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| Pelican line up near Swami's Beach |
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| Palm trees and hot air balloon (center of photo), near Swami's beach |
I saw on Facebook that Skinny Hollie was doing a 100 mile walking challenge. I've been inspired by Hollie's transformation photos. I love it that she's getting outside, walking, hiking. Good stuff. Great transformation.
I'm a huge walking fan for weight maintenance. I typically walk 9-10,000 steps a day. Walking is my primary exercise, with 2-3 strength training days added to my week.
Depending on my job assignment, day, life, slippery slope thinking, I can start to fall back to lower numbers 7-8000 or fewer steps.
Anyhoo, I'll be tracking my steps and converting them to miles using this website I think I calculated that I'll walk 200+ miles in 6 weeks, so I'll use 200 miles as a goal. The challenge runs from March 17-April 28th, 2014.
What's working now
1. Walking 9-10,000 + steps per day, most days
2. Eating a 4th small meal if I hit over 10, 000 steps before 3pm.
3. Eating protein, fat, carbs from non-starchy veggies for fuel. This keeps me lean and energetic. (chicken, guacamole, bell pepper)
4. Taking my camera.
5. Using the walk time to de-stress and exercise
6. Using a simple digital pedometer to measure steps.
What didn't work in the past:
1. Not wearing a pedometer and discovering I was only walking 4-5,000 steps a day.
2. Eating snacks all day long, no matter what my activity level was.
3. Eating high carb processed snacks when I did walk - think Cliff bars, 100 calorie packs. This kept me storing fat and sleepy during the day and evening. Focus on calorie burn and not calorie quality. This did not work for me.
4. Not taking my camera.
5.Walking indoors on a treadmill or elliptical.
6. Thinking I needed complex digital gadgets to measure my movement. Fun, but not required. I would have used the calorie "burn" number to eat processed foods, anyway. The fat burning technique was beyond me at that stage. Live and learn!
Beautiful photos!
ReplyDeleteI love to walk, too, and I realized that it takes a real effort to reach 10,000 steps/day once I kept track of my steps! Keeping track of my steps every day really motivates me to reach at least 10,000 steps a day, and I am continuously finding ways to "sneak" steps into my day.
Andrea, so true. If I forget my pedometer, I keep track of my time walking. Getting 10K a day is tough with the desk job and commute and family. Tricky but do able. Nice time to de-stress, too. :)
DeleteWalking is great, it's free, it's so easy to up the pace etc if needed.
ReplyDeleteTaking a camera is great too - I always like to see the photo's you take and share with us.
All the best Jan
Jan- so true- walking is free and I can pick the pace. Thanks for your kind comments
DeleteWalking is my fall-back-on exercise when I get bored with dancing, and I definitely try to focus on doing it more consistently when the weather is great. We have a great open air mall right next to our motel for this AZ trip; one to two walks daily planned!! Awwww, sunshine and warm weather!
ReplyDeleteGlad you are getting a vacation in. Happy walking!
DeleteHi Isabel, It was also important to me to see others succeeding after large weight losses. I needed to know that I could connect with people for support after I lost. Thank you for your kind comments. Hang in there, nearing the end of weight loss and the transition to maintenance took longer than I thought. Keep going!
ReplyDelete