So here I go, walking with intensity instead of the mindless stroll I’ve gotten used to. I consider myself a good walker because of the amount of walking I do daily, without fail, with my dog. 5 AM, 5PM and 9PM we head out the door and walk for 45 - 75 minutes each time. I’ve been averaging 2-3 miles a day. But mostly at Jackson’s pace which involves a lot of stop and go - at least one of the walks and usually two. In the early AM he’s off the leash and I can maintain a pace on the beach. So usually one mile brisk walking and 2 or more slow to medium. But now I’m speeding it up, swinging my arms, walking faster as much as possible on all the walks. It’s going to make a difference, I can tell.
We got our pedometers and tracking booklets on Friday, and I can hear people this AM talking in the corridors about what they did this weekend. Competition. Well, whatever works. I did my walking plus a lot of physical work this weekend and was wiped each evening.
I cleaned up on other fronts - literally! My weekend was full of cleaning out. Friday I took off from work and P & I got ready for the yard sale and also cleaned out some of my cellar. Lot’s more to do down there, but it’s a start. Lots of heavy lifting. Sat. was the yard sale, again lots of heavy lifting. Sunday more cleaning. Sold my bureau, replaced it with cubes and mesh drawers until I go down to IKEA for the bureau I want. Made a lot of space for myself, bedroom now has just the bed cubes and computer. As soon as I get someone in to wire a few more jacks I can move the computer to the room over the stairs.
Had very bad news on Saturday and spent Saturday evening in a black funk. thought my car qualified for the Cars.gov rebate program and was all psyched to get a new car, test drove a Kia Soul Saturday afternoon - then found out I don’t qualify for the program - car gets avg 19 mpg and the limit is18. Damn Damn Damn. The problem is, the car - Ethel - is manifesting a lot of bad stuff… rain is coming in, the seatback retractor isn’t releasing the belt, there’s a noise that sounds to me like a CV joint on one side in the front. Because of the dampness it’s smell swampy. And top motor that puts the top down isn’t running. It was such a bargain 3 years ago, but I think I’ve gotten the good stuff out of it.
And yes, I compensated by eating a small DQ Blizzard. Calorie-wise, with the exercise I’d had I could afford it, but eating to feel better is never a good strategy and the quality of the food (none!) wasn’t good. Yesterday was better. And today I’m up and hopeful.
Posted on August 14th, 2009 by jaxie
Filed under: weight loss
Yay on power-walking the dog! I have a big lab/shepherd mutt and I find if I give him 15-20 minutes of sniff time at the beginning of the walk he is more than happy to keep up to a stiff pace. It took him a bit of time to learn that he wasn’t in charge of the route but since he figured that out we have been able to cover a lot of ground at a good pace.
I read somewhere that if you are going to cheat, make it something that you love every bite of - so now I (try) ask myself - is this really going to be worth it? whenever there’s something dangerous in front of me - doesn’t always stop me but it does sometimes!