Mention the word "scale" to anyone who's trying to lose weight and you immediately get a worried look on most faces. It's the one thing my clients dread the most. I purposely encourage them NOT to weigh themselves until I get to see them for their weekly or bi-weekly session. While the scale may not give a total picture of someone's health status (unless it has a built in body fat% indicator), it can be a useful tool from time to time.
With regards to my own body weight, I can usually "feel" when I've put on a few extra pounds by how my clothes are fitting. I've been avoiding the scale lately as it felt like I was putting on weight and didn't want to get even more discouraged. However, we all need a dose of reality so I decided to jump on the scale before my run this morning. To my surprise my weight was 154.5 pounds (12% body fat) which is the lightest I've been since doing the Isagenix cleanse. It's no wonder why I've been feeling lighter on my feet lately (LOL). With my weekly running mileage approaching 100 K's, it's going to be important for me to watch my diet even more closley. In particular, I've been increasing my protein and carbohydrate intake and will begin using L-Glutamine as well as my regular multi-vitamins as part of my regular diet.
The extra protein will help repair the muscle tissue that I'm destroying each time I go for a run (especially during my longer runs of 4 hours or more). L-Glutamine is a conditionally essential amino acid because while our bodies produce it regularly, it becomes harder to produce during heavy bouts of exercise. A deficiency in L-Glutamine could result in an inabiltiy to build and repair muscle tissues.
I've also decided to start doing a twice weekly weight training session and will be doing some abdominal/lower back exercises three times per week. Ultimately, I'd love to run the race at 150 pounds as I've noticed that my running becomes easier the lighter I weigh. I don't want to sacrifice muscle, though, just to be lighter so again it's something that I'll have to pay close attention to.
Training for the 50 Mile race is becoming a full-time committment but it's something that I need to do in order to get the best results possible from the race. With 9 weeks left until the big day, I can't afford to let up my intensity now.
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