Running the right way

Slow Progress

2009-10-13T16:58:00.003+01:00

80.5kg 12.4%

It could be that I'm not trying particularly hard or that I'm just on a gateaux plateau but the %bf is coming down slowly. To be fair the way the scales calculate bodyfat the figure is a bit of a finger in the air job but it's fairly steady.Nowadays I notice the difference visually rather than numbers on a scale, I can't really predict where I am each morning but I did notice one thing today; when I ran past the gym circuit on Southampton Common I tried a few pull-ups for the first time in a long while - I'm pleased to say my normal embarrasing struggle was replaced by 8 snappy reps and 2 embarrassing ones.But its a start.

After 5 days in Spain

2009-09-17T11:57:00.001+01:00

81.1kg 13.3%

After a week in Spain which generally broke all of my rules I reckon I've done ok to limit the damage to a kilo or so. Most evenings we didn't eat until 10pm and it was a week of red meat, pastries, coffee, churros... really just totally against all the rules.

So 81Kg is good, I was expecting to see 83-84.

Eating late really doesn't agree with me now, one night we had a really nice meal which included my favorite (lamb shanks) and I felt so queasy afterwards that I didn't sleep at all, it probably didn't help that the air conditioning was broken that night so it was pretty hot in the room, or the coffee I had at the end of the meal... it was like treacle.

by the wonders of google - my breakfasts were here the inevitable horn beeping helped perk me up.

Goal Weight

2009-09-09T12:47:00.000+01:00

Beginning: 97.3kg BMI 27.5

End: 80.0kg BMI 22.6

I said last week that if I put my mind to it I could drop those last 3.5 kg (8lb) in a week, I also said I didn't really want to get to my target weight because I wouldn't know what to do after that; but I thought of something.

After about 6 weeks at ~83.5kg I decided to lose the last bit and come up with a new goal. That last 8lb did indeed happen in a week and this morning I hit 80.0kg which is a BMI of 22.6 - according to the NHS BMI tool this drops me right where I need to be; not quite in the middle of the green zone but its just an approximation of what a healthy height & weight combination would be and I'm a bit broader than average so I'd expect to have a slightly higher BM than some.

New Goal
So the new goal is to go stay at 80.0kg and reduce bodyfat, this is a bit harder than just losing weight though - %bodyfat will probably move slower than weight, I'm 12.6% at the moment and I think 9% might be a reasonable goal.

So the new header for posts will be something like: 80.0kg 12.6%

Eating, Diets and Sugar

2009-09-07T00:52:00.001+01:00

82.2kg BMI 23.3

Its been a little while since I've written anything about my weight, originally when I decided to lose a bit back in May at a weight of ~97kgI set a goal weight of 80kg not knowing if it was a bit ambitious. 17kg is quite a lot and even though I didn't think I was particularly overweight I did harbour the thought that maybe that might be a bit much to attempt within a tight timeframe (so I didn't set one - a huge mistake or so the books would tell you).

A couple of things made me decide on 80kg, I think the only point of reference I had was boxing weight divisions - based on my height and build I used these to guess what might be a good weight for me. I thought Light Heavyweight or 175lbs would be about right for me, I figured that if I could strip back to that weight then I'd be in good shape, not too skinny that I'd look completely different but different enough that it'd be worthwhile; it never hurt Joe Calzaghe - but not much ever did!?

I've noticed as I've progressed how much easier everything is when you're a little bit lighter, I haven't lost strength and certainly haven't wasted away (although that's the most common thing people tend to say). When I run I'm faster now, I'm better in the gym - everything's better really - and I'd kick myself if I ended up with diabetes and it was self inflicted.

None of us would have any excuse at all for that.

For most of August my weight was stable but I didn't try very hard to limit what I was eating, still no coffee and very little in the way of sugary things or stuff with sweeteners (I just have a nagging feeling that that stuff is bad). Apart from that I just kept the meals small, didn't eat much meat and didn't eat anything at all after ~6pm - and I'm chewing, thats the #1 thing to take away from this and that combination seems to be enough to keep things stable.

Looking at the numbers, if anything, its still creeping down at a bit under -0.1kg a day, it fluctuates a pound or so each way but the average moves down over time. It also looks like the initial goal weight was good, I'm a couple of kg away from that now and with a concerted push I could probably get there in a week - but I don't want to rush it. Thinking about it I'm reluctant to hit my goal weight (strange eh?) you'd think I'd want to get there but while I haven't achieved it yet I'm still on a bit of a mission, once I get there I'll need a new goal and at the moment I can't think of one??? more weight loss probably isn't the healthiest cycle to get into.

Looking back I over the past four months I've deviated from the ideal diet loads of times, so many I've lost count, but the reason for avoiding bad foods for me now isn't weight loss its that I now know how bad they make me feel after I eat them.

Sugar
Too much sugar just makes me feel queasy, I can actually feel the effects of it hitting my system now. Worryingly, before doing all of this, I think I was never very far away from sugar, so accustomed to it that I didn't know what it felt like not to eat it throughout the day. I know that sometimes I'd get dizzy spells that I'd put down to low blood sugar but it was probably crashing blood sugar rather than low.

Sweeteners
These are strange, no calories - nice tasting but the moment I eat something with an artificial sweetener in it, Aspartame or whatever, my stomach begins growling. I think these don't bring hunger on in me so much as they just disagree with my stomach, which rumbles, so it feels like I'm hungry when actually I'm not.

Over the past twenty years or so the message from those in the know has been that sugar (or sucrose) is bad, it causes tooth decay, diabetes, gout, weight gain, cancer... all bad things. The alternatives were artificial sweeteners which filled the gap for something thats edible and sweet but no tooth decay and zero calories... awesome.

(Sugar) Sucrose Sucralose Aspartame Saccharin
It all makes me think that whilst the solution to overeating might be to make sure whatever you eat has no calories, so you can eat tonnes of it and it just passes through you, maybe the hunger that you feel when you eat this sort of thing is a misinterpretation of the signal. So many people who drink litres of diet drinks a day are overweight, but I've often wondered whether its cause or effect.

Maybe there's more to digestion than dropping heaps of food into your stomach and assuming your body will work its magic, I believe now that the physical act of eating can be done well or badly. Digestion begins in your mouth with the digestive enzymes in your saliva, I think this is absolutely key and not just a curiosity that happens before the main event.

There's more going on than just a bit of mushing food up with fluid, the first breakdown of carbohydrates are caused by amylase enzymes and that happens before the food hits your stomach - maybe the first chemical signal to your brain to say "ok I'm eating something" happens then too so you're fuller, quicker, having eaten less.

Pose training

2009-09-03T22:27:00.000+01:00

I was looking on YouTube for examples of Pose and came across these, its difficult to find decent examples of before:after but this is quite a good one. You can clearly see there's less of a push-off and that the Pose action is more compact.

News about swans

2009-09-01T06:15:00.008+01:00

Had to post this... was watching GMTV this morning and it reminded me that I hadn't checked the Headline Generator recntly.

Is Channel 4 Giving Britain's Swans Cancer?

well is it?! - somebody do something for heavens sake! I bet its something related to asylum seekers and/or gypsies

August

2009-08-28T20:00:00.012+01:00

83.0kg BMI 23.4

So its a couple of days early but I thought I might as well put the numbers up. I've actually been fairly steady at 83kg, I've been fairly slack on the diet but it doesn't seem to have mattered - in truth it feels like I'm eating whatever I want and relative to the other three months but the process of keeping an eye on things that I was following in the three months prior to this makes it easier to stop little weight gains creeping in. The aim is still 80kg and I think that's what I'll shoot for over the next 4 weeks.

Something I've noticed recently is the number of miracle diets based around the amazonian super-wonder-mega acai berry.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=rachel+ray+acai&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

I've read in some forums that the 'Free Trial' terms and conditions are probably not what you would be expecting. After 15 days they automatically start billing your card, not stopping unless you manage to get them on the phone and instruct them otherwise, I've read some of the ad's which claim to be written by British people but the language doesn't quite sound right, there are subtle phrases that make me think the original author of the content was from the other side of the Atlantic; nothing wrong with that it just makes me think the ads are a pyramid scam as so many of these weight loss schemes seem to be.

You lose weight by putting less in your mouth in the first place.

Acai juice £4.99 from Holland & Barrett, I hope for the sake of the thousands of customers shelling out for this $50 a bottle stuff that is is actually magical?

Skipping is for girls

2009-08-27T15:24:00.003+01:00

(and Ricky Hatton) and now me.

The odd blisters on my feet are, I think, because of poor balance so I need to work on my posture, balance and foot speed. Luckily loads of people have trained for sports before and there's a technique thats commonly used for people who are having trouble with running and it's skipping - you're not allowed to bring your dolly but you can put your hair in bunches while you do it.

I don't have a dolly and my hair isn't long enough for bunches so I'll just have to skip, Romanov's book as a section that I've long been glossing over and I do remember that I was the only one who couldn't skip like Muhammad Ali out of a dozen or so people; somehow that memo didn't get to me in time.

I'll do this barefoot and probably in the garage providing I can clear enough space, the surface is fairly rough in there but not ridiculous. I should be able to build up enough foot strength, speed and posture without hitting any broken glass. each drill can be followed by a short jog around the car park. If I tread on any glass then I'll set Helen on the Wickham Bentley Management Company.
So these drills that Nicholas talks about in his book (The Pose Method of Running) are a bit random, some of them look extreme, drills balanced on a medicine ball?! well anyway, he was doing handstands on the table during the clinic so it should surprise me.

The problem I think I'm having and that I think we all have to some extent (Usain, if you're reading, you don't have this problem - you can get back to the McNuggets) is that each time my foot lands there's a small decelerating force (1) which is canceled out by a small accelerating push-off in (2). Its basically this sort of thing that's making running tiring, it's also leading to blisters on my feet. both (1) and (2) are applying more lateral forces to the soles of my feet than (3).

Its all quite subtle and though you can think you've got it nailed its quite easy to fall into bad habits. My limit with the fivefingers is about 10 miles which either suggests that's the number of steps I can take before my skin starts to give up, or that my form breaks down at some point before 10 miles and I begin this subtle scuffing action.

I'm a believer in all of this POSE stuff and I think it makes perfect sense, they say some people can naturally do this stuff and others can't, I think thats not exactly true, its not that they can't - they have to learn.

It could be that people who are naturally gifted at sport just have better awareness of balance, their form doesn't break down and they can stand on one foot for minutes on end without flapping their arms to keep their balance. I still have to flap my arms - my balance is poor as is my control of cadence. I think skipping and the drills related to that might be just the thing to spend time on rather than going out and re-enforcing bad technique with long runs, all that'll do is make my feet go red and I could do that much better with felt tips if it was in any way useful.

To illustrate how subtle some of this stuff is here's a video, I think it was on BBC Tomorrow's World some time around 2006. It features Nicholas, Graeme Maw and Tim Don.

My Left Foot - No apologies to Day-Lewis

2009-08-26T16:59:00.000+01:00

I realised that I was starting to have blister problems recently, first on my left foot, now on my right, the blisters are in odd places and suggest that I'm not really running how I ought to.

Some wear in the area of the ball of the foot would be textbook but I seem to be getting wear on the side of my big toe (as pictured) and directly behind my second toe. I'm scratching my head trying to work out why this is happening, it gets worse on coarse surfaces and I think on relatively smooth ground I'd be ok but any wear ought to be under the ball of the foot?

I think whats happening is that I tend to support my weight more to the outside of the ball and I'm wondering if this is squeezing/creasing the skin slightly creating a raised bit that rubs? I'm not sure about the other niggle? its not on the bottom of my big toe but on the side so I guess that's related?

I'm convinced its a technique thing that can be fixed, I'm also sure that I'm still quite a long way from being an efficient runner and can get better, go further and do things that I never thought possible if I crack niggles like this

I thought I knew it all...

2009-08-26T16:17:00.004+01:00

83.1kg BMI 23.4
Firstly some fun Headline Generator.

Right, with that out of the way I can get to the point.

This morning I was reading through some of the blogs that I normally keep tabs on and looked at something posted by a visitor to http://runningbarefoot.org/ [apache server problems as I type so this is the only URL that works] Now KB has been blogging about this sort of thing since 1998 and what caught my interest was his response to a visitors comment about Vibram FiveFingers, to paraphrase, he was saying that they were a compromise and that they allowed you to run further than you probably should by allowing a certain amount of bad technique. Its basically the same argument used for getting away from thick soled training shoes, perfect your technique first then worry about shielding yourself from pain.

His point was that all the soles do is protect you from incorrect 'scuffy' contact with the ground, not impact as such, so if you couldn't run a mile or so on pavements barefoot then your technique was probably still bad. The question that immediately sprang to mind was how to I sort out my technique then, the answer seems to be that I need to build up some technique through gradually increasing the distance - my form/technique will adapt even further and my steps will become even lighter.

Gulp! ok then, maybe I can find somewhere that's smooth so I stand a chance of lasting more than a mile? again KB delivers a sharp written slap, smooth surfaces are ok but they don't teach you much, you might as well just put the shoes back on.

The transition to actual barefoot running is difficult because it involves the change of something that's deeply ingrained. You shouldn't overdo it but it feels like I've only really gone halfway with this barefoot stuff unless I actually ditch the shoes completely. From the sound of it I just need to get out there in the same way I did with Fivefingers, you'd think I wouldn't feel much trepidation but I'm really struggling to get my head around how to do any sort of distance without protecting my feet.

The consensus seems to be that if you head out every day and gradually build up you get there quite quickly.

OK then lets see [gulp]

Usain Bolt

2009-08-21T12:49:00.020+01:00

82.9kg BMI 23.3

I was reading Nicholas Romanov's posts on the POSE website last night, I had a hunch he'd have written something about Bolt but having just watched the 200m final from Berlin (19.19... wow!) I decided to see if anybody had written anything about him in terms of technique.

Having met Nicholas and spent a couple of days with him I knew pretty much what he'd be writing about Bolt but one quote lept out, Bolt describes his own running style as "smooth sailing" http://www.posetech.com/training/archives/000764.html there is also mention of some technique changes when he was a junior which obviously paid dividends.

When watching him run alongside the current crop of sprinters its striking how he doesn't seem to be trying, well, correction... he's not straining like the others. It's as if he knows something that the others don't about forward propulsion.

Whats fairly obvious about him when you watch him in profile view is that his style agrees closely with POSE teaching (not just POSE though, it's obviously great form). You can see clearly how gravity works in his favour; plus he's so good people aren't asking the normal questions about doping - there's obviously more to it, he's all about efficiency rather than just pure power.

Quite simply his technique is more effective than the others, he maintains it for longer than the others and hasn't bought into the widely accepted sprint training and technique dogmas.

If at first an idea does not sound absurd,Then there is no hope for it
Albert Einstein

Having witnessed some fairly heated exchanges between Nicholas and POSE clinic attendees when they questioned that his technique based approach worked - one wonders if Bolt has provided the last word on the subject, technique trumps power and it can be learned.

Or maybe its the McNuggets? Powerbars are so last year, ok so a McNugget isn't a recognisable part of a chicken or any other animal but it doesn't seem to be sending Usain to fat camp.

Barefoot Blogging

2009-08-19T13:42:00.005+01:00

82.5kg BMI 23.3

Just back from my normal run around the mean streets of Southampton (not very mean at all) and I decided to do a little digging around Blogger to look for more people running in Vibram shoes. I suppose the amazing thing nowadays is that I can sit down in the comfort of my own home, log in with my feet up and read all about people who were, up until seconds before, unknown to me.

So as I surf from post to post, Melbourne, New Hampshire, Miami Beach, Alberta... etc etc through the personal accounts of training runs and racing, onwards to their followers (ignoring the cult-like connotations) and followers of their followers the same subjects keep appearing.

Most striking is the reading lists that I see, obviously Chris McDougall's excellent "Born to Run" is omnipresent but so is Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" that one is a very good read but defies description, so I won't, but I can't think of anything similar to it all I can say is I bought 5 more of his books after that one.

That got me thinking, I know that my journey towards minimalist shoes was meandering and I didn't find all the information in one place but chiefly:

I didn't know that it was a possibility for me
I didn't know the vocabulary
modern society treats runners as lunatics already - "fitness freaks" - so going shoeless on top of that opens you to a fair amount of ridicule and I'm a sensitive soul.
surely its impossible that the shoe companies are utterly f****** clueless about biomechanics... (I might be undermining the sensitive claim above at this point) shock absorption is beautifully handled by the ankle joint? maybe they've been concentrating on another type of joint? anyway I digress...

I got here without injury (which seems to be a common motivation for change for some), it was just pure curiosity, a POSE clinic in chilly Edinburgh where I was the only uninjured pupil - I just wanted to run faster, then adoption of a sequence of less and less sophisticated footwear until I chanced across VFF Classics on a trip to the US two years ago whilst browsing a kayak shop in Fells Point, Baltimore MD. The irony is that these are possibly the most advanced footwear I've ever worn but people see them and assume they're primitive.

As far as I knew I was the only person using these to run in and I felt like everybody was looking at me when I did, I was doubting myself - even I thought I was mad - so I was quite self conscious; there - sensitive - told you.

In a chance catch up with one of the Edinburgh people a year or so after the clinic I found out that he too had found VFFs and was training in them. Yay! there were two of us - then he told me about Barefoot Ted McDonald's blog... at that point the details go fuzzy but I quickly found that there were many people following the same path, the running world still thinks we're mad and its true to say that our views are not shared by the majority; but this is in no way a bad thing.

I stumbled my way across VFFs and POSE only really finding the bloggers once I was already there, the reading list came about in a haphazard way - possibly Amazon.com and their "87% of people who bought this also bought this" - 87% of statistics are made up on the spot. Looking back I could have got here quicker, that's for sure, and if I'd found just one of these blogs two years ago I'd have been sorted within a couple of hours.

That said, I enjoyed the achievement of going 1/2 a mile further each time it happened, it's an adventure when you're not following the crowd and people are telling you that what you're doing can't work.

They're right though - in their world it can't work - luckily I don't think like that and in mine it works just fine.

How to lose 4.9% Bodyfat in 24 hours

2009-08-18T00:01:00.010+01:00

82.5kg BMI 23.3

Oh yes, the next internet sensation right here!

In reality not as exciting as it sounds, every day I measure how much I weigh using some scales made by a company called Salter, the Salter 9016 to be exact. I'd been getting % bodyfat readings in the low 20's for a while and though I trusted the scales (they measure to the nearest 100g so are ideal for generating the figures that I put into WeightBot) I realised this afternoon that despite setting the scales up a year or so back I'd forgotten to check that that the settings were still saved.

Long story short they weren't - so while my weight was always being recorded accurately, the percentage body fat was being calculated against the wrong sex, age and height. It can't measure body fat directly so the figure is an approximation calculated using the electrical resistance it measures up one leg and down the other combined with some mathematical fudge factors. This is why the setup needs to be right; get any or all of them [sex, age or height] wrong and the %bf is likely meaningless.

I think my reading would probably have been valid for Jeanette Krankie but after calibration 18.7% became 13.8% in a matter of minutes, a figure that fitted much better with what I was seeing in the mirror and is a more accurate reflection of where I thought I was.

A bit of a relief if I'm being honest... "Fan-dabi-dozi !" that will be lost on some of you, don't feel bad about it though.

Does Mayr work or not?

2009-08-17T14:09:00.012+01:00

82.9kg BMI 23.4

Being overweight obviously made me grumpy...

It's difficult to say, because I've been a bit naughty with the protocol (naughty as in I've broken it quite a bit for meals out, chocolate, beers with friends... I've broken it quite a lot to be honest) but I think this photo shows the difference between me three months ago and how I am today. I'm not one for cheesy before and after pictures but its appropriate here.

I haven't had to change a great deal and haven't exactly gone hungry but I think you can see the difference between the before and after; I'm also not wasting away to nothing - recently the weight loss has leveled off at ~82.5kg though I'm not as strict about the diet as I had been.

So anyway, does the Mayr diet work? yes probably, when you eat whole foods and reduce portion sizes, cut out sugar completely and don't eat anything after 6pm then yes - "it" works. Here I am before I started (Left), somewhere in the high 15 stone range, in fact when I saw these photos it was probably these that made me think I needed to make a real effort to change things.

Why no dramatic 'after' photo? well - I'm only really half done and my weight has now settled between 82 and 83kg. In 3-4 weeks I'll knuckle down again and get it below 80kg; it shouldn't be too difficult. I've realised that an intensive exercise programme isn't really required for this, I prefer to go for a run most days but it's not really necessary in all honesty.

I think my results have been pretty good and it's against a backdrop of years of gym membership, fairly 'full on' exercise schedules, marathon training and running. Basically I wasn't a big dieter but I did watch what I ate and slogged away at the exercise to stop weight gain getting out of hand, I didn't chew my food and always seemed to be hungry (the two are linked).

Most of the changes happened in THE FIRST TWO WEEKS, the rapid loss of a bloated stomach being the biggest change. Progress after that has been very steady but that's good because it stops you looking ill/old/drained. I know the photos of me aren't particularly flattering and I won't be sending them to Elite to start a belated modeling career but they're put up to show that I'm not all talk; I have been walking the walk (sometimes barefoot).

So I'd add some tweaks to the Mayr diet, things that have really worked for me - along with some things that I think, to be honest, are total BS and detract from the book - I'll detail these in a few weeks.

I suppose the good news is that you can stop looking for a magic anti-lard cure because there probably isn't one other than gaffer tape over the mouth... very effective but not exactly magic unless The Great Soprendo "Piff Paff Poofs" some your way.

Fat that makes you thin?

2009-08-17T08:22:00.009+01:00

My mate Damo sent me this link on Friday to an article about the different types of fat in the human body and how one type actually produces heat, that's to say that rather than just being a passive insulation and energy store there are is a type of adipose tissue that seems to be thermogenically active.

To paraphrase the article, this 'brown' fat turns the energy obtained from food into heat, burning up calories without any effort on the host animals part to expend any energy. Brown fat isn't a new idea and it used to be thought that adult humans didn't have any but this doesn't seem to be the case; it's common in babies and youths but as we get older it was thought to disappear.

Amongst other factors the differences in the amount of brown fat each person has may help to explain why some of us are slim while others are overweight, and why many of us pile on the pounds as we age whilst recording identical diets to slimmer individuals.

It took some new technology to discover this, a PET-CT scanner, basically a crew of docs inject a radioactive tracer into the patient then collect an X-ray. The images pinpoint areas of metabolic activity, the idea being that it's a neat way to look for tumors. Often the technicians found that the images were spoiled by artifacts around the neck, shoulders and back but this was only when the room temperature was a bit low.

In this PET-CT scan Brown fat (black) shows up after exposure to cold (right) but is not apparent in a scan at room temperature (left). (Image: W. Van Marken Lichtenbelt)

So these artifacts were a problem when either:

the instrument was cooled
the patient was cooled
both the instrument and patient were cooled

I expect at this point the technicians kicked the CT scanner a couple of times before realising there was a physical change in some of the patients.

What they think they've found is a form of heat generation which is activated when the temperature drops, central heating for mammals if you like. It makes me wonder if we all ought to be turning down the central heating rather than up?

Explosive Running by Michael Yessis

2009-08-12T13:28:00.003+01:00

82.9kg BMI 23.4

I picked up a copy of Explosive Running by Michael Yessis Ph.D. after reading the Sportsci article. Considering I only ordered it yesterday it arrived explosively fast.

The message is actually fairly similar to Romanov's Pose and Dreyer's Chi but where it begins to fork away is that the approach is a little more dynamic. In the case of Pose the mantra is Pose, Fall, Pull - its a passive cycle with gravity pulling you forward, similar for Chi. In this approach Yessis talks about thigh drive parallel to the direction of motion and in my mind it can build on Pose; its still all about gravity.

Where Pose describes a hamstring pull (heel to butt), Yessis talks about horizontal thigh drive, not up as in knee lift as is often taught but forwards with the side effect that the heel is thrown up, the backlift of the heel is passive rather than active, it looks like a hamstring pull upwards but its actually a drive forwards with the thigh using the supporting foot as a pivot.

That's just my interpretation anyway, the book is full of drills and technique pointers which are, I think, a bit more intuitive than Pose. I don't think it matters if it's Pose, Chi, Yessis... as long as it gets you there its fine.

Sportsci.org article on barefoot running

2009-08-11T16:20:00.005+01:00

More interesting stuff from http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0103/mw.htm.

Anecdotal information about barefoot running or running in minimalist footwear is usually about injury prevention or rehabilitation of people who have struggled to avoid injury. As with many subjects you'll find on the internet this one attracts a polarised crowd. To some degree there's a whiff of preaching to the choir with any information but for me it comes down to this simple choice, either wear highly engineered shoes or don't.

One of the reasons I switched from mainstream shoes was because I wasn't improving and I could feel my joints suffering each time I went out. When I switched, sure... my feet felt a little tender but one thing was obvious to me right away, I was quicker without cushioned soles and ran with much improved technical form. The sore calf muscles quickly went away and as I gained confidence it didn't seem so crazy to run in VFFs.

This article discusses those aspects, touching on economy of movement (this excerpt)

Economy
Wearing shoes increases the energy cost of running. Burkett et al. (1985) found that oxygen consumption during running increased as the amount of mass they added to the foot increased; shoes and orthotics representing 1% of body mass increased oxygen consumption by 3.1%. Flaherty (1994) found that oxygen consumption during running at 12 km/h was 4.7% higher in shoes of mass ~700 g per pair than in bare feet. An increase in oxygen consumption of ~4% is of little importance to the recreational runner, but the competitive athlete would notice a major effect on running speed.

The increase in oxygen consumption with running shoes could have several causes. An obvious possibility is the energy cost of continually accelerating and decelerating the mass of the shoe with each stride. Another possibility is the external work done in compressing and flexing the sole and in rotating the sole against the ground–up to 13% of the work done in walking, according to Webb et al. (1988). Frederick (1986) reported that oxygen consumption increased substantially with thicker shoe inserts during treadmill running. Not surprisingly, materials used for cushioning in shoes absorb energy, and stiff midsoles should produce a 2% saving of energy compared with standard midsoles (Stefanyshyn and Nigg, 2000). Finally, shoes probably compromise the ability of the lower limb to act like a spring. With bare feet, the limb returns ~70% of the energy stored in it, but with running shoes the return is considerably less (Yessis, 2000, p.123).

Adapting to Barefoot Running

Thirty minutes of daily barefoot locomotion is a recommended starting point to allow thickening of the sole of the foot and adaptation of muscles and ligaments (Robbins et al., 1993). Begin by walking barefoot at every reasonable opportunity then progress to jogging, gradually increasing the intensity and duration (Yessis 2000, p.124). After 3-4 weeks, the plantar skin eventually becomes robust and allows longer periods of barefoot running at higher average velocities (Robbins et al., 1993). To facilitate adaptation, perform progressive strengthening exercises for the foot and ankle, including foot inversion, toe flexion, and walking on the balls of the feet. Barefoot locomotion on uneven surfaces will also help stimulate the plantar surface and provide increased sensory feedback (Yessis 2000, p.125).

Conclusions

Running in shoes appears to increase the risk of ankle sprains, either by decreasing awareness of foot position or by increasing the twisting torque on the ankle during a stumble.
Running in shoes appears to increase the risk of plantar fasciitis and other chronic injuries of the lower limb by modifying the transfer of shock to muscles and supporting structures.
Running in bare feet reduces oxygen consumption by a few percent. Competitive running performance should therefore improve by a similar amount, but there has been no published research comparing the effect of barefoot and shod running on simulated or real competitive running performance.
Research is needed to establish why runners choose not to run barefoot. Concern about puncture wounds, bruising, thermal injury, and overuse injury during the adaptation period are possibilities.
Running shoes play an important protective role on some courses, in extreme weather conditions, and with certain pathologies of the lower limb.

Vibram FiveFingers with 2000 miles on the clock

2009-08-11T00:35:00.005+01:00

I found this blog today: http://www.livingbarefoot.info/2009/07/avid-user-of-the-vibram-fivefingers-line-answers-questions-2/

Question: Seems like I always end up with expensive running shoes that I can’t wear anywhere else, and they’re usually worn out before I’m ready to drop $130 on a new pair. How long do the VFF’s last?

Answer: First of all, the “foam breakdown” experienced in regular shoes is a sham. That one inch of foam is doing very little to cushion your feet and legs from “impact.” In fact, you’d probably do well to let the foam in your shoes break down to the point where they’re barely hanging on anymore, then chuck those things and start running barefoot. Secondly, I just retired a pair of VFF’s with over 2,000 miles on them, including ultra runs on some of the bitchenist terrain in the upper midwest. They’re plenty rugged, and relatively cheap to replace.

So maybe my 500 mile estimate is a little pessimistic?

"With a 3-4mm sole you'd think these wore out quickly but they actually last very well, it could be that the load spreads better or just that I'm much lighter on my feet but as you can see my current pair show no signs of wear after ~200 miles so they should be good for >500."

Vibram FiveFingers deconstructed

2009-08-08T19:07:00.011+01:00

83.1kg BMI 23.7

Ok well not so much deconstructed as chopped in half along the forefoot showing the amount of shock absorption provided under the ball of the foot (none). They're approximately 3-4mm thick with little cuts (razor siping) in the rubber to allow a much greater flexibility and traction than would be the case if the sole were a smooth surface laminated to the last; these were a spare pair I had which I replaced with KSOs.

These were original VFFs with a pull cord tightening mechanism, they weren't really designed for running, more as water shoes so the fit in the heel cup was a bit ropey, the next version were VFF Sprints which tossed out the rear fitting in favour of velcro over the arch, the KSO built on that by adding some fabric to stop grit from getting into the shoe. I never really got on with this version because when tightened they put pressure on my achilles tendon so I had to wear them quite loosely fitting; that meant I struggled with blisters.

I've currently got 3 pairs of VFF KSO's on the go now they've solved the fastening problem. With a 3-4mm sole you'd think these wore out quickly but they actually last very well, it could be that the load spreads better or just that I'm much lighter on my feet but as you can see my current pair show no signs of wear after ~200 miles so they should be good for >500.

I notice that when I wear these I'm much more precise with foot placement particularly on uneven surfaces and it's an altogether smoother ride despite the absence of shock absorbing materials in the sole. I'd recommend some of these too though, not necessarily in pink.

The easiest place to get all of this is REI (even from the UK):

http://www.rei.com/product/783340
http://www.rei.com/product/791628

Sectioned

2009-08-08T18:56:00.005+01:00

83.1kg BMI 23.7

It was pointed out to me today that I probably did quite well not getting sectioned under the mental health act for running barefoot on Southampton Common. I like to think I didn't look like an escapee from an institution but thats just my opinion - I might very well look like a mental case.

I'll stick the the Vibram FiveFingers then because I don't wont to see out my days in the style of One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest.

PLUS... there's news from Vibram http://www.runblogger.com/2009/07/new-vibram-fivefingers-models-vff-speed.html I like the look of the VFF Speed's in black.

Viva Mayr Menu...

2009-08-07T09:54:00.008+01:00

83.1kg BMI 23.7
I've glossed over what I'm eating so far but thought it might be worth going into that in a little more detail as otherwise people will have to rush out and get the book - its still worth a look. I think in the USA the crackers are available and you can also get 'Doctor Cracker' and possibly 'Dr Karg' ones too.

The Mayr book encourages you to make your own spelt bread but their interpretation of the word 'bread' just annoys me! I'm a bit of a bread aficionado and to be frank their stuff just tastes a bit grim. I'm working on a homemade alternative by adapting something from Peter Reinhardt's book (which is very good btw).

Breakfast
Green tea or chamomile tea, 'Amisa' spelt crackers x3, 2 egg omlette.

Lunch
Salad (lettuce, peppers, cucumber, 1/4 apple) with crushed almonds, 1 small potato.

Dinner
poached salmon (I like the lightly smoked stuff from Sainsburys but strictly speaking this is cheating)

Its got to be the shoes...

2009-08-06T14:33:00.008+01:00

I found this video on youtube this afternoon, it shows a comparison between running with and without shoes, the narrator mentions early on that no coaching was given between the two bits of footage, the runner just did what came naturally.

Knowing she's wearing sneakers she reaches with her leg, dorsi-flexes, points her foot upwards and prepares for heel strike.

Shoeless Doug

2009-08-06T10:49:00.011+01:00

I said earlier I had an experiment related to footwear that I was going to do, well its done and the results are in. I wanted to try and see if I could go out onto the pavements of Southampton and do my normal run barefoot.

Before

Now I knew I'd probably have to tape parts of my feet to protect them from cuts, there's glass on the pavement in places and whilst I was going to do my best to avoid treading on it - accidents happen so I put a couple of layers of athletic support tape around my forefoot, big toe and one bit on my heel, just the bare minimum of protection.

First thing's first I'm happy to report that I got all the way around 4.25 miles - it took me 45 minutes and the first half was surprisingly easy, I picked up one minor injury (a graze) on one of my toes which came from repeatedly pressing against the uneven pavement surface and wouldn't have happened if I'd wrapped that toe; I didn't realise it was rubbing in a way that would be uncomfortable. Apart from that one mishap there was nothing else untoward to report. note: blisters can be cured with sunshine and puppies

After

Obviously I came back quite grubby and it was wet today and that created two problems, firstly the tape doesn't offer much grip, secondly once its wet you become susceptible to blisters. Thats only really a problem in the wet though.

Conclusions
Well its not something I'd want to do every day but it showed me that the VFF's are very close to being barefoot but at the same time they offer much more protection from dirt, glass and other nasties that are laying around. The question I had in my mind was how different would it be? the answer is not very and that's a good thing.

I think I'll need to customise my VFF's a bit to make sure I don't blister - but for now they're the best option I've got for pain free running.

One last thing I'd suspected would happen was the odd reactions from other people - some I expected, some I didn't. One guy laughed out loud as I overtook him, another lady tried to stop me and tell me I didn't have any shoes on, yes dear I know. Finally one old guy shouted after me "can't you afford shoes?" but I was waiting for that one... as I disappeared around the corner I called back:

"No mate - this recession is killing me"

Eating Less - Gillian Riley

2009-08-06T08:42:00.017+01:00

83.1kg BMI 23.5

Today I've got a couple of subjects, one is about our relationship with food in the developed world - how it links to motivation and what I've learned about myself as a result - the next will be my latest foray into crazy footwear; first - addictions.

Recently whilst burrowing through the deep recesses of Amazon (not The Amazon - that would be dangerous) I found a book on another user's recommended reading list. Its by a British author called Gillian Riley who is an expert on cessation.

ces·sa·tion (sě-sā'shən)
n. A bringing or coming to an end; a ceasing.

The title is "Eating Less - say goodbye to overeating" there's also website http://www.eatingless.com/ to accompany this book other titles e.g. "How to Stop Smoking & Stay Stopped For Good". The book has actually been around for a while, it was first released in 1998 and seems to have been somewhat of a "sleeper" I think it might have been a little ahead of its time in '98; nonetheless it was a success and has been reprinted three times since then.

I got interested in this because the more I read about diets and change, both successful and unsuccessful, the more I realised I needed to understand what was at work when I did something that broke my routine.

There are so many diet books out there but none of them are able to tell me what to do when I get the urge to eat something that I don't really like?

I'll explain, recently I've really gone off of sweet food, maybe its the change in my diet that's done it but my preferences have definitely shifted to more savoury fare. If I eat something sweet or caffeinated now I can actually feel the effects, the world doesn't shake its just a buzz and I feel just a little bit green. The problem has been that I still get the compulsions to eat this stuff despite feeling quite bad an hour or so after eating it - I just didn't think it would work like that.

Gillian doesn't pull her punches, most of us just eat too much and are in the grip of what she describes as sugar addiction - I have to say it makes a lot of sense. Most people start their day with something sweet, their blood sugar spikes then crashes making them feel hungry again so the cycle repeats. We then lurch from one crash to the next without knowing what it feels like to be free of the grip of refined sugar.

That breakfast cereal in the morning might be quite the worst way to start the day?

There are various tips in the book but the most interesting to me was recognising the Pavlov's dog response I had to sugar, I found that if I thought I was hungry and needed something sweet that wasn't hunger it was probably just a dependence on sugar and conversely if I wanted something savoury I was probably just hungry.

Its strange but if I just acknowledge to myself the difference between the two its easier to dismiss the sugar pangs; surprisingly easy.

BFT

2009-08-05T16:34:00.005+01:00

83.1kg BMI 23.5

I'm not the only one ditching the chunky trainers in favour of minimalist shoes, some people have followed this path before me. One of the most well known is Barefoot Ted McDonald or just Barefoot Ted for short.
Here are the latest VFF shoes as described by BFT who tests for Vibram.

He's been doing this for much longer than I have and has done much more research on the subject, as you can see from his site he's covered quite a few miles in the crazy shoes.

If you'd like to read up on the subject there's no better place to start that Christopher McDougall's book, Ted features in this several times, you can hear him talking about it here.

My numbers for July

2009-08-01T14:48:00.015+01:00

84.0kg BMI 23.7

Well July looks bumpy but it wasn't too bad, the scale on the plot is a bit misleading, it's expanded compared to the other two.

I'm using an iPhone app called Weightbot for these and I can't lock down the scale on the y axis, so anyway you'll have to trust me it wasn't as rocky a month as it looks. Anyway these are the two previous months for quick comparison. Whilst they look a bit up and down the solid line is the moving average which is heading in the right direction, I did a little check in Weightbot and I'm averaging about -1lb a week now, I'm pretty happy with that because I didn't intend to do this really quickly, that can make you look knackered and old if you're not careful.

Progress has slowed a little but note that I'm well under the lardy line. I've started to go to the gym a couple of times a week so I expect that's having some sort of an effect on net weight loss (should slow it down). I'm also stepping up the running to be every day (assuming I'm not in the gym) but still keeping the route quite short, just a shade over 4 miles.

Another running update

2009-07-27T12:58:00.001+01:00

83.0kg BMI 23.4

14.3kg lost (31.46lbs)

This is just a quick update with a couple of pieces of information that surprised me. Firstly I measured my resting heart rate last night which was 41bpm, I had to do it a couple of times because I thought I was misreading it, it was 57 before starting this. I should probably find out from my GP what my old blood pressure was and get a new reading to compare - my guess is that it'd be significantly different?

The next thing I've got to comment on is how much faster I'm able to run than I was before, I timed myself last night and I'm covering 10km in 38 minutes which is a hell of a jump for me, my best was previously 45 minutes; I'm not really a natural runner - I find it quite difficult but I suppose not having to lug around that 31.46 bags of sugar is helping!

Running update

2009-07-15T12:41:00.001+01:00

83.9kg BMI 23.7

You'd have thought that with crazy shoes, no arch support and quite a bit of weight loss that I'd be struggling with the running. The truth is that I'm finding running easier with the crazy shoes than with normal trainers and I'm getting faster. A couple of days ago I reverted back to my old running shoes to compare how I go now I've had a bit of time running the new way - to cut a long story short it was a struggle and a whole different set of muscles ached for days afterwards.

The biggest difference was my thighs, the muscles were incredibly stiff after finishing and my hips were a bit sore too; nothing serious but enough to notice. This seems to back up the idea that the majority of forces or shock were being absorbed by my knees, thighs and back as opposed to POSE where much of the shock is handled by the foot, ankle and calf muscles.

The problem I now need to solve is building up resistance to the wear I experience on the soles of my feet. Its something that's worse on rough surfaces and after 5 miles or so you can be in all sorts of trouble - particularly if your feet are wet. That's currently the only pain I feel which is amazing to me because I'm very flat footed so I'd normally expect some form of knee pain after each run.

So I don't have all the answers but it feels like I've bought my last pair of running shoes.

My numbers for June

2009-07-05T12:19:00.003+01:00

86.3kg BMI 24.4

So these were the figures from June, a few wobbles in there but all in all very steady. The wobble towards the end of the month was a friends birthday, a boozy night out and you can see it took me nearly 5 days to recover from it!

The diet hasn't changed much and what I'm finding is that as time has progressed sugary food is agreeing with me less and less. I really do feel the effects from a sugar 'rush' that I can actually feel to, in some cases, feeling a bit green for an hour or two after I've eaten.

Whats surprised me is that nearly everything I ate before starting this was obviously not agreeing with me. If it wasn't the food itself it was the way I was eating it and the quantities that were involved. I used to really like eating meat with most meals but now I don't feel the need to do that; its quite odd and I've ended up following a diet that's almost vegetarian.

Red meat has gone, I don't touch it and don't seem to want to (that would have been hard to imagine 2 months ago) there's a bit of fish in there but the things I really like nowadays are bean salads and the staple snack/carb source are these spelt crackers (Waitrose) it might sound a bit dull but I feel great as a result.

POSE Method and Chi Running

2009-06-26T11:57:00.008+01:00

87.4kg BMI 24.7

My weight has hit a bit of a plateau but its ok; no major emergencies and I'll keep following the same rules. I think I knew at some point that it was going to happen so now that I've hit a couple of blips and it hasn't derailed me I'm feeling pretty good about it all.

Update:
A while ago I mentioned that I was going to start running again, I was going to use minimalist shoes and see how I went. This isn't a completely left field idea because I've had an interest in running for some time and over the past few years have done a bit of research into technique and training methods.

In February 2007 I contacted Nicolas Romanov and along with a bunch of other hardy souls did a two day training course in Edinburgh on the POSE method of running. The method emphasises proper form and technique rather than cardiovascular fitness as the way to improve running performance.

Elite athletes make running look effortless and many of them are supposedly "naturals" who instinctively understood from an early age where power and acceleration come from and how to minimise any movements that don't contribute anything. In the workshops Nicolas uses simple drills to change the way people run, basically stripping flawed technique back to a simple model where the runner uses gravity to pull them forward rather than muscular power to push them.

For many it's a counter intuitive concept and we tend to have a caricatured idea of what running is. The basics are in the stick man diagram (right). In POSE the theory is that if your foot lands ahead of your centre of gravity (90% or runners do this) you can't accelerate forwards without losing your balance, you have to wait until your centre of mass passes over your support foot THEN a positive force is possible.

If your foot hits the floor ahead of your centre of mass its more likely that you're decelerating rather than accelerating. Its a bit like driving a car and dabbing the brakes every time the wheels make one revolution, you still move forwards but there's a limit to how fast you can go and eventually somethings going to break.

For most runners this means that rather than landing on the forefoot they land on their heel - transmitting a big shock impulse straight through each knee and into the hip joint, over a long period of time that's quite destructive.

Modern running shoes also seem to do quite a good job of enabling this heel strike, specialists seeming quite happy to advise runners that heel striking is ok if you wear the right shoes; this despite the fact that upwards of 70% of recreational runners who follow the advice are suffering from a lower body injury at any one time.

Put simply - conventional wisdom seems flawed and in my opinion quite dangerous, relying on motion control trainers is a little like fitting square tires to your car; it'll work after a fashion but its going to hurt and somethings going to break sooner or later.

Chi Running has many similarities to POSE, Danny's approach is slightly less technical with fewer drills and the form is probably less strict. For instance the trail leg is allowed to extend backwards more than in POSE. My view is that Danny's method is more about relaxed form while Nicholas' is about maximum efficiency. This could be a reflection on the differences between Soviet born Nicholas and American born Danny more than anything else but the messages are quite similar and both approaches make the observation that good running is all about skill not brute force.

Motivation

2009-06-21T11:56:00.001+01:00

87.0kg BMI 24.6

Once you get going on a new diet or exercise routine and see progress on a regular basis, even if its occasionally interrupted, motivation is in plentiful supply. People start to notice the differences in you and as long as you can muddle your way through awkward times such as work lunches and drinks you can keep on track.

When you get a compliment about how well you've done it feels great, particularly if your self image has been something else for most of your life. For me I've always been a bit taller and broader than other people so when you add a few pounds to that frame it tends to define you as a person. I actually never really thought of myself as very big - partly because my dad is bigger so I grew up with a reference point that's not exactly typical.

When I started this it was only really supposed to be a 6 week thing to get me back on the straight and narrow but its really not going to be very difficult to keep going, one thing I have noticed is that I've become fairly good at motivating myself but I do rely on others a little too much. Vanity plays a part in it and that's something that's been nagging at me for a while, I know for sure the compliments are going to start drying up as the changes get smaller and smaller and I get closer to target weight (80kg) so my source of motivation will have to change.

So I've got some fairly fundamental work to do now to work out how to keep going when its just me.

80:20

2009-06-16T11:50:00.001+01:00

87.2kg BMI 24.6
10.2kg lost (thats 22lbs) and despite a few occasions where I've been out with friends and completely ignored the rules I set for myself its all still going quite well. I can report that I've turned into somewhat of a lightweight, struggling after 3 or 4 pints of whatever's on draught but that's probably a good sign!

Its important at this stage to reiterate that I'm not taking any supplements, no protein powders, nothing exotic at all. I believe now that weight loss is not so much driven by how much exercise you do but 80% by

what you eat
how you eat it
when you eat it

Exercise is really just the cherry on the top, the 20%, and for sustained weight management can't be the main method for burning calories. The human body is quite efficient, so much so that 1lb of butter could theoretically supply the energy to power Paula Radcliffe through two marathons.

I can think of easier ways to lose 1lb!

Vibram Five Fingers

2009-06-11T11:19:00.003+01:00

88.5kg BMI 25.0

Running: is it bad for your knees?

Many people would say that it is and the fact that nearly everybody who runs recreationally has, at one time or another, had some form of lower leg injury would back that up. When you look at the human foot, I mean really look at it, its a fantastically complex machine and one that we've been led to believe needs the help of pieces of carefully engineered rubber in order to work properly.

Back in the 80s there was a big kerfuffle when The Daily Mail persuaded Zola Budd's father to encourage her to apply for British citizenship and represent Great Britain in the 1984 Summer Olympics. Zola's entry in Wikipedia goes into the affair in detail but what's missed out of the article is one of the more interesting facts about Zola. She was one of the few athletes in the world who ran barefoot.

Seems mad doesn't it? surely with shoes on she'd be faster because the boffins at Nike/Adidas/Puma/xyz... would have designed shoes that would just make you go quicker, you'd literally float along on a cushion of air.

In 1985 she set the 5000m world record, now would she have been even faster with shoes or was she fast because she didn't wear shoes? plenty of runners have come from Africa and been very quick indeed without shoes. There are reports of indians in Mexico who run vast distances in minimalist sandals these sandals offer no support to arches or cushioning whatsoever and yet these people compete in multi-day races covering hundreds of miles.

I have flat feet which means the big shoe manufacturers tell me I MUST wear motion control trainers, these are quite chunky with built up arches and are supposed to save my knees from too much of a battering each time my heel hits the ground.

Question: if you were running on grass, barefoot, would you land on your heels? I know I wouldn't. Elite athletes almost exclusively run with their weight forward, landing on the ball each foot, if their heel touches the floor its only very lightly.

So maybe my flat feet aren't a problem.

Introducing my new running shoes, they're made by Vibram and are called FiveFingers K.S.O. (Keep Stuff Out) I also wear Injinji socks that have toes, this stops blisters forming between your toes and helps wick away any sweat. If I have any tender bits on the soles of my feet I'll tape them with sports tape.

The soles are about 3mm thick, uncushioned and there is no arch support at all, they just save your skin from too much abrasion and that's it - you have to run in a balanced and gentle way. Importantly, over the first few trial runs I've experienced no knee pain at all, I was expecting some niggles but there's absolutely nothing.

One month

2009-06-05T11:07:00.001+01:00

88.5kg BMI 25.0

One month in and its looking good, I've lost 19.4lbs.

As expected over the last few days things have levelled off and my weight has been pretty much the same for a week or so. The great news is that I officially moved from "overweight" to the top end of "healthy weight" {{woop!}}. I'm not really a big believer in BMI because we come in different shapes and sizes, some folks with very low bodyfat have quite high BMI figures but muscle is heavier than fat so the figures are skewed a bit. Its probably an approximation thats more statistically valid for very heavy or very underweight patients, in the middle its a bit of a blur.

Anyway for a first month it's been good and I'm pleased with what I've done, the next phase will include some exercise, I'm going to go to the gym every now and then but its mostly going to be running, nothing too long just shorter quicker runs to stress my heart and lungs rather than knees. the idea is that I don't adjust the diet too much, so if I go running and come back starving then the run is probably too long.

I think about 3-4 miles a day will be ok.

Jeans...

2009-05-25T11:06:00.003+01:00

91.5kg BMI 25.8

5.8kg lost (12.75lbs) and it seems to be fairly steady. Today was the first day in my life where I've had to go out clothes shopping for smaller clothes. I think maybe that's why people started to notice today even though its probably more obvious that I've lost weight just through looking at my face.

Another Mayr thing that I've been sticking to is that I've been making sure that I don't overheat cooking oils, whether its olive oil or sunflower they don't get heated above 60 degrees C, this means that I'm not frying anything.

The idea is that oils (some of them anyway) denature when you heat them so you could take perfectly healthy ingredients and make them less than good news for your body. I don't know if its true but the science seems to make sense so it can't hurt to incorporate this into what I'm doing.

And why the title "jeans..."? its a minefield isn't it - who knew trousers could be so complicated? My waist size has dropped from a pretty tubby 36" to 31"; now that's just awkward! buy the 30" and squeeze into them or go with the 32's?

I sound like Helen.

5kg lost

2009-05-17T11:05:00.001+01:00

92.3kg BMI 26.1

5kg lost and still feeling good about the eating plan - still not going to start exercising because it feels like it would be easy to overdo it but I think I shouldn't change anything whilst its working so well. At one stage last year I was running 10 miles a day and I did that for 100 consecutive days thinking that it would get me fit (?!).

I guess it did make me fitter but I didn't lose any weight and my knees were screaming. 10 miles a day at 15+ stone is probably asking a bit much.

I tended to get through running shoes alarmingly quickly too, it was an expensive business - it turns out there is a better way but more about that in a few weeks when I can get around to running again.

One week

2009-05-11T11:03:00.001+01:00

93.9kg BMI 26.5

Nearly a week in and I'm 7.5lb to the good, I've been reading quite a bit about weight loss in the weeks before starting this and it seems its quite normal to lose quite a lot in the first two weeks, most of it will be water.

What I've noticed is that I've lost the bloating in my stomach that I guess came from eating late at night and eating the wrong things. That's probably where the excess fluids have gone so I reckon itll start to level off some time at the beginning of next week.

I'm not getting bored of the food yet - here's a typical day's menu, I'm trying green tea instead of water but to be honest I like water better! I'm also finding that the salad bars at M&S, Waitrose, Sainsburys etc have some good options in the way of bean salads, quinoa etc that can fit quite nicely into the plan.

To be perfectly honest I'm taking the Mayr thing as more of a guideline than anything else, the bottom line is that I'm eating much less than I was and I suspect that I've been bolting down far too much food for years now.

Viva Mayr Diet

2009-05-05T10:59:00.005+01:00

97.3 kg BMI 27.5

So this is the starting point, I've been trying to decide whether or not to go for a big pizza themed blowout but spent so long making the decision last night that by the time I'd made my mind up everywhere was closed. So I suppose the start to my eating plan is going to be quite "honest" in the back of my mind I had thought this was my last chance to eat what I want but I suppose if I did that then what's different about tomorrow - its not really starting on the front foot is it.

I've decided to follow something close to the Mayr plan, not 100% faithful because it seems a little extreme to me and I don't want to waste away but the basic rules are:

no sugar, honey, wheat bread, coffee, cows milk, cheese, red meat and nothing much is eaten after 5.30pm and portion sizes are reduced and you really really chew your food.

meals are ~3 hours apart breakfast is 2 eggs, probably scrambled for breakfast with spelt crackers, lunch is a bean salad - you can either make your own or buy one from the supermarket. If there's any chicken or fish I have that for breakfast or lunch, salad is lunch only and raw vegetables are never eaten after 4pm.

Dinner is ~5.30pm, its the smallest meal of the day and I will eat nothing after that until the next morning. The idea is that you sleep better on an empty stomach so I'll give that a go.

The most important part of the eating plan is to chew my food more, each mouthful gets chewed much more, I tend to bolt my food so that's going to be a struggle but hopefully this will help my digestion and give my stomach time to catch up with what I'm putting into it.

If I'm super hungry I'll add crackers and goats cheese to fill the gap.