Mood:  caffeinated

In my attempts to normalize my body (at least as I see it) I have done everything the right way. I eat healthy, I exercise, I try to be active, and yet the scale is stuck.

Sure, Ive lost weight and continue to lose weight, even if it is a pound a month. I should be grateful at least, that the pound is gone and will stay gone.

But I feel I should be lighter.

We go out to eat occasionally, and I am conscious of what I order, and always bring half of my meal home to enjoy the next day.

The problem used to be the leftovers, including those take-home boxes. After all, I paid for it, I will consume it. Mom taught me that many years ago. I cannot throw out food if it is still edible.

We are making progress in the leftover department, making and eating smaller portions now, so there are fewer things I feel I have to eat before it goes bad. As the pantry items are used up, there are fewer snacks to nibble on, which removes temptation for me.

After I mow the lawn in the 100 degree heat, and come in drenched in my own sweat, the scale is kinder to me, but it tells me that is water weight, soon to return.

One thing I have learned is that breakfast truly is the is the most important meal of the day (thanks Mom) although it took many years for me to learn that. Breakfast is the wake-up call to our metabolism, the only time of the day that happens.

Our metabolism at the sense of food entering the system, wakes from the dormant state it was in when we slept, to the awake state that energy is needed.

So I will continue to have breakfast every day, to give me the energy I need to exercise my body during the day.

But in the quest for fitness I will try another approach, since the diet aspect is not working that well.

I will concentrate on getting strong.

I have read articles and remember that the military trains soldiers in a relatively short time by exercising them strenuously many hours per day and allowing them to eat whatever they want.

They become strong and their bodies call for food as they need it.

So, my approach will be to exercise as much as possible (on a schedule) and eat my breakfast, a light lunch and dinner, keeping in mind the 1900 calories per day I need to maintain my weight and attempting to keep my consumption less that that.

I will still weigh myself occasionally, but I am looking to see my body change to gain muscle (which uses more energy) and my waist and chest shrink. My goal is to look in the mirror and see a flat front (of course, abs would be nice, but flat is the goal).

Mood:  caffeinated

I moved from Texas to Myrtle Beach in February 2008.  My waist expanded from 42 to 44 and the scale escalated to 275 pounds.  I should be at 225 pounds. 

This is a walking blog divided into 3 types of locomotion exercise; treadmill, circuit walking at home, and outdoor walking. 

The general goal is to walk 8,000-10,000 steps per day.  The time to do 10,000 steps is about an hour and 40 minutes per day. 

In the burning calorie area, when you eat and walk, your body will use the current calories for energy, and the fat calories remain in storage.  But when you walk on an empty stomach, your body has no choice but to bring stored fat out of storage for energy and use that.  Lesson?  Walk first thing in the morning and before lunch or dinner when your stomach is empty for maximum walking benefit. 

Research says to eat within one hour of waking. This is the one time each day when your body accepts calories to wake up metabolism and start generating energy for the day. 

Treadmill:

We have a treadmill at home.  Recently, I found that like any machine it has to be maintained.  The belt had to be adjusted, and a graphite lubricant applied to the belt. 

Warm-up:  Warm-up for the treadmill will be weight training on my Nordic Flex.  Research says working out prior to walking/running will burn more calories since your metabolism is already on high. 

Muscle-building exercise, like weight lifting will, of course, build muscle, and for each pound of muscle added, it will take another 50 calories per day to maintain.  If I reduce weight and add muscle, at least my body will look better.

For weights, I am using dumbbells of 5, 10 and 15-pound weight.  As I progress, I may use more, but research tells me that dumbbells are the only equipment needed.

Another method used with dumbbells is to use three different weights, high, medium, and low (your choice).  One dumbbell is used at a time with left and right arms.  Five reps with one arm and the lighter weight, followed by five reps with the other arm and the medium weight, followed by five reps with the first arm and the heavy weight, restarted with the opposite arm and the lighter weight.  The circuit is performed without rest.   

Pace:  The optimal treadmill settings for me will be:  60 minutes at 2mph @2.5 gradient @ 270 lbs = 570 cals.  At 2,500 steps per mile, I found I can walk two miles in the morning and two miles in the evening.  This is 20 miles per workday week. 

HIIT:  High Intensity Interval Training promises great results in the area of fat burning.  After starting the treadmill pace, jog/run for 30 seconds (5mph), then run/sprint for 30 seconds (7-8mph), repeated four times. 

The HIIT cardio routine will build up your heart and oxygen processing system for long use, like running or sports, or anything with longer cardio periods,

Goal:  The object of the game is to be able to run/jog for a continuous 30 minutes (which should be somewhere around 3 miles @ 6mph). 

Indoor Circuit walking: 

Experts recommend 10,000 steps per day.  At my pace of 2ft per step, 10,000 steps works out to roughly 4 miles or 2,500 steps to the mile.  With 40 steps to a circuit, a mile is roughly 60-65 laps.  The 4 miles per day can be accomplished with roughly 250 laps.

Warm-up:  This is very low impact, so no warm-up is required; just start walking.  Doing the treadmill warm-up first can burn more calories.

Pace:  I found that at my pace I should be able to cover a mile in 20 minutes (3mph) or 1 circuit in 32 seconds. Normal walking produced 40 circuits in 15 minutes or 2.6 mph. 

HIIT:  Jog/run for 2-3 circuits out of every 5 circuits.

Goal:  The object is the same as the treadmill goal-running/jogging continuously for 30 minutes.

Outdoor walking/running/jogging:

This can be done each day Jonathan works.  Note that in summer, parking is a problem, although I have noticed cars parking on the streets - maybe Myrtle Beach is "smartening up" to the benefits of the tourist trade. 

Warm-up:  Warm up by walking for 1 minute, then run for 1 minute, and repeating the cycle for 30 minutes to start. Warming up this way will get your body into the swing of raising your metabolism so you are no longer grabbing for air. 

Pace:  Walk/run a little more than a mile on the beach, then a little more than a mile back on the city street that parallels the beach.  Total distance approximately 2.5 miles (according to Google map pedometer (that I trust more than my belt pedometer). 

The time for a recent excursion was 43-49 minutes.  49 minutes calculates out to about 3.0 mph.  43 minutes brings the speed up to 3.5 mph. 

HIIT:  After starting the treadmill pace, jog/run for 30 seconds (5mph), then run/sprint for 30 seconds (7-8mph), repeated as able until jogging/running the entire distance. 

Goal:  The object is the same as the treadmill goal-running/jogging continuously for 30 minutes.   This goal will be to cover the 2.5 miles in 30 minutes.  To run 8 minute miles I will have to cover the distance in about 20 minutes. 

Replace all 'should' words with 'will'

My problem is my "see food" and "emotional" reasons for eating.  I eat when upset, I see too much food on the table at dinner and eat it and before I know it I am stuffed.