jeff310

Those numbers seem about right. They would appear to be per serving. A serving of chia seeds is usually considered 1 tablespoon. I eat some every day as well, but be careful - they are high in calories! (way higher than you would think just looking at the little things) The main benefit is that they are one of the few naturally occurring, non-dairy sources of calcium. I'm not a vegan (or even a vegetarian for that matter) but I attempt to limit my dairy intake, so they help me get lots of calcium.

Good call on the almond milk. I use the organic unsweetened variety every morning in my breakfast shake. I hear you on the processed aspect of the almond milk. But the Pacific Natural Foods brand is about as good as you can get, I think. My wife and I were making our own almond milk for a while for that very reason. It tasted great, but we ended up going back to the box. The homemade stuff was no better, was very time intensive, and we calculated how much we were spending on organic almonds to make the stuff, and amazingly, the store bought stuff was cheaper. We make a lot of our own food from scratch, and so far that's actually the only thing that has been more expensive to make on our own. Your workout schedule is intense. I briefly flirted with the idea of triathlons, but the more I read about the training involved, the happier I am to stick with running. Well done though.

Well, 301 drinks and about 20 plates of fried food later, our firm, myself included, survived the party. Did I mention that we are a firm of 18 people? (ok, there were about 10 other people who joined us). I did fairly well. 5 beers, a few slices of cheese quesadilla that had squash and onion in them, and 1/3 plate of french fries. I'm ashamed to admit that I tried a small piece of fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It actually didn't taste good. After I finished it I wished that I would have wasted the calories on more fries with honey mustard. Get a few beers in me and I'll eat those things like nobody's business. On the plus side, my amazing wife picked my drunk ass up from the party last night, so I get to run 6 miles to the bar today on my lunch break to pick up my car. It's the perfect forced motivation, since my hangover would have otherwise made me question whether I wanted to run today at lunch.

Today's going to be a rough one. We have our big annual party at my firm tonight at a bar. So dinner will be bar food, and water isn't really an option. I'm torn between sticking to vodka soda water (low calories, but will make me drunk really fast) and beer (calories but I can control my pace more easily). In any event, the more I drink, the more likely junk eating becomes. I'll have to update tomorrow with the extent of the damage. Today's workout: 30 minutes on stair climber 60 pushups Planks (6x 30 seconds) Today's food: Breakfast- Green Smoothie Snack- Homemade bread w/ nutella Lunch- Beer chedder soup w/ slice of bread crumbled Snack- Greek yogurt w/ rasberries, chia seeds, and honey Dinner- ??? Alcohol and barfood

It's called 'Dublin Dr Pepper', based out of Dublin, TX. It's actually the oldest Dr Pepper bottling plant in the world, west of Waco, and they use the original formula of cane sugar instead of HFCS. It's available pretty widely here in Dallas but I'm not sure how far outside Texas they distribute.

Good lord that picture is giant. Ugh. Sorry for the fleshfest. I guess if Steve has chicken legs, I've got... well whatever the opposite of chicken legs is. Trunks? It also made me realize there is only one mirror in my entire house that is full size. Anyhow.. Yesterday's Food: Breakfast- Green Smoothie Lunch- 5oz grilled chicken w/ tzaziki sauce; homemade beer cheddar soup with broken up whole wheat bread Snack- Homemade lowfat Greek yogurt w/ chia seeds, fresh raspberries, and honey Dinner- Vegetable stir-fry (eggplant, cabbage, broccoli, onion, cauliflower, orange peppers) Yesterday's Workout: 3.6 miles warm up (6:55 pace) 1 minute sprint, 1:30 rest at easy pace (x4 - total distance 1.64 miles) 1.96 mile cool down (7:06 pace) 8 pullups Yesterday was the first day that I'd done a sprint workout in my Vibrams, and the first time in at least a year that I'd truly done speed work of any kind. I am already feeling sore this morning, for sure. It really is a very different from just going out and having a nice long run at a constant pace. The way my feet land at that speed is also going to create blisters on my toes for me. Of course, I'm one who is generally missing at least 2-3 toenails while I'm in running mode along with a bunch of blood blisters all over, so a few blisters at the end of a toe or two is still an improvement for me.

I cut out soda completely, but mostly because I was worried about the safety of the artificial sweeteners in diet soda, and the high fructose corn syrup in regular sodas. A few months ago I had an handmade root beer made with organic cane sugar, but that was it. For me, I just feel better when I'm not drinking it, and think cutting out diet soda and Splenda helped me drop a couple pounds (it was the only food/exercise change I made at the time). More broadly, it just reduces my cravings for sweet drinks and food, so I enjoy fruits with natural sweetness that much more.

Today's food- Breakfast: Green smoothie (Almond milk, raw spinach, amazing grass, frozen banana, all natural organic PB) Lunch: 5oz grilled chicken with tzaziki sauce; homemade whole wheat bread w/ goat cheese, pomegranate, and pistachio Snack: homemade nonfat greek yogurt w/ chia seeds, fresh rasberries, and honey Dinner: Roasted turnips, roasted purple potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts all in pasture butter Late Snack: 3oz Oikos caramel greek yogurt Workout: 5 mile run, 6:38 min/mile 60 pushups 60 squats 9 planks, 40 seconds each

thanks! got it

I tried to save something as a draft in the 28 day forum. I figured it's easier to write down my food and activities during the day as they happen, and then just post it as one comment at the end of the day, rather than posting every time I eat a piece of food or something. Any idea where to retrieve the draft? I've looked around and can't figure it out. Knowing my luck it's just staring me in the face.

5'8" 165 pounds as of Sunday Goals over the next 28 days: - get down to 160 pounds before trip to Belize (March 13) - get down to 155 pounds by end of 28 days - run 40-50 miles per week at sub-7 minute pace (that's not happening on vacation) - limit processed foods to three times per week, at most - do at least one upper body strength workout per week to start working on building strength - see even the faintest bit of ab definition by the end of 28 days I'll get a picture up tomorrow - not much else that will keep me honest. It will be interesting to see how I do on vacation. Luckily, I've heard that the food in Belize is mostly fish and fresh fruits, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep to healthful eating. Also, most of the trip will be kayaking, cave tubing, hiking, and snorkeling, so at least I will be staying active.

Do you still crave soda once you cut it out of your diet for a while? I stopped drinking all drinks with artificial flavoring about 8 months ago, and I couldn't tell you then last time I wanted one. I'm still addicted to multiple cups of coffee to get going in the morning, so it's not as though I'm without my beverage vices, but I just never feel like I really need a soda. Beer and wine are a different story entirely, but I haven't gone more than 4-5 days without those, so I wouldn't know.

Funny you ask - I actually run exclusively in my Vibrams and have since Oct. For the sake of full disclosure, I've got flat, wide feet, and prior to last year, I had never found a brand or style of shoe that kept me injury-free over a period of more than 4-5 months. Then last May I tried the Nike Free. I loved those for any distance, and I still enjoy them more than a regular running shoe, which just feels like a cast on my foot at this point. But then I tried the Vibrams in Oct and I've never looked back. I worked my way up from 1/4 mile, adding about 5 extra minutes per day. Whatever you do, don't just put them on your feet and then go out for 30 minutes (or even 10). Your feet and your calves will hate you for it the next day.

I'm new to posting on NF, but I've been reading for about a week or so now, and I really like the site's focus and reading it has helped motivate me to stick with my goals, so I figure I'll stick around as long as that's the case. I'm 26 (almost 27) and I've been a pretty avid runner most of my life. After graduating college, I took a job that had me working 100-120 hours a week, so the idea of time for fitness sort of flew out the window, and takeout lunch and dinner became the norm. I was working so much that in my few free non-sleep hours per week, I was more interested in hanging out with my wife than heading to the gym or going for a run by myself. I finally decided that I'd taken enough of that life and took a new job that had half the hours in a new city. When I moved, I decided to get back into running. I trained for a few marathons, and it was surprising to me how much I was able to succeed in training for the marathons. The mental aspect of running came right back, and I knew how to train for a long race. The thing that didn't happen was losing weight. I was 5' 8" and 190 pounds. When I think back to how much stress I was putting on my body to finish a marathon in 3:30 at that weight, it scares me at this point. I spent most of 2009 getting down to 165 (getting as low as 160), mostly by adjusting my diet. I fooled myself into thinking if I ran, I could eat (and drink) whatever I wanted in whatever quantity I wanted. My goals in 2010 are to get down to 155 for good, and to improve my times in the half marathon (6:30 min/mile), 15K, 10K, and finish in the top 5 of one of each of these races locally. I've already won a local 5K, which was my first goal. I'd also love to actually be able to see my abs at some point. Aside from running, I enjoy politics, homebrewing beer, Greek and Roman history, and the Wall Street Journal (yes, I'm a finance geek).