Blogging Weight Loss Challenge: Day 40 of 70
May 19, 2009 Posted by Tyler CruzIt has now been 40 days since I started my Blogging Weight Loss Challenge: Cruz vs Volk. That’s 40 days down with only 30 days left, which means that I’m past the halfway point.
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this challenge. While it can naturally be frustrating getting on the scale only to see no change day after day, when you do finally start to see results it’s really quite rewarding.
I’ve been continuing to do Westwood Lake, but my ankles have not improved. If anything, they seemed to get worse. While I know that it’s normal to experience some pain, the type I was getting whenever I tried to jog was just not normal to me. I could walk fine, but whenever I jogged, even a short stretch, my ankles would give me incredible pain which would take 15-minutes of walking just to alleviate, and the pain always made me wince. Thankfully, there’s joint pain clinics like QC Kinetix Raleigh where I could get treatment.
It’s extremely frustrating when your cardio feels fine to jog but your ankles prohibit you from doing so.
So, I decided enough was enough and asked MarketLeverage if they would buy me some nice shoes. There’s a popular store here called The Running Room which sells higher-end active footwear. I’ve always only bought cheap $20-30 shoes before, but I was willing to try almost anything to help my ankle pain.
The shoes came to $157 CDN which is about 4x as much as I ever spent on shoes. Dina from MarketLeverage was glad to reimburse them for me and so I’d like to thank her and MarketLeverage for supporting my weight loss challenge.
The guy at the store had me do a few leg exercises and postures and quickly spotted what he felt was the problem. According to him, I step down on my outer arch first and then fall in on my inner arch. Doing this while jogging would cause strain on my ankles and shins due to the way my foot falls. To alleviate this, he basically gave me shoes that supported my arch (unlike my other shoes).
Here’s a video of me buying the shoes (Dina made me do it):
Another Personal Record!
I have now completed my 12th “run” around Westwood Lake. That works out to a total of 76 KM (or 47 miles).
In order to expedite my weight loss as well as to help compensate for the fact that I’m still walking the majority of the trail, after finishing the first 6KM and clocking my time, I walk back to the end of the trail and do the last KM in reverse and back. That works out to an extra 2KM (actually, it’s closer to 2.8KM or so since I have to walk across the parking lot and beach twice to get to the trail again) which makes it a total of 8KM, or 5 miles.
I’m actually considering increasing it to 10KM, which would really help with my weight loss.
Lisa was working on my last run so I went by myself, and it was the first time I did it with my brand new shoes, so I was apprehensive as I didn’t want those $157 shoes to be a waste of MarketLeverage’s money.
Unfortunately, things started off terribly. Immediately after starting, my feet hurt, particularly my right one. I just wasn’t used to the arch ‘support’ in the shoes and it actually hurt just to walk. I fought it off though and trekked on, hoping the awkwardness and slight pain would subside.
After finishing the first hill, which is by far the worst part of the entire trail, my feet (again, mainly my right one) were in great pain. The first 3KM therefore ended up being really tough on me and very discouraging. I wasn’t able to jog once. The shoes took away the pain I usually got in my ankles and shins, but basically resituated the pain in the bottom of my foot (the arch).
However, as what usually happens, my feet started to get warmed up and by the 4KM mark and the pain was actually mostly gone by then. The main thing slowing me down at that point was therefore my cardio, but I managed to do some short light running stretches and little jogging stretches and surprised myself by finishing with a new record of 58:57!
That was really surprising as I didn’t think I’d be anywhere close to setting a new personal record, but near the 5KM mark when I saw I was doing decent I pushed it a bit more and tried to go for it.
I felt real good when I finished, and I had almost no pain in my ankles, shins, and even feet. It’s weird… it’s like my feet need 3-4KM to warm up first. I did stretch for 5-minutes before going so it couldn’t have been that. Anyone have any comments regarding this 3-4KM warm-up period?
So after going to my car and making the 1-minute video above, I immediately went back to the trail to do the other 2KM to finish with a total of 8KM. Since I do the last 2 KM going the reverse way on the trail (to avoid the hill), I passed the people I had passed the first time around. One guy, who was walking fairly slow with a family recognized me and said “Hey! Second time around? Good for you!” which made me feel real good.
I did the extra 2KM easily and felt awesome. I could have done another 4KM but was starting to get bored and didn’t want to overdo it. But since I felt so good I might indeed start making it 10KM from now on instead of 8KM.
I know that 58:57 is actually a pathetic time to do 6KM in, but it’s a new record for me and I am improving (albeit slowly) so I am very proud and happy with it.
Westwood Lake Time
| Date | Time | Comments |
| My 2007 Best Time | 1:00:34 | My previous record… |
| April 8, 2009 | 1:06:00 | Feet and calves absolutely painful |
| April 12, 2009 | 1:05:33 | Feet, shins, and calves still absolutely painful |
| April 15, 2009 | 59:45 | Jogged a couple extra stretches |
| April 20, 2009 | 1:00:45 | Off my record by a minute  Shins killed me |
| April 22, 2009 | 1:02:30 | Shins and calves still very painful |
| April 24, 2009 | 1:01:45 | Came close to record but couldn’t push near the end |
| April 26, 2009 | 1:03:30 | Had a very bad first 2-3 KM |
| April 29, 2009 | 59:35 | Had a fantastic first 2KM |
| May 4, 2009 | 59:07 | Had great first 3KM with lots of jogging |
| May 7, 2009 | 1:01:27 | Lots of pain in the feet and shins, very bad first half |
| May 9, 2009 | 1:01:38 | Tried hard as usual but just couldn’t set record |
| May 12, 2009 | 1:03:15* | Had severe ankle pain. Extremely frustrating. |
| May 17, 2009 | 58:57* | New Record! First time trying new shoes. |
(* = Did 2KM extra after the first 6KM, for a total of 8KM or 5 miles, but time is for first 6KM only)
Weight Loss Status
| Date | Weight | Total Pounds Lost | Days Left |
| April 11, 2009 | 205 | 0 | 68 |
| April 14, 2009 | 205 | 0 | 65 |
| April 19, 2009 | 205 | 0 | 60 |
| April 23, 2009 | 204 | 1 | 56 |
| May 3, 2009 | 201 | 4 | 46 |
| May 8, 2009 | 200 | 5 | 41 |
| May 18, 2009 | 200 | 5 | 30 |
I seem to be stuck at the 200 pound mark as I’ve been there for close to 2 weeks now. I only have 30 days left to lose 5 pounds which means I need to lose a bit over a pound a week. It sounds easy, but losing weight is a tricky beast!
Other “Make Money Online” Blogger Weight Loss Challenges
In addition to my weight loss challenge with Jonathan Volk, it seems that there are a number of other bloggers in the “make money online” niche doing similar challenges, whether they be against somebody else or against themselves.
They include:
Soon we’re all going to look like chiselled Greek gods right?
Remember, There’s a $500 Bounty on Jonathan Volk and Me
In order to provide added incentive for us to lose the weight, we invited bloggers to post about our challenge and vote against one of us. The deadline for this is over so it’s too late to enter now (full details can be found in the original post), and in fact only two people ended up making posts on it.
Jay from DatMoney.com predicted that Jonathan Volk would lose, and Tim Jones predicted that I would lose. Since only one person voted for each of us, if either of them is right with their prediction, they’ll be getting an easy $500 from us!
So far things aren’t looking good for Jonathan Volk, who has only lost 3.5 pounds so far. That means he has to lose 6.5 more pounds within 30 days or he’ll be paying Jay $500 out of his pocket 🙂
$150 shoes? Haha come on now Tyler, that’s not going to solve your ankle problems 🙂
You gotta push that limit and start doing sprints to build lean muscle, instead of just toning what you have by walking/striding. Suicides are your best friend to losing weight in my opinion.
Return those and grab a pair of $50 Asics… they work 100% as well guaranteed.
Funny videos, that guy at the shoe place was a pretty depressed employee, haha
As a runner I can say shoes can make a difference; after I found (with some help) a pair of shoes that work for me I have had the same pair for 6 years now (14+ shoes with 3 or 4 different “versions”)…
“the pain always made me wince” – you big girl!!! 🙂
I’ve been doing a little bit of a fitness kick this month to raise a bit of cash for charity. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been sick after finishing in the gym. I’ve burst a blood vessel in an eye, which was quite alarming, especially for those around me and just generally been in agony all month. Feels good doesn’t it?
Seriously though, best of luck shedding the pounds. I did what you’re doing now at the beginning of last year and managed to lose about 30 pounds in 2 months. The good news is by doing it the right way you should have no problem keeping the weight off.
That sudden music at the end of the first video scared me, as I had the volume cranked to hear what you were saying in the shoe store. lol
that music at the end is a tad to sudden and a tad too loud….
Haha, I liked it that way.
Hey your not a kid anymore. Your ankles and body hurt because your running on the ground. Unless your use to doing it your going to hurt. Use a treadmill and you won’t hurt as much.
Looking at your schedule I don’t think your working out enough.
You need to bump up to 5 days a week of 1 hour each day. Do cardio and drop 600 calories from your daily BMR.
I wish you good luck on your journey.
I started my own health regime recently and lost 15 lbs in the first 2 weeks, partly due to the fact that I drink a gallon of water each day–and only water..although now I’m kinda just stagnant..
You really should’ve broken those shoes in before running with them…ouchiez!
That’s pretty crazy… that’s over a pound a day…
I feel your pain… well, I actually exercise 3-4 times a week. But I did the Walk for Hunger a couple of weeks ago which is a 20 mile walk and I was hurting like you don’t know!
Luckily, since I work out regularly, it only took a quick nap for the pain to go away!
Anyways, I was a little surprised that only two people voted. And to think, I wasn’t even going to vote… I guess that shows you that taking 10 minutes out of your day may pay you off!
So, now I have to hope Jonathan doesn’t lose those last few pounds!
Jay
Looks like he’s up to 5 pounds now… still, it will be close since there’s only 27 days left…
[…] the fact that my chances of getting that $500 increased drastically. I also found out by reading Tyler’s lastest weight lose update that I’m the only person who actually took the initiative to vote against his opponent, […]
Ever try P90X, Tyler? Now, THAT program is a killer…..in a good way…. 🙂
Maybe the 10 minute trainer would be more of a good start. P90X is killer!
No. I’m just doing it the old fashioned way with basic exercise and watching what I eat a bit more.
There will always be trends and weight loss ‘secrets’. A couple years ago people would be swearing by the Atkins diet…. basic exercise and watching what I eat should work for me.
Tyler, if you don’t mind me asking, who created your blog LOGO? (I saw a post you made where the Logo Company made your Merendi Networks logo…..Iv’e actually used them 6 times in the past for various projects of mine)…….did they do your blog logo?
No they didn’t. If you take a look at my Recommended Resources page (https://www.tylercruz.com/recommended-resources) you’ll see that Sergio from SOSFactory did it.
There’s no point helping or recommending anything to him people, don’t waste your time.
I’ve made numerous informative comments on his posts and he refuses to take proven advice with some preconceived idea that a long run will make him lose weight.
Seriously dude, you really take some advice.
Does he respond to posts on his blog? That’s a shame if he doesn’t……..is he on vacation? If I ran this blog, I would respond to each and every post that readers post……
If people can take the time to post…..the blog owners should take the time to return that with a response……
Well, maybe if this was a paid membership site I’d feel obligated to, but it’s not.
Anyway, I responded to your comments above.
maybe i should embrace a challenge like this…
My beer belly is growing…. a lot! lol
Hopefully a few more trips around the lake and your feet will feel better after a 5 mile trip. I think it’s great that affiliates and bloggers are becoming more serious about weight loss. Working at home can take a toll on your health! Do you plan on continuing to exercise once the challenge is over?
Thanks for the plug on my “Affiliate Fatblogging” and I’m finding that I’m stuck on a specific weight, too — 215. I drop to 213, then back up to 215. Mine is really a lack of exercise — I just can’t seem to carve out time, everyday to get it done! Good luck, Tyler and keep it up!
The time it takes is definitely annoying. I spent 3 hours yesterday just doing my run. By the time I get my stuff ready, drive to the lake, do 10km, and come back and shower, half the day is over already!
Here’s what I learned when I was 15 years old. NEVER, EVER be cheap when it comes to shoes. My parents used to buy us these cheap ass shoes at stores like Zellers and stuff and I had nothing but problems with my feet.
Then, when I got my first job I saved up money and bought myself a pair of $175 Jordans. Best investment I ever made. I used to play a lot of basketball, and while everyone else was rolling their ankles and having knee issues all the time, I had none of those problems.
To this day I won’t cheap out on shoes, especially if I’m going to use them for exercise or sports or whatever. I’d rather cheap out on clothing, or eat Mr. Noodles for a week if I have to, but I refuse to go cheap on shoes.
Because of this, I’ve been pretty blessed with no ankle problems or feet problems while most people my age start complaining about feet issues.
For sports, my favorite shoes are still Nike brand, but I have a “regular” foot. Meaning, I don’t have a flat arch, nor do I have a high-arch. Nike’s are mostly for people with “regular” feet. If you have flat feet or high arches I think the other brands are better like Asics, or New Balance or whatever.
BTW, another thing you might want to look into is the work of Peter Egoscue. He has books on this topic and in his books he shows very simple exercises you can do in the morning for like a few minutes to totally strengthen your ankles and the stabilizer muscles around your ankles.
What it probably is, is that you have weakened muscles in your ankles and other stabilizer muscles are “compensating” by trying to hold up your feet in a certain way, but those muscles were never meant for that purpose so they become sore and overextended from something as natural as running.
The crappy thing is that if you don’t get this fixed now, as you get older it will travel up to your knees and you’ll have knee issues for a while, then it will travel up to your hips and you’ll have hip issues etc. From what I’ve read on the subject, everything starts with the feet. If you can solve the problem there, your knees will be happy, your hips and back will be happy etc.
By the way. Getting ML to sponsor a new pair of shoes is pretty damn brilliant.
It’s so funny I already told like 3 people about it.
Thanks for the mention, so far I believe I’m one of the heaviest of everyone out there (251) doing this weight loss thing. So far things are going well, I’m down 6 pounds in the first 2 weeks, a long way to my goal (209), but I’ll just keep plugging away.
Good luck to you.
lol, How come you didn’t just buy your own pair of shoes, I mean your making a fair amount of money online and you cant buy your self a pair of shoes :/
Because, by getting Market Leverage to buy his shoes for him, he accomplished multiple things:
(1) Saved himself $160.
(2) Created a funny story online about an Affiliate Network that bought a Blogger a pair of shoes, of all things, which can spread virally by word of mouth. Heck, I’ve told like 10 people about it so far cuz I think it’s so funny that they did this. It’s something unusual that people talk about.
(3) Market Leverage communicated a message of “We Care” through their actions which speak way more loudly than buying a $160 banner on a Blog which says “We Care”. I mean, if your feet hurt, and someone bought you a pair of shoes, wouldn’t that communicate to you that they really care about you? So ML got way more than $160 worth of marketing value by doing this.
(4) Gave him something entertaining to write about as far as content is concerned, which is good because it keeps people like me and you coming back for more.
If you think about it, it’s pretty damn ingenious how he turned something as ordinary as going out and buying a pair of running shoes which people do all the time and turned it into something somewhat entertaining.
Ask yourself, which Blog post would you click on and read:
“I went to the store and bought myself shoes today.”
or
“How I got Market Leverage to buy me a free pair of $157 shoes.”
🙂
See the difference? It’s not about being able to afford the shoes or not… Michael Jordan can afford shoes too… but he gets them for free from Nike…:)
What he said 😉
Really, it’s pretty simple – why _wouldn’t_ I want a free pair of shoes?
The other reason I asked ML to sponsor my shoes was because I really didn’t want to pay that much for shoes. I’ve just never spent much on clothing before and didn’t want to start now 😉
Even if you don’t win the challenge, it sounds like you are breaking a lot of personal bests.
Tyler, switch to swimming for the sake of your body. Obviously the running is too hard on your lower legs and feet. Swimming doesn’t place any undo stress on your body as your weight is not crushing down with each step.
Swimming also gives you a full body workout and you don’t need to waste any money on expensive shoes. It is a no brainer.
LOL. Wait, are you saying that instead of Tyler running around the lake, he should go jump in the lake?
🙂
Pool and weights.
Congrats on a new record time 🙂
BTW Tyler, even though you are exercising, are your eating habits still the same?
-Mike
From my experience, about 75% of results in terms of weight loss come from changes in diet, and 25% from exercise.
Pretty much. However, I haven’t eaten any fast food since the challenge started apart from Subway and a vietnamese restaurant, both which are pretty healthy.
I’ve also been avoiding bad foods when grocery shopping such as twinkies, chips, etc. And the few times I bought pop I got diet or ‘zero calories’.
I’m also trying to eat breakfast most days but that has been difficult.
So, just very small changes so far.
Hmm… if it were me I would have diagnosed it as shin splits. As a runner for cross country and track, pretty much everyone had a case of shin splits at one point in their running careers. Haha if you went to the trainer during practice he would ALWAYS diagnose you with shin splints, that was the running joke around the team. Haha no, I didn’t make that pun on purpose 😛 We have a similar store here called aardvark. Yes, the higher end running shoes are quite pricey!
-Randy
I drink a gallon of water each day–and only water..although now I’m kinda just stagnant..
I’ve been sick after finishing in the gym. I’ve burst a blood vessel in an eye, which was quite alarming, especially for those around me and just generally been in agony all month. Feels good doesn’t it?
maybe i should embrace a challenge like this…
maybe i should embrace a challenge like this…