Week 6 done!

[75bish]

Never ever I thought I will be able to run ( ok jog) so long... Turning 38 this year and atleast 15 kg overweight, I never was a runner even in my school/college days. Always gave up after a stitch (hell, I didn't even know what that was in those days).

Yesterday, jogged 25 minutes (3.5 km)...starting from just 60 seconds jog exactly a month ago (26 March), that was a huge achievement for me. Still slow (I think I should have completed 4.25 km in that time), but I am so happy.

NHS/ Laura on podcast... thank you so much!

Looking forward for week 7 and hopefully some fat loss too by end of week 9 (though scales are not yet showing anything significant on that metric). I am cutting down on Sugar and some carbs , but being a vegetarian, not getting much traction on protein replacing carbs method ? Any ideas, except supplements - which I do not wish to experiment with?

[con-brio Graduate]

Welcome to this blog and well done on your progress so far. Keep it up, big brother C25K is watching you now...

As for weightloss, don't hold your breath just yet (muscles still building... and they weigh more than fat), but you must surely be noticing a difference in your bodyshape. If not, you will once you get some longer runs under your belt (thus pushing out the fat cells!). At least that's what happened to me in weeks 7-9, without dieting and I'm a vegetarian too. I find a teaspoon of pollen before running does wonders (or is it the placebo effect?).

[75bish Graduate in reply to con-brio]

Thank you for your kind words.

Yes, I do feel some difference in body shape. Hopefully, week 7-9 and afterwards it would improve a little more. I realize a good diet's impact on fat loss (or gain) would be probably 80-90% , but this 10-20% through jogging is also significant. And building endurance is more important than just weighing less... C25K is simply great as a start.

Can't think how pollen would impact though ( Good if it worked for you)...

[didntrunthat Graduate]

It's a great when you start to come out the other end of the programme and can start to see real progress, well done!

In my first year and a half of running I saw very little in the way of weight loss - I lost half a stone over the first 3 months with a concious effort to 'eat healthy' by cutting out junk, but this really slowed down over rest of my efforts. The weight continued to come off but maybe at a pound a month if I was lucky, even though after the programme I really upped my mileage.

Last summer I injured my foot and had 6 months off running and after a month of being sat at home worrying about putting weight back on and not loosing any more weight I decided to focus more on my diet. My sister was starting Slimming World, but it sounded too fussy for me. I took some of her nice recipes though and downloaded myfitnesspal app onto my phone to count calories. It works out on your weight, height and gender, how many calories you should eat a day.

You are definitely right to focus on your diet, personally I haven't restricted myself on any food groups, myfitnesspal recommends 55% carbs, 30% fat and 15% protein and although I haven't purposely tried to match this my diet always seems to be close enough with a little less fat sometimes and a little more protein, but nothing significant.

[75bish Graduate in reply to didntrunthat]

Thanks and sorry to hear about your injury. I was doing some sort of calorie counting but now decided to just do away with these apps and simply focus on 'mindful eating' habits. Early days, but will be happy to report in detail, if I am successful in shedding some flab over next few months...

[didntrunthat Graduate in reply to 75bish]

Luckily my injury is fully recovered and I have one run left of the programme to re-graduate! Unfortunately I am not disciplined enough and would 'cheat' if I wasn't using the app...not on purpose but my mind isn't as mindful and I can trust it to be hehehe!

We just need to find what works for us, good luck