Before:
Soft ‘n’ Squishy Not-So-Fit
Virtual Jen

So, I mentioned how keen I am to get on board with the Healthy Eating Challenge, right?

Brace yourself, we’re ready to rock!

And, by the way, nuts to those of you who expected me to post a real-life “before” picture! My Virtual Model here will do the job for now.

Besides, there are more motivations to eat healthy food in sensible amounts than a photo could show.

You know, like feeling all perky and fit and firm; and walking uphill without having to call for a tow-truck; and not having your mother try to slip a bottle of vitamins into your coat pocket whenever you drop in to visit her… all that sort of Quality-Of-Life thing.

Moving on…

I had my first chat with a Loblaw’s dietician this morning, picked up a few good food pointers, and I’m ready to head on over to PC.ca to pick out a menu plan for the next 4 weeks.

Feel free to follow along, by the way. The menu plans (and recipes and healthy eating tips) are available for anyone to use, not just us Loblaw’s groupies.

How many calories do I need in a day?

So, we’re looking at 3 different 4-week menu plans there, for three different calorie-intake levels.

Fortunately, there’s also a little questionnaire form to help you pick the right plan. Enter this info:

• gender,
• age,
• height,
• weight,
• activity level, and
• weight goals.

So far, so good. (And you might as well tell the truth for the first few of those, since no one’s looking. I won’t ask, or tell.)

Activity level?

Yesterday I organized the big basement freezer and mucked out the fridge, in preparation for doing this Challenge — is there a physical activity category for “stupidly exhausting”?

The National Institute of Health gives some helpful examples of moderate physical activity: washing your windows for an hour, say, or walking 2 miles in 30 minutes. (Given that choice, I’ll be going for a walk!)

Okay, now, do I want to gain weight {*snorf*} or lose weight, or maintain?

I know what my waistband is telling me. And that Virtual Mini-Me picture. And — here I go again with the confessions — on the weekend I tried on my dear old black jacket, that faithful old companion of the road adventures of my misspent youth. Ah, memories… But it wouldn’t fasten up!!

Yeah, I think we could use a little trimming down and tightening up on the way to better overall nutrition and health. But let’s get all scientific about this, shall we? and see what story the body mass index (BMI) has to tell.

BMI is a measure of body fat that’s based on height and weight (kg / m²) — but never mind wrestling with the math, just use an online BMI calculator to get the number, then check what range your BMI falls into. Since we’re in such a confessionary mode today, I’ll tell you that my BMI is 25.7 (yes, that’s in the overweight category). See? That’s what a normally semi-fit woman gets from a long hard winter of potato chips and sitting on the couch!

Granted, the BMI index is more of a guideline than a commandment (and sometimes reality makes BMI a joke)… but still, I’d like to kick mine back into the normal range.

Normal is good.
I’ve heard.

1500 Calories, eh?

So I’ll be going for the 1500-calorie Healthy Eating plan. Three meals and three snacks a day? Wow. I’m not even sure I can eat that much…

Looking ahead…

The biggest challenge for me is going to be portion control — that, and doing the breakfast thing.

Yes, yes, we know. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The nice Loblaw’s dietician I talked with on the phone this morning says a lot of people have a struggle to make themselves eat breakfast. That’s because we snarf down a big snack at 10:00 at night — yep, guilty as charged! — so we’re not hungry in the morning.

So, that’s one eating habit I’ve got to change — less late-night snacking, more breakfast.

As for the portion sizes, there are a couple of thing going on here. One is that restaurants have been super-sizing our meals for so long now that we’ve lost all sense of how much food we really need.

Also, as usual, it’s the man’s fault.

Live with a man and you’ll get fat — studies prove it! Naturally, men can eat more than women without porking up, so dining with He Who Hogs The Power Tools has led me into the habit of matching what’s on our plates when dishing out the food. Not so good.

So that’s the second major change — reading the package nutrition labels, and getting out the measuring cups, and generally trying to re-learn what a proper healthy portion is supposed to look like.

Next step:
Play with the drop-down selections to finalize my Healthy Eating Challenge menu plan, print out a shopping list, and try to hook up with the local grocery store’s dietician… Wish me luck? There could be a roasted-veggie lasagna involved, if I play my cards right!

Can you believe this is the final day of the 4 Week Walk for Weight Loss?!

In one way, those 28 days seemed to take forever… but in another way, they just flew by! And I like it that the program ends with a good long steady walk.

It was a wonderful hour on the woodland trails, birdwatching and admiring the colorful autumn leaves and thinking about what’s been accomplished here this month.

Here’s what walking has done for me:

First, it has been empowering!

For whatever reason, I normally find it hard to sustain any daily program for any length of time — so the fact that I was able to follow through on this entire walking program is a real accomplishment for me. It’s good to feel like a winner!

Second, there are the physical benefits.

I’ve dropped more than 10 pounds just by going for a walk 6 days a week. I’ve had to start buckling my favourite belt on one knotch tighter, with more than an inch off my waistline… And there’s just a lot less “jiggling” all around, if you know what I mean!

There’s no doubt that my overall fitness level has improved. I find that I can keep up a physical activity for longer without getting tired or out of breath — whether that activity is raking leaves or walking the dogs or cleaning the house, whatever.

Third, I’ve found that regular exercise is a brilliant stress reduction method, and helps me to “stay on the sunny side” when Life starts throwing up obstacles and frustrations and worries…

As we head into the colder weather and darker days of the year — a time when many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and depression — it’s good to have a simple, inexpensive, easy-to-do remedy at hand! There’s just something about getting out for a brisk walk that clears the mind and raises the spirits…

Would I do a fitness walking program again?

Yes, absolutely.

I’m not sure that I’d follow this exact same walking program all over again, because I do like variety — part of what kept me going through this was the fun of looking to see what the “walking task” for each day would be — but the daily walking? Oh, yes!

 
Today was, if anything, more busy than yesterday — but I learned my lesson from yesterday, and made sure to get my walk in today before the sun went down!

At first I wasn’t sure I could fit in nin, and set out figuring I’d just walk the minimum for the program for today — but it didn’t work out that way.

Once I got out into the bright Autumn noontime, the birds fluttering in the colourful trees along the road, a gentle breeze just enough to cool me as I walked up the hill… I took the full hour. Glorious!

And instead of feeling tired afterwards, I felt all energized for the afternoon — something to remember, for any future butt-dragging days!

Today I had to go into town to a meeting, starting a new contract, and this was also a hospital visiting day with the therapy dogs. Busy, busy!

Long story short — and the days getting shorter all the time as we move into Fall — it was dark before I got time to do my walk.

Not wanting to walk out beside the road in the dark, for safety, I thought at first that I’d have to skip a day. Ohh noooo!

They say it only takes 3 weeks to make a new habit, and after 26 days of following this exercise program, I have to say it wouldn’t have felt right to skip a day.

Fortunately, this is a day for a short 10-minute walk, followed by a ten-minute round of various exercises that don’t involve going anywhere — so I just walked in circles around the yard. Good thing it was dark… if any of the neighbours saw me, they would have thought I’d lost my marbles!

Wow, this morning’s fitness walk has got to be the most intense on the program yet!

I’ve never had a big problem with shin splints — wasn’t even sure what a shin splint felt like, in fact — but I think I’m feeling it firsthand today.

Wikipedia says that shin splints have a couple of possible causes. As I understand it, one cause is a tendency to overstride so the foot slaps down on the ground too hard, stressing the muscle that serves to flex the large toe.

Yes, yes, I know that it’s important not to lengthen your stride when you pick up the pace — but it’s hard to remember to take short quick steps. And it feels like taking short fast steps would look like a speed-walking duck…

So, I’m definitely guilty of overstriding.

Another cause is when the lower leg muscles aren’t as strong as they should be, and the foot sort of rolls in to the inside as you set it down and it takes the weight.

I’m sure that’s probably part of the trouble — especially since I wore a different pair of shoes today, ones that don’t have quite the good arch support and stability of my usual walking shoes.

So there you have it. Longer strides, pronation of the foot, and a more intense workout than usual. Result: pain up the front of the shin.

A cold pack and wrapping with an elastic Ace bandage seem to ease the ache. I’ll know better next time. I’ll watch what I put on for shoes, and watch that I don’t take great long giant steps when I’m trying to pick up my speed.

So close to the end of the four weeks of walking to which we’ve committed, it can be all too easy to figure that “it won’t hurt to skip a day” or tempting to just take a quick stroll around the block…

Today’s program calls for a short walk — it’s no more than half an hour, including the warm-up and cool-down stroll along at a gentle pace — so I’m going to suggest just taking a few minutes today to read up on all the good things that walking can do for your body and your health — and how to get the most benefits out of the exercise program.

Lee Terpening’s walking course on Suite101 is a gold mine of information for anyone who’s doing a walking program, or think about getting into a regular habit of walking for weight loss or for general health and fitness.

This course will review the underlying principles considered in developing any fitness program and show you how to use these principles to best meet your own goals.

You will learn how variables such as frequency, intensity and duration apply to walking and also about how to evaluate progress and set new goals.

We will also review other aspects to consider such as finding the right shoes, being safe, and dealing with different kinds of weather and road conditions.

The free online course ends with a section about setting goals, measuring results, and devloping strategies for keeping up the motivation to keep going with your walking program.

Heading into Fall, with a long dark Canadian winter loomng on the horizon, I find it helpful to be reminded that walking will do good things for the mind and the spirit, as well as the heart, lungs, and muscles.

It’s hard to believe that this is the first day of autumn, already — and it’s even harder to believe that I actually forgot to weigh myself on Friday!

After all, this is supposed to be a 4-Week Walk for Weight Loss that we’re doing here, right?

Somewhere in the past three weeks, however, a lifelong obsession with the number on the scales has given way to just a pure enjoyment of improved fitness.

I don’t puff for breath when I walk up that steep hill, and the end-of-season yard work isn’t leaving me exhausted and in agony the next day. Gotta tell you, it feels pretty darned good!

And my jeans are fitting more comfortably at the waist, too — the tape measure says I’ve lost almost 2 inches around the middle.

And another 2 pounds of lard came off this week (I did weigh myself this morning, as soon as I remembered that I’d forgotten to do that) for a total of 6 pounds weight loss in 3 weeks.
Not bad… Not bad at all…

We had just about the whole family here for lunch today — no time for walking! Fortunately, this is another rest day.

The concept behind a day of rest in the middle of a walking program isn’t about slacking off.

It’s to give the muscles a chance to recover from the stress they’ve been under, because it is during the “down time” after exercise that the muscles do their building and strengthening, not while the actual exercise is happening.

I find this reassuring and encouraging. Don’t you love the idea that your body is continuing to do the good work, getting slim and fit even as you take the day off?

That said, as days of rest go, it wasn’t entirely a day of leisure. After our company left, I spent a quality hour with the lawn mower (some chores won’t wait for anything, and there’s rain coming in tonight) and then heaved some rocks around in the side yard. We’ve got some major landscaping work in hand right now — whee!! quality strength exercises, there! — but I won’t go into it here and now. That’ll be a topic for another day.

Here’s another easy way I’ve found to lose some extra weight without making a major life change. Not only that, but it’s made me more productive in getting things done, too!

And I can’t think why I never thought of this before, except that maybe all the reading I’ve been doing about walking for weight loss has made me more aware of how I move through life.

See, I suddenly noticed that I’m slow.

Just going from one room to another around the house, picking up laundry or doing any other of the normal household chores, my natural speed is a casual stroll.

So this past week, I’ve picked up the pace.

When the doorbell rings, I march briskly to the door as if the person on the doorstep won’t wait there another minute. When I run the vacuum cleaner, I do so with vigor. When I’m cooking, I whiz from cupboard to fridge to counter top like a short-order cook at dinner hour.

It’s about moving more, too, as well as just moving more quickly.

Instead of settling into a comfy armchair for a telephone chat, I put on a headset and do a few chores at the same time — dusting, tidying, anything that requires me to move around but doesn’t take a lot of thought. That way, I can enjoy the conversation while burning off a few extra calories at the same time.

And there’s another bonus to being “on the go” that I hadn’t anticipated (besides getting more done in the day, I mean).

That mid-afternoon “down time”? You know, that point around 3:00 p.m. when a nap starts to seem like a good idea?

Gone!

Today is another one of those longer walks at a moderate pace… but what if you’re pressed for time?

The plain fact is, sometimes you just can’t carve out 45 minutes to an hour to spend on exercising. Not all at once, anyway.

The good news is — you don’t have to!

Burn Fat in Your Spare Time

It turns out, you get the same calorie-burning benefits if you break up the long walk into, say, 3 – 4 walks of 10 – 15 minutes each.

Ten minutes?
That’s do-able!

That’s a brisk walk to work, another on your lunch hour (when you need to get out anyway), and one more after supper. Take the dog out around the block, or walk the kids to the park. Just don’t do your walk to the donut shop, and it’ll be fine…

Burn Fat Off Faster

The other very useful thing I’ve learned this week is the fastest way to burn off fat and calories by walking.

Your body will burn calories most efficiently — the most calories for the amount of effort expended in the walking time — if you walk at a brisk pace.

That means 4.5 miles per hour.

Yeah, like people come with a speedometer! Just time it out on the running track at your local school, or measure off a mile of road in your neighbourhood, to get a feel for the speed you’re walking at different levels of exertion.

This advice comes from the Harvard School of Public Health and the American Heart Association, too. It’s all about heart health and maintaining your bone density to ward off osteoporosis, as well as the weight loss benefits.

Those science guys seem to know their stuff, but it can make for heavy reading. I like the way that Selene Yeager, author of Perfectly Fit, explains it:

For optimum calorie burning, I recommend aiming to walk at about a 4.5-mile per hour (mph) pace.

Fitness scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered that if you walk at this pace, you can burn almost as many calories (201 per 30 minutes, based on a 140-pound woman) as someone jogging at about the same speed (223 calories per 30 minutes) because you’re using the same amount of energy to stay in motion.

Of course 4.5 mph is a fast walk; if you haven’t been walking regularly, you shouldn’t expect to hit that speed right out of the gate. Start at a slower pace and use the same fat-burning walking form to work up to this speed.

Technorati Tags: walking, exercise, health, weight loss

So, here’s what the Prevention.com site says about today’s walking program:

Welcome back! You should be rejuvenated after yesterday’s rest day.

Huh?

Well, I knew that something wasn’t quite right — and didn’t I say so?

It’s been feeling as if the different kinds of walks might not be in quite the order that was intended…

Here’s confirmation of it — because yesterday was most certainly not a rest day. It was one of the more vigorous interval-training walks we’ve had so far, and “rejuvenated” is not exactly the word I’d use.

I’m a bit ticked off, because Prevention has such a good reputation as a source of health and fitness information. Sure, mistakes can happen to anyone…. but I’d expected a little more attention to detail of the people behind this website.

Hmm, what to do?

The way I see it, walking is walking and exercise is exercise… and it’s all good. So I’m going to keep right on doing what the program says, day by day. After all, I’m getting the results that I was looking for, in terms of weight loss and improved energy and stamina. So, maybe it’s not a big deal?

Dance while you clean! Listening to music makes an exercise program go better, so why not bop your way through the housework chores, too?

Yes, we’ve harped on this before — the power of blasting Benatar (or whoever) to make cleaning fun and trim down those little rolls of fat around the belly and butt — but a few things came up recently to bring it back to mind:

1. My New Shiny Shoes spotted a CD made for the purpose — Housework Songs — with 42 upbeat songs to get your dustpan in gear.
2. Joey Moggie turned onto my old favourite Montreal radio station, CHOM-FM — Spirit of Rock — and mentioned that they’re streaming the classic rock online.
3. And for the great giggle of truth, Alison May posted the funniest piece over at Brocante Home — The Skinny Housewife — this week’s must read:

… work up a bit of a sweat, go at a steady speed, don’t sit down to debate the rights and wrongs of men with too many wives on Jeremy Kyle/Jerry Springer, stretch more than you need to, jig about with the hoover and your housekeeping music of choice and don’t stop for a “rest”…

Do the things you can’t be bothered to do like cleaning out the cupboard under the stairs and getting in the bath naked and scrubbing the grouting with a toothbrush. Put your bum into it. Make a song and dance out of it. Take the rugs and bash the hell out of them in garden.

It takes effort, but if the thought of a perky bottom gets you through the daily grind, then I say all the better…

Really, go read it.

And then, the very second that you’re done reading, get up and do what the lady says — blast the tunes that get your motor running, and get on with it. Those dust bunnies won’t chase themselves, you know!