Journey to Weight Loss

Today was a good day.  I walked three and a half miles and jogged for one half mile without my knee hurting.  Generally, my right knee hurts the entire time I'm walking, but not as badly if I don't run.  With these new shoes (see last post), my knee didn't hurt at all.  So, I thought I'd try running a bit.

Before I started walking four miles a day, I could only run about 1/8th of a mile before I would start huffing and puffing, and my knee would start screaming.  Today, I was able to run half of a mile and still feel like I could go further, had I allowed myself.  So, that felt sensational--to say the least.  Apparently, they're right when they say that sometimes taking the long way ends up taking less time. 

Anyway, so I completed my four miles this morning, and then this evening, my husband actually decided to go another walk with me.  All together, we ended up walking two miles.  So, that was phenomenal in itself.  Even better, that means that I walked a total of six miles today.  He said he would like to start walking with me more, since I'm doing so much in the mornings.

Once we got inside, my husband was curious how many calories we would have burned in those two hours.  I told him that I thought maybe 120 calories for two miles.  Needless to say, he looked it up.  According the site he found, a 150 pound person would burn about 90 calories per mile (walking), a 200 pound person would burn roughly 120 calories per mile, and 300 pound person would burn about 200 calories per mile.

So, let's do the math of this thing.  Assuming I walk four miles, five days a week, here's what I would burn:

4 miles x 120 calories/mile = 480 calories per day

 

Now, add in that my husband wants to walk two miles a day with me:

2 miles x 120 calories/mile = 240 calories per day

 

For a total of 720 calories expended per day.  Take that times 5 days a week = 3600 calories per week.

According to many sources, it takes a loss of 3500 calories to lose one pound of body fat.  So, theoretically, assuming I only walk and do not exceed 2000 calories per day, I should lose one pound of fat a week.  Right? 

That means I would lose only four pounds a month.  Over a course of a year, that equates to a total annual loss of 48 pounds. 

That sucks.

According to this guy, walking four miles a day should equate to losing 100 pounds in as little as three months.  I thought that sounded too good to be true, plus there would be a worry of excess skin if I lost that much weight in that little amount of time.

However, according to this guy (who assumes it takes 3500 calories to lose one pound of body fat), you can loose 100 pounds in about 6 months, if you are careful not to consume over 2000 calories per day, but still eat sensibly.

Now according to this other guy, who really breaks down how many calories you'll burn per minute (depending on your size), he says it's not possibly to even lose 100 pounds in six months.  However, based on decreasing your normal intake by 500 calories per day and exercising enough to lose an additional 500 calories, he says you should lose two pounds per week.  So, that would double the results I figured.

So, I'm all sorts of confused. 

All I know is that I walked five and half miles today, ran a half mile, and have only eaten half of a subway sandwich all day.  I have had a can of soda, though.

So, guys, how much should I be losing?  So far, I've only gained a couple of pounds over the last week.

Normal people suck.

I'm super pumped to get back outside and go running.  Err.  See?  I mean, walking.  I cannot let myself run yet, but I really want to!  My old shoes have already walked on past oblivion, and the replacements I bought were too small, so I went back to wearing the old ones anyway.

I want quality shoes, but I absolutely hate going into shoe stores to buy sneakers, because all the sales people look at me like "Oh, right... Like she's actually going to use those."  I know it's all probably in my head, but a crazy person sees what she sees.

Anyway, so after scouring the Internet looking for just the right shoes for me (I don't run in town, I run out in a pasture where there aren't so many windows, so I don't feel so judged), I found some great trail shoes.  There were some by New Balance which I absolutely adored the design of, but New Balance is just too wide for my narrow feet.  So, I fought off the urge to don them anyway, and kept looking. 

I had read in my latest running magazine edtion that Brooks shoes are perfect for running trails when you'll be encountering a lot of flat land.  Well, this is Kansas, so I encounter a whole heck of a lot of that.  Unfortunately, the prices I found were just too high for me.  Granted, had one of the designs had the color scheme of the New Balance shoes, I would have paid the extra.  However, I'm country, I love the outdoors, but I'm also rather girly, and I don't want to look like a big girl who not only wears mans shirts, but also wears their shoes.  Okay... so maybe I exaggerated there a bit.

Regardless, I finally came across a pair of shoes in my size, in a style I liked, and were designed for trail.  They were brand new Adidas Response Trail shoes, but they cost less than all the others.  I know many of my friends (old friends, that is... we don't really keep in touch these days) really swear by Adidas shoes, so I thought I'd give them a try.  For 35 bucks, if I decided they sucked, I could resell them and still get some others.

Well, they arrived in the mail today:

Aren't they great?!!  They even look tons better in real life than in the picture.

Since I walked four miles yesterday (I ran the last half mile... whoops!), I have to make today a rest day for my knees.   So, I thought I'd try on my new shoes and wear them around the house to see what they feel like.

They are amazing!  I have never had a shoe that seemed to really fit my feet so well.  They pull up snug, so they're great on my narrow feet, but they aren't so narrow they feel like I'm wearing socks or something.  However, I can pull them up enough that seem to kind of hug my moderate-to-high arches.  So, that's great, too.

As far as the size, they're perfect.  I was worried, becuase I wear a 7 in some shoes, a 7.5 in others, and in some I even have to get a 6.5.  Based on the sizing thingy my husband found for Adidas fit, the 7.5 would be right for me, and Oh Boy! was he right!

The other plus was that when I walk in these, I can even go up the stairs without my knee hurting.  So far, I have had absolutely no pain in my knee since I've had them on.  I mean, when I'm sitting and I move my leg wrong, I feel the dull ache a bit, but obviously a shoe can't correct my sitting posture.

Anyway, the moral is that I'm absolutely, totally, and completely pumped to do my four miles tomorrow on these comfy trail shoes.

This will probably be the shortest post on this blog.  I just want to say hi and say how excited I am to embark on this journey with you.

My starting point is 208 lbs (Ech!).  My healthy weight (when I graduated college) was 123 lbs.  I didn't eat my way to this point.  Actually, I got on some bad medication (read: Depo) that completely reacted with my system wrong. 

I gained 40 pounds in three months, even though I got so overwhelmed by the sudden gains that I completely stopped eating.  However, after deciding that I would have to eat to exercise properly, I began eating just a handful of lettuce and two spoonfuls of yogurt for each of my meals.  That was my energy for doing the BootCamp DVDs I bought.

As you can imagine, I absolutely devastated my metabolism by doing this.  What you probably can't imagine is that I managed to lose not a SINGLE pound through this extreme dieting attempt. 

Once my little eating problem became known by my family and fiance, I was no longer allowed to make my own food choices.  Unfortunately, no matter how healthy and well-balanced the meals were that they prepared, thanks to my devastated metabolism, I just kept gaining weight.

After I realized that I had rather messed up my knees from trying to exercise six to eight hours a day doing high impact, I finally gave up.  I stopped exercising, and just started eating whatever I wanted.  Turns out, though, I eat like a bird.  I just pick at things all day and then at the end of the day, I've taken in less than 600 calories.

That was a few years ago.

For the last two years, I've began eating quite a bit more (as I realized I don't seem to gain or lose weight, regardless of my intake).  However, what I did realize is that the more I eat, the more energy I have.

So, that leads me to today.  I am starting this journey all over again, and this time, I'm setting out a plan.

First, I cannot let myself over exercise.  Slow and steady wins the race.  If I do too much too soon, I'm going to be laid up with bad knees again.  So, I plan on keeping my exercises to long walks rather than BookCamp styled workouts.

Twice a week, I plan to do some jogging, but for only about a quarter of the distance (if not less) than I run.  I love running, but I know I HAVE to make myself slow down until I lose some of this weight. 

Second, I cannot let myself eat just anything.  When I decide to lose weight, I have to make a diligent effort to make myself keep eating.  I don't know why I have such a propensity to starving myself... I blame the media.  Not eating does not always equal weight loss; it does always equal slowing your metabolism.

That's my current point.  I set up some pretty high goal points to measure my progress by:  -20 pounds, -40 pounds, -60 pounds, -70 pounds.  At each of these four goal points, I have myself rewards (see the sidebar). 

I will not be updating my weight throughout the journey, becuase I have to focus on the daily journey, and less on the destination.  So, I will post what I have done, some times what I have eaten, each day.  Only when I reach one of my goal points will I put the notice up.

I have set up a members and forum page.  I invite everyone who reads this blog to become a member and comment frequently.  Together, we can do this.