The first was “Skinny Water“…I mean come on. Okay, so it’s flavoured water that apparently has no calories, helps metabolise fat and boosts immunity. I’m sorry but that sounds like a big crock of sh*t. If you want low calorie water, how about drinking water?

The second amazing new weight loss product that I saw was advertised on the underground. It is a new shoe which Skechers have release called “Shape Ups“. Apparently they have the following benefits:

1. Weight loss
2. Body composition
3. Glutei strength
4. Low back strength/endurance

Haaibo, now that is amazing…shoes that make you fit. So for the second time…what a crock of sh!t!

What about just eating healthy food, drinking good old tap water and doing exercise in a normal pair of running shoes? I suppose that is just too difficult for the majority of the world’s population. It’s not a wonder that obesity levels are at an all time high.

Tip for the day: Stop being so lazy, get off your fat arse and do some exercise!

When my longest run was 13 miles, a marathon seemed nearly impossible.
When my longest run was 26 miles, 50 miles seemed nearly impossible.
When my longest run was 50 miles, 100 miles seemed nearly impossible.
When my longest run was 100 miles, 50 miles seemed like a nice, long training run.

Don’t let the distance scare you; run from aid station to aid station and the distance will take care of itself.

Since the beginning of the year I have started running a bit more seriously after my brothers convinced me to run the Cape Town Two Oceans half marathon with them in April this year.

I also decided to buy a heartrate monitor to help me with my training. So after a bit of research I bought a
“Garmin Forerunner 50” heartrate monitor and footpod bundle. It’s been almost a month now since I bought it and I think it’s freaking awesome!!

The heartrate monitor gives you all the data you need to train effectively. One can set target zones for how hard one wants to train and the watch has an alarm which goes off when one is outside the range set. This can get a bit annoying if you are struggling to stay in the zone for the day, but then again you should plan how hard you want to train before hand.

The footpod is also great, it gives speed, distance, cadence and number of steps. It’s surprisingly accurate and when I plotted some of my routes on Google maps, the distance was out by a few hundred meters. It is however really simple to calibrate though, so once you do that it is a lot more accurate.

The most fun part about the whole system though is the software which is available from the Garmin website. Once installed on your pc it uploads data from the watch via a usb receiver (included in the bundle). Then the data is plotted on a graph and one is able to see speed, distance, heartrates, etc. Also it gives total distances for the week, which helps with meeting your weekly mileage goals.

Then, one can upload the data from the desktop application to an online version of it called Garmin connect. The interface is really sweet and its great to be able to view your workouts online.

Bottom line is, that if you’re looking for a basic heartrate monitor and footpod I would defintely recommend getting the “Garmin Forerunner 50“. Now all I need to do is run more