My name is Marc Kastermans. I manageTanita Europe since 2009. I have always been fascinated by endurance sports but personally never got further than running the occasional 5K around my house (about 10 times per year) and I usually felt very out of shape after that. I never really considered taking it any further. Then about three years ago I started feeling overweight. Maybe it was at Tanita because being on a weighing scale and measuring my body composition every other day is very confrontational. In that period the good life also got the better of me. Exceeding 100KG, 22-24% body fat, not good ! (I am 193cm. and now 43 years old)
In 2008 I also started playing landhockey again. Participating in a match every week made me feel better but also confronted me with my limitations and the idea that the field appears to be getting larger in the second half of the match. In that year my spouse also started running at the Gooische Atletiek Club. Looking at her coming home from her runs I started to feel even more out of shape.
It took until 2010 that I decided to take matters into my own hand by losing some weight and taking running and biking more serious. I started skipping all the food that I do not really like and all the snacks. No regime, just changed my food intake. In a period of about 3-4 months I dropped my weight to about 87KG and my fat percentage to about 15-17%. I started to feel much better.
Since then I have been running but I have always seen this as something ‘personal’. Just me, usually a headphone on and running every couple of days usually between 5-15km depending on my mood and my schedule. It clears my mind and gives me time to think things over. I never felt the need to do any of the organised runs nor did I feel the need to set a real goal. Furthermore I started biking. Ever since I live near a mountainbike path (yes, Holland is flat, but that’s still how we call it) I started doing some biking as well. Once a week, 50 km or so with a few friends. Nowadays I try to bike to our Tanita office in Amsterdam (25-30KM one way) a few times per week as well.
What we do best at Tanita is measuring people’s body composition. But we all realise that this leads to many questions about lifestyle, sports, exercise, food intake etc. These conversations have made many of us change our lifestyle as well. Travelling around Europe the last years I have also had the chance to do an occasional run with my colleagues and we discuss this topic often. It is great to share a common interest ! That resulted in conversations about doing a run together. We decided to go for a real challenge together. October 2012, Marathon of Amsterdam it is ! Can I do this ? Of course, I say to everybody with confidence. But deep down inside I know it’s a stretch. I know I can do half a marathon under 2 hours, but double of that, I feel I need to structure my sports activities.
My current methods of tracking my results:
For measuring my body I have an old Tanita BC-410 in my office.
Occasionally I use a Tanita BC-1000 and track my results via Garmin Connect. I also use our new Tanita MC-980 whenever I have the chance. What a great machine !
I use a Garmin 310XT to track my running results and a Garmin EDGE 800 on my bike and I plan to start with putting a schedule together to bring some structure in my activities. I know it’s almost a year away so there is some time left.
We can do it !
stefanhorrer 