Couch to 5k - Part 2

When I first started running my goal was to run 7 days a week, but soon I realized that was just unrealistic given everything that goes on in life. At the beginning I found that dedicating 30 minutes a day 4-6 days a week was reasonable.

My first run was border line pathetic as I made it only about 3 blocks before being completely winded. However, I developed a routine that consisted of me trying to run to the next telephone pole on the street I was running on and then walking the rest of the 30 minutes.  There were days where I wished there was a telephone pole at every house because they felt so far apart.  I found this gradual increase to really help me pace myself and feel like I was improving every day.  For days that I felt really good, I would run an extra telephone pole. I calls this the "Beginner Telephone Pole Workout". For anyone looking for a way to get started running but just aren't sure where to start, give it a try and it just may work.

At the same time as starting to exercise I also downloaded an app from the iTunes Store called MyFitnessPal, or as my wife now affectionately calls it "that damn thing".  My friend, Misha, had recommended using LiveStrong which seems to be similar but this one was free so I went with it.  Regardless of how you track it, I've found that there is nothing more eye opening than tracking what you eat and seeing it compared to what it should be for a person of your height and weight. Even for people in shape, I recommend doing this even for a week if you haven't before because you could be feeding your body absolute crap (saturated fats, sugars, etc.).

From a diet perspective, I set the app to target losing 2 lbs a week; I tried to cut out more saturated fats and sugar than the guidelines recommended and eat more protein and fiber. The second biggest change for me beside changing what I ate was how often I ate. I used to skip breakfast and eat a big lunch & dinner and snack obnoxiously after dinner.  I now eat roughly 6-8 times a day and I try to not have any single meal over 500 calories with most averaging around 150-200 calories.