GO LEAN, CRUNCH!

HELL YEAH...I'm going Lean thanks to Kashi.

So, the quest to be officially LEAN began this week...4lbs...That's it! That's all I need to lose in order to do it. It seems so damn easy, but I've been at a plateau for a long time and it's a toughie to break. It seems so easy in theory. Burn more calories than you take in and you will lose weight. I think it's B.S. Maybe I'm defying the laws of physics. Maybe I'm the ONE person that voids the formula. We'll see...Next week, I'll journal my eating habits to see if there are any oddities. Please tell me that Kashi is not responsible for my weight plateau. If that's the case, I'll just be happy with "Moderately Lean" for the rest of my life because I'm not giving up the GO LEAN Crunch. Besides, we have no less than 8 boxes of it currently in our pantry. I'm so not kidding.

I've been trying to focus on lean protein and lots of fruit and veggies. I still consume some "bread" carbs, but I'm doing so in very moderate amounts and small portions. I don't believe in complete deprivation and I also feel that you need carbs as an endurance athlete. I typically start my day with one cup of measured Kashi, yogurt and frozen berries. Heat it in the microwave for about 30 secs and you'll be in healthy-cobbler heaven.

For lunch, I'm trying to stick primarily with salads or more kashi.

Dinner is tricky depending on my social activities. For instance, tonight I went to Mangia Pizza with Shawn, Thon and Coach G. I ordered the double house salad with chicken. Unfortunately, it was made primarily with iceberg so the nutritional content was blah. I also indulged in one piece of stuffed spinach pizza. According to Thon, it's "more healthy" than most---cheese is 30% less fat than most and the crust is actually a nice whole wheat crust. So, instead of eating 3 pieces of stuffed pizza, I ate a big salad and only one slice of pizza. What a strategy, I know.

It's been an awesome week of training:

Last Saturday: 29 mile bike ride in the afternoon, 5 mile run in the evening

Last Sunday: I hit the gym for core, weighs, 10 minutes on the rock climbing wall and 30 minutes on the spin bike

Monday: Sore from weekend so I did a very slow 30 minute jog in the a.m. and the Jack and Adams Core Class in the afternoon. Damn, it was hard.

Tuesday: Gazelles Wilke Hill Repeats. Amy and I ran over 3.5 miles from my house to the hill. I did 8 forward repeats, 3 backwards and 3 sprints from half-way for a total of 14 repeats. I then ran over 3.5 miles back home. Needless to say, I was pretty toasted on Tuesday because the workout for the day was over 10 miles.

Wednesday: Spin Class at 7am for 50 minutes and a 5 mile run this evening with Shawn. My body still feels beat up from Wilke and from the core class, so this was very much a recovery run for me.

The Swim Ex pools at Castle Hill are still closed down and it's killing me!!! It's been raining here the last couple of days so I haven't gone to any outdoor facility. Needless to say, it's been almost 2 weeks since I've swam. I actually miss it terribly. They are trying to expedite the reopening, but we'll see. I just have to suck it up and hit some regular pools, but I don't want to!!

On tap for tomorrow morning...TEMPO run again. Four miles of focused all out effort. My last one two weeks ago was 28:25. I'd like to knock 10 sec off that one.

Friday (if no rain): Barton Springs for 45 minute aqua jog and about 1 mile of open water swimming.