Stop Blaming Your Metabolism; It’s Probably Not Causing Your Weight Gain

Streak Day: 1320
YTD Mileage: 1,297.4
133.02 lbs
19.0 Body fat

metabolism meme

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the thing. People (including my doctor) keep telling me that people should just expect to gain weight as they age, as if weight gain after a certain age is axiomatic. As a function of aging, so they say, our metabolism slows down every year. Supposedly. I reject that particular piece of conventional wisdom. If weight gain as one ages is unavoidable, I wonder, why isn’t everyone over a certain age pudgy and cushiony, with a pregnant looking abdomen? Although I do have friends who have put on weight in the past few years, I have others who have not. Dear Hubby, as well as his sisters who are in their late forties to mid-fifties, remain as thin as ever (and hubby Phillip still eats as he did when he was teenager). His sisters’ refusal to gain weight as they age remains a little frustrating to me. Two of his four sisters don’t even work out that much. Phillip at least runs and goes to the gym regularly. Continue reading “Stop Blaming Your Metabolism; It’s Probably Not Causing Your Weight Gain”

Shocker! Running Daily Does Not Prevent Weight Gain

Streak Day: 1309
YTD Mileage: 1,222
134.00 lbs
19.9 body fat

Oh, yes! I am in shock over my sudden weight gain. Other than for health reasons beyond my control, I’ve never had to worry about my weight. Even before I started running at the age of 44, I never had to watch weight. I was actually too thin, until 2006 when, after years of misdiagnosis, I was finally diagnosed by a GI with celiac disease. I gained a healthy twenty pounds when I started the necessary gluten-free diet and I held steady at the healthy weight of 130 (my height is 5’7). Then suddenly in the spring of 2014, and I do mean suddenly, I gained ten pounds and nearly 10% body fat. The sudden body fat gain indicated a metabolic problem. I also had myriad other symptoms, so I saw my doctor for the problem. He ordered thyroid testing and discovered that my thyroid had stopped working. Continue reading “Shocker! Running Daily Does Not Prevent Weight Gain”

What Happens to a Race Deferred?

Longhorn cattle on hill country ranch
The ranch where Wild Hare 50 / 50k / 25k are staged is beautiful.

Streak Day:1106
YTD Mileage: 24
(2300 mile goal / 2018)

We had taken all the precautions we could to make sure the day would go smoothly. We left the dogs in San Antonio with our much-trusted and beloved dog sitter so that we wouldn’t have to plan time to walk and feed them before our planned departure time of 3:45 am from Austin to reach the race site by 5 am. We went to bed early enough to allow for a long stretch of sleep before our 2 am alarm went off. Perhaps the fact that our neighbor allowed her elementary school-aged children and their sleep-over friends loudly run and play between our building and hers well past midnight was an omen for what the next day would bring. No matter how much time we allowed for sleep, sleep didn’t come. Continue reading “What Happens to a Race Deferred?”

Pine Bark Extract: Help for Runner’s Ischemia?

Streak Day:1027
YTD Mileage: 1919
(2222 mile goal / 2017)
(2112 miles / 2016)

I’ve neglected this blog for a few months, and one reason for the neglect is

Austin Marathon 2017
Eldest son, daughter-in-law, me, and Hubby, at the ATX Marathon start line (Feb, 19, 2017)

that I’ve been discouraged since I finished the 2017 Austin Marathon (February 19) in the St David ER instead of at the race finish line. The day was unusually warm and muggy, which led to many runners having troubled runs. For me, it meant that my usual distance running issues were more pronounced and at mile 23.8 my race ended (I KNOW! SO CLOSE! UGH!). One bag of fluid administered by a race medic at curb-side was not enough to satisfactorily improve my vitals, so off to the hospital I went in an ambulance – which made this race the MOST expensive race I’ve ever run. The ER was full of runners in bibs, waiting to be seen. As the EMTs wheeled me through them to a room, I thought that the waiting room was much like scene from a war movie in which wounded waiting for medical attention in a medical facility are seated or laying in every available empty spot. Continue reading “Pine Bark Extract: Help for Runner’s Ischemia?”

Learning While You Run

Streak Day:765
YTD Mileage: 220 / 2017
(2112 miles / 2016)

credit: http://www.gq.com/story/exercise-without-headphones

During the 2009 Austin Marathon, I was running on the far right of the crowd, just inside the orange cones that marked the line between the runners and the traffic. An ambulance with lights and sirens blaring was creeping in the traffic lane just on the other side of the cones, impeded in its progress by a racer running on the traffic side of the cone. This runner, with earphones embedded in both ears, was completely oblivious to the commotion caused by his inattention to his surroundings. As the ambulance blared the sound of its presence, Continue reading “Learning While You Run”