MyWeightLossForLife.com

Walking update

Over the last few days, I’ve started wearing a pedometer again. It’s my first step to getting ready for the half marathon.

July 1: 10500 steps

July 2: 7500 steps

July 3: 7800 steps

And today, I forgot to put the darn thing on!

Buying a pedometer

I own about a half dozen pedometers: different brands, various prices. However, the best one I own is one my husband found online that has no brand name on it. However, it does have a sensitivy setting, and that’s the key to its being so good.

I’ve bought pedometers that were much too sensitive or not sensitive enough. Others work fine when worn with loose fitting clothes, others work better with tighter clothes. Some make a noticeable ticking noise when you walk, which is quite annoying.

It would be nice if you could try a pedometer first before buying it, but that isn’t possible. So, my advice is simply to make sure your model has a way to adjust its sensitivity.

Testing your pedometer

How do you know how accurate your pedometer is? First off, you should be concerned with its accuracy in counting steps not counting miles.

Put on the pedometer by clipping it to your waistband two or three inches away from center. Make sure it’s set to 0 and walk, counting your steps as you go. Be sure to walk normally. After one or two hundred steps, look at the pedometer reading. It’s okay if it’s a few steps off, but if it’s more than a few, change the sensitivity and try again.

Converting steps to miles (or kilometers)

Many pedometers don’t convert to miles or kilometers (mine doesn’t). But even if yours does, you’ll need to know the length of your stride to convert steps to miles. Here’s an easy trick to measure your stride.

Put on your shoes and go out onto your patio, porch or deck. It should be a solid surface (no grass) and large enough so that you can take several steps at a natural pace.

Wet the bottoms of your shoes and take a few steps, making sure to walk naturally. Measure your wet footprints from back of heel to back of heel (or toe to toe). Repeat this a couple of times and average your measurements to be sure you’re accurate.

Some simple math

There are 5280 feet in a mile. Let’s say your stride is 2.5 feet.  Take 5280 and divide it by your stride length (in this case 2.5). The resulting number is the number of STEPS IN A MILE for you. For me, it’s about 2112.

Many people skip the measurement and math altogether and just guessimate 2000 steps per mile.

Train for a Half-Marathon

I’ve been looking at some marathon walking sites on the internet, trying to find a training schedule and tips for getting from 0-13 miles.

Walk the Half Marathon includes a training schedule that’s pretty light through the week with a long walk day on the weekend. That would work with my schedule. It starts at only 30 minutes a day, but the total training time is just 12 weeks.

Half Marathon Training Schedules for Walkers includes longer walks through the week as well as cross-training. Total time to get ready is 14 weeks. My concern with this one is that 3 miles to start might be a little tough for me.

12 Week Beginner Walking Schedule isn’t a marathon training plan. It’s a plan for beginners to work up to 60 minutes per day. After that, you can begin the marathon training. This might be where I need to start.

Training to Walk a Marathon is for a full marathon (26.2 miles) if you’re feeling really ambitious.

At the Marathon Calendar, you can find marathons and half-marathons where walkers are welcome. I’m not going to think about this yet.

Next step for me? Get some walking shoes and a battery for my pedometer!

Why are you overweight?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. Why am I really overweight?

Of course, the simple answer is this: eating more calories than you burn makes you gain weight. That’s true, but it’s also not quite true at the same time. It doesn’t get to the heart of the problem.

You see, if it were as simple as eating less (or exercising more), losing weight would be a simple thing. If you’re like me and have struggled to lose weight, then you know that losing weight isn’t simple at all.

The real issue is this, why do I eat more calories than I burn?

There are a lot of answers to this one. Maybe you’re like me, and you’re a stress eater. I tend to associate food with comfort, so I eat when I’m not really hungry. Maybe you keep on the weight as a kind of barrier or shield from the world. Maybe you hate to exercise, or you have a health condition that keeps you from it.

Whatever the reasons for your weight problem, I’m convinced that as long as you see it as a simple matter of calories in and calories burned, you’re not going to be successful. People just aren’t that simple. If you’re overweight, you have a problem with your eating, and you have to examine the cause of the problem, not just try to treat the symptom.

So, here’s my challenge to you. Spend some time today thinking about how you relate to food.

• When do you overeat?
• What causes you to fall off your diet?
• How do you feel about yourself when you’re dieting? When you’re overeating?
• When did you first become overweight? What was going on in your life at the time?
• How did you relate to food when you were a child? Were you a heavy kid?

Thinking about these things may be uncomfortable, but it will give you some ideas where your food problems lie. You’re not likely to be successful simply trying to eat less, unless you understand why you tend to overeat in the first place.

Exercise Update

I’ve been really lax in the exercise department, except for yard work. It’s summer, and my husband and I have committed to doing our own yard work this year, so that amounts to two days of exercise a week.

But that’s it, and I know that that isn’t enough for either of us.

I mentioned a while back that I was thinking of joining a gym. There’s one available where I work, and they’re currently offering a half-price membership if they can get enough people to sign up for it to make it cost-effective. So…. I committed to joining at that price. I don’t think the membership will begin until the fall, but that’s a start.

I’ve also been toying with the idea of training for a half-marathon. That’s a big goal for someone who hardly exercises and is still seriously overweight. Still, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while.

So I’m officially committing myself to start training for it.

Just so you know,  half-marathon is a little over 13 miles. Yikes.

Cool Weight Loss Blog

Half of Me is a weight loss blog I ran across a few days ago. She’s also written a book, Half-Assed, about her weight loss struggles. Yep, you may have guessed it; she’s lost HALF her body weight.

Wow. I’m enjoying her blog because she’s a bit irreverent, and she’s honest about what a struggle it is to lose weight and keep it off. She’s in that second stage now, trying to not fall into the old habits and see the weight creep back on.

I highly recommend it for some fun and inspiring reading.

Habit Update, part 2

more cat pictures

I wanted to take a moment and update how my habit building for this month is going. My goal was to give up sweets while I’m at work AND to start weighing every day.

In the last two weeks, I’ve had sweets at work once. Not bad.

I’m weighing about every other day. I’m not sure why this one is tough since the scale is right there in the bathroom. I have to step over the darn thing a dozen times a day!

Here’s how I’ve managed to give up my sweet treats at work. I was in the habit of grabbing dessert with lunch. Unfortunately, there’s also a vending machine right outside my office that’s full of temptation.

First, dealing with desserts was relatively easy: I started packing lunch. I can pack healthier food and save money compared to the cafeteria fare. That removes me from one source of temptation with little problem.

I guess I could ask that the vending machine be moved, but somehow I doubt that’s going to happen. Instead, I plan for a healthy snack in the afternoon; if I get really tired or stressed, my willpower is almost nonexistent. I keep diet hot chocolate mix in my office (25 calories) and have that when I want something sweet or chocolatey. I keep fruit in case I get hungry. Those two tactics have helped me avoid the vending machine.

Also, I know that I’m a stress eater, so I have to find a better way to wind down. When things get rough, I shut my door and listen to some music or even a book on tabe while I work. It gives me a chance for some quiet time, and I can de-stress without munching.

Big Breakfast for Weight Loss

You may have already read, but doctors have found that in one study, people who ate about half their calories for breakfast lost, and kept off, more weight than people who followed a more traditional low carb diet.

Here’s the gist of it…

• Participants ate around 1200 calories a day
• They ate around 600 calories for breakfast
• At breakfast, they ate carbs as well as protein and fat
• For the rest of the day, they stuck with a low carb diet

These participants lost more weight than people who followed a traditional low carb diet.

One problem I see with this is the practicality. I think it would be hard to get that many calories for breakfast in a healthy way (no, donuts don’t count.) I don’t normally have time to cook in the mornings, so I’d miss having a hot meal at least once a day. Since dinner is very low calorie, it’s not going to be easy to cook for that meal.

Has anyone tried anything like this? I don’t doubt that it works, but I just don’t think it work work into my lifestyle very well.

Habit Update

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I wanted to work on two new habits: weighing every day and avoiding sweets at work.

While I haven’t been entirely successful, I have done better lately. I’m weighing more often, but I’m still not in the habit of doing it every day.

As for the sweets, I fell off the wagon once last week. That’s not bad, considering I had grown used to sweets almost every day. Unfortunately, our cafeteria always has a big selection of desserts, and it’s tough for me to resist those. Add to that the vending machine across the hall, and I have a lot of temptation to deal with.

One thing that helps is packing lunch. That helps me avoid the cafeteria, and the dessert bar. I also keep some diet hot chocolate mix in my office for a sweet treat for the afternoon. It’s not a candy bar or slice of pie, but it usually does the trick.

I think it’s important to work on habits for at least 2-3 weeks. It’s easy to fall into old habits during that first week or two, but I try not to beat myself up. I didn’t get the habit in a week, so it’s not likely that I’ll break it in a week either.

What habits are you trying to change?

Bean soup recipe

This is a hearty soup good for summer or winter. Serve by itself or with salads or sandwiches. It goes particularly well with hush-puppies. This recipe uses dried beans, not the canned variety. It’s not much work since you use your crock pot, and it’s well worth it!

• One 16 ounce pack of white beans (northern or navy), pre-soaked or parboiled according to package directions.
• 1 ½ cups cubed ham
• 1 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes, with juice
• Half a stick of margarine
• Small diced onion
• One carrot, finely diced
• 6 cups of water
• Salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in your crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until beans are tender. If you prefer a thicker soup, transfer some or all of it to a pot and boil hard on the stovetop until it thickens – about five minutes. If the soup doesn’t appear to be thickening well, add about a teaspoon of sugar.

This soup reheats well; if fact, it probably tastes even better the second day. Make a big pot and take some for lunch or reheat for leftovers.

Toss your Skinny Clothes

Asithi left an interesting comment to my recent post, Declutter Yourself, about keeping skinny clothes.

While you may think about whether you still like them, if they’re in style, how old they are, etc. I think there’s a more important question to consider.

How do you feel every time you open the closet and see clothes that don’t fit you? 

I’m guessing that doesn’t feel great. I know when I used to keep my smaller clothes (I never really had “skinny” clothes), I felt awful each time I looked at them. My favorite pants, that no longer button. That shirt I only wore a few times. Each item reminded me how I’d failed to keep my weight in check.

Why would you keep something that doesn’t fit you? You’re getting no more use from it than if it were torn or stained and unwearable for that reason. Yes, you’re trying to lose weight, and you very well may be able to fit into it again. I’m all for being frugal, but I think you have to weigh what you gain with what this kind of behavior costs.

You save some cash by not buying new clothes. That is, if you get back into those clothes. And if you still like them. And if they’re still in style. And if… you get my point.

In the meantime, each time you open your closet you’re reminded of your weight. Does that make you feel good? Does it encourage you to lose weight? I don’t think so. I believe that in order to lose weight, you have to feel good about yourself as you are now. Holding on to too-small clothes isn’t going to help you do that.

And here’s a final rant… Let these clothes do some good. Pack them up and give them to a charity where they’ll be used and appreciated. You’re doing yourself harm by keeping them, and you’re denying those in need as well.

When you’re finished cleaning out your closet, go buy yourself something nice that FITS and makes you feel good about yourself. You’ll be one step closer to a healthy weight.