Running was my gateway drug to fitness, and I'm so grateful for that, because it definitely got me forever-hooked on the healthy path. But because weight loss was my main motive for lacing up my sneaks, when the scale didn't budge, it made me so angry. Why was I working so hard and not getting the results I wanted? I realized it was because of the three reasons below.
Is It Lunchtime Yet?
I had the mindset that if I ran more, I'd burn more calories. So instead of 45 minutes, I increased it to 60 minutes most days of the week, except on Saturdays when I had more time to do a longer 80 or 90-minute run. I was burning more calories, but I was also increasingly more famished. I was hungry all. the. time. I was constantly thinking about food and when my next snack or meal would be. So I basically ate all the calories I worked so hard to burn, and then some. I couldn't outrun my appetite!
To the Cows and Back
My runs were done at 6 am, and because my brain was barely awake enough to get the right sneaker on each foot, I kept my runs simple. I'd run three miles past this sweet little farm, then turn around and run home. I did this six-mile out-and-back run four or five days a week, for almost a year. Not only was it pretty boring, but worse off, my became body so accustomed to this mostly-flat run. This no-brainer workout turned out to be the reason my weight plateaued.
Did You Already Run?
My husband asked me this one morning after I had gotten back from my typical six-miler, and I was like, "duh, can't you tell?" But I was barely sweating, my skin was hardly flushed, and my hair was perfectly pulled back in a ponytail. It wasn't until I tried CrossFit that I realized my runs weren't workouts at all - they were more like warm-ups. I hardly challenged myself on my runs whatsoever. I occasionally played around with running hills when I was half-marathon-training, but other than that, I stuck to my basic route, at a moderate speed slow enough to carry on a conversation with my running buddies.
After these three realizations, if I was going to maximize my calorie-burning capacity, I had to work much, much harder. I actually started doing shorter workouts, but made them more intense. I traded paved roads for trails a few times a week, and did hill repeats once or twice a week. I also stopped running so much and incorporated other workouts like biking, strength training, and CrossFit. These were just the changes I needed to start losing the weight around my belly that had been hanging on for dear life - what an amazing feeling to lift up my shirt and see definition in my abs!
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