The Game Plan

So.

First things first. Billy is gone. He made it safely to Kadena yesterday evening, which was really 3 pm this (Tuesday) afternoon. Confused? Yeah, me too. It's been tomorrow over there for half a day already or something like that. Stupid international dateline. It's all sorts of mind numbing to try to figure out. Anyway, I've gone for 2 runs since I dropped him off yesterday morning at Hickam AFB. First, I cried, then went for a run before work. Then, fully intended to wake up at 5 a.m. and round up the beasts to go for a run, but sleeping for an extra hour seemed like a much, MUCH better plan - so, I ran on my lunch break instead. Both runs were about 40 minutes - which I would love to believe is 5 miles, but I'm afraid it is not so. This is my "get back into it" week. It's the first week of my training plan for the Honolulu Marathon. "What's that?" you say? "You have a plan? Of course I do! What did you think? That this was just some chump operation? NO! This is Operation: Sexy Bitch.

THE PLAN
I'm going to be roughly following the Runner's World Rookie Marathon Training Plan. Makes sense to me, since this is my rookie marathon attempt. Since the plan is a 4 month training regime, and I have more than 4 months before December 12, 2010, I have some room to tweak it a little bit. As I said, this week is "just get out the door and run" week. It's the "I won't step on a scale until I run for one week" week. It's the "I can't even think about training for a marathon unless I can get into the habit of running ever day again" week. Get the picture? This week time doesn't matter, distance doesn't matter and hills and track workouts are not on the agenda. Next week I'll get crackin' on the plan. This week, I'm just running and getting into the swing of my diet. Which brings me too...

THE DIET
Ready for your math lesson for the day? Because if you're one of the 3 people reading this, you're going to get it. Here's how yours truly is approaching her diet:

No matter how you slice it, you need to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight. Besides liposuction, this is the only way -

Calories In < Calories Out

Now, according to popular science, it takes about 3,000 calories to lose one pound of fat (crappy return, I know). So, all I need to do is consistently be burning 3,000 calories!!! SOOOO easy, right? HA! Maybe not so much. But...

If a person my size burns approximately 100 calories per mile she runs and say, to begin with, I run 20 miles/week. That's 2,000 calories in one week from running. Let's say I also sacrifice 150 calories every day from my diet: I switch back to skim milk (which Billy doesn't drink. we're 2%ers while he's around), steak sunday is put on hold, I *gasp* reduce my latte intake, or even (and I can hardly type this) not drink a glass of wine every night...you get the picture. If I can consume 150 calories LESS per day than I was before, in 7 days, that's another 1,050 calories. And BAM! There's my 3,050 calorie deficit. Or 1 pound in 1 week (PLEASE note that there's a lot of "ish" in this logic).

IN CONCLUSION...
The only way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more. And that's what I plan to do. Training for a marathon will certainly help. Another Note: the number on the scale is NOT the most important thing, either. We all know that muscle weighs more than fat and blah blah blah...we'll get into that as the weeks progress and I procure myself a scale and a tape measurer (I dread the proportions! I've been called "square" in the past due to my boyish frame)

I hope the math lesson didn't bore all of you. Stay tuned for more interesting topics such as the debate over running shorts or skirts, the best solution for chub rub, and why I judge every other runner I see...