Food

When I arrived in Milwaukee just over two years ago, I had a growing waistline. I was drinking too many chai lattes from Starbucks and eating too many Mr. Goodbars as I pushed to finish my dissertation. Hell, I maintained my Starbucks gold status for two solid years! That's not something to brag about. The sugar caught up with me ... err ... stayed with me.

Not helping matters, Jody and I each have a nasty sweet tooth that is nearly impossible to tame. Over the winter, we love to have cinnamon rolls from City Market or a piece of cheese cake from Sendik's. Our summer vices are ice cream sandwiches and frozen yogurt (with too many toppings). I also found the devil isle in Sendik's with containers of chocolate covered nuts and caramel pralines ... OMG!

In October 2013, a doctor's visit put me close to 230 pounds, which is about 40-50 pounds overweight for my age and height. My blood pressure was on the high side, and my cholesterol, along with other numbers, were trending up.

Prior to school starting in September of that year, Jody and I went to Kohl's because I needed a new pair of jeans. I had to buy a pair with a 38 waistline. Some of you may scoff at this, but since my days as an undergraduate, I have been a 36. It was a humbling experience. (I know, it's a rough life growing up with a insanely active metabolism.)

Then we went to Peru the next summer and that picture resulted in me trying to reverse engineer my waistline.

So I ran. According to the data I have in MapMyRun, from July 1, 2014 - July 31, 2015, I have logged approximately 150 runs that equates to about 700 miles. This is an average of 4.65 miles per run. On average, the runs have lasted about 41 minutes. My longest run was 14.66 miles and lasted just over 2.5 hours. Note: Last weekend, I surpassed this distance when I ran 15.01 miles (and I will eclipse the mark again with runs of 16, 18, and 20 in the coming weeks), which lasted 2 hours and 59 minutes. One other interesting statistic, on average, I burned just over 600 calories per run.

As a result, I have lost about 30 pounds. I'm down to about 190 and I have lost over 3 inches along my waist. I am happy to announce that I have returned to my 36s. In October, I will have the doctor check my vitals, but all indications are that they are trending in the right direction.

Obviously, part of this transformation, if you want to call it that, is simply the running. If you exercise, you will shed pounds and transform the fat into muscle. (I could talk here about needing to exercise properly, that is, getting the heart rate up and making every workout count, but that is a post for another day.)

The other part is the diet. I never thought I would focus on what I eat. I would just watch it as I ate it. However, I couldn't tell you the last time I had a Mr. Goodbar. I am also struggling to recall the last time I had a chai latte. I'm proud to say that my Starbuck's gold status has expired. All this said, there is still more to do.

In next week's post, I'll talk about why I need/want to lose another 5-10 pounds before Chicago and how this has become one of the biggest challenges yet.