back to running / + 3 things

had a great run - very little pain - best run yet. i normally hold the sides of the treadmill - maybe for as much as 15-20 minutes of the run. i use to kinda beat myself up for this, but figured what i was doing was working... tonight i ran the entire run and maybe held the sides for less then a minute. that was actually quite a surprise. i ran hard too - i was listening to Blue October a band i heard play live at a late night party for a movie called "my Suicide". they were handing out discs at the party (i took two).

i had an interview with the Pioneer Press Thursday. i shared three things that i have learned - but not sure that i have blogged about yet. on a PBS program i heard a doc say that to lose weight and keep it off requires a "super human effort" i agree with that and have been inspired by the comment through out my effort. they mentioned that 97% of all diet attempts fail. my own experience confirms this. so here's my take on that - three things to keep in mind if you want to beat the odds.

1. Sticking to a diet requires a super human effort and executing an effective exercise program also requires a super human effort. Don't start out by trying to do both at once. I really believe this is why the percentage of failed attempts is SO HIGH. I highly recommend that you start your exercise effort first - no diet. Eat what you normally do. Focus on the exercise first. I started by running for 2 miles 3-4 days a week. I did this for six months before I started dieting. I lost less then 5 pounds during that 6 months. But I improved my conditioning and I was totally and comfortably into a routine - one super human effort was behind me - one super human effort at a time is enough. Once I got going on the diet the weight dropped like magic. And once i reached my first plateau I was prepared to increase my exercise effort to counter this.

2. Everyone is good at something. Everyone is successful in something. Take the principles and practices that you never fail in and apply them to you diet and exercise effort. For me making my weight loss effort into a creative project made all the difference this time. The focus is on deadlines and meeting expectations that have little to do with the weight loss itself force and drive a successful project over-all (it just happens to include getting into shape again and losing weight).

3. Be incredibly selfish. It sounds terrible - but almost everything in my life that hasn't contributed to the process or success has been set-aside. It's not mean spirited - I have just found that helping out by making meals makes me fail. The current exercise routine requires 4 hours a day. There's a good 9-10 hours on the full-time JOB, and with the blogging and website and filmmaking - the entire day is spent. If you want to lose weight it has to become your #1 priority.

I weighed 210.4 today.