Walking 45 Minutes - The Ups And Downs
For the past few weeks, I’ve been walking 45 minutes a day. I find that all of my walks tend to follow the following pattern -
1. I have to convince myself to actually pull out the treadmill and start walking. On most days, I’m successful, but on a few, I’m not.
2. Once I’ve plugged in the treadmill and grabbed a bottle of water, I start walking. The first five minutes always feel - weird? I set the speed very low and then every two minutes, I increase it.
3. Minutes 5 through 25 always feel great. I get into a rhythm and I start working up a sweat. During these minutes, I’m always super-happy that I’m walking.
4. Between 25 and 35 minutes, I hate walking. I’ve been following this program for almost a month, and it never fails. I hit the 25 minute mark and I want to quit. And, I don’t mean quit the session - I mean quit walking all together. Why? I have no idea - other than the fact that MAYBE I’ve burned up all of the fuel in my stomach and the body is transitioning to fat burning? Just a thought…
5. Once I make it to 35 minutes, I’m golden. In fact, as I move towards 45 minutes, I don’t really want to stop. I just want to keep going and going. And, from time to time, I do. Today, I walked and extra 2 minutes. A few days ago, I walked a total of 60.
6. After I finish walking, I feel awesome.
There’s the breakdown.
Today, I walked 47 minutes, covered 2 miles, and burned 250 calories. I don’t walk very fast and I don’t worry about distance. I just set the treadmill, plugin my headphones, and get moving. Over time, I’m sure that my speed will increase (as will the number of calories burned), but for now, I’m just proud of myself for actually getting on the treadmill!
Ready To Rethink My Goals And Get Real With Myself
I’ve been writing about weight loss - on and off- for more than 2 years. In that time, I’ve managed to lose about 100 points. But, I’ve also managed to gain 100 pounds. That’s right. I weigh almost exactly the same amount today as I did two years ago. I could go on and on, giving you reasons for ‘why’ - but there’s only one real reason.
I want results, and I want them to me immediate. So, I follow a particular program, lose 10 or 15 pounds, and get excited. Then, once the rapid weight loss stops, I get discouraged, and quit. I’ve done this several times - not just over the course of my blog - but over the course of the last 15 years.
Yesterday, I had a long talk with a very good friend. He was going on and on about my finance success - and he pointed out something very important. He said, “You do a great job of creating financial goals, but you do a pitiful job of setting weight loss goals. When you set a financial goal, you push yourself, but you manage to live in the ‘real’ world. But, when you set a weight loss goal, you always go crazy, demanding ten pounds in two weeks, or fifty pounds in one month. You need to have a goal - and it needs to be aggressive - but it also needs to be realistic. And, you need to honor each meal, just like you honor each dollar.”
Pretty honest, right? It’s good to have friends who will be ‘real’. And, he’s right. When it comes to weight loss, I want to work six weeks and undo a decade and a half of bad habits.
So, here’s my new, realistic, optimistic, doable goal.
I want to lose 1 pound, per week, over the course of the next two years.
Right now, I weigh right around 250 pounds. If I lose a pound a week, I’ll weigh 200 by next summer and 150 by 2010.
I’ve done some calculations. I’ll continue to eat consciously and follow the “I Will Make You Thin” principles - but I’ll also focus, just a bit, on calories.
If I eat 2500 calories, I should maintain my current weight.
If I eat 2000 calories, I should lose, roughly, 1 pound per week.
I plan to eat between 1800 and 2200 calories, and continue to walk 45 minutes per day. I also plan to eat four or five small meals, instead of two or three big ones. And, since I’m no longer drinking sodas, I’m already drinking copious amounts of water.
Looking For A Little Healthy Inspiration
I’ve just experienced thirty of the most stressful hours of my life. I won’t go into details (right now), but I will say - I need some inspiration. I broke down, amidst the stress of the past day-and-a-half and I consumed about fifteen diet Mountain Dews, and I’ve been eating like a madman. So, I turn to my fellow (and much more successful) health blogging buddies, for a little inspiration -
Fat Man Unleashed shares some favorite, healthy foods for men.
MacDaddy from Get Fit Slowly has some before and during photos.
Journal of Healthy Living reminds us of the benefits of reducing soda intake. (At least the sodas I drank were diet…)
Lazy Man writes about diet and exercise… or is it… diet vs. exercise?
Weight Ladder has suggestions for snacking, without ruining your diet. (Again, this is information I should have thought about before my stress-induced eating.)
Maybe I need to get a Nintendo Wii like Deflabbify? Or, just keep doing push ups like good old Fit36?
I’m going to go crank up the old treadmill and just walk until I collapse. I need to sweat out some of this stress, if that makes any since. And, I need to get my stretching done for the day.
