and step streaks defended, I can see about taking care of the lawn tomorrow afternoon.

Before and During pics, 5K My Way Week Zero Day Three

Before and During pics, 5K My Way Week Zero Day Three 

Thursday, September 01, 2011 

Before, 7/31/2011: 

During, 9/1/2011: 

The plan had been to take pictures at the end of each month. Yesterday was end of month, and I forgot. 

I record my weight each day. The difference in weight between July 31 and September 1 was all of 6.8 pounds. It would not be surprising to see little difference; it's a bit surprising to see as much difference as there is. That's still not where I want the "after" pictures to be, but it's good progress for one month. 

Then after I took pictures, I went out for the last of my remedial training on running. The plan was walk 1 minute, run 2 minutes, times 11 for a total of 22 minutes running. That should prepare me to start Week 1, which starts out walk 1, run 3, times 8 for a total of 24 minutes running. 

This evening it was 80 degrees out, warmer than it's been while I'm running since last Friday. I changed a few variables. Put my older running shoes into the gym bag and retrieved the newer ones, thinking that might help some irritation of the bottoms of my feet I'd noticed before. Tried to figure out the Pose Technique that WATERMELEN had recommended. That's hard without a coach to look at how I'm doing. Tried to figure out what it should feel like and run that way. What I ended up with feels more like pulling the ground with my front foot than pushing with my rear foot. It gets me moving faster, with a longer stride, as promised. I didn't figure out how to slow down and stay in that method. 

The most notable thing about this session is that I've hit the point where the limiting factor is my cardiovascular fitness. Part of that will be running faster, part might be not getting the Pose Technique right, part will be the temperature (which comes with deceptive humidity). During the session, I lost track of time segments once. Did a walk 1, run 1, walk 1, run 2, walk 5 steps, realize what I've done, run 1, and back on track. Ended up covering 3.9 miles in 33 minutes, 11 cycles of walk 1, run 2 with the irregularity from losing track. 

 That rate would get me through 3.5 miles in under 30 minutes. 

 All in all, it's been a pretty good day

Time and Distance

Time and Distance 

Tuesday, August 30, 2011 

I am not a runner. Once a year, at the end of May, I pretend to be a runner for the Chase Corporate Challenge. That's 3.5 miles, or just a bit longer than a 5K. 

Every year since the first time, my goal has been to be able to run the entire 3.5 mile distance. Every year, I've fallen short of that goal. The reasons are many. I'm busy during tax season, so I don't train then. I don't switch gears naturally at the end of tax season, so I lose too much time there. A couple of times I tried to train, and overdid things. 

Enter SparkPeople. I came here to learn to record and control what I eat. The site also promotes exercise. I know a bit about weight lifting, and I see what SP has to say on the subject is very basic and suitable for people with absolutely no weight lifting experience. I wonder if the same is true about their running programs? 

So I take a look. I can walk forever, but I'm not a runner. The 5K My Way running program starts with walk 1 minute, run 3 minutes. I couldn't do that. Other programs start with walk 4 minutes, run 1 minute. That's a lot more walking than I need between runs. 

So I looked at what the programs had in common. They all are structured in terms of walk X minutes, run Y minutes, repeat Z times, Z increases on day 3 of each week, while X and Y become more challenging each successive week. 

The end point of the 5K running program is to run 30 to 40 minutes. (SP says "jog," but let's be honest. If it's worth breaking out of my walk, it's worth running.) 

So I built myself a two week remedial program that I call weeks negative one and zero of the 5K My Way running program. I'm on Week Zero and it's working. Today I walked 1 minute, ran 2 minutes 10 successive times. Friday I'll go for 11.  Next week I'll start Week 1 at the SP drill of walk 1, run 3 times 8. (They word it clumsily, listing the first cycle then saying "repeat 7 times," but the listed total time makes it clear what is meant.) 

I got into this thinking I needed a formal pattern for a gradual buildup. I knew I needed to not go as hard as I could, in order to increase my capability instead of achieving what I can right now and being sedentary the next two days. But there's something else important going on here. 

SP says they're training for a 5K run. I've always thought in terms of training to run 5k, or 3.5 miles, or 5 miles, or whatever fantasy distance I've never been able to run. But that's not what the training program is doing. 

It's really training me to run 35 minutes. 

That's an important distinction. Historically, I thought in terms of distance. Run 200 paces, walk 200 paces. The real training program works in units of time. Walk 1 minute, run 1 minute. (I still don't get starting out with the walk instead of the run, but I'm following that structure.) The end result is to be able to run consistently for a sustained period of time. 

If I can run continually for 30 minutes, I'll be able to run continually for 3.5 miles. Even on the walk 1, run 2 drill I covered 3.67 miles in 32 and a half minutes (with a 2.5 minute walk at the end, because 10 cycles is where I am in training.) Running nonstop will trim at least 2 and half minutes off that, probably more. 

The other thing I noticed was the step count on the pedometer. When thinking in terms of distance, running artificially looks worse than walking. It's fewer steps to walk/run my 5.2 mile loop than to just walk the same loop. But . . . it's more steps to walk/run 30 minutes than to walk 30 minutes. Greater distance, more steps, same time. 

I'm beginning to get it. To train to run, and to get the fitness benefits of running, how far I run isn't the most important thing. How long a time I run is a better measure to focus on. 

Next May, I want to be able to run at least 30 minutes continually. I'll be willing to stop sooner if it doesn't take that long to cover 3.5 miles. Slightly changed goal, but I think I have a better chance of meeting it than I've ever had in the past.

Feeling Like an Imposter

Feeling Like an Imposter 

Monday, August 29, 2011 

I've been on the SP site for seven weeks now. I track what I eat. I stay in my calorie range, and after the first couple of weeks I started watching the macronutrients and staying in those ranges. 

I climbed back on the fitness bandwagon, walking more regularly, lifting weights, and actually using the gym I'm paying for. Last week I started training to run, with the aspiration of being able to run 3.5 miles nonstop at the end of next May. 

The system is working. In seven weeks, I lost 11 pounds and the clothes that were tight are now comfortably loose. I'm not lifting as much weight as I did at my peak, but the strength is coming back. This weekend I weighed in at a 20 year low, though the weight has since bounced back up a little with rehydration. 

And sometimes I feel like an imposter. What the heck am I doing here, with a lousy 21 pounds to lose (10 now), and fitness that came right back after 3 or 4 weeks of actually doing it? There are people here who have lost 50 or 100 pounds. There are people here who started out so obese that just getting off the couch was exercise, and they managed to turn themselves into runners. There are people here who are losing weight in spite of medical conditions that limit their ability to run, or even to walk. There are people here who work their butts off to lose a half pound a week. 

I have it easy. I may not be young any more; AARP wants me to join. But I'm pretty healthy, and not *that* much overweight. Yes, I desperately need the nutrition tracker. Yes, the stupid motivational tricks are really helping me actually exercise, as opposed to thinking about exercising. But still, I sometimes feel like I'm freeloading on a system that was built for people who need it a lot worse than I do. 

Sometimes I read about a situation that is so far from what I experience that I just can't think of a way to offer support without sounding holier than thou. And then I wonder, what the heck am I doing here? 

Then I take a deep breath and think about it. I'm here to develop habits that will maintain a healthy weight. I'm here because I am going to have to track what I eat for the rest of my life. I'm here because just posting a status that says I will go to the gym commits me, and then I actually DO go to the gym. I'm here because some of the other people here have some pretty good ideas that I can use in my own life. I'm here for pretty much the same reasons the people who look like they belong here are. 

I'm here because my diet and fitness are better when I'm here than they were when I wasn't here. That's enough. If I happen to help anyone else too, that's a bonus.

I Don't Trust My Scale

I Don't Trust My Scale 

Sunday, August 28, 2011 

Oh, I believe it weighs accurately enough. I just don't trust that the my weight is really as low as it says, and will stay that low. 

This morning I weighed in at 185. That matches my low weight for 2010, which I touched last September 12. That was a jiggle down, between the weights of 186.2 and 186.8. It was kind of an artificial low, because I'd fallen off the fitness bandwagon some time earlier. 

I expected to celebrate achieving a weight of 185. Not only was it my low weight for 2010, it was lower than any previous weight going back to 1991. But this morning's 185 doesn't feel like an achievement, because it's a jiggle up from yesterday's weight. 

Yesterday I weighed 184.6. I didn't trust that weight enough to brag about it. It was down more than a pound from the day before, and I'm not normally seeing movement of more than a pound into new low territory these days. Especially not when it's more than a pound lower than a weight that was, itself, a new low for 2011. I figured I was pretty dehydrated, and I should bounce right back up there. 

Well, the weight bounced back up, but not as far as I expected. Maybe this is real. If I weigh about the same tomorrow, I think I'll begin to believe it. 

I just hope I don't blow it with the burritos I made for lunch this week. The nutrition numbers say they should work out just fine, but right now I'm not in a trusting mood.

Philosophical Quibbles with the System

Philosophical Quibbles with the System 

Saturday, August 27, 2011 

The theme for the Spark Diet Stage 2, Week 6 (which starts today for me) is finding the unexpected opportunities. The suggested action steps are a bit problematic: 

 1. "Batch cook a dish that can last 4-5 days." I live alone. I've spent 6 weeks or so learning to fix one meal at a time that fits into the diet. Batch cooking needs a whole different discipline. Batch cooking in general seems a bit silly for my situation, but I think I can do this. Pre-Spark, I made some tasty lentil & rice burritos. Part of the reason they were tasty was that I put on unmeasured amounts of sour cream and shredded cheese. I can measure the cheese with my trusty food scale, been doing that with BBQ chicken wraps and breakfast burritos anyway. And I can try substituting plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream, and measure that. 

I envision doing one burrito at a time on the food scale, instead of my former assembly line of 8. But I'll be able to use the food scale to subdivide my lentil & rice stuffing more accurately. The stuffing is made, and I'll do assembly later this evening or tomorrow. We'll see how they turn out. 

2. "Exercise entirely in 10-15 minute blocks of time this week." Ain't gonna happen. I understand the idea is to encourage people to do something instead of sitting; but I'm in week zero of training for a 5K. Coming up tomorrow is walk 1 minute, run 2 minutes times 9, which equals 27 minutes nonstop exercise. No way am I messing up the 5K training to fit a lame scheme that's supposed to make me think about fitting exercise into odd slots of time. 

I do things like walk around the block on breaks at work; but I don't count that as exercise. And yesterday (end of week 5) I rearranged to fit 5K training into the lunch hour. I think I've got down what this is supposed to teach, and the action step just looks dumb. 

3. "Exercise in one place that you normally wouldn’t (the office, the back yard, the garage)." I suppose I can look for some unusual place to exercise, just to get the 5 spark points. But it doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe take my kettlebells outside to the yard tomorrow, instead of using them inside, just to say I did it. Seems kind of silly. 

One of the things I wrestle with is, what is exercise? I don't like to count mowing the lawn (though I did once, a few weeks ago) because I'd do that anyway. I don't count taking the stairs at work, because I did that all through the period when I was off the fitness wagon. I have counted my lunch walk at work, but I wonder. If "exercise" means getting the heart rate up to 60% - 85% of the max, I don't think those walks count. I don't have a heart rate monitor, but the last two times I stopped to check my pulse was 54% of the max while I was maintaining roughly a 15 minute mile pace. 

Oh, and the exercise tracker keeps telling me to adjust my plan because I'm burning too many calories and need to eat more. I might do that, if I thought the calories burned calculation had any reasonable relationship to reality. But they don't really. They give either too many or too few for cardio exercises, and I can't tell which. They give no calories burned for strength training, when I know I burn more calories in a 30 minute weight lifting session than I would on a 30 minute walk. The basline metabolic rate is a guess based on some average. I'm seeing strength gains and weight loss on what I'm eating and doing; I think I'll keep it up for a while. Time enough to adjust calories if I stop losing weight or start losing it too fast. 

Doing the batch cooking thing brought up another minor frustration. I made a recipe for ground beef substitute, which is lentils and brown rices cooked with beef bouillon. Pre-spark, this was a basic part of several things I did. It should be healthy enough to adapt for cooking on the SP diet. (Yes, the bouillon is high in sodium. I'm not particularly sensitive to sodium, so I don't care.) 

I can't add an existing recipe to a new recipe, or to a food group. #!&^. Ended up adding the spices (which add some sodium) to the ground beef substitute to call it burrito stuffing. Then I took the recipe results, and hand entered them to create a food called burrito stuffing. I'll have to hand enter the results from the ground beef substitute recipe in order to use it to create a spaghetti sauce recipe. 

Three decades ago I noticed the inefficiency of taking numbers generated by one computer and hand entering them into another computer. You'd think a site like SP would address this issue, and let me create a recipe of a type called "ingredient," which could then be included in other recipes. 

Oh, well. For all the minor nuisances, the SP system is working for me. It has got me to eat better, and it has got me to get back on the fitness wagon. In the not too distant future, it's going to get me to move my 36" belts to the back of the closet and start using the 34" belts. I suppose I can work around a few things that don't make sense for results like that.

5K Your Way, Week Minus 1, Day 3

5K Your Way, Week Minus 1, Day 3 

Friday, August 26, 2011 

The 5K Your Way running program starts with walking 1 minutes, running 3 minutes, 8 times in a row. When I decided to start a running program, that was beyond me. So I started last Sunday at week minus one, walking one minute and running one minute. 

Wednesday threw my schedule off. I had a prescription to pick up, so I did that after work. That killed the idea of the gym after work (normally Thursday, but I was feeling like I could handle weights a day early this week.) I didn't want to do the running, because I'd just done Day 2 on Tuesday. So I told myself I'd mow the lawn. 

The lawn didn't get mowed on Wednesday. Instead, I sat inside and dealt with household paperwork. Then I went to bed early. That felt good. A light day was probably called for at that point. 

But that put weights back on Thursday after work. Got home from the gym about 7, with nominally enough daylight to mow. But I was quite hungry, and by the time I'd fed the cat and myself, there wasn't enough daylight left. Summer is waning, even though the grass is growing almost like April. 

That leaves Friday and Saturday. If I put off running till Saturday, I don't want to on Sunday and Monday will start the schedule conflicts with weightlifting all over. So, it's run on Friday. But then there's the lawn. Dang, it's hard to get exercise and real life both in! 

Tried something different. Packed my running clothes in a gym bag and hauled it to the office. Went to the gym at noon, changed, and walked/ran where I normally walk. Did the walk 1, run 1 thing for 10 cycles, then walk 1, run 2 for 2 cycles. Total running, 14 minutes. That prepares for a ramp up to walk 1, run 2, times 9 (total running 18 minutes) for Day 1 of Week 0 on Sunday. 

Came home after work, fed the cat and myself, and mowed the lawn. Without errands between work and dinner, there was enough daylight. We're definitely getting to the time of year when I get really tired of having the grass still grow; but now my weekend is free for other stuff. That's good, because I haven't done very well at getting both the mowing and the vacuuming done on the same Saturday! 

Tomorrow is breakfast at 9 with daughter. I'm about ready to turn in now; if I wake up early, I may try some light running thrown in with walking my 5.2 mile circuit before breakfast. We'll see how it goes.

Hydration at the Gym

Hydration at the Gym 

Thursday, August 25, 2011 

We all know that hydration is important, both in general and in particular when exercising. SP makes tracking water part of the system. 

Historically, I haven't taken a water bottle to the gym. The gym has drinking fountains, and it's been a ritual to walk to the drinking fountain between sets and take a sip. I really didn't know how much water I was getting during a workout, but I was definitely getting some. (A water bottle would be more important for using a treadmill than lifting weights, but mostly I lift weights.) 

Monday I took a 24 oz. water bottle to the gym, and used that instead of migrating to the drinking fountain. The idea was to see how much water I was drinking during the workout. It was an adjustment. I had to figure out what to do with myself while waiting to start the next set. Ended up deciding to pace a little close to the station to use the time. At the end of Monday's workout, I had maybe a half cup of water left in the bottle. 

Today I took the water bottle again. The routine without the drinking fountain is easier, and it allows for better control of the time interval between sets. There's no waiting for the occasional cardio fanatic to drink for 40 seconds, and distance from the weight station to the drinking fountain becomes a non-issue. At the end of the workout, I had maybe a half cup of water left. So I guess 20 ounces is about what I want to drink during a weight lifting session. I'd say that's what I was sipping from the drinking fountain, except for one thing. 

I have a habit of weighing myself in my gym clothes before I go lift. When I'm done, I take off my sweatband, squeeze it out, and then go weigh myself again. Historically, the post-workout weight has been a half pound to two pounds lighter than the pre-workout weight, depending on how fit I am and how much I sweat. 

Monday I chugged the last bit of water before weighing, and weighed a quarter pound more after working out than before. Today I weighed while leaving the last bit of water in the bottle, and was the same weight as before the workout. (Then I drank the rest of the water, so I could transport an empty bottle.) 

I think I've achieved the right hydration level during workouts this week. Turns out that when it's more convenient to get the water, I'll drink more. But my instincts when it's convenient are pretty good. I wasn't loading up on water that I didn't need. 

That water bottle is going to go to the gym with me a lot. If I become very fit and work so long that I run out, I can always refill it at the drinking fountain.

Hunger . . . or not

Hunger . . . or not 

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 

I'm on week 5 of stage 2 of the SP diet. One of the things I'm supposed to do this week is write down why I'm eating, every time I eat. One of the reasons is supposed to be hunger, every time. That sounds really lame, but I'm dutifully writing something in the notes section of the nutrition tracker. 

Today's entry for dinner was, "OMG it's 7 PM and I need to eat 796 calories, 55g carbs, 20g fat, and 54g protein. Maybe I should be hungry?" 

That kind of explains how I lost weight in 2009 and 2010. I wasn't tracking food at all, but I was making an effort to eat only when hungry, to avoid eating for boredom or stress, and to exercise (mostly lifting weights) enough to stay fit. 

Exercise helps with food consumption a couple of ways. It burns calories, and it also suppresses appetite. Probably some of those days in 2009 and 2010 I was eating below what SP says is my minimum calorie requirement. Certainly other days in 2009 and 2010 I was eating well above what SP says is my maximum allowed calories. Let's not think about the macronutrient distribution of those calories. I probably wasn't getting enough protein unless I was also getting far too many total calories.

The second lesson I draw from this is, I can't trust how I feel about how much food I'm eating. Early on with SP, the diet felt doable but restrictive. I had to work to stay in the middle of the range. Then I set a weight loss goal, and the range shifted downward. It was trickier. 

But over time, I figured out how to deal with things. Get the soda out of the house. Buy low fat cottage cheese and chicken breasts so I can get enough protein without blowing fat and total calories. Learn to eat salad, even if it means finding a salad dressing that I like. 

Trimming the total calories did odd things to the calculations. Some days, I'd come in needing a few more grams of fat. That got rid of the bagels in the house, as cream cheese has fat. Later, it was toast and butter. Still later, I realized that it made more sense to eat almonds to make up deficient fat. It takes time, but I do get there. 

Today was day 2 of week negative 1 of my 5K running program. (Negative 1 because I need two remedial weeks to get ready for the real program.) I came home from work planning to do the run 1 minute, walk 1 minute routine 12 times then walk home from wherever I ended up.  Thought about eating something, maybe some whole wheat toast, before running. Then I thought again. Yesterday I lifted weights after work and before dinner; today I can walk/run after work and before dinner. It turned out not to be a problem. 

Then there's that appetite suppression from exercise. All of a sudden, it was 7 PM. I wasn't hungry but need to get the daily requirements in. Got the job done, and I'll be fine. 

But I do need to watch things. While it is more likely that failure to track food would result in overeating than undereating, I can't discount the possibility of undereating if I don't track. In fact, that would explain some rather poor performances in the gym in 2009 and 2010, which contributed to gym burnout. 

I'm probably not going to keep writing down the reasons I eat after this week, but it was a worthwhile exercise. It showed me a side of mindless eating I hadn't thought of, mindless non-eating. 

That's one more reason why I will need to track what I eat for the rest of my life. But that's okay. With tools like SP provides, tracking what I eat forever is nowhere near as dismal as it sounded six and a half weeks ago.

Running and Strength Training

Running and Strength Training 

Monday, August 22, 2011 

The day after I started training for running, my calves are a bit tight. Fair enough. I've seen this before, only worse, when I was trying to train but not doing it right. And I've seen it much worse after running a race without even bad training. 

One of the things that seems to have helped with the calves, even without training to run, is strength training. After I started lifting weights, I'd still get sore calves the day following a race; but they didn't keep me from walking. I concluded that those lowly calf raises, which were mostly rests between major lifts, helped me out. 

Besides being the day after I started a running program, today was a normal weight lifting day. By the time I get out of work, I've walked enough that my calves aren't bothering me. I've talked to a runner I work with, and confirmed that the calf raises are helpful. I realize that when I climbed back on the weight lifting band wagon, I did standing calf raises, which work the gastrocnemius; but I hadn't done seated calf raises, which work the soleus. If I'm going to run, both of those muscles are important. Today I'll add seated calf raises. 

Had a nice session with the weights. Got my seated calf raises in along with the more major lifts. Give up after one set of walking lunges, because I don't have enough gas left in the tank to pull them off. I remember that I used to rotate through three workouts, with walking lunges being on the workout that had neither standing calf raises nor seated calf raises. 

Run through my stretches. Pick a different hamstring stretch, hunting for the elusive hamstring stretch that I won't hate. Meh. I need to keep looking for that one. When I get to the calf stretches, I can feel my soleus. 

It's been a long time since I've really felt my soleus when doing the bent leg calf stretch. I guess running yesterday really did work it. Too bad I didn't get the seated calf raises into my routine before deciding to run. 

Oh, well. I've made some mistakes, but they aren't fatal. I can get the lifting routine arranged so that it supports the running as well as general strength. It is a bit of an eye-opener about the seated calf raises, though. The last time I was doing them, I couldn't tell that they were doing any good. Now, when I'm not doing them but ran a little anyway, I can tell. They're useful. 

I guess this is one of the reasons I'm supposed to take the training to run slow. It's going to take a little time to build those calf muscles up to where they need to be for running continually for a half hour.

5K not quite the SP way

5K not quite the SP way 

Sunday, August 21, 2011 

Last Sunday, I blogged about getting some exercise and steps in spite of the rain. Today, I have the Sunday lack of routine steps again, and it looked like rain early this afternoon. But this time I'm prepared. I've bought more exercise shorts, so I can afford to use them instead of cargo shorts for walking. I've bought a new pair of running shoes, so I can afford to get my old gym shoes wet. I put on the slick running shirt I got at the Chase Corporate Challenge two years ago, because it will handle sweat (and rain) better than a cotton tee shirt. 

Well, I've never really trained methodically to run. Maybe I should look at what SP recommends. There are a variety of running gear up programs. Each of them is structured in terms of walk X minutes, run Y minutes, repeat Z times. The numbers X, Y, and Z vary by program, but it looks like you hold X and Y constant for 3 sessions a week, sometimes increasing Z, then the X and Y numbers get progressively more challenging each week. That's the concept. 

When you get to reality, Week 1 is either walk 4 minutes, run 1 minute or walk 1 minute, run 3 minutes. I'm not sure I like either of those choices. But let's try the walk 1, run 3 thing. Get out, walk a minute, start running, and realize I left my water bottle at home. I'm dumb, but not that dumb. 

I stop running, walk back, and get it. Start again, 4 minutes later. Walk one minute, start running. I'm feeling it at 40 seconds, but keep running for 1 minute. Plan B, walk 1 and run 1. Let's try this 12 times, because I know I managed 12 segments of short running (100 to 120 paces) yesterday during my 5.2 mile mostly walk. 

First mile, 9:33. Second mile, 19:06. I'm shocked at the consistency; I could swear I'm running slower by then. I manage 10 reps of walk 1, run 1, then slow to walk 2, run 1 for two more reps. I'm needing a bit more rest between runs, but more importantly the first 20 minutes got me to the strip mall and I need to avoid pedestrians. By now it is raining steadily, so the pedestrians are congregating on the covered sidewalk and there is more traffic than usual in the close lane as their rides come for them. Two minutes walking was enough to deal with this. 

After 26 minutes, I've run 12 one minute segments. SP would call this the end of a workout, but I'm about 2 and a half miles from home. No, I'm not that dumb; the plan was to take my normal 5.2 mile walk route and just walk all the way when I'm done with running. I shouldn't have any problem walking the rest of this loop, as my legs are very accustomed to walking. 

The rain comes down harder. My natural inclination would be to run, to reduce the time spent in the rain. I resist this inclination, because I can feel in my calves that I've already been running. Been the overdoing it route before, let's try the gradual work up route this time. 

I did run across the one significant intersection, because I hit the light green and didn't want to chance it changing while I was part way across. I don't expect drivers to be looking for pedestrians in the rain.

There's thunder, and a couple of small flashes of lighting. A couple years ago, they closed the course for the Chase Corporate Challenge for weather like this. That was the race where I got the shirt I'm wearing now, LOL. But I was raised in the Great Plains. I'm not intimidated by upstate New York thunderstorms. It's not cold, and it begins to remind me of walking in the rain when I was a kid. 

I get home, after walking almost 3 miles in rain of varying intensity. Hit the restroom, do my stretches, take care of the wet clothes, shower. Now there's sunshine outside. Oh, well. The time to walk/run happened to be when it rained, and it was kind of fun. 

I tentatively think I'll try a shorter walk/run around the neighborhood Tuesday evening. It will be a test of whether the suburban dogs get upset at seeing someone running, and it will leave me closer to home when I get my 12 segments of running in. How I deal with a third session on Thursday or Friday depends on how Tuesday goes. 

It's kind of been a comedy today, but if I can run two minutes at a time next week, perhaps the week after I'll be ready to work on the SP 5K running program. I just need some remedial work first. 

We shall see. I've never been a real runner, but I've never tracked what I eat before either. Don't know that I can't do it unless I try.

Breakfast at McDonald's

Breakfast at McDonald's 

Saturday, August 20, 2011 

New routine, even newer than SP, is to meet my daughter at the local McDonald's for breakfast at 9 on Saturday mornings. It's a time to catch up on her life, spending an hour to 90 minutes before she has to be to work. Today was the third Saturday in a row doing this. 

This has been a learning experience. Before the first breakfast, I went online and found the McDonald's nutrition information, if you can call it nutrition. It looked like the workable breakfast sandwiches were the sausage burrito or the egg McMuffin, each at 300 calories. 

Week one, I ordered off the dollar menu. Got the sausage burrito, a hash brown, and a small decaf. Noticed that this seemed to stimulate my appetite, but I dealt with that. I can work with this level of calories for breakfast. Then late in the day, I saw that I needed an awful lot of grams of carbs to hit minimum, and wasn't that far below minimum calories. Oops. Made my ranges by going higher in the calorie range than I liked. 

Week two, I ordered the egg McMuffin meal and substituted hot tea for the coffee. This is more protein, less fat, and didn't stimulate my appetite like week one did. Ran into a similar carb problem late in the day, but this time I knew it was coming. Had oatmeal for dinner to make my ranges with the calories kind of in mid range. 

This week, I was up early. The plan was to get my 5 mile walk in before breakfast. Five miles on an empty stomach didn't seem like a bright idea, so I had a slice of whole wheat toast with a pat of butter and honey before the walk. Hmm. That's about the same calories as the hash brown, but more fiber, more carbs, more protein, less fat. Okay. Skipped the hash brown at breakfast, just had the egg McMuffin and tea. It was enough, and appetite wasn't a problem before normal lunch time. Had oatmeal at lunch, and went into the afternoon about the same place in the ranges as I do on a typical work day. 

This is doable. Breakfast at McDonalds can be just an egg McMuffin and tea, and it won't be very hard to work it into the daily nutrition. I just had to get past the legacy thinking about breakfast at McD that included hash browns. The point of the exercise is conversation with my daughter, and I don't need to eat the hash brown to have that.

The Boring Diet

The Boring Diet 

Wednesday, August 17, 2011 

I've read the complaint that diets are boring. Usually this is cited in an article about why they don't have to be boring, and followed by details that motivate me to stop reading the article before I get to the end. 

On SP, I've seen evidence that some people go to a bit of effort to avoid culinary boredom. There are the ubiquitous, intimidating recipes. There are blogs that discuss devising this, that or the other treat that fits into the nutritional goals. My sister has posted status about what she has for breakfast indicating more variation in the past 4 weeks than I've had for breakfast in the past year, excluding breakfast eaten away from home. 

I suppose diet boredom must be a real phenomenon, because people put so much effort into avoiding it. I haven't hit it yet, five weeks into SP. Part of that may be because I'm still figuring out what I can fix that fits into the nutrient ranges, but I suspect most of it is because I have a high tolerance for boredom. 

My most common breakfast is oatmeal with raisins, a very simple recipe: 1/3 cup quick oats, sprinkle of salt, 1/3 cup raisins, 2/3 cup milk, alternate stirring and short segments of microwave till done. Serve with a glass of milk, no sugar other than the natural sugar in the raisins. I'm content to eat this five days a week. I know, because I have for years. My concession to dieting has been to replace the 1% milk with skim milk. 

You may ask, what do I do the other two days? About one day a week, I'll eat grits with cheese and spices, usually the same spices, and drink orange juice. On Saturdays, I'm going to McDonald's for breakfast with my daughter and being creative with food the rest of the day to make the nutrients work. Before breakfasts and McD, I might have skipped breakfast on Saturday, or made myself a breakfast burrito (usually a dinner item now), or had oatmeal with raisins. 

Similarly, I pack the same lunch to take to work most work days. Pre-diet, I'd make some burritos to take about one week in 4 or 5; I haven't yet figured out how to make burritos that fit the system well. If I were worried about boredom, figuring out diet-friendly burritos would be a higher priority. 

I do have more variety in my evening meal, but I tend to eat the same stuff two or three days in a row. Sometimes this is because I fix something that is two meals' worth, but more often it's because I found something I liked that worked with the nutrients, and I'm going to do it again. 

Eventually, I'm going to get tired of what I'm eating now. But I'll figure something out when that happens. When I do, I'll probably end up eating a lot of the same thing, only it will be something different than I'm eating a lot of now. 

So . . . maybe diets are boring, and ability to tolerate boredom helps success? Or maybe that's not universally true. In my case, it's more likely that making food *routine* will allow me to define what I eat and spend my non-eating time thinking about other things than food. 

Based on my weight history, I think that would be a Good Thing.