Get moving ... NOW!
 

I've felt that the online journal has been helping me so far in sticking to the program and resisting temptation. So, I guess the next step is the online tracker for my exercise. I've been including some blurbs here and there when I'd remember to squeeze in some kind of exercise, but I haven't been sticking to my goal of walking at least 5 times a week.

Now, I don't do any power-walking or anything. At my "fast" pace, it'll still take me twice as long as my skinny friends (who walk pretty darn fast now that it's COLD!) But I still feel that ANY exercise I do is better than NO exercise!

I had a doctor one time kinda make a face when I told him I was walking 4 times a week. He told me that to lose weight, I had to do some kind of aerobic activity, really getting the heart pumping. At the time, I was over 350#... how much did he want me to do? At my size, just taking a leisurely walk gets my heart pumping! :)

Anyway, I think that for now, it's best for me to take it slowly and build my way up to fitness with a routine that I'll stick with.

"The Routine" v1.0
 

Well, now for the "routine". Version one, anyway. There is definitely room for change as I go along! A lot of my exercise will be done when I'm out doing other things. There are 4 days that should be "solid":

Sunday: On Sunday evening, I go to mass on campus. There is a (free) campus bus that'll take me right there if I want. Instead, I will (continue to) walk to the student union, and back again. Time: about 40 minutes (20 minutes each way)

Tuesday & Thursday: The two days I have classes. Again, I will (continue to) avoid the campus bus, choosing to walk instead to my classes & back again. Time: more than 40 minutes for each day, but we'll say 40 minutes to be safe.

Saturday: This is my shopping day. There is a campus bus that takes us right to Waldbaums. No biggie there, maybe 5 minutes to walk to the bus stop. However, the last stop is the mall, and in the next lot is Trader Joe's. So, after getting my stuff from Waldbaums, I'll get on the bus & wait for the last stop, then walk over to Trader Joe's. Time: again, I'll use 40 minutes as a low estimate for the whole trip.

So, that leaves Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to get some extra walking in. Surely, I can walk somewhere on ONE of those days, right? I guess the best day would be Wednesday, that way, starting from Monday, my week would go: OEEEOEE , where O= "off", & E="exercise".

Okay, well, that sounds like a plan to me. The Wednesday thing is variable, though. As long as I walk on Mon OR Wed OR Fri, I'll be happy!

I CAN DO THIS! :thup:

WEEK 1 - first log

Sunday

Walked to the student union & back: 40 minutes total.

My doctor said something pretty close! They cannot understand something they don't live...what we have had to live through. Ignore the comments and do as you are planning because it is a good plan.

Thanks for the support! This happened to me a while ago, but it still manages to stick in the back of my mind, causing me to question whether I should be doing more... I just have to remind myself what my activity level was before, and then stick with the motto, "Every little bit counts; some is better than none!"

Tuesday

Walked to & from classes; ~20 min each way; total: 40 minutes

also: I finally realized that there was a restroom on the same floor as my office. My office is located just off the bridge between the math & physics buildings, so to get there, I have to go down 1/2 floor from the 3rd floor of the math bldg. Right at the bottom of the next half-staircase (ie, on the 2nd floor) is a women's room, so I've been using that one. What I didn't realize is that just past the 3rd office along the "bridge", same floor, is a women's room as well. When I'm operating in "lazy mode", even better than 1/2 floor of stairs is no stairs!! :D

Anyway, as one of my little "changes", I'm going to continue to do the stairs when I use the restroom. It's only 1/2 of a floor, but... Every little bit counts

Eventually, I want to start taking the stairs up to my office. Actually, I'll probably start with taking the stairs up when I go to get my lunch, which I keep in the refrigerator downstairs in the math dept. Better yet, I'll take the elevator to the floor below mine, and start off with one set of stairs. When I'm comfortable with that, I'll move to two. When I first come in, I've got my whole load of books for the day... after carrying them with me to the building, I don't want to drag all those books up the stairs as well! (not yet, anyway! ;) I will get there one day!) So, lunch time is a good time to sneak in some stairs.

So, I guess that's another goal to keep in the back of my mind: to try to find ways to add more movement into my day. I'd like to get a pedometer to track how much I walk, but I never really got those things to work for me. Instead, I'll just keep challenging myself to add a little more movement once in a while, and document it here... even the little things. :)

Thursday

walked to classes: ~20 minutes
walk back at end of day: ~20 minutes

also: walked up one flight of stairs after grabbing my lunch; wasn't too bad... next week, I'll try two flights :thup:

Did not do any walking yesterday, so I'll have to get out there tomorrow. The "good news" is that I have to cover a friend's class tomorrow, so I have to get out there, no matter what! :p And we're supposed to be getting snow, so I KNOW I would've been making all kinds of excuses not to get out there!

oh, and it's "good news" in quotes because I do NOT want to be the substitute teacher!!! nobody likes the sub! :(

even in the snow!
 

I just wanted to add that even though it was snowing, I still avoided the bus on the way home. I was well-protected, and it wasn't icy yet, so I really didn't have any excuse not to walk! Now, if I wasn't wearing a hat, I would have taken that bus! Pushing myself to exercise is great, but not if it's going to get me sick!

Friday

40+ minutes of walking throughout the day

I did a lot of extra walking today. After walking to my office, I walked over to the student union to teach that class for my friend. Walked back to the office, then to the SAC, back to the office, then to the health center (about 2 blocks behind the student union) After that, my back was killing me, so I took the bus back to my quad (still about 2 more blocks to walk after that)

I doubled back to the health center b/c I wanted to finally weigh myself. My last weigh-in was almost 3 weeks ago. I lost about 10 pounds! I was so happy! I wanted to walk all the way back to my apartment after that, but the pain was telling me I wouldn't make it that far. So, I did take the bus back. Even so, I estimate that I walked for about 55 minutes altogether. Oh, and I had to take the stairs twice when I was in the union. :) Hey, I'm counting anything extra... I could have found an elevator, after all!

Saturday

40+ minutes walking

I walked a little extra today. Instead of taking the bus at the stop near my apartment, I walked across campus to take it a few stops before. I sometimes do that so that I can get a seat on the bus, since it fills up pretty quickly, especially on the first run of the weekend! I usually get a seat, too... but not today!! :mad: I don't know where all of these extra people came from! Suddenly everyone else is waking up earlier? I don't know...

Anyway, I ordered myself a pedometer. There were two mentioned on the 3FatChicks website. When I read the reviews for one of them, however, I saw that it tended to reset without warning. The other pedometer seemed to get all praises, from the reviews I read through. So, I ordered it, and we'll see how it works. I'll see how many steps I normally take, and then try to push myself from there.

Sunday

40 minutes of walking

I walked to mass (at the Student Union) I even turned down a ride on the way there. Oh, I REALLy wanted to jump in that car... but I made myself say no. :)

Monday

40 minutes of walking

I'm happy I got my "extra day" of exercise over with! I had to help proctor an exam, so that brought me up to campus again. Of course, after standing for an hour and a half, I really wanted to take the bus back... but I didn't (although I don't know if I would've passed it by if it would have arrived at the stop the same time I did) Still, I could have just waited for the bus to come... but I felt okay to walk, so I did (plus, just knowing that I'd get it out of the way made it a little less painful!)

Tuesday

40 minutes of walking
walked up two flights of stairs in my bldg

Wednesday

40 min. walking

I finally got a pedometer, so now I can post the number of steps I take a day. I'm not sure of my stride length, so I probably won't have accurate mileage... and the pedometer seems to over-count the number of steps. BUT, it should give me some numbers to look at, and to try to eventually increase.

The pedometer counts not only the total number of steps, but also the number of "aerobic steps", which are those that satisfy:
(1) walk more than 60 steps per minute
(2) walk for more than 10 minutes continuously

So, I'll record the total steps, approx. mileage, number of aerobic steps, and number of aerobic minutes.

Thursday

total: 10,146 steps; 1.92 miles

aerobic: 6184 steps; 53 minutes

extra: walked up two flights of stairs at work

Friday

total: 6761 steps; 1.18 miles

aerobic: 3203 steps; 28 minutes

NOTE: today wasn't a day I was required to exercise. I had to attend a make-up class, so I got some extra walking in this week, I guess. Eventually, my goal will be to hit 10k every day... but for now, I'm happy with 5 days a week, and just thrilled with anything extra that I'm able to do! :D

Saturday

total: 10,702 steps; 2.02 miles

aerobic: 3757 steps; 34 minutes

I went to Waldbaum's first, but had to return to my apt. to get my Costco card. After that, I got off at the last stop (mall) and walked over to Costco. Since I didn't have my groceries from Waldbaum's, I was able to fit most of my Costco stuff in my rolling bag, and the rest went in my canvas bag. I didn't have to call a cab like I'd originally planned. So, I went back to the mall to wait for the bus. And to think... if I did take the cab, I would have fallen short of my "10k steps a day for 5 days" goal. All of the aerobic time must have been from walking to/from Costco, so if that was cut in half, I'd be a little over 1k short.

I only go to Costco once a month or so. I'll see what my "regular" Saturday runs me next week... I'll walk over to Trader Joe's instead of Costco after getting off at the mall. Trader joe's isn't nearly as far away as Costco is (well, for one thing, I don't have to worry about crossing the highway to get to trader joe's! :)) We'll see how close we get to 10k next week!

Sunday

total: 5340; 1.01 mile

aerobic: 4254; 37 minutes

ok, so we're not hitting the 10k steps... but I'm still doing the 40 minutes of walking... maybe we'll have to modify the goal for now.

We'll try this:

Goal: 5 days a week, attain either:
(1) 10,000 steps -OR-
(2) 40 minutes of fast walking

Of course, both would be nice, but I'll be happy with one or the other! Remember, a little is better than NOTHING!

I haven't used this gym log in a while because I was logging in my total steps in myPLAN. However, I wanted a spot separate from my journal where I could log my progress on certain goals. So, I'll use this space for that!

Current goals:

(1) Walk 10,000 steps a day, even if I have to walk in place at the end of the day.
(2) Do some exercises at night. I guess I could call them toning exercises. It's mostly upper body stuff, especially my arms. Do these every day.
(3) Drink 100 oz of water (or more) a day. I usually count by 5 20-oz bottles.


I'll use one of these guys when I walk or tone: , and one of these when I drink all of my water for the day: .
This one will be for when I make my goal for the week: . And I'll use these guys to track pounds lost for the week: ,

It's a Friday, so I guess I'll make Friday my weigh-in day.

:thup:

Fri, May 6 - Thurs, May 12

Start Weight: 299


[walk] X

[tone] X

[water] X

So far, so good. I've been walking up to my office every day, and when I need a study break, I take a walk around the academic mall. I try to push myself a little more each time, since I don't want to do much walking in place at the end of the day! :D So far, I've been coming home with over 8000 steps! I can usually knock out the rest in 10 minutes or so. :thup:

Update: Thursday was my last day, and I had a 24-hour take-home final. SO, there was no time for long walks! I don't know why I didn't drink my water, though... :( we'll get 'em next week! Now I gotta get some sleep!!!