Busy Geek Training is the article cycle where I share my thoughts and insights from my adventure to live a healthier life

Almost 1.5 year ago I've started working out regularly - besides losing 13kg I've learned couple interesting facts about my body and training in overall.

Lesson 1: start with baby steps and don't think about it so much

My plan was pretty simple - start doing something with my body since I haven't felt good. I was constantly sleepy and without energy. I was ashamed a bit with my body (93kg / 183cm is not the end of the world, but it's far from dreamt beach body ;) ).

As I've already mentioned in my previous article I've stared from reducing amount of sweets that I ate every day - it wasn't any super strict step such as cutting it totally off - I've just started eating like 50% of the usual amount per day.

The other small step was to replace regular Pepsi/Cola with their sugarfree (Pepsi Max/ Cola Zero) counterparts (I have to admit it - I really like its taste and drink ~2 cups at least per day of them (especially in the evening, while binge watching something with my wifey or writing something on this blog ;) )).

When I reduced amount of sugar in my diet I've noticed that I've stopped gaining weight. My next step was to start losing it (and as you already know I've chosen running as a main activity)

And while we're on this topic..

Lesson 2: Don't compare yourself to others… much

Since the beginning of my running adventure I've tracked all my trainings on Endomondo - just to myself so I can track my eventual progress and to boost my sense of achievement when I was looking back each month how many intervals/kilometers I've done.

I've also started monitoring activites of my (way more experienced) friends - they were running like 3-4 times longer distances with 1.5x speed comparing to mine. But it didn't discourage me - it was totally other way around - seeing them running every time motivated me to do it as well - no matter that I was doing half or 1/3 of their distance.

Lesson 3: Gadgets helps (if you're a gadget person)

When I was running for couple months I've started to desire a (wearable) device, that woule let me run without smartphone, but track my route via GPS and listen to Spotify at the same time.

The timing was great, since I've asked for such device for my 30th birthday :) I didn't wanted to break a bank though, and decided to check Samsung Gear Fit 2 + Huawei AM 61 bluetooth headphones (review soon, spoiler alert: it totally rocks for my needs).

Lesson 4: Eating healthier doesn't mean eating less / eating less tasty food

My best meal between trainings is an fried egg burger (egg + ham + cheese + cucumber + ketchup) - it's so yummy and rich in protein that it's hard to believe it wasn't bad for my diet at all!

Lesson 5: shoe weight matters!

During my adventure with running I've got to the point that I needed to buy new shoes (I was running in ~10 EUR basic market ones). I went to the local sport accessory shop and started trying on different models of shoes. It turned out that (besides of the model I actually owned) the next pair that fit to my foot well was the ones that cost ~60 EUR!

Despite my concerns about the price (I didn't feel like a pro and didn't want to spend so much money on this gear initially) I've tried it out couple times in the shop and bought it.

That was a mistake.

When I came back to home I've learned (read it in the internet somewhere) that my new shoes were couple times heavier than my previous ones!

It's worth to mention, that they totally havent't seemed to be so heavy like this when I was trying them out in the shop (I even ran around inside the shop while testing them).

My first thought was: Ok, they are heavy and so what? I'm not a professional guy that such detail would make a difference!

Gosh, I was so wrong.

After first kilometer my legs were on fire - I've never felt my muscles burning like that - and all this was because of the shoes weight!

Well, not exactly because of it, but mostly.

The other issue was that they were super springy! Their amortization level was so awesome that I had constantly force myself to focus to not run on its springy heels (so the burning effect was less troublesome).

When I've finished the run (half of the distance, quadruple the muscle pain) I was seriously thinking about selling these shoes as fast as possible but then I've decided that I'm not gonna give up and will train until I'll have same running results as I had when training on my previous model.

-- ł.