Fighting A Familiar Foe

He's a demon on wheels, while I'm a demon on meals.

As soon as I wake up on Sunday mornings I record my blood pressure, resting heart rate and body weight.  And every week I’m happy with two of the three.

Since the beginning of the year, my blood pressure has averaged 111/66 and my resting heart rate has averaged 50 beats per minute.  That’s good stuff.  My most recent cholesterol screening—completed on Feb. 19—showed a total cholesterol of 179 and a very favorable ratio of “good” cholesterol to “bad.”  My triglycerides were a little high but everything else on the lipid panel indicated robust health.

But the body weight ... damn it, maybe I’m just supposed to be 190-200 pounds.  I’ve tried calorie restriction.  I’ve tried substituting low glycemic foods for high.  No amount of experimentation seems to produce a significant change.  But in recent weeks I have been trying to follow some advice that really rings true with me: “Eat better before you eat less.”  (I’ve seen that quote attributed to a couple of people, including endurance training guru Joe Friel.)  It’s such an easy thing to remember; no calories to count or any of that nonsense.  We’ll see how it goes, this somewhat foreign concept of choosing good foods over junk.

Here at the end of Week 5 the scale says 195, which is the same thing it said last March.  But I’m starting to rack up outdoor miles at a faster rate than I did last year and my weight always drops as miles increase.  Losing 10 pounds of fat before my May races would really help.