PhysicsDiet.com

It's been two weeks since I figured out that my poor posture was causing some or all of my leg pain.

At first I focused on my pelvis. I concentrated on tipping my pelvis up and back by arching my lower back. After a day my left heel and Achilles tendon felt much better. The top of my left leg - what I used to call my hip - also felt much better. But my lower back started aching a little and my left hip joint started aching.

At first I ignored the new ache in my hip. But after a couple of days of shopping with my wife I began to notice that I was still sort of wobbling on my hip while I walked. So I started to concentrate on fixing that too. I also relaxed my back a bit because I found that it didn't take much to tilt my pelvis to the correct position.

It's been a few days since I made the latest changes and I feel like a new person. My legs are now pain free.

Now when I walk I focus on a few key points. First I make sure I'm standing up straight like my mom always told me to. I pull my stomach in, pull my shoulders back, and push my chest out. Then I make sure my pelvis is in a neutral position. I try to keep my pelvis still while I walk. I imagine my legs are pendulums hanging from my pelvis and I try make sure they swing back a forth inline with the direction I'm traveling.

I used to stand and walk with my lower back flat and my pelvis pushed forward. This would cause my legs to bow out slightly. When I walked I could feel my left hip sort of roll. Instead of swinging from back and forth from the hip my legs sort of twisted around. Also at some point, probably a reaction to my Achilles pain, I started favoring my right leg. This caused me to rock on my hips to try and keep most of my weight on my right leg. My whole pelvis was like a seesaw. Teetering from right to left. This wasn't a real exaggerated motion, but it was apparently enough to cause me a lot of trouble. When I noticed I was doing this I stopped and the remaining pain in my left hip is now gone.

It is amazing how much I used to take my walk for granted. And it is amazing how much time I've spent thinking about this stuff this week. I was surprised at how difficult it was for me to break some of these bad habits. But now that I know what was causing my pain I know it won't take me long to change my habits and fix the problem permanently.

Yesterday I went for my first pain-free run in over 10 years. I plan to run again tonight. It looks like I'll be able to do my first triathlon next year. In fact I may shoot for the longer Half-Ironman distance Pigman Long Course Triathlon next August.

In April I tried to start running. But I had to quit when my "hip pain" and Achilles tendon started bothering me.

A couple of weeks ago I tried to run again. I felt great for the first five minutes or so. I felt much lighter on my feet and I felt like my form was better at first. But then I started to get tired and my form changed. Halfway through the 20 run/walk my hip started bothering me. I finished the second half just walking because I wanted to minimize the damage.

My initial plan was to start out slow and run just one day per week if my body could handle it. The next day my hip was sore, but nothing too terrible. We went hiking that day. The following day my hip was bothering me even more. This continued for most of the next week. It would get better after a couple of days but if we did any walking during the day the ache returned. After a week of this I knew I wouldn't be running again.

This was very frustrating because I really want to start running this fall. I started to pay attention to how I felt while I walk. Last night I noticed that if I contract my lower back muscles and tilt my pelvis back a bit my entire gait feels much more relaxed and natural. I noticed this as we were just getting our grocery shopping started. I decided to focus on this and try to keep pelvis tilted the entire time we were shopping. Sure enough it seemed to make a difference.

Now I'm consciously trying to change my posture. The muscles in my lower back are tender because they aren't used to working this much, but so far I think this might solve some of my troubles. Who knows, maybe my funky gait is what caused my Achilles tendon trouble too.

This is great because I now have some hope that I'll be able to start running soon. I'll report back after I have some time to see if this eliminates my hip pain[1].

[1] Actually it isn't my hip that hurts. Hip problems are felt in the groin. I did feel some pain in my hip in April, but when I say hip pain here what I'm talking about is pain on the outside of my upper thigh.

As of this morning I've officially lost 100 pounds in 8 1/2 months.

But another PhysicsDiet.com beat me to the 100 pound mark by several months. jm3000 lost 100 pounds in about 4 1/2 months.

I don't have a final goal weight in mind so I'm not sure what my next major weight milestone will be. I will probably drop below 200 pounds before I'm done. But for now I'm focused on getting my Body Fat below 15%. Once I do that I'll reevaluate where I am then I'll decide if I want to shoot for 10% Body Fat.

Lately I haven't been tracking the calories I'm consuming or the calories I'm burning from exercise. I've been using a combination of portion counting and weighing some foods. But I don't track the details anymore.

I spent several months doing different experiments trying to figure out whether I could optimize my diet by eating different ratios of macronutrients or varying the types of foods I ate. But in the end I found that it mostly doesn't matter what I eat as long as prefer healthier foods over non-healthy foods and control my calorie balance.

The key factors for me are:

• Eat 5-6 small meals a day
  This is a critical component of my success. At first I didn't think it mattered. But when I experimented with some of the ideas from Body for Life I learned that eating 6 small meals a day is the best way to control my appetite and my emotions. I'm much more even tempered now. And I'm never hungry now as long as I eat at least 1500 calories per day. I usually eat around 2000 calories per day though.
• Regular vigorous exercise
  For a long time I thought eating 6 small meals a day was the key to my improved mood. But recently I went about 2 weeks without doing much exercise. I've been under a lot of stress recently and I got a bit depressed. After one particularly bad weekend I jumped on my stationary bike for an hour. That's when I realized that I have to exercise to be happy. Without exercise I get much more stressed and I let little things bother me much more than they should. Exercise is the best way for me to deal with stress and relax. Exercise also helps me lose weight, but not as much as you'd think. Controlling your calorie intake is much more important if your goal is to lose weight. But exercise is critical to your health. You can't be healthy without exercise even if you control your weight. And now I know that I can't be happy without exercise.

The Traveler's Diet

...

Greenberg's final answers are not the best sales pitch in the world:

Q:Will this diet ever end?
A: If I told you I love this diet, I'd be lying. I don't love this diet, and I'm not a gym rat. But it's a discipline. I can't let it drop.

Q:Do you ever miss the days of flopping on a hotel bed with a Snickers from the minibar?
A: I miss every single day.

I can't imagine you could ever succeed following a lifestyle you don't enjoy.

I enjoyed overeating. And I enjoyed sitting on the couch watching TV. Or sitting in front of the computer working through the night. I used to enjoy smoking too before I quit in 2001.

But I also enjoy never being hungry. I love having the energy to work all day and then go home and play soccer with my kids for an hour and still work in front of the computer until midnight. I love biking and swimming and hiking. I can't wait to live somewhere that will let me add kayaking and mountain climbing and swimming in the ocean to that list.

Life is too short to be miserable. You don't have to trade happiness in your diet to be happy with the way you look and feel. Eat the foods you love, but in moderation. Don't do exercise that bores you to tears. Find fun activities that also happen to burn calories and improve your fitness.

Life isn't a zero sum game. You can have your cake and eat it too. The sooner you find a way to spread the joy you receive from overeating to other parts of you life, the sooner you'll find your new happy, healthy, lifestyle.

Holly's Triathlon is tomorrow. I can't wait to read how it went.

I won't be able to do a triathlon this year, so I have to live vicariously through Holly and others. Next year I'll review all of Holly's posts while I'm training for my first triathlon.

TTGF has a great post about why he weighs himself in the morning. This was my favorite though:

It motivates me to exercise in the mornings. If I go out for a run before weighing myself, I know from experience that I’ll lose maybe a half to one kilogram (1-2 pounds) from sweating. Some might call it cheating since you’ll put that weight back on as soon as you have a drink, but if it motivates you to exercise so that you can clock up a slightly better score, it can’t be all bad! I find this motivation is especially powerful if I gained weight on the last weigh-in.

This is genius. If you struggle to stick to a consistent exercise routine this might just be the perfect mind hack for you. Personally I prefer to exercise in the morning. But lately I have been staying up too late working on the site and I'm struggling to stick to my exercise routine. I might have to give this strategy a try.

I was planning on running tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be pretty good in the morning - warm with a chance of light showers. But my left hip is still a little tender. I think I'll give it one more day of rest and run Saturday.

I was able to go out for a bike ride this evening. That was an unexpected surprise. We were supposed to have thunderstorms all afternoon. But the storms stayed to the west of us for the most part. That gave me chance to get out in 80 degree weather. There was a major headwind for the first half of my ride. But that didn't take away from pleasure of my first 45 minute ride in shorts and short sleeves.

Yesterday I talked about some of the aches and pains I get from running. TTGF is worried about my Achilles tendon. I'm not too worried about it though. I'm hyper aware of it, and I will not push it too far because I know how long it can take to recover from.

But I am a little worried about my hip pain. For years now I've suffered from pain in my hips - more so in my left hip - when I walk any distance. I've always assumed that it was arthritis. The only time it was a problem was when we would go walking around the mall for a long time. Or when we'd go on a very infrequent nature walk. But when I started running and the hip pain sprouted back up I wondered if it was something similar to my Achilles tendon problem.

I did some research last week and I came across this page where ultra-marathon runners talk about hip pain from running. That got my attention because I've always assumed the pain would get better after I got in better shape. But if ultra-marathon runners can develop hip pain then maybe this isn't a short term problem. In fact, I started to see the same flawed logic I used when my Achilles tendon started bothering me.

So I've been paying special attention to my hips. When they ache I try to focus on where the pain is coming from. It seems to be coming from the ligaments that surround the hip joint. The pain doesn't happen while I'm running. It develops after, similar to my Achilles problem.

On the page about Hip Pain, one person said that compression shorts helped them resolve their problem. I thought I'd give that a try. Last night I bought a pair of Nike Pro compression shorts.

As soon as I put them on I felt a difference. The pain in my hip just melted away. That confirmed what I imagined was happening. The muscles, tendons, and/or ligaments in my left hip seem to be too weak to support my hip properly. The compression shorts seem to take just enough pressure off my hip to ease the pain. But I don't see the compression shorts as a long term solution. My body needs to be strong enough to support itself.

This morning I was listening to SimplyStu's interview with Jessi Stensland. She talked about how she almost had to quit competing because of hip pain. She said Core Performance was the solution to her problems.

I've seen the Core Performance book in the bookstore but I've never looked at it. I will have to check it out tonight.

P.S. Jessi has a discount code on her home page for 10% off at the Core Performance site. The same code gets you 3 weeks free training on the Core Performance site.

Last week I started running. I've been cycling for 3 months now so I'm in the best aerobic shape of my life. But I've read that aerobic fitness doesn't necessarily carry over from one sport to another. I expected it to take me a while to get comfortable running.

My plan was to walk/run for 20 minutes, 3 times per week. To start I decided I'd warm up by walking for a couple of minutes. Then I planned to run for 30 seconds and walk for 60 seconds. I decided that if I needed to walk for more 60 seconds then I'd do that.

I got my heart rate monitor on Friday, March 24. Sunday, March 26 was the day of my first run. I stayed out for 20 minutes. I had to extend a couple of my walk intervals to 2 minutes, but for the most part I was able to stick to the plan.

I felt pretty good after my first run. My hips and knees were a little sore for the next couple of days. But I kept icing them and they improved fast.

On Wednesday March 29 I did my second run. It was very cold that morning, but I had my coat on, my hood up, and my gloves on, so I stayed fairly warm. The only real problem was the wind was blowing into my face on the second half of my run. My face got pretty cold and my nose ran, but other than that it was a great run. Later that day my hips and knees started aching again. This time my left Achilles tendon got a little tender too.

A few years ago I had a minor bout with tendonitis in my left Achilles tendon. I had started walking. At the time I was 300+ pounds and I would get to the point where I could walk faster and then I'd over do it. At first I thought it was just a muscle ache. I kept walking every day thinking the pain would go away once I got used to the exercise. But after about a week the pain kept getting worse. It got to the point where I was noticeably limping. That's when I decided to do some research.

I self-diagnosed it as tendonitis. From what I could find that was the least of the problems I could have. The recommended treatment was to ice it and elevate it regularly. Most importantly, I needed to rest my ankle. I didn't worry about my diagnosis being wrong because the treatment for tendonitis wouldn't worsen the problem if it turned out to be something more serious. I decided if I didn't notice an improvement I'd go see a doctor.

Icing, elevating, and resting helped. Within a week my limp was gone. Within a couple of weeks most of the soreness was gone.

Anyway, I'm very aware of my Achilles tendon now. I also pay better attention to other aches and pains too. I now know the difference between muscle aches and sore tendons

On Thursday, March 30, I got the speed and cadence sensors for my bike. I originally planned to run again on Friday. On Friday morning I felt like I was physically up for a run, but I really wanted to ride my bike to test out my new gadgets. And I figured the extra break from running would give my body a few extra days to recover from my first 2 runs.

I didn't run again until this Monday. I hadn't planned on increasing the length of my runs or the amount of time I spent running. But when I got out there I felt good enough to run for 45 seconds and walk for 60 seconds. I also decided to stay out for 30 minutes. The extra 10 minutes and the increase in my running time meant that I basically doubled my distance. The first week I covered just over a mile in 20 minutes. On Monday I went about 2 miles in 30 minutes.

I felt very good during my run. But later that day my left leg was pretty sore. The tendons in my hip and above my knee were sore and my left Achilles tendon was also tender. My left foot was also sore. By Monday night I decided that I'd probably need to skip the run I planned to do this morning. But by last night I was feeling pretty good. In fact my daughters and I ended up going out to play a little tennis. The weather was beautiful and the sun now stays up until almost 8pm.

I felt good after tennis but I wasn't sure how I'd feel this morning. My legs were a little tender. I iced them before bed but I thought I'd probably end up skipping my run this morning.

But when I got up this morning I felt great. My legs weren't sore at all. I threw on my running gear and hit the road. I felt great until I was almost home. Then my Achilles tendon started to feel a little tender. I decided to walk the last 3 minutes home. After I got ready for work I iced my ankle for a while. I've felt pretty good throughout the day. My left hip is sore, but not as bad as it has been. My Achilles tendon is almost completely normal. There are a couple of positions where I can feel just a tiny bit of swelling in it but that is only because I'm paying very close attention to it. I iced my hip and ankle while I was at home for lunch. I'll ice it again tonight.

I plan to run again on Friday morning. At this point it seems like I shouldn't have any trouble doing that.

I did notice that my aerobic fitness didn't translate to running. On my first two runs my heart rate was very high considering my pace wasn't much faster than a brisk walk. But this week I noticed that my body is adapting much faster to this new stress than it did when I started cycling. I expect I'll see the same thing when I start swimming too. But I hope my body adapts quickly to swimming too.

I've always wanted to do a triathlon. More specifically, I've always wanted to do a full Ironman triathlon. I started thinking about triathlons again this winter when I started exercising.

I've wanted to start cycling for a few years now. Last year I went as far as buying a used bike from a friend of mine. I bought it long before I started losing weight. But I knew I'd eventually get on a diet and lose weight, and I wanted a bike so I'd be ready when the time came. That wasn't the smartest thing I've done. It just proves that I shouldn't make financial decisions when I've been drinking .

I've never been a very good swimmer, but I've always loved swimming. I used to stay in the pool for hours. And I still do any time I get the chance.

But I've never liked running. I've always associated running with pain. I was never patient enough. Every time I'd start running I'd try to go out and run a full mile on the first day. Predictably I wouldn't be able to run a full mile. Even if I got close, I'd be sore for days. I believed that I just wasn't meant to be a runner. I now know that it takes much longer for the body to adjust to new exercise routines. I know it may take me a month or more to build up a base level of fitness before I'll be able to run a full mile. I know that rest is a critical part of the training process. I know how to treat the aches and pains that come with any new exercise routine.

After years of thinking about it, I am now preparing for my first triathlon. Of course my first triathlon won't be a full Ironman length race (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2 mile run). I will start with a sprint distance triathlon. Sprint triathlons vary, but they are usually about a 500 meter swim, a 15 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run.

Unfortunately there are a lot of triathlons in this part of the country. There are a couple of sprint distance races coming up in Iowa in May and June. But they are all on the other side of the state. That would make travel and lodging a pain.

There is a sprint distance triathlon in Columbia, MO in July. My in-laws live near Columbia so that solves the travel and lodging problems. The registration deadline is July 1st so I have plenty of time to evaluate my progress and decide if I'll be able to complete the training and race without causing myself any injuries.

That settles it, my goal is to train for, and complete, my first sprint distance triathlon on July 23, 2006 in Columbia, Mo. This triathlon is part of the 2006 Show-Me State Games. The race is a 1/2 mile swim, a 19 mile bike, and a 5k run. Here are the details.

If you have any advice please share it in the forums.

Last week we went bike shopping. I wanted a bike that I could ride on the road and on some of the local bike trails. I decided I needed a hybrid bike.

After doing some research the Trek hybrids looked promising. At the low end of the price range, the Trek hybrids are a great value.

I didn't want a Trek 7200 or 7300 though. I wanted something more like the old 7200 FX or 7300 FX. But I couldn't find any information on the FX series on Trek's site. I suspected the 7X00 FX series got replaced by the 7.X FX series for 2006. But I couldn't confirm that.

When we got to the bike shop I was able to confirm that the 2006 7.2 FX did indeed replace the 2005 7200 FX. The bike shop had a 7.2 FX in stock so I took it for a test ride. I really liked it but at $410 it was a bit more than I wanted to spend.

I noticed that the bike shop had some 2005 models on clearance. I asked if they had a 2005 7200 FX. They did, and it was only $324. Since it is basically the same bike, with the exception of a few minor upgrades on the 2006, I decided to save $80 and go with the 2005 model. I used the $80 I saved to buy the cadence and speed sensors for my heart rate monitor.

After riding my bike for a week I am very happy with it. I don't have anything to compare it to, but there is nothing about it that I dislike.

We got my wife a 2006 Trek 7000. She hasn't ridden hers as much as I've ridden mine, but so far she loves it. I'd show you a picture of it, but Trek's site is seriously broken and I can't find the women's version of the 7000 on their site.

We got a Schwinn trailer for our 3 year old. And we got new bikes for two of our older girls. We are now ready for the year of the bike

I recently bought a Polar S625X Heart Rate Monitor. I love it.

My stationary bike has a heart rate monitor built in. But I wanted to be able to monitor my heart rate while doing other exercises. I also wanted something that would help me stay in the right heart rate zones while doing interval training. And I wanted to be able to download the heart rate data to my computer and track my workouts over time.

I knew I'd be getting a bike, ideally I wanted a heart rate monitor that would help my track my cycling workouts too. I also wanted something to help me track running and swimming workouts.

The S625X fit the bill perfectly. It comes with a foot pod that you attach to your shoe. The foot pod monitors your steps so the heart rate monitor can track how fast you are walking or running and how far you have traveled. That makes the S625X a heart rate monitor and a running computer combined.

The foot pod is water resistant so you can use it in the rain. It is surprising light weight so you don't notice it on your shoe.

The accuracy of the foot pod technology isn't perfect. It is best to attach it to your shoe the same way every time you use it. And you should also calibrate it. Even then it isn't perfect. But it is good enough for my purposes.

The S625X is also water resistant to 30 meters. So you can use the watch and the heart rate transmitter in the pool. Heart Rate monitors don't always work for all people in the pool. I haven't tested mine in the pool yet so I'm not sure if it will work for me or not. But even if the heart rate monitor doesn't work while I'm swimming I can still use the stopwatch features on the watch to track my swim workouts.

The S625X can also be used as a cycling computer. You can purchase the speed sensor to track the speed and distance of your cycling workouts. You can add the cadence sensor to monitor your pedaling rate. Those sensors cost about $40 each. There is also a power meter available that let's you monitor the power you are producing on the bike. But that is much more expensive at about $350.

The S625X can communicate with your computer using infrared or sound. It comes with Polar Precision Performance (PPP) software that lets track your workouts.

So far I'm very happy with the S625X. I just got the speed sensor and the cadence sensor for my bike. They both work well. The foot pod works well enough. I could have gotten a GPS based heart rate monitor. But the GPS monitors are much bigger than the S625X. And I have plenty of experience with GPS and I know how unreliable it can be in certain situations.

One of our PhysicsDiet.com users - ttgf - has a blog called Time To Get Fit. You can read his introduction here in the forums.

His blog has a lot of great information. You can also follow his diet and exercise progress. Check it out.

Have you ever had a sloshing sensation in your stomach while exercising? Like you can feel the water you drank sloshing around. I had a problem with that a couple of months ago. I was drinking water while working out instead of Diet Coke. A couple of times it got bad enough that I had to stop exercising.

I never had that problem when I drank Diet Coke. I didn't know what was going on. I thought I wasn't waiting long enough between my last meal and exercising.

After a few days I switched back to Diet Coke because supposedly caffeine encourages your body to burn fat for energy rather than using the glycogen stores in your muscles. I haven't reviewed the research on that so I don't put too much faith in that theory. But I do prefer drinking something other than water while exercising so I stuck with the Diet Coke.

Apparently the sloshing sensation is caused by drinking water without enough sodium present. Your body doesn't absorb fluids readily without sodium, so drinking water alone can cause the sloshing sensation. That explains why I've never had that problem when I drink Diet Coke.

I heard this while listening to archives of the Active.com Sports You Do Show.

I felt much better after my 10am meal and drinking a diet coke. I think I was just tired this morning.

I had a great lower body workout tonight. This seems to be the week I'm getting my weights and exercise form dialed in.

I have especially struggled to get my form and weight right on leg curls. At first I was using too much weight and I was cheating way too much. Then I was too far up on the bench and I wasn't able to really isolate my hamstrings. Tonight everything fell in to place and I'm really feeling it.

I can't wait to do my cardio workout first thing in the morning.

Last night my wife and I went shopping. We stayed out longer than I expected so I missed my 5-6pm meal. At about 7pm we stopped at a coffee shop. I had a 12oz sugar free latte with skim milk. I'm not sure how much milk it had but I'll assume it was about a cup which I now know is about 80 calories. But I couldn't remember that last night

Before we left the mall I almost bought a Cliff bar at the sporting goods store. I could tell that my blood sugar was low but since I wasn't sure how many calories the coffee had I decided to wait until we got home to eat.

I used to drink Diet Coke as my primary beverage from the time I got up to the time I went to bed. Last week I cut way back and started drinking more water. I went to bed around 11:30pm. But then I woke up at about 1:30am. Drinking coffee that late was probably a mistake too. I finally fell back to sleep around 3:30am so I got about 3 more hours of sleep.

This morning I felt like crap. I ate my breakfast about 2 hours ago and I feel a little better. But I still feel drained. I'm drinking a diet coke now and I plan to eat a few more calories than usual for lunch.

Tonight is my lower body workout. I'm going to see how I feel during and after my workout. If I run out of energy I may have to increase my daily calorie intake to 1600 calories per day.

For the past month or so I felt better than I have in years. One thing is for sure, I won't feel like crap every day just to double my rate of fat loss.

I had a great upper body workout last night. I finally got the weights right for most of the exercises. I was still about 5 pounds too heavy on the bicep curls. And I still need some lighter dumbbells for the hammer curls.

I've struggled with my upper body workout since I started Body-for-Life (BFL). I think part of the problem was that I've never had much upper body strength and it took a while gain the strength and endurance to handle a full workout. But I also had to stumble along trying to find the right weights for each exercise. That is part of the process. But I'm glad I'm through that stage.