Going through extremes

Gained 9 kg in 6 months and completed Malnad ultra 50k 2019.

Hard to believe?!! This is my story on how I went steep up hill and down hill in terms of gaining and losing weight which helped me understand how it is so difficult to lose weight through diet and excercise.

It all started after I purchase Sony PS4 during the  beginning of this year. While I was only focusing on playing with it, I was also consuming un healthy food and drinks.

Scientifically, the more heavy you are the more calories it takes to run your body through your daily activities, like pumping blood, keeping the internal organs active like heart, liver, kidney and so on. Hence, if your idle body is consuming 1500 calories per day for daily activity, we should consume food which will aggregate less than 1500 calories in a day to lose weight.

Somehow I was not able to achieve that goal and inactive body makes you crave for more food.

One day(after gaining 9 kg), decided to start running everyday (minimum 5km) with the focus on completing 100 days in 2019. I struggled to even walk the initial 5 kms in the beginning ( could not believe that I was an ultra runner the previous year ). I knew that if I overcome the pain and focus on being consistent I can achieve the goal.

Started logging my daily  run on facebook to stay focused and consistent and when I started it was almost impossible to run even 2 or 3 kms. I ended up walking to cover those extra unfinished miles and since I was very tired I was left with lot of unburned calories.

First 20 days I managed to run 5km to 7km on average and there was no obvious reduction in weight though there was a feel good factor of being more energetic. This was also the period I felt like not running each day, but had to force my mind into doing it. My craving for junk food drinks started reducing a lot and I was eating good portions  of healthy food.

Post 20 days I was running 10 kms every day and maintaining the habit was becoming easier and made me feel more strong and energetic after each passing day. I could not reduce the quantity of food(healthy) intake since it was important for my daily muscle recovery. I observed that I am losing weight at snail pace of 1kg per 10 days if I am covering 100 kms. Not bad, since my target is to complete 100 days of running in this year.

I also had fully body professional massage during my 15th day, 30th day and 60th. Now I  don't feel the need for a massage anymore.

As I am writing this blog I have completed 85 days of running covering a total distance of 871.59 km at an average of 10.25 kms per day.

Average distance every 20 days during my 85 days of running.

Days 1-20	Days 21-40	Days 41-60	Days 61-80	Days 81-85
6.39 km	9.485 km	10.805 km	11.95 km	19.76 km

Malnad Ultra:

I decided to register for malnadultra 50km on my 30th day of running since I was becoming comfortable with my daily runs.  After 84 days and after shedding a lot of weight, I knew that my body is strong enough to conquer the hills and was easily able to finish the ultra run half an hour before the cut off time.

Lessons learned:

If you passionate about something stay focused and remain disciplined to climb up the ladder

From the 50k ultra I had achieved last year if I had maintained my focus,  I probably could have tried 80k or 110k this year.

Always maintain healthy weight and food habit, it is very difficult to lose them and come back to normalcy.

Note: 85 days are not consecutive. Took adequate breaks in between as well.

I will write a separate blog to narrate my malnad ultra 2019 running experience.