October 18, 2007

chub rub & calorie counting

I did an 8 mile run today. Felt pretty good except for my chub rub. For those of you who don't know what chub rub is you are in good physical shape, & good for you, stay that way. Chub rub is what happens when a person runs when they are overweight. They (me) have extra weight around their thighs so when they run the inside of their legs rub together with so much pressure that they develop raw spots on the inside of their thighs. I worked with a guy by the name of Don Trujillo today. He's a former marathon Olympic hopeful & a local (obviously since I worked w/ him tonight). I told him jokingly about the bloody spots on the inside of my legs & how bad it'll be after the marathon part of my Iron. He immediately went into teaching mode. More on what he taught me later.

I've always been attracted to diets that I could eat as much as I wanted. The Atkins, Paleo, etc. I found those are easy to lose weight on but I am completely unable to keep the weight off. The reason is because those unlimited calorie diets demand I cut out things completely out of my diet. Perhaps there are people out there who can never eat bread, pasta, sugar, etc ever again. But I've found many many times over I can't.Don explained to me calories in & calories out. How to figure out how many calories I need each day. And how to count calories once I figure that caloric # out. Now counting calories is common sense I suppose. But there were some things I didn't know. Such as what percents of carbs/protien/fat to eat. How to know when to adjust my daily calories. It didn't take long to explain all that to me. Why the heck have I been trying to make all this so dang complicated for so many years? As I thought about it I started getting pretty dang exited. I could live life like that. If I splurged on a unlimited calorie diet like the Atkins I was screwed because the whole basis of the diet was to completely avoid those foods. If I'm counting calories & I cheat I need to simply minimize the amount of the bad food I had, figure out the calories I ingested, & then adjust my calorie intake the rest of the day to accommodate my indulgence. Seems simple enough. My first step is to figure out what my calorie needs are. That is perfect timing because my coach told me to NOT diet this close before my Silverman because if I try & do an Iron w/ my body at a negative of any kind it can & probably would ruin my race. So I'll guesstimate where I think my calorie needs are right now & stay in that general area for 1 week. If @ the end of that week I've lost weight my caloric needs are greater. If I've gained weight I need to decrease my daily calories. The first week is apparently imperative that I stay as close to my guesstimated daily calories as possible. @ the end of the week if I gained 2 lbs I know that my daily calorie needs are about 1000 calories a day less than what I ate because 1 lb of fat is 3500 calories.

I think with this info & Justins guidance on my emotional dependence on food I can whoop this thing! Perhaps not all @ once. I need to be patient (not one of my strong suits let me tell you). & I need to realize set backs from time to time are inevitable. As long as I keep those 2 things in mind I think I can make this a life style change. I have decided that before. But I think this time, with this info I can do it. I'll start the calorie reduction Nov 12th. The day after the Silverman. Thanks for tuning in. I'm out!!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What you eat and how much you weigh will never define *who* you are. What you mean to your family and others around will never be soley defined by how fast you can do an IM or a 5K. It is but a small part of the picture. I know it is important to us athlete types to keep track of what the scale says, but its not everything. Heck, its not even one of the most important things.

the Dread Pirate Rackham said...

You're not alone - I get chub rub. I think I'm in good shape, not overweight.

I tend to get it under my arms - where my shimmel meets my arms. It freakin hurts!

I have gotten it on my legs too.

Bodyglide is my best friend.