If you’re in a time crunch and want a simple but highly effective metabolism boosting fat loss workout that only takes 15 minutes to complete then this is right up your alley.
Give it a go and let me know how it works for you:
Interview With A Weight Loss Champion and Ultra Marathon Runner
A few days ago I discovered a blog that I found to be inspirational in my own adventure in weight loss. The site was Run4Change and it details the weight loss journey of the site’s owner Jason.
Since 2006 Jason has lost over 130 pounds, and went from being overweight and un-athletic, to fit and trim and running ultra-marathons. That’s quite a switch!
Here’s a quick bio from his site:
My name is Jason. I have lost 130lbs and have transformed myself from a roly poly to an athlete. I am married to an absolutely wonderful woman named Audrey. She inspired me to be more creative and start this blog. Since I am a former fat guy who has lost 130 lbs I hope to inspire you to become healthier and happier. I am a new person, I might say I am an old person since I weigh the same as I did 16 years ago.
Although I have lost all of my excess weight, I still have fat guy fears..I am moving and running on to enjoy my life even more. I have found a new love called running. I once feared this activity as painful, hard, and boring. Now I see it as an outlet, an emotional and physical recharge. I will never be the same since I started running. I guess you could say that I am running away from my old self.
My blog is my unique angle on health, running, weight loss, and life. My blog, is here to inspire you. To let you inside a regular guy who yearns to do amazing things and live an amazing life. Hopefully you can learn about health, running, weight loss, and me. Life is an adventure.
I contacted Jason and asked if he might be interested in a quick interview about all his success on this blog, and he was kind enough to oblige. I know his story will inspire and motivate all of you!
Interview With Jason, 130 pounds later!
Quick to fit: Tell us a little about yourself, and your fitness & weight loss journey?
Jason: Well, I started weight watchers in Dec. 2006 and I have lost 130 lbs using that program. It took me about a year and I have kept the weight off for a little over a year also, but I don’t plan to go back to deep fried burritos any time soon. My exercise started with 12 minutes on a stationary bike 3 times a week. Every time I lost 10 lbs I would increase the time and variety of exercises that I did. I started running after I lost 60 lbs. My life has been completely changed by losing this weight and starting to run. I have learned so much on this journey and I hope to inspire others that it is possible for them too.
Quick to fit: On one post on your blog you said, “Getting to the starting line is the biggest victory. After that, if you can just endure the ups and downs of the journey you will end up at the finish line.” To me this really is a profound comment, and speaks to how so many people just never get to that starting line, and then don’t stick it out. What was it that finally got you to the starting line, and what helped you to endure?
Jason: My sister was the one who got me walking towards the starting line. She invited me to weight watchers. I had to overcome some serious fears to get to that first weigh-in. Common fears too like:
- I might fail
- If I do lose the weight I probably won’t keep it off.
- What will people think to see someone so fat like me.
- Will I be the only guy at weight watchers.
- It is going to be so boring and hard.
Anyways, I overcame these fears by accepting the fact that change is uncomfortable. There was no way I would ever attain weight loss if I was not willing to be uncomfortable. So I dove right in. I endured the journey until now by setting written goals for weight loss as well as running, not letting guilt pull me down if I messed up, and understanding that it is not cheating if you count what you eat.
Quick to fit: Did you ever find yourself discouraged or frustrated while losing weight, and how were you able to overcome those feelings?
Jason: Oh yeah. I couldn’t even count how many times I got discouraged and wanted to give up. To beat this I talked about it. I talked to my sister, my wife, my WW leader, and God. I also learned so much from running. Being a person who never exercised to finishing marathons, I learned that feelings (although very real) really have nothing to do with our ability to keep going.
Quick to fit: Now that you’ve lost the weight that you wanted to, what kind of a maintenance regimen do you follow to make sure you don’t gain it back?
Jason:I still follow weight watchers the same way I did when I started except I eat my extra points and activity points now. I still go to the meetings faithfully because if I could have done it by myself I would have done it a long time ago. This is a big factor in making it through those hard ups and downs we face during our journey.
Quick to fit: What prompted you to start running long distance races, and what is the longest distance you’ve run? Could you have imagined yourself doing those things a few years ago?
Jason: Since about 1996 I wanted to run a marathon and ultra-marathon. I read a magazine article about a guy who ran 50 miles and I thought to myself, “Wow, I did not think that a human could do such a thing.” I started running at that time but quit very quickly. So after losing 60 lbs this time I started to train for my first marathon and I accomplished my first finish 7 months later. I feel in love with the long runs. They made me feel good mentally, physically, and spiritually. My confidence went up a lot and I started to believe that I could do things that I never dreamed or imagined were possible. My long runs grew. In February of 2008 I ran my first ultra-marathon (31 miles) and in July 2008 I finished the White River 50 miles trail running championship race. I did it in around 11 and 1/2 hours. It was a great experience. All in all, I finished 7 marathons and 4 ultra-marathons from Oct. 2007 to Oct. 2008.
Quick to fit: What helpful advice would you give to others out there who are trying to lose weight, whether its 30 pounds, or 130?
Jason: I think that there are two things that are totally essential for us to understand as we walk in this weight loss journey. First, we need to change how we think about “cheating”. Cheating is the use of deception. If you eat something that is not “on plan”, just count it however you count in your program and it is not cheating. Finish the day off accordingly. You have your whole life ahead of you and 1 day of bad eating is just a blip on the radar. This thinking will free you up and finally allow you to have that “life change” perspective so that you can live the plan. The second thing is to never give up. So what if you mess up. I know it is depressing, angering, maddening, etc. (it is for me at least), but it is not the end of the world and it certainly should not be the end of your program. I learned in the ultra marathons this: There is a guarantee that when things are going great, watch out because they are going to get bad. When things are going bad, all the better because they are going to get good again. This happens over and over and over during an 11 hour race. You cannot escape these surges of good and bad. If you just take one foot and put it in front of the other, regardless of the pain or guilt or mistakes, you will make it to the finish line. Good luck.
Now That We’re Properly Motivated..
Thanks again to Jason for agreeing to do the interview, and for sharing his amazing story. If his story won’t get you motivated, I don’t know what will! I think I’m going to go and run a few miles now!
Don’t forget to check out Jason’s site at http://run4change.wordpress.com. Subscribe directly to his RSS feed here.
How Much Exercise Do You Need To Lose Weight?
Whenever I’ve looked into information about losing weight, and how much time you should be exercising every day in order to lose weight, I would always hear a quote about how you need to exercise 30 minutes a day 3-5 times a week in order to see any type of sustainable weight loss.
Today I was reading an article on MSNBC.com that wants to modify that notion a bit. 30 minutes 5 times a week may not be enough any more!
Greater amounts of physical activity than currently recommended may be necessary to prevent people from gaining weight, and to help them lose weight and keep it off, according to updated guidelines issued by the American College of Sports Medicine.
In a 2001 position paper, the ACSM recommended a minimum of 150 minutes per week (roughly 30 minutes per day 5 times per week) of moderate-intensity physical activity for overweight and obese adults to improve health; however, 200 to 300 minutes per week was recommended for long-term weight loss.
“More recent evidence has supported this recommendation and has indicated that more physical activity may be necessary to prevent weight regain after weight loss,” reads the ACSM’s position paper published in the latest issue of the College’s journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Specifically, evidence published after 1999 indicates that between 150 and 250 minutes per week of moderate intensity physical activity is effective in preventing weight gain greater than 3% in most adults but will provide “only modest” weight loss.
Greater amounts of weekly physical activity — in the order of 250 minutes or more per week — have been associated with “significant” weight loss, the ACSM notes. Overweight and obese adults will most likely lose more weight and keep it off with at least 250 minutes per week of exercise.
So if you want to lose a significant amount of weight – and keep it off, you should be exercising at least 250 minutes per week, or 50 minutes a day 5 times a week. Ok, that’s doable!
They also suggest including weight training as a part of your regimen, to help increase your fat free body mass.
Once you’ve lost the weight, continue on with your new fit habits to keep the weight off!
How much are you exercising every week? Is it enough? Do you need to be exercising more?
